The duck that lays the golden duck
Published:
August 14, 2009 at 9:33pm
It was a difficult birth....
From the timesofmalta.com comments board:
Joseph Camilleri
Gozo is not anymore the Island of Peace and Tranquility. We have lost the duck that lays the Golden Duck. Repeat Clients business has gone down since last year. Tourists are being ripped at some places –
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Mr. Camilleri is right to voice his concern. If the Gozitans mislay the duck that lays the Golden Duck, they will have to do without any golden ducklings.
[Daphne – And then the Gozitan sex industry would be in an abject situation….]
Daphne, you never miss an opportunity to knock us Gozitans down, do you? Entertaining reading nonetheless.
While looking for the apocryphal duck, they could keep an eye open for the goose that lays the golden eggs: it doesn’t overcharge, is under no illusions about being the centre of the universe, understands value for money from the customer’s point of view, realises that its own aestethic standards may be dubious, and recognises that authenticity does not include cockroaches in the bathroom.
Hope they’re not being ripped at the groin. That’s a very difficult one to return from.
I bet my bottom euro that government income from VAT does not decrease from Gozo. They rarely give you a chit. I would have prefered the use of the word vulture instead of duck. Gozo is the place where bank deposits are highest and taxes paid are lowest when calculated per capita.
When there was an undulant fever scare from gbejniet and sales went down, the parish priests of Gozo called for help for the poor herdsmen. The government rightly replied : “No one declares income from the sale of gbejniet in Gozo.”
With the shabby treatment we got over the years in Gozo, it’s better to catch a plane and spend your holiday money elsewhere.
The goose which lays the golden egg flew away. The vultures even forgot that it wasn’t a duck.
John Schembri tal-gbejniet….
Jekk ma tirrapurtax lil min ma jaghtikx ircevuta tkun qed taghmel hazin daqsu, u jekk ma tirrapurtax, toqghodx teqred wara.
Siehbi ,m’ghadnix immur nixtri minn Ghawdex. Fuq kollox, l-Ghawdxin jigu jixtru l-gbejniet min-Nigret iz-Zurrieq. Denominazzione di origine controllata, my foot.
“Tourists are being ripped at some places”!
Could the ripper be named ‘Jack’?
Must have been a very limp duck.
It was 40 years ago today. Lots of memorable performances captured on film and sound. My favourite remains that of Joe putting his heart and soul into the song and playing his air guitar.
PL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQYDvQ1HH-E
What Gozitan sex industry?
[Daphne – Oh sorry, those were chickens.]
Golden Ducks getting laid are only one aspect, I suppose, but I haven’t spotted many others. Maybe they’ve migrated to the Gentlemen’s Clubs further South.
I haven’t spotted tourists being ripped anywhere, for that matter, though in some places, people are ripped OFF, though certainly not to the extent that they are at the Waterfront(s) (Valletta and the other side) or Portomaso or most of Sliema/St Julian’s.
.
Bocca is right. We accept being ripped off in Malta at some places because we imbue them with a sort of cachet. It’s not just the Gozo lads who killed the goose, but the Maltese ones as well. Yesterday we had a fantastic lunch at Latini in Marsalforn, and drank rather too much wine than is recommended for the liver, as well as two bottles of limoncello. The bill was a round 200 euros. We thought that was fantastic value for money. If you had to go to the comparable wolves’ den in Malta you wouldn’t get much change from 500 euros for the same vast amounts of food, spirits and wine.
I now understand why some Gozitan friends complain that Gozo is treated like the ugly duckiling……..
Yes you are right, we are a bunch of cross-eyed, bow-legged, in-bred cheats ever ready to rip off the poor Maltese tourist that favours us with their custom. We should look south across the water and try to learn from our much more sophisticated cousins. After all down there nobody ever cheats their neighbour, VAT is promptly paid, white taxi drivers are honest, bus drivers the epitome of courtesy and all the restaurants reach the apex of culinary excellence. Much to learn there I am sure.
U isa, Frank… tehodiex daqshekk di pettu….. hallihom ha jghidu…jidhol minn wahda, johrog mill-ohra, bla ma jaghmel ebda hsara….
Tihux hsieb…it’s just that I cannot resist replying to asinine comments, and I am in no way saying that we should not pull our act together in Gozo.
That tourism would come to an end, sooner or later, was predicted quite a few years ago when we were advised not to keep on with the the shabby treatment being given. The tourist in Malta, as in Gozo, is constantly being ripped off. Those doing so justify their behaviour by stupidly saying, ” Hallieh, dak min jerga jarah” as though it is a philosophy of making hay while the sun shines.
