What a stupid move
The Nationalist Party has come up with a fund-raising initiative of award-winning stupidity.
For 50 euros, you can buy yourself a certificate, signed by the current party leader and his two predecessors – Simon Busuttil, Lawrence Gonzi and Eddie Fenech Adami – thanking you for your fantastic service to the party & c & c.
Not only is it immeasurably cheap and tacky – something like that shouldn’t even be sold for a mammoth donation, let alone for the price of five pizzas – but it is just asking for those things to be bought as pranks.
What are they going to do if Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando buys one for a laugh? Or Franco Debono? Or PussyWhipped Mugliett?
Or some drug-dealer or other criminal? Or HuBastjan or Bastjan himself? Or 20-year-olds buying them for a joke present for others?
And aside from that, it really cheapens the party leaders, present and former.
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http://www.pn.org.mt/?page_id=870
Lino Cassar couldn’t have done better.
I haven’t started yet.
50 years of nationhood? (50 sena nazzjon?)
So what was Malta before that? And if it wasn’t a nation before independence then what by what right did we demand independence, and by what right were we granted it?
Is this Matthew Bonett’s doing or have they really all been Xarabankified?
And why should there be a link between independence and support for the Nationalist Party? What message does that send to Labour supporters? It spits in their faces, and tells them that they contributed nothing to this “nation”.
What message does it send to Nationalist voters who weren’t around back then? (i.e. all the first-time voters, plus the zaghzagh plus anyone under 50?) It tells them that they’re out of the equation.
What message does it send to those who don’t get all jingoistic about independence, abhor the Nationalist Party, but vote for it because the alternative is worse? It tells them their sort are not needed.
Fine going, Simon Busuttil & Co.. At this rate you’ll be lucky if you obtain 30% of the vote in 2018.
Every Sunday at 11.15, when most families are gathering in their kitchen for lunch with many TVs switched on, NET TV will now be regaling us with a weekly live transmission of the Holy Mass from the Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary. Of course, targeted at the neutrals.
That’s my point exactly. I’m not in the business of fundraising for anyone. But I am very much in the business of using very limited resources to their best advantage (because I’m skint, and that’s the best MBA of all). And you don’t waste Sunday lunchtime TV on a live mass.
Just my thoughts. Way back in 1984 the party issued a bronze coin, which I still have. Why not a set of coins? Since the Central Bank failed to issue a gold coin to commemorate the 50th (golden) anniversary of Malta’s independence.
Papers cheaper.
It must have taken Simon Busuttil some time to sign 1,000 of these. But it seems it wasn’t enough for him to realise how unbelievably silly this is. Way to go indeed.
50 euros?
Wow, that’s two weeks worth of groceries according to Sai Mizzi Liang’s husband.
In Nuxellina’s territory, 50 Euros means a blackout of 24 hours.
Is there a bigger insult than being told that even Muscat was better in Opposition than you are?
I can see Simon Busuttil and his entourage doing this (just see how they handled the ice bucket challenge). Gonzi too. But Eddie Fenech Adami signing this silly certificate? That I find quite disconcerting.
@L.Gatt
If you’ve seen Eddie Fenech Adami over the past few months, unfortunately, you won’t be too surprised.
@ Michelle Pirotta
You really should not comment like that without knowing the situation one is in. Highly disrespectful and very insensitive.
To be quite honest, I was ever so surprised that Eddie Fenech Adami accepted to speak at the last PN meeting just before the 2013 election. Not really the thing to do as president emeritus. Howver having loved the party so much, I guess he couldn’t pass on the request.
I wonder if they accept names of dogs. I would love to hang a framed certificate, in my garage, addressed to my retriever Zappa.
They need money.
Desperate people or desperate entities do things that are way below them for money, unfortunately.
In the ideal make-believe world we all would not be controlled by this manufactured thing of control that is called “money”.
Too bad that the PN does not have several purloined Australia Halls to sell.
It has several kazini. Which serve no purpose at all.
Then there will be a “kazin gap” similar to the “missile gap” that was parodied in the film “Dr Strangelove”, aka “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
It reminds me of many years ago when one could buy himself out of hell by donating money to the Roman Catholic Church.
They could have gone one better.
