Oh, look! It’s Swiss Toni
My growing conviction that the Labour Party is peopled with characters straight out of The Fast Show is given further encouragement by recent sightings of Anglu Farrugia, who is now modelling himself on Swiss Toni. Take a close look at this photograph, which was carried in The Times yesterday.
Now take a good look at Swiss Toni.
Anglu will have seen Swiss Toni on BBC Prime, but because he has no sense of humour and is one of those literal people, the fact that the show was a satirical comedy about a used-car salesman will have escaped him. Instead, he will have seen a rather smart chap in sharp clothes who fashions his hair fetchingly and has a look about him that means business.
So what was that gathering, to which our Anglu went disguised as Swiss Toni? It was a commemoration of an 87th anniversary. Yes, that’s right – 87th. Not 80th, not 90th, but 87th – you will agree that this is the kind of diamond round number that just calls for the wreaths to be broken out and the photographers to be called in. Ah, but when you’re desperate, you’re desperate. Needs must when the devil drives, as I like to say, so casting around for 87th anniversaries to which reporters may be summoned to witness the spectacle of Anglu Farrugia turning up as Swiss Toni can’t be ruled out on grounds of fatuousness.
And this wasn’t just any old 87th anniversary, either. It was the 87th anniversary of the death of Manwel Dimech. Charles Mangion, the tattered political party’s ‘acting leader’ (who is acting only until Alfred Sant swings back into parliament as leader of the Opposition on 10 May) told the assembled clutch of reporters that Dimech had “battled for freedom of expression and freedom of thought”. That’s right. Manwel Dimech fought his battles, and a century later we have Charlie Mangion, free to tell his crowds that those who don’t see eye-to-eye with him have a different DNA structure. Thus are the mighty battles reduced to farce.
Displaying a commendable sense of irony and historical insight, the acting leader of the political party that destroyed freedom of expression in Malta during its 16 years in government went on to say that people should not now be sidelined for exercising the freedom of thought and expression that Manwel Dimech had fought for. Meanwhile, Anglu Farrugia hoped to impress us by striking his best Swiss Toni pose.
The Maltese have achieved the rights of freedom of thought and of expression, Mangion banged on. Ah, yes – but when was that exactly? It wasn’t in Manwel Dimech’s time or thanks to Manwel Dimech’s efforts. And it certainly wasn’t in the years 1971-1986, which saw the burning down of a newspaper building, the ransacking of the house of the leader of the Opposition, the pillaging of party clubs, the monopolization of the broadcast media by the Labour Party, and the physical assault of peaceful protesters, while everyone who did not subscribe to the Labour dream was terrorized into silence.
The magic number is 87, but it has nothing to do with the anniversary of Manwel Dimech’s death.
And while we’re about it, I’m going to quote the final sentence of that report in The Times.
Dr Mangion laid flowers at the foot of the Manwel Dimech monument, followed by deputy leader Michael Falzon and the party’s sections.
What a wonderful sentence. The party’s sections? What might those be, and how do they set about trailing after Michael Falzon and laying flowers at the feet of monuments?
As Swiss Toni might have said, running the Labour Party is like making love to a beautiful woman. First you get Michael Falzon and the flowers out of the way and then you deal with the sections.
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What was Anglu doing with that black scarf around his (ample!!) neck? Surely it wan’t so cold yesterday afternoon? Did he try to give the impression that he is a ‘raffinat’? Btw notice the cute way Anglu’s feet are positioned….reminds me of Paperino!
[Moderator – Maybe it functions in the same way that a security blanket does. He was wearing the same scarf when he was having an international affair with an elephant in India.]
@Eve – maybe that elephant gave him a love-bite.
If Looks could kill!!!
This photo needs some even more of a closer look. George Abela and Jeysin seem to be having a love affair, really eyeing each other or are they???
Look at that photo. They’re just laughable. Oh God!
It’s me berdey today, guy and dolls…OK amrio?
Oh joy! Oh happy day! Birthday blessings! After yesterday’s sighting at uni canteen, today me peepers have fallen upon The Lion of Change and Pompadour-coiffed Mangion scurrying in Valletta. I nearly choked on my pastizz at Cordina… But why oh why, do these people show up during my elevenses? And on me birthday to boot. Amanda, rest assured, I ate it anyway.
@ DCG
Maybe Anglu Bellu was channelling the Svizzeru fil-Mediterran vibe
Anglu’s feet cute ? Hardly. Could they be the same feet used for booting at the Police HQ some 25 years ago ? Labour just cant figure it out that unless they genuinely cleanse themselves rather than silly “packaging” a la Jason, they will never attract the middle vote. And frankly GA’s overtures about Mintoff have set the alarm bells ringing . The truth is that each of the 5 candidates suffers from either
a) serious baggage
b) credibility
c) incompetence
d) all the above
AF surely falls into category (d)
Daphne, I shall have you arrested if you ever consider stopping this website of yours. iT IS YOUR DUTY TO NOT ONLY ENTERTAIN US WITH YOUR SUPERB WRITING, BUT ALLOW US A FEW DIGS AT THOSE A HOLES WHO SCREWED UP 16 BEST YEARS OF OUR LIFE. You have managed to create a blog that’s hard to resist, and makes my day knowing I am not just a voice in the wilderness.
so from now on its
”T.G.F.D” !!
