A racist police officer who wasn't reprimanded
Recently, in court, a police officer testified against a Somali man who allegedly attacked a Maltese man in Marsa. He said that Marsa has become a no-go area for Maltese people, and that ‘the Maltese’ are afraid to go there. He made other racist comments: that if ‘they’ don’t have laws in Somalia ‘they’ should be made to understand that ‘we’ have laws here. “This isn’t Somalia,” he said. And guess what? He wasn’t reprimanded. He wasn’t disciplined. I suppose I wasn’t the only one asking myself whether his words are indicative of general racist attitudes within the force, or what it must be like to be an African and to know that this is how the police are going to look at you. Yet the top people in the police force did nothing to reassure us. Maybe it’s because they think that ‘we’ are all racists, too.
So I was glad to read these letters in The Times today.
Stop blaming everything on immigrants (1)
Lara Calleja, MarsascalaI would like to comment about the article on a statement made in court by a police officer in a case involving an assault on a Maltese by a Somali national.
I have frequently visited the Marsa open centre and have made friends with many of the residents there. Not once, as a woman, was I made to feel uncomfortable or scared. All the people I have met there have been very generous and friendly and so hospitable and welcoming to me. Thus, statements such as “Marsa is becoming a no-go area” leaves me completely dumbfounded. Marsa has never been the most pleasant place to visit because of its pollution, haphazard buildings and it being an industrial zone. Not mentioning also the fact that Marsa is a common tag for drug and sex “markets”.
What the police officer doesn’t seem to comprehend is that criminality is evident and inevitable within any population; an African isn’t an exception. Thus, I can’t comprehend why such tumult and fuss. The truth is that such a fuss was made because this wasn’t just any foreigner but an African one. It is amazing that anything a person of colour does in this country has to be shouted about and highlighted in a particular way by the public and the media. What needs to be questioned is not criminality but the hostility towards immigrants as a prominent factor in Maltese culture.
Statements like “This is not Somalia” shouldn’t be said in public, especially by people occupying powerful positions. Just because these people come from a “different culture” doesn’t mean that they don’t get the concept of law. Everyone gets it and everyone is even more capable of breaking it. That’s called human nature, which applies for all.
Stop blaming everything on immigrants (2)
John Spiteri, Pietà
I wish to join in the condemnation of a statement, expressed in court and reported in The Times, in which a police officer said that Maltese people are afraid of going to Marsa as a result of criminal activity by migrants.When I was a young teenager I used to attend the technical school at Paola. Being young and foolish, I often used to spend my daily allowance and not leave any money to take the two buses back home to Sliema. I used to walk through this area to get back home. When my father discovered what I was doing, he gave me a good telling off. I remember him telling me never to pass on foot through that part of Marsa, as it was a most dangerous area, frequented by criminals.Since then, I have always been told even by some Marsa residents, that the area was full of pimps, prostitutes and thieves. It is also renowned for illegal gambling and dog fights.
Perhaps the police officer is young and does not know this area in Marsa, which is better known as Albert Town. Stop blaming everything on the immigrants because, like the rest of us, there are good and bad persons in every race, creed and colour.
Stop blaming everything on immigrants (3)
Deborah Grech, VictoriaThe Times reported (December 18) that a police officer stated in court that the Maltese are afraid of frequenting Marsa because of African immigrants living there. I am completely baffled at such discourse.
Just because an African person committed a crime does not mean that Marsa is becoming a place to fear. Can this police officer come up with any statistics showing that the migrants living in the Marsa open centre commit more crimes than Maltese do? I am sure he does not have such figures.
History has shown us that the first signs of racism and xenophobia are when the (negative) actions of individuals from particular groups are blamed on the entire group. I think this officer didn’t even realise the gravity of his discourse and its possible negative consequences.
