Ommi ma, can you just imagine him, Minister?

The word 'illegal' is his, not mine. On our side of the border, we do not refer to them as 'illegal' - we simply call them migrants.

His press statement comes after two migrants died on a boat trip.

Falzon, by the way, did not have a single kind word to spare for the two souls.

They are black you know. Not Caucasian. Black.

Political parties issue statements about nearly anything that captures their imagination. They will, for example, officially praise William Chetcuti - who failed to make it in the Olympics - or a centenarian who cannot talk, walk or think but they will not issue a statement about two blacks who happened to die on their crossing to Malta.

You see, two dead black men have no relatives who have votes and nobody really cares whether they are dead or alive.

If you're in a desperate situation and you also happen to be African, and you decide to cross the vast Saharan desert - in the scorching heat, through nations which are lawless - to arrive to the Libyan coast, you then have to pay the Libyan mafia to help you cross. You can only do so after you've come to the conclusion that you might just have a future.

You end up in a boat with an engine that putters, shakes and vibrates, but hardly works.

It is very probable that you have never seen the sea before, or taken to a boat or swam.

The boat attempts to cross the sea - some 350km of open sea - and hopes to make it to the Italian coast. You feel sea sick and vomit, you urinate and defaecate in a boat next to people you do not know. You are crammed, and your child is crying out of despair and fear.

A different fear from the one espoused by Michael Falzon.

This fear is for real, Falzon's is cosmetic, made up, fuelled by a nationalistic feeling nurtured by years of cultural ignorance.

They leave behind them war-torn and famine-struck countries, nations with no State where militia kill at will, where tribal and internecine conflict has no end.

Where the economy has no chance of getting off the ground, and where the word 'future' has no meaning.

You look to Europe as your future - you hear whispers of a 'just society'.

Now, Joseph Muscat looks at surveys and bases his politics on what the surveys say.  They call it 'politics of convenience, and not of conviction'. But don't for a minute believe that Lawrence Gonzi is any different. 

All politicians are all the same, and do not - even for a minute - allow yourselves to believe that the Nationalists deserve to be re-elected.

But no one is getting my vote. Not for the time being, anyway.

Now Labour leader Joseph Muscat reads the surveys and reads that the Maltese are xenophobes, and he allows his future home affairs minister Michael Falzon to make such ludicrous statements.

These statements point to two salient concerns.

The first is purely theoretical.

It points to evidence that the Labour Party has no true appreciation of solidarity, let alone left-wing tendencies.

The second is more significant.

It proves that Falzon is misinformed and playing on the fears of an ignorant electorate.  It shows that Falzon is not the politician that I would ever dream of giving my vote to.

He ignores completely the sufferings of migrants and contends that they are very well treated in Malta. And he talks of a threat to Malta and Maltese.

Two perceptions which are wrong, and based on fiction.

Migrants do not pose a threat - neither economically nor culturally - and they are not well treated in Malta. The murder of a black man is treated with disdain by our courts.

Migrants, if integrated, can inject value into our economy and spice into our culture.  They also have a lot to offer, as they have shown in other European countries such as England, France and Germany.

Yet politicians continue to foment a belief based on fear and misconceptions.

It is not only wrong, it is dangerous. The proper name for this would be unadulterated xenophobia.

Michael Falzon is a special case in point. He's the wrong person to represent Labour on the home affairs front over the next decade.

He is a hunter, with enough time and money at his disposal to allow himself the luxury of visiting Argentina for the express purpose of massacring game birds. He is also an avid fireworks enthusiast, who defends the fireworks lobby with a ruthlessness that makes you want to puke.

His profile could easily fit that of a politician who does not, ideologically speaking, embrace a Labour Party. He is conservative, and inward-looking. But then, it's about time we come to terms that there are no ideological differences between one party and another.

The migrants who arrive here hope that they will be given another chance.

They are willing to work, and to do anything to improve their status.

The migrant who hopes to start a new life in Europe is probably impressed by the successes of their compatriots.

They have probably watched Mo Farrah from Somalia win the gold for the marathon for Britain. They probably believe that they, too, could be something in this new country.

With Joseph Muscat's Michael Falzon this is so very unlikely, so very improbable.

***

Last week's front page story about Deborah Schembri was greeted with the question: But is €1,300 not a reasonable amount to bill for a divorce court case?

Little do people know that the procedure to register a divorce consists of a simple piece of paperwork and that there are no court sittings, apart from two (at the most). And at the very end of the day, divorce can only take place if two people are legally separated. The no-fault divorce only requires that one person accepts to be divorced. The other can oppose but a divorce will still be given.

Divorce a' la Maltaise does not go into the 'conditions' for divorce.

Schembri's decision to bill her clients €1,300 is not only excessive, but unnecessary and cheeky.

That is why the tariff for divorce stands at €120.

It has also tarnished her reputation, especially for someone who headed the IVA movement and later decided to stand with the Labour Party as a candidate.

Like so many campaigners before her who took advantage of their high visibility to attract new clients, Schembri took advantage of the old trick.

Simon Busuttil did the same when he headed MEUSAC and then represented so many clients in Brussels on EU issues.

It's a pity that so many people thought otherwise about her.

If any of you are seriously thinking of voting Labour, think twice before you choose a candidate. Michael Falzon and Deborah Schembri will definitely not be on my list. But oh! I forgot - I ain't voting.