ON BEING REASONABLE

Modern communications being what they are, everyone and his brother and sister and her sister and brother (and cousin and aunty for that matter) can get their point of view up into public view. You can blog your way into the great unwashed’s consciousness, you can write a regular column, you can comment on blogs or columns, get a quasi-blog on a newspaper’s portal, scream and shout on Xarabank: there’s a plethora of ways of doing it.

Sometimes, the true import of a position is lost in the fog of war, to borrow a phrase slightly out of context, and lines get drawn in the sand (another warlike image) behind which it become impossible to retreat without losing face.

What starts out as an entirely reasonable proposition, then, finds itself overtaken by events and – again, modern communications being what they are – once you’ve said or written something, people are going to slap you around the head with it for the rest of time.

Taking something I said myself, once, during an edition of BondiPlus which tackled racism. During the debate, the point was made that the people of Balzan don’t like having immigrants living in their area.

Leaving aside the fact that this is not the case, though of course there are a few less tolerant souls who don’t like immigrants period, my reaction was on the lines of “well, unfortunately, the immigrants who fetch up at the nun’s safe haven don’t have a choice, so anyone who doesn’t like them would have to leave himself, if the situation is beyond his tolerance”.

You can imagine how this has been twisted and ripped apart by the proponents of the “Keep Malta White” faction. Not that I mind, but it’s just an illustration of how things come back to annoy you. A bit like the rabid racists, really.

Getting back to the entirely reasonable propositions that can potentially come back to bite one in the sit-upon, though, a piece by the Hon. Pullicino Orlando last Monday, which I took a glance at on the ferry heading back to work (though only for a day, tee hee) could be one such.

Mr Pullicino Orlando is quite right: our European neighbours and, for that matter, those further North, (to say nothing of our friends to the South) have a responsibility to help us deal with this human tragedy. There is a finite limit to Malta’s capacity to help, though I don’t think we’ve reached it yet, and even if we have, as JPO (as he has become known and as is so much easier to type) acknowledges (I wouldn’t have imagined he’d not acknowledge it) we are obliged not to let people die at sea.

So any means, preferably bi-partisan, which depoliticises the issue and exerts pressure on the Europeans, who are not known for acting quickly and decisively anyway, is more than welcome. In this regard, the debate which will take place in due course in the House will be an opportunity for both sides to demonstrate that we can tackle important issues without squaring off to each other all the time.

I take issue with some of JPO’s positions, of course – which illustrates how reasonable theses sometimes venture into the not completely so good side of the equation. We’re not, actually, facing a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, though I can understand how a politician, who by reason of his very existence has to listen to the moans and groans of his constituents and be more receptive than one such as I needs to be, would come to that conclusion.

I’m not entirely four-square with JPO on the matter of sending the immigrants back whence they came, for example. In an ideal world, with their safety guaranteed and weather forecasts being reliable, it would appear reasonable to adopt this course, but the thing is, we have international legal and moral obligations that just might preclude this. This doesn’t mean that such solutions shouldn’t be discussed, though, and JPO would be well advised, with all due respect, to take note of the tale of my telling residents of Balzan to move out, which I didn’t but the rabid racists say I did. He doesn’t want to keep being bashed with things he didn’t say.

Another story which talks about something which looks reasonable but isn’t, for example, is the one which tells us that Josie Muscat’s AN Party (you know, the one which made such an impact at the elections) thinks that immigrants should be put to work to earn their aid.

At first glance, a reasonable position, you might think but then you think it through and – if you are reasonable yourself – you spot the affront to human dignity that is inherent in this suggestion. See what I mean?

I’ll be away on my hols for the next few days, so the blog you love to hate (or love to love) might be a bit sparse on new stuff: all depends on the amount of wi-fi access I get on the Iberian peninsula.