The future of Malta is in his hands

Published: April 8, 2008 at 1:00pm

Anglu Farrugia in a mosque

The caption to this picture on www.anglufarrugia.com is ‘India visit – Dr Anglu Farrugia in a sacred mosque’. As opposed to what, we wonder – a profane mosque?

The standard of police work wasn’t very high in the days of Commissioner Lorry Pullicino. We all know that, but apparently former inspector Anglu Farrugia does not. He still thinks with a 1980s mind. Here he is in Malta Today last Sunday, talking about the sale of votes.

I am not saying that the PN was involved. I am only saying that votes were traded so that people would not vote for the MLP….Since the election was won by 1500, this means that the party would have won with an extra 700 votes.

Give the man a calculator: 1500 divided by two is 750.

This means that if 10 votes were bought in every locality, the election would have been won by the MLP.

I had to read that three times. What is he trying to say? Coherence is not his strong point. Is he saying that if the MLP had bought 10 votes in each district, Alfred Sant would be prime minister today? Oh, I get it – he’s saying that if he can prove that 10 votes in every district were bought, then he can prove that the MLP would have won the election if they hadn’t been bought.

I still don’t get it, though – because he would have to prove that the people from whom the votes were bought would have voted Labour if they hadn’t sold their votes. And he would also have to get over the implied embarrassment of what he is saying: that you would have to be a Labour voter to sell your vote for some readies. Anglu tal-iljunfant carries on:

I am not saying that this happened and so far I am not disputing that the PN won the election.

So far, eh? It looks like there are treats a many in store for us.

The system works like this. One would need one or two million euros to buy votes. This money is divided among a number of agents. Each agent engages the services of runners – the foot soldiers who actually buy the votes. The runners visit bars frequented by drug addicts and people who are more interested in having some cash than in voting.

Is this man for real? Using Alfred Mifsud’s arguments (see his article last Sunday in The Malta Independent on Sunday) I should criticise him relentlessly to ensure that the delegates choose him as party leader and condemn Labour to Opposition for another 15 years or so (Labour leaders don’t resign when they lose two elections in a row).

Was Anglu Farrugia’s interviewer half asleep at the time? One or two million euros. Agents. Runners. Drug addicts. For heaven’s sake – whose money does he think it was? Where did that kind of money come from? Who organised the agents and the runners, and more to the point, who were the agents and the runners?

There’s a more interesting question he should have been asked, and it’s this one. Why does he conclude that drug addicts and people who are more interested in having some cash are natural Labour voters? (“There’s a drug addict. He must vote Labour. Let’s buy his vote.”)

The Labour Party is in the mess it is now because over the years it has ended up as a dustbin for bizarre politicos. We have had a parade of them over the last few years. Labour is sinking fast under their weight. The secretary-general is a disaster; the future leader is a ridiculous, jumped-up twerp, and the party itself is laden with baggage like Anglu Farrugia and his illogical thinking.

Remind me again what sort of degree this man was awarded by our magnificent university with its supremely high standards?

Here he is again.

I have experience in monitoring elections both through my experience in OSCE and the European Commission. I have observed elections in Palestine and in Zambia and I know how these things work.

Palestine. Zambia. And what did the Indian elephant have to say about it? Oh, go and stick your head in some nice, large hole in the wall, Anglu. You’re an embarrassment to yourself and even more of an embarrassment to the Labour Party. Read my lips: the Labour Party has been on a regular losing ticket because of people like you.

Now it looks like he has even implicated two former members of the last cabinet before this one in his three-page ‘report’ to the Paraventu (mela he’s not a Paraventu, now?). This is what he had to say about his Inspector Morse endeavours.

I am not saying that they were directly involved in buying votes. My report talks of both vote-buying and favours granted on the eve of the election.

Oh, for pity’s sake. Somebody find this man another elephant he can have an international affair with, because he clearly needs some distraction. Here’s more.

Yes, I have a video. I have a video showing someone voting for the PN.

Anglu Farrugia would have failed my logic classes, I imagine, not that I remember much of them myself. He has a video showing somebody voting for the PN. Wow. Amazing. Given that 140,000+ people did just that, his video is hardly going to make it to a David Attenborough show about rare wildlife.

Does he also have a video proving that this person filmed voting PN would have voted MLP if he hadn’t been paid not to do so? Ah, now that’s the difficult bit. And even if he has just such a video, does he have another one that proves that the person really would have voted MLP and wasn’t just taking the money and running because money or not, he was going to do what I did and vote PN anyway? With brains like these….

Anglu Farrugia has even more interesting theories about people pretending to be illiterate when they vote. Just listen to him and try to understand what he’s saying.

For example, let us say that Angelo was going to vote in Gronier Street in polling-booth number 405. Upon entering the polling-both, Angelo declares that he needs assistance because he is illiterate. In this way, those involved would have known that Angelo voted for the PN. There were many illiterates in this election.

No, I didn’t get it either. I clearly don’t have the right kind of mind to be a popular Labour politician, for which the main requirement seems to be – well, let’s not go into it.

The thing is that Angelo Farrugia continues to have leadership aspirations. Here goes.

If the report indicates that the style of leadership required by the party is different from what I can offer, I will submit to the party’s best interest, and desist from contesting. But if the party requires a certain type of leader and a deputy leader with a different character, for example, someone who is more mature, I would consider contesting for deputy leader for parliamentary affairs…..If I become leader, the Nationalist Party will have a major problem. I will make their life difficult. Personally, I would never agree to a pairing agreement with the Nationalists. Back in 1996, the Nationalists made our life hell. That is what we should do to them now.

Oh, that will really come across well and appeal to the middle ground – another Mintoff/Karmenu clone, but without the right stuff between the ears. And he doesn’t even realise that in 1996, it was Alfred Sant who made the Labour Party’s life hell, and nobody else, with his mad, harebrained schemes and his complete disregard for the effect on people’s lives and the economy of his weird decisions.

No. The man obviously has an absolute dearth of insight and perception. In what possible scenario might he imagine that it would be in the Labour Party’s interest to have him as leader? How does he imagine that he might make a good prime minister, or that the majority of the population would allow him to be one? For different reasons, he would be as bad as Joseph Muscat, and as unappealing to all those who voted PN or stayed at home in this general election.




110 Comments Comment

  1. He’s giving himself a loooog rope, this one! Any body’s guess what he will eventually do with it …..or what it will do to him, more to the point.

  2. Avenger says:

    I am now convinced that I will not die of old age. I will die laughing at Daphne’s blogs. I nearly did reading this one. Still trying to pick myself up from the floor.

  3. amrio says:

    Good for all of you who are finding Anglu’s words hilarious – I don’t. His words just stir up old anger in me. Mela dan ir-ragel hasibna boloh?

