"My name is Manu and I live in Barcelona"
A long, long day of photoshoots and writing, but before I toddle off to bed, I just have to tell you that it looks like that Manu Cini is even more of a shyster than we thought.
I found a video on the internet, filmed in Barcelona in 2008, in which he is doing his ‘poor me’ act – in very fluent Spanish – as an HIV victim: ‘My name is Manu and I live in Barcelona’.
Bear (oh dear, wrong word) in mind that a year later, The Times ran an interview with him in which he played the same victim act, but this time he was living in Bormla with his mother and apparently sharing her pension.
Meanwhile, I can’t help remembering that Michelle Muscat gave a big interview to First magazine during which she showed the photographer her large collection of bears. I must have the most dreadfully warped sense of humour but I’m howling with laughter at the thought.
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Watch it if you can stand it:
http://superandoelsida.ning.com/video/entrevista-a-manu-emanuel-cini
What a pity! Such an intelligent man – who has mastered Spanish like a native speaker, and who chose to ruin his life.
I am most impressed with his faultless fluent Spanish, he seems very articulate in Spanish. He is not only an accomplished porn star but a linguist as well.
Manuel Cini! I am sure you are following this blog, do yourself a favour and give up the hunger strike.
[Daphne – His boyfriend was a Spanish porn star called Edu Boxer/Phillipe Gandy/George Franco Rodriguez, now living in the United States with somebody else.]
Daphne, can you mind your own business, and leave PRIVATE, ILL people on their own ?! How can you sleep at night ? i think you’re soooooooooooooo bored that all you do is check on people !!!
Marsha – as soon as the hunger strike went public all issues related to this person stopped being private. That is the way of the world. Taking situations at face value is dangerous to society.
This hiccup of a journalistic lapse (not Daphne’s) should be a kick up the backside to Maltese journalists to delve deep into news before going to print .
Sorrry Marsha….but he decided to go public and Daphne is proving him to be a fake. Well done Daphne. Apart from your brilliant writing, you have brilliant investigations. I don’t know how you manage it. It’s admirable.
@Marsha
Like they say on the discovery channel. “We do it so you don’t have to”
Oh, and another thing – how in heaven’s name did every reporter in town forget to factor in the crucial information that this man is a trained actor and professional performer?
Just compare the two completely different accents in these two videos of the same man. You’ve got to admit that the acting (all that business with the legs going upstairs) and so-fake accent in The Times is pretty brilliant.
His motivation? It’s laid bare in that same interview on timesofmalta.com: he wants the government to give me somewhere of his own to live and also some money.
How do people fall for these things?
What are the odds that’s he’s onto something similar now?
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/its-up-to-him-gatt-disabled-man-hunger-strike
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090706/local/hiv-positive-man-in-legal-financial-tug-of-war.263914
“Oh, and another thing – how in heaven’s name did every reporter in town forget to factor in the crucial information that this man is a trained actor and professional performer?” -Daphne
Acting is not an ability or requirement for porn. Please don’t insult my trade.
[Daphne – No, Adrian, he’s actually a trained actor. He studied the craft formally, unless he lied about that too. Then he probably couldn’t get the work and went into porn instead. You’ve got to admit that the smart English accent is pretty good for a Bormliz, though the spastic walk is a bit of ham-acting.]
“Please don’t insult my trade.”
You left me in stitches, art trader.
Daphne, I find your comments to be quite racist, what do you mean by “pretty good for a Bormliz”? are you trying to imply that people from Bormla are inferior to other people from other localities? I was born and brought up in Cospicua and yes I am fluent in english and so are the majority of the residents here. I find your reference to be quite degrading towards our locality and this has nothing to do with topic you’re talking about. Why drag a whole locality on a mere statement by one person… Is it because you have nothing better to say?
[Daphne – Possibly, yes. I’m quite stupid and often lost for words.]
That explains it all then :) On a more serious note, I generally agree with most of your views and publications and at no point I am trying to imply that you’re stupid. Anyway hopefully your view towards people from bormla will change in the near future..
Regards,
Andrew
Daphne, you captured the essence of it all. This is the type of person who would without any doubt vote Labour, and that is not the same as saying that all Labour voters are like that.
[Daphne – I think we’d better explain this for the porn-watchers whose brains appear to be seriously addled: all peaches are fruit, but not all fruits are peaches. Why does everything sound pornographic, suddenly?]
They think that government is a charity and that they have a divine right to contribute to the creation of the public debt, and then, many of them, also have the cheek to blame the government for the debt.
He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword (so long as it’s pink, finely layered and uncut).
Daphne, do you want us to believe that The Times reporters and photographers who interviewed the guy forgot his 2009 case?
Can anyone imagine a photographer going to the same house filming the same person and not recalling the previous photo session?
The Times is not a tabloid, I think, that unlike you, they can separate the argument from the person.
With these last two commentaries you are attacking the person and not the argument.
