Avaricious to the grave
The Gaddafi Human Rights Award is exactly what Dom Mintoff deserves, no less and no more. But it’s interesting to see that the man is going to his grave passing Go and collecting large sums of money right until the end. His avaricious nature knows no limits. It’s so much worse because it’s coupled with the pathological stinginess that makes him live like a pauper not because he espouses the principles of Mahatma Gandhi, but because he’s too wretchedly mean to spend a cent. He applied his domestic stinginess even to running the country, and drove the economy into the ground. Because this fear of spending money while at the same time trying to acquire as much of it as possible is a psychological problem rather than a matter of good housekeeping, he never acknowledged the wisdom of the fact that you have to spend money to earn money. So no investment was made in Malta’s infrastructure, in health or in education, while he dispatched hordes of ‘pijunieri’ to collect capers. And, on the home and personal front, he never understood that money is the means to an end and not an end in itself, that it’s there to make you comfortable and help you make the most of this brief spell on earth, rather than being pointlessly collected by a 21st-century Scrooge.
In his late 80s, Mintoff fought the government for hundreds of thousands of liri in compensation for having his view ruined by a power station at Delimara. The compensation he got was more than his crumbling, ugly wreck of a house (Scrooge never spent money on it) is worth even today, several years later, and still he got to keep it and the compensation too.
Now, in his doddering and unwashed 90s (I couldn’t bear the stench when I had to sit a few metres away from him in a courtroom – hasn’t the Water Services Corporation reinstated his water supply after cutting it off because he hadn’t paid his bills for years?] he has collected a few hundred thousand dollars – American dollars for Gaddafi and Mintoff, how hilarious – from his equally horrible friend across the water.
The comments below the news story that reported this award suggested that he gives the lot to Dar il-Providenza. Chance would be a fine thing. He’s more likely to be found trying to take money from charity rather than giving it, on the grounds that he is a poor old man who can’t even pay his water and electricity bills and doesn’t even have the money to wash his stinking bottom or brush his fetid teeth.
Here’s a cutting from The Times of Malta, 11 May 1958:
“Mr Mintoff is chairman of a newly-set-up committee to help dependants of those who “for the love of Malta” burnt police-stations, set fire to a tug and an army Land Rover, stoned away vehicles and fellow-Maltese policemen and generally terrorised an otherwise peaceful community. The committee is charged with the organisation of a ‘Victims of Colonial Rule Fund’. Presumably the idea is to reassure families that they needn’t worry if their young men go wild and suffer the consequences, because their dependents will be well looked after.”
Twenty years after that, he was still at, inciting the mob to attack, burn and pillage. Thirty years after that, convoys of shipyard workers, his spiritual children, smashed up shops and public buildings in Valletta. Forty years after that, in 1998, he was screaming and shouting in parliament and doing his best to bring down the Labour government because he hates with a passion its then leader. True, he was the unwitting and unwilling deus ex machina who saved the country from the fate of Sant’s non-existent Switzerland of Mediterranean, but it all goes to show just what a nasty piece of work he is.
“How I despise him,” a girlfriend messaged me yesterday after reading some report about his human rights award. And I thought, yes, he’s probably the only politician in the recent history of this small country who is truly despised, rather than merely disliked or disapproved of. And that’s why the Gaddafi Human Rights prize couldn’t have gone to a better man, allowing him to join former recipient Robert Mugabe.
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Reply to Amorkelliott Click here to cancel reply
Mintoff and Mugabe not much of a difference. When I hear the name Mintoff, the bad memories keep flooding back, and I break out in a cold sweat. What a nasty piece of work he is. I know that we are meant to forgive and forget, but I really find that rather difficult when it comes to Mintoff,the wounds are to deep.
dear jenny remember that because of mintoff you have :
the vote
vacation leave
education
children’s allowance
bonus
etc
etc
etc
i beleive you will still make use of these although they where given to EVERYONE by the GREAT DOM MINTOFF.
REGARDS.
[Moderator – Yes, Jenny, if it weren’t for Mintoff we would still be living in post-war Malta today. Mintoff invented the vote, vacation leave, education, social services and the welfare state, and he also knew that it was necessary to wreck the country and divide society to implement those things.]
WHATEVER YOU SAY, WHATEVER YOU DO, REMEMBER THAT MINTOFF WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO GAVE YOU SOMETHING AND NO ONE ELESE.
[Daphne – Gave? Gave? Prime ministers are not there to dispense largesse to the populace, like barons to their forelocking-tugging serfs. Mintoff gave nobody anything; he took away and not only that, but he actively hindered progress, with the result that while the rest of free Europe was booming in the 1980s, this supposedly free country had the same standard of living as the countries behind the Iron Curtain – actually, lower, because they had much better education. If Mintoff’s entire contribution to Malta’s standard of living after 50 years in politics is the children’s allowance, then write that on his gravestone.]
Adrian speaks as if Mintoff gave all these intangibles to everyone out of his own pocket or from his own kind heart.
My grand father paid 65% income tax so people like Adrian could get an education, and he’s still stupid.
What a waste of income tax
[Moderator – You tell him, Steve. Mintoff’s pockets are soldered tight shut. He mugged the class of people he hated and dispensed part of the spoils to the people he despised for their ignorance. 65% inncome tax! Remember that?]
Daphne, so now we know that your pet hates are Mintoff, Sant and Sacred Heart Sisters….anyone else I have not yet figured out ?? Obviously I am leaving out Jason, Zarb etc. not worth mentioning them….
[Daphne – I have no beef against the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. My only problem is with an education system expressly designed to turn out conformist wives and mothers rather than to bring out the best of the individual’s talents. Fortunately, quite a lot of the girls they educated managed to buck the system through sheer determination, but unfortunately, too many others went obediently through the cookie-cutter and came out virtually identical. I don’t suppose it could happen in today’s world, though. There were too many other social pressures at work.]
Oops meant St Joseph’s Sisters…
[Daphne – I have nothing against them, either. Again, it was the system that was reprehensible. I would never have sent my daughters to a school run by nuns, had I had any. Fortunately, nowadays there are independent alternatives and coeducation. My own parents had a choice between sending us to a convent school and sending us to a dreadful state school (and they were really dreadful then). The nuns won out, obviously, even though my mother absolutely hated boarding with them – at another school – and still remarks on their cruelty today.]
@ Adrian
Mintoff gave us nothing from his. As Prime Minister it was his job to bring Malta forward, but in actual fact he never really managed to do so. We just lagged behind other european countries. With his kind of socialism we nearly ended up as communists! Let us never forget the terrible times he put us through, a reign of terror in Malta
Adrian –
You may kid staunch Labourites, but you certainly cannot fool anyone who knows what the real Mintoff was like, ie people who lived under his “reign”.
It was actually with great pleasure that I showed this video to my children: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myJvPE5LVBA
(It was the perfect opportunity to show them that not all vulnerable-looking people are necessarily what you think they are. They had been used to hearing stories about what life was like when I was their age, and this was the best opportunity to put a face to a name for them.)
Life under Mintoff meant meant:
Lack of basic necessities at the very least (water, electricity, decent toothpaste … Decent chocolate we could live without, but toothpaste …?)
Violence in the streets, especially in the Sliema neighbourhood I grew up in
Violence to be expected at every non-pro-Labour (I won’t even say “anti-Labour”) meeting or gathering
The closure of schools by Mintoff’s puppet
The Law Courts being ransacked (I was a witness to the “heroes” parading down Sta Lucia Street immediately afterwards, and the sight and sounds of the men with their tools and chains will never leave me.) Ditto the Curia …
Etc …
@cili
and your point is?
@Adrian
One foreign amabassador who shall remain nameless once described Mintoff’s tactics as that of a someone who first sunk you in shit and then removed enough of the stuff to allow you to breathe. After which you were truly thankful.
When will you learn to be less servile to those in power, whoever they are?
steve grech anytime you want to debate you’re welcome we’ll see who is stupid ANYTIME & ANYTHING YOU WANT AS…..
YOUR GRANDFATHER CONTRIBUTED FOR HIS OWN PENSION
as regards to daphne’s comment maybe prime minister’s are there to give presidential pardons to drug dealers, I THINK YOU KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[Daphne – Oooooooooh!]
@ Adrian Mintoff gave education to the Maltese ? What cheek . This is a joke equal to Gaddafi’s human rights award ! Daphne Im surprised that even you misssed this .
If there is one thing successive PN governments indeed GAVE the Maltese was Education, starting with Sir Ugo Mifsud, to G Borg Olivier whose “independence gift” to the nation was the University at tal Qroqq and the Polytechnic. Fenech Adami who swung open the Universtiy to everyone with the stipend allowance, from 700 students in 1987 to over 10,000 today, to Gonzi’s MCAST with a further 7000 students and spanking new colleges all over Malta, to a huge push in IT education which will eventually see all state schools with interactive white boards in all levels.
What did labor governments GIVE to the nation ? Wrecked state schools , Skejjel tas snajja, leaving a whole generation illiterate, and closing down of private schools. If there is one thing Dom Mintoff and KMB should be ashamed of is their legacy in education, and Mintoff’s so called Generazzjoni Socjalista .