    Is this the new face of Labour? Certainly not – most of us remember who Anglu was and represented just a few years ago.

    Up till 87 (just 20 years, not aeons ago) Anglu was a ‘famous’ police inspector – and he wasn’t famous for his investigative work, either.

    Anglu is now unsuccesfully masquerading himself as a ‘paladino della liberta e gustizia’. Who is he kidding?

    Where was Anglu:

    when time and time again, PN meetings ended up in bloodshed?
    when Karen Grech was murdered?
    when Raymond Caruana was murdered?
    when Bondin was murdered?
    when Pietru Pawl was framed up?
    when hundreds of innocent poeple were imprisoned for a number of hours without reason?

    I’m sure that in all of the above instances, Anglu was preparing three page reports. Pity all these reports did not see the light of day.

    Nowadays Anglu is trying to make us believe he was born-again. Reminds me of another person from the same infamous era, who told us he has turned a new leaf, only to die (God bless his soul) during a robbery…

  4. Bercsényi says:

    This would make one hell of a plot for a film noir. I’d start with an opening scene similar to Luc Besson’s “Nikita”, with drug addicts and junkies desperate for cash. Then move on to a “Casablanca”-type shot, with plenty of cigarette smoke, set in Alfred Sant’s office. Then cut to a “Ronin”-inspired scene where the runners make contact with the erstwhile Labourite drug addicts. They narrowly miss being caught in flagrante by Inspector Maigret (aka Anglu Farrugia), in trilby and trenchcoat, who will be played by a gravelly-voiced Tchéky Karyo. Then Election Day comes along, and it’s the crowd scene from “Gandhi”, with aliens attacking the earth, and lots of gizmos and special effects ‘n stuff, an’ then there’s this here asteroid sumfink… And if you think my plot is ridiculous, just re-read Anglu Farrugia’s interview.

  5. Amanda Mallia says:

    And here’s another piece of advice for Anglu ta’ l-iljunfant:

    Dress for the job you want, not for the job you have.

    (Or was that meant to be a casuaul look – shirt half in, half out and askew to boot, not to mention the complete ensemble and the slightly exposed paunch?)

  6. David S says:

    indeed what a dramatic film ….after Angli , Anglu the sequel

  7. @ amrio

    Oh Yes, I remember it all, amrio.
    You forgot to mention that poor chap who was found bludgeoned to death in some valley or or some such place – his name escapes me at this precise moment; He was killed at the Depot, yes? Pullicino got roasted for it. Am I wrong to assume that he was there when it happened?

  8. amrio says:

    @Phaedra

    Well, I was not physically present when (Bondin I think it was) was killed, so I cannot actually say who and how. All I know is that during those dark days, there were a good number in the police force who got dirty hands and exercised unrestrained violence, and as far as I know, in the name of goodwill from Eddie’s side, no policeman was handed justice, only the Police Comissioner was arraigned and handed over a (suitably lenient) prison sentence.

    Is MP Anglu the result of Eddie’s goodwill?

    Also, maybe some fellow bloggers can correct me on this, but no-one was tried and sentenced over the blatant cases of rampant corruption that existed at that time. If I remember correctly, most of the cases were prescribed at the time (i.e. the period of time between when the illegalities were commited and when the police did their duty and issued charges was greater than that allowed by law), but no laws were changed to remedy.

    Oh well, such is life.

  9. amrio says:

    Josanne Cassar on last Sunday’s TMI had some gracious words for us:

    The good old days

    You remember how our grandparents used to regale us with stories about being so poor they used to walk to school barefoot because their parents couldn’t afford to buy them shoes? Do you remember your eye-rolling reaction to these stories (oh no, hear we go again). Well, I hate to break it to you, but those who keep whining about the lack of chocolate and toothpaste in the 1970s are starting to sound just as boring and wearisome.

    It’s been over 30 years people; let it go.

    Dear Josanne, our grandparents speak about times which are by and large thankfully over. But as long as there are persons in high offices (read: in the MLP) who reminisce about the ‘Desserta times’ with a certain awe, I, for one, will not stop speaking and reminding others about these times!

  10. Daphne Caruana Galizia says:

    @Amrio. It was Nardu Debono who was killed by the police at the lock-up and dumped in a valley. Bondin was John Bondin, notorious as Il-Fusellu, a Labour thug, who was shot and killed but kept ‘artificially alive’ in a secure ward at St Luke’s, guarded by an array of cabinet ministers whose secrets (and money) he kept. How do I know? It was shown on Xandir Malta’s ‘news’. Those were the days….u imbaghad jigu Anglu Farrugia, with his three-page reports on vote-buying.

  11. Daphne Caruana Galizia says:

    @Amrio – Josanne got it wrong anyway. Imports were banned right up until 21 years ago (1987) not 30. And chocolate was banned for a full 11 years, which is long enough to create a whole culture around it (called a culture of deprivation). The only reason I remember the year that chocolate was banned is because I can still picture myself, aged 12, buying a Mars bar from that grocery staffed by two women in Mdina and telling myself: “This is the last Mars bar you’ll ever eat.” (If only that were the case.) People who think as Josanne do miss the point that it’s not about chocolate but about deprivation and turning the Maltese into second-class people who were always desperate for the basic commodoties of life. Even the Sicilians used to call us ‘affamati’ (starved and wanting). Also, I never rolled my eyes at my grandparents’ stories. I listened instead, and picked up valuable information. But that might be because I didn’t have grandparents who walked barefoot to school.

  12. Tony Pace says:

    Anglu and people like him are a disgrace to the Labour party. THEY WILL NEVER BE ELECTED UNLESS THE MLP CLEANS ITSELF OF PEOPLE LIKE HIM. U HALLUNA.

  13. amrio says:

    @Daphne,

    What you’re saying is so true! I can add to this by recounting an ordeal a close relative of mine was made to pass through in those days.

    Being in the t-shirt printing business (you know, the ‘I Love Malta’ stuff), he used to buy thousands of t-shirts locally. Someone persuaded him to import these t-shirts (and therefore make more profit). That was a big mistake.

    After being harassed by many local Dwana poeple to ‘make donations’ in return for getting the t-shirts which he bought (something he never agreed to do), and waiting for months on end, he decided to go to the Dwana and get his t-shirts, by hook or by crook.

    He was met by an official who showed him the reason why he did not get his t-shirts yet – a book with a host of importers’ names, where some names were adorned with a red circles. These poor fellows were either not Labour sympathisers, or (like this guy) were not ready to ‘buy presents’ for these officials’ kids.

    He then proceeded to show my relative where the t-shirts were currently – the ‘burdnara’ were using them as dirt-cloths!!

    My relative never got his t-shirts.

    That’s the O Zmien helu kif Hallejtni of Labour years for you.

