Stejjer tal-wahx (Part 2)
Thanks to the assiduous research of one reader of this blog, here’s another storja tal-wahx. It’s particularly dear to me because it encapsulates the prospects of my generation of school-leavers. I was 16 when Mintoff gave this speech in 1981, outlining his plans to set up another organised gang of workers, this time called Id-Dejma, to provide work for the thousands of people aged between 18 and 25 who had no jobs. It reminds me why one of my best friends, privately educated, cried with relief when she found a job that paid Lm80 a month, standing behind a shop counter for nine hours a day dealing with rude customers. Or why one of my other best friends, also privately educated, rose at 5am to take two buses to a radiator factory where she began work at 7am, answering phones for Lm30 a week. And we were the lucky ones, who got our amazingly lucrative jobs laden with thrilling prospects through a network of parental contacts. Everybody else had to join Mintoff’s Dejma or live off their parents.
“Biex ma nhallux lil dan il-fjur ta’ pajjiz jintilef se nergghu nifthu korp iehor, differenti min ta’ qabel. Se jidhlu fih dawk ta’ bejn it-18 u l-25 sena. Ghal erbatax il-xahar biss, biex wara jsibu fl-industrija u jidhlu ohrajn flokhom. Din il-forza se jkun jisimha ‘id-dejma’, ghax irridu nfakru fl-antik. Fl-antik il-Maltin kienu ffurmaw id-dejma li kienu johorgu bil-lejl biex iharsu u jiddefendu lil-pajjizna. Kull sena se nibdew indahhlu forza biex nidefendu lil Malta.”
– Dom Mintoff addresses a meeting in Birkirkara, 31 May 1981
What vision! And then they say that this man was is-Salvatur ta’ Malta. No wonder they ended up with Alfred Sant, and foisted him on the rest of us.
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Ah yes! dear old Dom! Remind me – which party was it that welcomed him with open arms so that they can get power?? That day was the day I saw that the PN was an unprincipled bunch who would dine with the devil if that got them power. Look closely and there is really nothing different between the two big boys. Power at all costs and to hell with every thing/one else!!
2 questions …
1. a complete set of them I really want answered, coz I sincerely don’t know, due to my age.
There *was* something similar, another corp – invented by our present Speaker – Dr. Louis Galea – what was it called? Who was to join? Why was it created? What happened to it?
2. is this Dom Mintoff guy, the same person who is backing the same Dr. George Abela for MLP leadership as our host DCG?
@M Brincat – there was nothing similar to Id-Dejma and Il-Pijunieri created by any government of 1987-2008, and that includes Sant’s government. There was no need for it because, except for that brief Sant interim, there have been more jobs than people to fill them.
2. I can’t understand the point of your argument. The fact that lots of people I fervently dislike voted for Gonzi this time round did not affect my opinion of him or prevent me from voting for him.
@Mario P – they did the right thing. They used Malta’s most terrible agent of destruction as the means of achieving Malta’s real salvation in EU membership. The irony was delicious. I would have done the same thing. Faced with the choice between watching my country go down the drain or using an old political enemy to snatch back the possibility of EU membership, I know exactly what I would have gone for.
@ m. Brincat
You mean the AWTS? That was not a ‘corp’ (sic) like Mintoff`s Dejma or Dirghajn il-Maltin or the Pijunieri. MLP set up military corps and the unfortunate unemployed who had no other option than to join had to observe military discipline. The AWTS was set up to absorb and train the thousands (some 8000) employed in the public sector just before the 1987 general election by an MLP government in its death throes and doing anything to desperately try to clutch on to power. Persons employed through AWTS did not have to wear a military uniform and their conditions of work were those generally applicable to Government employees.
docs.justice.gov.mt/lom/legislation/english/subleg/343/21.pdf
@ Mario P
Remind me – which party was it that welcomed him with open arms so that they can get power?? In 1998 Parliament discussed a Bill about the lease of the Cottonera waterfront. PN did not agree with the period of lease proposed and the fact that Maltese citizens were apparently going to loose the right to use the waterfront. PN persistently voted against the Bill. Mintoff, too, expressed his opposition to the proposed terms of lease and in fact voted against the Bill. PN only welcomed and utilized the opportunity that cropped up, but certainly did not welcome Mintoff with open arms. Welcoming him with open arms would have meant Mintoff joining PN.
Remember this Daphne?
‘Jien naf hafna nisa li jiehdu l-pirmla jew pillola,jghidulhom xi tridu dawn,hawn hafna.Ma jaghmlux bhal hafna nisa ohrajr,imorru ghand il-qassisin u jghidulu,’meta hi dik il-gurnata u meta l-ohra?’u dan ….Mhux ser noqghod ninhela fuq affarijiet tan-nisa ghawn jien’
Konfernaz Generali 2.6.1979
:-))
Get serious please. You cannot just pluck this out of the context it was said and judge it by today’s standards.
Do you realise than in 1981 PC’s were yet to be invented. Do you realised that Microsoft was not yet in existence? Do you realise that the world was gripped by a horrible recession following the Iran crisis and the second oil shock of 1979? Do you relise that unemployment all over the world was creeping to double digit rate as central banks round the world were forced to jack up interest rate, 20% in case of the USA to squeeze out a chronic inflation situation?
All countries were then resorting to crisis measures, the world was getting protectionist and Malta was no exception. There are much worse things than this that Mintoff has to answer for.
I have friends who started off in dejma and are now senior executives. At least Dejma kept them from emigrating!!
@ M Brincat
2 Answers…
1. It was called Awziljari. Dear Mr Brincat these workers were SOME of the 8000 persons illegally employed by the schizophrenic PM Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici in the six months leading up to the May 1987 elections. Many of these 8000 people were employed with every Government parastatal company or utility. Then there were several hundred unskilled labourers employed as messengers with govt Departments. The govt had the option of either sacking these 8000 people (who were not at fault for not having a job) or trying to re train or re deploy them. One of these schemes was the Awzliljari which came to being entirely the result of bad socialist governance.
2 While Dom Mintoff is endorsing Dr George Abela, I am sure GA is a man who would certainly not emulate Dom Mintoff. Nor does it follow that supporting GA means you condone Mintoff’s premiership ! Personally I have my doubts about GA’s credentials for PM.
But then again I am pretty sure Labour will again choose the wrong leader , following such great leaders as Dom Mintoff, KMB and Alfred Sant!
@ Daphne : CORRECTION, the MLP did not end up with Dr Sant with the delegates’ choice , he elbowed his way with extra ghost votes thrown by a certain Pawlu Muscat under the watchfull eyes of a certain Nestu , with poison letters sent to the delegates by a certain MC (undoubtedly not Manwel Cuschieri its not his style) , and by the BORD tal-Vigillanza u dixxiplina.
Gentleman Lino did not suspect immediately about this hijack, the delegates CHOSE Lino , but somehow there were more votes cast then there were registered delegates who actually voted.
Mintoff took the Keynesian economic “sense” to its weird limits. Yet we don’t seem to realize that the whole world has lived this Keynesian dream for a very long time, in various shades and colours.
It works short-term and in specific circumstances. In the longer term it is just a form of mild sovietism.
I think the world has come of age now to try Bastiat’s and Hayek’s economic wisdom – and this comes from a former communist of the 1970s.
BTW, does anyone here remember Mintoff’s other Keynsian projects Il-Pijunieri and Dirghajn il-Maltin? Or Louis Galea’s brainchild, “L-Awziljarji”? That was yummity yuk!
The word ‘Mintoff’ – lest we forget – should be included in a separate lexicon to define excatly all the stupid things this ex Prime MInister and his old regime did to make our nation collapse. I lived the days when Mintoff denied so many human rights and freedom of expression to so many citiziens, and somehow permitted violence and agression to prevail without any sign of repentance. The best thing ever done by Mintoff was when he retired completely after having helped Alfred Sant to go out for a crushing defeat by PN. JUst a list of what had happened during Mintoff’s blaskest political period:
1. Workers (his love) lost their rights and were offered miserable jobs.
2. Most of his ministers arrogantly filled in the public service with some notable fools and parasites.
3. Education, Courts and the Church were seriously threatened.
4. The Church Schools went through hell.
5. The students in Church Schools had to suffer his poor judgement of what constitutes good education.
6. He wanted to produce (social engineering) a socialist geenration.
7. Media and TV were turned into a Machiavellian tool for the promulgation of the socialist philosophy.
8. We begged to have chocolates, TV sets and decent food (God bless Sicilians for helping us to procure some ‘good’ goods).
9. PN had to pay a high price by being unjustly deprived of governing this country.
10. MIntoff is and will remain a perennial sign of shame for those who haven’t got the decency to make an apology for all the above and much more.
@M. Brincat
I believe what you are mentioning are the ‘awziljarji’. I stand to be corrected but when AS came to power some two or three magisterial inquiries were conducted. I believe there were even some cases before the courts. Nothing came out of all the mud slinging.