[Daphne – Madonna, xi dwejjaq with this tal-Muzew zmangat reasoning. No, John, the argument is NOT inseparable from the person, not in a court of law, not in a newspaper report, not in politics, not in the household, not in the workplace, and not anywhere else. The argument and the person are inextricably interlinked. If the man is a liar, a cheat and a scrounger, then his arguments are rendered suspect and invalid. It is bloody obvious to anyone with a modicum of experience of life and human nature, perception, intelligence and insight into language and motivation, that this man is acting – yes, literally acting – to bum a house and social benefits to which he is not entitled. Now I remember EXACTLY why the 2009 interview in The Times stuck in my memory when I am deluged with information and I shouldn’t have remembered it: it struck me as odd and there was something about the man that told me he was lying and up to something – the fake accent (how does a son of Bormla get to speak like a counties vicar’s son who boarded at public school?), the ridiculous way he walked upstairs, as though people with HIV walk like spastics (a medical condition, not an insult), the insistence on wanting money and a place of his own, the obvious hedging and fudging when asked for the specifics of why he doesn’t have a British pension, the fact that he didn’t say why he came to Malta after working all his life in London and Spain. I didn’t feel pity when I watched it. I felt uneasy. There were too many things left unsaid and my antennae were picking up ‘insincere, insincere’ but I couldn’t figure out exactly why]
You’re shooting the messenger. This attention seeker has a plausible message, with a dangled ‘threat’ to it.
[Daphne – Plausible message? Have you taken leave of your senses in the July heat? Where is the message – that he’s going to kill himself if he doesn’t get his bus? More to the point, where is the plausibility? Go on, tell me. I’m all agog – though I must say I’m thinking twice now about using phrases like that in the current context.]
Leave the threat aside and you are left with a partially paralysed person with HIV who needs to go to swim at Ir-Razzett tal-Hbiberija without too much hassle, like in the old days with the old buses.
[Daphne – John, for pity’s sake. How do you know he’s partially paralysed and has HIV? Because he told you? The word of somebody who has sex for money on camera, votes Labour and is blatantly trying to get a free flat and a pension to which he isn’t entitled? Ask yourself why he doesn’t have a British pension if he worked there all his life. Imagine taking this man’s word for it, when you have already seen one big lie – that he was diagnosed HIV positive in 1992. Yes, right and he built a career in porn after that, I don’t think. Whatever his problems are, they are clearly mental and not physical – be probably got a bloody great nervous breakdown after his relationship with Edu Boxer collapsed and his career crumbled and he ended up living in Bormla mal-mummy.]
He’s suffering, and he’s not asking for alms this time. If he’s a porn star it’s beside the point.
[Daphne – ‘He’s not asking for alms this time’ – come on, John, you can’t be that naive. This is part of a campaign to get social services to look after him when he never worked in Malta, ghax baqa bil-mentalita bazwija tal-Labour, that il-gvern owes him a living.]
Dr Joe Brincat (another attention seeker) did the same thing differently.
But both are riding the wave of a good argument.
Like Mr Cini there are lots of old people and people with disabilities suffering because of this radical change in our public transport system. TM should cater for such people. How many times, for example must we hear people asking for a direct service to the Mater Dei area which can service university students and staff, hospital staff, outpatients and visitors, HSBC call centre, APS Centre, San Gwann Industrial Estate and Upper Birkirkara?
Are people going to wait till October when school would have already started?
The last time I heard Austin Gatt, he said “Mela kullhadd Mater Dei imur?”
No need of a computer to see that – the car parks are bursting from the seams at Mater Dei and the Uni and from 7.00 to 13.00 our part time hospital is full with outpatients and visitors, who are also allowed in the evening. There are crowds of people going to and fro this central part of Malta every day.
The argument is our bad transport system not gay porn stars.
[Daphne – Bollocks, if you will excuse the unfortunate expression in this context. The argument is that a former gay porn star who never paid social security in Britain (which is why he doesn’t have an invalidity pension) and who never paid social security in Malta (ditto), blew all the money he made from porn and now can’t even afford to run a car. At the age of 46 he is living with his mother and wants other people to provide for him. THAT is the argument. The bus is just his way of working out his frustration and the hunger strike is just a manifestation of the same exhibitionism which got him into porn in the first place. That’s why it’s so important not to send your children to duttrina: they grow up able to see things clearly and think straight.]
We agree that he’s an attention seeker. I believe that he is HIV positive and that he’s partially paralysed.
[Daphne – If so, that would be because of the parasites, not the HIV. HIV doesn’t paralyse you.]
I think I am streetwise enough to spot ‘actors’. My last mis-judgement was JPO.
In the meantime Austin Gatt made the right move in the right time, because he was listening:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110722/local/route-network-changes-announced.376834
I wouldn’t say he was reading my comments a while ago, but he listened to the public and saw to it that radical changes will be implemented immediately.
Arriva will also benefit, because it will regain our trust.
You are an other ‘liberal minded’ Nazzjonalista?…It really shows! Medieval cobwebs and prejudice gushes out of your mind.
[Daphne – Well, if they gushed out of anywhere else that would be a great money-shot, don’t you think?]
You’re yet another one who got the definition of “liberal” from a frothing priest at the altar.
…….gushes out of your ‘ sick’ mind? You want it in black and white!
Polly, are you canvassing to transfer the Californian porn industry to our great shores?
I hope not yor/malta – Maltese people are too immature for a porn industry with their “absolutist and extremist mentality”.
Makes me wonder why Labour is sourcing its Liberals from the PN. Are they collecting spiders?
