Not just liars, but fraudsters, too
Not only has Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar bumped up its measly 1,500-‘signature’ petition with many people called Anonymous, but it has resorted to other fraudulent means. Like putting down my sister’s name without her consent (see below). That’s the trouble with on-line petitions: anyone can log on and put down anyone else’s name – and cause them embarrassment and anger.
There’s more. My jolly little friend Marie Benoit boasted last Sunday that the petition was signed by ‘lots of double-barrelled names’ (it takes a certain kind of person to believe that two surnames are more important than one). That’s right. At least two of them are called Helen Caruana Galizia (not the name on her passport) while three of them are called Cecilia Caruana Galizia. Now I happen to know for a fact that there is only one person called Cecilia Caruana Galizia and that there is no person called Helen Caruana Galizia, though there used to be until the 1960s.
I can’t believe nobody scrutinised this petition, just as I can’t believe that on-line petitions are used for important matters such as this. They can cause embarrassment to those who find their names have been put down by others, maliciously or otherwise.
I suppose the FAA stopped short of putting my name on that petition without my consent because they knew they would be eaten alive.
322 Helen Caruana Galizia
635 Helen Caruana Galizia257 Corinne Vella
603 Cecilia Caruana Galizia
225 Cecilia Caruana Galizia
226 Cecilia Caruana Galizia
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The integrity of the FAA is on par with that of AD in the last election.
How can they get away with that humbug?
1.Some time ago, we ran an online petition for Din L-Art Helwa opposing the Ta’ Cenc development. We had managed to gain almost 12,000 signatures over just a few weeks. This number excludes the paper-based petitions. I mention the amount because I think that if you really want to show that you have mobilised public opinion in your favour, a couple of thousand online signatures is not really a large amount.
2. The Save Ta’ Cenc petition required name, surname, email address, ID card number or passport number, as well as nationality and town/village. We gathered this data from every petitioner and those who did not provide it were not considered part of our total. This allowed us to be sure that the signatures were valid and that we could be accountable if anyone questioned the number.
In light of my experience with the above petition, I think that the FAA’s petition hardly indicates a tidal wave of agreement amongst the general public.
Had to see it to believe it.
The best was by Charlie Meilak:
“The simplest things to do inorder to enrich Valletta is to copy other European cities, even from computer images”
I wonder what he does to enrich his own image. He probably prints a computer image of Prince Charles and glues it to his face.
They don’t even have 700 signatures, and they’re claiming they have more than double that and speaking of double, there are double signatures, which means that the petition allows the same person to sign 696 times.
Some didn’t even know what they were signing for:
Bernadette Izzo:- (signed twice)
“The Opera House should be rebuilt as a proper Opera House with the original exterior and possibly an interior in keeping with the needs of 21st Century Opera and stage needs.”
Just for the record, Daphne – what was your ‘opinion’ on the Ta’ Cenc project and the fact that it might be stopped by a ‘minority’?
[Daphne – My opinion on the Ta’ Cenc project is exactly the same as my opinion on the St John’s project: correct procedure must be respected. Petitions are there to make public opinion known to those who have the power to decide, but it is not public opinion which decides. And just for the record: my opinion on projects is rarely taken on any basis other than architectural aesthetics and the cumulative benefits to the economy. As far as I’m concerned, if it looks good and adds value to Malta, then it’s fabulous. It’s not a popular view, but while people like to say that one doesn’t live by bread alone, I say the opposite: one doesn’t live by spirit alone, either.]
Someone has probably asked this question already and received an answer but I have not followed this farce and was away the last 3 days: Why did the government feel the need to cancel the project when it seems that most of the pressure to do so was coming from a bunch of airheads?
[Daphne – You have a lot of catching up to do. Picking up on all the chaos created by Astrid Vella, and gunning for those ABC1 Sliema votes which sometimes go to AD, sometimes to PN and last time to no one, Joseph Muscat put forward a motion in parliament calling on the government to withdraw its support for the project. A couple of Nationalist MPs who expected to be made ministers but weren’t, together with Pullicino Orlando, said they would vote with the Opposition. And so the prime minister, to avoid a parliamentary defeat, gave the archbishop a tinkle – or the other way round – and both agreed to pull support for the project. Since the Catholic Church and the state jointly manage the cathedral, that was that. From now on, if Joseph Muscat thinks he has support on a project/issue from that sector of Sliema voters, he is going to use the same strategy. But as my husband remarked the other evening, he’d like to see the day when the Labour Party demands the building of an elitist opera house, and that it would be worth it just for that.]
