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samedi, mars 10, 2007

Shutdown: This Blog has moved

On 10th March 2005 (8.25 pm) the first edition of J'accuse appeared on the internet. It was entitled "the Kinnie Generation" and was a trip into the unknown. Over two years J'accuse has garnered a little corner of faithful readers, interested observers and its fair share of critics. We look forard to many more years of blogging and hopefully increasing the role of blogging in Malta.

Today, Saturday 10th March 2007, on the occasion of it's second anniversary this blog is moving. No further content will be posted on the blogger version of J'accuse (http://akkuza.blogspot.com). All new content will now be added on the Wordpress version (http://jaccuse.wordpress.com).

We thank you for the over 100,000 visits since inception and hope that you will be moving with us to our new home. Do not forget to update your aggregators or subscribe by email to the new j'accuse address in the new site here.

You've come a long way baby!

Thank you.

Last one out switch off the lights.

vendredi, mars 09, 2007

D-Day -1: J'accuse Moves Tomorrow


ADMINISTRATIVE NOTICES

1. Moving Tomorrow
As if you have not already seen enough of these. This is another administrative notice for those who haave not been checking in for some time. As of tomorrow, Saturday 10th March, I will no longer be posting on the blogger versions of J'accuse, Kinnie & Twistees, the Laughing Fit, Postform and neither will GS be posting on Il Bollettino.

You are kindly requested to point your Favourites Bookmarks, RSS Feeders or daily browsing to the following addresses so as to continue to savour the daily enjoyment that is afforded by these sites:

J'accuse:
http://jaccuse.wordpress.com

Kinnie & Twistees:
http://kinnietwistees.wordpress.com

The Laughing Fit:
http://thelaughingfit.wordpress.com

Postform:
http://postform.wordpress.com

Il Bollettino della Sfi*a:
http://ilbollettinodellasfiga.wordpress.com

If you do not have an aggregator or do not know what it is I suggest you take a trip to Bloglines or RSS Bandit or or those who like to pay Newsgator. Then come back!

2. ARCHIVES & COMMENTS
The transfer of the blogs has not been (is not being - as Apu would say) without hassle. Without much complication let me just say that blogs moving from New Blogger to Wordpress (Laughing Fit, Bollettino, Postform) have moved lock, stock and barrel (automatically) with comments and all. The manually moved blogs (this one and K&T) are being patiently transposed post by post. This means that comments will be lost. There's no BIG problem because the blogger equivalents will stay on the net for archivial purposes. K&T archives should be over to the other side by tomorrow (D-Day). J'accuse is a much longer matter since there are almost 900 posts spanning the two years. (Frequent Blogger of the Year Award eh?)

3. The 100,000.
I am pleased to announce that J'accuse will have had 100,000 visitors over two years. As we stand we are 300 visits short of 100,000 on the eve of D-Day. But that does not take into account that the Statcounter was installed a month after J'accuse started - hence we are very much in time to hit the 100,000 target over two years. (How do we reason that? It is safe to assume that in its early days J'accuse had an average hit of 30 a day by the second week... giving us two weeks of 30 a day blogging - around 410 hits.... you see!)

Which leaves us with the competition. It's still open... your 500 words about J'accuse can still win you a J'accuse mug! Keep trying and sending them in to jacques dot zammit at gmail dot com. We're only 300 hits away from announcing the winner.


Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

jeudi, mars 08, 2007

Shooting Oneself in the Foot

Turtle Dove Stamp



One of my favorite clothing patterns is camouflage. Because when you're in the woods it makes you blend in. But when you're not it does just the opposite. It's like "hey, there's an asshole". - Demetri Martin

Yesterday's events in Valletta are the shameful result of too much pandering to a vociferous, bullying minority. Pre-referendal and pre-electoral wheeling and dealing has led to a situation where no amount of macchiavellian delays involving the EU will appease and ever-more violent mass of imbeciles armed with shotguns.

This still does not seem to have been an eye-opener for "the government". Never mind the "opposition" - it definitely does not have the balls to take a stand on this one. It will continue to try to milk the hunter's protest votes (see Maltastar's sorry report of the events) while hoping to delay facing the music to when it is in the unenviable position of being on the "government" side of the negotiation table. Sant and his minions should learn from PN's sorry experience... pandering to the hunting lobby while in opposition (or government) is a bit like counting on Mintoff's support in Parliament - never really a reliable option.

