One Facebook group does not an ‘organisation’ make…

This week I found myself thinking… what on earth did we all do in the days before Facebook (i.e., around 10 years ago)? How the hell did we even survive, without a global communications medium that allows us to instantly state the bleedingly obvious at every opportunity (and in real time, too…)?

Consider, for instance, our innate biological ability to detect things like the surrounding temperature. So there I was, wondering why I was sweating so much more profusely than usual… or why I couldn’t sleep at night without turning on a fan… or why the slab of butter I’d forgotten to put back into the fridge was later discovered swimming all over the kitchen cupboard… 

Then I logged onto Facebook, and within seconds I had the answer from around 25 different (and equally reliable) sources.

It’s hot, that’s why. But really, really hot. And judging by the fact that practically everyone with a Facebook account felt compelled to inform the world about this hugely unusual phenomenon (heat in the middle of a Maltese summer... who would have ever guessed?) it sorts of makes you wonder how we used to work these things out, in the days before Mark Zuckerberg’s social networking revolution came along to tell us all how we actually feel. 

Every second of every bleeding day…

Still: thanks to Facebook and its constant updates, I can now confirm that the phenomena listed above were actually caused by a surge in temperature hitting the very high 30s. Something which, now that I think about it, is no different from July of last year… or the year before… or in fact any of the (roughly) 44 Julies I have experienced in this country, since being born during a particularly hot one in 1971. 

And just as every July I remember since then was more or less exactly as hot as the one we are currently experiencing, the reaction of most people to this earth-shatteringly predictable cycle has likewise always been the same. 

Surprise. No matter how precisely the past replicates itself each year – with temperatures inevitably hitting the high 30s towards the end of July, only to soar further in the first weeks of August– it still seems to trigger endless variations of: “Is it just me, or is this the hottest summer EVER?”

Well, at least it’s an easy question. It’s just you, of course. Like it was just you exactly 12 months ago, when you said exactly the same thing. Honestly, you’d think the entire population just landed here yesterday from the Arctic Tundra. Until December rolls along, of course, and the first nip of what passes for ‘cold’ in this county can be felt in the air. Then, suddenly, the same people who now complain about the July heat will take to Facebook in a body, loudly declaiming their profound shock at having to actually light a heater, or sleep with a duvet….

I don’t know… maybe people have short memories; or maybe there really is something about Facebook that causes people to react to the totally predictable with various expressions of dumbfounded shock. And not just about Malta’s annual fluctuations in climate conditions, either.

This week we saw a good example of the same phenomenon applied to other spheres. It was reported across the media that a ‘new organisation’ had arisen ‘pushing for the legalisation of abortion in Malta’.

You can, I suppose, imagine the general reaction. If not, you can always watch a documentary about the Salem Witch Hunts of 1692… I believe they’re showing one on history Channel right now.

But back to the news. ‘Pro-Choice Malta’, we were told, describes itself as “a voluntary organisation composed of individuals who believe that the current situation in Malta regarding women’s access to abortion is severely out-dated and that it is time to open the debate with regard to the legalisation of abortion in the country”.

On closer scrutiny, however, this ‘organisation’ turned out to be a Facebook page. No names, no contact details (other than a generic email address)… in brief, no indication of any administrative structures that might otherwise denote the existence of an ‘organisation’. Just a Facebook page… which anyone (even a child) can create with nothing more sophisticated than a computer and access to the worldwide web. 

Nor is this page the only one that fits the description. Another Facebook group with (almost) exactly the same name – ‘Malta Pro-Choice Discussion Group’ – and pursuing (almost) exactly the same objectives, has been in existence for over a year. It almost reminds me of that classic scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian: ‘Are you the Judaean People’s Front?’ ‘***off, we’re the People’s Front of Judaea’…

Go further back, and you’ll find other expressions of roughly the same ideas and propositions, too. Something called the ‘Malta Men’s Rights Association’ (!), which later morphed into something else called the ‘Malta Liberal Alliance’ – composed of only one organisation, the Malta Liberal Party, with no discernible ‘allies’ of any kind – has been making the same arguments since 2006. 

