What in heaven's name is the Labour Party thinking of, promoting boob-jobs for teenagers?
I avoid everything on Maltese television but political programmes which I feel obliged to look at in the name of work. So I have chanced upon the plastic surgery show called Arani Issa on Super One only now, for the first time ever.
What in God’s name is the Labour Party thinking of, broadcasting this kind of thing? It’s insane. When I have to deal with these things, I feel like I’m living in a parallel universe, that I’m in one reality where everything is normal, and that lots of other people are inhabiting a parallel reality in which their normality is what right-thinking people would consider to be abnormality. It’s a kind of weird-than-weird Wayne’s World. It’s a free country, and we have freedom of expression, so if a fool wants to put up a programme on plastic surgery and finds victims willing to expose themselves to public ridicule in return for a free bit of plastic surgery, then good luck to them. But elsewhere in the civilised world, it would be a show for one of the tackier stations, not for a broadcasting station owned by the Opposition party (tackiest station, natch).
I’ve just pressed the pause button on Joseph Chetcuti, whom I remember as a lawyer with rather nice hair in the past, standing there with a microphone in his hands and an inane grin saying: “Dejjem xtaqet tkabbar sidirha.” Now the camera focusses on a middle-aged woman in her kitchen, smiling like a nut-job, who says: “Iva, din kienet minn dejjem il-holma tat-tifla tieghi, li tkabbar il-BREASTS. Minn dejjem kienet tghidli, Ma, la nikber u nibda nahdem se ngemma l-flus biex nkabbar il-BREASTS.”
Oh, and now there are lots of people jumping around jifirhu because it-tifla got chosen biex tkabbar sidirha. And here’s a close-up of the girl herself, as pretty as you please, just like a picture and with no discernible physical shortcoming, surely not more than 18 years old, crying with pleasure because Arani Issa on Super One is going to pay for her breast enlargement operation and the whole of Malta is watching her do it.
This show would be totally out of order on any television station. Broadcast by the official television station of the Labour Party, it’s downright obscene. Like I said, a parallel universe…
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to make the remote Lejber victory more palpable perhaps?
sorry my bad english but just to remind you that the program you mentioned few years ago was on pbs(and thats ok)last year was on net(and thats ok) and this time is on one tv (this is not ok)because it is on labour staion.why?
[Daphne – Read back through what I wrote: a programme like that is extremely tacky which means it is never OK on a station that needs to be considered serious and credible, and that means both political stations and PBS too – especially PBS. Maybe it took PBS and NET all that time to realise this. This is the first episode I’ve seen. I don’t watch Maltese television except on rare occasions. It’s just too, too tacky.]
Wasn’t this programme aired on a different TV station in the past? I think it was TVM!
[Daphne – They must have been out of their mind.]
Dear Daphne, did you know that before being screen on ONE TV, Joe Chetcuti’s Arani Issa has been on air on the National Broadcasting Station, TVM for 3 years before? That’s the grudge you have for anything Labour!!! And if you want to know also, Aranissa used to be a co-production with your friends from Where’s Everybody!!
[Daphne – That’s logical thinking for you. It’s isn’t a tacky show because it’s broadcast on Super One. It’s a tacky show because it’s a tacky show, and by broadcasting it, Super One renders itself tacky, as did NET and TVM before it, when I didn’t have a blog and didn’t watch it. How is a political party-owned station broadcasting a show about teenagers getting boob-jobs anything other than tacky?]
ok i can agree with you about the programm, but i think that,there s nothing to do with labour, at least in my opinion.
[Daphne – It has everything to do with Labour. It’s broadcast by the Labour-owned TV station. The broadcaster is responsible for what is broadcast, and the choice of what is broadcast reflects directly on the broadcaster.]
Funny how some people only show up on this blog to defend (usually with some anger) the Labour Party. Otherwise they seem to have no opinion at all. It’s as if their brains are wired to daphnecaruanagalizia.com and they receive an electric zap every time words like “Labour”, “Super One”, “Joseph Muscat”, and “Alfred Sant” pop up on a thread.