Yes Adrian, you are either downright gullible or outright stupid. I would not normally use such language but you insult the whole nation when you claim that Mintiff gave us an education!
Yes Mintoff’s legacy was childrens allowance and pensions …at what cost ? Trampling of human rights, no water in our taps, no infrastucture, violence, wage freeze, no computers, 10 year doctor strike, … 16 years of extreme socialism, and in the last 5 years between 1982 and 1986 Malta had ZERO growth in GNP, 5 full years wasted , with no economic prgress .
Zip up Adrian, and stop making a fool of yourself.
Amazing. The myth that is Mintoff persists. “He gave us this and he gave us that”. He gave us NOTHING, he merely decreed where taxes would be spent and what private employers would be obliged to do – and hang competitivity and long-term national prosperity. Not that social regulation wasn’t, and remains, important, but to beatify that man is really re-writing history.
“Malta l-ewwel……..u qabel ……..KOLLOX!!!!” got it now?
My father was in the British forces, and thanks to Mintoff he had to forgo his military pension; and I had to relinquish my British citizenship.
At least your parents like so many parents nowadays had a choice where to send their daughter. In those days many parents did not have that choice. If a father earned 4 pounds a week he could hardly afford to send his children to a state school let alone a private one. So whoever could not pay had to send his children to the dreadful state schools. And if the parents were known to be Labourites they made your life hell. By the way in the late 70’s early 80’s Europe was going through a recession. I know because my father worked in a multinational factory which produced cloths for export only and they were working a 4 day week, because of the recession.
@ Steve Grech My father never paid 65% tax, but then he earned less than 60 pounds a week, although that was quite a good wage at the time.
@ modertor It was not Mintoff who divided society, it was people like Steve Grech who were not prepared to help the needy. As soon as Mintoff tried to improve living conditions for the workers, the PN who at the time was the party for those who paid 65% taxes started all the trouble.
[Daphne – Sorry, but I thought you were one of those big Mintoff fans who think that Malta was the land of milk and honey under his regime. So how come you knew fathers who earned four pounds a week and couldn’t afford even the miserly fees for church schools when Mintoff was in power – because that’s when I was at primary school and secondary school. I was six years old when he was elected in 1971. Europe was not going through a recession in the 1980s. Things were booming, which only served to make the contrast between life in the UK and life in Malta even more hurtful. Don’t complain because your father worked a four-day week – he was damned lucky to have a job at all in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Many of my friends didn’t, and became illegal immigrants.]
Worker – At least your father was lucky to be an EMPOYEE on a 4-day week, with a guaranteed income, however low it was. (Though 60 punds was considerably high for the 1980s, and more so for the 1970s.)
I know of somebody who was forced (by the Labourites, naturally) to keep 40 employees on for 4 years (on a 4-day week, maybe, but 40 men for 4 years is no joke) whilst work was at a complete standstill. Four blinking years, Worker! Do you get it? And people complain that about being made to work a 4-day week! At least your father’s income was guaranteed, and he didn’t have the worry of closing shop and leaving 40 blinking families hungry – Even if he would have been able to close shop, that is.
That’s another thing we can thank that awful man for.
As a relative loves to say – “Jekk m’hemmx infern, ha’ jinhalaq ghalih!”
Whilst I highlight the fact that Mintoff’s ways are conspicuously unaccaptable in 2008, I’d still rather not have chocolate and don’t have to struggle for a lifetime in debt in order to have a place to live in.
[Moderator – Mintoff’s ways were also unacceptable in 1958 and 1978, not just 2008. Everyone all over the world buys a home through HALF a lifetime of loan repayments. You’re not special or different. And chocolate has nothing to do with it. We’re talking about a country in which the economy was stagnant for years. Do you know what economic stagnation is, or was it only the plottz tal-gvern that you could see then?]
“Dio non paga al sabato”. Finally Dom Mintoff got exactly what he deserves. Any comment is superfluous.
@ Daphne Yes Daphne in 1971 when you were 6 the wages were between four and eight pounds a week. A Teacher’s wage was no more than ten pounds a week. That was when Mintoff came to power. I’m older than you I was 17 at the time. By the time I started working Mintoff had introduced the National minimum wage, the 40 hour week and I think even equal wages for women.
My first wages were about 15 pounds a week and by 1987 the national minimum wage was about 30 pounds.
In the 70’s there was a recession in Europe, obviously in Malta we felt it more. The opposition, instead of helping out was encouraging foreigners not to invest in Malta.
People are lucky to have jobs now, considering that many are only employed as part timers, and on a definite contract.
I never said that in the 70s and 80s Malta was paradise, but life was improving. In the 60s it was worst and obviously in the 90s it was better. Hopefully it will get better still.
It is silly to say that Mintoff did not improve Malta, and it is also silly to say that Fenech Adami did nothing. I agree with anyone who says that it was his duty to do so, but then it was Fenech Adami’s duty as well. It’s about time we give everyone his due.
[Daphne – I can tell you what the minimum wage was in 1985, because I was working – on the minimum wage, and I considered myself lucky to have even that. It was, as you say, about Lm30 a week, when a jumper in Benetton’s window carried a price tag of Lm38. I earned Lm120a month at a time when everything was much more expensive than it is now – in terms of the price tag, and not just in calculated real terms. I still remember the price of the first washing-machine I bought in 1986: Lm450 – four whole months of earnings. One friend earned Lm80 a month, standing behind a shop counter on ‘reduced hours’. My best friend woke up every day at five, to catch two buses from Sliema to Hal-Qormi, to sit in a factory answering phones between 7am and 4pm for Lm140 a month. In every economy there are going to be people who can earn no more than the minimum wage for crap jobs, but the point I am trying to drive home to you is that when I first started working, EVERYBODY had crap jobs for crap pay and felt lucky to be earning anything at all. There is no reason AT ALL why Mintoff and Mifsud Bonnici could not have done in the 1970s and 1980s what Fenech Adami did in the 1990s. They just lacked, completely, the imagination, the will and the foresight. I am astounded that you think people are lucky to have a job now. I move among employers, and I can reassure you that they consider themselves lucky to find people to fill their job openings. If you can’t write, spell, talk or communicate properly then yes, you’re lucky to have a job – but that’s due to a problem with yourself, not with the economy.]
@ Daphne:
Give up for God’s sake, wasting your energy on these people. It will take a hundred years to eradicate the memories of this horrible man, and none of us has any time to waste. The ignorance he sowed is still all around us. However, I find it hard to forgive a Nationalist government, which when elected, did not investigate where the son of a humble seaman managed to hoard all the money he allegedly collected.) After all we know how badly paid prime-ministers are. Borg Olivier died a pauper, which in a way says a lot about that great statesman)
Lastly it would be interesting to read the true version of Mintoff’s sale of Malta’s gold reserves ! ! ! !
Why is it so hard for some people to call Mintoff by his real name? He’s a cynical self-serving proto-dictatorial bastard, who screwed up his country forever. If Daphne wants to dance on his grave when he finally gives up the ghost, hopefully before I do, I’ll gladly join her. And I’ll bring the champagne.
[Daphne – It’s going to be a little crowded on that grave.]
It is said that Mussolini made the trains run on time. While this was a propaganda myth it is true that he improved somewhat the abysmal standard of living in some of the more depressed rural areas of Italy.
It was not this, however, which marked his regime and it is not for this that Mussolni has gone down in history.
He was a bully and a tyrant who routinely used violence as a political tactic, savagely crushing all opposition and silencing any voice daring to express dissent. The misery he brought upon his country and his people by far outweighed whatever minor benefits they might have fleetingly enjoyed.
I find there is a certain similarity with our own experience here, at least in principle.
Labour supporters make a lot of noise about the supposedly Fascist sympathies of a group of Nationalists in the Thirties. As a matter of fact, however, the nearest Malta ever came to having its own petty little Duce was during the Mintoff years.
H P Baxxter – Mind you slip in my spit while dancing!
Well put Daphne. You and I are about the same age and I share your exact views of this hideous man. That so many people continue to defend him is testimony to the degree to which he was able to dominate their lives.
@Daphne. Let’s not forget that there was a small ELITE group of Mintoffjan hangers-on, property speculators, people who had special privileges when it comes to importation, and the like who used to drink themselves silly every Sunday at a club in St. Paul’s bay. They used to own boats, girls, the lot. Their drink was Moet or Bollinger. They were the Golden Boys of the Regime, when the rest of us were struggling to earn a living, start a business, or just survive. For these people, all doors were open; all it took was a phone call to Minister X or Y, and Hey Presto! When we were earning Lm 120 a month, they counted their wealth in millions. They had no competition, and built up enough fat, wealth and power to ensure respectability during the EFA years. (I’m afraid you happen to write for a newspaper part owned by some such people.) Yes, they are still around, richer, with huge landholdings bought on the cheap during the Mintoff years. The worst thing of it all is that the subsequent PN Governments allowed these people to “rehabilitate” themselves. The King IS Dead, Long Live the King. The sad thing is that they had such a head start that no one can compete with them in their particular business and win. Look at what they are doing now, and they power and influence they still have.
