At the top of my head, I can’t think of a male MP who has a dimple in the middle of their chin. Edward Zammit Lewis maybe? Hmm, no, that is a too-much-cake dimple. Carmelo Abela maybe? Yes. He certainly has a very heisty, er, sorry I meant, feisty, dimple chin.
Let’s for the sake of argument imagine that Abela wakes up one morning and posts a selfie on Instagram, with a series of hashtags including #smiles, #dimplechin, #dimplechinfordays.
Rightly so, our reaction would include the letters ‘w’, ‘t’ and ‘f’. And that’s because we expect our elected representatives to be focused on their job and keep their noses clean and not to be admiring their own chins.
Of course, if I were to write about the silliness of it all, it would have nothing to do with the fact Abela is a male species of homo sapiens; but it would have everything to do with his role as official representative of our country.
It was, therefore, extremely baffling and disquieting that the Commission on Gender-based and Domestic Violence last week accused blogger Manuel Delia of misogyny, simply because when an MP did exactly what I described above, hashtags and all, he pointed out the frivolity and puerility of it all.
Immediately, the government-led trolls kick-started what they do best: they trolled, bullied and brainwashed: “Misogyny! He’s attacking this MP because she’s a woman!” they cried all over social media.
What utter tosh. Rosianne Cutajar’s #dimplechin post merely showed that she is a human being in a very responsible role, who, teenager-like, would rather promote her cuteness than her abilities.
The commission also failed to look at the context – the MP in question was joined at the hip to, and taking money from, Yorgen Fenech, one of the alleged masterminds of the Daphne Caruana Galizia assassination. She is linked to Malta’s criminal underbelly.
It is an insult to our intelligence that, while the country is going through such an ordeal and is overtaken by mafia, Cutajar wanted to make it a point to show us that all she cares about is the dimple in her chin. Impunity? Who cares? Unfortunately, the commission was taken in by the forceful pressure of the Labour spin machine: it condemned Delia and asked him to apologise to Cutajar.
Delia proceeded to stand up to the sheer ridiculousness of it all and filed a judicial protest against the commission. By the next day, the commission had withdrawn its condemnation and, hopefully, learnt its lesson that it should not be led by government pressure.
The mood is still very xenophobic and today’s prime minister is happy to pay thousands to keep migrants out on boats at sea- Kristina Chetcuti
If anything, it is dimpledchinned Cutajar who owes us all a grovelling apology for her shameless actions. Scratch that, she, together with any MPs proven to be part of the corrupt cabal, owe us back their elected seats.
A mother waiting for her son
Two years ago, Lassana Cisse Souleymane was walking back home in Ħal Far with two other migrants after they had watched a football game together. They were chatting and laughing when they were shot in cold blood. Just like that, as if they were in some Fortnite Playstation game.
The reason? Because of the colour of their skin. Souleymane, 42, a father of two, died on the spot. Two AFM soldiers, Francesco Fenech, 21, and Lorin Scicluna, 22, were arraigned and accused of the racially motivated murder.
Two years on, the case is still pending and the accused are still out on bail; and Souleymane’s mother in the Ivory Coast is still waiting for his corpse so the family can give him a proper burial in his homeland, as promised by the Maltese government. Why is it taking so long?
Well, the body of Souleymane needs to be accompanied on a flight back to the Ivory Coast. And the only one who can do so – the representative of the Ivory Coast community in Malta, Ousuma Dicko – has been waiting for a renewal of his residence permit for over a year. The delay in the issuing of the permit has been attributed to, sigh, COVID. But to me, this smacks of excessive bureaucracy, lack of priority and lack of empathy. Is this too much to ask for? The speeding up of a residence permit renewal in a special case like this?
Clearly, there are no more votes to be won from this now.
Remember the spectacular political theatre two years ago? The then prime minister, Joseph Muscat, who, months earlier, had no qualms leaving migrants stranded out at sea rather than let them enter our safe harbour, reincarnated into New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern.
When the accused were arraigned, he channelled migrant-love for the whole week, which also happened to be the MEP election campaign week. He got a black photogenic girl to share the stage with him; he gave speeches with the right pitch of indignation; and eventually told us that the anti-black people mood on the island had shifted and everyone was simply holding hands and swaying and singing Kumbaya together.
Fast forward to today and the cheap stunts have long been forgotten: the mood is still very xenophobic and today’s prime minister is happy to pay thousands to keep migrants out on boats at sea. Still, every Sunday, he likes to remind us we are the best in the Mediterranean, in Europe, in the world and in the solar system. But, each time, he forgets to add it’s only in matters which can milk political mileage.
Souleymane’s family are still awaiting justice. The very least we can do is not leave them in their limbo of grief. He deserves a dignified burial in his homeland.
krischetcuti@gmail.com
twitter: @krischetcuti