Only a good deal less coherently. But that is beside the point… at least for now. 

Point is, there is nothing ‘new’ about the emergence of what might (for all we know) be just another online manifestation of the same ‘Malta Liberal Alliance’. Nor is it even remarkable that such opinions exist… we do, after all, live in the country with the most absurdly draconian abortion laws in the world. It stands to reason that some people, sooner or later, will begin to question this previously unquestionable state of affairs. 

But oh, look: just like the collective surprise at our annual appointment with the summer heat (and winter cold), so too has the existence of a single ‘pro-choice’ Facebook page precipitated an entirely predictable avalanche of outrage of moral indignation. 

You’d think the entire population had just come here by time machine straight from 17th century Salem… entirely unaware that it is actually perfectly normal for pro-choice views to be publicly discussed in any Western democracy; and seemingly incapable of actually participating in the discussion themselves (other than to loudly insist on the suppression of all opinions regarding abortion except for their own).

And yet we’ve been having this discussion for years. Ironically, it was forced onto the table by the ‘pro-life’ lobby itself, as long ago as 2005. If there were any impetus for a pro-choice ‘organisation’ to even emerge at all… it was the ill-fated attempt to amend the Constitution, with the declared aim of pre-emptively ensuring that no meaningful discussion ever took place on this topic at all.

Which, of course, points towards the absurd paradox underpinning this ‘debate’. It’s perfectly OK for ‘pro-life’ organisations to exist, to lobby the government, and to have their own presence on Facebook. But when the other side of the argument tries to do exactly the same thing… suddenly, it’s a big no-no.

Clearly, under these circumstances it is simply not possible to have a discussion… let alone a ‘mature’ and ‘serious’ discussion of the kind ‘Pro-choice Malta’ (or ‘Malta Pro-Choice’, or whatever) wants to instigate. You cannot discuss an issue when one side of the argument is forcibly prevented from even being heard. 

But nor can you have a discussion with people who don’t seem to actually exist. And this is perhaps the only unpredictable thing about the latest twist in an otherwise entirely foreseeable saga. 

To me, it was always just a matter of time before the status quo would eventually be challenged. Not for any faculty of clairvoyance on my part… but only because the ‘status quo’ is so absurdly ridiculous that it cannot conceivably remain in place forever.

Whoever is behind the Malta Pro-Choice Facebook group makes this point abundantly clear: “the current situation in Malta regarding women’s access to abortion is severely out-dated…Malta is the only European country, and one of the few countries in the world, that imposes a blanket ban on abortion… Illegal abortions put women’s lives in danger…” All true, and more could be added to the list. Emergency contraception is unavailable here: banned outright by the same 19th century law that still refers to ‘inducing miscarriage by any means’. 

More worryingly, there are no exceptions that can legally be made in cases where there are health risks to the mother; not, mind you, that this has ever prevented abortions from being carried out locally… but there is a legal lacuna here that cannot simply be ignored forever.

So, yes, it was all along entirely predictable – inevitable, almost – that an organised pro-choice group would eventually emerge, to counterbalance the long-established (and very well-organised) pro-life lobby on this island. But I did expect some kind of organisation to back up the arguments. 

So far there has been no evidence of any. ‘Organisations’ do not exist because a press release says they do. And you can’t lobby a government for legislative changes from behind a wall of online anonymity, either. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to face government officials across a table; front a campaign on TV and other media; participate in public discussions, and so on.

You can’t, in a word, rely only on occasional Facebook status updates. And above all, you can’t complain that “the topic has so far remained taboo in the public sphere”… when your own anonymity actively contributes to the unhealthy, oppressive atmosphere of moral bullying. 

Of course a topic will remain ‘taboo’, if the only people actually talking about it insist on wearing brown paper bags over their heads. But then again, ‘taboos’ are only ‘taboo’ until broken… and in this case, the ‘taboo’ was actually broken many years ago. 

Other than that, welcome to the Great (Ongoing) Abortion Debate in Malta in the 21st century. About time you showed up for it, too…