The many, I repeat many, labour corps were the only, and again I repeat only, answer to the unemployment problems during those years. Not because there were universal problems mind you, but because of the narrow mindedness of the way the public finances were managed. Mind you, the unemployment problem wasn’t solved even with these draconian measures.
One of the main mlp protagonists of that time even went as far as to say that they were ready to suspend the constitution if this would bring work to the islands.
These poor souls, our fellow citizens, were ‘offered’ a job, no matter what education one had, like building the 13th December Avenue in Marsa (when you come to the first bridge take a look a the height of rock that had to be cut with primitive equipment) with the minimum of wages, under military discipline and without the right to join a union. If you refused the job, you were refused social assistance.
Lets put this into perspective with another quote…….
“Kemm il-gvern Amerikan, il-gvern Ingliz u dak Taljan, u kif ukoll il-Knisja ta’ Malta jafu li se titwettaq il-weghda taghna…….xoghol ghal kullhadd fi zmien tlett xhur”
(Mintoff: Meeting: Hamrun – 21/02/1966)
Good joke trying to compare those years with these. Tell me another……
Yes, it is the same Mintoff. And you can be sure that it has cost GA a lot of moral points on the blue side; but still he is the best bet the mlp have at the moment. The others are zilch.
@M Brincat : Awziljari it was , it was nowhere near the Military Corps and the majority were part of the SEVEN THOUSAND fanthom employments KMB employed on the eve of the elections. Minister Galea did not take the decission but it was the cabinet of ministers who took the decission.
Dom Mintoff likes Kinnie also , does it follow that whoever and whatever Dom Mintoff likes is always bad?
George Abela is the type of person who can garner the support of a wide spectrum of personalities.
Daphne likes George , and Dom hates Alfred, his reasoning could be “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” That was how the PN reasoned back in ’96 , OK Mario P?
Mintoff felt used and thrown aside by Sant , who implied in a public meeting in Bormla that Mintoff ( from Salvatur) was a TRADITUR. That was unpardonable !
@M. Brincat – Spot on. Louis Galea’s awziljari ended up in some scandal, though whether it was serious stuff or the stuff of politicos I don’t recall.
I knew someone who used to be an awziljarju. He used to clear weeds at Buskett, whenever he felt like moving… the rest of his working day was spent experimenting with various ways of being happily idle.
Auxiliary workers scheme was very different from the Mintoff era’s corps. Whilst Mintoff’s were under military rule with military conditions (no right to strike, union etc), the AWS was meant to train the thousands of unemployable young people left over after 16 years of MLP government whilst offering them decent work with government but even more important with the private sector. In fact a large number of individuals found productive work within the private sector.
Very different from the Dejma, Diraghjn il-Maltin, Izra w Rabbi, Pioneers and most probable others that I cannot remember.
So please enjoy your life on this Island that though still far from perfect, is light years ahead of the Malta in the 70’s and 80’s.
@M Brincat – Louis Galea was the Minister who had to deal with the 8,000 or so illegal employees taken on in the public sector by Labour Prime Minister Karm Mifsud Bonnici in a bare-faced bid to win the 1987 Elections. Labour lost the election and the PN Government, instead of firing the whole lot of them, set up the Auxiliary Workers’ Training Scheme (or some name like that)
Dom Mintoff didn’t really seem to know where he was when he was trundled into George Abela’s meeting – there is a suspicion that he was planted there to discredit Abela in the eyes of the moderates.
@Mario P – yes, it was the Nationalists’ conspiracy with Mintoff which brought down Sant’s government and got us into the EU. Even if your paranoid delusions were realistic, it would have been worth it!
Louis invented the Auxiliary Workers Scheme – another great fount of corruption from the part time farmer. Yes he’s the same Dom Mintoff
And here’s another Mintoff gem:
“Naf li din hija kontra l-Kostituzzjoni, jiena nitnejjek mill-Kostituzzjoni, mhux jien ghamiltha, nitnejjek mill-Imhallfin u minn kullhadd.”
– said when forcefully taking over (for free) the privately-owned National Bank of Malta.
– Extracted from here: http://user.orbit.net.mt/fournier/MNnational_bank_scandal.htm
@andrew BC – If you run out of white paint try washing it down with a dosh of good spirit.
We left Malta for Australia in 1974 and have moved on. Most of you obviously have not since those heady days.
We all know the history of politics in Malta – it has been pushed down our throats as nauseum for too long now.
You must all be living the past – Has time stood still for all of you – get over it! Stop living in the past and think about the future. Given the commentary on what happend politically 20 to 30 years ago the maxim “one week is a long time time in politics” does not apply to Malta. How about some commentary about what is happening now and may happen in the future. The lack of imagination is dissapointing. How about some analysis about the forthcoming leadership tussle of the MLP, JPO and Gonzi’s plan for the future? Everything else mentioned above is now totally irrlevant. However, given the parochial state of most politcal minds in Malta – I guess most of you will disagree – fine – bring it on.!
@P Portelli
Re: http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=414#comment-12556
Do you mind getting your facts right? You said that in 1981 PC’s were not invented and Microsoft did not exist.
Bill Gates founded Microsoft in 1975.
PC’s (or home computers, as they were known) were in the market in 1977!!!
The Sinclair ZX80 was one of the 1st PC’s that sold millions – this was NOT the 1st PC of its kind, and it was being sold in 1980!!
In a sense you’re right. Thanks to Mr. Mintoff, PC’s and Microsoft did not exist in ’81 – for us Maltese teenagers who were eager to join and be part of this revolution!!!
Get your facts right my friend!!
@P Portelli – actually, Microsoft was in existence in 1981 – infact it was founded in 1975. Oh, and the “PC” had already been “invented” in 1981. The first microprocessors were developed in the early 1970s, and this lead to the development of computers which were much smaller than they were previously. The “PC” has been around since around 1975.
Well, I suppose you have a good excuse not to know this – in the 70s Dom Mintoff was in government and he didn’t want the Maltese to know what technology was available in Western Europe and North America. Heck, he didn’t even want us to have computers. So I suppose you’re justified in thinking that the PC was invented in 1987 or something, eh? PCs have been around for a much longer time Portelli… did you know that the web was “invented” in 1989? Of course, commercial ISPs didn’t appear till the early 90s.
I suppose you’ll be quite surprised to learn that the first commercially available mobile phone became available to Americans in 1983. When did you buy yours Mr. Portelli? 2003?
@europarl – If you’re referring to my comment about the PN’s “conspiracy” (ROTFL) with Mintoff, what’s to paint over? Even if the MLP’s (properly Sant’s)paranoid delusion is true (“just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you” – W. Allen, I believe)it is the function of a political party to seek power. Just because the MLP (and its little elves) think they have a divine right to reign, this doesn’t mean that trying to stop them is wrong. Quite the contrary…
If, on the other hand, you’re talking about my explanation of the need to set up the AWTS, that, I’m afraid, is the historical fact. Dr KMB’s Labour Government broke the Constitution (Section 110, if you want to read it) and employed around 8,000 people illegally just before the 1987 Election and the Nationalist Government had to deal with it on assuming power.
Nowadays all hell breaks loose if there is suspension of electricity – does any one remember being without water and power cuts regularly ? And how it was accepted as a way of life by one and all.
Getting through to some one on the obsolete telephone system was a joke . It was also entertaining in a way joining in or listening to other people`s conversations. Just imagine that happening today – and the outcry that would follow.
I was at a friend`s house in Msida once and due to rain we couldn`t get out, there was no water or electricity and we couldn`t get through to any one on the phone.
And yes, this was nothing compared to the fear that was in the atmosphere. Can you imagine any Tom. Dick or Harry in those times phoning Xandir Malta and attacking the Prime Minister and the Gov on air? Ending with `Prosit tal-programm.`
Looking back, I can hardly believe what we went through so how on earth can we make the youngsters realise.
@ Daphne. With regard to your claim that ‘there have been more jobs than people to fill them’, I find that very debatable. Malta has an artificially low unemployment rate due to the large public sector (where 3 people are employed to the job of 1), the low female participation rate in the workforce and the incredibly high number of invalid people. Although rather late, i think the present Government has started to tackle each of these problems.
[Moderator – This government does not encourage or even discourages the social participation of women. The percentage of gainfully employed women is actually on the decline.]
Dejma or Awziljarji, both ideas suck. The millions spent on the Awziljarji schemes would have been better spent providing tax breaks and incentives to private business to encourage them to invest more and employ people.
@P Portelli
You might be surprised to know that PC’s were invented before 1980. As a matter of fact the Sinclair M14 was in production in 1978. Chris Curry who was cofounder left the company and founded Acorn Computers. From this line the first model out was the Acorn Proton, then the Acorn Atom, in 1980 the Acorn BBC model A and shortly after the most popular BBC model B.