No, not the common spider: they are collecting a rare, if not an already extinct species!
Wheelchair-bound persons were barred from riding the old buses, and The Times’ reporters never bothered to interview a person with a disability.
It had to be a Eurobear with a 7” dick to attract their attention.
Does The Times have an editor these days? Or is the paper run by its newsroom?
Your point is so very valid. You couldn’t ever board an old bus with a wheelchair, a pushchair or any luggage. Now you can, but that doesn’t fit The Times’s journalists anti-PN agenda, does it?
The Times is evidently run by the newsroom, and a few journalists at that.
I’m surprised by the number of comments supporting the porn film industry (expecially by Labour supporters). But it makes sense since porn sites are the most visited sites in Malta.
[Daphne – You’re right about that. Look at the Alexa top 100 for Malta: porn, gambling and a botox site (oh, and the news, the banks, Air Malta and this site).]
Daphne, you have the best site. It’s entertaining and original, unlike any of the others.
Like a fine, red wine, she just gets better and better.
And bloody addictive too .
Thank you for starting my day on a good note. I couldn’t stop laughing.
Quite frankly , the pics on the links provided put me off my lunchtime grilled bangers with mash.
And me off my coq-au-vin.
‘What are the odds that’s he’s onto something similar now?’
The fact remains that, he is very ill, and hijacking the current highly politicized transport issue, is no more a performance of stage acting, time is catching up with him and he is overestimating the sympathy he will receive. I know it is bitter, but beggars can’t be choosers.
[Daphne – Call me cynical, but I don’t buy it for one minute that he’s very ill. He’s putting on the ‘sick me’ act because he wants a flat tal-gvern and a social services cheque, to neither of which he is entitled. Now he’s betting on Joseph Muscat to give them to him in 2013.]
The way he is handling his situation is not going to bring him comfort, if anything he will receive remnants of that, just that enough to keep him floating and silent .
He should know or somebody should tell him, that once the curtains are drawn and lights start to fade, life would go on, irrespective of us: it’s business as usual. It’s cruel but it is that.
I’ve just had a horrible vision of Joseph Muscat and the new KNDP chairman in 2013.
Baxxter, do you think little Joey would allow Mr Cini’s member to join the Labour Party without Mr Cini attached? Should fit right in. Sure would tower above the rest.
Well, one thing’s for sure: he’d be a prominent member.
If one has a Labour mentality (aħna tal-Lejber tajna ħafna flats tal-gvern u pensjonijiet), nothing will erase it, not even decades in London and Spain shooting porn films there and in the UsofA.
I suppose you hail from the East side of Manhattan, or Ginza district Tokyo, since you are an upward mobile Nazzjonalista.
This is more like it, Daphne. I could not see the point in your post about his porn career. As I said in an earlier message of mine this guy tries to rip people off as he tried to do with the very nice people at an NGO that were HELPING him.
I won’t mention the NGO by name as they should not be further involved with this filth.
This guy has a truckload of chips on his shoulder. He left Malta for good when he was very young, presumably because he could not stand the Maltese, and now he is back. At the same time I also pity him because I believe that whatever anyone has done suffering is still suffering and we’re all human.
[Daphne – He didn’t leave Malta because he couldn’t stand ‘the Maltese’. He left Malta for the same reason many gay men did back then: you couldn’t live the life you wanted to here. And they were right – better that than doing what those left behind did, which was to live a lie and sometimes even get married and have children. But whatever, it’s irrelevant why he left. It’s what he did with his life that counts, and he seems to have taken his obvious gifts and used them in a negative way, with the inevitable results. Unlike you, I don’t think he is suffering physically or that his problems have anything to do with disease. Fifteen years ago I wouldn’t have been able to see it, but now I can: he was used to a lot of excitement and an active sex life and social life in Barcelona and London, with his partner in life and porn, Edu Boxer/Phillipe Gandy/George Franco Rodriguez (who is also the reason Cini speaks fluent Spanish). Now he finds himself living with his mother in Bormla, with no source of income, no savings (at least, as far as we know), no boyfriend, no sex, no social life, no fun, not even a car, while Edu Boxer is in the USA working for Colt (stud films) and posting photos of his new men on Facebook. He’s angry, frustrated, trapped and has no way out, and this is how he deals with it. It’s not about the bus. It’s about his life. He lost his porn work because of his HIV (he must have been diagnosed recently and not in 1992, as he would have been unable to start a porn career post 2000), and because of his porn work, nobody will give him a job teaching drama. Well, would you?]
Let’s put it this way: he’s certainly achieved more in the field of drama than some public service CEOs have in their respective remits.
And hey, at least in his case there’ll be a vacant position within our lifetime.
Baxxter, are you implying that you might be interested in that vacant position?
I’m interested in any position where I can advance my career, make a decent living, and salvage what remains of my life. Public Service directorships and chairmanships are certainly interesting.
Daphne, I think you proved your point (if there was ever one) in your previous two posts about the same person.
Even if this is not your intention (which I am sure it isn’t actually), you are sadly instilling a lot of homophobia about this where people have almost forgotten all about his protest and are now attacking him personally because of the films etc….. I am sure you saw the many commments on your threads and facebook.