    Josanne, some of the Labour poeple who, during those times, were either MP’s, or part of the Labour admin, or ‘policemen’ are still holding high offices, and pleading us to forget!

  14. Meerkat :) says:

    Kemm qieghed sew!

  15. CATherine says:

    And no one has mentioned yet that ‘all this deprivation’ was not being experienced when Malta was in WW1 or WW2 but long – long – after !!

    [Moderator – Malta wasn’t really a part of WWI. Maltese people refer to WWII as ‘The War’, that is, the only war in living memory. The only sweets (never mind chocolate) available at the time were the ones that British soldiers brought with them, handing them out to street urchins. Santa Marija is such a big deal here because it’s the anniversary of that miracle, when a half-sunken SS Ohio made its way into the Grand Harbour, laden with supplies that staved off full-scale famine. There’s a great account here: Operation Pedestal and SS Ohio save Malta]

  16. CATherine says:

    Re Article:- Imbghad jigi d-DNA-Charlie Mangion u jmur jghajjat li tan-Nazzjonalisti hazina d-DNA. Il-veru kaz li l-Ispizjar milli jkollu jtik !

  17. Daphne Caruana Galizia says:

    @ Catherine – yes, our deprivation was made so much worse by the fact that this was precisely the period when the markets were booming elsewhere.The streets of London were packed with Porsches and 1980s big-timers, and here in Malta, we were scrounging around.

  18. @ CATherine
    Those deprivations were the effects of war – suffered by all Europe practically . War, Catherine! It took all Europe a long time to recoup up to the 50’s I believe; but the deprivations mentioned here happened in peace time – with an inept government with AAPSO sympathies whose only ‘largesse’ were stacks of school bags etc. cast like ‘bzar fl-ghajnejn’.

  19. Amanda Mallia says:

    Such was the (chocolate) deprivation that when I used to earn the grand sum of Lm28 (no, that’s not a misprint – it’s Lm28 (not Lm280) PER MONTH) in 1984/1985, working from 8am – 5pm, 5 days a week as a pupil worker for the now infamous “points”, I used to think nothing of spending Lm1 on a single bar of Snickers or Mars at a little shop in Valletta.

    It’s not something I would do now, but such was the deprivation, that yes, people used to think nothing of foregoing something else to spend money on such “luxuries” (and contraband ones, at that)!

    And no, my grandparents did not go to school barefoot, but they all, sure as hell, were deprived of what was rightfully theirs when it was wrongly taken away from them by a Labour government, aided and abetted by their Labour cronies. Then again, some people would never understand, would they?

  20. Gerald says:

    Ghadex tghix fin 1984, Amanda Mallia? In 1984 I was at Junior Lyceum as my parents had decided that I shouldn’t go to St Aloysius due to the school trouble brewing at that time although I had passed the entry exams for oth schools. And I don’t hold it against the Labour Party as all KMB was insisting on was free schools for all.
    You speak of PN as the party of the future and all you are is stuck in the past.

  21. Gerald says:

    Daphne seems to have a fixation with Porsches. Btw in 1983 there were over 3 million unemployed in the UK. And this didnt come from ‘allahares jitla l-lejber’ but from a very interesting biography on Margaret Thatcher.

  22. David Buttigieg says:

    Gerald,

    For your information there already were free schools for all when KMB screwed up church schools for good. Government schools were free as you should recall.

    I remember having to study underground when I was ten.

    Seeing as to how you agreed with it can you please explain to me why someone should give a service for free?

    Do you work for free? Or do you perhaps live on state handouts?

  23. Albert Farrugia says:

    It’s amazing this obsession that has developed about the 70s and 80s, and now it seems we are even pushing back further and further. You know, someone who now occupies a very high office once talked of “national reconciliation” as the goal of his government. Yes! Reconciliation indeed! I was at PN HQ in 1996, the day after the PN defeat. I remember people angry, very angry. But what surprised me was some people who were, yes, angry because the PN had lost, but even MORE angry that the Labour supporters had not even torn up a single piece of decoration on Nationalist Party clubs. I heard it: ” Haqq ghall-********* ara lanqas haqq l-***** bicca karta mill-kazini ma qattghulna”
    Why continue this hate campaign? Is this the Flimkien slogan coming to life? Dont, DONT stoke the flame of hate. It will engulf you sooner than you think.

  24. David Buttigieg says:

    As to the ‘vote buying’ comedy, I remember that after the 1992 elections KMB stated the same thing, also using the illiterate voters fable. I remember a labour columnist (I don’t remember whom) writing that the ballot papers were printed with special ink so that one would be voting PN whilst thinking he was voting labour – wonder why lorry’s boy didn’t suggest that?

  25. Daphne Caruana Galizia says:

    @ I see, Gerald – your parents saw trouble brewing and they stayed on the safe side of the Labour government, instead of standing up to it. Not to put too fine a point on it, no wonder you think the way you do, having been brought up that way.

  26. Amanda Mallia says:

    Of course people like Gerald would prefer the (early) 1980s to be forgotten. But why should they be, when the people who might one day be in government were there in the bad old Labour days?

    I, for one, will ensure that my young children are well informed about the awful ’70s and early ’80s, especially since history does tend to repeat itself.

  27. Gerald says:

    Daphne, my parents both still vote Nationalist dont worry so they aren’t stupid, at least according to you . And in the early 1980’s, there wasen’t so much money at home with my dad just scraping through on a government salary and they took a deision which erred on the better side of caution.
    Acually I am the one who changed over the years. What’s your fine point? That I’m some sort of coward and that my family is cowardly too? And then, no wonder you think the way you do, having acquired so much under the PN government.

  28. MIkeC says:

    @Gerald

    I am also an old Aloysian and proud of it, but unlike you I decided to stay at St. Aloysius precisely because trouble was brewing. I, my family, and hundreds of others believed it was a point of principle to support free speech and independent education as part of the battle to preserve an already crippled democracy under threat of extinction.

    KMB’s ‘free schools’ battle was nothing but a smokescreen behind which to hide whilst making it impossible for them to be both free and independent. It was part of the strategy down the road to a police state, suppressing freedom of education, and monopolising broadcasting in order to suppress freedom of expression. Please don’t try and re-write history. There are enough of us around to remember the facts, including the head of state broadcasting announcing that he would use public broadcasting to bring up a generation of socialists.

    Somebody has suggested you go to China, but it is apparently not left-wing enough for you. You might be happier in North Korea. The above statement is much in keeping with North Korean methods. Indeed, when you were starting sixth form, the labour goverment was busy signing secret agreements with the government of North Korea and bringing their special police over to train the local thugs in uniform in how to beat us up whilst exercising our democratic right of freedom of expression, association and education.