The problem is that when enthusiast like me tried to import a model he faced a brick wall.
Do keep in mind that it was Mintoff himself who in parliament stated that there was nothing that a ‘corma skrivani b’lapes f’idejhom huma kapaci jaghmlu xoghol ahjar min kull komputer’
May I also humbly point out that I owned one of the first ten computers that were allowed to enter Malta. If you are not old enough you must know that before even ordering my first computer I had to sign an array of affidavits, copies of which I still have. Again, I repeat after making sworn affidavits that I will not jeopardize anybody’s employment and other MLP invented nonsense. I also have the original import papers in my name because you might also find it funny today, that although Frank Borda & Sons were the representatives they couldn’t import the computers in their name, and the import license was issued in the name of the buyer. This was the method used by the Labour Government to force the buyer to sign the affidavits before even issuing an import licence.You might also be surprised to know that before that model and as early as 1980/81 there were a couple of the very first Sinclair’s brought over to Malta without the Government’s knowledge that was hell bent on keeping the Maltese people in the technological stone age.
You seem to excuse that administration with what was going on worldwide at that time. Remember fuel was at the price of twelve dollars a barrel during those days. And it was said that we were privileged because we were importing oils a very cheap prices from Libya.
Where have you been these last twenty plus years. I remember Palestine, Kosovo, Bosnia, Serbia, Kuwait to mention just a few. More than a couple of strong recessions in the US…….. were not these big enough to effect us?
The bottom line is that the labour administration wanted to govern by keeping the population under control and in ignorance.
We were treated like mushrooms……kept in the dark and fed bulls**t.
Keep in mind that socialism thrives only where ignorance reigns. That much is now a lesson in history.
You state that you have friends who started of in dejma and are now senior executives. No wonder we have problems in the public service. I have friends who after finishing university ended up in dejma.
@Raphael Dingli – ah, the ineffable superiority of the “Maltin ta’ Barra” comes into sharp focus. Excuse me while I bow and scrape to your Awstralyan accent, fawn, fawn – if I had a forelock, I’d even tug it.
@Raphael DIngli
Please bear with me a moment….
In today’s world knowing that the future is already in the present and the present is instantly in the past, you cannot blame anyone for living in the past.
The past is part of everyone’s life. It is the past that makes you, that gives you insights and new ideas. We are nothing if not for a collection of thoughts, and experiences from our past. One can never build a future without knowing his past. Every minute that was lost in the past, especially because of someone else’s whims and ambition, is time lost never to be regained.
Think about what we could have been as a nation if instead of loosing all those willing students who went abroad in those days, they finished their studies here. And instead of staying abroad after their studies they stayed here giving service to the nation.
This is not politics. This is life. Every second of it.
You say forget the past, look to the future. We have been doing just that from the moment a new chapter was started. It is thanks to the past of many who lived those years that we have this present and a better future.
The present and the future are a continuation of the past built with great sacrifice against all odds.
@Raphael Dingli: consider yourself lucky not to have been here during those Dark Ages…had you been here, and had you borne the brunt of the Socialist regime of the time, you would never have forgotten the horror of those years.
I know, because I was here, a young girl in a Nationalist family living in the South (Paola) – believe me, had you been here and in these circumstances, you would be speaking differently today.
I’m successful nowadays and I’m making something out of myself but surely not due to Mintoff’s or KMB’s policies or thug politics.
Mr. Dingli, please, if you were not here, don’t you dare tell us we’re living in the past. I’m living in the present, and in the European Union, my thoughts are focused on the future, on working my way towards success and on living in a globalised world brimming with opportunities for those willing to work. However, those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it – and at any cost, I do not want to repeat those horrible years. Ever.
You would agree – if only you were here!
Mela, the Awziljari it was.
Thanks for the info ppl.
Mela, KMB – just before the 1987 elections, employed all these , let’s call them, just to be politically correct, “potential voters”. And it seems that these were a burden on the Kaxxa ta’ Malta.
What would have been the most appropriate action taken by the then Minister Louis Galea, to normalise the situation, both in face of the “illegal” employment of these guys, and in respect of the burden on the Kaxxa ta’ Malta?
And the answer is easy …. reroute them into the Awziljarji! So that their “illegal” job becomes “legal” and they stop affecting negatively the Kaxxa ta’ Malta …
Wait … I’m missing something … or not???
Considering all the comments here, it might sound funny, though, that I remember buying my first Texas Instruments TI99 in 1985…and in the shops there were Sinclairs, Ataris, Commodores, there were those early data recorders using normal audio cassettes, computer games which you used to buy as cartridges, and I had learned BASIC computer language back then. I remember those early ping-pong games at the Trade Fair in the mid-80s. I used to work for a time at a factory inputting data in a …wait for it…computer…in 1982!
And I remember the new government computer centre at Dingli. But anyway, this is not the Official Truth, is it?
It is now the era of the Truth Twisters. So may they reign!
@ me Would be nice if you could share your affidavits with us by forwarding them to Daphne who can reproduce them on this blog … of course blacking out the sensitive information. It will make interesting reading for those of us who had the good fortune of being too young to comprehend the madness of the day!
[Moderator – Yes, please do that.]
@M. Brincat
Yes you are missing something…the wood for the trees.
‘the most appropriate action’ would have been to put them all on the unemployed register. That would have been a burden just the same.
Wasn’t it better to try to instruct them in the required trades?
They were not under military regulations, on the contrary, I believe the administration was a bit lax with them.
The point remains that during AS two year hiccup and after all the inquiries concluded the result was only mud slinging by you know who.
@M. Bormann & Me
Seems all three of us have sufferred the same consequences under Mintoff thru our love of technology.
@Me, I can vouch for what you sid about PC permits; my father had to ‘import’ my 1st PC for me!
Mine was a Sinclair QL, remember those? It was a real gem at the time and cost Lm281!
@ me … where were these guys prior to be “illegally” employed just before the 1987 election? What were they doing? I guess they were mostly jobless …. so jobless they were, and jobless they become again! Or simply send them back to where they were wasting their time before …
We either admit that what was wrong, was wrong and we correct it, or else, better to shut up …
Secondly, I don’t think I missed the wood for the trees … I’m not that blind my dear.
@M. Brincat
I repeat….someone did throw accusations and on gaining office opened an inquiry. What came out of it……nothing….only mud slinging.
As to throwing them back on the jobless list I suggest you direct that statement at them. It so transpires that they were nearly all absorbed into the employment market.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I never said you are blind, the meaning of ‘missed’ is completely different.
BTW I appreciate your calling me dear, dear.
Although I don’t agree with the tone of Raphael Dingli’s contribution (which does seem “ineffably(!!)” superior), he certainly seems to make a valid point. Why are so many people on this blog so intent on rehashing things that happened 30 years ago? Why can’t everyone just heave a sigh of relief that those times are gone for ever never to return and stop reliving them. It can’t be healthy for victims of those times to relive the horrors and unreality of the late 70s/early 80s every couple of days. Anyone out there have the professional training to explain what is going on to those of us who are puzzled by this obsession?
@ me – so nothing came out of that inquiry … good. So nothing wrong was done there … no need to regret what was done …
Was an inquiry ever opened on the way and the why these 8,000 guys were employed in the first place? Or are we just … lol … slinging mud? If no inquiry was opened … why bla bla blabbering? Inconsitencas galorificorum!
Isn’t it obvious that they were nearly all absorbed in the employment market??? Unless a guy was nearing pensionable age, he had a number of options – 1. remain in the awziljarji for the time being, until it was dissolved; 2. apply and get employed somewhere else with immediate effect!
Uncle Fester: It is not an obsession. Alfred Sant is still in parliament trying to stoke the embers of revolution. As long as that sort of thing still happens, the past is the present and, horribly, also the future.
@Uncle Fester
One can come to accept your argument but as the Maltese saying goes…
l’ilsien fuq id-darsa ‘l-migugha jmur
Sure many heaved a sigh of relief, and I assure you that some do it on a daily basis even today, but keep in mind that many 70/80’s protagonists are still around and given the chance it will be a repeat performance.
I remember my parents and grand parents recounting over and over again the terrible tragedies of the last war. I cannot find the words to explain their faces whilst they retold their experiences. I think it was common throughout Europe if not the world. These stories instilled in the generation that followed the real need for peace and cooperation which eventually was sealed with the EU in Europe and economic treaties elsewhere. Still much to be done.
I wish that by passing on experiences, new generations will take note of what is going on around them and keep constantly on the alert, take nothing for granted.
Liberty is a whole unit. One cannot be partly free. You either are or you’re not.
@M. Brincat
You seem to know a lot of what happened in the ‘awziljarji’ case.
Good, spill the beans. Surely everyone here would appreciate.
What I have written was always based on fact and documented quotes.
Give us your side of the story, no hypothesis. Facts. Documented.
