Olympic Mind Games

Marion Vella is a member of Malta's Olympic Gold-winning Women's National Basketball team. Besides basketball, she also has a passion for environmental issues. She is from Mgarr. Last Tuesday she was the 587th person to sign an online petition to get the Bruges dolfinarium closed. She is not the only Maltese person who has signed this petition. Ms. Vella is a supporter of Malta's Green Party, Alternattiva Demokratika (AD). During the recent European Parliament election she publicly endorsed Arnold Cassola in his run for a seat in the Euro house of representatives.

Would you believe that the Malta Olympic Committee (MOC) has threatened to sanction her because of her public support for Cassola? AD has written to the MOC asking several important questions, which essentially boil down to one simple question: when did Marion Vella lose her right to express her political views?

The MOC is surely aware of such human rights as freedom of expression and freedom of association! In fact, during past political campaigns various well-known Maltese athletes endorsed other political parties or candidates and rightly so no action was taken.

Is the MOC unaware of the historical connection between the Olympic Games and politics? Has the MOC never heard of the medal-winning black American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos who used the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City to protest racism in the USA by showing their support for the Black Panthers? As they received their medals for the 200 meter sprint, gold medalist Smith and bronze medalist Carlos raised their black-gloved clenched fists high above their heads in a salute identified with Black Power. When the International Olympic Committee expelled them it faced the wrath of the oppressed and all free thinking people around the world. Dare I mention the horrible bloodshed during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich?

I doubt that Ms. Vella is as bold as Smith and Carlos, but I'd be shocked if the MOC actually decides to censor her in any way. I'm sure Mr. Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco (who according to the MOC website is President of the executive board) will see the folly in even bringing up any queries against Ms. Vella's rights and her political beliefs. This matter is undoubtedly below his honor's standards.

Are PN sympathizers (particularly those appointed to the MOC executive board) really that sore about all the votes the Nationalist Party says it lost to AD in the European Parliament election? I hope this is not the general sentiment from the PN camp towards AD and its supporters.

Is Malta sexist too?

Last week the Xarabank team delivered the official verdict: Malta is a racist country. This came as no surprise. Actually, I believe that the Maltese are even more racist than the Xarabank survey says. Think about it for a minute. If you're not proud of being a racist and someone asks you if you're a racist you're either bound to decline to reply or better still deny it categorically. This means that more than 70% of the country is racist.

It should therefore come as no surprise that Malta is a country of sexists. Or perhaps I should say that men in Malta are racist. Sure, the law says that men and women are equal. Woman's rights in Malta have made huge leaps in status over the past 30 years or so. But there are still only a very small number of women in public life.

This was highlighted most recently by the fact that Malta is one of only two EU countries that has no women to represent it in the European Parliament. The other country is Cyprus. At least the Nationalist Party, with all its dried up dynamics, fielded two excellent female candidates in Dr. Joanna Drake and Dr. Roberta Tedesco Triccas. The MLP, which is presenting itself as the future solution to Malta's problems, did not have a single woman on its ticket. And its understandable that Alternattiva Demokratika should first establish itself before tackling the sexism issue.

So, where does this leave us? I suppose Malta will forever go down in history as one of the two most sexist countries in the EU at the turn of the 21st century. Personally I don't like that one bit, but then again Malta always has a way of standing out in the crowd...even if it is the tiniest nation in the EU.