Stop blaming everything on immigrants (4)
Antoine Vella, RabatI read with great concern the report (December 18) on Police Superintendent Silvio Valletta’s comments in the law courts where he stated that Marsa is becoming a dangerous place for the Maltese because of the migrant population in this town. My concern is not about Marsa becoming a dangerous place – I pass near the open centre for migrants often and I have never experienced any incident. Instead, I was concerned at the insensitivity of the superintendent’s comment.
How can he criminalise an entire area and all the migrants just because a person from that area, who happened to be a migrant, committed a crime? And what right does the superintendent have to speak on behalf of all the Maltese by saying that the “Maltese people cannot even go to Marsa because they are afraid”?
As a Maltese person I disassociate myself from the superintendent’s comment and sincerely hope that in the future more sensitivity is shown by those institutions that should fight racism and not foment it.
39 Comments Comment
Reply to kev Click here to cancel reply
I have friends who are immigrants, but I would not dare go near il-kanal after dark. It is the same place where a person was found dead with the murderer still at large and the same place where there are frequent bloody fights and the same place were Charlon was ‘robbed’.
I think it is a no-go area at certain times of the day.
The situation is that most of the residents at the open centre are penniless young men with nothing to do; that is when crime sets in.
BTW is Somalia the place where law and order are respected?
I don’t find anything racist in the inspector’s comment.
[Daphne – Get a grip, John. The crimes you mention are perpetrated by Maltese people. How do I know? Because it’s been a crime-ridden, sordid area for years, pre-immigration from Africa.]
When I read the title of this post, my first reaction was “Oh, no, Daphne making a mountain out of a molehill again!”, but then I read exactly what the policeman said, and also read the (uplifting and reassuring) letters from the Times, and I have to agree with her. Yes, his comments were racist, and yes as someone in a position of authority, he should be responsible for his words and actions.
I’m glad I associate (in thoughts) with the letter writers and not the police officer.
I doubt very much that the police force has either the willingness or the tools to deal with racism within its ranks.
and on a related note …
http://malta9thermidor.wordpress.com/2008/12/22/more-mental-notes/
When it comes to racism I usually recommend Arno Gruen’s book “Der Fremde in uns(german) / The stranger within us”.
I am not sure if it is available in the English language but I found the following link for those who might be interested:
http://www.arnogruen.com/the_need_to_punish_–_article_by_arno_gruen.pdf
Arno Gruen’s view from his psychoanalytic angle is always worth discussing.
For more information:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arno_Gruen
To be fair, the officer has a very fair point, which is not racist. Put simply in amateur wording, Somalia is the closest you can get to an Anarchy. The government wasn’t restored since the 1991 civil war. They cannot get hold of legal documents (that includes passports, identity cards, car license etc) and that also implies, that no, they do not have laws in Somalia, or at least, they are not officially enacted.
This quick branding of people as ‘racists’ is losing the meaningful sense of the word for the rest of us
@ Daphne: I pass by that area frequently during the day and I sometimes pass by after sunset. I ask myself ” if those guys were Maltese would I stop my car in the area after sunset?” . My answer would be “NO”.
This is one report about” the rule of war ” in Somalia.
http://www.newssafety.com/index.php?view=article&catid=41%3Asomalia-security&id=3223%3Asomalia-rule-of-law-or-rule-of-war&option=com_content&Itemid=100249
These people ran away from their country for various reasons,most of them are genuine but there could be bad apples in their midst.
No one knows who killed the guy , but if my memory serves me right his throat was slashed with a sharp object probably a knife.
I find the inspector’s statement in court very true.
We need to integrate these people more in our community not create ghettos like the Marsa centre.
[Daphne – The young man found with his throat slashed was a male prostitute trying to get the money together for a sex change. I would say that the odds are greater that he was killed by a married Maltese homosexual man with a closet problem and a big secret he needed keeping. You may lead a sheltered life, John, and not know just how widespread this problem is. A 25-year-old homosexual man I know is currently seeing a married man in his 40s, with three children. I am concerned for the young man, who is more at risk than if he were a young mistress – for the simple reason that the married man has far, far more to lose if he is found out than he would if he were seeing a woman. And all this is the result of repression, sadly.]