I know a certain Corinne Vella who is in her early twenties. Is she your sister?
[Daphne – My sister is in her early 40s.]
I am not one to rush to FAA’s defence, particularly on this matter of their bogus “petition”. However, Corinne Vella might not necessarily be your sister. There are at least three Corinne Vellas on the electoral register (all with different IDs and addresses).
[Daphne – Perhaps the FAA would like to furnish me with the address of this particular Corinne Vella, then.]
Dear Daphne,
Don’t you think that PL and FAA have two things in common, namely a perfect DNA and both are Partit tal-Le?
[Daphne – There’s something else they have in common: both organisations are led by unelected individuals, who are not answerable to constituents because they haven’t got any. Don’t forget that Muscat got into parliament by begging a seat off Manwel Cuschieri’s brother. He hasn’t got a single vote to his name.]
A favour, Daphne. How do we get hold of the hit list on line ? I have a horrible feeling I’m on it.
[Daphne – My CIA agents will post directions here.]
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savestjohns/signatures-1.html
This was also the case of the petition on Ramla and Ta’ Fgieni. To make matters worse, these people KNOW the facts because they do ask the proper sources and get detailed answers. So it is definitely not a case of error. If Malta is going to persist in permitting people who deliberately distort, warp or downright lie to run the show then it will get what’s coming to it.
[Daphne – That thought occurred to me, actually. Astrid and her MI5/CIA laptop are frequently at the MEPA offices asking probing questions, so there is no way on earth that she could have had the facts wrong on this one. But I must say that the way she misrepresented the facts and used language and terminology guaranteed to stir the hearts and passions (wrongly) of ABC1 voters who signed without thinking was really quite clever – or perhaps cunning is the word I’m looking for.]
Like Baldrick’s ‘cunning plans’ :)
As usual in this country the voice of spin shouts louder than the voice of reason. The St John’s U-turn was a wily political move by the PM to stave off a Cottonera round 2, this time the protagonists being four disgruntled ex-Nationalist MPs who used the occasion to flex their muscles.
Malta , like all other democracies, has a myriad of pressure groups: some you love , some you hate , some transparent and honest, others decidedly dodgy. However, their right to exist is an integral and indeed healthy part of any liberal democratic country.
However it is the government who runs the country and it alone chooses whether to take on the advice or simply ignore the opinions of these various groups. By blaming the pressure groups for the St John’s debacle you have made the big spin doctor very happy. I don’t think this is a coincidence.
[Daphne – It is blatantly obvious to anyone with eyes in their head, Nick, that much of the opposition to this project centred not so much on the project as on who was PERCEIVED to be behind it. You seem to be one of those people. Not being typically Maltese, and so not riven with spite, hatred and malice, it doesn’t make any difference in hell to me WHO is behind a project as long as the project – always if valid – gets done and adds value to the country. Unfortunately, I find myself living among people who are delighted to spite the country so as to – or so they think – undermine and spite somebody else. And the majority of this spite and malice, sadly, is among people of my background and, I assume, yours. Which is why when I am forced to socialise among certain sorts, I have to fight the urge to take a couple of hand grenades with me – such unpleasant people, really. Such hodor. You’re sitting pretty in the EU and without Sant as prime minister mainly because of CERTAIN PEOPLE, but you forget that, don’t you? I particularly resent your last (also spiteful, and stupid) sentence. I am possibly the least malleable person in the country. In fact, I make my living from it. So you can take your opinion and stuff it up your backside. I mean it. You and others at the ‘quiz night’.]
My accountant was at the “quiz night”. And so was the present Air Malta chairman. [Daphne – Yes, I know, you’d think somebody in his position, and what’s more, who did all the polling for the Nationalist Party in the last election, would have had the decency and the common sense to tell his wife Karen Zammit Manduca to fight her own battles with her friend Astrid, instead of getting drawn into it and embarrassing the very individuals with whom he worked in the last electoral campaign. What is wrong with this country? Don’t people have any integrity?]
