British Pathé: some weekend viewing

Published: October 24, 2014 at 11:42pm




5 Comments Comment

  1. Freedom5 says:

    Much suffering during the war, but Malta was terribly short changed in the Marshall Aid for reconstruction.

    Unfortunately no film showing the vibrant Maltese economy, the boom, post independence. Hotels sprouting everywhere, industry, new university, new power station, desalination plants.

    Malta was truly becoming the hidden playground of the Mediterranean – until that fateful day in June 1971, when Mintoff was elected prime minister, and dritt ghal-gol hajt.

    I have always maintained, if only Borg Olivier won that 1971 election, things would have turned out so differently for Malta. If only Malta had not thrown away 16 years, when it was an independent state for merely 7 years but “the people” were blinded by children’s allowances.

    [Daphne – I agree with you completely on that. No matter the chaos of Borg Olivier’s home and family life, and the many domestic and personal matters that led him to take his eyes off the ball, fatally, in 1969/1970/1971, a government led by him following the 1971 general election would have saved Malta from that long aberration that caused so much damage and created a situation in which we had to start again, literally, in 1987.

    But I take one step back beyond that and believe that the real solution would have been to force him to step down in 1969/1970 when the worst of it was going on: his party would have been fully justified in doing so, given the circumstances. They probably felt they couldn’t remove the hero of Independence, despite the very public mess he was in. Instead they waited until 1976, when it was too late.

    He is one of the most pertinent illustrations of how a prime minister’s personal life and domestic arrangements can and will impact heavily on his duties and public role, sometimes with dire consequences for the country he leads. And though that was a crucial factor in what ensued, most political commentators and historians prefer to gloss over it, either because they do no understand its relevant significance, or because they weren’t quite aware of the extent of what was going on.

    The very fact that Borg Olivier was not a peasant-leader in the style of Hugo Chavez meant that he made the correct choices – and attracted the right people to Malta (his girlfriend, fatally, being one of them) – in terms of the ‘style direction’ Malta took. We all know what those choices were after 1971: bloody dictators, totalitarian communists and peasant-leaders of the world. And our stylish settlers included millionaires escaping investigation for the murder of their wife. What happened was a real tragedy, a tragedy for Malta – but don’t expect many people to understand that. The Medasia Playa crowd think they are living the high style life now. They absolutely do not understand the difference. It’s now too late, because that is the dominant culture and it’s permanent.]

    Borg Olivier, notwithstanding all the unfair criticism, was a great visionary, and with Mintoff as his counterpart in Opposition, this made his task all the more difficult. Indeed, he was Malta’s most outstanding prime minister, and should be recognised as such.

  2. Freedom5 says:

    Medasia Playa – the high life: can’t cook a decent plate of pasta…basina. Rusty and torn canopies, staff in stained “uniforms”, more like illegal immigrants just washed ashore. Loud rave music from the early afternoon; filth and weeds, not to mention the skips outside the entrance.

    But then you have the “VIP area” with white mattresses. What a joke.

    Yeah sure, just like La Voile Rouge, or Nammos.

    This country may host the mega and super yachts for bunkering, but never the owners, and only occasionally the charterers. Mr Herrera, please note.

  3. gakk says:

    Dear Daphne, would it be possible to have the 2 clips of Dr Muscat – the one on Dissett and the one prior to election regarding the power station timeframe – posted somewhere handy on the site – maybe just underneath your photo on the right – to show them to my colleagues/friends quickly when I need them.

    I would also like to see a clip (if it exists) where he says that the reduction in tariffs is tied to the new gas power plant.

    Thanks.

    [Daphne – Oh come on. Just go to YouTube and put ‘Muscat resignation’ into the search bar. It pops up straight away.]

  4. bob-a-job says:

    ‘Dear Daphne, would it be possible to have the 2 clips of Dr Muscat’

    No problem gakk. Just type Pathe-tic government.

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