That’s what the cynical Mintoff did. “Minn mhux maghna kontra taghna”, he used to say. How true that was. How my family, staunch PN supporters since the party was in diapers, suffered under his and Lorry Sant’s yoke. How many properties, not just ours, were confiscated “in the Name of the People” , and given to Censa because she was a bigwig in the Brigata !. Min “m’ghandux jghix ma min ghandu”, he used to say. As long as no one was touching his and his henchmen’s money. the people who got rich in property and bulk buying, then all was ok. The amount of people Mintoff sent to an early grave, because yes, “inkwiet” does kill, beggars belief. People whose crime was disagreement, even in a quiet way, with the regime, were routinely dispossessed of land, houses, and infamous import licences. Sadly, these cases never come to light, do they? Time makes people forget. Mintoff ruined Malta, with his odd brand of morning brainwave socialism, with his endless U-turns and hare brained ideas of fantastic organizations with such prosaic names like “Dirghajn il-Maltin, Bahhar u Sewwi, Stad u Staghna, and Ifrex u Orqod,” and that direct descendant of the North Korean/Chinese labour corps, “Il-Pijunieri, id-Dejma” and others which I forget, and the whip used to chastise businesses called Difensuri tax-Xerrejja that in my day managed to close our local grocer for allegedly overcharging on kunserva. Poor woman. Poor us, who had to live through that mess, with no prospect of a future until May 9th, 1987.
Mintoff will be remembered for sowing class hatred and prejudice, for turning Maltese against Maltese, for making people believe that yes, they are owed a free lunch at the expense of others. If he had copped it 20 years ago, or at least kept a lid on it after he retired, maybe people wouldn’t be so bitter about it all. But he wasn’t just the only problem, the whole mindset of the MLP was. The irony is that during the Mintoff years, a few got immensely rich, whilst the rank and file of the same MLP were left salivating with the prospect of a “jobb mal-Gvern” for life as their ultimate goal in life. Mintoff didn’t want intelligent people around. He wanted people he could bully and twist to his will. He appealed to the baser instincts of us all. And he managed to bring out those instincts. He ruined Malta. Those supposed “social services” that people attribute to him were overdue and our just deserts. It was his job to make sure that they happened. No one remembers Clement Attlee, Britain’s post war Prime Minister for giving the UK the post war welfare state. People knew that it was their right, after so many hardships during WWII. So why should we attribute these achievements to him personally?
Mintoff’s act was hard to follow. But hey, he gave us KMB as another ghastly reminder that yes, things could get worse. And they did.
I will not just dance on his grave, but will gladly play the fiddle for all of you to dance on it. We could have been far ,far better than we are. Instead, we had to make do with the scraps on the table during the years when he was busily filling up the “Kaxxa ta’ Malta”, his pockets and his henchmen’s pockets with filthy lucre. The money he should have spent on bringing this Island up to scratch, he spent on obsolete telephone systems and inflated Government employment. He was a man with no vision beyond the tip of his own nose and his own comfort zone. He didn’t give a fig about anyone else. He still doesn’t.
And we still suffer his excesses. We are still paying today. Look at the Drydocks and the huge Government employee’s bill.
Leaving economics, education etc out of it – what remains imprinted in my memory is the fear that ruled our lives. It`s hard to believe that many people wouldn`t even show what newspaper they were reading.
And what about when the MLP would hold a mass meeting in Sliema ?
I have always wondered on what grounds Mintoffians attribute education in Maltato Mintoff. My mother who will be 94 on her next birthday (was born in 1914) went through primary school, secondary education at the Central School for three years at the end of which she sat the Junior Oxford exam. She spent another 2 years at the Higher Central school in preparation for the Senior Oxford – that is why many referred to GCE as the ‘Senior’, even up to recently.She was successful in all the subjects she sat – she still has her certificate. At the end of all this she became a teacher and she regularly went for teacher training. ALL THIS FOR FREE. Her parents who were ordinary working class folk NEVER PAID A PENNY FOR HER EDUCATION.
My mother says it was Nerik Mizzi who founded the Central School.This was a co-educational school and many young men and women received their education at these schools of which there were 3 at the time = in Tarxien, Valletta and Sta Venera.Education was there for whoever wanted it.But stupid gullible Mintoffians always think that if it weren’t for Mintoff we would still be living in caves.
@ worker
When my mother started working as a teacher in the 1930s, her monthly salary was 3pounds,6shillings and 8 pence and by the time she got married ten years later her salary had doubled to 7pounds.
When I started working as a teacher in 1965 my salary was 27pounds and a few shillings monthly.In 1970 – yes under a NATIONALIST GOVERNMENT – my salary was 80pounds per month
Worker: Why do you persist in celebrating Mintoff’s ‘achievements’ when he clearly did so much harm? Things didn’t ‘get better’ in the 90s. Things were *made* to get better. Mintoff and his successor could have done the same. That they chose to do otherwise says a lot about them. That you lionise them anyway says a lot about you.
I notice that the people who actually try defending that vile little man are those who believe that they are owed a living. Mintoff believed in punishing those who succeeded to reward those who had no wish to.
Even though they had no wish to succeed however they still did not see why anyone else should be better off then them and so hated anyone they perceived as being successful.
Mintoff, burdened by an immense inferiority complex fed that hate. Few people can deny that he is smarter or at least more sly and cunning then your average Joe and being a born leader, (again a fact nobody can deny) he knew how to manipulate the plebeians to achieve his goal.
Lest anybody think different I was certainly not born with any silver spoon in my mouth but my parents worked their ass off as did their parents before them to provide the best education possible. My parents skimped and saved on the miserly salaries in the eighties to send us to private/church schools. Mintoff, his side kick couldn’t stomach that either and tried to deny me the education my parents worked their hands to the bone to provide me, by closing down my school. My parents did not give up and I studied underground as did a whole lot of children at our house. (My school was private not even a church school)
I will be eternally grateful to my parents for I got a good education. Thanks to them and to PN for the opportunities taken for granted today, whilst not exactly a millionaire, I am what may be considered “well to do”. I say it not to boast (at the end of the day – big deal) but to highlight the difference in life today and yesteryear. I HONESTLY have a hard time finding employees for today, employers are the beggars and employees the choosers.
Were it for Mintoff and labour ….
Forgive and forget?
If we forget there is nothing to forgive and if we forgive why forget?
See you at his grave!
[Moderator – Popular, isn’t he?]
How nostalgic!!!! everyone’s missed the colour TV saga, I paid Lm 458 (10 weeks Salary) for an ugly square Grundig and a bottle of whisky to the friend who sorted out the favour vs. queuing from the early hours of the morning behind PBS ominous doors……in those days if you had the right connections…..a government plot for Lm 500 and another Lm 500 to the intermediary, Lm 100 to bypass numerus clausus at University etc.
Albeit, must admit, I don’t hold any grudges against Mintoff, those days are long past, they were difficult, but we have survived, let’s now all look forward ensuring that our kids and future generations will not have to endure similar circumstances
When I got married back in 1985, I had to wait for 6 months to get a telephone line – and this was arranged only after someone within the MLP area had indicated to me that I was on the blacklist and being a friend arranged for the blacklist to be lifted! On the other hand we can safely say that our telephone systems of the day were quite advanced for the time – we had automatic tele-conferencing – pick up the phone and you could speak with 4 or 5 people concurrently!!!
[Daphne – When I got married in 1985, we lived back-to-back with my husband’s parents, and our telephone line was a home-spun extension of theirs: my husband hung a wire between their telephone, right across the two courtyards that separated the blocks of flats, in through our rear balcony. It took arouind three years of string-pulling to get our own line, through some relative of his who was a Labour midhla – and no, not the one who was then married to the party president, ahem.]
A government plot was Lm250. It was taken from some poor farmer to be given cheaply to someone else. Mintoff did everything for votes as long as he did put hand in pocket. He gave what really did not belong to him.
[Daphne – Yes, and then when the property market boomed after 1987, they sold off their terrisst haws for a small fortune and made a killing – off the back of the person whose land was originally requisitioned.]
@ Cili
Unlike you I hold hundreds of grudges against Mintoff and his pack of gangsters and hangers on. One has to have lived under his regime to really understand how horrible this man is. He blighted what should have been the best years of my life and misused our taxes to build monuments like Malta Shipbuilding to feed his socialist nightmares.
By the way, the way the tax bands were structured in those days it was quite easy to get caught in the 65% tax bracket, especially if both husband and wife were working, as we were.
In spite of this I am sure that when this tyrant passes away, he will be given a state funeral and all the leaders(!) of our society will be proclaiming what a great man he was. And a lot of people like Adrian will believe it.
@ Mario Debono,
Well done, you couldn’t have said it better.
My family and I were also victims of those terrible years.
My family business which was locally established since the 19th. century in Malta, was totally destroyed by Mintoff’s regime. My great great grand-parents were in the importation business since the early 1800’s, and our family carried on this tradition ever sice, until Mintoff’s years in power.