Dafni ta’ bla kantunieri: I know that he was a prostitute, but slashed throats are typical murders committed by Arabs. Maltese style is “bis-senter”.
I do not write about everything I know.My work takes me to many places and I meet a lot of people from different strata of our society.
You have good reason to be worried about the young man.
[Daphne – Prostitutes the world over, men and women, are slashed with knives, not shot. The reason? It’s difficult for a man to pick up a prostitute while he’s carrying a ‘senter’. And do please, please, please stop charging around brandishing your myths and prejudices. ]
“[Daphne – Get a grip, John. The crimes you mention are perpetrated by Maltese people. How do I know? Because it’s been a crime-ridden, sordid area for years, pre-immigration from Africa.]”
Dumping hundreds of irregulars from Africa certainly has not helped in a posiive way, the long-standing social problems of local origin there though.
[Daphne – I’d like to hear one person, just one, point out that it was wrong to put the open centre there in the first place, not for the sake of ‘the Maltese’, but for the sake of the people living in that open centre. What kind of sick mind chose to put an open centre in a place notorious for prostitution and drug-dealing, where it isn’t safe to walk around at night….because of ‘the Maltese’?]
“J Grima Monday, 29 December 2155hrs
To be fair, the officer has a very fair point, which is not racist. Put simply in amateur wording, Somalia is the closest you can get to an Anarchy. The government wasn’t restored since the 1991 civil war. They cannot get hold of legal documents (that includes passports, identity cards, car license etc) and that also implies, that no, they do not have laws in Somalia, or at least, they are not officially enacted. This quick branding of people as ‘racists’ is losing the meaningful sense of the word for the rest of us”
Wrong. If they arrive here from Libya, they would have had legal documents with them to start off with to get them as far as Libya and also to enable them to buy those frightfully expensive satellite hhones most of them are equipped with, to get them to our shores. Ask any Libyan living in Malta what Somalis get up to in Libya. The real genuine cases are too poor to leave Somalia. It is the elite and creme de la creme of their society that can afford to leave. In other words, we are helping the least deserving of them.
[Daphne – Sybil, if this is the way you and others of your mindset react to the Somali ‘elite’, I hate to think how you would welcome the Somali equivalent of the Maltese urban working-class.]
Should the officer be reprimanded for stating facts?
[Daphne – Facts? Please learn to distinguish between fact and opinion rooted in prejudice. Elsewhere on this blog, Mario Debono says that he won’t employ gay people because gay people lack credibility. That he won’t employ gay people is a fact. That gay people lack credibility in general is an opinion rooted in prejudice.]
Facts… based on:
a) the origin of the illegal immigrants from a country without governance.
b) allowed in our country only because it is not possible to formally identify their citizenship and ship them back, which would be the case if they came here on a plane with a passport.
c) based on the number of their population here and the rates and seriousness of crime committed by their members.
d) No amount of local crime should justify further illegalities by these immigrants especially as they are uninvited guests here.
Opinions:
Should we be rejoicing about the arrival of another 139 today to establish a record year of arrivals (fact).
Should we be taking action like Lampedusa?
[Daphne – Opinion: that the presence of Africans in Marsa has turned it into a no-go area for Maltese; that all the people in the open centre are from Somalia; that the crime in the area – drug-dealing, prostitution – is perpetrated by Somalis and that there was no such crime before; that a police officer who has never been to Somalia knows what it is like there.
This is like somebody from Sliema saying that they will never go to Mqabba because people there go around with shotguns trying to kill other people in bars. Mqabba? They don’t know what the rule of law is there. Mqabba has become a no-go zone for civilised people from Sliema. People in Mqabba are savages.]
“Daphne: Prostitutes the world over, men and women, are slashed with knives, not shot.” according to Daphne this is a fact not myth.
John:”Maltese style is ‘bis-senter’ ”, Daphne says it is myth and this morning reports to us the umpteenth shooting “bis-senter”.
Just one simple example from a 23 year old colleague from Gozo.:
Me : Jekk it-tfajla tkornik , tahfrilha?
