Twenty years ago, when chaos and violence reigned in this country, apologists for the Labour Party used to say that the trouble was caused by anti-government agents who wanted to give Labour a bad reputation. Some of them are still saying the same thing today. The suggestion that the Leader of the Opposition’s home was ransacked by his supporters, that a newspaper building was burned down by PN activists disguised as Mintoffian diehards, and that the Curia building and the Law Courts were vandalised by people paid by the Nationalist Party is a crazy one. But there are people who will go to any lengths to justify what they believe in. You see the same thing with religion.
Now I expect to see the same kind of excuses with the destruction of the embryonic pine wood in Mellieha. I am waiting for the first hunter to say: “It wasn’t us. It was them, so that we would get the blame.” Strange, isn’t it, how nobody is in any doubt at all as to the motivation behind the destruction of the trees, and the vandalism wrought on nature reserves? It wasn’t the racists and fascists, that’s for sure – though I am in no doubt at all that at least some of the men who are destroying nature reserves and tree plantations in the name of bird-shooting are the very same ones who destroyed people’s private property in the name of racism and xenophobia. The psychological profile of these sad sacks is the same in both cases. It’s not too wild off the mark to imagine that a few of the same people are involved.
Some were astonished at the degree of coordination required to decimate an entire hillside of 3000 trees in a few hours on a single night. Why? We are not capable of cooperating for the good in Malta; we only prove ourselves capable of cooperating for evil purposes. When our house was set on fire exactly this time last year, it took a gang of men to get that amount of heavy fuel across the fields and up into our garden. It was a planned group exercise, not a drunken impulse. There are people who recognise the hatred and violence in each other, and who feel no shame or reserve in approaching those with a fellow-feeling so as to plan violence and destruction.
How many men does it take to wipe out 3000 trees in a few hours of darkness? I imagine the police are working on that. And do you know what the trouble is with this one, as it is with the arson on people’s homes and property last year? The criminals have got away with it. In all the dangerous fire attacks last year, not a single person was caught, and not a single person will ever be caught. The police can have their suspicions, they can be reasonably sure of the guilt of certain individuals, but how is anyone going to prove that X or Y was there that night, trying to kill people with fire, or destroying trees because violence and hatred fill his being? You can’t. People who do this kind of thing are driven by the evil and perversity in their souls. It is so easy for them to cause destruction, knowing that they will get away with it, that I am surprised there aren’t more such attacks.
We are speaking here of individuals with no conscience, psychopaths who cannot feel any kind of empathy or compassion. Because of their “hobby”, they are also armed. They think nothing of destroying other people’s hard work and investment. When will they begin trying to destroy the people who oppose them? Last year, the racists had a go when they tried to burn my household alive in our beds at 3am. If it’s not too much for the racists to start trying to kill people, then it’s not too much for those whose minds are so small that shooting and trapping are the sole reason for their existence. The activists who campaign against shooting and trapping of protected species have been receiving all manner of anonymous threats for years. Now that the obsessed people with guns have upped the ante, it’s only a matter of time before some of those fighting for a modicum of civilisation in these benighted islands are truly imperilled. The Maltese did not fight for political autonomy and statehood only to end up as a spiritual extension of the very worst bits of Sicilian culture.
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It’s good to see the government clamp down on these throwbacks at last. The people of Malta are heartily sick to the back teeth of seeing them holding the government to ransom with their threats, demands and violence. Shooters and trappers, for all their claims that they are a significant political force and one to be reckoned with, have made themselves the most unpopular people in Malta. They are hoist by their own petard.
What did these people imagine the reaction would be to the destruction of 3000 trees – tens of thousands of liri in monetary investment, years of labour and cultivation, and the hopes and enthusiasm of schoolchildren who gave their pocket money to plant a tree? Are they really so seriously deluded that they thought we would say: “Wow! These hunters are really scary! The government had better let them do what they like, and we had better pull our heads into our shells and say nothing more.” It’s good that HSBC Bank and Maltacom got together within a couple of hours of the news breaking, and donated Lm10,000 for more trees. It’s even better that HSBC set up an account for members of the public to donate money of their own towards this purpose.
As the Minister of the Environment said, it’s not because the government can’t or won’t fund the new trees itself. It’s because when anti-social people cooperate to evil ends, the rest of society has to cooperate to reject their actions.
Take a note of the account number. It is 033 221 458 001. If you go on line now and transfer even the smallest amount from your account to that one, it’s a way of showing these creatures that they don’t have your support.