Yes, the man is an ex-porn star and yes the man is HIV+, but this is nothing Manu did not say himself already. I do not see why the further character assasination!
Please, have some compassion towards his family, if not towards him!
I thank you for your time!
Al, ka chunky
[Daphne – Excuse me? How does that work exactly? People put themselves in the news and do and say whatever they like and nobody can say anything about their porn acting because of compassion for their family? I can’t believe that you and Manu Maltes imagine that he can make this kind of scene, hunger strike (probably fake like his accent and spastic walk) and all while his porn history is right there all over the internet, and expect nobody to say anything about it. Unbelievable. If he didn’t want anyone to talk about his porn or find out that he is Manu Maltes, he should have stayed out of the news, not plunged right in. Please don’t tell me now that jahasra l-mummy tieghu ma kienitx taf x’kien jaghmel, and that his nephews, nieces, sisters and brothers have Googled Manu Maltes and need to be hospitalised.]
All I’m saying is that 2 posts is enough, no need to carry this on!
That’s all….
Al
[Daphne – Not to be rude or anything, but I think I’m the judge of that.]
Oh, don’t worry about that….. I, as well as many others, like you ’cause you’re rude. And I mean that in the nicest way possible ;-)
[Daphne – I’m not rude at all, Al, just as I’m not ugly and don’t look like a witch. I’m a nice, well brought up girl with rather good manners, but I’m direct, and I notice things.]
However, I’m just saying this as many people are now using your posts to out their homophobia. The two are simply not related.
Again, thank you!
Al, ka chunky
And for all those reasons I follow your blog, almost religously, dare I say!
PS: forgot to mention: eloquent!!
Al, ka chunky
Daphne is everything I could ever want in a woman and if she wasn’t married I for one would surely try my luck.
She is not homophobic.
“… Yes, the man is an ex-porn star and yes the man is HIV+, but this is nothing Manu did not say himself already.”
He did NOT. Neither did The Times/Super One/Malta Today/Maltastar.
Once again you seem to be referring to porn as a negative thing when you say “Obvious gifts and used them in a negative way”.
[Daphne – Of course porn is a negative thing! For crying out loud. Anything that debases and dehumanises a person is negative. The mistake you make is to confuse porn with sex, when ultimately it is about debasement. That’s what separates porn from erotica. When people are addicted to porn you’ll find that it’s the debasement they enjoy most and from which they get their kicks, and not the sex itself.]
I see working in porn as any other work. It is not something I would do even if I had the ‘gift’, but I wouldn’t do it for the same reason that I would not work as a model or as a seftura or as a nurse: because I know that I would hate the work. But if there is demand for porn and people are ready to pay for it I see nothing wrong as long as the nobody is abused.
[Daphne – Ah, this is what I call the ‘if heroin is legal, then it’s OK to sell it and take it’ line of argument. We could be here all day fighting over this one, but I’m not going to bother.]
Meanwhile I don’t like your trying to involve Michelle Muscat with the bear thing. I think she is a nice person just like Kate Gonzi and Mary Fenech Adami and they have nothing to do with all of this unpleasant affair.
[Daphne – I get it. Jokes about ‘nice women’ are not allowed. I don’t think you understand that your division of women into nice and not nice undermines your argument that people who participate in porn are doing a job like any other. I rather suspect that your definition of a nice woman is directly linked to the Madonna/whore split in Maltese culture.]
I’ve watched people getting burnt alive and having their heads sawn off, but I don’t think it’s positive either, or are we now at the stage where “if we watch it, it’s good and we should do it as well”?
Also porn is by definition bad – it’s a substitute for the real thing.
I am sorry we have to disagree. I do not perceive as all porn as being something negative. It does not have to debase. If you want to reason like Carm Mifsud Bonnici it is up to you.
[Daphne – Try to work out why men watch porn mainly when they’re feeling resentful to women, and why some men watch porn all the time instead of having real sex with a real woman. Yes, it is certainly negative, for all involved. People who watch porn regularly end up brutalised – let alone those who take part in it for a living.]
I happen to know a thing or two about this man which you don’t. His life as you say was exciting. Even much more than you think it was.
[Daphne – I don’t think it was exciting, Dery. I think that he found it exciting, which is different. As for you knowing a thing or two about him, I’m quite surprised to find just how many porn connoisseurs there are in Malta. Is it directly linked to tal-Muzew and repression, do you think? Over the past 20 years or so I have had reports from married women across all sectors of society about how their husbands can’t have ‘normal’ sex but must always go for something weird as the norm rather than as, say, a Saturday night special. Now I am finally beginning to understand why: they got their sex education from Gang Bang In SantaLand. How tragic.]
In the early 90s for example he used to promote safe sex (now we call it safer sex). That is another reason why I pity him because it is such cruel irony for him to have contracted HIV and the subsequent infections such as toxoplasmosis which somebody else here said can affect one’s brain.
I read somewhere that around 10% of people in the USA have the parasite because of our close proximity with cats but it is mostly of no consequence except to a very few pregnant women and the immunusuppressed such as this chap.
I agree that porn is a negative thing and that it debases and dehumanises a person. But hey, someone’s gotta do it.
