You can't teach an old dog new tricks
Alex Sceberras Trigona does what he knows best
Earlier this evening, timesofmalta.com published this picture of a meeting between officials of the Labour Party and the Libyan government.
The meeting was set up by Labour’s international secretary, Alex Sceberras Trigona.
Well, what can I say?
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
Our Alex is going to stick to doing what he knows best: fixing meetings with Libya.
He’s not just an old dog who can’t learn new tricks. I’m going to mix those animal metaphors and call him a one-trick pony. Fixing meetings with Libyan officials is all this one-time Labour powerhouse of international diplomacy is left with.
Let’s put it this way: he’s a little at a loose end now that his Rolodex of contacts can get him nowhere fast. Those nice, friendly states once locked behind the Iron Curtain are in – oh, how it must pain him – the European Union. The Soviet Union is no more. China has opened up.
Oh, I’m forgetting North Korea. Alex might see some action there – call up a couple of friends, open a couple of cans, sit at a table and discuss the scope for bilateral relations between a state and a political party. That kind of thing.
Because, you see, the Labour Party appears to believe that bilateral relations are negotiated between a state on the one hand and a political party on the other.
And that’s why Alex Sceberras Trigona dialled his old friends in Tripoli and invited them over to a conference which he organised. The subject of the conference? Forty years of bilateral relations between Malta and Libya.
Now I hear you say that Malta became independent in 1964, so that would make it 45 years of bilateral relations. But good old Alex starts counting in 1969, because what he really means is 40 years of bilateral relations with Gaddafi, not Libya.
And of course, Joseph Muscat took the opportunity for a press call, to play at being prime minister discussing bilateral relations between Malta and Libya with Libya’s secretary for foreign affairs, who by the look of him in this photograph is wondering what in God’s name he’s doing meeting with somebody who isn’t in government when he should have been meeting Malta’s foreign minister.
What a shame it is that the Labour Party’s communications wizard Kurt Farrugia failed to control the photography, and ended up with this illustration from a book of basic body language. The eager beaver leader and his international secretary, their hands clasped on the table in identical postures, lean towards the Libyan officials. And the Libyan officials lean backwards, away from them, distancing themselves from what is being said and from the people who are saying it, one of them forming a thumb-and-forefinger L-shape round his chin in the classic signal of boredom and disagreement.
If you didn’t know who the people in this photograph are, you’d think that those on the left are selling while those on the right are clearly not buying. And that, I imagine, just about sums it up.
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The one in the thumb-and-forefinger L-shape poise is in contemplation mode. He’s thinking, “Who nicked the oranges?”
Evidently you did not watch the other news stations yesterday.
They reported the meeting with Tonio Borg and not the one with Joseph. The body language in the meeting with the foreign minister was a lot more friendly and less aloof as were the smiles. Super One aired minutes of meeting footage that clearly showed the discomfort of the Libyans.
Also interesting was a later news item on the Bad News channel, about Italy’s demands for Malta to reduce ts SAR area. They quoted Labour’s Michael Falzon spouting the government position without actually saying it was the government position but later they aired an excerpt of Michael Falzon talking on camera and he ‘let slip’ that his position was incidentally the same as the government’s. It was difficult to edit out seeing it was mid-sentence.
Well yes, presumably the Libyans were cutting investment deals with the government, something they can’t do with the opposition.
What’s this about the SAR area? And why is it bad news?
@Hans Peter Geerdes
Read the newspapers if you want to know what has been happening between Italy and Malta re SAR. As for Super One being the bad news channel – I am presuming – correct me if I am wrong – that you do not understand Maltese. If you did you would know that they exclusively air stories that throw bad light on the government. Since Joseph Muscat took over the leadership the standard has dropped even lower – and most of us thought they had already hit the pits.
If you want examples try the spin about the rental of Dr Busuttil’s basement adjacent to the office or the coverage of Genni Psaila’s death.
Super One airs news that throws bad light on the government.
That does not make it a bad news channel, actually it makes it a good one because it is showing that the government is dealing with issues the wrong way. Malta is experiencing some problems at present … actually it’s neck deep in the shit.