  29. Amanda Mallia says:

    Gerald – While your parents sent you to the safety of the Junior Lyceum in 1984, mine were putting their livelihood and much more at risk by turning as many areas of our home (including the garden) into “classes” for myself and my contemporaries of St Aloysius’ Sixth Form. (People who have not experienced such times – the hardship, the uncertainty, the risks taken – can never fully understand the people who have.)

    No wonder your attitudes and values and mine are such worlds apart, Gerald.

  30. Gerald says:

    Albert Farrugia – well done on your comments. For the information of the rightwingers and PN supremacists on this blog, I was also at ‘Stamperija’ in 1996.
    David Buttigieg – I said ‘free schools for ALL’ not just government schools. But then, the elitist true blue families did not want Church schools to be free so that they could continue creating that sort of elite society which bred such lminaries as RCC et al.
    Now its the ‘independent’ schools which are the breeding grounds for Malta’s elite. More about that later.

    [Moderator – Rightwingers. Supremacists. Elitist true blue. Elite society. Malta’s elite. You forgot the reptilian humanoids.]

  31. Gerald says:

    MikeC, I really wouldn’t want to answer you about North Korea. You seem to talk like George Bush.

  32. Gerald says:

    Dear Amanda Mallia (my ex colleague whom I cannot remember). My sister used to go to clandestine classes for two whole months as she was (and remained) at a Church School. Will that make you change your mind, you and the PN Klan here? Are our values so different now? Not that I care anyway as God forbid we have the same values!

  33. Amanda Mallia says:

    Gerald – You said to my sister Daphne “And then, no wonder you think the way you do, having acquired so much under the PN government.”

    Well, I would like to rephrase that for you, so here goes:
    “No wonder you think the way you do, since you and your siblings, your parents and your grandparents before them suffered such hardship and injustices under the MLP government.”

    I, Gerald, can vouch for that.

    Incidentally, why have you suddenly dropped your surname from your posts, Gerald? As a form of “disguise”, maybe? If that is the case, then you should think about changing your green-tinged tack and language, since they are a dead give-away as to the identity of a certain Gerald Fenech …

  34. Albert Farrugia says:

    How about talking instead of an Acting Prime Minister expropriating land in the name of friends. Yes, the terrible 70s and 80s…there are some who think that this will divert attention to today’s situation. You are sadly succeeding, for a while.

  35. David Buttigieg says:

    Gerald,

    My Father was on a government salary too and yet my parents sacrificed like hell to send us to private and church schools.(Me private, my sister church).

    Today church schools are nothing like they used to be and so I have no option but to send my children to private schools. (I would have gladly paid for the church schools of my time). Thanks to my parents’ sacrifices I can afford it.

    I suppose you think we did wrong to study underground too!

  36. andrew borg-cardona says:

    @Gerald – I’ve no idea who you are my friend, but you clearly have no grasp of our country’s history and the impact Labour’s (now happily no longer active) thugs, intellectual and physical, wrought on it. Why is it that you and people like you have to be on the defensive all the time?

  37. David Buttigieg says:

    Gerald you didn’t answer

    Why should anybody give something for free.
    I repeat, do you work for free or do you live on government handouts perhaps?

  38. Amanda Mallia says:

    Gerald – You said “elitist true blue families did not want Church schools to be free so that they could continue creating that sort of elite society”

    More importantly, the REAL underlying issue was not about schools being free, but about democracy being threatened.

    As for your “elite” theory, I can assure you that the private (not church) school my children go to is attended by children from all walks of life, despite the ever-increasing school fees.

  39. Matthew says:

    You’ll probably find the anthropological studies of Michael Taussig very relevant to Gerald’s thought processes. Taussig studied nascent capitalist societies in Latin America, and he observed that because the indigenous population had no concept of capital or meritocracy, they couldn’t understand why some people climbed the socio-economic ladder while others tumbled down it. They tried to explain the success of others by claiming that these people were making pacts with demons. People who are not hardworking and undeserving of merit tend not to see those qualities in other people, because they are blind to them, and will instead resort to superstition for an explanation.

  40. Amanda Mallia says:

    Gerald – Aha, caught you again! (About being Gerald Fenech, I mean.)

    As for “clan”, it’s spelt with a “c”. Maybe you’re reading about the Ku Klux Klan?

    Anyway – we’d better call a truce before the moderator asks us to do so …

  41. amrio says:

    @All

    I’m puzzled. Anyone noticed how Gerald and Albert always appear and disappear together in this blog?

  42. Amanda Mallia says:

    Andrew Borg Cardona – I will go one further:

    Why is “hdura” – for which there is no true English equivalent – seemingly a common element in such Labour and pro-Labour people, especially “independent” (pun intended) journalists/columnists?

  43. David Buttigieg says:

    I think you nailed it Matthew.

    Unsuccessful people like Gerald (people who live alone and still find it hard to make ends meet must be unsuccessful) believe others owe them a living and nobody should be better off then them.

    What they can’t afford should be given for free, or failing that, if they can’t have it nobody can.

    Socialism is all about punishing the ones who succeed to reward those too lazy too. (not my expression by the way)

  44. Tony Pace says:

    Daphne
    You once wrote an article, many moons ago, entitled “lanzit”. I’d love to get a link to it, because I am sure its as topical as ever. For some reason, it seems to be the one quality that ‘OLD’ labour manage to pass on so effectively to ‘NEW’ Labour.
    I often wonder why Marie B or Jo S are unheard of these days. come on guys we miss ya :)
    Great blog.

  45. amrio says:

    @Gerald

    In case you don’t remember, or were too young and carefree at the time:

    1) Way back in the late 60’s PN had established a system of grants to church schools with the aim of reducing fees. This system was supposed to be increased in time so that in the end, church schools would be free.
    2) MLP had at 1st kept these grants, then decreased them, then stopped them completely (if I’m not mistaken in 1978 or thereabouts)
    3) KMB had declared a holy war on church schools (Jew B’Xejn jew Xejn) with the excuse that the Church can use its massive funds to subsidise school feels itself. Or in other words, KMB in green tights as Robin Hood.
    4) During a spontaneous demonstration (which were very popular with Labour hooligans and SMU criminals during those days), MLP thugs so wanted to prove KMB’s point that they ransacked the Archbishop’s Curia. At the time KMB uttered such infamous phrases as ‘Inthom l-aristokrazija tal-Haddiema’ and ‘Ghamiltu iktar milli tlabnikom’
    5) KMB was also responsible for issuing the cry for more parent intervention in their children’s schooling. Result? Multiple instances of teachers beaten up (especially in Govt schools) which goes on to this very day.

  46. MIkeC says:

    @Gerald,

    George Bush cannot possibly match my elegant turn of phrase and erudite thought. :)

    I see you have no counter argument. The truth is difficult to counter when it is known to most.