We were all black-listed because we were automatically assumed to be “capitalists” and not “haddiema”, and therefore, by force, we must have been PN sympathizers.
We depended on import licences for our business, but obviously these were totally denied to us.
That is part of the legacy of Dom. Mintoff !! (Is-Salvatur?)
@ Daphne – Maltese became illegal immigrants? As far as I know it wasn’t difficult to emigrate from Malta to Australia and America in the 60s and 70s, I lost many of my friends and relatives that way.
Especially in the sixties, many workers had to leave Malta because they had no other choice. Emigration started much earlier than in Mintoff’s time.
I didn’t know there was Benetton’s in Malta in the 1985; I thought we only had Malta products. Funny we only had Maltese chocolate, than we had Benetton’s. Tops at Benetton’s are still very expensive, I for one don’t buy my children’s cloths from Benetton’s. The washing Machine you bought in 1986 must have been a Miele or something like that, I bought a Candy which was quite good, served me for more than 10 years, it cost about 240 pounds (you bought what you could afford, and I bought what I could afford.)
I never expect unskilled illiterate persons to earn as much as professionals or technicians, but at least they should be able to live properly on their wages.
Amanda – my father earned Less than 60 pound a week, between 50 and 60 a week, in the eighties and not when he was on a four day week, yes compared with other workers he had very good wages, but the he was a skilled and hard working person. This was in the eighties, in the 70s he earned much less.
Those so called businessmen who, as you say were ruined; never say that in the 60s their workers were paid with less than 5 pounds for a 5 day week, whilst they were earning thousands of pounds. They had every reason to fight against the labour government, but only because they wanted to remain rich at the cost of their employees. Those families were not hungry in the 60, but they merely existed, with the children wearing hand downs from their rich employer’s family.
@ Mario Debono” Let’s not forget that there was a small ELITE group of Mintoffjan hangers-on, property speculators, people who had special privileges when it comes to importation” Funny the same thing can be said today. Let’s not forget JPO, Polidano Bros, Elbros Ltd, Vassallo Builders and much many more.
@ Jane -I have friends who are older than me maybe in their 60s now, whose parents had to pay for their secondary education, in a government school. Maybe your mother earned scholarships seeing she was so intelligent.
Well yes your salary as a teacher might have been 20 pounds a week (which I seriously doubt because wages did not nearly triple between 1965 and 1970), but the majority of workers earned only 4 – 8 pounds a week.
@ David Buttigieg – I didn’t know that private not church school were closed in those days, lets not forget that Government schools were closed as well, because the teachers said, “ since they closed our children’s schools we will close their children’s schools”
Let us not forget either, that the powers the managed the church schools found no problem in making them free when Fenech Adami was prime minister. You might say that this happened because he was reasonable, but why didn’t these people offer the same proposals to Mintoff a few years previously?
You find it hard to find employees these days, I suggest you visit the job centre or advertise on the net. Or do you want to employ without a work book or with less than the minimum wage?
[Daphne – It’s pointless discussing things with you because there is obviously a huge social and cultural barrier. You imagine that anyone who ran a business was ‘rich’ and had an easy life. You imagine that hand-me-downs are a sign of poverty: they are not. They are a sign of thrift. Everyone I knew and still know passes children’s clothes along to friends and family. They don’t chuck them in the bin because they’re ‘rich’. Those who are embarrassed about using hand-me-downs for their children are the sort who associate this habit with poverty, as you clearly do – but here’s the thing: those who are ‘rich’ by your definition are also thrifty. It is those who are unaccustomed to money who spend fortunes on pointless things like balavostri and a zillion luxury bathrooms. Yes, my friends did become illegal immigrants in the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s. They took a flight to London and disappeared underground, working their way around illegally, and rushing to the backroom, or slipping down behind the counter when the inspectors came along. Or have you already forgotten that the Maltese were illegal immigrants in Europe unless they had a work permit or study permit, or were on holiday?]
Even houses were requisitioned, to be given to die hard labour supporter, and to the ” bazzuzli”.”Min hu gewwa gewwa u min hu barra barra.” It just made the then Labour Party happy to see those supporters shout “Viva l-lejber viva l-lejber”. I personally know a couple who had their house requisitioned and then their daughter who wanted to get married, had to buy a house where to live. I think that by right she should have had the house that was requisitioned, and not some labour supporter who only pays peanuts for rent. Mintoff and his cabinet where very unfair to people with different oppinions,and it now seems that we have one of them back, Alex S Trigona. So much for an earthquake of change. I never trusted Labour and I never will, all because of the ” salvatur” Mintoff.
@ worker. I only answered your statement in a blog above ‘ A teacher’s wage was no more than ten pounds a month’. This is a blatant untruth because I assure you that in 1970 (under a Nationalist Government) my salary was 80pounds per month. Moreover, all teachers had just received a hefty cheque to cover the low salaries we had before.
And no, my mother never needed to ask for a scholarship. The Central and Higher Central Schools were free and so was the Training Centre for teachers.
I just wanted to show you that the opportunity for a good education was there and it was free.And I’m talking about pre-war years.
@ worker
Sorry ‘worker’ I quoted you wrongly because you said ‘a week’ not ‘a month’ as I wrote inadvertently. However my argument still stays. A good education was provided by the governments of that time and Mintoff had nothing to do with it.
@worker
In 1971 i sat for my 11 plus. I won a scholarship to St Aloysius College. However my father (a worker who tried keeping a family by having two jobs – and feeding us pancakes whenever the money ran out) preferred sending me to the Lyceum.
But that was before Agatha Barabara got her hands on the education system and improved it to the pioint that two years later my father had toget me out of the Lyceum and send me to a private college, where, of course, he now had to pay.
That is the ducation that Mintoff gave us
@Worker,
Yes my school (St Edwards college) was in fact closed down when I was 10. And yes I am proud to say I continued studying underground under Mintoff and KMB’s disgusting noses.
“why didn’t these people offer the same proposals to Mintoff a few years previously?” That is their business not yours! That evil envious man had no right to close down church schools either!
“I didn’t know there was Benetton’s in Malta in the 1985”
Benetton in Malta was not the Benetton we know today but a local shop illegally making use of the name JUST in case you didn’t know – duhhh!! And yes we only had local imitation chocolates too!
“You find it hard to find employees these days, I suggest you visit the job centre or advertise on the net. Or do you want to employ without a work book or with less than the minimum wage?”
Now why didn’t I think of that?
Unfortunately all I get sent are people with abysmal levels of English!
For your info the job pays up to 1500 euros a month if you include commission (after tax) – you interested? Ofcourse willingness to work hard is a pre-requisite and that is normally the biggest obstacle!
But Daphne is right – It’s pointless discussing things with you because there is obviously a huge social and cultural barrier!
[Daphne – That reminds me: Mario Debono said that he didn’t know there was Benetton in Malta in 1985 and I forgot to reply. Yes, there was a Benetton shop in Malta as far back as 1980/81. It was on the corner of Tower Road with the street that led to the Union Club. There’s Wallis there now. And no, David, it was not an operation making use of the name illegally, but a genuine, legal franchise, run by the same Lauri family who operate it today.]
@worker (again)
Are you now rewriting history?
you say: “I have friends who are older than me maybe in their 60s now, whose parents had to pay for their secondary education, in a government school. Maybe your mother earned scholarships seeing she was so intelligent.
I think it is your friends who are stupid. My dad was born in the war, and never paid for his education, neither did my uncles and aunts. My grandmother’s husband died young and there would have been no way they could pay.
As for the school saga, the fact that you approve the church schools being closed in the first place says a lot about you.
why did none of the ‘workers’ protest about the bad quality of the government schools, a service they were paying for out of their pockets (please remember that in those days even the minimum wage earners had to pay tax! – Not surprising, they constituted a majority of teh workers!)
With such a large chip on your shoulder its a wonder you can walk straight!
Dear worker, you scare me, you really do!
[Daphne – My father was born in 1939, went to the Lyceum and his father didn’t pay any fees. It was considered an honour to get in: even if you could afford the fees at St Edward’s College, if you passed the Lyceum exams, you went to the Lyceum. Those were the days….]
Worker, you are an incurable romantic aren’t you? If your sentiments were not so obviosuly heartfelt, I would almost think that you were one of those many haddiema tal-azzar (strictly labour of course) who got a plot for a pittance in Pembroke or wherever else from that other giant in the MLP’s history, Lorry Sant. I hear that some went on to sell the houses they built and made a mega lot of money (very socjalist maltese-style that).
Dear worker, we – many of whom also happen to have been or to be workers in our own right – lived through Mintoff’s times as well as you. Since we happened not to be red and were thus at the receiving end of your Salvatur’s magnanimity, we tend to have a less romantic idea of his (or should I say His?) legacy.
Yes, he did a few things here and there, especially during some tracts of his career as PM, but then again so did his close friends Causescu in Romania, Gaddafi in Libya and gool old Kim Il Sung in North Korea. Politicians do not, however, earn the title of statesman by account of some good they have done throughout their careers, but by account of their overwhelming positive legacy. Mintoff fails this test miserably.