Of all the thefts I have personally seen happening in broad daylight and one which made me feel ashamed to be in such a situation, was when I bought a ‘ruggata’ for 58 euro cents. A tourist who was waiting for his turn, and who had seen the transaction, asked for the same drink, which was a novelty to him. The man behind the counter said, ”Yes, sir, 2.50 euros” (we never miss saying ‘sir’ or ‘madam’ before we cheat and to me they seem like code for ‘I’ll screw you’). When he realized that the tourist was shocked in disbelief but hadn’t said a word, he told him, ”Don’t worry, sir, I’ll take it back if it’s too expensive”. The tourist walked off in dismay.
It didn’t stop there. Another Maltese who was in the queue, watching it all, laughed loudly and told the man behind counter, with admiration, ”B’ruggata kont sa tahx… fil patata. imma kien ‘clever’ induna bik”’.
I was in the catering industry, and with the high costs of production it isn’t easy to sell at a low price. Sky high bills, licences having to be paid to each and every department involved, etc, etc…..you fill in the blanks., Opening the letter box is scary, so to speak. But on the other hand, despite all the related expenses in the trade when you have a good turnover you can make good money too. This is not to say that it is an easy job. Far from it. It is a 24/7 job if you want to be successful. Problems are endless but when your morale is high you can turn them into money makers. Once you give up you’re finished.
To blame the government is silly. To say that the global crisis has had no effect is even worse. Many who find it easy to blame the government for the unwanted situation but so far none of the opponents have ever given us a sustainable ‘solve it’ explanation. If the Labour Party was governing it would have been the same. Maybe better or maybe worse. but only a little bit.
When one is in the prime minister’s shoes it’s a different story. The Chamber of Commerce is claiming, justly, that it cannot afford to give wage increases and compete in the international market at the same time. The unions are justly claiming increases in salaries because of the high cost of living. Production of energy is rocketing high, lack of cooperation from government officials. so on and so forth.
Why cut corners to turn a profit? I’m not saying that that’s what you did. I’m saying that it’s the ethos of many so-called catering ‘businesses’.
Dear Corinne – Yes, it’s only a fool who cuts the corners to turn a profit. You have to wait until you turn the corner to make that profit. Cutting corners is not the attitude of many so-called ‘catering businesses’. That is what you believe. That is why we are against monopolies. aren’t we?. That is why you now have ‘freedom of choice’, isn’t it? And that is why, ‘once bitten, twice shy’. no?
Always yours,
Karl
No, Karl. It is not ‘what I believe’. Value for money is not just about how much you get on your plate. Shoddy or indifferent service and poor quality food ingredients are visible to customers, not hidden in the back room.
What prompted all this was a complaint about ‘tourists being ripped…’ You and I live here, so we know the difference. Unsuspecting tourists don’t, which is why they are ripped off. That, too, is cutting corners. Why not set a higher standard price, backed up by higher standards?
You are right in saying ‘once bitten, twice shy’. Isn’t that why so many people decide not to come here again, or bypass Malta altogether when planning where to go?
Having spent the past weekend in our sister island, I was surprised by the ease in getting to Cirkewwa and onto the boat – no queues or traffic anywhere. Certainly not good news for the Gozitans, but I agree with Andrew Borg Cardona that the prices in Gozo are nothing worse than they are in Malta. Actually I did notice a difference there, that being the cordial and genuinely interested service we received wherever we lunched or dined. So maybe the problem of dwindling tourists lies elsewhere. What no one cannot miss however is the horrible state of the roads, even the most popular, and it seems that the general lack of proper maintenance of roads which is so obvious in Malta has been exported to Gozo.
Gozo is the Island of Peace and Tranquility once more. The duck that had the Golden lays and got ripped at some places with Repeat Clients business has come home to roost.
Friday morning, City Gate: about eight taxis bringing in tourists. One taxi driver shouters to the other drivers: “Don’t charge them less than 40 euros”. If that is not daylight robbery for a four-minute drive I don’t know what it is.
Maybe the ducks clone one another? Or maybe it’s because there are mentions of clucking fients?
Was busy with other things…
As far as I recall, John Schembri is indeed on the right track. VAT from Gozo amounts to about 2% of the total, though the population is roughly 10% of the total (and is the main benefactor of internal tourism). Everyone likes to cheat. It’s just that Gozitans seem to be more successful at it than the Maltese.
Dear Corinne,
I agreed with what you said all the time except for your mentioning of ‘many’. It is not the case. I am sure that the majority of ‘catering establishments’ don’t cut corners. Read my comments. Like you said, I mentioned, that tourists were constantly being ripped off, that the treatment being given was shabby and, also, that as you said ‘tourism would come to an end’. (you said, ‘Decide not to come’). I should have mentioned, also, that customer care = 0.
Once more,
Always yours,
Karl
I think you misunderstood my comment. I said ‘many’ not ‘the majority’ cut corners, which explains your customer care = 0.
And I said ‘many decide not to come back’ not ‘tourism would come to an end’ or ‘decide not to come’, both of which have an entirely different meaning altogether.