Our man in Madrid
Published:
January 29, 2015 at 12:21am
Once you’ve watched the first few seconds of this show, skip straight to 04:30 minutes and watch as Malta’s man in Madrid shows off his official residence – in a block of flats – to a Spanish television crew. But unbeknown to him, they first pop in to the quasi-hovel where the building’s super lives below pavement level, so as to make a direct comparison.
Great going, Mark. Next time get some advice.
It’s times like these I wish I were gay.
“Estoy encantado y molto enamorado di nuestro man in Madrid.”
My goodness, how embarrassing.
Oh dear, didn’t anyone tell him they where sending him to Spain and not Italy? Language fluent is obviously not a requisite for Taghna Lkoll ambassadors. We have an ambassador to Spain who can’t speak Spanish. How very useful.
A remnant factor from techniques of old, to prevent diplomats from becoming too “familiar” with the locals?
Not just old school but very old school. Of the long discontinued species.
Did he say “sono” instead of “soy”?
The janitor qatgha figura ahjar. Methinks they must have switched roles or apartments.
For the record:
The person who welcomed the TV crew, and saw them up to the embassy in the lift, is not a janitor.
He is the driver that I employed 22 years ago when I opened the first embassy of Malta in Madrid in 1993.
He is a very smart and able person and I am pleased to see that, in spite of the many upheavals that the embassy in Madrid has passed through, he has been retained. His wife qualified as a lawyer during the time that I served in Madrid.
I hope to re-establish contact with him and find out about our dog, Harvey, who we could not take with us when we left Madrid, and he promised to look after him.
I shall pass no comment on the premises of the embassy and the residence now except that they are not the ones that I had chosen.
As a fluent Spanish speaker I can tell you that our Ambassador to the Royal Court of Madrid cannot say more than two words in Spanish before he switches to mangled Italian.
He could not even pronounce properly the names of places he goes to regularly.
Mark Micallef actually told the interviewer that his gym was within walking distance and pointed it out. At his size, I refuse to believe that he even walks to the gym, let alone that he goes there.
The importance of the language is tremendous when one remembers that (leaving Chinese aside) after English, Spanish is the second most spoken language, and Madrid remains the cog of all the Spanish speaking countries worldwide, which includes most of central and south America, and a few countries in Africa too.
I say this based on first-hand knowledge, not hearsay.
I cringe to think what the Royal audience with King Juan Carlos I sounded like. Both the former King and the present King are Knights of the Order of Malta, and the perception of Malta in Spain is sky-high. They actually believe it is an island of gentlemen-Knights steeped in history and tradition, with impeccable credentials.
Just imagine sending a High Commissioner to London who cannot actually speak English – with the importance of the Court of St James in relation to the Commonwealth, and HM The Queen being monarch of 16 countries and so forth.
I have been trying so hard not to respond, not possible I’m afraid. So, where do I start??
1- The High Commissioner not speaking English????? I should hope not seeing as we are a bilingual country and have a language school on every corner!!
Spanish is more like chinese and less like English actually for the sake of this actually, Like Chinese, most Spanish speakers are native. If you take the US, the numbers largely come from the growing latino population and not Americans choosing to learn Spanish. I encourage you to do some digging and share with us if our past Amb. spoke Spanish fluently at the start of their term. While we are at it, if you come across a magic Language on demand chip that we can give our Ambassadors every 4 years or so when they change countries that would be fantastic!
2- You need not worry about the Spanish cringing, they are too busy making fun of their own politicians to bother about a Maltese person not being fluent in Spanish.
3- As for the sky high perception, true, for those who have a perception to begin with. A lot of Spanish people don’t know where Malta is, I have to explain on an almost daily basis that we are not Cyprus or Sicily, that no…we do not speak arabic and yes, we are in the EU. As for the number of times I get bounced around the system…ah…getting a phone line or my god, travelling without a visa out of Madrid?? get ready! Ryanair and Vueling have made things better, but just last week I was asked for my work permit at the tax office.
Last but not least, the gym, really?? Tsk Tsk
There, I feel better now!
Those television people are blatantly taking the piss out of Mark Micallef by asking him to show them his apartment, and he’s so taken with them and so flattered that he hasn’t even noticed.
He must be oblivious to the fact that there was and still is a crisis in Spain and that kind of flaunting was tactless.
It’s shameful to see that someone who has been appointed ambassador to Spain cannot even hold a basic conversation in Spanish.
I wonder if Joe Grima went to visit him last week – he surely would have had an issue trying to squeeze into that lift.
Meanwhile our man in Brussels:
”European Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella would not say this morning how he would be voting in the forthcoming spring hunting referendum in April.”
Does the environment commissioner not have an opinion on whether he supports the killing of birds on their way to breed?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20150129/local/environment-commissioner-karmenu-vella-refuses-to-declare-vote-on-spring-hunting.553889
Estoy muda!
He was always ‘ambassador material’ ever since his school days.
Why he was allowed to suck up to George Borg Olivier I will never understand.
The Excellency of stupidity
‘I am of course first and foremost Maltese, but I am also Aragonese. It was the Emperor Charles V, grandson of Ferdinand of Aragon, who donated the Maltese islands to the Order of St. John in 1530 after their expulsion from Rhodes by Suleiman the Magnificent.
Mark Anthony Micallef, Ambassador of Malta to Spain, October 2014’
http://patrizioperezpacheco.com/mark-anthony-micallef-sobre-un-lugar-inesperado-english/
WHAT A CNVT
Actually, from a totally unbiased point of view I would like to translate what was actually said for all of you (I am proficient in Spanish and currently reside in Spain) I would like to share with you all that the super said it was a privilege for him to be living where he is living and with his family. He pays no rent and earns his salary, he says he is honoured to work and live in the building. His job, well he describes it as ‘un chollo’ which means in this context ‘a cushy job’ .He also says that his apt. is 60m2 (bigger than mine!) which I am telling you, by Madrid standards it’s not bad at ALL!! I honestly wonder how and why they chose the Maltese Embassy! If you want to make fun of someone for not speaking a language that well after 4 months, then have at it. I suppose as someone who struggled with the language for at least a year when I moved here I am a little defensive :)
We’re not merely making fun of anyone. It’s understandable that you might be a bit defensive having gone through that yourself, but we’re talking about an appointed ambassador who should be able to speak the language of the country in which he or she serves with near-native fluency, in my opinion.
Spanish happens to be one of the most spoken languages globally, I don’t think we are being too critical here.
The of Spanish speakers is high, true, they are also mostly native speakers which makes a big difference. English is without a doubt THE global language and Spanish is still a plus. Speaking the language, ideally they should, but how many ambassadors actually speak the language of the country they are in? And they change countries quite often. If there is another diplomat who is fluent in Spanish and qualifies for the role then mention them, and argue about that, but there probably is not, and I doubt countries always post diplomats that can speak the language with native fluency all the time. This is an entirely different argument. I think we are quick to point the finger especially as most don’t understand the time and effort it actually takes to speak a language with near native fluency! If we are going to fight for posting ambassadors who should be fluent in the language of the country they are in, from now on, I am all for it. But, I think in this case we are making an example of this Ambassador because he happened to get caught on camera. There have been and there will be countless like him everywhere.