For every time you repeat ‘Eddie, Lawrence, Simon’ you get a reduction in your electricity bill when they are back in power.
Silvio, that’s not true – and you know it.
What’s not true?
Guys please humble yourselves a tiny bit and consult the only person in Malta who can help your PR. Otherwise you’ll end up being as tacky and wet as Joey and his lot.
The Ice Bucket Challenge is not looking so dumb now, is it?
I’m no supporter of either party, but I’d rather buy a PN flag/banner to hang it on some Laburist’s windshield to piss him off and spend the rest on something more useful. Way better than to give a €50 certificate to someone as a joke present.
I wonder how long until I see some guy on Facebook posing with one to show us that he is ‘tal-flus’.
I only hope that due diligence is carried out before a certificate is issued.
Would RCC have accepted such a poor attempt to raise funds? I very much doubt it. The party should approach/consult with a marketing professional.
Perhaps that’s why he left in the first place. As soon as Lawrence Gonzi took over, the party hamallified itself, and has never recovered since.
For Heaven’s sake, Dr Busuttil et al, stop making sure that the P.N. slide into the quick-sands of mediocrity on the level of Muscat’s ‘lejber’.
Half of the Maltese electorate expect nothing of this sort from you. Pull up your socks and get your political act together.
But that is exactly the problem isn’t it? They are still working with the reasoning behind the “30000 voters can’t be wrong” mentality.
I am really afraid that the ice bucket fiasco is the symptom of deeper underlying problems.
I guess those millions who voted for Adolf Hitler can’t be wrong either… uwejja come on what kind of logic is that?
Dr. Simon Busuttil @ http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140831/local/nationalist-party-calls-for-public-inquiry-on-vessel-that-fled-malta.533890 @ kieku jien mhux insejjah inkjesta pubblika imma rebus naqla’ fuq din!!! X’gharukaza!!! Bil-paci ma tiehu xejn ma’ dal-Gvern. Trid naqra tattici iktar konfrontattivi.
By the way Daphne: Dr. Lawrence Mintoff x’inhu jaghmel jew ghadu Cicci Beqqi u l-paga diehla? Sorry ta’! Kif ihallu kollox ghaddej?
Dear Daphne,
Where can I contact you privately?
[Daphne – [email protected]]
My recent contribution earned me a small receipt acknowledging the amount I donated signed by some secretary whose signature is of little value to me.
I have the autographs on books written by the two former leaders, and therefore the ‘Certificate’ will only be of interest to me for the third signature which, thus far, is not as collectible as the former two.
But autographs increase in value with age and exponentially after the passing of the people who signed them and their value depends on how much importance one attaches to certain persons, politicians or not. For some they are valuable, for others less so.
It will be interesting to know how many 50 euro contributions the Party will receive and then determine the success or failure of the initiative.
Looks like someone else needs Naxxter’s help:
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-28977320
I do PR consulting too (and the Nationalist Party should hire me, but that’s another matter), and a light-coloured suit conveys openness.
It was a deliberate choice, and an excellent one. Here is Obama setting himself up as the arch-nemesis of the Islamists, declaring a counter-Jihad (that’s what it is), and calling for brave allies to join him.
Had he done so in a black suit, it would have had the flavour of Capitol politicking, of American grand words in the open, but shady deals behind closed doors.
The grey-fawn suit gave it the flavour of sincerity. Obama is the leader, but he leads fighting alongside his troops, friends and allies. Obama condemns but he offers a light at the end of the tunnel.
It worked.
Good job, Obama.
Simon Busuttil should learn a thing or two. Black suits are for bloody Valletta lawyers.
I despair!
The problem is that we are all pissed off with the current goings on with a Taghna Lkoll government and yet very, very few of us offer their services to fund-raise or otherwise help out within the P.N.
We are ready to criticize everything and everyone but not to offer solutions or ideas. It’s amazing how you no longer hear comments about Arriva, queues at Mater Dei Hospital, appointments on the never never, Arms, a fattened public service, hunting, boathouses etc., etc., and the list goes on.
Not going for hamallu stunts IS an idea AND a solution.
We ARE offering our services here. If the Nationalist leadership choose to ignore us, then that’s their problem.
I even offered the ultimate solution to the NP’s financial woes: sell off the kazini, which serve no purpose (i.e. bring no votes, because that mut be the ultimate purpose of anything).