AND IF YOU ARE ARRESTED GUESS WHO’S GOING TO BE DEFENDING YOU………..NOT THE ELEPHANT MAN FOR SURE :):)
NICE WEEKEND ALL
@ DCG
The brown-shoes-with-a-dark-suit is an MLP look apparently.
This is a great photo, I think one can write a whole book about what is passing through each character’s mind. I am pretty sure that among the many thoughts, they all share one in common – “iillll-osssst… xi dwejjaq fih da chalie…igri nehilsu minnu…”
@Mazokista – that isn’t George Abela in the picture. It’s probably a ‘party section’.
I’ve posted this in another ‘section’. But are you aware there is not one single woman in the photo?
Don’t you think the guy with the pink tie looks really dapper?
@ Adrian Borg
and what about the pink podium?? It’s straight from Barbie! And I thought (and amrio thinks) that I am fluffy!
Call me traitor (I couldn’t care less) but I was never impressed with Manwel Dimech’s exploits.
Ha Nghida bil Malti. Tant ghandhom dwejjaq li kapaci jqarrsu tazza halib B’dawk il harsiet ta dieqa. Nixtieq nigbdilkom l-attenzjoni lejn in numru 87 ta dan l-anniversarju. Niftakar numru iehor jien .1987. Is sena meta VERA stajna nghidu dak li rridu bla xkiel, ghax rebah il PN u Malta regghet fegghet mill-bahh u d-duhhan ta gvern Laburista!!!!!!!!!
9 ta Mejju, 1987 nies. Tinsuhiex!
Call me an even greater traitor, but Manwel Dimech in my opinion does not deserve all this hullabaloo. The sooner his statue is taken off there the better
@ Mario Debono
Was going to write EXACTLY the same comment (in English), but you managed before I did! ;) A well-observed notion though, that 1987 was the year that Freedom of Speech actually did come into effect.
It was temporarily suspended between 1996 and 1998, but has been omnipresent ever since.
Eve – You seem to have missed the polished brown shoes with the black trousers and greyish jacket …
Mario Debono – And all the Manwel Dimech streets in Malta (most notably in Sliema, which we all still refer to as “Prince of Wales”) be reverted to their original names.
Mraio Debono / Matthew Borg – Yes, when reading Daphne’s article above, the only connection I made with the number 87 was the PN victory in 1987, a year firmly etched in our memories. Maybe they were secretly celebrating it too, yesterday …
Bad taste in clothes seems to be a pre-requisite for being a Labour candidate. Even those clad in decent dark suits with civilised shirts and ties seem to have got it wrong with the trouser leg length …
@Mario Debono
I don’t agree with you re: Manwel Dimech.
[Moderator – Wasn’t Manwel Dimech a murderer, or has everyone forgotten that episode in his life?]
@Meerkat
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to Meerkat!
Happy birthday to you!
Yeaaaaaah!!!! XXXXX
So, how old are you now dear? I guess…22 ?
amrio – Half your age!
@Amanda
Almost… but not quite! And who comes to know me would swear I’m much younger than that!
@DCG: I think it’s GA.
@others: who was this Manwel Dimech exactly?
@Amanda,
I agree with you about the street names too, I for one refuse point blank to call “Prince of Wales” manwel dimech street.
@Moderator
No I haven’t forgotten he was a murderer too!
@SB
See this for starters http://www.allmalta.com/folklore/p_010.html
[Moderator – According to that article, ‘tackling local prejudice’ involves the murder of those who disagree with you.]
@SB
and this… http://users.onvol.net/98560/site/about_us/dimech.htm
seems our Manwel was quite a colourful character….
[Moderator – Further confirmation that Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl are completely delusional: ‘[Manwel Dimech] was a man of exceptional qualities…. At seventeen years of age he even committed murder.’]
@Mod
Like it or lump it, from the very little I have heard about him, Manwel Dimech was one of those turn of the century characters who shaped Maltese politics as we know it today.
That is the reason I don’t agree with Mario Debono.
[Moderator – Yes, and for all the wrong reasons. I’m certain that we would have had a Josef Stalin on our hands had he ever come to absolute power.]
@Moderator
And notice the class hatred “The high classes concocted against him”
Do Labour Party flower bouquets still come wrapped in cellophane?
hmmm…I won’t comment on whether he is a patriot or not because I still do not know much about his contributions to local politics. However, I admire the fact that he learned how to read and write at a not-so-early stage in life.