Young man: It-tfajla tieghi m’hix sa taqlibieli.
Me: Jekk int taqlibielha darba ,tahfirlek hi?
Young Man: Nahseb li jigi missierha u jimlieni tilja comb!
Me : imma mhux kullhadd jista’ jaqa’ .U jekk taqlibielek hi?
Young man: Imbaghad ghandi wiehed ta’ b’hamsa ileqq fil-gwardarobba u nahlihom fuqha u fuq min ikun maghha. Inhallihom tal-post it-tnejn li huma.
To tell you the truth I think he was bluffing I think he would not do it, but it shows a trait in our society, especially in the rural areas.
Btw : I know that people from Imqabba (quarry owners) went to live in Sliema’s Tower road. Did you run away from Sliema to Bidnija because of them? In the 80’s Mqabba , Qrendi and Kirkop were called BELFAST.
[Daphne – John, somehow I had the impression you are an engineer. Why, then, isn’t your thinking clearer? The murder of a prostitute and the murder of someone who’s made you lose your rag are two completely different things. The psychological drive is different. The motivation is different. The weapons are different. The method is different. When prostitutes are found murdered, they have generally been strangled, stabbed, or slashed to death, never shot. If you read something other than the Maltese newspapers, you might have known this, too. This stands to reason: what prostitute will go with a john who’s carrying a shotgun?]
Let’s get some facts right, nobody is happy that we have illegal immigrants here and nobody rejoices when more arrive. But what is the point here? It is more worrying that many Maltese, instead of trying to understand the scope and nature of this problem prefer to adopt a prejudiced and bigoted approach. This mindset is the same as that which allowed fascism to grow so fast in Europe 70 years ago. Then it was fear of communism, economic disaster and civil disorder that was blamed in part on the Jews mainly because they were the bankers and the main industrialists and professionals of the time. What we have now in Malta is a similar mindset, where many are panicking and spelling doom because of the influx of immigrants. Thes people are promoting a hard-line approach that smells strongly of a depostic and anti-democratic form of government. Is this what we really want?
“Elsewhere on this blog, Mario Debono says that he won’t employ gay people because gay people lack credibility.”
I actually don’t find that fact itself very disturbing. His kind of people are everywhere. What I find disturbing is how this is not illegal.
[Daphne – It is illegal, Pat. But there’s nothing to stop an employer rejecting a gay person at the interview stage and blaming some other factor.]
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081230/letters/racial-discrimination-at-its-best-1
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081230/letters/racial-discrimination-at-its-best-2
@Sybil,
so the Somali “elite and creme de la creme” is playing some kind of Russian roulette on a small boat in the middle of the open sea because they can afford it?
Strange habit of spending money!
They are playing with their lives for heaven’s sake for reasons we can not even measure.
Also I don’t like the idea of “dumping” human beings…what an inhuman expression that is!
@Sybil
I’m sorry but yours was an uninformed reply.
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,QUERYRESPONSE,SOM,456d621e2,46fa53791e,0.html
“A media article reports that the Somali government has not issued passports since the internal conflict began in 1991 (AlJazeera 17 Jan. 2007). A statement from the Government of Canada explaining why Canada will not accept the Somali passport as a valid travel document states that, since 1991, Somalia has been functioning with virtually no government, and that satellite “Somali embassies” with no oversight from a central government have sold blank passport stock to finance their operations (16 Dec. 1999). Numerous sources report serious concerns about the integrity and reliability of Somali passports (ibid.; AlJazeera 17 Jan. 2007; The Ethiopian Reporter 10 Feb. 2007; Reuters 16 Feb. 2007).”
This is the reason why any immigration from Somalia is illegal. There is no other way a Somali can travel to Europe other than through illegal means.
@Daphne
Please for those who respect you and your writings, do not play the naivety card. This has nothing to do with opinion and it has nothing to do with racism. I think we are beyond generalising at this point.