    I’ve just gone through the St. Aloysius College Directories for 1981-1982 & 1983-1984, as well as the college annuals for 79-80-81 & 81-82-83 (they issued them two years at a time, they were too busy trying to stay open) and I can find no trace of you. (Although in consolation, in an older edition, I found Alfred Grixti with a full head of hair)

    That tells me that you are someone who had an opportunity to go to St. Aloysius and missed it, and probably regret it. It explains some of your attitude. You have my sympathy. But its really time to stop pretending it was your choice, that you were happy with it, and that you wouldn’t have wanted to go. If someone needs to move on, it seems to be you.

    By the way, just out of curiosity, when did they start entrance exams? In my day, it was a minimum number of o-level and matric passes and/or specific grades in specific subjects, depending which course you intended to join.

  47. Amanda Mallia says:

    David Buttigieg – The way I see it, common elements in most Labourites are “hdura” and the fact that most of them “joghbodu l-min ghandu”. (Neither expression can be properly translated into English.)

  48. Albert Farrugia says:

    It’s when I read contributions like Amanda Mallia’s that I understand what hdura is. But anyway, enjoy it while it lasts.

  49. Amanda Mallia says:

    MikeC – You said to Gerald “I’ve just gone through the St. Aloysius College Directories for 1981-1982 & 1983-1984, as well as the college annuals for 79-80-81 & 81-82-83 … and I can find no trace of you.”

    That’s no surprise. In a previous post, Gerald (Fenech, who is now the grand old age of +-35) states that he was at the Junior Lyceum in 1984 (when he was probably +-11 years old). Something just doesn’t add up, unless, of course, he was a child prodigy.

    As for your going through the 1983/1984 St Aloysius directory, I was coincidentally going through mine, and found no trace of the guy either.

    What I did find, however was something interesting on it’s cover – an ASSP sticker saying “Lesti niggieldu ghal skejjel HIELSA”. Get it, people? “Free”, as in “hielsa”, as opposed to MLP’s “free” as in “b’xejn”.

    Another interesting thing – in it, this time – is the calendar of events. Sixth Form was scheduled to start on the 3rd September 1984. If I recall correctly, we missed most of the first term, since we actually started proper lessons at school a full 2 months later. Forget the past? What a blinking cheek!

  50. Bendu says:

    amiro: If I remember correctly there were at least two other murders you did not mention. That of accountant Lino Cauchi whose body I think was found in Buskett and that of a certain Wilfred Cardona whose body was found at Ta’ Qali.

  51. MIkeC says:

    @amanda mallia

    Just realised I confused the Junior Lyceum with the New Lyceum, hence my statement about o-levels and entrance exams. Gerald may be right, I might have more in common with George Bush than I thought. In which case, I think I’ll go and fall on my sword….. Or chew on a pretzel :)

  52. Amanda Mallia says:

    MikeC – Looks like I did the same thing, mixing up Junior Lyceum with New Lyceum. I eat my words, then …

  53. Daphne Caruana Galizia says:

    @Gerald – what I acquired under the PN government, as you put it, is exactly what everyone else acquired: a peaceful life. Everything else I acquired was the result of my own hard work and private endeavours, like the magazine up there in the right-hand corner of this blog.

  54. Daphne Caruana Galizia says:

    @ Gerald: the RCC you despise didn’t go to a church school, but to an independent school which was not part of the Church-Government battle and which continued to charge fees throughout, as it does to this day – high fees, incidentally. If you are going to put forward an argument, at least get your facts right. The most elitist boys’ school of all wasn’t a church school but a school set up by a luminary of the long since defunct Constitutional Party. Its fees were, are and probably will remain the highest in the country.

  55. Amanda Mallia says:

    Bendu – (Though I am not Amrio) I vaguely remember the Lino Cauchi case.

    If I am not mistaken, he was the accountant for Fusellu’s wife, and repeatedly got boxed adverts in The Times asking for information about the whereabouts of some cars, amongst them, if I am not mistaken here too, a yellow Mercedes.

    He disappeared shortly after the appearance of these adverts, only to have his remains found (several years later, I believe) in plastic bags in a Buskett well.

    The facts may be a bit fuzzy, because I was only a child at the time, but I do remember them more-or-less that way.

  56. Daphne Caruana Galizia says:

    @Amanda – funny you should say that about Gerald. I was just working out the sums myself. I was 19 in 1984 when the church schools crisis exploded, which means that there is no way on earth that Gerald could have been at sixth form then because he is years younger than I am.

  57. MIkeC says:

    @gerald, @daphne – and the only reason the school in question wasn’t part of the battle was because they hadn’t yet finished the battle with the other schools and they hadn’t yet manufactured the legal grey area they would have eventually used to take it on.

  58. Amanda Mallia says:

    Daphne – MikeC (incidentally – I wonder if you are the MikeC I know) pointed out that we were mixing up Junior Lyceum with New Lyceum (the then government 6th form).

    Either that, or Gerald was a child prodigy!

  59. Amanda Mallia says:

    amrio – So maybe Malta Today states the facts differently. I did state that I was a child at the time (though after seeing Malta Today, I now realise I was probably around 14), though I do remember those adverts pretty clearly, and somehow, the yellow Mercedes sticks in my head. I don’t know why, but it just does – maybe because Fusellu was a familiar sight in it in the ’70s/”80s? Who knows?

    Anyway …

  60. David Buttigieg says:

    Daphne,

    St Edwards College may not have been a church school but it was closed along with the church schools (I know because I was there) In fact because it was not a church school it remained closed after the church schools opened, I remember I only had 3 weeks of the first term.

    Thank you KMB, I’m sure you must feel so proud!

  61. MIkeC says:

    @amanda – don’t know how many MikeC’s you know, I can think of at least three, but I’m one of them :)

  62. Daphne Caruana Galizia says:

    @Amanda – Gerald said his parents sent him there because they felt trouble brewing with the government, so it can’t have been the New Lyceum unless somebody is telling giant fibs.

  63. Mario Debono says:

    Good morning. Lino Cauchi was not just the Fusellu’s accountant, but Lorry Sant’s, as well as other notorious MLP thugs like Piju L-Hawsla, who today owns Malta;s most beautiful Ferretti Yacht, Joe tal-Magic Kiosk and a host of others. I have very good recollections of the case becaause i used to follow it at the time. Lino Cauchi was the guru of that time. He used ro advise people what to do with the sackloads of cash that they were earning. I remember a party at a seaside bar in Xemxija, well known for attracting the MLP glitterati at the time, where the Moet flowed like water,and all these thugs used to come and spend their money there. I once met Lino there. I must have been 13 or 14. Then he disappeared. The next thing iknow is when my friend used to go wash his car at buskett and he found more than he bargained for when he went to take water from the well. Someone or some people, undoubtedly MLP , who are still alive and running about, even today, killed Lino mafia style and cut him up. Lino was meant to be found that way . He was a warning so that others will clam up. This is another thing the MLP never mentions. I am sure amongst their ranks there are people who can shed light on this mystery. where are they?