Hey guys forget which station this was on, and any hangups you might have, persecution complexes etc. This programme was the pits, and just on its own merits or (demerits?!) the Broadcasting Authority should be doing something about it as we speak. Really nauseating stuff.
What is Joseph Chetcuti doing on Super One?
[Daphne – I suppose he reasons that business is business.]
Very tacky, but I’ve seen similar programs on the mighty BBC. Admittedly it was BBC3 and not BBC1. It’s the world we live in…not a problem specific to Malta or the Labour party.
Hi Daphne. This is my first time writing on this blog, although as you know, I have been following for quite some time.
Similar programmes are also shown on the almighty LivingTv channels, namely ‘Extreme Makeover’. Seems like they’re a real money spinner for any producer and they attract a good audience. In my opinion, good luck to who-ever knows how to make money of ‘desperate’ people, and give everyone else (barr some) something to gossip about or to look forward to.
That such a “programme” probably has a substantial number of viewers says a lot about our “culture”.
Arani Issa was never broadcasted on Net TV. Chetcuti had another programme on Net called Nies Ta’ Veru (or TVM)… that was a very good programme where people who did some good in their lives where honoured and given weekend breaks and holidays to thank them for being humans in difficult situations. Re Arani Issa… one or two programmes ago it was about a young woman (22) who had to change all her teeth due to past problems with alcohol and drugs which affected her teeth and other parts of the body badly (her son saw her smile for the first time) … it’s not always about breasts.
I’d agree with ASP.
I stumbled across this programme a couple of times while zapping and there were quite a few cases where people had to carry the burden of a deformity, be it congenital or by other circumstances (accidents, illness etc.)
Imho they were genuine, deserving cases but I think Joseph (as in Dr Chetcuti) is now scraping the bottom of the barrel with boob-jobs.
As for being on One TV, I don’t like what it stands for as much as the next person but to be fair other stations are not blameless of this type of programming be it local or foreign.
The main problem with this show is that, in my opinion, it is going against medical ethics regulations – particularly section 7. It is quite funny (or tragic) that one is restricted to the size of the name plate in front of his clinic (and even to the amount and quality of the artificial light in the entrance of the clinic) and then these programmes are allowed to indirectly (or directly) and in a sensational way advertise their services.
Ethics regulations can be viewed here: http://www.ba-malta.org/file.aspx?f=633
Perhaps there should be a programme about ‘brains’ enhancement.
[Biker Bob – I stumbled across this programme a couple of times while zapping and there were quite a few cases where people had to carry the burden of a deformity, be it congenital or by other circumstances (accidents, illness etc.)]
In which case it is in totally bad taste to publicise the poor people’s deformities, be they congenital or acquired, in order to fill air-time.
[Phaedra Giuliani – Perhaps there should be a programme about ‘brains’ enhancement.]
Now that’s a thought!
Tried getting a reduction on that Arani Issa cause my back is killing me, Mepa declared me an area of outstanding natural beauty and won’t give me a permit…..
My thoughts exactly. I saw just a titbit of this programme but I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the girl who must have very low self esteem. At the same time I felt anger towards her parents and even more towards the presenter who made a show of her.
[Daphne – Yes, and the strange thing is that she is so extraordinarily pretty.]
And there I was all this time thinking that the idea behind plastic surgery is to fool people into thinking that they are seeing your real self !! Having a boob job done in front of the whole of Malta is such a baaad idea….considering that we are not the most sweet-talking nation on this planet and we all know each other. I mean, can you imagine all the jibes behind one’s back?? If i was having my breasts enlarged, i would not want anyone to know so then I can blissfully and secretly trade in my heavily padded bra for my new boobs, and hey presto, I fooled ya ! :-)
If only you knew what a lot of heartache some people are going through because they do not ‘conform’ to statistics. I am one of them. I am overweight and this has been the subject of downright abuse from strangers. I am also Joseph Chetcuti’s twin, believe you me, we have restored so many broken people through Arani Issa. The truth is the truth, there is no denying that the world of today wants perfect bodies, and that includes breasts. And for some, it works.