[Daphne – I am not playing the naivety card. You know as well as I do that those who are over-exercised by the arrival of illegal immigrants are motivated by feelings of fear, hatred and resentment, not practicality. That is why the problem eclipses all others in their world view, and why that isn’t the case with, for example, me. When we joined the European Union, we effectively threw our borders open to any one of at least 450 million people, any of whom can come here to live, work and buy property. So why the hysteria about a thousand Africans? The usual response to that question is “because they’re illegal”. Yet the hatred persists even when their position is legalised through refugee status. It’s all about fear of the unknown, and nothing else. Almost half of the Maltese people had never seen a black person except on television – 42% of the population has never left the island, remember, and there were no blacks in Malta – so this is understandable.]
“[Daphne – Get a grip, John. The crimes you mention are perpetrated by Maltese people. How do I know? Because it’s been a crime-ridden, sordid area for years, pre-immigration from Africa.]”
For years? How many years? I remember the area well for it formed part of my newly found ‘freedom in the wilderness’ in the early 1970s when my family moved from Valletta to Paola. There was the “skola tas-snajja” and the only criminals were innocuous gamblers who gathered in dens by the inner canal. In time, the area became frequented by prostitutes who were displaced from Gzira by police raids. This was in the late 1980s, around the time the school was closed down. I have no recollection of the criminality that’s being attributed to the area today. And I’ve been away from Malta for only 6 years.
Seems like it’s your turn to “stop brandishing your myths”.
[Daphne – Albertown has been a meat market for years, Kev. For many, many years – at night, not during the day. Give your ex-colleagues in the force a ring and ask them.]
@ Kev
I used to work at the then Mid-Med Bank of that area (later HSBC and now closed) more than 20 years ago and even at that time the area was considered to be so dangerous that on Friday evenings in winter (when we used to finish work at 6.30pm) and it was totally dark the security forces would send two Landrovers filled with armed security guards to protect us while we closed the bank. And at that time there were no immigrants in the area.
So those who say that that area has become a no-go zone because of the open centre do not really know what they are talking about!
@ Daphne : you were right when you stated that prostitutes normally are not murdered with guns,may I add that some are thrown down from high places. But it is also undeniable that Arabs/Muslims slash throats , I believe we have seen it on the net also.
Regarding Mario’s attitude towards gay people , I think I would agree with him.As you commented to Pat , he may bring another excuse not to employ the gay person.
I did have gay persons on my place of work, they were dedicated colleagues ,but I did not like working with a particular one who was PROUD to be gay . Wether people are heterosexual , bi-sexual or gay ,it shouldn’t be something one should be PROUD of . In an interview one is never asked about his sexual tendencies , if he wants the job he should keep his sexual attitudes out of the office.
I think an employer would not even employ a person who is constantly harassing sexually other employees of the opposite sex.
And please I don’t want to hear that in other civilised countries this is against the law, everyone knows how to get around this law…….and many other laws.
I applied for a particular job with a private company and was told in private by a friend that I had the right abilities for the job but my age was the issue discussed in the selection process. What should I have done? Appeal for the job , get employed and then get fired during the probation period?
No employer would write to you back to tell you that you did not get the job because you are gay , old ,laburist, a woman or red haired.
They will write to you that although you have good qualifications ,the vacancy has been filled , and that if you so wish ,they will keep your CV in their HR records.
What if somebody is first shot and then has his or her throat slashed? Should the police start rounding up persons of mixed Arab/Muslim and Maltese descent?
Exactly. I’m glad you said that and that is why I don’t support your claims when you brand people ‘racists’. It’s novel to many. We, me included, haven’t seen a lot of black people roaming our streets and then suddenly we have to get used to dozens who share the buses we use, the shops we usually go to etc.
And the fact that one of them is on the news almost daily and that they come to malta in hundreds surely does not help their case.
Although I do not support multiculturalism blindly, I, together with fellow Maltese citizens have to get used to the fact that NOW we have to live with it. Branding people who have to get used to it as racists definitely does not help, and you together with your fellow colleagues in the media should help the public.