What I know about him has nothing to do with his porn career. I did not even know about that.
dery, i have challanged you in the other blog but with no avail, i published my name if you have balls now publish yours… you wont i know its too risky!!
[Daphne – Do please stop this. Your problem right now is your brother, not somebody posting quite innocuous comments on this site.]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kqyev46qyI
Has Mr Manu Maltes ever acted out that old song “I’m Jake the Fake (with my extra leg)”?
Any one around here ever heard that oldie?
I don’t agree with this guy starving himself, but HIV is nothing to laugh about regardless of how he got it.
[Daphne – At the risk of repeating myself, how do you know he has HIV? Because he told you?]
I myself would not want to do porn, but I shall not judge people who do, besides we all consume porn anyway.
[Daphne – We don’t all consume porn, though judging by the top 100 list of sites, most Maltese do. As for judging, don’t be so tal-Muzew. In real life, people judge. That’s why there are law courts and prisons and that’s why you’ll have an opinion (at least I hope you will) if your daughter announces that she’s going into porn or your son brings a stripper to Sunday lunch and is visibly taken with her.]
Their choice! When you point a finger at someone, you have three pointing back at you.
[Daphne – Oh, I’ve got those in any case. But as I said, my cultural experience is completely different to the Maltese ‘three monkeys’ attitude. ‘Don’t judge’ is not a moral statement in Malta, but a survival mechanism used to protect one’s own skin while living in a peasant society. You said it yourself, though you didn’t notice.]
I like your work, but sometimes you choose to make conclusions using baseless claims, and personal opinions.
[Daphne – That’s rich when levelled at the only person who presented the facts of the case instead of concealing them or bothering to discover them in the first place. Personal opinions are what this blog (and my newspaper column) are all about. The difference is that my powers of observation are a hell of a lot sharper than my eyesight, so my personal opinions are usually pretty sharp too. And that is exactly what annoys people like you.]
On his Facebook profile, Emanuel Cini says he’s inspired by Mary Magdalene and St John of the Cross.
He says he plays Artistic Gymnastics.
He lists as political views: All Parassites.
It looks as if Emanuel Cini was not born in Malta and has only been a citizen of Malta since 2008 as his ID ends in 08L.
If he never worked here and hasn’t made any social security contributions why should we offer him any social services?
I would have thought that we would, as a bare minimum, ask anyone applying for Maltese citizenship to undergo medical screening. In most of the world this is the way it’s done.
“It looks as if Emanuel Cini was not born in Malta and has only been a citizen of Malta since 2008 as his ID ends in 08L.”
The 08L does not necessarily mean he was not born in Malta, it just means that prior to 2008 he was not a Maltese citizen, which is not the same thing. `
“I would have thought that we would, as a bare minimum, ask anyone applying for Maltese citizenship to undergo medical screening. ”
That makes me wonder:
1. How do you know whether or not he underwent medical screening?
2. If he did, what are you expecting should have happened? Should he have been refused citizenship because he is HIV positive?
‘medical screening’? They’ve got screens that big?
Isn’t “L” meant to be dual citizenship?
@Patrick
“Isn’t “L” meant to be dual citizenship?”
Yes. One for him personally, and one for his member.
No. “L” stands for “Layered”.
As hilarious as the answers to Patrik have been, no it doesn’t mean dual citizenship. Dual citizenship is either M (like mine is), or A.
L is basically the new M for people registered post 2000 in Malta. So a child born in 2001 would have an ID of xxxx01L.
@Patrik – The “L” at the end of an ID number is there instead of the usual “M” for Malta/”G” for Gozo.
Children born post 2000 cannot be assigned an ID number which includes the last two digits of the year of their birth + M, because it would duplicate existing numbers of those born in 19XX.
@John H – “M” stood/stands for Malta; “G” stands for Gozo; “A” stands for Alien and L has taken over from M. The fact remains that “M” does NOT stand for dual citizenship.
Sorry to disappoint you, but L does not stand for Layered.
For those who are interested in what the final letter of one’s ID card means:
M stands for births registered in Malta from 1900 to 1999. (This includes all persons naturalised as Maltese citizens prior to 2000.)
G stands for births registered in Gozo from 1900 to 1999.
A stands for resident aliens.
L stands for births registered in Malta from 2000 onwards and as at April 2011 included 5,039 persons naturalised as Maltese citizens from 2000 onwards.
H stands for births registered in Gozo from 2000 onwards.
B stands for births registered in Malta from 1800 to 1899; the last one having passed away before October 2004.
P – I’m not sure, but they are now Maltese citizens and there are only 330 in number as per the April 2011 Electoral Register.
You may ask, why use L and H for the year 2000+ Malta and Gozo registered births.
Good question.
The official answer I got from the electoral office about 10 years ago is that L is the next available letter in the word Malta (with ‘A’ already being used by ‘resident aliens’) and H . . . wait for it. . is the next available letter in the word Ghawdex. This is technically incorrect as ‘Għ’ is a single letter in Maltese – or at least it was when I was at school.
@Grezz Not saying is stands for dual citizenship, but the point remains that someone with dual citizenship (such as myself) might have it.
I believe he started all this because of the present problems of the new bus routes which has affected his routine and wanting Dr Gonzi to sack Dr Gatt for this. That was not a cry for help, but a political challenge.
