Irony escapes the clunking clown
I’ve always said there are three, four, even five Maltas and that each one is incapable of understanding the other. We might as well come from different ethnic groups. We certainly come from different cultural groups.
Toni Abela – the clunking clown of my title – was thrilled to discover something called the Daphne Caruana Galizia Insultometer. He logged on, and was unable to read the verbal and non-verbal indicators that this is a site set up by fans and admirers of my insults, rather than by detractors (it takes all sorts to make a world; there are people with shoe fetishes). He read it instead as something set up by individuals who are shocked at my behaviour and who are sitting around going ‘X’gharukaza’, recording my insults on cyberspace to shame me, rather than to raise a laugh because – you have to admit it – I can sometimes be quite amusing on a good day.
So far above his jester’s-head did the real significance of the Insultometer pass that Toni Abela is actually promoting it on his ‘blokk’ and directing his readers, such as they are, to log on, too. What a scream. A cultural gap? More like a cultural canyon.
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Here’s the domain:
http://dcginsultometer.wordpress.com/
http://toniabela.blogspot.com/
“Jisimni Toni u kunjomi Abela. Għandi 50 sena u miżżewweġ …”
Feels like he is a 5 year old constructing his first sentence.
Now I think you should comment on the Great Unions’ Union. If you don’t do that do not blame anyone including Toni Abela to slam you for fleeing from the battlefield at the first sign of a reversal to your fortunes. Am I right or wrong?
[Daphne – My comment on the Great Union’s Union, as you put it, is this: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The reversal of my fortunes? I’m not in government. And if you knew anything about strategy, you would know about something called peaking too early.]
It’s unbelievable that Toni Abela woud completely misunderstood the scope of this site. It is clearly a fan-site of Daphne’s literary work and yet Toni Abela has got it wrong and misunderstood it completely!
I’m beginning to suspect foul play here.
Could Toni Abela , and other such clowns such as Anglu Farrugia be secretly receiving backhanders from Daphne to boost her public profile? I smell a “Georgina Baillie” here !
@ London Area – “the scope of this site?”
Don’t they know the meaning of the word “scope” in London? Do YOU know the meaning? I’ll give you a hint – it has nothing to do with “skop” in Maltese.
It’d do you good to visit m-w.com and learn something.
Anthony J. Camilleri
What you call the “Great Unions’ Union” shows, among other things, that those of us who always claimed that the UHM is a free independent union were right all along. Unlike the GWU, the UHM does not change its tune according to whichever party happens to be in government.
you have to read the imaginary letter from Obama to Muscat.
http://toniabela.blogspot.com/
@ Bormann scope means purpose, objective, goal – so the Londoner has used it in the correct context . Perhaps you could enlighten us with the Bormann meaning?
[Daphne – I’m afraid Bormann is right. The meaning of scope is completely different and has nothing to do with the meaning of the Maltese skop. http://www.answers.com/topic/scope%5D
David s – Most Maltese use the word ‘scope’ when they mean ‘point’.
@, @Daphne
I disagree. I think I used the word “scope” in its right context,
Scope
Definition: That at which one aims; the thing or end to which the mind directs its view; that which is purposed to be reached or accomplished; hence, ultimate design, aim, or purpose; intention; drift; object.
http://ardictionary.com/Scope/2457
@M. Bormann
“It’d do you good to visit m-w.com and learn something”
Why don’t YOU visit http://www.n-etiquette.com/website.htm and learn some manners.
You certainly won’t be teaching ME how to write good english, I could run circles round you (and anyone else for that matter) any day.
[Daphne – No, you didn’t use ‘scope’ correctly, and that’s not a proper dictionary you’re using. Refer to the Oxford Dictionary. Scope did once mean ‘purpose’ or ‘intention’, but that meaning has long been considered archaic, which is why the only place in the world where ‘scope’ means ‘purpose’ is Malta, and that only because the word is similar to ‘skop’, from the Italian ‘scopo’. The meaning of ‘scope’ is range, opportunity, sweep, reach, outlook – e.g. there is no scope for further action; we have done all that we could do; there is nothing left to be done. Or – There is plenty of scope for growth here. On the other hand, if you’re asking somebody why on earth they’re doing something, you say: “What’s the point?” and not “What’s the scope?”]
Toni Abela monitors your blog. His blog-post calling for comments about you was left uncommented-upon for four or five days. Now suddenly, after Cikki pointed out the absence of comments earlier today, I see that four comments have mysteriously appeared beneath his piece….all with different dates, of course. Maybe they gathered while he was busy writing Obama’s letter to Muscat.
@Daphne
How do you know that I didn’t use the word “scope” as you now understand it to mean?
Unless you can also read my mind now!
My post still makes sense with either the archaic or the modern definition of “scope”.
I am sure that you would agree that Toni Abela’s interpretation of the scope of the blog http://dcginsultometer.wordpress.com/ is off the mark.