Many blacks have important roles in popular culture and no one is threatened by them – there is Eddie Murphy, Oprah, Will Smith, Obama and many many others who are intelligent people who are not perceived as harmful.
You have to counteract the perception of blacks as criminals not by saying that the Maltese are criminals too but by holding a positive yet practical attitude.
But then the above is my opinion. Every journalist/columnist will have his or her own attitude and use his or her own style which is very important too.
Daphne – Facts? Please learn to distinguish between fact and opinion rooted in prejudice. Elsewhere on this blog, Mario Debono says that he won’t employ gay people because gay people lack credibility. That he won’t employ gay people is a fact. That gay people lack credibility in general is an opinion rooted in prejudice
No, Daphne, don’t put words in my mouth. I said “I know what I would do”, but you have concluded that I won’t. That’s fine by me, but it’s really nothing to do with prejudice. I think it’s you who are pigeonholing me, and yourself, in this matter. My views on gays are quite moderate. I really don’t mind them at all, but I don’t think they are credible. Sorry, but I really don’t believe you when you say you have countless interactions with gay men. My views are based on life itself. They are based on the fact that at 8 years of age, I was literally abducted from St Paul’s bay beach by a gay, sad idiot, and if it wasn’t for my dad finding me in the nick of time, I would have been sodomized.
I grew up in a classroom where we had five gay classmates out of 28, at college, for five years, a fact that admittedly left a mark. Apart from that, there have been some nasty business experiences that happened precisely because one of the contracting parties was gay. John Schembri is right. I don’t care about people who are proud to be gay, or straight, or lesbian, or labour, or nationalist, or charismatic, or Muslim, or Catholic, whatever. I do care about being force-fed like some duck being prepared for foie gras politically correct utterings from the myriad of do-gooders who have nothing better to do than be a nuisance with their stands and opinions . I wouldn’t employ a prostitute, for example, but I have employed Arabs and people who have successfully come out of rehab, after a lifetime of heavy usage, and I had a very good employee who spent seven years as the guest of the Republic in Kordin. Would you have done that, or would that have seriously put your Sliema bred nose out of joint?
Just a note to answer Pat, yes, I also agree with you, there are many people who hold similar views to mine. Perhaps it’s time the gay community takes stock on how it’s coming across. One thing I learned recently is that insurance companies consider gay people high risk and will not easily insure their life. This is not right, and not proper, but from the many gay people who take loans and life insurance, I haven’t heard a peep.
Apart from that, I hold the same views about illegal immigration, but I would like to see some action being taken at controlling economic migration. And Marsa has been a no-go area for as long as I remember. We didn’t need an influx of refugees to make it worse.
[Daphne – So you will employ a convict but not a homosexual? My, you are a homophobe. The difference between you and me is that you think of homosexuals as ‘they’, outsiders, different, and I don’t. It’s not something I think of. And actually, my advertising manager and the lead photographer on Taste are both gay – I thought you might like to know so that you can start using tongs to pick it up and turn the pages. I don’t have ‘interactions’ with gay men. I have friendships and work relationships, and it just so happens that the most efficient individuals I encounter in my fraught working life are generally – yes, you’ve got it – homosexual men. St Aloysius College has a lot to answer for, I’m afraid, if you believe that a man who tried to sodomise you when you were eight was a homosexual. Men who enjoy sodomising boys are paedophiles. What would you call a man who forces himself on an eight-year-old girl? A lesbian?]
Il-kanal as Kev said was notorious only for gambling and prostitution.
Edward used to be escorted because bank hold ups were frequent there, not because it was like the Bronx but because the area is deserted after the timber merchants and Cassar Shipyard close down their business at five in the evening.
I am worried not because they are coloured or Muslim but because idle young men in their situation can turn to crime easily.
@ Marku : that is how Theo van Gogh was killed, not funny!
This is not myth it really happened.
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/350
“[Daphne – Albertown has been a meat market for years, Kev. For many, many years – at night, not during the day. Give your ex-colleagues in the force a ring and ask them.]”