Do some in this forum believe if we have acted in the same manner as Mr. Cini did we would expect an indifferent reaction from the public?
Did Mr. Cini approach charitable institutions, his own town council perhaps, for help?
Even if to him this might have proved humiliating, because that comes no easy after a popular career, I won’t believe he would have been shown the door.
Thousands of unfortunate people benefit from the millions donated in fund-raising. Many keep a low profile, and thank God for it.
I still believe that a small note to the public from Mr. Cini saying he needs the time and privacy to look into the remaining options available to him, and wish to be left in peace, many will comply, and wish him sincerely good luck.
Vaux,
I think the main point of this article and the previous is neither Manu nor the buses but rather about the sorry state of journalism in this country. Daphne, correct me if I am wrong about this.
[Daphne – Yes. You are right.]
Just about every newspaper, radio and television station fell for this act failing to see through its fakery.
We keep seeing the same thing over and over, where there is very superficial ‘reporting’ with not even the slightest effort to look into what is really going on in the background.
Yes, I missed that salient point, sorry.
About the state of journalism in this country, I am very aware of it. At times I find myself screaming when reading or listening to media reports, when I sense those hidden agendas, precise, carefully worded, and well targeted reports.
But how on earth can we ever prove these, and reply or comment objectively?
I constantly ask myself who are the newspaper shareholders, and am tempted further to ask myself, vital information, such, sex, colour or creed?
We have to be honest, we are never hundred per cent objective. Thinking of it we are really at the mercy of a few.
Robert Fisk in ‘The Independent’ (London) has this to say about Murdoch. This gentleman never gave controversial orders, but a couple of those employed by him ‘ knew’ what their master liked to see. I am very pessimistic about all this.
Information is literally worth the gold.
Labour endows Cyrus Engerer with his first official position in Joseph Muscat’s Party.
Position title: Administrator of the Facebook Ghetto for LGBT.
Who will be his aide de camp? Mr Manu Maltes once he is welcomed officially into the PL?
I think you should avoid the word “camp” in the context of this discussion…
Baxxter, would “his right hand” be a better term?
Whichever it is, Maltastar will have to be careful not to translate “Il-Prim Ministru poggieh bhala kap” as “The PM gave him head”.
Sigh… to think I had allowed myself to start liking your writing… what a disappointment.
I’d never heard of this person before you started on this crusade against him – I can’t help sympathising with him now. If your aim was to do some mudslinging it’s going to backfire as now this man will get the sympathy vote and you will just end up looking like a spiteful spin artist. Leave this man be for pity’s sake.
[Daphne – Oh come off it. Imagine me, sticking up for a porn star making a scene and going on hunger strike until a cabinet minister is fired over a bus, just because she’s a heterosexual woman like me. Yours is a just a serious case of misplaced and ill-judged solidarity on the grounds that you’re both gay. How do you work that out, exactly? There but for the grace of cock go I? Next time I won’t break the news that the hunger striker, miskin, is Manu Maltes, so that you won’t call me a spiteful spin artist because I really, really want you to like me and that’s more important than doing my work properly. So next time, I’ll find pictures of him having sex all over the internet and I’ll do what other ‘journalists’ do and say nothing because it’s ‘irrelevant’. Dream on. Journalists are not there to win votes and popularity contests. They’re there to do a job. And if they can’t stand the heat, they know what to do about it.]
Sinking to this level of ‘investigative journalism’ puts you on par with the hamalli u criecer you love to mock.
[Daphne – It puts me on a par with nothing and no one, Mr Ferriggi. It just means I know how to do my job and that I can smell a real story a mile off when some others I could mention wouldn’t recognise it if it socked them between the eyes with a seven-inch finely layered dick.]
Next time you try take the mickey out of anyone who is more pitiful than you forgive me if I think pot, kettle, black. Even worse, those hamalli and criecer probably have less of a condescending attitude towards others around them than you have.
[Daphne – It’s lucky you’re talking to somebody who knows for a fact that gay men are not by definition hysterically touchy and prone to drama queen over-reaction, because between you and me, you, Mr Chetcuti and a couple of others here are doing a damn good job of bolstering up prejudiced opinion. I’ll tell you once more: you are NOT obliged to stick up for a retired porn star who’s run out of luck and is trying to cadge a free house and a pension off the Maltese taxpayer just because he’s ‘gay and Labour like you’. He’s gay and Labour, yes, but he’s not like you. Not unless you’re doing the same thing, have the same sort of mentality, and are putting up a pretty good false front here.]
I’ve often wondered why a person of your calibre stayed in Malta when a whole world of oportunity was available to you – probably even before Malta acceeded to the EU.