If that doesn’t add up to 20 million, sell off the party HQ. That’s prime office space. Then work out of no more than 200 square metres. That’s plenty.
If that doesn’t cover everything, sell off the TV station, then the papers, then the radio station. Shed the fat. Get lean. Endorse Daphne Caruana Galizia or at least engage with her. Stop ignoring her.
Is that enough solutions and ideas?
Not sure I understand your contribution. On the one hand you say we are all pissed off with current goings on with a Taghna Lkoll government and on the other hand we no longer hear comments about Arriva, etc. So which is it.
Incidentally I would not shout too much about Mater Dei. If the headlines about the Mater Dei infrastructure are correct, then there are some people within the Nationalist Party who should really hide their heads in shame.
The headlines are NOT correct. The planning of Mater Dei did suffer from the sudden change in its original purpose as a specialised hospital to a general one under Alfred Sant’s government which gave rise to all those additional expenses and extended time scales. However, in the case of a building like this you cannot suddenly decide to add additional floors and fiddle about with the building and expect to use the existing foundations. The foundations were calculated to take the burden of what was planned. Suddenly deciding to add additional wards is a no-no. But instead of admitting it’s wrong, this Government is trying to say that it cannot do what it wants to do because the building is substandard.
Why the hell would anyone want to give money to any political party.
‘…The problem is that we are all pissed off with the current goings on with a Taghna Lkoll government and yet very, very few of us offer their services to fund-raise or otherwise help out within the P.N….’
Hear hear.
Some people will stoop to selling their bodies when cash strapped.
I hope these certificates are at least laminated, you wouldn’t want to get them stained.
By the way, Scotland, Wales and Ireland are condsidered to be nations but still form part of the United Kingdom.
So I’m confused about the statement ’50 Sena Nazzjon’.
50 euros will get you a room for a couple of days plus a sizable bag of condoms from Theresa Cutajar. Allegedly.
My father received a happy birthday letter from the PN, asking him for a donation.
It’s called “the gift of giving.”
Yes….Indian giving
Well it should read 40 years in reality and they should have given it out ten years ago. I would have found a nice place for it, in my toilet right next to Mintoff.
What a sad political party!
Jien ma nistax nifmhu iktar dan il-partit li tant kien effettiv u dinamiku, specjlment fil-media. Kritika fuq l-istess affarijiet ghal xhur shah. Tara dan il-blog u tkun taf x’qed jigri veru. Mohhu sar il-partit biex jiskuza ruhu. L-istess paroli kuljum tisma fuq il-media tal-P.N. Flok jigbdu l-poplu biex ikompli jsegwi igghalek taqleb fuq xi stazzjon iehor.
PROSIT. Dak huwa l-alpha u l-omega tal-problema PN. Jinjora dan il-blog. Jinjora l-unika – l-UNIKA, sinjuri – gurnalista f’dan il-pajjiz. Daphne Caruana Galizia hija opinion-maker. L-aqwa wahda. F’kull pajjiz normali, Ewropew, il-partiti jiddibattu mal-opinion-makers. They bounce ideas off each other. They engage in conversation. They disagree and endorse.
Daphne has been around for two decades. This blog has been around since 2008. NOT ONCE, NOT ONCE has the Nationalist Party or any of its officials ever acknowledged any of the opinions, stories or facts published on this blog. Not once.
I visit this site because of the deepest human instinct of gregariousness. I need the company of like-minded people. This is the only place. So there is a significant demographic, in quality if not in numbers, that is leaderless, and has found in Daphne a sort of reference point, a political leader of sorts.
It is downright stupid for a political party, whose job it is to gain votes, to ignore Daphne. This goes beyond Tal-Muzew pride. This is parallel universe stuff.
I’ve met some of you here in the flesh and to a man (and woman), you all said “Daphne biss tifhmini”. Yes, yes, and yes. Me too.
Men must be governed. They give their consent to be governed. They give their consent to those who understand them.
And if anyone in the Nationalist Party, and there are many, disagree with or despise Daphne then they should say so. That too is engagement.
Do it. Now.
You said it all, Mr Baxxter.
It is not a matter of whether one despises Daphne, or not.