A “meat market” hardly made it a no-go area (I thought you were referring to the abattoir at first).
I don’t need to ask any ex-colleagues – I know a thing or two about crime in Malta, especially between 1984 and 2000. But of course no one is as specialised in anything as you are, and if you make it sound like a fact then it becomes one.
@ Edward – The holed-up panic you experienced at the (Marsa Crossroads) Mid-Med Bank could have been due to the hold-up that occurred there in the mid-1980s. But that was hardly the only bank robbery in Malta and your fears might have been largely due to your perceptions. It is true that Albertown looked like Malta’s ‘Sleepy Hollow’, but no gangsters roamed its two ‘promenades’. With the construction of Malta Shipbuilding right next to it, and eventually with the opening of the Open Centre, its fate as a devious shanty town was sealed.
What I’m not sure of is whether perception is talking louder than reality.
And BTW, Daphne, the slashing of throats is a Maltese way of killing?! Iddahhaqx nies bik! Granted that prostitutes are not usually shot at, but the slashing of throats is not exactly the preferred local mode. And how many prostitutes in Malta have been murdered in the first place? Just look at it objectively, because by being anti-Maltese you do no justice to your cause. Yes, I know, objectivity and Daphnism don’t go together…
[Daphne – Ho hum. Bore on, Kev. I repeat: prostitutes are killed by stabbing, slashing or strangling. Prostitutes are killed by stabbing, slashing or strangling. Prostitutes are killed by…..How many prostitutes were killed in Malta? Within memory, one: slashed throat (but he was a man). There seems to be some kind of link between the compulsion of some men to kill prostitutes and the need to use knives creatively on their bodies, Jack the Ripper being merely the most notorious of them all, but far from being the only one.]
Well, Daphne, it just so happens that I will employ anyone who has the talents I need. I just don’t want to know about his or her private life as long as it doesn’t impinge on my business. The tongs I’m afraid I will leave to you, as I will still avidly read Taste and its photography is superb. I also have friendships with many gay men and women, whom I know to be gay but don’t make a hoohah about it. I really do so not like people who raise flags and make loud attention-seeking stands on anything that moves, be it gay rights, abortion, hunting, whatever. Don’t try putting me in a box, I am really a quite complex individual, and given my size I don’t really fit in tight places. And yes, the guy who used to terrorize St Paul’s Bay Vecca area in the 80’s was a sad gay who hanged himself because of a lovers’ tiff, with another gay. You see, he was much too powerful and well known to be nabbed by the police for paedophilia at that time, and for the sake of you not shoving words in my mouth again, paedophiles are as gay as the Pope is Hugh Heffner’s brother. This guy just happened to be like that.
Innuendo can be a dangerous thing, Daphne, and bad for you. I wouldn’t do too much of it if I were you.
[Daphne – I’m not big on innuendos, Mario. I say things straight out.]
@J Grima,
would it be more bearable for you to share the bus with the “blacks” if they would entertain you like Eddie Murphy or Will Smith?
@Daphne -” The difference between you and me is that you think of homosexuals as ‘they’, outsiders, different, and I don’t.”
Ahem …… Daph … there is more to it: you are a woman and Mario is a man. A homosexual is a man who is attracted to men sort of, you don’t feel threatened (you’re a woman) but Mario and I do.
I wouldn’t feel threatened working with a lesbian, like you don’t feel threatened working with a gay.
[Daphne – There appear to have been some gaps in your education. Why on earth do you feel threatened by working with a homosexual man? Did they teach you at Muzew that he might douse your 10am coffee with Rhohypnol http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/medical_notes/270247.stm, then rape you in the lavatory cubicle? I suppose I should believe this. After all, it is my experience that heterosexual men of my generation and older imagine that all women – and hence, homosexual men – are ready to pounce and trap them because they’re such a great catch. And actually John, I work with both homosexual men and homosexual women and the only people who annoy me and around whom I must tread on egg-shells are….that’s right…..heterosexual men of a certain kind.]