[Daphne – Oh, I’ll answer that question really quickly, Mr Ferrigi. I turned 18 in 1982, when Malta was practically a pariah state and the only way you could get out for anything other than studying or taking a holiday was by outstaying your visa and becoming an illegal immigrant. Some of my friends did it, working in shops and hiding beneath the counter when the immigration police came round. But I decided that living under the absolute hell of the Labour government your parents voted in to blight my life and break the country’s back was probably better than working for the minimum wage in London as an illegal immigrant, living in a semi-squat and facing the threat of deportation every day. After all, the Labour government wouldn’t be there forever, would it (though it certainly seemed like it at the time). So I married, had three children by the age of 24 and then of course I couldn’t leave, so I made quite a life here instead. And then I campaigned hard for EU membership – again, against the Labour government your parents voted in and that irresponsible, half-brained prat Muscat who the ‘liberals’ think is so great when he tried so hard to keep them locked on this rock – so that my sons would be able to leave and not find themselves trapped as my generation were, and you know the rest. If you had any manners at all, you would bother thanking me for working so hard to get you the EU passport you appear to be milking to the full. It’s no thanks to YOUR parents and it’s certainly no thanks to ‘Joseph’.]
Now I realise the only organisation that would probably have you is the NP. This sort of moral crusade you have embarked on would have been even unethical everywhere else, even to the Murdochs’ standards.
[Daphne – Oh, if only you knew. The trouble with you people is that you assume those who have and do boast about it, while those who don’t boast and show off don’t have and don’t do. I suppose it’s a cultural difference. Where I come from, the more you have and the more you do, the less you talk about it. People (chavs, mainly, and here I am not referring to you) assume they know all there is to know about me, but the reality is that they know virtually nothing, and they get even that wrong.]
I’m so incensed. I’m going to do you and myself a favour and stop reading these pages. Sorry I was wrong about you.
[Daphne – All you need to do now is flounce and stamp. Do yourself and everyone else a favour and quit the stereotype performance.]
i am still waiting for a reply – i was woman enough to NOT hide after a nick name.
[Daphne – A reply to what? Oh, I see from your IP number that you’re also J Cini. I replied to that. So which is your real name, J Cini or Lorraine Delceppo?]
Same ip but 2 different persons, and if u refused to post my 1st message there was no sense in posting my 2nd
[Daphne – I didn’t refuse to post it. I didn’t receive another message from a Lorraine Delceppo.]
this is getting annoying. so this will be my last msg
but just to let u know that i know for a fact that u did receive my 1st msg as u told j cini that him together with another relative is trying to say that MM told u all the info u have about manu
[Daphne – It wasn’t under the name of Lorraine Delceppo, because it’s hard not to notice a name like that, and why would I lie about it when I’m right here answering your questions? You have a nerve, saying this is getting annoying when you are the one invading my space and annoying me with your persistent demands for attention. Does the condition run in the family? I’m beginning to think so. Let’s hope you’re not putting your bits on the internet too.]
just to refresh your memory my 1st msg said something like that:-
i was surprised when i read this article, as i thought – god this lady knows how to do her HW, how did she manage to get all this info!
but than i made my HW too and got to know you went to school with MM that is an ex friend of manu….so he must have tipped u with all that info.
[Daphne – I have already answered your question about Mark Montebello, and now I remember your comment (and it wasn’t under Delceppo). You wrote ‘your schoolfriend Montebello’and I wondered what Montebello you were talking about, what sort of crazy accusation this might be, and just pressed delete. I don’t think of Mark Montebello as a schoolfriend, you see, because he wasn’t one. He was in the same class along with 30 others, that’s all.]
What is this? I received a link to your erm…blog to show how pathetic some people in this country are ahahaha. People actually read your blogs and that’s all they are blogs and think your someone of importance?? hahaha I found it rather HILARIOUS that people even care about your opinion considering I come from Australia where we have real journalist that write articles in real newspapers and have a real affect on society. Sad little girl who’s creativity is expiring :) adios amigos.
[Daphne – Ara hej, how najs. A friend of Joseph Carmel tal-Queer Mediterranean Mammaries, all the way from Awstralja. A quick hint: if you’re going to pretend to be an Australian in Australia, don’t post your comment via a Melita internet connection. Another hint: ‘adios amigos’. Mexico is not part of Australia. Issa mur daqsxejn hu coffee l-ferries, ta, hi.]
Yeah… I’ll just go back to my real newspapers and stay away from your homophobic blogs
[Daphne – Shame they don’t sell brains now that there are the sales on. Homophobic blogs indeed. Nahseb ir-real newspapers tieghek huma dawk tal-Akbar Zib u Kurt the Coconut.]
Er I am from Australia you really are quick to make accusations about people without knowing the truth aren’t you. Just to refresh your little brain :) I wrote ‘how pathetic some people are in this country’ insinuating that I am IN this country being Malta hence I am using a Melita Connection.
I will be going back home in August where I wont have to put up with garbage such as this so not to worry. I am fairly familiar with Australia and I am aware Mexico is not in Australia but thanks for the tip mate.
[Daphne – How long have you been in Australia? Three months? Your English isn’t any different from that of a Super One employee. Perhaps they sell brains in Sydney. I wouldn’t know as I am not familiar with Australia. If so, try and buy one when you land. If you are the individual I noted, in a Facebook wall discussion between gay men who, because they vote Labour are clearly unable to read and absorb information and so have arbitrarily decided that I am homophobic, then do please tell your Facebook friend that Sidney is a man not a city.]
I have only been in Australia for my whole life besides this past year which I have spent here but you were pretty close aye.
I haven’t even seen this Facebook discussion that you speak of but there you go again with your false accusations you’re pretty good at playing that game aren’t you? I unlike some don’t involve politics in every little thing that occurs. I’m saying that you’re homophobic purely based on reading 3 of your blogs, which I’ve wasted multiple minutes of my life which I will never get back by doing so.
