Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1445232
11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 JANUARY 2022 OPINION on the basis of (even fleeting) allusions to 'female reproductive rights'… and while she did, re- peatedly, indicate that abortion was a 'red line': for herself, for her party, for the Universe, and so on and so forth… … I still don't exactly recall any specific moments, when she tried to force her own pro-life views down the nation's col- lective throat (by, for instance, proposing a Constitutional amendment, of the kind pushed forward so aggressively by Tonio Borg, in circa 2005/6…). So once again: no offence in- tended to Metsola… but on this occasion, her own achievement simply pales into insignificance, compared to Tonio's astonish- ing metamorphosis in 2008… (dubbed by Arnold Cassola, at the time, as 'The Strange Case of Dr Tonio and Mr Borg): when the same man who, just a few years previously, had crusad- ed against abortion with all the zeal of a hyperactive 15th cen- tury Chief Inquisitor… suddenly turned around, and said: "That? Oh, don't worry about all that. I've matured a lot since back then, you know: In fact, I'm a whole different person now. Oh yes: just like James Brown in 'The Blues Brothers': I have 'seen the light'… I have 'learnt the error of my ways'… I have 'repented of my former sins'… and now, I'm on another Mis- sion from God: this time, to see to it that all women's rights are respected, equally, in every EU member state… Or ELSE! (Hal- lelujah! Praise the Lord! etc.)' … for let's face it: there is quite like the sudden prospect of a prestigious career change, to make people experience precise- ly that sort of spiritual 'epipha- ny'. You know: the opening of the 'Third eye'… the unleashing of the 'Kundalini'... that moment of sudden, inexplicable enlight- ment, that came upon the Bud- dha so unawares (as he sat to rest under a Bo-tree, and all the rest of it). But back to Tonio Borg, who – just like Metsola today, in fact – probably still doesn't see the glaring contradiction, that exists between those two, utterly anti- thetical incarnations of the same person. (And I think I can guess why, too: because it's a Divine Mystery, you see. 'Two Persons in One Commissioner'… just like the Holy Trinity, in fact…) But now that I think about it for a second: actually, I don't re- call a great many other people appreciating that contradiction at the time, either. In fact – with a few random exceptions such as Arnold Cassola, myself, and oth- ers – there wasn't quite the same level of criticism being directed at Tonio Borg, back in 2008… as there is targeting Roberta Met- sola today. (Note: and I can say the same for the former Fisher- ies commissioner Joe Borg, too… even if, like Roberta, he was nev- er quite as 'gung-ho' about abor- tion as Tonio, was he?) And I find all this all very cu- rious, for two reasons. Not only was Borg's capitulation, to the same universal expediency law, all that very much more dramat- ic than Roberta's… but the role he had risen to occupy – Europe- an Commissioner for Health, if you don't mind – was altogether more relevant to this particular issue, than the Presidency of the European Parliament could ever possibly hope be. Unlike Metsola today, Tonio Borg was in the very driver's seat, no less, of the European Union's health policies – which included (and still include) a commitment to provide for women's basic reproductive rights. In other words, his job was to both for- mulate and implement policies, which would have a direct bear- ing on women – and everyone else, for that matter – across the length and breadth of the entire European Union. And yet… Tonio Borg found himself facing far LESS pres- sure than Roberta Metsola, by the MEPs who 'grilled' him – though to be honest, it looked more like a '10-second spell in the microwave', to me – before his appointment as health Com- missioner; And not only that, but… Rob- erta Metsola now faces far MORE criticism (and altogether more savage, too) for her own performance of the same mag- ical transformation act, than both Tonio, and Joe Borg put together. Why is that, I wonder. Hmmm… let's see now. Maybe it's because of the miracle that Roberta Metsola didn't perform, this week? Maybe it's because there is still, after all, a 'glass ceiling' in European politics, that has yet to be broken… Roberta Metsola now faces far more criticism (and altogether more savage, too) for her own performance of the same magical transformation act, than both Tonio, and Joe Borg put together