Here's the government's reaction to a situation where we have hunters physically aggressing journalists and the police:


In a statement late last night the government expressed its concern about the incidents. It said everyone had to respect the right of the police and journalists to carry out their jobs without violence or threats. - The Times

The usual tut-tut naughty naughty. Come now boys... let the journalists and police do their job... please. Thank you. Sorry? One driver broke through a police barrier and drove onto people in Freedom Square... some hunters were seen carrying shotguns... there are uncomfirmed reports of shots being fired... they hurled glasses/bottles and spat at the journalists.... they stole half of Ben Borg Cardona's photographic equipment... surely this deserves more than a schoolboy reprimand?

We cannot expect better from Lino Farrugia. Unless he unequivocally apologises to the Maltese public and tones down his mass of uncouth chickenheads he can no longer be treated with respect. He should not form part of any negotiation table. The hunting lobby should henceforth be treated like terrorists... until there is no longer ANY sign of violence. They should be boycotted and ignored and their demands should never be accepted. They were already negotiating from a weak point... they have blown their final chance to be heard.

Before the only place to see a turtle dove becomes the (probably obsolete) 6c stamp and before the farce of Maltese democracy is really exposed something must be done. We expect the Police to take action. Investigations must be made into aggressors. There must be raids to recover the stolen material. One of the oldest police forces in Europe deserves much more respect than it is getting. Its reaction to yesterday's events will be a first step to this rehabilitation.

Links:
The Times
The Times
IM Beck
The Independent
Daphne Caruana Galizia

...and this one is incredible updated 8 minutes before uploading this post... Maltarightnow still has NO news about all this.

This post also appears in the new J'accuse (two more days till blogger site shuts down)

Happy Women's Day



To continue yesterday's moment of leg-pulling and celebrate Women's Day at the same time. Happy Positively Discriminating Day of Pointlessly Celebrating the Obvious and Creating an Excuse to Send a Card or Flowers (Commercial) as well as Giving Dolores Cristina and c. Something to Write About Day!

Send an email to Joe Saliba and Jason Micallef to remind them that today is Women's Day and that they should use this day to remind people how both PN and MLP have loads of nisa in their list of candidates [NOT]....

Seriously... women rock!

mercredi, mars 07, 2007

Scoot Over

To the Laughing Fit (new version) for the latest addition - a parody of Maltese Political Propaganda...

... see you later!

mardi, mars 06, 2007

Yardsticks


Note: This post may also be viewed on the new J'Accuse website : http://jaccuse.wordpress.com.

Last weekend's Maltatoday editorial ends with the assertion that "Europe is indeed the new yardstick". Too true. The main reasons I voted for joining the European Union were instances like the current hullaballoo on the Bird's Directive. I knew that the MLPN have become too rooted in the favours for the locals and summersaults for the vociferous pressure groups system. This was accompanied by the nagging suspicion that it would take more than a lifetime or some shock event for people to start shifting their voting habits. So how to get about the necessary change anyway?

Easy. Vote for a system that"imposes" common standards with the most forward looking states on the continent. A system that has targets that are consonant with living in the 21st century and that eventually (and hopefully) become the prodding stick for the reluctant relics in government and opposition to change the song and dance that they have accustomed us to. And Pullicino is right. It may take some time for the first thunderbolt to hit the government. But that is the delay effect of membership. Once the first ECJ decisions start rolling out then the party in government will need a very very effective PR machine to make us all ignore the list of failures that will be automatically generated.

For now the ministers, minions and opposition will feel comfortable naysaying and minimising the effects of the process. It is still all too distant for the easily appeased populace to make any sense of it. They will at first believe their minister's assertions that Malta is right and will defend its position to the utmost. Of course there is nothing wrong with that. Malta has every right to defend its position... what worries me are instances like the Bird's Directive... where it is evident that the government is only delaying a fact known to itself and anyone with a modicum of interest in European Law. Where the honourable members know that they are in the wrong and are knowingly incurring liabilities for the nation. Why?

Hopefully we will have less of that. The European Yardstick will help much in this area. Some have already woken up to this possibility. Reporting... informing and forcing relcutant authorities into action. Take this website called gozitans.eu for example.... an interesting exercise in getting things going in Gozo. I have only just discovered it and cannot vouch for all its content but it is an example of the new kind of citizen action we can expect more and more as the new yardstick takes shape.

And good riddance to old ways.

lundi, mars 05, 2007

Rain, Wind and PN's Lorna

Good morning, I hope that you have had a splendid weekend. It's been spiffing in Luxembourg, especially since we have had long periods of sunshine and unprecedented warmth. The park outside 22, Rue de Bragance was regaled with a wonderful shower of rays and showed off it's green glory as luxizens thronged into it's paths and children's voices joined the chorus of happy birds celebrating this early spring.This patch of bright sunshine was just as surprising as the news that Remich is flooded and that the citizens of that riverside town are busy pumping water out of their caves all over again.