@ me … not at all! I was too young to know! I am just debating your “knowledge”, in a logical manner!
@ M Brincat
what a shocker coming from a socialist… just throw people around like garbage.M (Socialist) Brincat states that Louis Galea should have dealt with the Awziljari as follows , quote “Jobless they were and jobless they become again” This is the soul of the socialist party.
By Mintoff’s own admission he was unable to provide productive employment as he wished.
Fortunately since 1987 we never again had an employment crisis like 1972 to 1987, notwithstanding the closure of many labour intensive industries.
The way forward is not Labour Corps, but encouraging people to further their studies and/or training to become skilled or multi tasked.
Anyway I give up trying to explain to such blinkered people as M Brincat. Let them live in a fools paradise , and chant Viva l -lejber, Viva L-lejber, hej hej….and waving their red ‘kerchiefs
@M. Brincat
You do well to debate, as I said earlier, take nothing for granted, and question every move and everybody. Stop only at the wall of facts.
No dear it is not knowledge, it is blood, sweat and tears, it is the past and I had my humble tiny part in it.
Stejjer tal-Wahx: Malta fl-Arjupa (1)
Just got the news. My daughter received an ADT comunique telling her that her probationary driving licence has been revoked because the 12-point limit has been reached.
It hardly matters that many of those points were garnered when her boyfriend was using her car. Trust can amount to penalties these days.
EU regulations, they told her, there’s nothing we can do!
This applies only to those who got their licence after 2002. So the older generations can carry on with life without the added chains, and they don’t even have to compalin either. Discrimination in the Union of perpetual equality? Naaagh! The younger generations will have to taste the different world before we do – they don’t complain, anyway, not any more.
So what we have here is another example of ‘sophisticated’ EU regulations applied to a miniscule island inundated with arbitrary tax collecting wardens roaming in every nook and cranny making life miserable for all, especially the young.
@me. First of all, let’s get this in proportion – the 70s/80s is not even comparable to the Second World War – let’s keep a grip (however tenuous) on reality here. Look, I lived through the 70s and 80s just like you did. I am 42. My whole life was changed by the 1981 election result and the strife that ensued – as were the lives of many people in my generation. It was awful – no two ways about it. However I don’t obsess about it constantly as some who blog this website seem to do. Look at Corinne Vella’s contribution – she sees Alfred Sant’s swan song as an attempt to foment revolution (no less!) rather than being a bad example of sour grapes. Sant will be history in a couple of weeks and hopefully his predecessor will have the sense to keep him at arm’s length much as Sant did with his own two predecessors. Getting back to the issue once in a while I think back to those dark days, heave a sigh of relief that we got through our immediate post colonial period without more bloodshed then what actually took place. The “war” was won in 1987, 1992 with election and Sant replacing KMB as leader, and then again in 1998 and 2003 (twice). There is no turning back the clock – ever. Let’s leave the past where it belongs in the past and remember it again for a short while in 2013 and perhaps before that when Mintoff kicks the bucket and all the memories get rehashed again.
lol @ david s!!!!
My argument was not in favour of Socialism or in favour of right-wing politics.
Mine was simply an argument in logic. Nothing more. Nothing less.
The argument was that there were 8,000 persons employed just before the 1987 election, who were:
a) employed illegally;
b) not productive, and
c) were denting our beloved Kaxxa ta’ Malta.
Now, by transferring these 8,000 poor souls from one Government Department and put them in the Awziljarji … which of the above a, b and c did we fix?
If the answer is – NONE OF THE ABOVE – as I believe it is … then why take all the hassle of opening the Awziljarji when he could have left them where they were?
Mela KMB is the impersonification of the devil for letting them in … Louis Galea is the impersonification of God for not letting them out???? U hallina nghixu!!!
By the way … I don’t have a red hanky and never went to a mass meeting … and forgive me for not bowing down to your … “argument”. I only bow and give in when yours makes logical sense, which I’m sorry to say, doesn’t. At all!
The only way I can explain the fact that a bit less than half the population voted for another Labour Government in 1987, is that it was afflicted by some form of Stockholm syndrome.
‘Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response sometimes seen in an abducted hostage, in which the hostage shows signs of loyalty to the hostage-taker, regardless of the danger (or at least risk) in which the hostage has been placed. Stockholm syndrome is also sometimes discussed in reference to other situations with similar tensions, such as battered person syndrome, rape cases, child abuse cases and bride kidnapping.’ – source: Wikipedia
In our case it was the abuse of a whole nation! Have a great weekend all! :)
Have a break, take a peep at our future world – just five videos that are much more Tal-Wahx than Mintoff’s projects:
http://www.maltafly.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=899&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Uncle Fester: If anything, it is a good, not bad, example of sour grapes – but that is not the case, is it? Alfred Sant is famously indifferent to the accumulation of money for his own personal gain. It’s not sour grapes that motivated that speech, but an attempt to tap into the envy of the little man.
As for Sant’s predecessor keeping him at arm’s length, isn’t that what that other would-like-to-have-been has been doing ever since he aligned himself with that nightmare called Mintoff?
Uncle Fester: If by ‘war’ you mean the battle for common sense, then 1987 – 2003 is far too long to wait. Had the ‘war’ been won in 1987, then no battles would have had to be fought after that.
Ronnie … I’m simply disgusted with your post. Full stop.
@europarl. You seem to be very knowledgeable about police matters. Do you have access to a database dealing with abusive use oftasering by police?
@andrew BC – yes, it was about AWTS. Glad you took my advice. I see a shade of pink now, it must have been rosé.
ABC, Daphne, & Co, isn’t it obvious why you keep harping about Mintoff, KMB, and Alfred Sant?
Isn’t it time you moved on? No, of course not, you don’t want to do that, do you. What’s the PN without its Labour Antichrist?
@Uncle Fester – no such database, I’m afraid. But I do have Youtube. And with thousands of volunteers covering the “alternative” news, who needs the MSM?
@Daphne. Totally unrelated to this issue but I know it is a pet topic for you. Ben Schott, a contributing columnist to the NYT, reports today that every 8 minutes a woman in a developing country dies of complications from an unsafe abortion. He quotes his source as the W.H.O.
@me@0910hrs. As someone who spent a few months working in the Licensing Division during one of my course work phases, I remember the hassle one had to go through to import a PC for his/her personal use. It was much worse for a business, with declarations having to be submitted that no employees were going to be fired. Unfortunately, some people at the highest level of administration only viewed a computer as a glorified typewriter. Having said that, I don’t think this particular issue has anything to do with whether the people running the country are to the left or to the right of the political spectrum; it’s more a question of them being backward rather than forward looking.
@ M Brincat : I know of people who got a job with some Government entities like the Manoel Theater ,the Dockyard ,and the Education Department . I know of seven people who used to work with me in the private sector and left for a job in these government controlled entities in 1997.
Socialists use people as pawns , they were not the real burden on the PN Government , the burden was the irresponsible Government which employed them.
The KMB trick which did not work was that rumors were spread that they will be fired if the PN was elected. EFA shot down this rumor by stating that no one will be kicked out , he kept his promise , but one cannot call him an accomplice . THIS IS LOGIC with NO ASSUMPTIONS .
@ the one from down under : I had good opportunities to leave this island once and for all and make real good money. I stayed because I like my country and believe that it can change for the better. While you were away we got you the right to work and do business in the European Market.Now we are still stuck with some prehistoric monsters who are still raising their heads every now and then, the young are reading these commentaries and we are trying to put them in the picture when these “monsters” from pre-history and recent history were in power.We are learning from our past mistakes .
Can you tell us wether the prices of fuel and food are getting higher in your country , and what measures if any , your government is implementing ?
m brincat . u you try to shift KMB’s schizophenic premiership of employing 8000 persons before 87 election onto Louis Galea ! Now if thats not illogical what is ?
The bottom line is that we are fortunate that we have had PN in government for the past 20 years, and the next 5, as the PN had a clear vision where it wanted to go, firmly in Europe in a liberalised market economy with a sound education system which empowers ANYONE to work without any ministerial favour to get a job as a watchman with some govt entity. (perhaps you forgot that one Labour party club had organised a lottery and the prize was a job with the government!)
@ Abel Abela While Labour keep on electing the wrong people to lead it, yep the PN will remain in government. And with Gonzi now really having his OWN team, I can tell you he is going to be unstoppable in the next 5 years , so dont cast aside a possibility of another big swing TO PN in 2013. Dont you even realise that MLP has less support in percentage terms in 2008 than it had in 1987…after 20 years in opposition !
Since the PN have been re-elected, we have had a hefty increase in the price of diesel, milk and now as from next Monday, bread. Add that to the much awaited increase in the price of petrol and a substantial rise in the surcharge on water and electricity by July. How about that for hypocrisy before the election? At least with Mintoff you knew where you stood and there were rarely, if any increases in the prices of staple products. But now we have gonziPN to solve all our problems as hardship big time awaits this country.
