@Ganni a.k.a kabocca number 124.432

“So Lowell’s “jokes” are acceptable because he just makes fun of people who make stupid things such as crossing over to Europe on a karretta or staging a coup against every government they have?”

Lowell’s jokes? They aren’t jokes. That is the way he brings forth a message, in the style of a joke. That’s what made him popular in the first place and what made young people ‘like’ him & go to his meetings.

And of course, you could always bring a reluctant friend along with “ejja nidqhu xi dahqa”, coming out of that meeting hating black people with a passion.

As a contrast, he picks on people out of his irrational fear/hate of black people. I don’t fear/hate you for being Labour, but I might hate you for what you say and that makes a big difference. I rarely talk politics with friends who support Labour. Why? Out of respect – that’s how much I ‘hate’ Labour supporters.

Norman Lowell’s type would say don’t talk to blacks, don’t hang out with them and make them feel unwelcome. Is that a joke? Did DCG or any of the commenters here say that about Labour supporters? That Labour supporters deserve social exclusion? No.

Staging a coup against a government? Are you talking about the speech about the Royal Opera house?

“That will be the last miserable act of his miserable government?” – Norman Lowell

If you think thats a joke, you must have a few screws loose.

After several electoral defeats it seems Labour and its followers learn absolutely nothing. David Ellul’s comment is typical. Even before the last election, the only way was up [Daphne – I really wish they would stop using that phrase. It sounds like something from a corny Carry On film, or an advert for Viagra.] and yet the party machine mismanaged the whole campaign and lost.

After the 2003 election nobody would have given PN another term in office and until six months before the 2008 election few would have put money on it. Yet when the two political parties, their visions and probably most importantly their leaders and the team they had were weighed by the electorate PN was given another term and Labour lost.

After a bit of soul-searching the Labour Party got back on its feet but continued to make the same old mistakes with the same old people. So now we have a ‘NEW’ Labour with a new leader but with deputies who are far from new and far from what those electors who matter really want.

When you hear the Labour leaders speak about winning and taking over government, without any vision as to what to do afterwards, this makes you think that what these people really want is just to win – as though governance was some trophy to be won.

And now we have the EP elections, and Labour candidates and their leader speak as though they are God’s gift to Malta and Europe. Just today I was hearing a young hopeful speak about how good Europe is for students and how much one can achieve… I truly cannot believe how one could run for the European Parliament on the Labour ticket and speak like that.

I found myself shouting at the TV: “Oh, now you realise! You almost had us out of the EU a couple of years ago saying it’s hell on earth and now you tell us there’s so much to gain – bongu!”

The real test of any political party, of any candidate, of any leader is when the going gets tough. In the run-up to the EP elections both parties and their candidates will show their true colours and it is important for all of us to follow and take note so that when we go to vote we can do so as informed citizens. Someone once said that a country is led by the government it deserves. Malta deserves not only a good government but with just five seats we need to have the best possible people representing us in the EP.

“Smart people find it extremely difficult if not impossible to work alongside stupid people, so when the stupid and the mediocre flood into politics, the smart people start moving out, hence the Labour Party, with its four clowns Jason, Joseph, Anglu and Toni.”

I agree with you on this one except on the Labour Party bit. I do not think that there isn’t a single intelligent person in that party. Usually stupidity is balanced on both sides of the political spectrum.

“I think we would all prefer to live in a democracy, whatever the nature of the people chosen by electors. So thanks, but no thanks. Who’s going to do the choosing, if not electors?”

No. The people don’t know what is good for them. Science would decide what is good for them and science would choose the best brains to run the country. No bribing, no vote buying or any other cucati. Each chosen technocrat will dedicate 5 years of service (yes, service) to the country.

“Also, you forget: electors choose MPs. The prime minister chooses the cabinet from among them.”

Maybe it is time to change the system. One should contest for a particular post (ex. Minister of Finance, Minister of Tourism, etc) and the people will judge if a particular candidate is suitable for that post.

“You can’t have a country run by technocrats because a country is not a business. It is not run according to the profit motive.”

Technocrats seek solutions to problems and apply them in the interest of the nation and not because Cikku tal-Flangi bribed them to do so. As far as I’m concerned, the current political system produces more problems than it produces solutions. Highly inefficient.

“The world is far from being a mess. It is the best it has ever been in its entire history – at least, from the point of view of human beings. We have never had it so good or been so safe and long-lived. Also, all this improvement began with democracy, which allowed the development of industry and the vast growth of a merchant class.”

I wonder if you’re living on the wrong planet. Each time I switch on CNN or BBC I see nothing but violence, famine, disease, wars, poverty and a load of other afflictions. And you say that the world isn’t in a mess? At least 80% percent of the world population is dying of hunger, wars and disease and yet, you say that “We have never had it so good or been so safe and long-lived.”

[Daphne – I read history. I know for a fact that we have never had it so good. If you think people are starving now, you should gain insight into previous centuries, when the world population was a fraction of what it is now precisely because of war, famine and disease. When did we last have famine and the plague in Europe? I spent some time yesterday morning at the Msida bastion cemetery. Most of the graves there are of children and of adults in their 20s. And that was just 150 years ago.]

“When rulers were not chosen by the people, the people were in a terrible state.”

They were, of course. But it doesn’t mean that we’re any better off. Just because here in Malta, we live a comfortable life doesn’t mean that the rest of the world does.

[Daphne – Even in ‘the rest of the world’ people are better off than they were 100 years ago.]

@Jakov

I’m not a socialist but I do not embrace capitalism either. Personally I detest both. Neither will solve humanity’s problems, because they’re two sides of the same coin and both are driven by the same things: greed and money.

tikber u titghallem ux, issa jekk xi darba nikteb xi ittra fuq it-Times nghidlu sweetheart editor, ghax Daphne hekk ghalmitni nikteb. Issa noqghod naqra dan il-blog forsi nitghallem ma nibqax hamallu laburist kabocca bil-genital warts (dawk x’tghidilhom bil-Malti Daphne? Peress li tifhem f’kollox forsi taf din ukoll) u nsir tal-high class bhalkom. Grazzi tal-parir kev.

@Crocker. So Lowell’s “jokes” are acceptable because he just makes fun of people who make stupid things such as crossing over to Europe on a karretta or staging a coup against every government they have?

One of Goebel’s tactics was indeed that of making “jokes”.

[Daphne – You people are just so crass.]

[Daphne – You know, that kind of attitude is strategically a bad idea. Also, what you’re saying is that the Labour Party is going to win by default because the Nationalists have been in government for a long time, so basically people would be prepared to elect anything at all for the sheer sake of change.]

Gianni, PN isn’t infallible, no party is .. some more than others.

Also there is a difference between the irrational fear/hatred of a group of people and the teasing of people who do stupid things.

One dehumanizes a certain group of people, but the other makes fun those people.

[Daphne – In English, unlike Maltese, political parties are ‘it’ and not ‘he’. Sometimes, they are ‘they’, but not when you begin your sentence with ‘is’ rather than ‘are’. This also applies to the government, which is so tiresomely referred to as ‘he’ all over town. Also, ‘crying against’ is a literal translation of ‘jibku kontra’, and doesn’t make sense in this context. Now let’s get down to your questions. 1. No. 2. No.]

@John Meilak

Here is another one who does not subscribe to your theories.

Frédéric Bastiat

http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/basSoph0.html