It was inevitable, wasn’t it, that the Public Accounts Committee sessions to discuss the oil procurement scandal were to turn into a slanging match during which one side, defending the indefensible, tried to create as many doubts and to throw as many spokes as possible in the wheels of the whole procedure. Anyone who did not expect this to happen does not know politicians enough.

Yes, we are all hoping the truth will eventually come out and those people who abused the people’s trust by making such a shameless mockery of standard practices when spending huge millions on behalf of the State are, if not punished, at least shamed. The outcome so far has been a lot of legalistic hogwash meant to dilute the whole exercise that followed the Auditor General’s damning investigation report on the issue.

People want answers from the perpetrators not diversions by their ventriloquists. Honest taxpayers demand a truthful exchange of information, not accusations and innuendos against everyone and everything, including the media.

Two years on since a then Labour Opposition member, Leo Brincat, called for an investigation into the messy affair, we are now watching a veritable slanging match instead of a serious and transparent discussion of all that eventually led to the shocking details of the oil procurement business conducted on our behalf and how some, not surprisingly, must have in the process become millionaires.

Of course politicians with their tails between their legs have no time for methodologies and differences between audit and investigation. They are only interested in building enough mountains of doubt – on both persons and procedures – to serve as camouflage for the biggest political scandal ever to hit the Maltese Islands.

Bureaucrats and civil servants are bound to feel they are unfairly taking the brunt of this blatant assault on the truth. They can only rely on scientific methods and long-accepted procedures, while lawyers and politicians can have all the fun taking random pot shots at them.

Thank goodness the electorate had already seen to the end of the main players in this tragic national comedy.

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It’s there… in black and white

While many Maltese seem disturbed by the fact that so many African immigrants are coming into the islands and rightly seeking to integrate, they seem to be overlooking the fact that another “invasion” is taking place. Bulgarians, Romanians, Russians, Ukrainians and several species of Slavs are popping up everywhere – in restaurants, schools, workplaces, the beach and sundry businesses.

Perhaps because they are white?

Even the Courts seem to be more inclined to be lenient with these East Europeans than they are with Africans. A case in point was the handling of two separate incidents, one involving a Somali youth and the other a Bulgarian woman. The former, involved in a personal skirmish with a fellow Somali over the wearing of an earring, incredibly deemed by the victim as offensive to their religion, was refused bail, while the Bulgarian, who was caught pick-pocketing in Valletta just hours after her arrival at the airport, was set free on a suspended one-year imprisonment sentence. Two Bulgarians were also involved in a fight at St Paul’s Bay.

What is keeping the authorities from throwing out these one-way-ticket criminals, known to be stalking the whole of Europe, and sending them back to where they come from?

While in the case of the Somali youth an immediate outcry followed, with people loudly clamouring for deportation and an end to “an indulgent asylum process”, the Bulgarian thief was left to join the other compatriots picking Maltese and tourist pockets anywhere they can.

Perhaps because they are white?

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Parisian solution for Sliema?

I used to think it was a trivial subject brought up every now and then by well-made-up octogenarian ladies living on their own in Sliema. Not anymore. Seven years on since our move to this cosmopolitan old town, I can safely vouch for the fact that it can easily be the Dog Litter Capital of Malta. Walking or jogging on the pavement here requires the antics of a prima ballerina.

Now a Parisian suburb in France has announced it will be making use of its extensive network of CCTV to fight the scourge of dog mess on the streets. In this way, municipal police will be using the cameras to track down owners who allow their pets to foul in the streets without clearing up afterwards.

Let it be said that the Sliema local council has, over the years, seriously but unsuccessfully tackled the problem. Dog litter bins were introduced, nicely-worded warnings were posted and an awareness campaign was also on for some time. To no avail. Sadly, for many it seems the love of animals is not synonymous with a proper sense of civic duty. There was a time when even Austin Gatt, then the minister responsible for all shitty goings-on, was bragging he had found a way to stop the negligent. It was as successful as his public transport transformation.

In recent years offenders have been resorting to their latest trick – actually bothering to pick up the litter, obediently throwing it into a small black bag and....then still discarding it in the street. I can assure you slipping on one of those dainty black bags full of fresh excrement is as disturbing and frustrating as slipping on the metaphorical banana skin.

So can Sliema do it the Parisian way? Like Paris, often referred to as the “dog mess capital of the world”, the town has a network of cameras it can make use of to identify and seek out pet owners with no sense of civic duty. It has been rightly argued that using the cameras against irresponsible dog owners is no different from filming traffic and other offenders, and certainly not an invasion of privacy.

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Feline curiosity

And more about animals. A popular news portal revealed last week that a university lecturer admitted to catching stray cats, having them neutered and re-releasing them into the wild of Malta’s streets. Because he loves the animals, he said. Chinese and other Asian restaurant owners could sigh in relief.

There had earlier been much public concern over a white van, apparently belonging to no animal welfare organisation, that had been seen somewhere in Marsascala being loaded with what were described as “subdued cats”.

Out comes the lecturer to reassure us all that he had been catching the cats to feed them, take them to a vet for any necessary treatment and then have them neutered before being returned to their roaming grounds. All out of his own pocket. But when asked whether he had an official permission to carry out this work, he said he did not and was quoted as saying the country has a huge problem with strays.

For all his assumed good deeds, I find this academic’s approach to the problem as somewhat cowboyish. There are volunteer organisations and animal welfare authorities that can carry out – and most are officially carrying out – this much-needed chore.

What next, picking up stray immigrants and packing them away to Continental Europe?

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Mission to the Maldives

Much fun has been had by bloggers and other commentators at the news that ex-Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, soundly beaten at the polls only last March, will be leading a Commonwealth group of observers in the forthcoming presidential elections in the Maldives.

Many of the critics referred to the perverse result of the 2008 general election in Malta, the ongoing ID card fiasco that cast many a dark shadow, and several electoral misdemeanours, all of which really do not make good credentials to anyone being entrusted with observing an electoral process on behalf of an international organisation like the Commonwealth, however obsolete an anachronism this is.

Having “saved” Libya from Gaddafi, the very guy Gonzi had been hugging and kissing only a few weeks before the revolution, maybe Commonwealth secretary-general Kamalesh Sharma could consider the former Prime Minister for mediation between Britain and Spain over Gibraltar – another good joke.