This morning we woke up to a constant pissing of rain from the heavens but the long hours of sunshine stocked up during the weeked could not be so easily obliterated by this sudden change - even more so since we will all be cooped up in our offices and any extra sunshine would have gone wasted. There will be no raining on our parade. But enough about the matter... let us back to things Maltese and more particularly to the forthcoming local council elections.

Here at J'accuse we have oft pointed a not-so-bony accusatory digit towards the big fish in the electoral pool for throwing oh-too-many candidates at the electorate without separating the eedjits from the democratically electable. A letter to today's Times by a candidate Paul Aquilina (PN) does prove our point. Let me say that I do not know the chap in question - and that if I ever had the pleasure of meeting him he did not leave a sufficiently memorable mark on my mind for it to recall his face as soon as the name was read...

Anyways.. his letter to the times deserves the Lorna treatment... if only for a nostalgic return to methods past. Voilà mesdames et monsieurs ... the créme de la crème of PN candidates live from Malta in 2007:

Why vote PN
Paul Aquilina
[Do note the title. Could have ben phrased better no? I mean. Why vote PN? Yes. Why bother? Sometimes brevity tends to be the assassin of the spirit of the phrase (as Lorna would undoubtedly say). Why You Should Vote PN would have been less comprehensive but more comprehensible title.]


For the March 10 local elections the Nationalist Party will be presenting to the public a group of 121 ladies and gentlemen, coming from all walks of life [Aha. Let the public be presented I say. We have ladies and gentlemen... it's almost like the opening of a circus... ladies and gentlemen of the public we present you the ladies and gentlemen of the candidates list... can you picture Joe Saliba with a Dali -like moustache and a whip?].

They include lawyers, notaries and law students, medical doctors, architects, accountants, businessmen, senior bankers, civil service officials, university lecturers and teachers, company directors, private sector employees, students, youths, self-employed, housewives and also a few pensioners. [What? No Bearded Lady? I want my money back. Well... we have the butcher the baker and the candlestick maker of course. There's the lawyer, the notary and the half baked lawyer. Grrrrreat. Civil Service officials... wahey. Then there is the great set of hodge-podge employments at the end... Youths! Housewives! and the few pensioners thrown in! Jeezus. Doesn't the list smack of (a) patronising bull and (b) I wanted to come up with an iindicative list but then I did not want to hurt any of my fellow candidates so I mentioned ALL the jobs they do.. tenkjuverimuch].


These people possess a vast experience [That famous vast experience... I wonder how the Youths compare to the Housewives and the Pensioners?] as well as great intellectual knowledge [Ta-da... it's the hunting season for Wankellectuals... here we have the lowest of the grades... not just a wannabe intellectual but one who has no idea what intellectual really means!]. Some of them also shoulder professional responsibilities in their line of work [The others just sit around on their asses and get paid for doing **** all because they are blue eyed boys with the best pedigree!]. This group of candidates further enrich the PN in terms of quality [Hmm. Enrich the PN in terms of quality - sounds like an artificial additive] and in its endeavours to guarantee serious management in local government.

I regret to say it is quite the opposite in the Labour Party camp [ Opposite to what exactly - to having the circus of contestants? to having intellectually knowledgeable individuals? to having enriching factors to the endeavours of ... whatever?] where administrative and other problems during certain council meetings are not unknown [Could a vaguer accusation be levelled? I mean what council meetings? Local Council? Aren't they made up of mixed councillors? And anyway... can you really say this after all that has been in the news?]. In my opinion the responsibility lies with the MLP leadership; only they decide who to accept to represent their party [As against PN who accept all the flotsam and jetsam of electoral hopefuls so long as they shoulder their professional responsibility, are intellectually knowledgeable and write ridiculous letters to the times]. It all depends whether they want serious and professional people to run local councils, as the PN does. [Does it? I mean... not to really really rub it in... but you are not doing a very good job of proving the contrary Paul!]

We have read in newspapers of councils with a Labour majority facing huge problems [True. And I have also read in the newspapers of councils with a PN majority making a whole cock-up of respnsible management too], even involving the police in one case [Involving the police? How dare they? Did they ask them to help or what?]. We also hear about Labour councils squandering public funds and engaging in partisan politics [Tut tut tut... PARTISAN POLITICS (read using John Cleese tone of voice)... .now what is that exactly Paul?]. We hear of councils refusing to renew the employment contract of employees simply because they are in some way affiliated to the PN as is their right [IS it the right of councils to renew the aforementioned contract or is it the abovementioned employees who have a right to be affiliated to the PN? The question is intellectually knowledgeable of itself... it is also shouldering its own responsibility.. I think the question could actually run for elections in a non-partisan manner!].

