There is, if I remember well, a popular Ray LaMontagne song that says something like the title above. Flowers are, after all, used by humans to convey messages of love, sadness and as a means of paying tribute. Yet when a man brings his wife flowers for no reason, he’d better have one. Or as the sign in the florist’s window wisely counsels: “Send flowers to the one you love. While you’re at it, don’t forget your wife.”
Saying it with flowers, however, is not always the solution as Joseph Muscat has found much to his chagrin. It seems that in this minuscule country with a massive five national holidays on its calendar, no gesture with flowers makes any sense anymore. The recent farce involving the Labour leader’s conciliatory decision to lay a wreath on the Nationalist-built Independence monument in Floriana, confirms that from Mickey Mouse mode (with due apologies to the great Walt) we have consciously switched to the Blackadder one (with more apologies to Rowan Atkinson).
Where else in the world would a wreath of flowers placed with all the respect and dignity required, be so brusquely removed to make space for the flowers still to be laid in an official function? It would have been alright for the obscure little men that sit on the national festivities committee to push it sideways for the President and the Prime Minister to lay theirs in perhaps a more prominent position, but removing it completely was an insult to anyone who believes there is an urgent need for a mutual effort on the part of our politicians to stop the time-honoured bickering over who got us out of Whitehall’s clutches and when.
I would have said the same had the Nationalist Party had the decency to do the same thing, that is place flowers at the foot of the Labour-built Freedom Monument in wonderful Birgu, and its wreath idiotically removed in the name of officialdom on the sad and silly pretext of some forlorn agreement reached well over 20 years ago, when the political environment was hotter and certainly much more volatile.
How more pathetic can we get? Instead of grabbing the opportunity provided by Joseph Muscat’s gesture of national reconciliation, these sorry civil servants in black suits merely opted to create more political polarisation in an island that is really crying out loud for an end to it.
Indeed, you can bring me flowers, that elegant, agile figure on the monument seems to be metaphorically singing back at you straight from the vinyl of that golden oldie...
“My eyes are dry my hands are tied
There’s nothing I can say
If you feel the need to go
I won’t stand in your way.
“Sit and think drown and drink
Sing this sad, sad song
You can bring me flowers baby
When I’m dead and gone”
The monument in Floriana was actually the setting of another, not dissimilar charade some years ago when Alfred Sant, then newly appointed Leader of the Labour Opposition, decided to make a similar gesture for the sake of all our sons and daughters, only to be booed by a crowd of Nationalist supporters converging on that same spot for their annual celebration.
This is certainly not the way to go for a nation that is still desperately seeking to find its feet after 44 years of so-called independence and 29 years of fitful freedom. Most working people of course find no objection to having five national holidays. They may even enthusiastically go by the maxim of “the more the merrier”, but in truth there can only be one national holiday. Aren’t we mature enough to agree on it?
Choosing this one national holiday, and in the process relegating the other four to the status of mere public holidays, should not be difficult in this day and age. Most people rightly hunger for an end to this perpetual polarisation, particularly those on both sides of the political arena who have suffered discrimination and abuse. As long as one side persists in seeking vengeance over the other, things can only continue to stagnate.
Simple gestures indeed go a long way towards creating the right atmosphere for an end to old-style politics and its welcome replacement by a fresh approach based on real issues and a mutual belief in the goodness of those who seek to one day finally shove this nation into the 21st century.
This reality will not be achieved by the now boring use of buzz words preceded by such fashionable words as smart and, of course, all those affixed with an introductory e.
Genuine people have genuine hopes of a better political climate wherein we can all be red and blue, mixed with the greens and the other colours of the rainbow, without fear or hesitation.
It is clear Joseph Muscat has this in mind. It is, however, also clear so far that the same old tactics are being used, and more of the same being readied to counter the wave of support he is bound to get from all over these islands.