Ps. I’m actually from Melbourne and I couldn’t agree more about Shitney xoxoxox
[Daphne – Not much point bickering with somebody with a hole between his ears, so goodnight and sleep tight.]
I can guarantee that the person cannot even feed himself, the plate has to be stuck to the table and he can only use one hand. Half of the food goes on the floor.
When he goes up the stairs he risks falling on his back several times in one flight of steps. He shakes uncontrollably and many times hits himself unvoluntarily with spasms.
His speech is odd due to his paralysis. He definitely cannot live well on his own.
Yes he is a sad shitty person and a liar but he is severly disabled and miserable and nobody deserves to go through life like that.
I’m not sure if the HIV contributed to deteriorate his condition or if the stroke syndrome was affected by it.
[Daphne – Thank you very much for this important information, which puts things into context. Now we know that he cannot take the bus either way. He can, however, manage a computer keyboard. As for deserving, some people have to go through life like that who were born that way. Now that is really tragic.]
Daphne, you’re really getting under the lizard-like skin of these Labour yahoos. Readership on its way up. Congrats.
Harry, It seems that those Labour yahoos are easily attracted to anything that is related to porn. It is another entry to add to Baxxter’s list of subjects that awaken the defence mechanisms of the Maltese. Some of the others were Mintoff, Joseph’s hair etc.
Jiena Lejber.
Qatt ma ħallast taxxa u lanqas bolla.
Ma jippurtakomx x’għamilt f’ħajti.
Issa ġejt lura u rrid penzjoni u post tal-gvern
għax jien fqir u batut.
Typical.
Dear Daphne, thanks for your reply. Just a small note, Manu can take the bus as he can walk and go up stairs if he can hold on to something and buses are full of poles and handles. He definitely cannot drive.
[Daphne – Then he must be pleased that Arriva have introduced low-floor buses specifically for accessibility by people in his situation. It is a shame he doesn’t mention this when complaining about the routes.]
Have held off commenting until now, as I am no longer based in Malta and have been back in London since New Year, but just have to say that I am completely addicted to this blog and can never read it without, at the very least, leaving with a big smile on my face.
Daphne has the journalistic insight and precision of a top surgeon and, to mangle a metaphor, leaves no turn unstoned.
I miss Malta very much by the way.
I still cannot see a link with Manu and Michelle Muscat
[Daphne – One is a bear and the other collects bears.]
Dear Daphne, have you heard anything regarding the hunger strike?
Prime Minister Gonzi yesterday met hunger-striker Emanuel Cini for two hours. The meeting followed an article published in sister paper Illum on Sunday, which revealed that Gonzi had intended to meet Cini but cancelled the appointment after discovering his past porn career.
[Daphne – Yes, right, of course. The prime minister’s PA rang Mr Cini and said ‘I’m afraid he’s not coming after all because you took part in porn.’ Illum! The Julia Farrugia Notebook.]
“I think I’ve achieved enough. An apology from the PM is the most one can expect from this country with its lack of accountability. At least we’ll have our routes back to Mater Dei and the Senglea route to St Thomas Bay too,” said Cini on the phone to MaltaToday.
Cini stopped his hunger-stike after meeting the PM. His voice sounded much better than the past few days. He also said his eyesight is also getting better. He started eating fruit and other light foods for now. He’ll build up his diet slowly in the next few days.
According to Cini, TV presenter Peppi Azzopardi visited his house yesterday, after reading the story on MaltaToday portal. Azzopardi told Cini he haven’t spoken to Gonzi for the past few weeks but had left a message with one of Gonzi’s secretaries about his concern on Cini’s state of health. Yesterday Azzopardi, during the house visit, phoned directly the PM to encourage him to meet Cini, which he did.
Cini also recalled the phonecall Gonzi made to Austin Gatt during their meeting.
“The PM phoned Austin Gatt in front of me to check if the route from Senglea to Marsaskala actually got to St Thomas Bay, which it didn’t. He made him phone Arriva and fix the route there and then, which he did.”
On Facebook yesterday, the hunger-striker posted: “I met the PM for 2 hours. He agreed an apology was more than due. He asked me if he apologised will I eat. I told him not to me but to the people. He said ok. I ate a kiwi and we shook hands. I think that serves a purpose of sorts.”
After the meeting, Gonzi sent this email to Cini:
“Dear Mr Cini,
Thank you for your email dated 23rd July.
Thank you also for the opportunity to meet with you this evening and to discuss your concerns regarding the new bus routes announced as a result of the Public Transport Reform.
I have personally apologised for the fact that this reform has so far failed to achieve the high standard of service which I and my government expect as a result of the agreements that had been negotiated with the operator. More importantly, I confirm my government’s determination to address the public’s complaints and to deliver a reformed Public Transport system that achieves European standards both environmentally and operationally.
I take this opportunity to send you my best regards.
Lawrence Gonzi
Prime Minister”
[Daphne – The prime minister seems to spend much of his time dealing with demanding cranks and crackpots, like a psychiatric nurse. I don’t know which aspect of this story is the most ridiculous.]