Keith iqum mir-raqda
Do you remember Keith Grech? No, I thought not. He was deputy leader of the Labour Party for a time when our friend Fred was leader. Before that he wrote the most horrendous column for The Times, a sort of male version of Lorna Vassallo. Now he teaches public policy at the University – well, if the students can’t write or think, why bother finding lecturers who can?
He also has a blog, but I only found out about it because Google alerted me to a link he posted to my bit about Entni Zammit. I checked it out. Here’s his blog-post:
Saturday, October 4, 2008
DisgustingThe more I read Daphne Caruana Galizia’s contribution, the more I am convinced that there must be something seriously wrong with her.
Her warped logic, and manifest contempt for all those who do not share her point of view, are fast surpassing any level of decency. Her latest blog entry about Labour MP, Prof. Anthony Zammit, and her comments thereto attached, are quite simply disgusting.
Only three sentences there, so not much room for creative use of grammar and syntax, though he does manage to fit in a little hyperbole. Either that, or he’s been taking lessons from his public policy students.
Beneath the post, somebody had put a comment: ‘Is she implying that the whole ordeal was part of a fetish game?’ Duuuuuhhhhh. No, actually I’m not. But I do suspect, based on what Zammit told his interviewer and the reports of the incident, besides the utter silence that followed, that he could have been subjected to an unsolicited bit of handling from somebody with whom he might have played fetish games in the past. After all, they did come in through the front door, using a key. This would be the equivalent of a silly heterosexual man being taken for what he’s got by a woman streetwalker and left with his pants down. There was a court case about just such an incident recently. It was very amusing, and what amused me more is that the man called the police and demanded the return of his wallet, so that the whole thing ended up plastered over the court reports.
I couldn’t resist cheering up Keith’s day by posting a comment beneath his ‘Disgusting Daphne’ piece, which he will probably delete before it sees the light of day, so I’m repeating it here, which will allow him to read it again (and all his friends and followers, too, given that he’s linked my blog to his – such strategic thinkers, these Labour-machine people):
Glad to see you’re such a big fan, Keith. You remind me of those tal-Muzew types who look at naughty magazines for the sheer thrill of feeling scandalised. If my blog bothers you so much you have a solution to hand: don’t read it, and get your thrills elsewhere. I’m sure Anthony Zammit can give you some hot tips.
Now he can write another post, getting himself all worked up about what a big antipatika I am. It’s just so funny.
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There’s an entire class of people who seem to have learnt English by reading and re-reading the instruction manual for a vacuum cleaner that was made in Taiwan.
This Keith Grech listed a couple of courses he followed at University. However, I still feel like urging him to follow one in English as well, because he really s*cks at it. Wait, they probably wouldn’t accept him, given his horrendous level. Maybe if he tries an O’Level course… (Would he manage to get that? I heard the English board in Malta is quite harsh.) It’s for his own sake I’m saying this, of course. (:]) That might teach him how to construct a decent and flowing paragraph.
If he reads DCG’s pieces on a regular basis, (I’m convinced he does) then that too might help him to improve. Wait, he must first stop thinking of how to attack her and focus a little more on the English part while reading the pieces in order to improve…
I think that K Grech was deputy secretary general secretary before he vanished from the public scene. he attempted a comeback various times, but to no avail.
He should hire the boss’ wife(mother) as his image consultant. With that dirty shave and shaved hair (I do not think he’s bald) he looks like a hooligan.
Anyway Michelle can change his image. She might have a few silver shirts lying around.
Hi Daphne.
Am I right to say that it should be: What goes around comes around? This was taken from Maltastar!!!
USA
What comes around goes around – OJ Simpson faces life sentence
Thirteen years to the day of murder drama, OJ faces prisonOJ Simpson, the former American football star cleared of murdering his wife 13 years ago, is facing the rest of his life behind bars after being convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery. Simpson, 61, …
[Daphne – Well, that just shows Kurt Farrugia doesn’t know the difference between coming and going. If what comes around goes around, then it’s going away from you not towards you. But that’s just the least of Maltastar’s problems. If you’re going to check it out on a regular basis, you’re going to need kalmanti.]
For amusement, go to Keith Grech’s complete profile by clicking on his picture in his blog, and see the fouth bullet point. Quite fitting.
Think Kurt got married today, not too sure that he wrote that.
[Daphne – Who’s Kurt?]