[Moderator – Lemming, because Malta consumes more food and fossil fuels than it produces, we have to import those resources. That means our market is very tightly linked to international markets. So, the demand for biofuels is driving up the price of wheat and its derived products, such as bread and pasta. And as the economies of countries like China and India grow, they consume more fuel, which drives up the price of petrol and diesel on the international market. The Maltese government is powerless against these forces – it could continue subsidising the consumption of these commodities, but it wouldn’t be long before it sunk into bankruptcy (and Alfred Sant knows this, which is why his proposal to halve the surcharge was a complete farce). If you really need to blame someone, you can start with the British government, which enforces the consumption of biofuels.]
@amrio; @M Bormann; @me
hey are you all nerds or all of you want to show off telling me when the first PC was invented ( toys really) ho many papers addy had to fill to buy you those those and that Microsfot was founded in 1975!!
Have you never heard of a writer’s poetic license?? Exaggerating to prove a point! The argument is that you are plucking something which happened in the circumstances of 1981 and judging it by today’s values. kemm ahna bravi!!
[Moderator – It’s what we like to call progress.]
How can anybody compare WW2 with the 16 years of havoc wreaked by the MLP on our dear islands starting in 1971 ?
In WW2 the perpetrator was nazifascism ; a monster that one always hopes the human race will never have to face the likes of ever again. Our countrymen have the signal honour of having played no small part in the defeat of this dreaded phenomenon at great personal expense. In 1971-87 the perpetrator of the assault on our way of life was a son of Malta aided and abetted by a band of criminals , hooligans and corrupt individuals. This latter phenomenon was much more painful for upright Maltese to countenance because it was totally unacceptable and incomprehensible. That is precisely why the thought of “Ser jitla il-lejber” is enough to get my 88 year old parents to “rush” to the polling booth forgetting for an hour or so about their osteoarthritis, incontinence, osteoporosis, constipation, deafness and incipient dementia. This is FACT.
what about political considerations of not raising the price of bread before the elections?
[Moderator – The exchequer isn’t going to wake up one fine morning to tear down the subsidies on food. Changes in government spending normally come with the budget, and even bigger changes come with the first budget of a new tenure. You should ask yourself about the political considerations of Alfred Sant’s proposal to subsidise oil beyond $1000 per barrel.]
No comment – Just click on this site:
http://www.freewebs.com/dommintoff/
What a hobby!
@ Lemming : please stop being silly , you are linking two facts which are not co-related . You are stating that Gonzi is in Government ; and that the prices of oil and food are continuously getting higher worldwide. You can go on with this kind of reasoning by stating that since Gonzi came into power it did not rain here in Malta , and there was also an earthquake in China and a typhoon in Myanmar .
About Mintoff ,” At least with Mintoff you knew where you stood and there were rarely, if any increases in the prices of staple products.”
In the 70’s when the price of oil shot up , Mintoff increased the price of petrol he did not subsidise it . When there were increases in the prices of food what could he do in front of the situation ? Zilch! What I know is that with Mintoff around you knew where you stood ,yes , BUT it was NEVER pleasant .
Gonzi did not promise heaven on earth , it is on record when he stated that there were challenges ahead , and that he was totally against subsidising electricity and water bills.
Your memory is playing tricks on you.
Did Dr Alfred Sant ever mention that he was going to make hefty increases in the price of water and electricity before the ’96 elections when there were no crisis?
@ Amanda : Dr John Zammit runs a party as another hobby, a comment in the name of his personal party has just been erased from today’s TOM.
Lemming: Yes, but where would you rather be? Outside the EU? Come on chaps, surely any anti-PN argument is nullified by the narrowly-avoided spectre of a “freeze on EU membership.”
But I don’t suppose I can make any headway with anyone who starts his sentences with “At least with Mintoff”.
[Moderator – Doesn’t that phrase have a familiar ring to it? Oh, yes, here’s the one: at least under Saddam there was order. Or another of my favourites: at least under Mussolini the trains ran on time.]
Lemming: “At least with Mintoff you knew where you stood”. That’s interesting. Knowing where you stand is useful, but standing in the right place is preferable. You seem to prefer having a prime minister decide everything for you regardless of the result. No wonder you chose that nickname…
I am confident that if we all agreed to lower our standard of living to that of the eighties all our problems would be solved.
Imports would require a licence (do people remember what that meant), travel allowances would be re-introduced, most of the supermarkets shelves would overnight be emptied (and remain empty), income tax bands would revert , controls on practically everything, the word `luxury goods` eliminated from our vocabulary, only the cheapest brands allowed in, making do with the bare necessities in health,telephones, power and education etc etc etc
If we agreed to the above, I am sure Gonzi could reduce our deficit and inflation substanially.
BUT if there was a referendum how would you vote ?
@ Amanda – Those pictures of Mintoff remind me of my childhood. Having lived at Vittoriosa between the 50s and 70s, I remember clearly similar large pictures of Mintoff dominating the most important wall in the sitting room (usually behind the sofa) of nearly every house at Vittoriosa. Stejjer tal-wahx indeed!
Raphael Dingli says that he left Malta for Australia in 1974 and moved on. Obviously not, given that 34 years later he continues to bitch about partisan issues in letters to the editor and on-line, all the way from – where was it? Perth? Sydney? Melbourne? I forget.
Raphael Dingli: You’ve moved on but you’ve left your mind behind. You’re even further back in time if you believe what you say. Then again, maybe humour is different in Australia.
Re the awziljari – Louis Galea or rather the PN govt. could have copied Mr. Mintoff and booted them out. Mr Mintoff did just that to 80 people who were employed by a PN minister just before the 1971 election. All those of you who are extolling Lejber’s great feats, remember, (some of you cannot or won’t), the “great one” himself once said, ” If only I had the capacity to create jobs as I have for getting money for Malta’ Coffers!” At that time, if I remember well there was plenty of money but almost nothing to spent it on. In fact my Italian friends used to bring us items of lacking in this Islana when they came for their holiday. My aunty used to fill one of her cases with chocolates to distribute to nephews and nieces. Such were the great times under Lejber! By the way I remember when the price of petrol went up in the 70’s. For one whole week there was hardly any traffic on our roads! Such was the shock on the populace.
The price of petrol was doubled from 25s to 50s per gallon.
And how much was the price of oil then? What would have been the equivalent rise in price today?
@Anthony
Reread what I wrote and try to understand that the argument was if we should keep bringing up the mlp past or not. The argument wasn’t comparing the war with Mintoff’s administration, but the power of transmitting past experiences on young generations.
The example of past generations recalling their experiences is in line as far as they instilled the urgent need for something to be done. It was their fear that forced the nations to reach out for each in mutual development.
I ended my entry with:
“I wish that by passing on experiences, new generations will take note of what is going on around them and keep constantly on the alert, take nothing for granted.”
I totally agree with the rest of your argument.
The 1981 budget maltese people got Lm 4 weekly increases. Lsst budget we gut just only 50 maltese cents, Kemm konna ahjar meta konna aghar.
[Moderator – Oh joy, it’s another one of those at-least-under-Mussolini-the-trains-ran-on-time comments. Wage fluctuations are dictated by market forces and not by the government. We’re no longer a command economy. And in any case, what you mean to say is that the Lm4 increase was over-and-above a paltry wage. Market forces have driven up average annual earnings in Malta from €8700 in 1995 to €12000 in 2004.]
From the other posts, it would seem, Raphael Dingli never came back to Malta – and he’s telling US to move on!! He’s reading this blog from a totally different time-zone and he’s telling us to move on.
What a laugh! Really a case of the pot calling the kettle black – or old, in this case.
John: Would you really trade in your 50c increase for economic instability, social insecurity and a permanent state of fear of speaking your mind? To someone of your mindset, talk really is cheap. Here’s another cheap trick: don’t buy yourself a dictionary or grammar book. There are plenty online for free – and you can probably use your employer’s time and internet access too, which means you get to use your own for better things.
My argument was simple
in 1981 we got a Lm 4 weekly increase in wages
Now that we are getting the 850 million euros we got only 50 maltese cents .
At tht time Gejtu wanted LM9 weeekly wage increase.
but now he is happy with fifty cents
So we need to wait for two weeks of wages increases to go to tal Lira shop and buy one item
Min got tagen ghal gon nar
[Moderator – John, you obviously find simple economics difficult to grasp, and thinking relatively seems to be beyond you, but here goes: the Lm4 increase in 1981 translated into very little purchasing power, because markets were closed and much of the population lived in absolute poverty, and the rest lived in relative poverty (even washing machines were a luxury for upper-middle class families). Today, wages are many times higher than they were in 1981, and the purchasing power you have today doesn’t even compare to what you had in 1981. In other words, there’s no way, in 1981, that you could afford to live the way you do today (with a washing machine, a computer and, presumably, a mobile phone).]