@ Meerkat
Hmmmm it seems Lejber bigheads are trailing you… I wouldn’t be too happy about it. Have you called the police? At least in these post-modern days, they DO try to defend the public, ey?
It seems that Labour have a habit of erecting monuments lest we forget some of their worst people (Dimech, Lorry Sant) … Maybe one day we’ll have a Mintoff one too. If we do, then I’ll be one of the first to visit it, but not to lay flowers.
@ Amanda Mallia
Yeah, me too! I think I’ll put at his feet a warmly-cherished Maths homework copybook from when I was 7. It was the day we had to walk to school across two villages, remember? After some red-looks-a-lot-like-labour flag wavers stopped our bus way back in 1985, and we walked to school, we found our school hit by a meteor. Our homework copybooks had been rubbed by some excrement which was brownish in colour. I kept it. Lest we forget.
@ combinaguai
And this afternoon I bumped into the Moonie on my way to lunch… As frequent as the UFO sightings in Nevada!
@ amrio
Thanks for your wishes!
I’m 18 with a number of years experience. hehe.
@ combinaguai
Coming to think of it I am expecting to bump into ex policeman Anglu Bellu soon, probably on his iljunfant…talk about mounted cavalry LOL
Most probably I am not making much sense but I just returned from a long boozy lunch so my brain is my fluffy than usual…and amrio’s wishes brought a tear to my eye so I am not seeing the screen well…so I don’t really know what I am writing…hey amrio, am I writing under the right ‘section’ jew??
@Meerkat
Yes you are writing under the correct section.. for once ;)
If you want to meet Anglu Bellu… simple.. just go to one of those bars frequented by drug addicts… he’s busy building up another 3 page investigative opus major..
@ Meerkat
Don’t overdo the fluff, child. It might make you look like the Poodle.
And, erm, a pastizz is always fattening, be it baked by Cordina or by tal-pastizzi ta’ wara l-knisja.
As for eating from the University Canteen. Well, I must say I have resevations on THAT. I made a ban on that junk during my years in Uni (and believe me, they were many). The last thing I bought from them was an-ultra expensive (paper) glass of Pepsi. I was dying of thirst and (please note) while I was in the queue to pay, I took a sip. And before I could even formulate a burb this short prat (noun, female) shoots at me across the area “Mister! No eating or drinking before you pay!” Of course, as a well-dressed post-grad student I most certainly had in mind to drink all the soft drink and eat the cup to hide all the evidence and get away with some Lm0.50 less.
That was it. I never set foot in there again. If I’m at uni and am dying of thirst, I’ll have a sip of that naturally-coloured pool right in front of the rectorate.
Congrats for your 18+ berdej.
@ combinaguai
I’ll set amrio on you ghax qed taqbad mieghi
:-)
Tony Pace: I hope you’re joking. If those 16 years were the best of your life, you must be miserable now.
For further reading on Manwel Dimech’s life, the moumental study ‘Dimech’ by Fr Mark Montebello is recommended. Perhaps it will serve to shed some new and much needed light on the bigoted and misguided comments posted.
I am under the impression that Dimech wasn`t executed because of his young age. While in prison he learnt to read and write properly and `saw the light.`
I thought that Manwel Dimech was a bridge!
[Moderator – Competition time: the person who names the highest number of bridges or streets named after a convicted murderer jirbah voucher minghand tal-lira.]
Tupelo – What “bigoted and misguided comments” (sic) are you referring to? I haven’t seen any comments by David Zammit here.
@ amrio
I’m no junkie :-(
I am wholesome, girl-next-door, convent school girl.
It’s a amazing how much revisionism goes on in history books. Historical anecdotes are most often written by the victors. It’s also bewildering how certain crooks become heroes overnight. Yasser Arafat for one was a terrorist in the 70s, he went to the UN with a gun and then a few years later received the Nobel Prize for Peace!! In Malta we have statues for Lorry Sant and Manuel Dimech.
Another irony (and untouchable) is that we still refer to March 31 as Jum il-Helsien. Freedom from what exactly? Is a military base equivalent to an occupation similar to the Nazi or Soviet occupation of Europe? The Italians like other European countries have their freedom day as well (groin Della Liberation), but at least there was a real and tangible enemy – Fascism / Nazis.
The latest trend with Maltese politicians is to write autobiographical books. Here again, we have another case where the writers / ex politicians do their best to portray themselves positively and try to disassociate themselves completely from the negative events which occurred during the times when they were in the limelight.
Yes…..that Manwel Dimech bridge is aptly named as he bridged the divide between murder and education, personally. the bridge should be renamed the bridge of Signs. There are a profusion of them. And lets get rid of the cameras that prat mayor of St Julians put up there to catch the unwary now. The bridge can take the speed.
As a matter of fact “Jum il-Helsien” is just another working day for me.