For the truly romantic types like worker, may I suggest other sites such as
http://members.tripod.com/~bezzul/INTRO.html
(fantastic hagiography of the one and only Il-Perit)
and, why not
http://www.freewebs.com/mintoffjani/index.htm
I think they will feel more at home there.
@ Daphne We also hand down cloths toys and books among family and friends, but we don’t say “Miskina ghax m’ghandiex”
It’s different when you wear hand-me-downs because you can’t afford new ones.
Not all businessmen are rich but those who cheat are. In the 60 workers were paid peanuts for back brakeing work to, whilst their employers filled their coffers.
[Daphne – Yes, that’s why Malta was teeming with gadzillionaires in the 1960s, because employers were all busy filling their coffers at the expense of the poor workers. Employers provide jobs, Worker, they don’t provide a free cash service. No employers, no jobs – fact.]
@Worker,
I nearly missed the following point –
“I never expect unskilled illiterate persons to earn as much as professionals or technicians, but at least they should be able to live properly on their wages.”
Did you ever hear of supply and demand? Ah but Mintoff forced employers to employ many unskilled people whether they needed them or not!
And God forbid you lay off any to save ALL their jobs or even raise your prices to simply cover your costs!
@Daphne
“And no, David, it was not an operation making use of the name illegally, but a genuine, legal franchise, run by the same Lauri family who operate it today”
Sure? Sorry about that then.
[Daphne – Positive]
Dear Daphne,
If you can realize how ugly you are, you won’t be calling people nicknames anymore.
If you have balls, publish this comment. :)
Regards,
Mark
[Daphne – There, happy now?]
as an ex inland revenue employee i would like to comfirm that 65 % tax was not the maxumum you are forgetting the surcharge Another episode i want to mention
is that the departmenrt was the first to introduce a computer system . At that time we were warned by the head of the department not to mention the word computer but IL MAGNA as mintoff was so much against the introduction of computers
WHAT A BUNCH OF SAD,HYPOCRITS,HBIEB TAL-HBIEB, YOU ARE!!!!!!!! IF ANY ANYONE OF YOU HAS EVER TURNED DOWN ANYTHING FROM A MINTOFF LABOUR GOVERNMENT PLEASE SHOW UP SO WE CAN SEE HOW GREAT YOU ARE.
LOTS OF YEARS PASSED AND YOU ARE STILL HATING ON THE GREATEST MAN EVER ON THIS ISLAND, DOM MINTOFF.
YES AGAIN AND AGAIN THE GREATEST MAN EVER ON THIS ISLAND DOM MINTOFF.
BY THE WAY REGARDING THE PRESIDENTIAL PARDONS FROM YOUR EX-PRIMEMINISTER NOW PRESIDENT???????????????????????????????
[Daphne – Somebody please pass Adrian a Valium.]
@Jenny – din tar-requisitions tahraqni wisq ghax il vera unfair u ingustizzja kbira. What I cannot understand is WHY the present administration has done NOTHING to regularise this situation (at least to my knowledge. In almost all ex-communist countries ( at least in those that have since joined the EU), some remedies have been put in place, either in monetary terms or through other compensation. I have nothing to gain from this because i didn’t own property at the time but the hair on my back (I have a few) creep up at the thought of similar scenarios in the future.
[Daphne – You can get your back waxed, or even better, there’s laser hair removal nowadays.]
Lucky me ,I did not make it to Lyceum but got a scholarship to the brand new Savio College in 1970. Three years later Mintoff’s Government stopped the payments to the church schools , the good Salesians made good for my education expenses.I owe a lot to the Salesians of Don Bosco.
@ Worker : facts speak louder than words.
BTW : why do your children wear hand-me-down “cloths”? My children wear normal clothes they even pay good money for tattered jeans.
@Daphne : in the early 80’s there was also a TOMATO shop . But they did not have many clients. My German boss (a millionaire), in those days told me that the prices at this shop were too expensive .
[Daphne – Tomato and Benetton were run by the same people.]
@ Stefan : I gave a look at the Mintoff family album on the website , but Lorry’s photo of Mintoff with a (blankety-blank) woman was not included! Pity.
[Daphne – Yes, a real pity, given that the woman in question was his brother’s wife, Wenzu Mintoff’s mother. Another example of how ghastly he was, cuckolding his own brother.]
@ Jane: don’t know about your mother’s time, but surely when you were at school people had to pay for a secondary education including books. And it was definitely not compulsory. You might be right that just before the election (as usual) the nationalist government gave teachers a good rise in their wages, but as you yourself said late in the 60s it was very low.
If you were already attending the lyceum, the educational reforms (which by the way I never agreed with) should not have affected you. I was also at the lyceum at the time, and I continued to get my O Levels and A levels. It was students who were to sit for their 11+ that were affected, not for long because the junior Lyceums were introduced. Let me remind you that Louis Galea has just introduced the colleges which are no better than the 70s system.
I’ll tell why the church authorities did not offer the same proposals, because they did not want Mintoff to go into history as the prime Minister who introduced free Church schools for all.
You said “Benetton in Malta was not the Benetton we know today but a local shop illegally making use of the name JUST in case you didn’t know – duhhh!!” I hope you will appologise to the Lauri family. At least I didn’t know about the shop, I only asked if it existed, but you really did insult them didn’t you.
@ Chris In the sixties people had to pay for their secondary education, it is you who are rewriting history, it was also non compulsory so only a few went. I never said I approved of the closing down of Church Schools, I said that the MUT closed down government schools just to take revenge on the workers’ children.
@ Stefan I did get a plot and still live in it, I cannot understand how people got to sell the house they built. You see according to the contract we couldn’t sell before 10 years time.
I entered the sites you mentioned, I didn’t like them much, but since I am not welcome here I will say my farewells and leave. That how democratic you are, if someone does not sing you tune you send them away.
[Daphne – You are more than welcome to stay. I was just remarking to myself that you’re the first civilised Labour supporter to post comments on this blog.]
I KNOW that Benetton is run by the Lauri family, David & Marcus were at school with me (not in the same class), I thought that particular shop in Sliema was not really Benetton and have already apologised to Marcus, David and family (in an earlier comment)
Shall I do the via crucis on my knees now?
But was there a shop illegally using Benetton’s name? (Not run by the Lauris) tipo like the trouble Mc Donalds had?
[Daphne – No.]
Oh come on worker, nobody sent you away, few agree with you but at least it’s possible to have a civilised debate with you!
@ Daphne thanks you made my day, I was thinking my how they hate me. By the way I don’t consider myself a labour supporter although I voted MLP in the last election. I consider myself a socialist. I really believe that we should help people in need, and I really believe that in the 70s Malta needed Mintoff. I can still remember a man knocking at our door once a week for charity, and I can still remember people begging at King’s Gate in Valletta, when I was still very young. Can you imagine how humilating that is? I also believe in Free Compulsory Education, so that even the children of people who don’t care can have some sort of education.
@ Mark Cassar : “If you have balls, publish this comment.”
Mark , Daphne is a woman!!
Why all this name calling?
@ worker
I do pity you. You are so prejudiced that you can’t see the truth even if it stares you in the face. Yes, yes, and yes – all State Secondary education was free in the 1960s.
@ David Butigieg when I wrote – worker Tuesday, 26 August 1853hrs Your answer – David Buttigieg Tuesday, 26 August 1647hrs was not showing on the blogg. Sorry
Daphne, Your opinion on Mintoff is ON THE MARK. It should be a must read in all primary schools. The hideous politics of Mintoff was to divide and conquer at any cost. A heavy cost indeed to Raymond Caruana and his family. He never inspired people to better themselves. Throughout his tumultuous years as Prime Minister he never once believed in the Maltese people. He never looked at Maltese as ONE people. Deservely, history will be unkind to him. We have already seen a plethora of educated labourites distancing themselves from him. In due course there will many more labourites who will write about him unflatteringly.Thank God those repulsive years are forever over. Daphne, please continue with your work as young Maltese people need to learn about Mintoff.
oh the horrible memories keep flooding back. What about the water shortage. At the time I used to live in Birkirkara. We used to spend days without water, maybe because it was E.Fenech Adami’s home town, and as we lived there we had to suffer. I clearly remember my mother getting all hot and bothered when an english couple came to visit us at the time, and we had no water in the flushing It was rather embarrassing for her to explain the problem. It felt as if we were living in a third world country. Snippets like this are always on my mind. How can I forget the bad times and that really horrible man Mintoff and his ‘reign’ of terror. I hate it when people try to rewrite history, I lived through the terrible times and I know what really happened. Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici was no better. I must say the Labour Party has had some “ilustrious” leaders. what a way to be remembered through history.
Unlike Mark Cassar, who goes around calling people ‘ugly’
@Daphne – That reminds me: Mario Debono said that he didn’t know there was Benetton in Malta in 1985 and I forgot to reply. Yes, there was a Benetton shop in Malta as far back as 1980/81. It was on the corner of Tower Road with the street that led to the Union Club. There’s Wallis there now. And no, David, it was not an operation making use of the name illegally, but a genuine, legal franchise, run by the same Lauri family who operate it today.]