We also read about financial deficits incurred by Labour local governments, the inability to follow the correct procedures when awarding tenders, disregard to the Local Councils Act, confusion and situations whereby local wardens issue an excessive number of tickets.
It is the opposite where there is a PN majority; financial results in the great majority of PN-led local councils are positive with that of Gzira leading the PN group and ending the last financial year with a surplus of over Lm32,000. [Tadaaaaa.... Gzira has a positive financial record hence all PN councils have a positive financial record].

Voters are urged to use their right to vote and choose [Choose life] responsible and professional people, the like [ OH no.... the like that are found] that are found in the PN list of candidates.

***

Mein Gott in Himmell! Unbelievable? Not really... it's run of the mill candidates.... And Aaron F should be thanking his lucky gods that I have not butchered his presentation of Youth Candidates for the local council. He is just as infected with this logorrheic mode of circum tauri for the masses. We deserve much more than this.

The management of the PN and Labour camps are under the general accusation of neglecting their duties towards the electorate when it comes to selecting candidates. J'accuse openly accuses the executives of the two main parties of thinking they can easily take us all for a ride by throwing this quickly assembled crowd of wannabes at us and hoping that one or two of them stick and manage a Local COuncil haphazardly for the next few years.

Shame. But at least we get our silver lining... letters like this are precious fodder for our Blog... just keep them coming lads! Ir-rebha taghna tkun!

samedi, mars 03, 2007

Everything but the Mug



This will be the 881st post on J'accuse since 10th March 2005. We are about to round the corner into the last 1,000 hits before we reach the frugal milestone set by ourselves - 100,000. Sounds big doesn't it? By general blogging standards it is a drop in the ocean. Spittle on the side of a giant's lips. You get the drift. We are nothing and we are still intent on celebrating our nothingness in style.

Many of you have already started adding the new j'accuse to your aggregators. Kinnie & Twistees, The Laughing Fit, Bollettino and Postform also moved - in case you have not noticed. A while back I had offered an interesting prize competition for the 100,000th hit... with absolutely no response. Which is not so spiffing. We have not given up....

A J'accuse (original - with original webaddress - potential collectors item) Mug (with pic as seen above) is still up for grabs to the reader who sends in the most interesting 500 words or less on one of the following topics:

1) 10 reasons why I like J'Accuse
2) 10 reasons why I hate J'Accuse
3) Why I want a j'accuse commemorative mug so badly
4) What I'd like to see for the next year in J'accuse

Send your 'essays' to jacques dot zammit at gmail dot com.
Final results to be announced after the 100,000th hit on J'accuse.

happy saturday and don't forget to upate your aggregators
J

vendredi, mars 02, 2007

Alternative Council Politics

With Fausto's admonition still ringing in my mind I was about to type out a whole post criticising alternattiva's program for Local Council Elections as being shallow and generic. Unfortunately (for Fausto) that was before I discovered that the alternattiva website also contains a different programme for each candidate in each locality. Surf over to alternattiva's site if you are interested in more details.

To be fair I think that Harry's article in today's Times puts too much stress on the AD vs MLPN. Why? Because at the end of the day we are talking about Local Councils where the quality of the individuals often is a more determining factor than the party they hail from. Local Council members can either be party puppets placed there for the number or individuals with a genuine love for their locality with a real interest in making Haz-Zghir (little village) a better place. Both PN and MLP have been stung by backing Mr Anybody for the sake of number (or thanks to an uncanny popularity such individuals enjoy in their little fiefdom). Just look at all the Mayoral gaffes in different localities which end up being an ugly smudge on the relative party's very own Local Council Conduct. If you still don't know what I am talking about think of the Zebbug (Gozo) mayor and his illegal dumping or the Qala Mayor's brainwave at creating that lovely beach out of building debris.

The intelligent voter in a Local Council election should be seeking out the individual who engages to deliver a reasonable set of promises with the locality at heart. Local Council electors should look beyond the blue, red and green - only pausing for an instant to examine whether MLP, PN or AD backed candidates are within the right structure to deliver what is best for the locality. It is only in this respect that I can see Harry's point that AD programmes tend to contain deliverables that are intelligently constructed and practical - and the track record of quality vs quantity does give AD candidates an advantage over the papable masses that are normally produced by the MLPN clan.