Kevin is THE expert on this one .Thanks Kev!
Okay Daphne, I give up – what with the Jack-the-Ripper tangent and all… Albertown has been a no-go area for as long as Daphne remembers. And that’s a fact that concerns an opinion.
Soon you’ll be competing with La Benoît, but you’re not there yet.
[Daphne – Marie Benoit is exactly my mother’s age and so from a completely different generation (and it goes without saying that my mother doesn’t have her narrow-minded perspective). You are obviously one of those men who imagines that because we are both (a) women and (b) newspaper writers then we are in the same category. But actually, I am your age, your generation, and your contemporary, so if you are going to make comparisons…..]
“A homosexual is a man who is attracted to men sort of, you don’t feel threatened (you’re a woman) but Mario and I do.”
You should definitely feel less threatened to work with a gay man, than Daphne, or any other woman, should feel working with a straight man, as statistics show them to be a far higher risk.
[Daphne – Not only are they a sexual risk, but a downright inconvenience, with egos that need pandering too, offence that must not be caused, touchy-touchiness, and they have to be allowed to speak at length whenever they want to do so, while everyone else listens. I generalise, of course, but you get the drift.]
Ouch! I knew I hit a nerve the moment I flung my arrow :)
It’s the only sure way to win an argument with Daphne.
[Daphne – You seem to be at a loose end today. All’s well on the Brussels revolution front, I take it?]
John Schembri: thank you for the reading suggestion but I prefer not to frequent xenophobic websites.
So Daphne now we are on an equal footing ,you feel threatned by “heterosexual men of a certain kind” and I feel ill at ease with gays who are PROUD and “show offs”.
I also experienced something similar to Mario’s story when I was eighteen. If it were not for my friend wielding a one inch pipe in his hand , I would have been ‘attacked’ by a 150 kg guy, who was afraid to face a woman.
And please leave tal-Muzew out of the story, I left Muzew at the age of thirteen , and most probably they never heard of that pill .
BTW :You must be leading a stressful life with all these “heterosexual men of a certain kind” all around you!
[Daphne – No, we are not on an equal footing, John. You’re homophobic and I don’t care what people do in bed except when they give fibbing interviews about it like a certain would-be minister of health. You claim to have been put off homosexuals by an ‘attack’ when you were 18. Odd then, that despite several similar would-be attacks on my person from the age of 14, by what I can only conclude were heterosexual men, and despite having to put up with several wankers and other assorted perverts on Sliema’s beaches and promenades, I have not been put off heterosexual men and nor do I refuse to work with them.]
J. Grima: without referring to you personally, just because one does not feel threatened by black people in politics, sport or entertainment does not necessarily mean that that person is not racist. Many white people in the U.S. are happy to see black athletes on their team but nevertheless exhibit racist feelings toward African-Americans generally.
@ Marku :you are right it is a xenophobic site , but the fact how Van Gogh was killed is undeniable.I just searched a little and hit on that web site which fits your “murder scenario”.
You had a ‘witty’ reply for a ‘thorny’ question.You nearly cornered me , and poor Van Gogh saved my day!
It is very difficult to tell who killed the poor guy near the refugee centre in Marsa.
@ Daphne : I did not say I am put off by gays because of what I experienced when I was eighteen , at least I don’t think it left any mark on my life. I just stated a fact.
I hate working with gay people who feel and show that they are PROUD, punto e basta.
So, can you put me into another pigeon hole please.
shouldn’t a thought be spared to the prostitutes themselves? they are amongst the most marginalised persons in our society, usually riddled with other problems such a gambling or usury debts, drug or alcohol addiction. it is sad to see young women, without any dignity, selling their bodies for a few euros. it is easy to condemn them, but if we has to condemn all people who make ‘serious’ mistakes that would be quite a chunk of our society. i think these are desperate people, people who have made mistakes, but a truly Catholic/Christian society should not stop at condemning its’ members mistakes, but reach out to help.