Mentalita tar-rahal: a separate labour union for people with 'dikris'
The sexy story of a bored housewife, a silk stocking, and a member of the Union Gradwati Maltacom
What are the odds that the Labour Party plans to set up a ‘sAction’ for graduates, just as it did a sAction for gejS?
timesofmalta.com, this afternoon
Go graduates’ union switches to GWU
The Union Gradwati Maltacom, which represents graduate workers at Go plc) today joined the General Workers’ Union as an affiliate.
The GWU already represents the majority of Go employees.
UGM president Joe Agius said that by becoming GWU affiliates, workers’ interests could be better protected.
The UGM was previously a member of the Confederation of Maltese Trade Unions.
GWU general secretary Tony Zarb said the union was proud that the UGM wanted to join as its affiliate. He said the union was showing its vision of how trade unions could work closely together in the best interest of workers.
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A suction of Presidenti emeriti next.
[Daphne – Le, Leonard: sAction, with an A sound. Is-sAction tal-gejss, with a hissing S sound.]
U s-saction ta’ dawk li jghidu pleece u thanks you inti.
[Daphne – U sAction ohra ghal dawk li jghid ‘tenkju’ when what they mean is ‘NO, thank you’.]
Thanks Daphne – I’ll practice the phonics on the train – but I thought one of the emerti was sucked in last week.
Can I try to mimick you Daphne?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100121/local/energy-grants-government-checking-wsc-data
Arani Nanna kemm jien bravu qed nghodd kemm hemm nies fil hawzholdz. Arani nanna wehhilt l munita tal lira mal bagalja kemm hi sabiha ux nann.
haha msomma how about a saction for disgruntled unemployed like myself ux daphne. I won’t vote Pn only becuase I’m out of a job, so I will take it on the Pm. ha ha do I sound deeply frustrated? Becuase that’s I feel. Ejja Muscat make a saction for the unemplojd mela nsejt tiknisna lilna.
Tony, the only time you work closely mal-haddiema is meta ikun Gvern Nazzjonalista, imma meta ikun Gven tal-Lejber, il-haddiema tinsewhom.
I think that the best way to get to the vast majority of employees would be to start off with a ‘sAction tal-Hbieb tal- Krissmas Fadder’
Of course..graduates have not other business accept to be safely in the PN fold. Such is their holy obligation. Lo and behold that graduates enter the Labour ranks. Though I really dont know how Labour enters into this story. It simply concerns a group of Maltese citizens of a certain education background who are using their constitutional right of freedom of assembly. Is it so scandalous that they are not flocking under the PN banner?
[Daphne – I haven’t a clue what their political affiliation is, Albert, and I couldn’t care less. I didn’t mention it – you jumped to conclusions. What took me aback is that graduates (usually those bil-mentalita tar-rahal) think that a BSc or a BA sets them apart from the rest. Why do graduates at Go/Maltacom have a separate union to non-graduates? Do they look round the room and say, ‘You can join, because you have a dikri. You can’t, because you don’t.’ Ridiculous. Having a degree does not change your conditions of work, which is what unionisation is all about. Those who’ve got a degree and those who don’t often do the exact same job.]
I stand to be corrected but I think that it started off as a union for engineers and was changed to graduates union later on, when people with various degrees wished that the union represented them too.
[Daphne – Engineers do a specific job within an organisation, unless they have moved into management. So it makes sense – if they are actually working as engineers, that is – to have a specific union. But a specific union for people with university degrees – from a BA in English to a PhD in engineering, somebody who works as a clerk and somebody who works out on the lines – is just plain ridiculous, and the sign of either confused minds or excessive and entirely inappropriate pride in the fact that one has been to university unlike all those plebs in the organisation..]
Well, an individual educated at a university is supposed to have some form of culture, something which many graduates do not attain before and after obtain the degree. Some of them do not know basic manners and think that the employer should hand them out a fat wage just because they’ve got a degree. As they say ‘jekk twilidt kaxxa, kaxxa tibqa’.
[Daphne – Where I come from, it’s ‘min jitwieled tond ma jmutx kwadru’ – a favourite saying of my mother’s.]
You could, also, say, ”Il-hmar taqtalu dembu hmar jiqba”
I remember “Hanzir taqtalu denbu hanzir jibqa”
strange Daphne you have become a leftist!
