Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1462122
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 MARCH 2022 OPINION 10 Raphael Vassallo OPINION A hunting season, for an endangered bird? Sorry, but that's just too much OK, let's get one thing out of the way first. It's not as though I need- ed any additional 'prodding', to decide how I'll end up voting in this particular election. Right from the first day of the campaign, I told myself – and I even wagged my finger at the mir- ror, while saying it – that: "UN- DER NO CIRCUMSTANCES would I vote for any political party that has the temerity… the audac- ity… the nerve… the gall… heck, even just the plain old STUPIDI- TY… to so much as even dream about… … INTERRUPTING YOUTUBE VIDEOS WITH GODDAMN ADS!" There: someone had to say it, sooner or later. Because let's face it, people. This isn't even about 'politics', at the end of the day. This is about ordinary human in- telligence. It's about possessing (or otherwise) all the basic, entry-lev- el cognitive faculties – you know: empathy, acumen, perception, intuition; that sort of thing – that enable human beings to compre- hend even the simplest, and most fundamental of concepts... Such as, for instance: that if the idea behind those ads was to 'win over' as many voters as you pos- sibly can, in the shortest possible timeframe (and as far as I can see: that's always the general idea behind 'advertising', of any kind whatsoever)… … well, there are probably a few better ways of doing that, than by deliberately (and strategically) PISSING OFF as many of those potential voters as humanly possi- ble… and even then: in the most obnoxiously irritating way imagi- nable, too! That is to say, exactly like a sud- den power-cut… right before a World Cup Final penalty shoot- out [but with a significant differ- ence: YouTube ads do at least give you a 'five-second countdown'… so you can start your blasphemous rant five seconds BEFORE actual- ly hitting that 'Skip Ad' button, in- stead of afterwards). Honestly, though: it doesn't ex- actly take a PhD in Applied Polit- ical Science, to realise that 'You- tube ads' are most emphatically NOT the best communications tool available, to endear your po- litical message to any undecided voters out there. Or at least, not unless their en- tire purpose was to reveal that the political party in question is: So selfish; So short-sighted; And so, well, 'borderline-socio- pathic', I suppose… … that they actually thought it would be 'good political strategy', to inflict maximum levels of stress, frustration, anxiety and irrita- tion… not on their political adver- saries, mind you (in which case, I would kind of see the point)… but no: on the very people they were actually trying to 'win over', just a few weeks before an election. See what I mean? That's my own voting intentions decided, right there: if not about 'whom to ac- tually vote for'… at least, about whom to avoid on the ballot sheet. Because the way I see it: if both Labour and Nationalist Parties managed to annoy the virtual crap out every single available voter-demographic – not because they wanted to; but as an unin- tended consequence of trying to achieve the clean opposite effect… then, very obviously, they must be a bunch of inept, and incompe- tent, ignoramuses. If, on the other hand, they did all that ON PURPOSE… then, what can I say? They're obviously a bunch of psychopaths. (And right now, placed on the spot: I can't ac- tually decide which is worse). Either way, however: you can't trust that kind of political party with real political power, can you? Otherwise… who knows? We might end up in the same situa- tion we've all been stuck in these past 70 years anyway: that is to say, ruled by a selfish, short-sight- ed, and utterly narcissistic govern- ment, that only exists to serve its own (equally selfish, short-sighted and utterly narcissistic) purpos- es… But hey! I know what you're all probably thinking right now. It's not as though you actively 'disa- gree' with even a single word I've just written (I mean, how could you, anyway? When you your- selves have all been complaining about those same Youtube ads, for the past five weeks at least?) It's just that, while you all sub- scribe wholeheartedly to my core argument… you just don't see this as an electoral 'make-or-break' deal, do you? Heck, you probably even think I'm just giving vent to some (very real, I assure you) 'an- noyance' I experienced myself, of late… which is also perfectly true, of course… except that… No, actually. There's a heck of a lot more to it than that. Tell you the truth, I would more than hap- pily put aside my own aversion to all those online interruptions… if that were the ONLY political manifestation, of the same psy- chopathic streak I just mentioned above. But we all know that it isn't the only example; and it's not even close to being the worst, either. For while those Youtube cam- paigns may be about as 'welcome' as… ooh, let's