Dapne, I didnt say anything of the sort. Iggellidnix ma nies !!!
@Mark Cassar, I actually find Daphne rather sexy….as long as she does not open her mouth and/or use her pen Come on guys and gals let’s forget the past and move on, let’s make this island a Switzerland in the Med ooops forgot it’s trademarked by Herr Sant…..
Good day to all.
Let us clear the air about Benetton. It was the real Benetton run by my friends the Lauri family. They were extremely lucky to have had friends in the right places where they managed to get import licences for container loads of clothes while others down the road could not even import a tee shirt. At a good price and with the right contacts everything was possible for the chosen few. The same with white goods . Only Flamingo (with their friends the Ministers) could import fridges, cookers etc. Shall I carry on with these disgusting stories. Mintoff was behind all this and for me he is the vilest person that ever lived in Malta.
worker, you wrote:
“@ Stefan I did get a plot and still live in it, I cannot understand how people got to sell the house they built. You see according to the contract we couldn’t sell before 10 years time.
I entered the sites you mentioned, I didn’t like them much, but since I am not welcome here I will say my farewells and leave. That how democratic you are, if someone does not sing you tune you send them away.”
Well, it’s worth waiting for 10 years to get a gazillion percent in profits, isn’t it? After all, with a normal loan from a normal bank today (not many of them in those days) you are still bound not to sell your property within 5 years from the pruchase, so big deal about the 10 years.
You see, dear worker, the problem with people who think like you is that you are entitlted to government handouts simply ‘ghax jien haddiem’. The problem is made worse when workers like my father, who worked their ass off to support a family on a single miserly fulltime wage and a couple of part time jobs, were denied said government handouts by virtue of their being nationalist, even if with a small ‘n’ and not being politically active at all.
I vividly remember my parents saving for ages in the hope of getting a preposterously priced colour tv. Getting enough money was just part of the saga, however, as then you had to go join a queue at dawn near ix-xandir to put in an application for the sacred box. When you sat in front of the demigod in charge behind the desk, he would open his drawer and if your name was crossed out, sorry no tv for you…unless of course you were prepared to go through a red intermediary and pay a hefty ‘extra fee’. This did not happen in the 50s, the 60s or the 70s, you understand, but in the bloody 80s when the economies of l-Ewropa ta’ Kajjin were developing at sustained rates.
I also remember my father’s humiliation at being repeatedly passed over for promotion by people he himself had taught how to read and write, in the most blatant way. Does this still happen today? You bet, but certainly not to the extne to f Mintoff’s and KMB’s times. Did you have any real avenue for redress then? Sure, and pigs could fly. Do you have means of redress now? You do, and people rightly make use of them.
Let me tell you why the church schools signed the agreement with a nationalist, as opposed to a labour, government: because an agreement signifies free choice made by two or more parties. Had KMB and his puppeteer approached the issue with more tact and less arrogance (remember ‘jew b’xejn jew xejn’?), maybe history today would have been a bit kinder on them.
Mintoff’s policies of closing the economy and stifling dissent were unmitigated disasters. All they did was create the conditions to make untouchable millionaires out of some of his ministers, friends, extended entourage and the assorted other criminals who made a killing out of backhanders. And that culture of backhanders has remained with us, as part of Mintoff’s legacy.
As a nationalist, I do not feel that EFA is my saviour or my god for opening up the economy. Just that action reduced considerably scope for some of the most blatant corrupt practices. Could and should he have done more? Absolutely. I however think he deserves more respect than Mintoff or KMB for doing his job better – that is after all why he was elected Prime Minister.
Noone told you you are not welcome here, I just gave you a couple of website suggestions. Even Adrian, with all his overuse of capital letters and overuse of exclamation marks (teenage angst?), is welcome, let alone you. I just wanted to point out to you that, in defending the indefensible, you may sometimes look like those websites.
@cili – you’re dead man :0 :0
Much as I remember with disgust the many years under Mintoff, somehow I cannot take any more of this blog.The comments have made me relive some of the unhappy incidents under Mintoff and to remember others equally disgusting. The reason why I contributed to this blog was because I just couldn’t stand any more Mintoffians telling me that the Maltese people owe their education to Mintoff.I hope I have helped to break this myth so assiduously flung at us by Mintoffians. I wish one day our people to learn not to be beholden to any political party or any politician.We should expect them -all of them- to do what is right because it is our right to demand this; and if they do wrong, democracy should help deal with them.
@Mario P Why for finding Daphne Sexy or for promoting the Swiss MED :) hehe
@Jane I cannot agree more -well said.
@ edgar gatt . You forgotten Alf Mizzi & Sons who was the most privileged importer where they obtained import licences at will, and new agencies galore because they could get import licences, and the legitimate importer could not. And the sham of colour TVs where only one brand could be imported – Grundig thanks to Jokate’s contacts , and the story goes on , and on.
@ worker. The problem is that socialism is not the solution for a small island state like Malta of 330,000 people (1971). Borg Olivier’s vision for Malta was ahead of its time, Freeport (before even containerisation came to being!) Tax haven, upmarket tourism, yacht marinas, new airport…
If Borg Olivier had another 5 year term in government in 1971 (and Mintoff never a prime minister) we would have been an offshore centre probably greater than MonteCarlo today, and EVERYONE would be wealthy . Probably the Maltese would not have wanted to even join the EU because our GNP per capita would be well above the EU average.
I can assure you we would be laughing at the stupidities of Children’s allowances and Bonuses, because they would have been so irrelevant.
But as the Maltese saying goes, Kieku Kieku waqa u kiser siequ…and Malta got lumped with 16 horrible years of extreme socialism led by Mintoff and the lunatic KMB. Thank heavens the other lunatic Alfred Sant was only in power for 20 months. Wow, Labour have had some great leaders for the past half a century !
@Daphne,
Read this? http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2008/08/24/t2.html I’m sure you’re quaking in your shoes :)
[Daphne – Yes, everyone’s laughing about it. I’m looking forward to seeing a gynaecologist being called to testify that Joseph Muscat and Toni Abela are not, biologically speaking, vaginas.]
@Daphne,
You have to read it, it’s hilarious!
http://www.l-orizzont.com/news.asp?newsitemid=46693
You got something against pretty people ? :)
[Daphne – Yes, I saw that. The man is cheesed off because instead of batting my eyelashes and flirting with him I told him to piss off. He comes from the generation that thinks women should be seen – preferably wearing as little as possible – and not heard. I got a little tired of his chauvinistic remarks in my regard. And trust him to make the classic error of publicising what I said, thinking it would create shock-horror-waves against me, instead of widespread hilarity. Apparently, Joseph Muscat now has a new nickname to supersede il-Poodle: Joseph L-Gh**x…with an ghajn, of course.]
@ Stefan I never said I was entitled to government handouts, at the time plots were given out to help young couples. In my case I was given a plot in 1882, some plots in our neighbourhood were not even taken, so anyone who applied actually got a plot. I have neighbours who are actually staunch PN supporters, so you see PN supporter got plots as well (as it should be).
At the time we didn’t have a coloured TV, you see I am a very proud person; I will not stoop to asking for favours, so we only bought a coloured TV when they were in the shops.
I was angry because you put me in the same class as those web sites. I bet if I sent you to the same type of sites even if they were pro PN you’d feel insulted as well, and I answered while I was still angry.
@ Edgar Gatt “Only Flamingo (with their friends the Ministers) could import fridges, cookers etc.” – How come I bought my cooker and fridge from Delta (Mizzi) and my washing machine from Demajo Bros, my friends got theirs from Forestals, I remember Muscat General Stores as well I can’t remember if there were any more. Don’t tell me Flamingo imported everything and they were his sub agents.
@cili – for your comment AFTER you wrote that she is sexy :)
Adrian – Are you sure that your name isn’t John Zammit? You sound just like him:
http://www.freewebs.com/dommintoff/
Adrian – Are you sure that your name is not John Zammit? You sound exactly like him.
See this:
http://www.freewebs.com/dommintoff/
@ David Buttigieg. Thanks for the link – worth a laugh. What I find funny is he says f**K off and P**s off more than once in full but then he pussy foots around gh**X, calling it ‘il-genitali ta mara’. Why didn’t he just translate to English. Nasty swears in English don’t count in his book. I’d love daphne to take up the ‘chellench’ in English – see is his speech is peppered with the ef word like colin farrel.
@Mario P – let’s wait and see hehe
@worker I did stoop for favours as at the time that was the only way of getting something, no more said…..
PS I couldn’t help having a look at Toni’s article, I am still reeling with laughter, although he does have a couple of points, but of all the people, it had to be Toni….I cannot even stomach him on TV with the volume turned off…….and I am no PN sympathizer just one of those citizens that in my humble opinion weighs all pros and cons before casting my vote…..