Daphne
One of your pet subjects….
At the height of the labour’s administration.
After fifteen years of the best planning (sic).
A few months before the 1987 election.
When everything was done as it should…….
F’Malta u Ghawdex il-bierah kien hawn xeni ta’ ferh meta griet l-ahbar li fil-Port il-Kbir kien dahal il-convoy igorr l-ilma prezzjuz ghax-xorb. Hafna nies sa min kmieni fil-ghodu irhewla ghal fuq is-swar biex jaraw id-dahla tal-vapur ‘Agile’ li gab f’Malta terz ta’ miljun gallun ilma minn Mazzara, l-Italja.
Hafna bakru kmieni ghax semghu il-vapur kellu jidhol fis-7 am hargu dizappuntati meta l-ilma baqa’ ma tfaccax. Fil fatt it-tanker telaq minn Mazzara l-bierah wara nofs in-nhar, dahla fil-Port il-Kbir ghall-habta ta’ 10.30am.
Din l-ewwel kunsinna ta’ l-ilma barranija – u l-ewwel wahda ghax matul il-gimgha d-diehla mistennija jsalu 4 tankers ohra bl-ilma impurtat – kienet indirizzata lill-Ministeru tax-Xoghlijiet Pubblicic tar-Repubblika ta’ Malta.
It-tanker ‘Agile’ sorga f’laboratory Wharf, il-Marsa. L-ilma nhatt fir-reservior ta’ Kordin li d n l-ahhar kien issewwa u mnaddaf. Din l-ewwel kunsinna kienet tammonta ghal madwar 1600 tunnellata li jammontaw ghal kwazi terz ta miljun gallun. Huwa mistenni li b’kollox ikunu gew importati min qallija 40,000 tunnellata ilma.
Il-Gvern qed ighid li dan l-ilma giebu ghax se jwqqaf il-produzzjoni ta’ l-ilma fir-reverse osmosis ta’ Ghar Lapsi ghal jumejn biex izid il-produzzjoni, aktarx ghax irrizulta li ma garax kif kien ippjanat meta sar dan l-impjant, cioe’ li kellna neghrqu fl-ilma.
Intant fuq fomm kullhadd il-bierah kliem ta’ sodisfazzjon ghall-wasla tal-convoy. Convoy li fakkar f’dak storiku f’nhar Santa Marija fi tmiem il-gwerra, erbghin sena ilu.
(il-Mument – 18/05/1986)
I stand to be corrected, but I believe the previous water importation was made during the reign of the knights.
The Sliema water protest was held at Sliema Dingli Circus on the 25th May 1986 – As if you don’t remember.
trains and mussollini
About trains running on time u better ask that maltese party who did supported mussolini in the 30s. I am sure about italian train timetables they can give u more accurate infromation since they used to go to Piazza Venezia so often at that time
About mrs vella seurity i agree with u. After Labour was thrownout of office in 1987 at least bombs stopped exploding.
Mrs vella bhal pajjiz ta L unjoni ewropeja does malta deserve 50 cents wage increase????? That is our share from il mitt miljun lira fis sena or from the 850 millions euros that dr gonzi promise us before last election.
just 50 cents?????
[Moderator – John, what makes you think that you deserve money for nothing? The money that was promised is meant to support enterprise, agriculture, fisheries, etc, and not to subsidise your daily purchase of Royal cigarettes or whatever habit you might have. Honestly, if I were looking for a clerk and the choice was between you or a pigeon trained to use a calculator with its beak, I’d choose the pigeon. I don’t even want to know what you did to get your job with the government, the thought is too dreadful to contemplate.]
If u want to compare now with 1987
we can also compare 1987 with 1971
But people voted with their feet
During the 70s for the first time in maltese history emigration was stopped
not only that but for the first time people started to return back to malta
yes returned back to malta to live under mintoff poverty
these people didnt came like our present emigrants from africa but from australia , canada, and usa
So what make these thousands of people with their families leaving the above mentioned countries to come to live under mintoff poverty ???
at that time there was still no Mars in malta but still they prefare to leave australia , usa , canada and settle again in malta
John: People who deserve a wage increase are those who earn it. Enough said.
@john
I stand to be corrected, but you would have been happy with
only one and a half milion in ‘flus kontanti’
@ ne – there was another protest by women and kids in Valletta – ask anyone what happened at Castille ! Whoever was there won`t forget in a hurry.
@ Jo Saliba – you said
By the way I remember when the price of petrol went up in the 70’s. For one whole week there was hardly any traffic on our roads! Such was the shock on the populace.
The price of petrol was doubled from 25s to 50s per gallon.
And how much was the price of oil then? What would have been the equivalent rise in price today?
What upsets me is that nowadays we protest if the price of petrol goes up a few cents, if we have a power cut of a couple of hours, if we have no water for a morning, if our telephone is not repaired immediately – and rightly so.
However, in the 70`s we just accepted whatever was dealt to us. Remember, delivery men couldn`t just increase their prices because cost of petrol doubled – did a GRTU exist in those days ?
@Jo Saliba – marika mifsud
Looks like something is being missed. Have you forgotten all the boasting by Mintoff that Malta was getting its fuel imports at very cheap prices from Libya.
Do also remember that whilst we were continuously reminded of the big savings the ‘kaxxa ta Malta’ was making and how lucky we were because of him as prime minister, the price of fuels in Malta was higher than it was in Europe
John: I don’t know what you’re trying to prove, but you’re making one thing clear: you’re sorely in need of a good dictionary and a great deal of common sense.
Yet again these miserable Nationalists like Marika Mifsud start complaining about pre 1987 years when they claim that the country was in some sort of stone age. And when you compare oil prices in the 1970’s, everyone knows that the price of oil jumped relatively, in fact OPEC was founded in 1973 as a response to that jump. have people ever heard of economic relativism around here? It’s just blind and stupid partisanship.
[Moderator – OPEC was founded in 1960, as a response to a fall in prices after President Eisenhower introduced import quotas that caused the demand for oil imported from outside North America to drop.]
John, I am happy that we are not so dependent on government imposed wage increases anyomore, because as oppposed to others I work hard and give my best to earn an wage increases without anyone imposing anything on my boss.
What about you? Do you only earn an increase when it is government imposed????
I was a student at the upper sixth form in valletta, during Mintoff’s time. As students we were given summer jobs, stipends were unheard of at the time. My summer job was painting school desks and blackboards. would you believe it if I told you that we were provided with glossy black paint to paint the blackboards, you can just imagine the finished result. The boys had it really bad,their summer job was working with the roads department,digging up trenches in the summer heat. What a way to treat students, all for Lm7 a week.
it was not founded in 1960
[Moderator – “The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is a permanent, intergovernmental Organization, created at the Baghdad Conference on September 10–14, 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.” A brief history of OPEC]
@john@1834hrs – one of the reasons emigrants started to return to Malta in the 70s was that our economy was so far behind that of their adoptive countries – the Australia, USA and Canada you mention – that if they wanted they could survive on their savings and their pension – which was often much better than a Maltese worker’s wages.
@John Le hi issa minghand tal-lira jaqbillek ghax dak li kien jiswa lira issa sar zewg Euros. Qed tara hux bil Euro kemm mort tajjeb!!!!
As moderator told you I too shudder to think how you got your employment witin the civil service your English is absolutely atrocious.
Mintoff poverty personified because even the education system was f***** up in those days and we have a proof to it here.
To my dearest socialist friend John.
If i wanted an extra Lm4 a week, i’d go and work for it.
I wouldn’t wait for the government to give it to me like you and your brain-washed communist brothers and sisters.
Your line of thinking is abysmal at best
Your party and your friends don’t want to pay VAT, and you don’t want to pay any taxes.
In the same breath, you want free government housing, subsidised electricity bills, subsidised bus fares, subsidised bread, and free health care.
AND YOU AND YOUR SOCIALIST FRIENDS DON’T WANT TO GIVE ANYTHING IN RETURN.
Ok, I have to admit my error, OPEC was founded in 1960. However it appears that 1973 was a key year for its influence on the international oil market and the price shot up accordingly.
All you seem to want to do here is to insult people because of their socialist thinking. So this will be my last post.
Goodbye and go to hell
[Moderator – You could always post as an alter-ego, y’know.]
And here’s another quote from a certain someone (said “waqt li kien qed jiftah il-kuzakk”) to a group of true gentlemen whilst he was in the process of “discussions” to take over a certain something from them and others:
“U issa ha’ mmur inbul”.
If you think that’s too vulgar for this blog, then imagine it coming from THAT somebody under THOSE circumstances …
Claude whats wrong if we and that means 95% of the people living on the 50 centezmu wage increase refuse to pay our taxes?