Kurt Farrugia – editor of Maltastar.com
[Daphne – Well, we can expect fewer panting stories about hot sexy chicks wearing hardly any clothes, and their wish-fulfilment antics, now that he’ll be getting something out of his system. The wedding ‘editorial’ in Maltastar is hilarious, particularly because he almost certainly wrote it himself: http://www.maltastar.com/pages/msrv/msfullart.asp?an=24470 And the funniest bit of all is where he is wished ‘lots of mini-mes’. I take it that wasn’t a sarcastic comment, given that he is around 4’8″ and very much a mini-me himself.]
@Luca “(Would he manage to get that? I heard the English board in Malta is quite harsh.)”… I assure you his level of English is good enough for a local O’ Level pass. You probably remember a different era where the London/Oxbridge boards kept standards high. In this day and age anyone can get an O Level as this entails: a) writing a 180 word essay (yup 180), answering a comprehension (the “Julia went up the hill – where did Julia go” type), answering a couple of listening comprehensions which even Intermediate EFL students answer with ease and a “fill in the blanks” paper. And with this you get into 6th form and uni where the language of instruction is meant to be English. How these people manage to write a 14,000 word dissertation (in English) and yet still cannot manage to converse or answer simple questions (in English)in job interviews is honestly beyond me. My last point… the level is so dismally low that to become a civil servant, one has to sit for an English/Maltese exam regardless of whether the applicant has O level passes in these subjects (or even a Uni degree for that matter!). Some Uni courses also require an English proficiency exam despite the fact that all students are required to have an English O Level in the first place. Just shows you what faith this institution has in its own exams.
Maltese is a different story altogether but DCG will ask me to get my own blog if I get started there. All I’ll say is that 30% passed (national average) in Malti paper B. Just compare what our kids need to know to sit for that exam as opposed to what they need (or don’t need) to know for the English Language paper. Yet, when it comes to luring foreign students over, the University’s website proudly states that “Malta has two official languages, Maltese and English, a legacy of British rule that lasted over 160 years.”
@ NGT
What about the A’ Levels then? (English, of course) Many of my mates, whose English is almost impeccable believe me, didn’t make it for a mere C. Thus, they couldn’t plump for a B.A. course. (There were a plethora of students who failed the mentioned exam.) Sometimes, Maltese Examination boards tend to be too callous; it’s like they really feel like failing students when some of them absolutely deserve a good pass. I am fully aware of the fact that many Maltese students doing their English A’ Level have a horrendous level of English, (why do they choose English as their A’ Level, I never managed to fathom) but some others don’t. Needless to say, though, many of the latter fail it too. Miraculously, however, when sitting for the re-sit they manage to get a good pass. (Isn’t that eerie?) A friend of mine, for example, from an F in English, managed to obtain a C in the re-sit. How could he have improved that much in just 2 months? Oh please, sometimes I feel these boards do it on purpose.
If they want the A’ Level students level to be sublime, then they should put into practice a better syllabus for the O’ Level exams. One cannot expect to be really good at 18 when for some 10 years he has been taught no good English. What is presently asked for an O’ Level exam should, according to me, be asked for a Form 1/2 exam. But certainly not at O’ Level standards. Then we go boasting ourselves abroad to lure foreign students to come and study English here during summer… (Yeah, they could probably teach many of the Maltese students how to speak decent English.)
What really bothered me, though, is that this week I learnt (through University’s Insiter, by P. CG) that our lovely University don’t give students the real grade they obtain while abroad on Erasmus, but transform it according to our Maltese “standards”. (Oh yeah, and what standards!) So imagine, in England if you get a 74, it’s an A, but no, here they transform it into a B, hence downgrading the English lecturers’ mark. Now isn’t that nonsense and pathetic?
hahaha i really love your sarcasm.
@ Luca – very true. The sad thing is that students are allowed to choose English at A level even if they sat for the Paper B exam. That doesn’t help matters.
The sadder fact is that whilst English was made easier to facilitate entry into 6th form and Uni, Maltese is still ridiculously and unjustifiably difficult (including the Paper B exam). In fact some teachers claim that it is easier to pass Paper A. The system clearly favours those whose second language is English… or discriminates against those whose first language is English. This may sound paranoid but we are talking about the Frans Sammuts of the world here.