Worker: Whatever the ins and outs of the minutiae of Mintoff’s “policy making”, the net result was a huge and avoidable economic mess and that is why so many people dislike him. In the management speak beloved of the current MLP make up, Mintoff’s economic policies amounted to a waste of existing and potential human resources, an inefficient use of fixed and working capital, and a bottom line that was best kept hidden from the financiers a.k.a. the taxpayers, a group that included the much celebrated ‘worker’.
The rest is detail.
NO WONDER WHY THIS ISLAND TURNED TO BE A SHIT PLACE FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS. WITH A MENTALITY LIKE SOMEONE WHO SPITS OR DANCES ON A GRAVE WHAT MORE CAN YOU GET.
YOU REALLY ARE A BUNCH OF SAD HYPOCRYTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[Daphne – Our friend Adrian thinks that Malta’s been a shit place for the last 20 years. He should have been around for the previous 20.]
jien naqbel ma dawk li jghidu li forsi mintoff ghamel nies il min qabillu u halla l klassi baxxa bxejn . Biss wara daz zmien kollhu xorta ghada tigri ghax bl ghajta tal liberalizzazjoni gara li is suq infetah ghall 4 monopolisti li hatfu kull ma jiedhol malta biex xorta ghandna sistema fejn 4 jistanaw u lohrajn jieklu ir racanc . Il hajja giet girja wara il loans u wara dak kollhu li tixtri . Probabli issa daphne taghmel elogju lil pn ghax gabna il quddiem biss il verita din hi tghid x tghid l ghaziza taghna daphne l isbah krejatura li halaq il mulej
Adrian: You credit people here with more than power than they could possibly hold. Were it possible for the mindset of these few individuals to determine the state of the entire country for the past 20 years, Mintoff and his protege would not have hung on for the preceding 20 years.
I don’t see any hypocrisy in the comments about dancing and spitting on Mintoff’s grave. On the contrary, those comments seem sincere and heartfelt. You might not approve of them, but that doesn’t make them hypocritical.
You’re obviously angry and annoyed at the way things are. At least you are able to say so publicly. That’s not something you could’ve done 20 years ago. And who do you think you’d have had to thank for that?
@ worker.
When I said that Flamingo were the only importers of white goods, I meant the only ones who had a licence to import full containers with no restrictions, and the other importers you mentioned, who are good friends of mine, were allowed one with every thousand flamingo imported. Dear worker, you either were not born at that time or have a very bad memory . I can give lots of details about those disgusting times, but for now enough said.
[Daphne – Edgar, people who were/are not involved in importation, and who had no close links to those who were/are, have very little idea of how things were then. They don’t even know how the import licence system worked (or rather, didn’t work). I, on the other hand, spent the first few years of my working life queuing at one government counter after another, with sheafs of applications in my hands. It was Kafkaesque.]
I fail to see why DCG is a “hypocryt” – quite the opposite if anything.
@Stefan – don’t bother trying to argue. I’m sorry your dad lost promotions he deserved… things were even pettier than that – such as being denied a phone for 5 years. Or getting 5 transfers in two years so that the only option was to apply for early retirement (and this was a headmistress’ post – so much for sound education!).
Wounds heal but the scars remain (awful cliche, I know). But people like ‘worker’ (his nick speaks volumes) will just deny it, or find excuses to justify what happened – or try to find examples of Nationalist wrong-doings to smugly show that neither party is perfect.
Just don’t bother – you won’t get anywhere.
Daphne my dear, don’t confuse worker… most probably he/she has no clue who Kafka was…he might think it has something to do with ta’ kafkaf…
and y’know…Mintoff hardly did anything ta’ Kafkaf…excuse me now cos I need to extricate my tongue from my cheek
@Dadiv Tubbigieg – Tnx for posting the Orizzontal link – http://www.l-orizzont.com/news.asp?newsitemid=46693
I think Noti Aleba over-estimates her dissenting wisdom when he writes “għandi dubji serji hiex atea”.
Not so here. Measuring her up by her world view I think she’s as gullible as a Tubbigieg. Pity.
[Daphne – How’s the gerbil?]
Re Benetton: As far as I know, apart from the Sliema outlet, there was also one in Republic Street, Valletta.
[Daphne – Yes, that’s right.]
for me it was the violence that did me in – cannot forget the ‘spectacle’ of the Paola PN club on fire in ’76 with furniture being thrown out of the windows and – get this – fire engines waiting under ‘it-telgha tal-habs’ waiting for the thugs to finish their work. That night was really a watershed for me
Ghaziz Ramon Muscat ,nixtieqek illum thares daqxejn lejn il-bejgh tal-merca ;mela fetah supermarkit hal-Qormi u kellu fost hafna affarijiet ,l-ghagin NOFS PREZZ u t-tadam fil-BOTT bi prezz tajjeb. In-nies ghogobha x-xoghol u telqet tigri tixtri ghal-ghandu.Wara ftit fethet katina ta’ supermarkits ohra bi prezzijiet li ma’ jitwemmnux , fil-Hamrun u Hal-Luqa fost l-ohrajn , bdiet tbiegh il-luminati u l-birra bir-rabass . Issa dawk is-supermarkits tal-Gudja , san Giljan u n-Naxxar inghaqdu u qed iqacctu wkoll fil-prezzijiet.
Dawk l-4 monopolisti li kienu ghaddejjin tajjeb issa taghthom rashom u issa iridu jaraw kif lil tal-hwienet iz-zghar izommuhom kompetittivi , ghax inkella jaghlqu u ma’ jkollomx min ibighilhom ix-xoghol taghhom! Lil-min qieghed jaqra intiegh il-parir li jibqgha jixtri minghand tal-merca dawk l-affarijiet li m’humiex ghola minn ta’ haddiehor.
Fi zmien Mintoff jew tal-BULK BUYING bil-prezzijiet tal-lum jew minn taht il-bank skaduti u bil-kuntrabandu bil-prezzijiet ghola minn tal-lum .Mars skaduta kienet tqum Lm0.25 anqas illum ma tiswa daqshekk.
Fi zmien Mintoff ma’ kontx tonfoq flus ghax per ezempju TV tal kulur kien lussu,magna tal-hasil awtomatika kienet lussu,bicca cikkulata tajba kienet haga ta’ pjacir li tista’ tghaddi minghajra , kompjuter inaqqas ix-xoghol u allura l-impjiegi.F’kelma wahda riedna nghixu kif dejjem ghex hu.
EFA riedna nghixu ta’ nies , u issa wasalna fi stat li jekk bniedem m’ghandux mobajl nghidu li hu fqir.
Meta EFA tela fil-gvern mad-dinja kien hawn ricessjoni , filwaqt li ahna hawn Malta kellna spluzjoni fl-ekonomija .
Il-Bozza ta’ quddiem id-dar t’ommi kienet ilha ma’ tixghel mil- krizi taz-zejt ta’ l-1971, ghax Mintoff hekk kien ordna fil-71. L-istess ghal-kemm il-funtana kien hawn f’Malta kinu ilhom weqfin mil-1971 .
Veru li Mintoff gab l’quddiem lill-maghkus , imma is-sistema li holoq kienet ta’ “HOBZ IL_BIEZEL KIELU L_GHAZZIEN”
Biex inkun ghidlek kollox , kont nammirah u nzomm mieghu.
daphne you sure can tell us more since you have been there 20 30 40 50 years or more
[Daphne – Sorry to disappoint you, Adrian, but I turned 44 yesterday. I’m glad to see you’ve stopped using capital letters.]
Daphne – the person signing the 250,000 dollar cheque is Muammar Gaddafi.
Gaddafi was on Net TV recently – I’m sure you know that. Guess what? Nationalist ministers were sipping the colonel’s tea under his bedouin tent. They trudged back home with a bag of empty promises. There’s more to come.
Nice cup of Libyan tea. Mr Gonzi would like some, too.
That’s all THEY will get.
[Daphne – And good luck to them. A cup of tea is worth a whole lot more than the Gaddafi Human Rights Award, don’t you think?]
Daphne – If you had called him a pussy, he’d probably misinterpret it and sue you for calling him an animal :)
[Daphne – I could always call him a bill or an invoice.]
Abel : at least they did not tell him that our grandfathers used to eat habbaziz together under the same roof.
One has to keep good relations with his neighbours ,that is their duty (to drink tea in Gaddafi’s tent) . Consider that they are your representatives.
Who is this woman that runs this site? Is this a dust bin where to spit, so it appears, and has to be emptied every few minutes.
The only satisfaction that I get is that at last they (friends of the woman) have a site where to compete whose spit is the most voluminous. Yaq? a Maltese word.
This will surely be censored.
I was tempted to write bad English so to force a change of atmosphere from such nauseatic arguments.
I forgot, the woman in charge confessed that she feeds the dogs in certain attire.No comments are necessary.
Pity I will be censored twice.
[Daphne – Honey, you DID write bad English. And a receptacle for spit is not called a dustbin, but a spittoon. Just thought I’d let you know.]