Maybe this author is maltese too :
http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/escope.html
[Daphne – Touchy, touchy. Take it easy. Rather than searching the internet for badly-written pieces that bear out your argument, just perform the very simple action of picking up an Oxford Dictionary, turning to ‘scope’ and finding its archaic meaning listed as ‘the purpose’. This is not a new development. The meaning of a word will have changed or fallen out of use a long, long time ago for it to be classed as archaic.]
The problem with Toni is that for all his antics, he lacks a sense of irony. This is a common fault in our dearly beloved politicians, probably having its genesis in the fact that they think they know it all, all the time and every time. Such is life.
[Daphne – It’s not limited to politicians. Maltese culture is literal, like German culture. Maltese humour has to be ‘obvious’ and clunking, like German jokes. Funny to think we have something in common.]
Toni Abela,
Since I know you read this site allow me to give you a message!
You are no match for Daphne, surely you have enough intelligence to realise that! In any battle of wits you attempt to start with her you will find yourself hopelessly out-gunned!
Mind you, I do enjoy the entertainment at your expense.
[Daphne – He’s a bunny-boiler. I don’t love him or his politics so he boils my bunny. Glenn Close has nothing on him.]
@Daphne “Touchy, touchy. Take it easy”
Ok, I give in, I know when I’m bet (yes bormann, bet also means beaten)
I’m afraid Obama’s Maltese is as bad as Toni’s English. His letter to Għażiż Joseph is peppered with spelling mistakes e.g. mhux written m’hux, writt (inherited) spelt in two different ways: wiriet and wiritt, both wrong, ‘se’ as in ‘se jkollhom’ consistently misspelt ‘ser’ (‘ser’ is slang), lill-poplu written lil poplu . . . . I could go on and on: practically every paragraph has such errors.
Considering that this was written by a lawyer – a worthy colleague of the other one, the elephant rider, what can say but . . . . povra Malta?
[Daphne – You know what the ridiculous thing is? They like to jibe that I don’t know Maltese, when the reality is that I know (and spell) the language better than Abela does. He’s a Maltese speaker in the same way that the cast of Eastenders are English speakers, but he’s not aware of the difference. I imagine that the cast of Eastenders can at least spell the words they pronounce badly.]
How can any normal person take a Deputy Leader seriously
when he writes such a stupid letter – as a joke?!
A while back I read that Joseph Muscat had appointed
Louis Grech and Karmenu Vella to sort out the party
and thought there might be some chance of something
sensible happening here at last. But there has been
no mention of them since (I think) and instead we have
this asinine behaviour which makes me want to cry for
my country.
[Daphne – Cikki, we’re dealing with a completely different mentality here. These are not leaders. They are clowns elected from within the masses of other clowns just like them. Those who think that the division in Malta is political are just plain wrong. It’s cultural. Sarah Palin would have been a wild success down at Mile End.]
When will educated persons take on the leadership of the Labour Party? It’s not about being a lawyer, ex policeman-cum-lawyer or supposed economist (by the way what is Joseph Muscat really? a journalist, economist or what? what does the Dr. stand for really) that makes a good politician… it’s how you portray yourself to the people.
[Daphne – Joseph Muscat’s doctorate is in public policy. His two previous degrees are in public policy and European studies. He is not an economist. Nor has he ever worked as anything other than an MEP, Super One journalist and ‘investment adviser’. I’ll admit it’s more than many others have done, but I worry about people who have no experience of how private business works.]
@DCG
Well, Daphne does know how a private business works, especially the type of private business that thrives on public contracts… tax payers’ money to be more precise.
[Daphne – You’re quite wrong there. I work solely in the private sector. Despite the considerable evidence to the contrary, you and yours and imagine that the only work I am capable of doing is hand-out work from the government. That may be the case with many, but it’s certainly not the case with me.]
“Sarah Palin would have been a wild success down at Mile End”
Well, remember Rita Law?
K Buhagiar, thanks for the link.
pfff! Imaginary letter from Obama, plus taking sides! That IS ridiculous!
I am sure that many of his listeners that day were mislead into thinking that it was authentic, not just a figment of his imagination!
@Daphne
“that the only work I am capable of doing is hand-out work from the government.”
Surely you understand envy better than that! People like “Peter” see someone as successful as they would give their right arm to be, and because they are not good enough or too lazy (often the case) they comfort themselves by saying that successful people are getting an unfair advantage. The Labour Party, on the other hand, goes out of its way to make sure successful hard workers are given an unfair DISadvantage to “keep everyone at the same level”.
[Daphne – I did have an unfair advantage, if you wish to put it that way, but that’s the throw of the genetic dice and the fact that I was born into a family that favoured a liberal education. But then plenty of people who had exactly the same advantages do nothing with them.]
“I did have an unfair advantage, if you wish to put it that way, but that’s the throw of the genetic dice and the fact that I was born into a family that favoured a liberal education”
That’s an advantage but not an UNFAIR one!
Kontra attack!
http://www.illum.com.mt/2008/11/02/wenzu.html
Cikki – “How can any normal person take a Deputy Leader seriously
when he writes such a stupid letter – as a joke?!”
Normal people with his mentality and/or background probably find him highly entertaining.
D Fenech – Ooooh, he’s miffed, isn’t he? He and Saviour must have had one hell of a week,