No thugs and no louts

By the time you read this, the fun and games in the republic's highways may have abated. Or they may not - I somehow don't see the government backing down and the transport guys don't seem to want to, perhaps because they're not actually losing that much dosh by not working, they're not particularly worried.

Just as a small aside, if they weren't making that much money to start with, what the heck are they so hot under the collar about? Wouldn't it make more sense for them to move out of the field that's so non-remunerative for them, making space for others to find out it's not actually worth it? One of the few concepts I recall from A-level economics is opportunity cost - it's not so much what you're spending on doing something, sometimes, it's what it's costing you in not doing something else more remunerative.

Or are these people making such a fuss in order to prevent others following them down the road to wrack and ruin? How altruistic of them. If you were to ask me, it's more a question of hanging like grim death onto something that is more valuable than it seems to be, if you take reports in The Times seriously, when one of the guys on strike said that he was almost saving money by not working.

Let's be quite clear about something, though: these guys have every right in the world to protest and to make nuisances of themselves. It would be pretty pointless protesting if their protests weren't inconveniencing people a bit, wouldn't it?

However, and this would be writ in letters large and red if this were a colour supplement, the right to protest ends at the point where thuggishness and loutishness start. Smashing windscreens, blocking the public highways, intimidating people, boarding ferries, stealing keys and generally not acting like humans does not constitute legitimate, if inconvenient and annoying, protest; it constitutes criminal behaviour, pure and simple.

I know you've probably read all this before but I thought I'd stick my two cents in too.

What is worrying is the bullying attitude these people have demonstrated. I can understand, if not agree with, vociferous picketing and reluctance to get out of the way when asked to move, but precisely what does a coach-load of tourists or language school students have to do with this dispute?

No excuse

As I was writing this, the news flashed up that the Malta Hearses Association had come to an agreement with the government and returned to work, withdrawing from the Transport Federation and disassociating themselves from the violence.

It is gratifying that good sense has prevailed in this relatively small corner of the transport landscape. To me, this seems as if these people finally got fed up of being used by others whose agenda was way different from theirs. I don't think anyone was labouring under the illusion that the violence and loutishness we've been seeing was being perpetrated by the hearse owners. People whose daily lives require them to be (more or less) sensitive to others do not go around behaving like common or garden criminals.

It remains to be seen if now that the ostensible reason for the protests has been laid to rest (pun fully intended) the temperature will cool. Somehow I doubt it, though by the time this sees the light of day, things might be clearer.

Whatever happens, it is to be hoped that it won't cross anyone's mind to come over all gentle and forgiving. People who broke the law should be brought to book, calmly and without causing major panics and there's an end to it. We the people, to use a moderately hackneyed phrase, have discovered the pleasure in seeing bullies brought to heel and we'll be mightily disappointed if they're let off without being given a good seeing-to.

After all, if I park in the middle of the road and incur the wrath of a warden, I'll be done for €23.4532467 or whatever it is.

Feasts

Feasts for the body and soul this week, in brief due to the prettifying of this paper having wrought havoc on my penchant for logorrhoea.

If you want a good Indian, go to Garam Masala in Msida, not far from the parish church. Fine stuff can be had, as it was by us on Thursday.

The test of a good restaurant is not so much how it copes with the ordinary but how it rises to the occasion when it is not an ordinary one.

On Monday we went to the finale of the Victoria Arts Festival, where the National Philharmonic performed in the Basilica of St George, superbly. Afterwards we shot off to It-Tmun in Victoria, to find Patrick and his crew waiting patiently for us, since, as it turned out, we were the only booking. Many places would have given us mediocre compromises and worse service: these guys served up excellence, excellently.

And on Tuesday, the soul was nourished by a performance of Romeo and what's 'er name at Argotti by a company from the Globe. The torture chamber that was the seating was rendered feather-bed-like by the sheer quality on show, which, believe me, is praise of the highest order.

You had to have been there to understand.

imbocca@gmail.com, www.timesofmalta.com/blogs