The matter in question is whether the P.N. is again making a fool of themselves or not.
In this case we all seem to agree with Daphne, even myself, which is quite unusual.
If it was not for persons like me, and a very few others, this blog would become a bore, as most, like yourself, are always agreeing with our Daphne in whatever she writes, as if you don’t have a mind of your own and are waiting for Daphne to lead and you just agree.
Is it humanly possible that she is always right?
In fact I don’t agree that the P.N ignores Daphne, for obvious reasons. Here again, one has to ask which fragment of the P.N. one is referring to – the KLIKKA, the small group of Simon Busuttil’s followers?
Or the ones who have to keep quiet, as they are still waiting for the time when they will be judged for their ill-doings when in power?
Dear Baxxter I admire you for your loyalty to Daphne, but as you say 20 years is a rather long time and times change and one has to change with it, or there is the risk of being run-over.
You understood nothing. You are four times my age, so I will not presume to lecture you. Someone else should.
Dear Daphne
thank God I’m not the only one who feels I’m different from my compatriots. Our Alma Mater is churning out these idiots by the dozen; then they pick a colour – blue or red – and go on to lead the country. Game over, I’m afraid. There’s no turning back.
I guess that PN really needs money. I received this SMS this morning:
http://i.imgur.com/BtlyD3Z.png
Robert Arrigo. Ara min irid jitkellem.
Well, it seems that the PN needs money as much as Labour needs China.
The Nationalist Party should line up a group of people from all spheres of society, have brainstorming sessions, and come up with a solution as to why people are not voting PN. Issues to be tackled could be : the people not speaking up on various issues that include alleged corruption in government present methods, list government replies ‘not in the national interest’ or ‘national security’. People are not interested in really speaking out against illegal hunting, indiscriminate use of petards during festas, now the local council elections are in jeopardy too, government handing out jobs with the public service, etc. etc. Why are people not reacting ? I think that an army strategy is in order. Having a good general who know wells his enemy’s workings and who can anticipate his enemy’s moves will win him the battle. Only then will the PN realise that it needs to wake up from its lethargy, stop being goody goody, and be dynamic and if need be, yes, more aggressive. The PN should take a leaf out of the PL book which is awake 24/7, no time for summer holidays, radio and TV churning out party propaganda 24/7, in short political brainwash. Not sure whether this is the way forward but something must be done otherwise the PL is going to govern for many more years to come.
If it wasn’t for Alfred Sant, the PL would have thrashed the PN in 2008. The signs were there for all to see.
You can say whatever you like about Joseph Muscat, but he’s played his cards right. He brought back the lost sheep and won over the disgruntled ones from the other side.
This is a deeper-rooted shift than the VAT-induced one of 1996. I cannot see too many of the switchers returning to the fold in the medium term. The PN’s best hope is a split in the PL but Muscat will not let that happen. The least the PN can do is to stop the rot and start building some credibility as a valid alternative.
What I found really tacky was receiving a letter auguring me well for my birthday this year and sounding overly fantastic, leading only to a plea for funds to help the Party and share my happiness with the Party. Found it extremely odd that the Party stooped to such a level I must say.
It’s no secret (I guess) that text messages have been sent by the PN to its creditors asking for a donation. Boggles the mind.
This is really silly. If one really wants to help the Nationalist Party one does not expect a certificate for a 50 euro donation.
It would have sufficed to give a token consisting of a reduced sized copy of the Nationalist newspaper edition of the 21 September 1964.
I would appeal to the PN administration to stop ridiculing the party immediately and take on board my suggestion.
I was raised in a staunch Labour family. in 1996 I voted PL but since then I have always voted PN until the last election. I have only one reason for doing so. I have a lot to offer to this island but I was literally ignored during the last 2 legislatures.
The same thing happened to a number of friends of mine which believe it or not are staunch PN supporters. I did my best to escalate this issue to some PN members but no one listened. Very recently I made another attempt but same thing happened!
PN needs to listen more but I will not make another attempt.
Daphne, you are right. The end of Gonzi’s era, Simon and Co brought the party to its knees. This madness confirms such.
Besides that what pissed me off and that’s why voted Labour was the fact that honest people who served the PN for years – 30 and 40 years were treated like shit at the end.
I really need to get the hell out of this country.