After all it was gonzipn that was so kind hearted with our maltese tax payers money with skansa
They were supposed to pay 5 million maltese lire fine if the project is not finish after four years. It was ready after 17 years without paying any single cent as fine
The dubai base company got a piece of land in the centre of bugibba at market value of 20 million liri for free
they havent payed anything for it not even one euro
so whats wrong if we maltese people from the 850 million euros like the oliver twist ask for more???
strangly enough after the elections like tal mitt miljun lira we no longer again heard our prime minister talking about the 850 million euros
Dear Lemming, we already been to hell under your beloved regime 71-87. Mostly all my dear coleages on this blog are happy in paradise(Genna ta’l-art)
U ejja erg’ ahsiba u harbex xi hag’ohra!!!!
Dear fellowmen, what Mintoff did to this country, especially in the field of education, should draw our attention to what is happening at MCAST, where the Malta Union of Teachers instructed its members to deliver lessons without undertaking their many other duties, including correction of assignments and doing other tasks which will have a terrible impact on MCAST students. Very little attention is being given at public level to this most unpleasant period of life for over 4,000 students at MCAST.
In Mintoff’s days, the former President/s of MUT were championing the case of many teachers and students of Church and Private schools, which were definitely facing the most diffuclt threat in the history of education in Malta. Mintoff attacked fierecly the freedom of choice in education, followed by the attacks during the bitter premiership of another ex-Labour Premier, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, whose stint in politics as leader of the government was characterised by attacks on the Curia and the Courts.
Now it is MUT itself which is somehow undermining the welfare of some many students, in an era where teachers have rightly gained more respect and dignity. Why? How? Simply put, MCAST teachers are entitled to fight for their rights, no question about that, provided that the means used are justified and do not inflict injury on their students, who are not involved in this dispute.
News received so far through the media and on MUT’s website indicate a serious flaw: students are being very badly affected by MUT’s partial industrial actions at MCAST. Will MUT and lecturers now bear the responsibility of what will happen when students are missing assignments, corrections, and feedback of their work? Why were these industrial directives launched at the most sensitive period of MCAST’s academic year?
Incidentally, I don’t know whether MUT and MCAST teachers are fully aware of the moral and ethical obligations of lecturers. The same applies to the MUT leaders.
Let’s hope that prudence and common sense prevails. Hopefully, we are quite distant from the damage incurred by so many in Mintoff’s days. The best way forward is for MUT and MCAST to conclude an agreement which respects all concerned, including students.
@mcomb/Lemming
How many names, exactly, are using? Why on earth do you need different names to deliver your point of view? Is it to artificially strengthen your comments perhaps?
Socialist.
First of all you should get attend some english private lessons. Come to think of it, why not go to ec or ef, and learn english as a foreign language, it will be a good opportunity for you to meet some new people aswell.
“They were supposed to pay 5 million maltese lire fine if “the project is not finish after four years. It was ready after 17 years without paying any single cent as fine”
As far as i know Mater Dei began construction after 1997 because SOMEONE decided that the hospital wasn’t going to be big enough.
“The dubai base company got a piece of land in the centre of bugibba at market value of 20 million liri for free”
First of all it’s 10 million liri or 23,293,333 euros. Your socialist mentality exposed your ignorance and short sightedness again, Whats a plot of land if so much has been done since TECOM took over Maltacom, a fibre optic cable has been installed between Malta and Sicily, this alone will provide a staggeringly strong infrastructure for the future of IT in Malta. No, you want the plot of land worth 10 million liri biex joqghod jitla il-haxix hazin u noqghodu nharrsu leja. These same arguments where brought up when mid-med was sold to hsbc.
Il-laburisti, insomma dawk li jharsu sal-ponta ta mnieherhom were complaining about mid-med being sold at a low price. If it weren’t for HSBC we wouldn’t have gotten half of the investment we got so far. EE ara dan minghallih jifhem ghax jara in-Net u jghidu li qed ngibu l-investiment, yes foreign investment has exploded over the last 5 years and HSBC is a big factor because multi-national companies want to trade in safe and stable countries.
Have a look at : http://www.nigeriagalleria.com/Banking_and_Finance/Banks.html
and tell me if you’d be interested in setting up an establishment in Nigeria.
But then again you’ll shrug off these arguments and tell me that the price of fuel and oil is rising because gonzipn is not friends with Ghaddafi anymore or someother stupid excuse, BUT it’s always gonzipn’s fault. (Wisq super one radio u ONE tv hekk jghammilek ta.)
“so whats wrong if we maltese people from the 850 million euros like the oliver twist ask for more???”
Take a couple of grammar lessons for a month and come and leave a reply. PEASANT.
@ John : if my memory serves me right it was ONLY the emigrants who had eighteen year old men in their families were the ones who returned to Malta in the 70’s from down under, not because Malta was better than Australia economically , but because Australia joined the Vietnam war in 1962 and started rounding up all able bodied young man as soldiers.
If anything the British forces were closing down their operations from Malta, there was not enough job creation.
Our friend on this blog went there in 1974 , for example.
Some communists were holding a meeting to propose actions for an electoral program.
“Anyone who owns more than one house should share it with the ones who do not own a house” proposed the general secretary.
” I fully agree with comrade Jason” said Guzi
“People with more than one car should donate one to the Party so that we can use it to spread the word”
” Sure” agreed again Guzi.
“And those of us who have more than one bicycle should share it with the other comrades” suggested Jason.
“Wait , wait , ” objected Guzi “I own another bicycle , and I need it for my children when they grow up”
Lemming / MComb: You don’t make much of a case for socialist thinking by defining irrefutable facts as insulting. Since Lemming’s abandoned this blog, you’ll now have more time to brush up on ‘insulting’ facts so that when you reappear as MComb or some other alter ego, you’ll finally make some sort of sense.
@jenny
I was a student between 1978 and 1981 at the Sixth Form, Valletta, too. During my work phase, I was employed as a Pupil-worker with Air Malta and later with the Civil Aviation Department, where together with many other students, I did clerical and other respectable work, not menial jobs like you’re saying.
If you really were a student during that period, you might remember that before the introduction of the Pupil-worker scheme, students did not receive any form of remuneration at all. They started getting paid when they started working for their money. The concept of stipends was introduced by the PN after 1987 since they were obliged to dismantle the Pupil-Worker scheme (maybe because it was such an ugly SOCIALIST term?!) and could not basically remove what the MLP (Mintoff?) had given to the students.
And I’d like to add one last detail: can you at least state your facts correctly? The Sixth Form in Valletta was also known as The Upper Secondary School – and not the Upper Sixth Form as you called it in your comment; but maybe you’re tending to get a little confused with the passing of time :)
Joe M: You were lucky. Jenny’s story is not unique, though you might find that hard to believe given that you also believe the MLP (Mintoff?) ‘gave’ an income to students, rather than strong arming various organisations, including Air Malta, into paying up.
@ andrew borg-cardona – paranoid delusions my foot – you’re just pi**ed off that the nats had to stoop to cavorting with the ‘great salvatur’ to achieve their end – as in ‘the means justify the end’
@ daphne – it may have seemed delicious at the time but it has left a bitter taste to those who detest the man and what he stood for. BTW, with the JPO saga, it seems that they are still using the same unprincipled tricks
@ Joe M,
You must have been one of the lucky students to have landed such a cushy job, while the majority of us were given menial jobs as I have stated before. You must have had some contacts high up to be so privileged,(kull qaddis jghin). I may have forgotten the proper name, but I will never forget the hard time we had as students under the labour government(Mintoff regime) at the time.
I have decided to make a re-appearance since it seems I’ve been missed
This makes interesting reading
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2008/05/14/t3.html
Further comments are superflous!
@Leming
Keeping up with tradition of UTurns are you?
@ JoeM
Hbieb tal Hbieb Joe. Medical students who were not simply red were made to clean bed pans during their work phase in the good old days.
@Lemming
The bottom line is that the way the pn elects its leaders reflects in wining elections/ voters, whilst the way the mlp chooses its leaders reflects in a continuous chain of loses/voters.
@ Lemming
Please read the Maltatoday report again and this time try to understand it!
1. In 1975, the PN members SURRENDERED (not ‘surrounded’ as reported) their voting rights to the councillors. Nobody was denied the voting rights.
2. The then leadership contender Prof. Guido DeMarco himself voted for the amendment to restrict the voting to councillors only and when he lost out to Eddie Fenech Adami, he stayed on and became his right hand man.
3. You are mistaken again – you are not missed one bit.
So, if your point was to somehow condone the skullduggery, underhanded way and the dubious tactics which are being used in the MLP’s leader’s election and compare it to the NP’s 1975 leadership contest, you missed by a mile. In the MLP’s case, the card carrying members were DENIED the voting rights by the delegates. This is the exact OPPOSITE of what happened in the NP’s situation in 1975!
I`m under the impression that when the PN elected a new Kap when EFA retired there wasn`t the soap opera there is at the moment.
If I remember rightly it was very civilised with no mud slinging going on.
