[Daphne – Did I mention his height? No, I didn’t. Lack of height and lack of hair are not disabilities. You work for a support group for disabled people, you say. Do you take in short people and bald men?]

Mela la niggzitu sinjal li jaf li ghamel xi haga hazina

http://www.illum.com.mt/2009/08/02/t5.html

He was decent enough to apologise.

[Daphne – Yes. Well done.]

They do not appoint party hacks to head national broadcasting.

[Daphne – Natalino Fenech is not a party hack. He has worked in news for the last 20 years at least – the non-party media – and because he doesn’t do the naff thing and insist on being called DokteRRRRRR Natalino Fenech, very few people know that he holds a doctoral degree.]

And the system in the USA is different from ours.

[Daphne – Really? How so?]

For one thing, major appointees are grilled by Congress before they are accepted – not appointed with a nod and a wink from LG.

[Daphne – Communications coordinators and personal assistants are not major appointees. You’re talking about appointments like that of the attorney-general, and they are not ‘grilled by congress’.]

I hope that every conference I have to attend in future will be moderated as well as that of last Friday. Fr Borg managed to get everybody to respect a 3-minute time limit for their intervention and as a result all those who wanted to speak could do so, even more than once throughout the proceedings. Three minutes proved more than adequate for speakers to make their points and the conference progressed and ended exactly on schedule, so I’ll take this opportunity to thank Fr Borg for his work, in case he reads this blog.

As regards transfers and postings I invite you to draw up a list of those previously employed with the PN media – sound vision and print – who landed jobs with ministries and corporations – well paid from your taxes.

[Daphne – I gather your idea of humour is a bunch of Italian clowns throwing cream pies at each other and finding naked ladies in their wardrobes. Your other point: it is entirely normal, the democratic world over – including Obama’s White House – for the government (as opposed to the civil service) to appoint trusted personnel to their secretariat, from outside the civil service. These people serve as personal assistants, communications directors, and similar. They are on a fixed contract and when the government changes, they leave and the new government appoints its own trusted communications advisers. I imagine that in 2013 that will be Glenn Bedingfield, Kurt Farrugia and so on. People in this position stay only as long as the minister stays – hence, if there is a cabinet reshuffle, they go. I have no objection to these people being paid out of our taxes. After all, they work long hours and are paid no overtime. I did, on the other hand, have serious objections to the many tens of millions of Maltese liri soaked down the drydocks drain. And I did have very, very serious objections to prime minister Alfred Sant naming Super One journalist Robert Francalanza as his driver, so that he could get a taxpayer-funded salary while working for Super One, while Sant famously drove himself around. Now that was a scandal and a half. Had Francalanza moved from working for Super One to a job as the prime minister’s chauffeur, I wouldn’t have said anything. After all, one’s chauffeur must be a highly trusted person. But to take the money without doing the job…..? That’s just plain cheating.]

If it was just “moderating a MEPA conference”, you would have a point. But we both know it goes much further than that. And why, of all people, get him to moderate that particular conference?

[Daphne – ‘We both know it goes much further than that.’ Actually, no, I don’t. Please enlighten us. I imagine he was chosen to moderate the conference because (1) he has years of experience in dealing with people, (2) he teaches communications and has years of experience in communications and handling large classes, (3) he is an experienced broadcaster, and (4) nobody else would do it because it’s not remunerated and exposes one to the caustic stupidity of others.]

Indeed. The President of the Kummissjoni Nazzjonali Persuni b’Diżabilità ‘s considered views on the matter
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090803/local/disability-commission-head-defends-mp-after-insensitive-remark

P.S. 1. By the same token, should DCG not have expressed her view, but waited until disabled people had their say about “how they feel when such remarks are made”.

P.S. 2 Condemning?? Is a simple expression of disagreement, and then posing of question tantamount to condemnnation? Didn’t realise people are so touchy.

[Daphne – Please stop referring to me by my initials. I never refer to people by theirs. There appears to be a common affliction preventing people in this country from writing more than one surname, forcing them to use initials for all those who have two surnames. Perhaps it’s just the usual laziness-cum-rudeness.]

“Fair”? What has fairness got to do with this blog?

[Daphne – Exactly. This blog is not a public service announcement.]

Ray Borg is right. Fr Joe Borg should really decide whether he wants to be a priest or a politician. By trying to be both, he is harming both categories. To say nothing of his credibility.

[Daphne – He does not belong to an order. He can do as he pleases. If you think that a priest’s place is in the confessional, rather than out and about in public life, I don’t. It’s a shame more priests are not like him. Active participation in real life can only give a priest a better perspective on things. If moderating a MEPA conference makes him a politician in your view, then I hardly know where to begin. The expression of political views does not make a person a politician. I express political views for a living. That doesn’t make me a politician, even though Super One seems to think so, and imagines that I am obliged to answer its questions.]