Just read the comments (written by teachers) that follow the news article below to see just how pathetic the situation has become. Remember, these people have spent 4 years in an institution which claims that English is its language of instruction.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081003/local/court-awards-87-351-compensation-after-classroom-accident/
[Daphne – I’ve just read them, and all I can say is: no wonder children are learning their mistakes. “I am afraid I end up in that situation” – future tense? “In a split of a second”. The situation is bad even when children don’t need to learn English from their teachers, as is the case with some children in independent schools. They are forced into a position where they know the language better than their teachers, causing them to lose respect for the teacher and left with a choice between correcting the teacher’s mistakes – and coming across as a smart alec – or letting those mistakes go by with the result that their classmates adopt them.]
Are those real Maltese teachers? No wonder why student’s English is simply pitiable. Then again, I ask myself whether these children’s’ parents encourage them to read? I think (and I’m almost sure it’s a cast-iron fact now) that here in Malta reading is really not encouraged enough. Really, no one reads enough.
I’m not saying I read voraciously, but I was always encouraged to read as “it is of absolute importance”, I used to be told. It is also really demoralizing the fact that a plethora of the Maltese kids (and grown-ups for that matter) think that reading is for the so known “nerds”. Nah, I mean, this is serious. I wasn’t born here, in fact I’m Italian. Well, I’ve been living here for some 8 years now, so I also speak Maltese and know how certain things are dealt about. I’m not saying that in Italy people read more, nor am I saying their English is good. (That also has to do with the Italian’s accent and the fact that English is not introduced to them as from an early stage as it is here, but anyway, I need not justify Italians.) However, I must say that they still read much more than the Maltese people do, (of any age.) Come on, Malta has also been under the English Colony, that must have left some sort of decent level. I mean, sometimes I think people here just do not want to learn the language well. Grammar, and I’m sorry to say, is not taught correctly. Not even the tenses are taught as they should be. And please, don’t think I’m some Italian (though I’m now legally Maltese :) ) pompous ass. I’m just saying what I witnessed in Maltese schools, private schools, which were supposed to be better than the state ones :( (That’s what they told us upon arriving here in Malta and my parents were looking for a school.)
Anyhow, to cut a long story short, I noticed that here it is kind of eerie if you do read. Many of the parents do not even encourage that. Then they would go saying “Ghax illum kattivi, ma jghaddu lil-hadd mill-ezamijiet.” What do they expect? That children learn English miraculously? Isn’t this nonsense? Most of the children, according to me of course, should be given a much better education, starting off within the family itself. Why do you think reading isn’t encouraged at all?? Is it laziness or what? I cannot fathom that.
Independent schools are actually a system which came into place to continue the elitist upbringing which formerly existed at Church schools. Now that the ‘marmalja’ have invaded Church schools, it seems that the well connected and wealthy have decided to create independent schools run by so called non profit foundations to continue segregating those who wish to remain so. It’s a bit like the situation in the Deep South where the business community in states with large black populations bankrolled a private system to retain segregation. It’s funny to note that English – the language of the elite here in Malta is still not being taught well at these bastions of economic segregation.
[Daphne – Shows how much you know, Gerald: most of the children in independent schools come from what you call the marmalja. There only X number of tal-pepe people of child-bearing age, and I can tell you that they are breeding nowhere near enough to fill the thousands of places at independent schools. Also, independent schools have become aspirational – far more aspirational than church schools. Try and use a little bit of common sense. The good thing about marmalja children going to independent schools is that they will probably end up less marmalja than their parents, which wouldn’t have happened if they went to a state school. Rather than criticising independent schools, you should praise them for doing what state schools and church schools have failed to do. I couldn’t help but notice, the last time I was in the audience at the Young Enterprise finals – in 2003 – that 95% of the boys and girls making up the teams in the final heat had come out of San Anton school, even though they were all at different sixth form colleges.]
U ejja Daphne! Don’t tell me that the vast majority of ‘tal pepe’ families don’t send their children to independent schools. The concept is segregationist as you very well know.
The stats you quote are proof of the matter – your life chances improve considerably at independent schools.
[Daphne – Not very sharp this afternoon, are we, Gerald? I didn’t negate that the vast majority of tal-pepe families send their children to independent schools. I wrote that even all the children of tal-pepe families put together are not enough to fill the thousands of places at independent schools, so it stands to reason that the other places are filled by different sorts. Do you honestly think that a school with a thousand pupils has a thousand tal-pepe pupils? And that’s just one school. There are several.]
But they are the majority anyway…..and it’s a fact of life that the you have a better chance of succeeding in life if you go to an independent school. Its sociologically proven.