The PN wanted continuity to consolidate their victories while the MLP want a radical change to overcome their defeats but surely that doesn`t justify what`s happening.
@me
Labour Councillors denied nothing to no-one. There never was a right of all tesserati to vote. Not in the MLP, not in the PN. Some delegates within the MLP decided to propose that voting rights are extended. The majority of delegates thought otherwise. Personally, considering the situation, I would have favoured the extension.
But no-one took anyone’s rights away. It’s like saying that those who do not have a driving licence are denied the right to drive. Its, as usual, all just spin.
And, marika, where are you seeing mud-slinging? Personally I feel a little disappointed, rather, because I am not seeing enough differences of opinion between the candidates. But mud-slinging? Why have you become like all the others to see things that are just spin but are not there?
@Albert Farrugia
I believe that reply should be directed at someone else.
I never wrote about the giving or the taking of rights.
What I wrote is the obvious. The way the pn chooses
its leaders results in winning consecutive elections
whilst with the mlp it results with loosing consecutive
elections. Is that clear enough.
BTW as for denying of rights…I existed for many years
under labour administrations.
@me – … the labour administrations responsible for all this, amongst other things (NBM being the National Bank of Malta):
“Michael Vella Wednesday, 21 May 0031hrs
@Alfred Mifsud: To your statement “…What I can say however is that the senior bankers from Barclays, the eminence grise of Maltese banking at the time, who were called in to investigate the true state of affairs of NBM after the Council of Admin was set up all reported what a disaster the bank was in. In their opinion at the time the Bank was not only illiquid but insolvent.”
So, with the alleged illiquidity and insolvency of NBM, under what motivation did the (UK) Midland Bank declare itself ready to pitch in with a suitable loan to enable NBM to ride out the uncalled for run triggered by Mintoff – even while the Central Bank was considering it proper to fail in its primary function and concentrating on looking the other way? and why did Mintoff, who you say was so concerned in assuring security of depositors, consider it opportune to block that inter-bank transaction that would have immediately defused the artificially-generated crisis?
What with closely rubbing shoulders with senior bankers at Barclays our 22-year old AM must surely have been fully conversant with ongoing inter-bank support between Barclays and NBM to iron out possibly adverse effects of the above-normal withdrawals/demands that are occasionally prone to occur?
Mintoff and his cabinet cronies, and those all the way down to the most minor party officials spent a very great part of the 70’s and early 80’s citing Mintoff’s achievements in setting up Sea Malta, Air Malta, Bank of Valletta, Mid-Med Bank. Truth is, Mintoff had simply taken over stable and well-established businesses at gun-point by resorting to dubious measures [or as that other Alfred said recently, by using his ‘power of incumbency’]. Of these:
Sea Malta never managed to attain viability, even after other established shipping lines that had served Malta well had been compelled to cease such services.
ditto Air Malta. Its predecessor Malta Airways, and upon whose ground equipment and infrastructure forcibly taken over by Labour government Air Malta was founded, had had its operating licence terminated precisely at the time when it had bought options on 3 of the then newly introduced Trident aircraft and the cancellation of which purchase involved Malta Airways in a significant financial loss. In its stead, Air Malta trundled in with obsolescent, fuel-guzzling, Boeings for which Air Pakistan had no further use.
Mid-Med Bank – based on the assets and goodwill of Barclays DCO who had been subjected by Labour government to an offer that one cannot refuse – had, as one of its main functions, acted as a channel for funnelling millions of Malta Liri from depositor funds to keep the Dockyard and other government-hatched lame ducks artificially alive. As AM must be well aware, these worthless loans were not taken over by HSBC and Maltese tax-payers have had to make good for these wasted funds that,including unpaid PAYE and NI dues converted to ‘loans’ at tax-payer expense, in the case of Drydocks alone account for some Lm300,000,000 or 30% odd of the national debt.
One other significant use of all the above was as a repository for the vote-catching thousands of non-jobs created by the Labour government in the lead-up to the 1987 general election – and the financial consequences of which still burden the tax-payer.
Bank of Valletta, based on the ‘illiquid and insolvent’ NBM, in contrast, rapidly progressed and sustained profitability, even despite periods of mis-management already referred to in other related posts. For, in truth, NBM insolvency was only a fiction drawn up to justify Mintoffian whims.
The accounts as drawn up in the aftermath of the Mintoff- triggered run on the bank used some very odd accounting practices, e.g. the bank head office at Republic Street, was valued at its initial £(Lm) 11,000 purchase price as a bomb site in the late 40’s, then depreciated over 25 years with no cognisance whatsoever of the building eventually erected on the site – this at a time when a one-room shop a few metres away was leased out at a premium of Lm11,000 over and above a substantial daily rental. This strange form of asset valuation would have been used for the many branch offices owned by NBM island-wide. So far as is known those initial accounts were never subjected to a proper and in-depth audit.
What is never refered to is the number of businesses and valuable jobs in the private sector that were lost as as result of the forcible take-over of the NBM, and the many lives that were ruined in the process.
Twenty years on [since 1987] we tax-payers are still footing the bill for the consequences of Mintoff’s blinkered and luddite ideology, and of the incompetence of his period of governance and those of his chosen successor KMB, …and so will the next two or three generations down the line.
Yes, indeed, Malta has a lot to thank Mintoff and his contemporary parliamentary cronies for.
Meanwhile, government has an ongoing obligation to make good to NBM shareholders for the abuse they have been subjected to and to restitute the financial losses they endured by paying out a sum equivalent to a true and fair assessment of the asset value at time of NBM takeover with accrued interest at appropriate rate.
By continually dodging fair settlement of the NBM issue, government is effectively aligning itself with the abuses of the past.”
(Extracted from comments posted under “All over bar the shouting”)
@ Alfred Farrugia
I believe your comments were aimed at my posting.
The delegates turned down the motion brought forward for their vote, enabling the card carrying members (tesserati) to vote for a new leader. The motion was defeated thus DENYING the tesserati the right to vote for a new leader. What were they afraid of? Disappointing Alfred Sant? The wrath of Joseph Muscat, Alfred’s pet?
With regard to ‘mud slinging’ – I am referring to the mud slinging within the MLP – the anonimous letters, the illicit phone surveys – the breaking of confidentiality of the list of delegates to unauthorized persons etc. etc.
As I have written many times before, the problem with the MLP is not simply the choice of a leader, the bigger problem is getting rid of the past. Unfortunately neither you or I can do that – history is history and cannot be rewritten especially when a good number of you still have the same ’70s and ’80s mentality and regard that era as ‘Labour’s glorious days’.
@ Amanda Mallia
Thanks for refreshing our memory – Now let’s hear a rebuttal from some MLP apologists.
Joseph – Especially from the “Ma, arani kemm ilhaqt!” person who said that in 1973 he was a “22-year-old lad rubbing shoulders with senior bankers.”
We will never get rebuttals from people with that mindset.
Incidentally, as I stated in the above comment, I was quoting the comment posted by Michael Vella (my father) under the blog “All over, bar the shouting”. (The AM he refers to in such comment is obviously not me, but Alfred Mifsud, to whom he was replying.)
Quote “First of all you should get attend some english private lessons. Come to think of it, why not go to ec or ef, and learn english as a foreign language, it will be a good opportunity for you to meet some new people aswell.
The above appeared in one of the blogs above. It suggests that a contributor to this site ought receive some English private lessons.
Does someone notice anything: “should get attend”! Perfect incomprehensible English. The writer knows what he/she has to do to polish the knowledge of the English Language. I only learned English up to 1st year secondary education, the rest I learned it by practice:reading mostly.
Do not throw stones against glass houses unless yours is built of steel!
Sorry: I should have written “ought to receive” not” ought receive. Typing error.
@andew borg cardona – have you anything valid to say – say it – no bowing required – just a solid argument. Daphne has taught you well.
@daphne – I have beared with you for long ……… I will continue to do so..is this English you write – I refer to your first paragraph – please explain? The past is part of everyone’s life although most of the people I know focus on remembering the good times more than the bad times.
@Lorna – I was not there – I left in 1974 – and yes I do dare and will continue to dare to say my piece and neither you or anyone else can do anything about it. (except maybe the moderator of this blog). I am fully aware of the dark days though and consider its history has no plausible links to the current opposition. I am happy for you that you are successful – surely this is not due to any government’s efforts but only because of your perseverance. Good luck with your life and I sincerely hope you continue to focus on the future.
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I’m under the impression that when the PN elected a new leader when Fenech Adami retired there wasn`t the soap opera there is at the moment.
If I remember rightly it was very civilised with no mud-slinging going on.
[Daphne – The mud-slinging is STILL going on. There’s a whole newspaper and a whole EU Commissioner dedicated to that purpose: Malta Today and John Dalli.]
The PN wanted continuity to consolidate their victories while the MLP want a radical change to overcome their defeats but surely that doesn`t justify what`s happening.
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