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‘Better a beggar than a thief’ could possibly become the slogan of our next fundraiser.
I say this because this is an accusation that is being thrown our way quite often. Owning it kills any malice or offence that is intended by it. Sometimes, it’s also just fun to lob back all the hand grenades the enemy tosses in your trench.
The Labour trolls seem to be taking great offence at the fact that someone would dare raise funds for an independent newsroom.
“Money is not every thing u l’hin kollu tittallab.donate,donate,donate,” an enlightened soul by the name of Christine Spiteri tells us. Never mind the fact that this website never dismissed the importance of money. On the contrary, we write so much about corruption because it constitutes a misuse of public money. We write about corruption because it is the very same reason why the news industry has gone to the pits. But alas.
The stick they want to beat us with seems to be ‘you have no money so you must be a loser.’ In a country that is particularly known for insatiable avarice, wealth is the unquestioned primary measure of one’s worth, so it only makes sense in that context.
Like all other kinds of propaganda, some false equivalence must also work its way into the narrative. It is the only way to hold it all in place. So, we are told: ‘you talk all this talk about how bad corruption is, and yet here we are, basking in riches while you beg for money from others – so who’s the real idiot?’
Well, let’s talk about winning and losing then.
The main reason that disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat isn’t presently occupied with staring at the same four walls of a jail cell is because of the loyalty of his followers. If Muscat were to become widely unpopular with his party’s grassroots overnight, his hapless successor would throw him under the bus within the minute.
Prime minister Robert Abela may be as thick as a rhino, but even ‘it-Tuba’ isn’t stupid enough to miss an opportunity like that if it were to happen. Nobody likes an albatross around their neck. Everyone knows Muscat’s legacy consists of nothing but the worst kind of crooked business deals. It’s just simple math.
Muscat’s popularity endures because he was smart enough to ride the historical wave and swoop in for the leadership when the party seemed like it actually may have a shot at winning the general elections. He positioned himself in the annals of the party’s history as the one who ushered them into a new era of government, their hands sweating at the mere thought of finally getting a hold of the levers of power.
It endures to date because the terrible consequences of the widespread corruption which flourished under his regime are not being felt by everyone yet. As we’ve said before, corruption is a slow, patient killer. As long as the money river keeps flowing and people are able to dip their hands in it, there will be people willingly blinding themselves to it all.
Problems arise when even that river of money is not enough to buy everyone’s silence. Money quickly becomes irrelevant when the air you breathe is foul, the space you live in is becoming increasingly ugly, and the only time you get to experience any real sense of freedom and liberty is when you travel literally anywhere else but here. I bet most of you reading that last sentence felt at least a part of it hit you straight in the chest.
That is the greatest tragedy of all this – the ones who are cheering on this race to the bottom are the ones who fail to realise that the biggest loser is whoever thinks they were on the winning team, right before realising they weren’t. Joseph Muscat certainly won big. His associates and all the individuals who got rich from his government’s largesse – they certainly won big.
The average idiot commenting on my posts, though? Well, you haven’t won shit, my friend. Nothing but a fistful of broken promises and lies.
Let’s move on to the sheer contempt for the act of raising funds in and of itself.
That’s rich coming from the supporters of a political party whose electoral model consists of an elaborate system of handouts and favours, whose elections are bought and paid for by donations which are not subject to open scrutiny, and whose political representatives have found themselves in more legal hot water than your average red lobster.
The government’s interests are inextricable from the interests of the Labour Party. They are one and the same, meaning that the party’s creditors get to ride on the coattails of what is meant to be everyone’s government.
I’ve never had any shame about the dynamics of the operation I set up. It was always transparent, from day one. Everyone who reads me has the opportunity to know where I’m coming from and what my biases are based on. You are free to make up your own mind about the facts I present.
Concurrently, I do not carry any shame for asking you for your hard-earned money. Unlike a government that sees the public’s property as its own fiefdom, I deliver a public service, by the public, for the public. It is funded by them directly and entirely dependent on their interest and support to survive.
I know it may sound strange to members of a party that rejects the idea of being held accountable, but that is actually what it should be like. You deliver a public service, and you get to continue delivering it because The People said so. You don’t deliver it, and you call it a day. You don’t cling madly to power, abusing every single avenue at your disposal to keep yourself afloat, destroying your country in the process. That is what a coward does.
I genuinely don’t know whether we will manage to succeed in funding our operation and expanding it as much as we would like to.
We know that the odds are awfully slim. We are certain that it is an unforgiving uphill battle that leaves us brain dead and exhausted by the end of the week.
But I do know for sure that whatever happens, I know I can keep my head held up high because we’ve cast a beacon of hope among bleary-eyed readers who are tired of the kind of sloppy journalism that has characterised this country’s media landscape for far too long.
We can do that precisely because we are fiercely independent and are therefore willing and able to never back down from any kind of confrontation with the powers that be.
So yes, we will ask you for money, and you will get nothing but the best kind of journalism we can deliver, because that is all we care about.
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