Whooops
Where's the one for room service?
Much has been said about pressing the wrong buttons in the European Parliament. Apparently, it’s one ‘whoooooops’ after another. Glenn and John, my former neighbour from Milner Street, have tried to give the impression that pressing the wrong button doesn’t matter because you can always correct your vote afterwards. In this, they have been aided and abetted by their leader (a member of that new socio-economic group called the ‘Mittelkless’, and one who won’t stop telling us about it).
Ah, but for the record, a correction of vote does not change the outcome. It is merely a declaration of intention. This means that last week’s correction of votes by Glenn and John had no effect whatsoever on the result.
I hate bureaucracy, bureaucrats and their language, but needs must when the devil drives, so I am going to have to quote the bastards.
Purely as an aside, can anyone enlighten me as to this business with Bureaucrats and Proper Nouns that are not?
REMINDER OF THE PROCEDURE FOR MAKING CORRECTIONS TO VOTES
1. Subject of corrections to votes
Requests for corrections to votes should only be made in respect of roll-call votes. The idea behind them is to make it known that the vote cast by the Member concerned did not reflect his or her voting intentions.
2. Procedure for submitting corrections to votes
It is recommended to submit requests for corrections to votes electronically, as this makes processing easier (via Internet/Intranet – ‘Activities’ – Séance en Direct – ‘MEPs only’ – ‘Roll-call vote correction’).
Also with a view to making processing easier, if Members are unsure how they voted, they should consult the Result of roll-call votes annex to the Minutes to check, and then make a request for a correction if necessary.
3. Effect on the vote
Corrections to votes submitted by Members after the outcome has been announced by the President do not have any effect whatsoever on the outcome of the vote itself. Corrections are purely indicative and appear in the relevant ‘Corrections to votes’ sections of the annex to the Minutes.
4. Deadlines
a) Corrections submitted before 18.30 on the day of the vote concerned are published on Europarl the same day. This document is updated on a regular basis for a period of 2 weeks. Once the two-week deadline has passed, the Result of roll-call votes document, including the corrections to votes, will be finalised in order to be translated and published in the Official Journal.
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You are completely right, this is a political charade. However have you judged Nationalists like JPO with the same rigour?
[Daphne – Why, is he an MEP? I hadn’t noticed. And yes, I have written exactly what I think of his recent pronouncements (and we remain friends), but obviously, you read selectively what I write.]
Ed, please don’t be such a pedant!
When I saw the Eurovision Song Festival and the presenters had to press a button to uncover the envelopes, I immediately remembered Glenn and John. It seems they are to be forever linked with buttons. Daphne, I’m surprised that the PN didn’t mention the fact that even if you correct, your original vote holds good.
Is it SKONT or SKOND?
Is it AGHZEL or GHAZEL?
[Daphne – I asked about the first, because ‘skont’ is discount and ‘skond’ is ‘according to’ – from ‘sconto’ and ‘secondo’ in Italian, I believe. But I was told that the Akkademija tal-Malti, or whatever it’s called, recently issued one of its diktats: both at to be spelled with a ‘t’ because of the pronunciation. Well, I don’t know how they pronounce them, but there’s a definite difference between the final sound of skont and skond. Such typical disrespect for the origins of our words….
‘Aghzel’ is the imperative form (‘choose’). ‘Ghazel’ is ‘he chose’.]
We’re really destroying our language: I cringe when I see, as Daphne rightly put it, such utter and total disrespect for the origins of our words – which makes our language so unique.
But I bow my head to the superiority of the Akkademja tal-Malti.
Funny thing is: the Akkademja is behaving in a way as to sanction mis-spelling. I feel it’s adopting the if-you-can’t-beat-them-join-them mentality.
What’s next? Sounding the “h” in words ending in “aha” (such as “taraha”?)
My pet “spelling” hates (and pronunciation):
blekbord
wajtbord
trakk
vann
televixin
kuxin
kuker
hiter
fann
tajer
wajer
mekkanik
garaxx
Interestingly, “hamburger” is “hamberger” – probably pronounced “humberrrgerrr”, though.
As for your asking “What’s next? Sounding the “h” in words ending in “aha” (such as “taraha”?)”, you’d be surprised to know that there are actually people who DO speak that way.
The Akkademja tal-Malti is not only “sanctioning mis-spelling”; more horrendously, it is “sanctioning” mispronunciation of the original words.
Thanks for the clarification…although I’m still not convinced about the aghzel/ghazel part!
To understand how to spell ghazel use the model resaq, where the “r” represents the “għ”. So in the imperative we say “ersaq”, therefore “agħżel”. Simple.
good to know…thanks!
So maltaRightnow.org are right, after all. I’m not one to fuss about spelling, but ‘skond’, as far as I know, is not even pronounced ‘skont’ – it’s more something between a ‘t’ and a ‘d’. So I’ll keep to ‘skond’.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090515/local/co-cathedral-gets-another-two-restored-tapestries
Issa we place them in a box ghax xi hadd qalilna li ma ghandniex ghalfejn naghmlu muzew/centru suret in-nies.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/mepelections/view/20090515/news/democracy-in-malta-being-threatened-bedingfield
l-ahhar qassata!
Lorna – don’t be surprised. Some people already pronounce the ‘h’ in taraha.
Ghazel can also mean silk.
[Daphne – So then what’s harir?]
Għażel is linen – ħarir is silk.
Just a quick ‘thanks’ to all of you. Not only am I enjoying the blogs but some comments are having the same effect as applying some WD40 to my rusty Maltese!
Have a good evening all.