[Daphne – No, my dear, I’m ‘moderate’, to use your leader’s favourite term. But do please let him know that he’s not to count me in his movement. It is the segregation of graduates into a special union that is typically leftist. The left preaches equality but then hastens to create an elite of pseudo intellectuals. Also, even if that Graduates Union hadn’t joined the GWU, I would still have concluded that the idea of a special union for graduates was generated and put into practice by individuals who subscribe to the Labour Party’s point of view, if not actually to the Labour Party itself. This is because the Labour Party places undue emphasis on certificates, diplomas and degrees – viz. Sant and now, Muscat. Also the number of current and former Super One hacks who are trying to become, or have become, lawyers is quite astounding. All of them are fairly late vocations. It is all done for status. They would probably earn more, and have better lives, if they stayed in the media – but then they’re crap at that.]
“They would probably earn more, and have better lives, if they stayed in the media – but then they’re crap at that.”
True, but then again the main qualification needed for Super One is sheer brass neck!
“Having a degree does not change your conditions of work”
It changes your skills though, and therefore your expectations.
Insomma ahjar jaghmlu Union Dottorati Qieghda
[Daphne – Darling, you should have hung onto Sant’s coat-tails. You’d be party leader by now.]
Wouldn’t mind that. Principles be damned.
Quite frankly, I’m not so sure as to how much it changes your skills, except in obvious cases like medicine.
So many students at university (at least in my time) still expect to be spoon-fed as to what to study, never stray further than the assigned books and throw a tantrum if a question is not explicitly explained in said assigned book.
Well it should change your skills. That’s what university is all about. But Daphne is over-interpreting things. “Intellectuals” are the Mario Vella type. These are just employees trying (in vain) to find a way to have their salary raised. In the middle of a financial crisis where Ronaldo earns 10^6 times more than they can ever dream.
The reason why graduates at a number of parastatal and government organisations set up their own union section is so that they can fight, or rather demand as if by right, better pay and working conditions based on their level of education irrespective of whether they are adding value to the company.
If I am not mistaken, and I stand to be corrected here, for example at AirMalta employees get automatic wage increases for obtaining a diploma, degree or Masters and the pay rises according to the level of education achieved. This has led to the ridiculous situation of having stewards holding a Masters degree in Psychology or Sociology, getting hefty pay raises whilst till serving tea and coffee.
[Daphne – For once, we are in agreement. Ask the people who have to mark students’ assignments whether they have ever been tempted to top themselves or at least hit the bottle. The university is giving degrees to people who can’t spell or construct a simple sentence, let alone formulate a simple thought. If Anglu Farrugia can graduate, then I can probably train my dogs to pass their law exams.]
Thought that, Daphne. Local degrees: B. Sc.- bull shit; M. Sc.-more shit; PhD-piled high and deep–Law degrees? Duh!
Why ‘for once we are in agreement’? I find that I agree with you on many things, I would dare say the majority, especially when the subject does not concern politics even though I have consistently voted for the same party you do.
Hi Daphne, Maybe the graduates at Go have a union for themselves because the company is still burdened with ‘workers’ who were employed by the government in 1987. Why represent the ones who were politically appointed when they can represent themselves?
[Daphne – So you’re trying to tell me that Maltacom hasn’t employed any non-graduates since 1987, or that graduates are not workers? Or that the ‘workers’ employed because of political patronage before 1987 are with the UHM and not with the GWU like these graduates?]
The graduates are going to the GWU. How sweet. They see Big Bad Daddy Management coming with the scythe, and they run like rabbits to the Onion.
Is this all about wanting pay rises and promotions for degrees? What does the bloody civil service, as it happens, which has the same shite rules, take the taxpayers for? There are a few good men in the civil service’s top posts whot will soon burn out having to deal with the problems of vacillation, tardiness, stupid union-negotiated collective agreements, the huge wage bill, the fact that most people in there can’t organize a piss-up in a brewery, clueless ministers with vague agendas and whatnot.
And a prime minister who, like Samson in the film, but in reverse, is trying to keep the edifice together, and all the time looking behind him for the hapless or the Brutuses, with a party in tatters that doesn’t know where it is going.
Yes, it’s time for choices. Someone has to get the knife out, and start cutting. We businesses are trying to keep everyone employed in the hope of better times, with a January full of bills and demands from this and that wanker behind a desk in Valletta or some such place, and a year that will be horrible. And all this to keep a civil service in tea and biscuits, and half days in summer disguised as work.
Let’s all wake up shall we? It’s not just Joseph or Lawrence here! Oh yes, they may throw the occasional tantrum, even rant, or even play the clueless schoolboy – but if you all love your country you would just DO something about it. Coalesce. Deal with the problems. Root out the scroungers who live off benefits. Make people see the value of what they are getting. And a host of other things.