  64. Daphne Caruana Galizia says:

    @Amanda – you’re right about those adverts for expensive cars that had ‘disappeared’. But they appeared after Fusellu’s death, and were placed by Fusellu’s wife, or her accountant.

    @ Gerald – now I get it. Your parents sent you to the Junior Lyceum (school) as opposed to the New Lyceum (sixth form) even though you had passed the tough entrance exams for St Aloysius. That sucks – no wonder you’re so bitter about those who went to private schools and church schools. Well, I can understand that. Parents can make a lot of mistakes with permanent consequences, but at some point we just have to get over it.

  65. Alexander the not so great says:

    I don’t know if you haven’t noticed, but strangely enough, until the annointed one, JM was appearing on PBS’s Dissett, the drama currently showing on One TV, Gizelle, stopped running, and strangely enough continued exactly after JM stopped and Michael Falzon appeared.

    X’kumbinazzjoni!!!! oooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

    Any guess? Maybe the ‘independent’ journalist Gerald can make a journalistic scoop out of it! Come on Gerald…..

  66. Alexander the not so great says:

    … and by the way Gerald,

    During that (in)famous time of the church schools saga, I happened to be in a government school. Oh what a time!

    ‘It-tfal tal-haddiema’, like me, were left without teaching for months. Instead KMB introduced hardcore MLP supporters to teach us instead. That was really great. I was attending Form 5 at the time. Do you want to know what they taught us? Mathematics tables up to 9! Adding up to 100 and reading Ladybird stories.

    When KMB suddenly decided to open the junior lyceums (for intelligent persons like you), our schools were dismantled to fill the junior lyceums! Dak iz-zmien nahseb li ma kienx jghodd il-buzz words “Hadd m’hu ghar-rimi”. Ahna, ‘t-tfal tal-haddiema”, konna ghar-rimi!

    Wara din l-esperjenza, kelli naqta bi snieni biex ingib dak li tellifni l-partit tieghek! ghozzu ta!!!

  67. Charles Cauchi says:

    @Daphne.
    Actually that independent school was involved in the Church-Government battle.

    The details elude me, but KMB had decreed that any non-state schools which opened on a certain day would be forced to close down.

    My son was a student at that school. As befits the military tradition of the school, parents were organised into ‘platoons’ (not by the school administration) to guard the perimeter against attacks by the Workers’ Aristocracy.

    As it happened, the school administration decided not to open on that particular day to avoid confrontation.

  68. amrio says:

    Continuing from my posts from yesterday, another interesting / forgotten story:

    Mazara del Vallo capomafia Giovanni Bastone

    Victor Balzan who was present at a number of meetings regarding land dealings in the presence of the murdered accountant Lino Cauchi (in 1981) met Giovanni Bastone the mafia boss of Mazara del Vallo and Rino Bocina the disgraced mayor in 1994, according to Italian criminal investigators.

    Victor Balzan, a businessman whose name surfaces over and over again in the corruption probes related to the Lorry Sant, Piju Camilleri and Joe Camilleri land scams, was recorded by micro receivers planted by the Servizio Centrale Operativo of the Italian Police. They were hidden in a meeting room at the Hotel Raphael and in the offices of a Sicilian lawyer in Rome.

    In the 90’s the central Hotel Raphael was the home of the disgraced and corrupt Socialist Prime Minister, Bettino Craxi. The meeting between Victor Balzan was held together with individuals from the Sicilian criminal world to set up a mega casino at Manoel Island. The whole project was shelved because the two Sicilians Bastone and Bocina ended up behind bars because of their criminal connections.

    The Italian SOC had been following the seemingly innocent fishing boats from Mazara del Vallo to Malta because of reports that they were involved in the transportation of arms and drugs from Sicily to Malta.

    Source: http://pub13.bravenet.com/forum/1108663621/fetch/462917/

    [Moderator – Sorry this took so long to appear, it ended up in the spam bin for some reason.]

  69. Gerald Fenech says:

    Wow, thanks for all the replies. I don’t know where to start really, I have to get this befuddled brain working perhaps coz it went to a state school.
    To set the record straight, I went to the Junior Lyceum and not the New Lyceum from 1983-1989. The Junior Lyceum in Hamrun is a secondary school and is still functioning if I’m not mistaken. One of my classmates was Chris Cardona, Labour MP and candidate for Deputy Leader of the MLP.
    That means I was obviously not at St Aloysius although I had passed the entrance exam. So all that vile barb about looking at school annuals and not finding me there was completely incorrect. Thank God I didn’t go on second thoughts with schoolmates like the lot of you! A real eye opener.
    It also seems to elude you that I have left journalism as you consistently call me an independent journalist.
    Amanda, the only reason why Gerald sometimes appears instead of Gerald Fenech is due to the fact that I post from different PC’s and one of them has Gerald in its username. You’re wasting a lot of time creating conspiracy theories about nothing.
    Daphne, I bear no hard feelings at not going to St Aloysius as the crop of teachers at the JL was the best in the land. All my class can vouch for it with doctors’ lawyers, dentists, MP’s neuro surgeons, engineers coming out of our 5A class.
    As for Klan, that is exactly what I meant KKK, or to be more precise a form of White Citizens Council to make it more official. Anyone interested should read more about the subject.

    [Moderator – Gerald, I think you’re the only one who’s wearing a tin-foil hat here. White Citizens Council? KKK? Yes, that’s right, Daphne is a white supremacist whose family was actually attacked by black supremacists. And the opinions of this blog on white supremacist groups like Imperium Europa are just a facade.]

  70. Matthew says:

    Gerald Fenech, 2008/03/17:

    “I have wrote and broadcasted quite a bit in the independent media and I always attempt to be completely free of any bias.”

    ‘I always attempt’: present tense.

  71. Gerald Fenech says:

    Moderator, I didn’t say that the owner of this blog and her acolytes was racist, far from it. The White Citizens Council was more interested in economic boycotts actually and left the redneck racism to the blue collar whites.
    And just to set the record straight, I was one of those journalists who stood on the steps on Castille to protest against the indiscriminate arson attempt on DCG’s home. She can corrobrate that.

    [Moderator – So let me get this straight: are you insinuating that the owner of this blog is the member of a cabal similar in structure, purpose and ideology to the ‘White Citizens Council’, and is secretly a racist but doesn’t like to do the dirty work of running over refugees and burning down houses? And ‘indiscriminate arson’? Gerald, that phrase is more revealing of the way you think than anything you have said so far: arson is alright, as long as we discriminate between those who should be its victims and those who shouldn’t. The word ‘indiscriminate’ is usually put before ‘arrest’, as in ‘indiscriminate arrest’, when Anglu Farrugia arrested Lino Cauchi’s wife, without discriminating between the victim and the perpetrator.]