This all started about old Dom’s prize and has degenerated into a free for all. Benetton, pussies, washing machines, Kafka, hypocrytz. All utterly irrelevant . The Gaddafi human rights award is, in my opinion, unbiased recognition that Dom Mintoff was the greatest tragedy that befell Malta since the blitz of WW2. Several of the above comments prove that the damage wrought by his ruinous regime was immeasurable and that a large section of the population has not yet recovered from it. When the history of the second half of the twentieth century is finally written by a REAL professional historian (e.g. Frendo), we oldies will be vindicated. The lucky younger ones will be gobsmacked. Then they will realise how much they owe us. We will not ask them for anything in return for our efforts. Seeing them thrive in a truly democratic environment within the EU with a myriad of opportunities opened up to them makes it all seem well worth it.
So Mintoff gave us the vote? Ha ha!! We voted in 1981 to get rid of him with a clear Majority. But he had more seats. He IGNORED our vote!
Vacation leave? He gave my dad vacation leave when he locked him out of work! My dad’s crime? He was a teacher who decided not to renounce his trade union rights!
Education? In 1980 I continued with my education as a sixth form student at St. Aloysius, and dear Duminku gave me 20 points!
Shut up all Duminku fans. We have a better life today th
an we ever dreamt of having under his rule. Duminku and his admirers are a dying breed. Our families have NORMAL lives now. With everyday difficulties of course, but normal lives where our children have a good future if they work hard enough. They do not have anybody coming up with some new social experiment every week just to upset their lives.
Yes Dom Mintoff will go down in history as the most hated leader our country has had , and ironically even from the Labour camp…..and here comes Doctor Joseph Muscat with his eulogy about Mintoff. He may win over a few extremist Mintoffjani but will he win over the floating voters ?
Daphne, the gerbil is going strong. But the chinchilla died of C02 emissions and greenhouse gases.
[Daphne – Never mind. You can turn it into a fur coat for your daughter’s Barbie.]
@ Sal Parcing – are you trying to pass yourself off as an English person? Alternatively, are you an actual English person who got an “E” (E minus more like it) when attempting an O-level exam in the language?
Censored? If you haven’t realised yet, the blogger has made it pretty clear in the past that the blog is moderated by someone other than her – I assume it’s her son. You can hardly call blog moderating “censoring”.
I read this blog quite frequently, usually after visiting timesofmalta.com, and I’m getting sick of the people with a poor command of English (and an inferiority complex, evidenced by the fact that they think speakers of good English are snobs) who try to make themselves appear as good writers of English. If you can’t write good English, the only way to amend this unfortunate deficit is to read, read and read more. When I was a young boy, my parents always encouraged me to read books. My father used to buy me a few different books a week, and I used to devour them like a hungry cat devours a packet of Friskies. I was always spoken to predominantly in English at home, while at my nanna’s I spoke Maltese. I was always taught that English is a very important language – the knowledge of which would facilitate greatly academic life. I also learnt Maltese very well, and have spoken it on a daily basis since my early teens. I can’t stand the situation in Malta – there are few people who are truly bi-lingual. The majority can’t speak English well – the minority can’t speak Maltese well.
On a different note, Sal are you a Sally or a Salvu?
A question of astounding, nay cosmic, importance, such that only luminaries such as Toni Abela or “adrian” can answer it. Are we sure the “gh” precedes the “oxx”?
As for the rest of all this, why is there any debate about Mintoff’s place in history? It was assured for me when I saw him scuttling along the steps of Castille with an inane grin on his ugly face while my friends were chained there, protesting against his destruction of the Medical School.
It was one of the first skirmishes in his war against education, which was the war he eventually lost and with it his hold over the country.
@ ABC..Aquilina Maltese-English Dic. pp. 1008-1009…
trid tkun vera għ*xx biex tistenna li jilluminawk Toni jew adrian…;)
@ ABC : why are you doubting Daphne’s Maltese ? Even Toni agreed with her about the spelling.
Here’s another politician who wants others to pay for his family’s holidays.
http://www.l-orizzont.com/news.asp?newsitemid=46693.
To tell you the truth when I read the title of the article and saw the photo I thought it was Toni’s ‘mara’.
“Din il-“mara” Literally could mean “this is the wife”. I thought Toni was taking a leaf out of Joseph’s maiden speech, when the latter referred to his wife as ‘DIN”.
Andrew Borg-Cardona – Try asking the Akkademja tal-Malti, maybe they’ll have a disagreement over the spelling, as in “Awissu/Awwissu”. :)
Daphne – Maybe you should have used the expression “Toni jahra fejn ixommu” (from the infamous Maltese textbook “Wiccu Ghad-Dawl”, which was part of our curriculum under Labour in the late 1970s/early 1980s – They always had bad taste.)
That little twerp might then have taken you literally.
wonder of wonders the book of knowledge, andrew borg cardona aka bocca / ABC / prince of democracy & justice, is asking a question!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
certainly you wouldn’t be asking questions was it about the male genitals, instead of females’
Adrian, not to put too fine a point on it (otherwise you wouldn’t enjoy it) up yours. If you’re going to try to be funny, do try a bit harder – just adding exclamations marks at the end of the sentence and making juvenile innuendos (in your endos?) about cocks is so sadly childish.
ohhhh sorry bocca didn’t want to offend you, maybe i got you in the ‘laham il-haj’, sorry about that princess.
[Daphne – Qed tara, princess. He got you in the laham il-haj. And the tragedy is that this person probably received his education under a Nationalist administration that championed Maltese to the detriment of English, like The Other Ones did, ghax ahna Maltin u nitkellmu bil-Malti, ok, princess.]
On this site one cannot say facts. Only lies, exaggerations, misrepresentations are allowed, show of hatred against the old lion who cannot retaliate. Cowards, the owner of the site being the leader of this cohort.
The woman Caruana Galizia refuses to be a centre piece.
Even from far away one can get information. Modern IT.
[Daphne – Kemm hawn mgienen fid-dinja.]
[Daphne again – Yes, there’s a lot you can do with Modern IT. For example, Modern IT has told me that Sal Parcing and Philip Dupuis are one and the same person, or two different people using the same computer – but I would place my bets on the former, given that you both like to speak about ‘this woman’ and ask ‘who this woman is’ – literal translation of ‘di min hi’]]
by the way happy birthday daphne
@ John Schembri Din il-mara translates as this woman. This is my wife would be Din il-mara tieghi.
[Daphne – Tough, but you’re wrong. Most (ill-mannered) men say ‘din il-mara’, just as most (ill-mannered) women say ‘dan ir-ragel’, ‘cempel ir-ragel’, ‘gie r-ragel’….]
Sal Parcing – Ooooh, that’s news! Let’s hope that this time you’ll stick to one version of spelling of “your” name, unlike you did with “Philip Dupuis” on The Times blog a little while back, where you spelt “your” first name in three different ways in a matter of hours:
Philip (as usual)
Phillipe (mis-spelt, while trying to sound French, to go with your faux-French surname)
Philippe (at least you got the French spelling right)
Click here for a photo to take you back to the bad old days:
http://www.hi5.com/friend/photos/displayPhotoUser.do?photoId=1770429190&albumId=123302422&ownerId=170523063
Sal Parcing – By “the old lion”, I take it you mean Mintoff (born on the 6th August, hence a Leo). Not very original, are you?
Mario Debono – Talking of which, maybe you’d like to eat these words: “felicitations all you August people” (Mario Debono Thursday, 28 August 1332hrs)
So you try to trace contributors, but you fail to publish their contributions particularly when they state facts.
Friends of friends expression is now very common and could apply anywhere in the world. Thanks to IT correspondence crosses the air in a jiffy and news spread instantly.
A certain Martinelli writes from Canada others I would not mention write from the States. But it is not the writer that is important. The important is what is written, and what could be important is what has not been published.
Schizophrenic people react naturally according to their character, and it is not a reaction that happens once in a blue moon. It reveals the state of mind of the indiviual.
Clear and understood?
Facts are sacred, tomatoes are cheap.
[Daphne – Somehow, I get the impression that you’re on the elderly side. I don’t know – something about the way you use English, despite claiming to live ‘abroad’ and this obsessive devotion to Mintoff. It’s wonderful the way even elderly fans of Dom Mintoff are using computers and commenting on blogs nowadays. I don’t ‘try to trace’ those who post comments here. In fact, I have no idea who you are and I couldn’t care less. But you should know, for your own sake, that each computer or network of computers has something called an IP address, which it sends out with every comment you make wherever you make it, on whatever blog or internet site. So using different aliases is not enough. You also have to use different computers. The IP address pops up in front of me, next to the names ‘Sal Parcing’ and ‘Philip Dupuis’. I don’t have to look for it. It’s just there. For example, if you use your computer to send out anonymous email threats from an email address created specifically for the purpose, your IP address is the first thing the police will use in tracking you down. I’m only pointing this out as, judging by the nature of the other comments you sent in, and which were deleted, you seem to be the sort of person who does this.]
Thanks for sharing this link, but unfortunately it seems to be offline… Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please answer to my post if you do!
I would appreciate if a staff member here at daphnecaruanagalizia.com could post it.
Thanks,
Harry
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