It was good, too, to see the three political parties getting together immediately to issue a joint statement of unequivocal condemnation. What a joy and a pleasant surprise it was to see that. The Labour Party, the Nationalist Party and Alternattiva Demokratika should continue to show these savages that they will be given no quarter. They belong to the past, along with public hangings, burnings at the stake, Jew-baiting and cockfighting. They have no place in contemporary Malta. How nice it was to hear the Church condemn something that has nothing to do with rule-book Catholic doctrine for once, but with the general spirit of civic-minded behaviour that is the root of Christianity. Destroying the fruits of other people’s hard labour is deeply unchristian and uncivilised. Let’s hope the new archbishop carries on this way: reminding people that harping on about their “Catholic identity” is an exercise in futility, if they are going to go out at night to lay waste to thousands of saplings that others have worked hard to buy, plant and nurture. Better not to call yourself a Catholic at all, and to steer clear of hacking trees to bits, blasting birds out of the sky, being suspicious of and hateful towards people from other cultures, and going out at night for a spot of light burning. Catholicism is just a name. It’s the behaviour that counts.
Shooting and trapping are “traditions” that we can do without. Not all traditions are civilised and acceptable. Many have fallen by the wayside. Others will go the same way. Shooting turtle doves and quail may be within the limits of the law, but even that is a savage, destructive, pointless and primitive pastime. Pastimes and hobbies should be about creation, and not about mindless destruction.
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Yes, it’s a relief to see the government sit on these law-breaking menaces to society with the full weight of the Minister for the Environment. I stopped in Republic Street the other day to tell him that he had really done the right thing in closing the shooting season before time, because of the large number of birds from protected species that were being shot. If his approval rating now goes up, the man deserves it. Nobody else has yet had the guts to tell these people where to get off. Their leader has repeatedly voiced the suspicion that Birdlife activists are keeping shot protected birds in their freezers – among the ravioli and hamburgers, perhaps? – and then bringing them out from time to time to give the shooters a bad name. He has stopped sort of accusing Birdlife of shooting the birds themselves, just to sully the reputation of the sainted shooters. What self-delusion.
The reports of shooting of protected species have reached the government from the police, who saw these incidents with their own eyes. That’s not too difficult. From my own little eyrie, I see birds of prey being shot at with disturbing regularity. The day after George Pullicino made his announcement and the Commissioner of Police circulated it to all his officers, there were shots ringing out all over the valley beneath my home. We are speaking here of people who have gone beyond control, but only because they have been allowed to do so, like those horrible children with weak parents, who throw tantrums and make scenes all over the place, knowing that the more they scream, the more they will get their own way.
Mr Pullicino told me that he finally snapped when police reports of the total number of protected birds shot in this brief spring season reached around 300, despite the continued assurances of shooters that they would stick to the law. Three hundred birds of prey and other protected avian species blasted out of the sky – it’s revolting. It’s theft of the highest magnitude, because these birds are public property – belonging to everyone and to no one – and once they are gone, they cannot be replaced. We are losing enough species already.
Maybe one day we will see hunters’ rifles taxed even more heavily than cars, and a prohibitive fee put on their licences. To see shooting and trapping banned outright is too much to hope for. The reign of lawlessness and selfishness continues.
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I feel sorry for Olivia Lewis, but she should have got the message when she tried to make the grade a full 11 times and failed. Sometimes, there is wisdom in giving up and exploring fresh avenues. I’m not sorry for Malta. For the first time since 1971, we will be spared the navel-gazing and soul-searching about outfits, backing dancers, microphones, make-up and songs, and the endless drivel about political voting. When Ira and Chiara came up trumps, we didn’t have political friends or neighbours, either. They were starry acts, and they got the recognition they deserved. Equally, when Fabrizio squeezed out that miserable single point last year, he got what he deserved. It’s pointless looking for sources outside ourselves to blame when we fail. We fail because we deserve it. We try too hard and we make ourselves ridiculous, as is the fate of all those who try too hard in whatever sphere in life. The Eurovision Song Contest is just a bit of fun. All those who weep tears of blood about it should go out and get themselves a life, and stop boring the rest of us. Olivia Lewis should go and get herself a proper job, and so should the chairman and various board members of Maltasong. Perhaps they could try saving a few whales instead, or join Birdlife. When you’re a certain age, there has to be a better purpose to life than faffing around with Lurex and Lycra.