[Daphne – No, Gerald, I can tell you for a fact that ‘they’ are not the majority. At the church school I went to, the tal-pepe were a tiny minority. And the independent school my sons went to started out as very tal-pepe and has ended up, inevitably, with a tal-pepe minority. So what are you trying to say, anyway? That independent schools should be closed down because they give unfair advantages to those whose parents can afford to pay the fees? Now, where did I last hear that argument….]
The scope for them was as you indicate, to create an elitist school. Now, money has come into the hands of ‘tal-marmalja’ too so they can’t be denied entrance. And, yes it is KMB’s argument – skejjel b xejn ghal kullhadd which i’m quoting and over which an almighty fuss was kicked up for nothing!
[Daphne – Somewhere I read that you had passed the entrance examinations for St Aloysius College and won a place after much effort, only to have your father decide that you would go to a state school after all because Mifsud Bonnici was trying to close down the church schools and Mr Fenech senior thought he would be successful. If I am mistaken about this, I will delete this observation, but I believe this is the root of all your grudges, which seem to be particularly acute where issues of perceived privilege are concerned, particularly in regard to private and independent schools. Of course independent schools can deny entrance to whomsoever they please: they are independent, and nobody can tell them what to do. On the other hand, they accept everyone because they need the money. Twas ever thus. As for your suggestion that the revolutionary response to Mifsud Bonnici shutting down non-state schools was “an almighty fuss for nothing”….really, Gerald, really….]
Well, yes that is very true but it has nothing to do with my revised opinion on the subject. I could have gone to St Aloysius and still have changed my mind over the years. What I’m saying is that after all those protests and demonstrations, the inevitable had to happen and church schools finished up free of charge. As regards independent schools, i know quite a few ppl who can’t really afford them but send their children there just the same not to be perceived as inferior to others. The fact that a state school is perceived as inferior is already segregationist in nature.
[Daphne – Church schools are not free of charge. The very nominal fee is called a donation, and the decent parents pay it while many others who can afford to pay do not – ghax suppost b’xejn. Then of course, others have to pick up the bill for the tremendous cost of running such large and busy schools. NOTHING is free, Gerald. Somebody, somewhere, pays.]
yes of course, the government pays some 13 million liri a year to keep the schools up and running. Some day they are going to have to revisit that agreement too.
[Daphne – AAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH! Honestly, Gerald, this is unbelievable, coming from somebody who worked for a business newspaper and now works for a business magazine. The government pays for nothing. The government is not productive and can’t earn money. It can only raise money by taxing those who work, and by levying percentages off transactions. It would have been cheaper in the long run to let the schools raise their own money through fees – because when you have to earn money, you are more efficient than when you are subsidised. And it would have meant that, instead of levying Lm13 million in taxes off everyone’s back just so that Cetta’s daughter can say she goes to a church school, the only people paying for the schools would be those actually using them. That’s fair. The current system is grossly unfair. It means that people like my parents – I mention them only as an example among thousands of others who have been paying taxes for half a century – whose daughters went to fee-paying church schools and whose grandchildren went/go to fee-paying independent schools, are now still paying for other people’s children to go not just to state schools but to church schools as well. And that’s right? You pay tax – how do you feel about your taxes being used to pay for the church school fees of those who can afford to pay them themselves?]
Why is this Mr. Gerald implying that only tal-pepe people get into private/independent schools? I was in an independent/private school – the one that is perceived to be the epitome of snobbishness and tal-pepe – and believe me, it is absolutely not true that the vast majority of students are tal-pepe! (Daphne, to call those English speaking tal-pepe is not really fair. Am I, or you, to be referred to as tal-pepe only because we speak decent English? To me tal-pepe are those who think they can actually speak English but are far from capable of doing so.)
And, since I relish to be blunt, let me also say that these students who are referred to as “tal-marmalja” (I never heard of the term, sorry) are those who actually ruined our school. Really and truly, they did. Their attitude and rudeness towards the teachers was simply unbearable. Believe me Gerald, those who are “tal-pepe” (since, unfortunately, that’s how we are referred to) always were respectful. The others, however, never did, “ghax malajr tigi ommhom jew missierhom jajtu u jghidu li qed ihallsu biex uliedhom ikunu hemm”.
Gerald, at University, the majority of students did attend state schools. (Junior Lyceums) So not every parent goes bonkers and does whatever he can to get his children into private schools. (Something I would really encourage, so perhaps these students’ attitude and knowledge can improve.)