Super One always finds the “Xaghra fl-ghagina!”
That is precisely what the opposition is supposed – and paid – to do.
U le x’don’t understand Maltese, jien Maltese born and bred. I just read the online Times article, but it’s the usual hawwadni ha nifhmek. Let’s see if I got the facts right:
Italy hints that it would like to take over some of Malta’s SAR.
Malta says thanks but no thanks.
Right?
Bravu, hekk huwa.
“Those on the left are selling,while those on the right are clearly not buying.” Spot on. U ta min hi dik il-komma hamra?
A hilarious analysis of the photo. Body lanquage is so important to detect. Used to be called ‘Consultative Skills’. Guess the little twerp missed that course on his meandering road to a “PhD”.
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Hey Daphne, I don’t know if you already know, but they quoted you in this article… http://www.ilgiornale.it/a.pic1?ID=376667&START=0&2col=
It’s about illegal immigration.
The question to ask is …. why does Italy want to take over part of the SAR? Is it because of they now want to be responsible for the rescue of illegal immigrants or are there ulterior motives?
It’s no mystery: Italy wants to be more important and have a greater say in the international – especially Mediterranean – arena.
We get a lot of money from our SAR zone , so it isn’t at all surprising that they want it.
I’m beginning to dislike Italians more and more each day. First it was this clingy Italian salesman who wouldn’t take no for an answer (came again a few days ago) and now it’s Musso V2 trying to take what is ours again. The impression Italy gives me is of a thief that tries to steal candy from kids at a given opportunity.
Isn’t the PL truly pathetic, setting up such useless meetings as fodder for One News and l-Orizzont. But the Libyans still play ball and put on their ‘interested’ faces, as their wider ‘politics’ takes a long term view, just in case Malta has a collective fit and elects Muscat as prime minister in four years’ time. And by the way, that red sleeve belongs to an interpreter.
What a nightmarish thought. A grinning garden gnome representing my grandchildren’s country on the world stage.
Is Malta Knight really Italian?
The “old dog” seems to know more tricks than you give him credit for.
http://www.diplomacy.edu/courses/faculty.asp
There’s no mention anywhere of the secret treaty with North Korea and the law against “foreign interference”. The “old dog” seems to know more tricks that he gives himself credit for.
Mr Vella, why is it that, despite being in power for more than 20 years, the PN Gov/Party has never published this famous “Secret Treaty” so that we could all see the horrors it contained?
[Daphne – The Nationalist Party has not been ‘in power’ for more than 20 years, but for almost 11 years, since 1998.]
In the meantime, both Sarkozy and Putin have refused to participate in the 40th anniversary celebrations of Ghaddafi’s revolution.
I suppose that son of a bitch Mintoff will be a guest of honour.
But France sent two Rafale C planes from 1/7 “Provence” Squadron to join the aerial display. Goes to show that one’ll do anything for a few miserable trade deals (not using “miserable” in a deprecatory sense here. The deals are really worth bugger all).
Dassault even stooped as low as publishing full-page birthday wishes to the Colonel in the local papers. Knowing the old bastard (he’s on a par with Mintoff in my book), he’ll renege on the whole deal, just to humiliate the gullible whiteys yet again. And he’ll probably end up buying US planes, like everybody else.
Oh what a beautiful world we live in.
?
Twanny, the calendar tal-Progressivi qieghed xi haga hekk:
1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2001, and so on.
They try to forget 1996-1998. How very convenient.
The PN has been in government for almost 20 years (biex inkompli mieghek) because the country never had any alternative. Allura Twanny hi, ma tahsibx li qieghed tahli il-hin lobbying in favour of the MLP (yes MLP not PL ghax ma nbidel xejn hlief li issa sirtu Progressivi minghalikom).
Go figure!
Perhaps you would like to answer the question I put to Antoine Vella, since he does not seem to be inclined to do so.
Is it a photographic distortion, my monitor, or does the picture depict Joseph’s narrow-mindedness?
By the way, last night I watched all three hours plus, celebration of Senator Edward Kennedy’s life on CNN.
The mood, even in the presence of his casket, was a heck of a lot more upbeat than the subjects’ demeanor shown in the above picture!