Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/278185
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 16 MARCH 2014 Opinion 22 S ome people seem surprised that Labour MEP candidate Cyrus Engerer would have collected 1,600 signatures for an FKNK petition to block a referendum on spring hunting. I can't see why myself. It is after all the beginning of spring – or should be, though it hasn't seemed to notice yet – and as we all know, spring is the season when Love is in the air: firing a starting pistol for courtship rituals among all animals, great and small. The birds and the bees, the wolves and the sheep, the lions and the unicorns, the walruses and the carpenters, the dormice and the March hares… now is when they all engage in complex and amusing courtship rituals of their own; and I see no reason why politicians and hunting lobbies should be excluded from all the fun. Besides: Cyrus Engerer is hardly the first politician to do a little courtship dance in a bid to attract the hunters' attention, either. His team-mate John Attard Montalto held regular frolics – I mean, meetings – with the same lobby before the last MEP election in 2009. Even earlier, former Health Minister Louis Deguara was regularly heard warbling for votes in his largely rural constituency… as was Tony Abela (note: the PN former MP from Rabat, not the current Labour deput y leader for part y affairs… who is currently rumoured to be investing in nail-proof body armour, to ward off physical attacks by a certain Fenech, Anne). All joined in the chorus of mating calls that inevitably precedes a spring election; in fact you can almost talk about it as an initiation rite for all prospective candidates, regardless of political plumage. While other esoteric cults get their initiates to dress up in Ku Klux Klan outfits, or send them out to hunt the spirit of the White Buffalo, Labour and PN initiates are expected to set off in hunt for the electoral support of an equally tribal and atavistic communit y… and not to return until they place a suitable gift offering at their altar. It goes all the way back to 1996, when George Vella – then also a deput y Labour leader – set the standards for all future courtship rituals by committing the Labour Part y to a pre-electoral agreement with the hunters… and we all know what happened next. So it is kind of unsurprising that this self-same ritual, with only minor variations, has been repeated by both political parties ahead of every single election ever since. I still can't shake off the memory of a televised 'debate' (Xarabank, I think) between PN's George Pullicino and Labour's Roderick Galdes in the 1990s… in which the aim was apparently to determine which side could heap more offerings and lavish gifts upon the hunting communit y, in return for an open show of electoral support. At one point Pullicino produced the picture of a goose (very apt, I remember thinking at the time) and accused his Labour counterpart of offering the hunters prey that didn't even migrate over Malta. Galdes returned fire by accusing Pullicino of making promises he knew he couldn't keep in the light of his part y's EU membership bid… and on it went. At no point whatsoever did either politician even acknowledge the existence – still less make it any offerings – of a much larger voter segment that would have preferred to see the same operation in reverse: i.e., two parties competing with each other over how to better control and contain a hunting situation that was by then already wildly out of control. From these and other unsightly gift-exchange ceremonies, the hunters eventually walked away with (among other goodies): an increase in the number of permissible species to shoot (bear in mind that this was before EU accession); the removal of a ban on shooting near secondary roads; the lowering of the minimum age to apply for a hunting licence; a promise that 'the hunting laws would not change' (with the following important proviso: ' but if they did change, it would be to the hunters' advantage'); and a lengthening of the 'autumn' season, so that it now stretches all the way into January. This last achievement is graphically revealing of the sheer extent of quasi-mythological power exerted to this day by the hunting lobby. In order to make autumn last until mid-winter it was necessary to also redefine the four seasons… which are in turn the result of our planetary orbit around the sun. I would have thought re-choreographing the dance of the heavenly spheres was somewhat beyond the powers of a Maltese government… or any government, for that matter. And yet they succeeded: thus amply proving that in their eagerness to accommodate hunters in all things, both political parties would be perfectly willing to move not only mountains, but also the entire solar system. Placed in this context, Cyrus Engerer's little collection on behalf of FKNK is not only unsurprising in the extreme, but almost perfectly predictable. And to be honest, it doesn't even begin to compare with the exploits of others. A week earlier, the Do-I-Make- You-Ornis Committee 'decided ' to permit the opening of a spring hunting season this year. (All together now: "Groov y, baby, yeah "). Please note, however, the trademark Dr Evil quotation marks (Dr Evil being the inventor of the ' laser', if you' ll remember) for the word 'decided '… because the actual decision was not taken last week, nor even by the Ornis Committee. It was taken by the Labour Part y before the last election, and Ornis's job was merely to sign on the dotted line. For the less birdbrained among us, the Ornis Committee is a non-constituted body comprising representatives of hunters' organisations and Birdlife Malta, and also (hugely important little detail) three government appointees. Its purpose is supposed to be to review the logistical and scientific data pertaining to bird migration and hunting statistics – stuff like, the conservation status of huntable birds like turtle dove and quail, the number of licensed hunters, the number of reported shots/kills per season, etc – to determine, on the basis of all this data, whether or not the conditions are in place to apply a derogation from the Birds Directive under Article 9.1. I won't comment on previous decisions, other than to say that (surprise!) they were all identical… but I have taken a closer look at last week 's decision, and it was very evidently not based on any scientific data at all. For rather obvious reasons, the decision to allow the hunting of turtle dove and quail in spring must take into consideration existing threats to both these species in the wild. Otherwise, it would be tantamount to a condemnation of both species to Raphael Vassallo The season to be Ornis SECURITY SYSTEM INSTALLER Seeking applicant for: Security alarms, fire systems, CCTV and Access Control systems. Primary purpose of the position: Install, Inspect, Repair, Maintain Fire, Security, Cameras and associated Equipment. Minimum qualifications and skills: Six month related experience or training. Knowledge basic electronics,able to operate personal computer and software applications pertaining to job function 26, Independence Avenue, Mosta MST12. Tel: +356 21422650 Mobile:+35679422650 Email:support@dss.com.mt VACANCY A week earlier, the Do-I-Make-You-Ornis Committee 'decided' to permit the opening of a spring hunting season this year. (All together now: "Groovy, baby, yeah")