  72. Gerald Fenech says:

    Moderator, ok wanton, despicable, cowardly arson ok? Maybe indiscriminate was not the right word to choose before you start reading between the lines and concocting conspiracy theories.
    Re WCC and KK, the power structure in this country limits the dosh to a limited few, the inner ‘true blue’ circle. Isn’t that racism also, albeit not based on skin colour but political colour?

    [Moderator – In that context, it’s called a Freudian slip not a conspiracy theory. A by-product of meritocracy is that earnings are limited to those who earn them. What alternative system do you propose?]

  73. Gerald Fenech says:

    amrio, can you provide us with some information about Roberto Memmo? What about the Fort Chambray scam?

  74. Gerald Fenech says:

    Moderator, I’ve got another one for you to check out; State Sovereignty Commission.

    [Moderator – Ah yes, very relevant with all the Jim Crow laws we have in place here.]

  75. Gerald Fenech says:

    As I said, segregation is not only by race. It is also practised by political colour. Being a Labour supporter ensures that you always start at a disadvantage compared to the PN counterpart.

    [Moderator – Gerald, how? Name at least one systematic mechanism for keeping Labourites at a disadvantage. Short answer: there isn’t, which is why you end up with people like George Micallef at the MTA.]

  76. Vanni says:

    @ Gerald
    “Being a Labour supporter ensures that you always start at a disadvantage compared to the PN counterpart.”

    You are right Gerald, as one party elects winners for leaders, with a clear vision, whilst the other seems too choose screwballs. The tragic part is that the Labour supporters seem to close their eyes and meekly follow what the MLP decides, with its Board tal-Vigilanza etc etc. The PN would not get very far with its supporters if it tried that. But it may be a mentality thing.

  77. A. Attard says:

    I was at ST. Aloysius during 1984 and Chris Cardona was in my class Form 2B which was meant to open on the 23rd september.
    He was one of the handfull of students who left college to go to the places the KMB goverment reserved for the church school students since the said schools could not open.

    Those who left were not really seen in a very good light by the rest of us, to put it mildly .

    I am proud that my parents gave me one of the most important lessons in life i.e. never give in to injustice but resist.

    I remember college was guarded by the police and no one except the jesuits could enter. I entered a couple of times on the pretext that i was going to confession, the college had been stripped bare out of fear from the socialist mob

  78. Alexander the not so great says:

    @ Gerald FENECH

    My dear compatriot comrade! Can you please answer my question?

    Thanks ta

  79. Daphne Caruana Galizia says:

    @gerald fenech – if you want corruption scandals galore about Roberto Memmo and Fort Chambray, future pm Joseph Muscat wrote a novel about it for his master Sant, and was sued by several people including me (I won).

  80. David Buttigieg says:

    @Gerald

    I noticed you have not once answered a single question I asked you. Surprise surprise.

  81. MikeC says:

    @Gerald

    Nobody is saying your thinking is befuddled because you went to a state school. A quick look at the evidence shows that your befuddlement is clearly your own achievement, especially in view of the successes of your classmates. I don’t believe Norman Lowell and Emy Bezzina went to state schools but they have both managed to achieve a level of befuddlement which outshines even yours.

    The interesting thing is that although all three of you are saying different things, you all sound the same. If you want to be of service to the party you now support, I suggest you moderate your tone, and try to tackle real issues instead of doing your best to sound like a crackpot.

  82. amrio says:

    @Gerald Fenech

    “amrio, can you provide us with some information about Roberto Memmo? What about the Fort Chambray scam?”

    I swear I tried to find references to those issues and especially to the book(s) written by Glen and JM in the early 2000’s, but could not find any.

    So if you have any references, kindly supply. But please, for everyone’s sake, don’t quote from the back of your head, please supply URL’s

  83. Gerald Fenech says:

    amrio you seem like the expert on these issues. I’m not so I cannot really comment. I thought you would enlighten me about that particular situation.
    And regarding libel suits, why don’t you mention the EFA statement on his beloved son before the Referendum where Dr Sant won a considerable amount in damages for a blatant lie that was uttered just before Silent day began.
    George Micallef is not a Labour sympathiser although you try to tar him as being one.

    [Moderator – Another Freudian slip: you ‘tar’ people when you claim that they have Labour sympathies. George Micallef is a Labour sympathiser.]

  84. Gerald Fenech says:

    A Attard, you’re right. Chris Cardona joined us in Form 2.

  85. Gerald Fenech says:

    and how do you define GM as a Labour sympathiser? And what should we do with him then? Systematically block him out of every government or state controlled operation? There goes your Jim Crow!

    [Moderator – Gerald, George Micallef’s professional reputation is very badly damaged, so whether or not he is a Labour sympathiser is irrelevant to the fact that he will have difficulty finding work. Unlike the American Deep South of years ago, there is no legal mechanism for segregation, nor do we wish for one.]

  86. john says:

    Chambray project

    It was a case of pure corruption

    100 flats were builts and the bank of valletta gave to the developers a loan of 6 million maltese liri

    do u need a loan of six million maltese lire to built in the 80s 100 apartments in shell form?

    with interest the loan got into 10 million liri

    so if at that time to built a apartment in shell form it cost about 5000 liri that make a total of half a million maltese liri to built the whole block

    so the whole loan was 6million liri and the developers spent half a million maltese liri to built 100 apartments

    the big question is what happened to the five and a half maltese liri that the bank gave, the developers never spent and in whom pocket they vanished

    gvern nadif tazza ………….lol

  87. Gerald Fenech says:

    There may be no legal basis for segregation here but it is parctised in many other ways as one can observe from the enlightened opinions on this blog.

    [Moderator – Gerald, find a single comment on this blog where an employer claims to segregate employees.]

  88. amrio says:

    @John

    I am not questioning what you said about Fort Chambray, but can you please give us lookup references?

    I am genuinely interested in knowing what happened…

  89. David Buttigieg says:

    Gerald old boy

    You don’t have a leg to stand on and you know it.

  90. Amanda Mallia says:

    MikeC – Actually, the only MikeC I can think of is the one at whose flat a bunch of us were way back in May 1987 (May 17th, possibly), nervously awaiting the election results in pre-mobile phone days.

    What I remember is myself and a friend dying to go out and celebrate (on hearing the horns, seeing PN flags …), and most of the rest of you being dampers saying that we couldn’t possibly have won, and carrying on with your card games until we had the official result …

    Incidentally, judging by your trademark sarky comments, you MUST be that MikeC. (Just joking!)

  91. Gerald says:

    Are you really Daph’s sister Amanda? My leg’s hurting as it seems to have lost its strength.

