Comments on: Hey, my dog wants some social assistance, too

By: Jean Paul Fiott

Jean Paul Fiott — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:27:43 +0000

If you want to have a good albeit sad laugh and understand better what kind of people these ‘hunters’ and ‘trappers’ are just read their comments about Ms Caruana Galizia on their forum.

http://forum.huntinginmalta.org.mt//YaBB.pl?num=1225643842

[Daphne – For 20 years I have provided hours of fun entertainment to every saddo and sicko with a grudge in this country. The internet has given rise to all kinds of Let’s Diss and Bitch About Daphne special-interest groups. I just wonder why I seem to generate obsession. I guess it’s the absence of any real celebrities in Malta, so they have to make do with a newspaper columnist. Oh well. Maybe I should start wearing tight black leather and a whip, to really give them a thrill.]

By: Vanessa-clair Farrugia

Vanessa-clair Farrugia — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:51:07 +0000

Zizzu, I beg to differ. With a good salary one can do lots of things that our parents would only dream about. But, being a salary it is finite. I know too many young and not so young people, who fritter most of their salary, without saving enough, and piling credit card debts on top of it all. If people save more, and spend less on ‘luxuries’ they will have more squirreled away for the down payment on their dream house. But, if they want to “Live it now”, pay later, then they have to accept that life is either branded clothes, new cars, exotic travel and expensive entertainment tastes or their dream house, one thing has to give. There is nothing wrong with wanting to live life in the present and wanting everything to be the best, but one can’t have everything in life, and most people don’t accept this. What do I do? Well, I have a mortgage, I do go out, buy fashionable clothes, but I moderate all my expenditure, and yes, I do count pennies. Only by counting pennies can I make sure that my (good) salary serves me the whole month through.

By: Zizzu

Zizzu — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 07:43:33 +0000

Most people today – and I don’t have only young people in mind – are what I call Vodafone people or, the “Life is now” Brigade.

Many people seem to think that it is a God-given right to own stuff on a whim with little or no thought directed at how they are going to pay for it – or whether they can even afford it. I know that this boils down to the unsavoury topic of money, BUT it’s what makes the world go round and it’s the new measuring stick. Nowadays you are what you have.

The comment you picked on is a perfect illustration. Why should anyone even think that they “should” be living in a house worth at least €185K? If you work and you can’t afford it you’ll have to accept the fact sooner rather than later. If you work and you can afford it good luck to you, but it doesn’t mean that just because X has it you have to have one like it. It says volumes about our level of education and capacity for analytical thought.

I know people who buy “flashy” cars just to be seen in them. In private they are constantly complaining that they can’t keep up with the house loan (another bombastic affair) and the car loan (I can’t imagine why anyone should take out a 2nd loan with a huge chunk of the first one still to be paid).

This brings me back to the “Life is now” Brigade. Such behaviour tells me that the people who indulge in it have a very tenuous link with reality. If my boss drives an expensive-looking car (I’m not into cars, really and I can’t mention a flashy car if my life depended on it) why should I expect that I can own one too?

I know that I am veering dangerously close to supporting class distinction, but who says that we are all “equal”? We are equivalent, but we are not equal, and the sooner some people see this the better.

By: Antimony

Antimony — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:15:31 +0000

Do the RTO signs actually mean riservato? I was under the impression that they are an abbreviation of ‘Reserved To Owner’.

[Daphne – RTO is a truncation of ‘riservato’. If anything, it would be Reserved For Owner and not To, and in that case, the sign would read ‘No trespassers’ and not ‘reserved for owner’.]