Xenophobia makes it to the buses
Published:
September 18, 2008 at 12:27pm
Here we have another example of Maltese charm and hospitality to foreigners . It’s not just the blacks we don’t like. We don’t like Dutch people either. Malta ghal Maltin biss! Viva Mintoff.
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How embarrassing. Unfortunately, like everything else in this country, this is never going to change.
After spending a nice day at St. Goerges bay before I restart University, I fetched a bus from St.Julians to go back home…
Surprise surprise, the driver was an arrogant and ignorant one. 5 Italians stopped the bus and got into it. The driver yelled at them because they gave him a Euro5. They had to beg him in order to let them stay on the bus. Come on, they were in five; certainly he would have enough change to that.
This wasn’t enough. Oh no. It surely wasn’t. At a certain point the driver braked suddenly, quite a awful break, and a lady who was standing, since no seats were available, fell to the floor. Ironically, though, it’s not this lady who got hurt but the Italian girl who was standing in front of her. Her father, seeing his daughter with bruises on her legs and arms, went bonkers and starting yelling at the driver, saying “Animale, animale. Ma ti pare questo sia il modo di guidare?” (Animal, animal. Do you think this is the way to drive?)
The driver, instead of begging forgiveness, yelled back at them calling the Italians stupid.
The Italian father, who was certainly a Sicilian, said would go to the police. And it was only then where the driver got a little worried. When we got to Valletta, he asked sorry to them, saying it wasn’t his fault. Oh please!
Couldn’t he ask sorry to them on first place rather than yelling at them? Do these drivers need to feel threatened in order to become “decent” people??
No wonder “The MHRA president said marketing remained very important, but Malta also needed to improve its product. Bad publicity by word-of-mouth was worse than a lack of marketing, he said, adding that hoteliers had seen a decline in repeat business.” – Taken from The Times’ website.
Can we give poorer impressions than these we are giving them? I sincerely hope that Italian guy went to the police as he said he would do. Even though I highly doubt this would change the way these bus drivers treat foreigners; and sometimes Maltese people too, for that matter.
So much so for good marketing…
What has Mintoff got to do with these incidents?
(Daphne – He’s the one who taught people they should hate all foreigners and that foreigners are only there for what you can get out of them. Maltin tal-Maltin, remember?)
This had nothing to do with xenophobia. This almost happened to me a number of times! Some bus drivers don’t even stop when they’re picking up people. I’ve even seen this behaviour with elderly people. Unacceptable!
In many other countries a bus driver would be immediately fired for this sort of behavior. Why it doesn’t happen (or happen often enough) in Malta is a mystery to me. It’s also not much use going to the police. Too often, they only seem interested in diffusing the situation rather than investigating.
(Daphne – It’s because bus drivers are self-employed.)
Hah, so the Maltese Government pays 1 Million Euro ( i think) to brand Malta, but it only takes 47 cents to ruin everything.
I don’t know why the majority of bus drivers have to act as if they forgot to take their Meds.
@Keith Borg-Micallef
Why didn’t you take note of the number plate and reported him to the ADT?
@ John Meilak
I know; I only realised that afterwards. (Quite stupid, I admit.) I must admit I was really tired and at that point in time it didn’t occur to me to do so.
However, seeing how bonkers the Italian guy was (rightly so, of course), I am sure he went straight to the authorities though. In addition, I had already heard the couple sitting behind me saying that they will go report what happened.