And while we’re at it, let’s give the press boys some balls shall we. Maybe NET will do its job and start being critical where it has to be, and One does the same with its own, instead of feeding people mind-numbing sterility.
Next year will be bloody awful, make no mistake about it. We need to tell it as it is.
Many are deserting this ship, my friends. They are going. And I don’t blame them. Not at all. This dream of mine will not work. I know it. Meanwhile people are going to the wall.
[Daphne – Hu grokk u mur intefa fuq sufan, Mario, f’gieh kemm hemm. Qisna il-Haiti….]
Talking of mispronunciation, I recently witnessed a guide pointing to a portrait of King George III and telling a VIP English couple that it depicted “George the turd”. Poor King George, he was unjustly held to be mad in his time but…a turd is a bit overdoing it, I thought.
Why is it so difficult to many Maltese to pronounce the two versions of “th” (unvoiced as in truth or voiced as in these)?
[Daphne – Because the sound doesn’t exist in the Maltese language. It isn’t the only sound that can’t be pronounced. Look at all the problems with vowel sounds, for example. It’s a rare Maltese who gets them right. Then there’s the difficulty with the final ‘s’, which invariably ends up excessively sssssssiiphilant, like the voice of Ka the cobra in Disney’s The Jungle Book. In English pronunciation, when the final ‘s’ comes after a vowel or a soft consonant, it’s pronounced like a ‘z’. So you get bookS and catS but carZ and gayZ. In Malta, they’re bookS, catS, caRRRRSSS and gayS. But please, don’t get me started on this one.]
sing. “ginns”
plur. “ginnsijiet”
[Daphne – Maaaaaaa, x’biza. Now that shouldn’t have been too hard to learn: the vowel sound in ‘jeans’ is just like that in the Maltese ‘min’, but then ‘the miSSSSSS’ also has to explain that the final S is not like Ka’SSSSSSSSSSS, but more like a Z.]
sing. flets
plur. fletsijiet
There’s another “th” of course, as in Anthony and the Thames.
[Daphne – Well, I learn something new every day on this blog. Never having thought about it, I hadn’t realised that all these ‘th’ sounds are actually pronounced differently, even though I pronounce them differently without realising it. I’ve just discovered that after reading these comments, and spending the last five minutes working out that – yes! – my tongue moves differently with each of those ‘th’s. Well, then, no wonder it’s so difficult to teach the pronunciation…..let alone to learn it in adulthood.]
Then there’s the High Wanking Officer with Thamthon the Thadduthee Thtrangler, Thilus.the Athyrian Athathin, theveral theditiouth thcribth from Thaetharea, …
rionnie iddobba qara u tghallem tkellem sew bil-malti:
flat singulari
flats plural
u tkomplix tikteb iktar hmerijiet. Mintix kompetenti biex tghallem lil haddiehor.
Giordano Bruno
Thing is that you can learn grammar from a book but pronunciation has to be picked up by listening to the spoken language and we don’t have enough opportunity for that. On English-language television, for example, we get to hear mostly American, sometimes Australian, but rarely proper English accents. I don’t know whether it’s just my impression but it seems that nowadays, even on the BBC, not all journalists bother to use standard English and you hear a lot of regional and ethnic accents.
There is no such thing as a “proper” accent.
Diversity in language is nowadays appreciated and valued as much as diversity in race and culture.
[Daphne – Sorry, Twanny but yes, there is such a thing as a proper accent. Accents give away as much about your origins as manners and clothes do (viz. Tony Abela’s horrid outfit in the photo on this blog). If you don’t care what your accent says about you, fine. If you care, do something about it.]
Whoa there folks – two quick observations: firstly, there is a third ‘th’ pronunciation oe ‘t’ as in Anthony or Thomas. Secondly, you can’t blame Maltese (or Italians, or anyone) from having difficulty with English vowels and/or pronunciation in general. English is so UNphonetic it’s unreal. Unless you’re really well grounded by having lived there and/or followed BBC (though even they accept accents nowadays, sadly), you don’t stand an earthly. Remember that Maltese vowels are pure i.e. they never change. This explains why Maltese suffer with English. For e.g. look at how differently ‘a’ is pronounced in ‘pears’, ‘same’, ‘sad’ and ‘said’. It’s crazy (to a wop or a Malt).
@ Harry Purdie
Please refrain from putting everyone in the same basket! Not all the university degrees and in particular the post graduate ones (PhDs especially) are the shit that you are proclaiming them to be.
