[Daphne – I never said he was ‘sweet’.]

Your criticism of his defensiveness goes so far as to call it a “bad idea”. A BAD IDEA?

[Daphne – It’s called understatement. Maltese overstates. English understates. This is one of those cross-cultural, cross-linguistic difficulties. It’s one of the reasons many of the comments on timesofmalta.com’s comments-board sound hilarious. In Maltese they would pass muster. Translated into English, they are hyperbolic and sound hysterical.]

That’s like what paraplegics at a three-legged race would say. Its true, but damn its a lame way of putting it.

John skuza ruhek mieghek innifsek. Jien ma’ nihux ghall nies bhalek. Kont qed niccajta, imma qabel ma’ tikteb ahseb u qatt tiggeneralizza. Kont se nghidlek li t-Tajlandizi huma l-iktar nies laghaqa li qatt ghamiltha maghhom, imma ahjar ma niggeneralizzax.

Niskuza ruhi talli qed l-Maltin kollha……….biss xorta nghid il-maggoranza tal-Maltin….tajjeb hekk, John?

@John

Naccertak li ma’ nilaqx.

Same thing happens to bank managers, etc. (Ghal meta nigi bzonnu..)

@John Xuereb: minn kif qed nifhem,tigi li int laghaqi. Ghandek stima baxxa tieghek innifsek u meta tikteb titfaghniex fil-keffa mieghek, xbin.

@Daphne
In-neguzjant tajjeb meta jinnegozja dejjem jara kif fin-negozju jirbah kullhadd. mJoe Gasan iddobba t-tickets b’xejn, staqsa lil ta’ Tumas iridx imur u la kien hemm post ghax ma’ jghidux lil Tonio jigi? Dak ma’ l-Arsenal, zgur li jiehu pjacir. X’hargu izjed milli setghu hargu?

Tal-Marsovin kien jiehu ‘l Mintoff kull sena’ fuq il jott u hadd ma kien jghid xejn.

[Daphne – Mintoff u n-Noneta: hadd ma kien jghid xejn? Mhux fl-ambjent li kont nghix fih jien, nassigurak. Kienu jghidu hafna. Daqs kemm kienu jghidu, kont biss tifla l-iskola u kont naf l-isem il-yacht tal-Marsovin. Il-gazzetta ma setghu jghidu xejn ghaliex ma kellnix liberta tal-istampa. Fil-fatt, niftakar sew li l-Oggi jew Il Gente li kienet tixtrih in-nanna tieghi darba kien mizmum milli jidhol Malta minhabba li kien hemm go fih ritratti ta’ mistiednin fuq il-Noneta, fosthom Mintoff u mara li kienet girien u habiba tal-familja tieghi. Jghidu li fir-ritratti kienet bla top tal-bikini, imma n-nies jesaggeraw. Dan bhal meta hadd fl-irhula ma kien jaf dwar il-hajja privata sensazzjonali tal-prim ministru Borg Olivier, u n-nies tal-pepe kienu jafu d-dettalji kollha.]

In-nannu tieghi kien jghidhom it-tnejn.

@Old Aloysian: maybe things are changing. I know of many high-flying students who had sufficient marks to be accepted by St Aloysius College, but opted for De La Salle instead. It says a lot when ex alumni of the same school start shooting from the hip at each other.

Heard the Italian saying ‘mangia santi chaga diavoli’ before but never the Maltese version.

[Daphne – Maybe you didn’t have a grandmother like mine.]

[Daphne – The finance minister may have faults, as we all do, but I don’t think one of them is the belief that only Christians have high moral standards, or that Christians have higher moral standards than anyone else, or that it is necessary to be religious so as to have high moral standards. It is significant that his religious identity is Christian rather than Catholic. He was merely pointing out what lots of us forget:that real Christians don’t gamble and object to gambling, because it is not consonant with strict Christianity. It is the equivalent of a Muslim politician saying that if it were up to him he would ban all alcohol, but obviously can’t because this is a democracy and politicians don’t legislate according to their religion.]

Tell the average Maltese voter you are a committed Christian and you are assumed to be a good person. Tell them you are an atheist and they will look for signs of a tail or a horn.

[Daphne – I completely disagree with you. In Malta, it is politicians who say they are Catholic who get all the flak. What you say might be the case with old people of no great education, but not with anyone else. And I don’t imagine even they think like that, hence the expression ‘jibla l-ostji u jahra x-xjaten’, which wasn’t coined yesterday.]