  92. Amanda Mallia says:

    Why, Gerald? What difference would that make to you? I’m not in the habit of lying, and simply say things the way they are.

  93. MIkeC says:

    @amanda

    Sarcastic? Moi? :)

    May 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th – up to the time RAI announced a nationalist victory. Remember? Not Xandir Malta, RAI! We didn’t get a real official result until quite a while later.

    We weren’t playing cards (well not all the time), we were adding up the trickle of numbers that were coming through until quite a while after you’d left!

    In view of the fact that KMB’s government had behaved pretty much like Robert Mugabe today (and we know Mintoff & Mugabe are still corresponding) we weren’t completely convinced the result would be ‘allowed’ to stand, or the real results released.

    Mintoff’s friend Mugabe is still at it, unfortunately.

  94. Simon says:

    Gerald, I guess who must feel pretty important in this blog. I find your line of thought, your arguments and your U turns pretty amusing. We’ve got a real case study here.

    Anyway, I wanted to draw your attention to your own biography further up in this thread. You entered the Junior Lyceum in September 1983 and left in 1988, not 1989.

    I also remember that Chris Cardona and Ludvic Zrinzo joined Form 2A in October 1984, without any entrance exams at all. But, as you know, both of them were ‘sons of’ and well connected in the Labour Party. I remember the headmaster of the school, a labour canvasser of an MP from Zejtun, taking special care of them. After a few years, I also realized that the school prefects of this school which were all handpicked by the same headmaster were all sons of persons well connected in the Labour Party. Even amongst l-ulied tal-haddiema, a few ulied are more equal than others.

    Your statement “Being a Labour supporter ensures that you always start at a disadvantage compared to the PN counterpart” really puzzles me. You have no idea what you’re talking about. Curiosity, did you ever work in the real private sector (please don’t mention Smash), did you ever attend an interview. What discrimination are you talking about? Are you playing the victim’s card, similar to all drop outs in society? I think you had your opportunities as well. It was up to you to exploit them and to live up to the expectations.

  95. Gerald Fenech says:

    Simon,
    If you want to imply that I am a dropout, then you are mistaken.
    I have worked in the private sector all my life and I never needed anyone to give me a leg up and always succeeded at what I did.
    But since you are turning the issue to personal stuff, then I will stop commenting as all it seems you are interested in is to play dirty and attempt to tar my reputation.

  96. eve says:

    @ Simon.

    And Alfred Sant had the cheek to coin up the term ‘il-hbieb tal-hbieb’!. In this case it was ‘it-tfal tal-hbieb’. Veru kaz li l-ispizjar milli jkollu jtik!

  97. Romegas says:

    To be fair on AS the term Hbieb tal-Hbieb was coined by anthropologist Jeremy Boissevain in the early ’70s. Boissevain used it to explain the intricate Maltese way of establishing links. AS used it so much that he almost made it his.

  98. Simon says:

    Gerald

    I am not suggesting that you’re a dropout, but these people and similar people who have a lot of animosity towards successful people, always claim that they were discriminated. They use the same statement you used. I strongly believe that there is no discrimination in Malta as you are implying. You are way off the mark.

    Look at the US. There are 3 huge minorities, Jews, Latinos and African Americans. They all live in difficult circumstances. The Jews were mobile and became very successful. The Latinos work very hard, they do jobs that nobody wants to do and are becoming a strong lobby community which is being courted in the elections, while the African Americans enjoyed affirmative action policies, generous welfare state and still they have the lowest standard of living in the US. Today there are lots of tensions between blacks and Latinos, since the latter is becoming more important as a minority group, and the blacks resent that.

  99. Gerald Fenech says:

    Simon, I suggest you read a few books about the Civil Rights issue in the US as you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about. You seem to talk like those racist whites in the Deep South (who have now migrated choc a bloc to the Republican Party) who insist that ‘nigras are inferior to the Anglo-Saxon race and are nothing but a bunch of lazy, good for nothing layabouts’. What are you trying to imply?

  100. Simon says:

    Gerald, racism exists and some people like Jesse Jackson exploit that to their benefit. Instead of helping the African Americans to take advantage of the affirmative action policies, he instills hate in his speeches. That’s why Obama (who is relatively new on the political scene) is more successful than him, who’s been around for around 40 years. Did the so called civil rights leaders endorse Obama immediately? No way. Initially they passed a lot of negative remarks about him.

    Minority people who become successful, like Colin Powell, never use the discrimination or racism card. They just work for their success.

    Unfortunately, certain African Americans refer to Powell and Obama and other successful people as Oreos (black on the outside, white on the inside) because according to them they ‘act whitish’.

    I have a lot of admiration for the Latinos, who are very humble people and work very hard. Everybody is chasing their vote, since their vote cannot be taken for granted. Although being a minority, I never heard them speaking of discrimination, even though it exists. They just work hard, and they will definitely become a success story and a very strong lobby in the years to come.

  101. Gerald says:

    Whilst I tend to agree with you about Jesse Jackson, on has to examine the context of an African American’s upbringing in the Deep South pre 1965. It’s a bit like comparing the Labour years of 1971-87 if you get my drift.

  102. Amanda Mallia says:

    MikeC – I thought it was you all along.

    Yes, now I remember the bit about the numbers – There was your brother there too, very straight-faced, with a calculator in hand. Funny how the little things come back to you, after having been forgotten for 20 years+. (Though good things those days are long gone.)

  103. Simon says:

    The white population of the Deep South are sometimes called Red Necks or White Trash (similar in meaning to the Maltese saying “ta’ wara l-muntanji” or “hamalli”)

  104. MikeC says:

    @Amanda

    Yes, my brother was very straightfaced. He was one of those who had to leave Malta to get his medical degree, thanks to Mintoff, and made a new life for himself elsewhere, never to return.

  105. Gerald Fenech says:

    Exactly Simon, the white racists can be compared to the Labour thugs of the 70’s and 80’s. I’m not one to condone such a disastrous episode in Labour’s history which has done irreparable harm to the party’s image.

  106. Amanda Mallia says:

    MikeC – I just re-read my post. I didn’t mean to sound offensive with the “straight-faced” bit. I just remember D. and myself being really annoyed (to say the least) because we had wanted to go out celebrating, when none of the rest of you could believe that PN had won. (Though that is perfectly understandable, given the times we were in, and considering that Sliema was usually a prime target for Labour thuggery – Mind you, I’m more than making up for it with celebrations each election since, except for that of ’96, obviously.)

    Yes, Mintoff ruined lots of people’s lives, so I really can’t say I feel sorry for the pitiful state he SEEMS to have been reduced to now. Even my kids are aware of his existence and of some of the things we went through at their age because of him, because I think that it is important that they don’t take things for granted themselves, and that history is not forgotten …

  107. MIkeC says:

    @Amanda

    No offence taken – I simply thought the point needed making.

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