Ok, a slip, the govt pays with our taxes – quite a discovery! maybe as you said im a bit less harp on Mondays :)
Gerald: What in heaven’s name is wrong with a person’s life chances being improved by attending an independent school? That statement alone undermines the argument that the schools are elitist. If they were, then the attendees’ life chances wouldn’t need improvement in the first place.
You didn’t seriously admire KMB’s policy, did you? Bringing everyone down to the same level – or attempting, but thankfully failing to do so – is not quite the same thing as bringing everyone up to the same level.
Here’s the clincher – parents who go out of their way to send their children to schools they perceive as better than average value their children’s education, rather than seeing it as an obligation that is imposed on them. That’s not a general rule in schools to which parents send their children because they have to do so rather than because they want to do so.
@ Gerald: “Independent schools are actually a system which came into place to continue the elitist upbringing which formerly existed at Church schools.”
Strange, there’s one independent school I know of that opened before St Aloysius did.
Anyway, instead of fighting for free education for all, it would be more plausible to fight for GOOD free education for all. You may find that many parents, including mine, worked bloody hard to send their children to church or independent schools because what the gov offered was not acceptable to many decent families.
You claimed that it is proven that going to a church school increases your chances of success so why then assume that parents send their children to independent schools because they do not want to be seen as inferior? Normal parents do what’s best for their children. If that makes the chip on your shoulder throb, well, seek help.
“I could have gone to St Aloysius and still have changed my mind over the years.”… yeah, right!
NGT: Since we have had over 20 years of a nationalist government state schools have supposedly improved so why the earnestness to send children to independent schools notwithstanding the high prices they charge? You misread my argument – I said your life chances improve at independent schools and not at Church schools which have allegedly been reduced to a rabble. As a footnote – I went to a church school in my primary years not that it was a very nice experience.
Corinne: The intention was good but maybe it was implemented wrongly. KMB wanted poorer children to have access to what was perceived as the best (it wasn’t so good either)to give them a chance in life.
[Daphne – Didn’t they teach clear thinking at the state school you went to? KMB was prime minister. What he should have done was make sure state schools were the best, not accepted the fact that they were dreadful while saying, iss hej, mhux fier li dawk tal-pepe biss jistghu immorru ghand tal-knisja. Besides, I was at one of the two leading convent schools for girls well before he started his crusade, and I can assure you that the tal-pepe girls were in a very small minority, so much so that there were many, many girls who were with me at school and whom I have never seen again since leaving St Dorothy’s in 1980.]
Gerald: “why the earnestness to send children to independent schools notwithstanding the high prices they charge?”
What business of anyone is it what parents choose to do with their money? The option of state school education is there and that is exactly what it is – an option.
Gerald: “The intention was good but maybe it was implemented wrongly. KMB wanted poorer children to have access to what was perceived as the best (it wasn’t so good either)to give them a chance in life.”
What utter rubbish. The battle cry, as you no doubt remember, was ‘jew b’xejn, jew xejn’. In other words, either everyone was to have access to private school education, or nobody would. If the schools were ‘the best’, why do you admire KMB’s policy of shutting them down and depriving everyone of what you claim he thought was the best education?
I’m sure you also remember the KMB-led government’s ridiculous attempt to force private school pupils to migrate to newly set up state schools – and what a waste of money that was, given that it would have been far better to invest that money in existing state schools, than to create ghost institutions that nobody wanted or needed. Pupils were banned from attending their schools and sentries were posted outside the buildings to ensure that pupils were physically barred from entering.
That ill-advised, poorly judged, and mean-spirited policy was just another example of KMB’s detachment from the reality around him. He really believed, it seems, that it was for him to dictate and for everyone else to obey, that a school is just a building rather than an institution that is more than the sum of its parts, and that he, an abject political failure and hopeless administrator, could control the uncontrollable. You know the result – and I don’t just mean the underground schooling organised by the networks of parents and pupils that quickly formed and developed to undermine the government’s unsound policy decisions. I’m talking about KMB sparking the biggest public protest that Malta had ever seen.
Face up to it, Gerald. KMB’s policy on private school education was a miserable failure, but even that was barely below the abysmal depths of his economic and financial policies, including bulk buying and the potty suggestion that Malta could borrow money on international markets at low interest rates and relend the same money on the same markets at high interest rates without anyone noticing.
Spare yourself the embarrassment of trying to defend the indefensible. Some good people may have emerged from state school education, but that they did is no thanks to KMB and his henchmen and supporters. Why count yourself among them, and undermine your very argument by doing so?