Nick, I am sorry, whoever was behind the project is not important. If the MPs/FAA/ Labour people wanted to hit out at him by using this project, they did so by hurting the future prospects of this country. [Daphne – Don’t forget the spiteful people like Nick himself, who jumped on the bandwagon because they want to cut somebody down to size. And is it necessary for me to point out that Meinrad Calleja’s extended family were at that quiz night, and show up clearly in the photographs? I’m sure they were absolutely petrified at the imperilment of the cathedral, and rushed to sign that petition and answer quiz questions for that reason. Tas-swat.] This is not right. Much as you or I or anyone else may have feelings for certain persons (and believe me, I have every reason to have) the project was worthy of being carried out. We can’t let petty spite kill initiative. Hdura is not something we should be very proud of. It kills projects, initiatives and ultimately makes a mockery of our supposedly civil way of life.
First of all, apologies to matt555 – I’m NOT poaching part of your nickname.
I saved the petition onto Excel, which is rather easy to sort, etc. By doing so, I was able to come up with the following:
79 people called Anonymous
1 person just called T
7 blank entries (no name/nickname included)
44 duplicate names (88 in all), meaning that 44 of these “signatures” are invalid unless they are of people who just so happen to have the same name
6 triplicate names, meaning that 12 of these “signatures” are possibly invalid too (though, admittedly, they include three “John Gaucis”, which I did not account for as a “Joe Borg” and which I assumed were one and the same person)
That means that out of the 698 signatures, if we remove the above (698 – 79 – 1 – 7 – 44 – 12), we are left with 555 who presumably gave their real name.
Nilaghbuhom lottu?
Mario, I have no idea about any quiz night, this is the first time I have heard about it. I also did not take any position for or against this project as I have absolutely no training in architecture or civil engineering and I genuinely believe such decisions should be left in the hands of qualified persons. To be honest the whole saga bored me and I followed very little of it. What did catch my attention, however, was the reaction, post u turn, of the independent media, which I found disappointing. This was a juicy story and the media – purposely I believe – only gave us one bite of the apple.
[Daphne – And that purpose would be….what? To botch the project by letting Astrid Vella have a field-day? I think it was a failure to read the situation correctly, that’s all, coupled with the St John’s Foundation’s failure to communicate because (1) monsignors aren’t big on speaking to the press, and there are three of them on the foundation board, (2) everyone else was too busy plugging more important dams elsewhere, and (3) nobody asked, and so didn’t get a reply. Astrid Vella wasn’t asking; she was challenging; and when you do that to people, they get defensive and retreat. A cock-up, all the way.]
What I meant is that I still use my accountant, although he did get quite a tongue-lashing from me, and I still have quite a lot of respect for the chairman, but I wouldn’t use their presence at the quiz night to hurt them.
They are poor misguided souls and have been suckered in by the fashionable FAA. Well, it’s not flavour of the month anymore. Daphne, who is this Nick anyway? What undercurrents are there against that one particular foundation member? For all his talents and shortcomings, don’t we all have them; he should never have been made the be-all to end-all scapegoat, and anyone who used this project to “get at him ” or “cut him down to size” has done a disservice to this country and is a traitor to its very culture, besides being full of hdura.
@Mario Debono –
Don’t be a sucker, Mr Debono. Trying to redeem ourselves with Lawrence Zammit, are we, now? Do consider the fact that the quiz night in question was held on the 12.04.08, barely one month after the election we so very nearly lost because of several people who were present there. And, as pointed out by Daphne, Mr Zammit himself was responsible for doing the polling for the Nationalist Party, making his presence there a little more incongruous.
@Mario Debono – “is a traitor to its very culture, besides being full of hdura.”
Like it or not, “hdura” itself IS part of our culture.
[Nicholas Parnis – This was a juicy story and the media – purposely I believe – only gave us one bite of the apple.]
One only had to think (not so hard, even) to work out the rest of the story, Nicholas.
This is interesting. I’ll make sure to attend further quiz nights in the future if such illustrious company is being bandied about.
[Daphne – Please explain to me how illustrious company is bandied about.]