see now: an SMS notification that you've just con- tracted Covid-19…. they don't ex- actly 'disfigure the environment', do they? And they certainly do not drive endangered species towards extinction, either…. Nonetheless, they do stem from precisely the same political forc- es, that also propel those (and all sorts of other) immensely serious consequences. And just this week, we got a classic taste of those self- same forces in action. Actually, we got several. First off the bat, there was the Planning Authority's scandalous decision to approve a gargantuan project in Sannat, Gozo – larger by far than the 1996 proposed extension of the Ta' Cenc hotel – just days after the Prime Minister was the 'guest of honour' at a dinner-par- ty organised by none other than the applicant himself (but I wrote about this last week… so 'nuff said, for now). But if that wasn't enough, to convince us all that our country is now firmly in the hands of a bunch of environmental delin- quents: a few days later, the Ornis Committee approved a Spring hunting season… for a bird (the Turtle-dove) that is classified by the IUCN as 'in decline'. Yes, folks: you read right. The Ornis Committee has just voted, by an overwhelming majority (5 to 1, If you must know), to permit the killing of a bird whose glob- al population – and European, in particular – has been steadily 'dwindling' for the past 10 years at least. And just to make damn sure that this grossly irresponsible decision inflicts the maximum damage possible, on a species whose very survival is under threat… they are permitting this slaughter to take place, slap-bang in the middle of the turtle-dove's breeding sea- son. (You know: in case there was still any doubt, that the whole in- tention was to wipe out as many breeding pairs as possible, of a species that is technically 'endan- gered'…) For the record, the Ornis Com- mittee is composed of: three members of the hunting confra- ternity; three members of BirdLife Malta (both of whom have only one vote each: which, naturally, 'cancel each other out'); one mem- ber of the Environment and Re- sources Authority (who – wonder of wonders! – abstained on this critical vote); and three 'independ- ent members', all of whom are di- rectly appointed by government. On the basis that I've already informed you how they all voted – no prizes for guessing the only board member who voted against, by the way – this effectively means that this utterly-indefensible deci- sion was taken directly by govern- ment itself. I need hardly add, of course, that all this happened after both the Prime Minister, and the Opposi- tion leader, gave their personal as- surances to the hunters that they would simply continue pandering to their every last request, as usu- al… But that, I suppose, is nothing really 'new'. No, what makes this astonishing decision stand out so much, is that – just like all those dodgy Planning Authority per- mits, that were issued in defiance of 'negative recommendations' by the PA's own case-officers – it also flies in the face of all the scientific advice, that was given to govern- ment by its own appointed con- sultants. In this case, specifically by the Wild Birds Regulation Unit: which, in 2020, was tasked with drawing up an assessment report on the conservation status of the bird in question. Believe it or not, this is an actual quote from said report: "In 2015 the EU population status of Tur- tle-dove (Streptopelia turtur) was assessed as Near Threatened, be- cause the species comes close to meeting the IUCN Red List crite- ria at the EU27 scale […] The lat- est (2019) European Bird Census Council update has shown that at Pan-European level, the Tur- tle-dove declined by 80% when compared with the 1980 base- line data, and by 17% during the 10-year trend (2008–2017)…" Got that, folks? So the WRBU itself had clearly warned gov- ernment, that the conservation of status of the Turtle-dove has not only 'failed to improve' since 2015 – when, by the way, a mor- atorium had been imposed for this species; precisely because it was 'near-threatened' – but it has actually declined alarmingly since then. What better timing, then, for a decision that can only have been intended to hasten the extinction of this unfortunate species of bird? (Because let's face it, folks: it can't exactly have been taken for any other reason, can it?) And if both Labour and Na- tionalist Parties are irresponsible enough to openly subscribe to this sort of criminal delinquen- cy… and to actually approve of a hunting season in spring, for any species at all (still less, one that is officially 'endangered')… I mean, come on. What does it really tell us, about their respec- tive credentials as a potential 'party-in-government'… if not exactly the same message as all those Youtube ads (i.e., that they are obviously just a bunch of psy- chopaths)? But hey, let's look on the bright side! At least, it does help 'unde- cideds' such as myself, to actually make up our minds…