[Daphne – And when his ghouls set up a state school for pupils of the private schools he closed down, what did they call it? SANDHURST! That was supposed to appeal to dawk tal-pepe. Looking back, I can only sob with laughter. It was like a black comedy.]
“And when his ghouls set up a state school for pupils of the private schools he closed down, what did they call it? SANDHURST”
Oh yes, I remember it – was he REALLY dumb enough to think people like my parents would send us there? My mother would much sooner have home schooled me!
Oh those terrible days – my school was not even a church school, dear Gerald, but a private one yet that twit closed it down too – did the twerp expect the private sector to provide schooling for free too?
Education had nothing to do with the whole saga, it was pure class hatred brought about by the evil Dom Mintoff!
If I remember well he even appealed to housewives to go and teach there because he didn’t have enough teachers, or am I mistaken? (I was only 10 at the time)
David Buttigieg: I don’t know if that was just an urban legend, but I do remember something of the sort happening. It shouldn’t surprise you. He’d also said (to a gathering of housewives, no less) that we shouldn’t join the EU because we’d catch AIDS and that the Maltese housewife would be left with nothing to do because our houses would become as small as those ‘in Europe’ and there’d be less cleaning to do. You know what? They all clapped and cheered. That was around the same time KMB announced that we need to tighten our belts because of economic difficulties – they called that sort of thing policy, except that it was inspired by Kim Il Sung, he the Great Leader of the state whose people often die with grass in their mouth.
[Daphne – My god, yes, and that was in the run-up to the 1992 general election. I remember the exact phrase he used: our houses will be like rabbit-hutches and then what will women do if they can’t pass the time cleaning? And Victor Laiviera voted for this man – and his wife is supposed to be a women’s issues campaigner.]
KMB had also declared that we’d catch cholera if we joined the EU. He was prone to saying embarrassing things like that e.g. pharmacies should be allowed to sell drugs but with a health warning; PN won in 1987 because they had some gadget that mysteriously transformed MLP votes into PN ones inside the ballot boxes.
Incidentally, one of the direct results of the war against Church schools (KMB had referred to it as a war that had to be fought) was the ransacking of the Curia, recently recalled by Fr Joe Borg in his blog.
[Daphne – My god, yes, and that was in the run-up to the 1992 general election. I remember the exact phrase he used: our houses will be like rabbit-hutches and then what will women do if they can’t pass the time cleaning? And Victor Laiviera voted for this man – and his wife is supposed to be a women’s issues campaigner.]
– his son actually works for the Times I think and went to a tal Pepe school . How high the lowly have risen.
Sybil: Be fair, and leave his son out of the matter. He can hardly be blamed for his father’s embarassing behaviour.
True.
@Gerald: “The intention was good but maybe it was implemented wrongly. KMB wanted poorer children to have access to what was perceived as the best (it wasn’t so good either)to give them a chance in life.”
The intention was good?????
Why have i suddenly lost the will to live?
Why didn’t KMB do something about the education system we were all paying for? Instead of ruining it , just like his cousin UMB.
When i was 11 years old i got a scholarship to St Aloysius, but my father sent me to the Lyceum, a government school, which was ‘perceived’ to be a better school. But that was 1971 before Agatha Barbara got her hands on it, and i had to switch to a church school before it ruined my chances of getting anywhere in life. Then she got her hands on the teachers’ college and closed that down, which ensured that there were very few good teachers around. Then they tried their hand at screwing up the university (putting an end to my university degree) and finally taking a shot at the church schools. This was a systematic attack on our education system by a Labour Government, and Gerald tells us KMB’s intentions were good!
Honestly you are daft silly creature!
And just in case you think i am an apologist for the PN, the system still sucks, from university down, but then what else do you expect, when the system was screwed up so badly in the first place.
[Daphne – If the system didn’t suck, would a man who can’t write in either English or Maltese, and who knows virtually no English, graduate magna cum laude in law?]
Antoine Vella – “Incidentally, one of the direct results of the war against Church schools (KMB had referred to it as a war that had to be fought) was the ransacking of the Curia”
Yes, and KMB was on the back of an enormous truck (presumably a Drydocks one) signing autographs for adoring female fans, whilst accompanying the thugs down Sta Lucia Street after they smashed up the Law Courts … and were on their way to mete out the same treatment to the Curia, in September 1984.
I will never forget the terrifying sounds of the chains and various tools the men were banging against the sides of the truck – I was 17 then, and working in a Sta Lucia Street office for my “points” (since I attended St Aloysius’ Sixth Form at the time).