Hands off Obama. He's the Labour Party's.
It’s Day One and those who support Joseph Muscat have taken ownership of Barack Obama already. They’ve even begun to speak about him as Barack and to sign off with Yes You Can when writing their sub-literate and irrational comments on the internet. It’s enough to try the patience of a saint. And they see nothing incongruous in comparing the leader of the free world – make that the leader of the world, given that there is no other superpower – with the leader of a political party which isn’t governing two minuscule Mediterranean islands with the population of an American town. Here’s a typical sentiment.
Obama kick-started this wave, i hope Italy follows, and JM finishes it.
Then we have Frans Sammut, an old favourite of this blog, who took it upon himself to explain to those who criticised Muscat’s personal letter to ‘Barack’ why he had done nothing wrong. Look, others are doing the same.
Frans Sammut (3 hours, 12 minutes ago)
I have gathered some messages sent to President-elect Barack Hussein Obama and would like to share them with all those who are overjoyed at the result of the US elections: Pope Benedict XVI defined Obama’s electoral victory “an historic occasion” assuring him of “his prayers that God may assist you in your great responsibility in your Country and in the international sphere”. UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon said Obama’s election “offers the world an historic opportunity to launch an era of renewed multilateralism where US-UN relations will play a fundamental role.” Russia’s Dmitri Medvedev hoped Obama “will bring along a new breath in bilateral relations.” Germany’s Angela Merkel assured him of “a collaboration full of trust on Germany’s part.” Britain’s Gordon Brown eulogized Obama’s “progressive values and his vision for the future.” Nicolas Sarkozy said Obama’s election at this time of great challenges “has stirred up great hopes in France, in Europe and elsewhere.” EU Commission President Josè Manuel Barroso saw in Obama’s electoral victory “a change for the US that could be a change for the entire world” – very much the same words used by Dr Joseph Muscat in his message to the President-elect.
It didn’t click with Sammut, even as he was writing his defence of the Letter to Barack, that all these people have something in common: they are heads of government, heads of state, or heads of organisations of states. The pope is both a head of state and head of one of the world’s major religions. Joseph Muscat is none of those things. And that’s primarily why he’s being mocked – for his presumptuousness. But to the Labour Party, Joseph Muscat is prime minister already. He addresses the nation, and now his wife has tacked herself to Kate Gonzi’s skirt and insists, sometimes to the embarrassment of the organisers, that she goes where Mrs Gonzi goes, even if she has to invite herself along or get her fixers to make a discreet telephone call suggesting that Mrs Michelle Muscat wishes to be there, plus or minus a silver outfit.
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Oh my God…. You gave more exposure to JM’s letter rather than tackle the measures expressed within the Budget.
Allow me to use one of your favourite expressions…… Your point being?!?
[Daphne – Read my column tomorrow. This is the 19th budget I have seen out as a columnist. Budgets are intrinsically boring, and I haven’t survived this long by boring people.]
I was actually wondering about Michelle Muscat being present at the inauguration of the Puttinu Cares flats in England. ( http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081105/local/london-apartments-for-young-patients-inaugurated )
Was she invited to attend, off the funds raised for the flats? Worse still, did she “get herself invited” – off the funds? Or did she pay her own way to get her name into the newspapers? Any funds used to cover her travel expenses could have been put to better use. People would rather know that any money they donate to Puttinu Cares is not being spent unnecessarily on keeping Michelle Muscat happy.
If this comment is anything to go by, then diehard Labourites are a pathetic lot:
“M. Camilleri (3 hours, 33 minutes ago)
Ah ara stenbaħ.
He got jealous of JM writing to Obama earlier, and so rushed to write to him as well….not knowing that his apologists, who defend him so gallantly, have attacked Joseph Muscat for doing the same precise thing…..
poor old Lawrence”
(Extracted from http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081105/local/prime-minister-congratulates-obama )
… Gonzi jealous of Muscat, eh? Ignorance really is bliss. At least, Gonzi knows his place; Muscat and “lil din”, on the other hand, have a long way to go before they can ever get it right.
This must be why Muscat feels he’s on a par with Obama:
“Barack Obama’s victory is welcome news for all young women and men who believe and hope in change to a better way of doing politics.” (Muscat, extracted from http://www.maltastar.com/pages/msrv/msfullart.asp?an=25183 )
TO ALL the people who are using Barack Obama as a figurehead for their party – just cut the crap will you? In Malta, politics is as transformational and exciting as watching a sloth trying to catch a snail. WHY are we even mentioning his name at all in relation to Maltese politics? Is it because he’s the cool new kid on the block, and by mentioning him, some of his magic dust is going to be transferred to either of the two parties, as if they can be transformed just like that?
If Barack Obama stands for change, Maltese politics is diametrically opposed to change. How many political dynasties do we have in this country? Do we really need any more Mifsud Bonnicis, any more Fenech Adamis, any more DeMarcos, any more Mintoffs, any more Gonzis in our parliament? We don’t have a figli di papa culture, we just have the whole damn family tree following on in the family tradition.
Well, we know who Frans Sammut’s son inherited his brains from – the one whose level of intelligence was such that he thought he could board a plane with a gun in his hand luggage.
[Daphne – Don’t forget the other one, who runs the North Korean fan club here in Malta – yes, I mean it.]
“Don’t forget the other one, who runs the North Korean fan club here in Malta”
Oh yes, My, if you add their IQs together you would probably still get a single digit number!
[Daphne – Frans was cultural adviser to Prime Minister Sant, so we had better credit him with at least another digit.]
[Daphne – Frans was cultural adviser to Prime Minister Sant, so we had better credit him with at least another digit.]
Before or after the decimal point?
It would be appropriate and kinder, to conveniently leave out of the equation the one who runs the fan club.
[Daphne – Why, Sybil?]
Reasons related to health. He used to have some sort of website once about his “disability” of sorts . That’s all.
[Daphne – If it’s not a mental disability then it makes no difference. It’s wrong to laugh at people’s physical disabilities, but the fact that they have a physical disability does not exempt them from the usual norms of criticism when they are in public life. Check out David Blunkett. Jean Pierre Sammut is a public person.
http://www.freewebs.com/liberalalliance/youthsection.htm
http://www.korea-dpr.com/official_delegates.htm ]
Daph,
Check this out …
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/msrv/msfullart.asp?an=25181
New hairstyle …gruesome!!
Re Frans Sammut being “cultural adviser” to Alfred Sant – What culture, may I ask?
[Daphne – It should have been the other way round. Sant should have been Sammut’s cultural adviser. Luckily, the job is still open.]