I am not trying to give you two different messages. The message is one and the same. Vote for candidates who seem to know what they are going in for and know what they want to deliver. Vote for candidates who will not put party interest before that of the locality. Such candidates are not only found in the AD camp - definitely. I just have a feeling that the stamp of guarantee offered by AD is not found elsewhere in the political field. AD's size in this campaign is its strength and not its weakness.

Of course you can always do an Alfred Mifsud and ignore the existence of AD altogether. I remember the good old days ofrunning for KSU elections. I used to have a hard time convincing fellow SDM executive members that the content of the electoral manifesto was more important than just bandying around the SDM symbol. Before taking on anyone else using the simple electoral strategy of colour allegiance I wanted to add depth and quality to the campaign. Many times my efforts fell on deaf ears (those who had long before succumbed to the MLPN mantra of "Ir-rebha taghna zgur"). The few times it worked were those that gave me much much more satisfaction.

Incidentally I had a look at the latest KSU website. It seems that eight years on the real value of the policies we started then are beginning to take shape. The KSu executive has understood its role as a moderator and given full effect to its policy forming commissions that are as representative as possible. Beyond the PULSE-SDM (renationalised SDM I would add) rhetoric a group of a few good men and women have understood the benefits of working with a fresh alternative. Well done chaps!

ADMINISTRATIVE NOTICES
- This post will also appear on the new J'accuse website (beta testing of course) http://jaccuse.wordpress.com.
- Thanks to Kenneth for the feedburner tip. It's working on the new j'accuse!

jeudi, mars 01, 2007

Thank You for Your Patience

There seems to be a general hiatus in the blogworld that can be partially attributed to the Blogger shift to the new Blogger. My bloglines list has gone haywire ... with most blogs seeming to be inaccessible or closed. Right now I feel that every blogpost is a bit akin to a message in a bottle - never too sure about who will eventually get to read it. The decision to shift to a new blogging system has now shifted to action and more will be posted about this in the coming days. until then I am afraid that posting will be as haphazard as has been in the past few days while I dedicated most of my spare time to the gargantuan task of General Blog Déménagement... my blogs are quite literally moving to another site. And that's definite.

For those of you who would like to plan in advance here is a list of a few links you may want to add to your aggregators. For now they will only signal old posts being added as I maually transfer post by post from the archives (which also means that I lose all the comments). There IS a way to export a whole blog to the new site but this can only be done if your blog is in the New Blogger - a shift that is apparently impossible for both Kinnie & Twistees and J'Accuse!!

Anyway... here goes:

J'Accuse
http://jaccuse.wordpress.com

Kinnie & Twistees
http://kinnietwistees.wordpress.com

Il Bollettino della Sfi*a
http://ilbollettinodellasfiga.wordpress.com

The Laughing Fit
http://thelaughingfit.wordpress.com

Postform
http://postform.wordpress.com

I am hoping to be able to launch all five sites on the 10th March - the original launching date of J'Accuse for Blogger!

For now keep following for updates on Blogger. And thank you for your patience.

Thank You for Your Patience

There seems to be a general hiatus in the blogworld that can be partially attributed to the Blogger shift to the new Blogger. My bloglines list has gone haywire ... with most blogs seeming to be inaccessible or closed. Right now I feel that every blogpost is a bit akin to a message in a bottle - never too sure about who will eventually get to read it. The decision to shift to a new blogging system has now shifted to action and more will be posted about this in the coming days. until then I am afraid that posting will be as haphazard as has been in the past few days while I dedicated most of my spare time to the gargantuan task of General Blog Déménagement... my blogs are quite literally moving to another site. And that's definite.

For those of you who would like to plan in advance here is a list of a few links you may want to add to your aggregators. For now they will only signal old posts being added as I maually transfer post by post from the archives (which also means that I lose all the comments). There IS a way to export a whole blog to the new site but this can only be done if your blog is in the New Blogger - a shift that is apparently impossible for both Kinnie & Twistees and J'Accuse!!

Anyway... here goes:

J'Accuse
http://jaccuse.wordpress.com

Kinnie & Twistees
http://kinnietwistees.wordpress.com

Il Bollettino della Sfi*a
http://ilbollettinodellasfiga.wordpress.com

The Laughing Fit
http://thelaughingfit.wordpress.com

Postform
http://postform.wordpress.com

I am hoping to be able to launch all five sites on the 10th March - the original launching date of J'Accuse for Blogger!

For now keep following for updates on Blogger. And thank you for your patience.