Just a simple scholar search on Google would show you that a good number of us have produced work of international standard and some of us of have also been actively involved in ground breaking research. Unfortunately, the Maltese media are mostly interested in persons with strange tastes and even stranger ways of life and not researchers. When was the last time you read anything about researchers in any of the flashy magazines published with the Sunday newspapers?
I have just had a TV feature about my work – do you know when it’s going to be transmitted on the public broadcasting service? At 10.30 am on a Thursday – at least we shall have some dogs, cats and birds watching at the time.
Chris, I apologize if I have offended you. However, the number of graduates from the Maltese university who have made any impact in the international arena are few and far between. I acknowledge that individuals, such as the Maltese engineer who was at CERN is an outstanding representation of your point, although the vast majority of his post graduate study were carried out abroad. My remark was aimed at the quality of the degrees, not of the students who are required to regurgitate only what the ‘professors’ tell them in order to graduate.
Ahem! He only made an impact IN MALTA. The ones making an impact in the international arena are unknown precisely because they are working in the international arena and don’t spend their time hogging the limelight and gong-hunting.
Baxxter, ok, point taken but not accepted with respect to my example. I have read about this CERN guy and his accomplishments in the international press (Swiss and French). Did not appear to be interested in fame hunting, at least, not by Maltese standards. However, he is the only one I know of.
Harry, apologies accepted.
I can assure you the he (one of my best friends, the engineer from CERN) is one of the last one on the block, and as you rightly said most of his work was done abroad. There were (are) tens before him and whilst some have done their work abroad, most of the others have published work that was done with miserly low budgets in Malta.
As Baxxter has noted, most of us have published internationally and only very little (and quite lately) news of this has trickled down into the local media reports (though soem of us had a number of surpirses when their work was reported in the international press). This might, unfortunately, have been our fault, as most of us used to shun the media, and some where in fact afraid of it.
In the past year of so, an effort is being made to put our work in the limelight but as I said previously, most of the Maltese media, wouldl be highly interested had I had a tattoo or two or strange piercings rather then my scientific work.
Just out of curiosty, in what way is it witty and/or amusing to write “dikris” instead of “degrees”?
[Daphne – Because that’s how it’s pronounced by the sort of people who subscribe to special graduates unions. Or hadn’t you noticed?]
Would it still be “dikris” if they had decided to affiliate with the UHM instead of the GWU? I think not.
[Daphne – Clearly, you misunderstand me deliberately. My objection is the sheer and utter stupidity of people ganging up together on the basis that they all have a degree, rather than all doing the same job for the same employer. I don’t give a flying wotsit whether it’s the GWU or the UHM that they’ve joined – but the fact that they’ve joined the GWU is indicative of a particular social background that tends to favour the Labour Party.]
I think the trouble is that I understand you too clearly than you like (or maybe than you understand yourself)
I suggest you change your moniker to ‘Twanny the twit’.
Watched ‘Inglorious Basterds’ last evening. I guarantee that only a handful of Maltese residents (apart from Americans) will understand everything Brad Pitt says. It’s a worthwhile experience just observing the language.
[Daphne – I LOVED that film.]
quote: “…. will understand everything that Brad Pitt says …”
Quite true. I was happy when I obtained the English subtitles and the German version of Inglourious Basterds.
Addendum: besides observing the language, it was/is also a worthwhile experience noting Christoph Waltz’s role as an SS officer. Waltz is Austrian and, hence, Tim Ripard, who apparently resides in Austria, might have a better degree of cineaste satisfaction.
Christopher Waltz was just truly and uterly fantastic in this film. If he doesnt get best supporting actor I will say that the Oscars are rigged!
The film is brilliant. But then so are Quentin Tarantino’s other films. Pulp Fiction in particular. That contains some of the most iconic lines ever. And you people should make sure to see a new film called “in the loop”. its Armando Iannucci’s opus, and it is grand,
@Leo. Waltz was indeed brilliant and the Austrians are justifiably proud of him. I personally would have lost a lot of enjoyment had I watched the film in German, which I could have, since my knowledge of the subtleties of Germanic dialects is insufficient. Half the film’s joy is working out in real time what Pitt is saying (in English) with that ultra corn-pone accent. What kind of German did he (Pitt) speak in the German version, then?
@ Tim
Well, I do have the English version of Inglourious Basterds and hence I was not missing out on Brad Pitt, especially when he was recruiting his basterds and when he was in dialogue with “Werner” before the “Bär” smashed Werner’s skull.
The German version is in Hochdeutsch except for the scenes featuring Adolf, where one has to note a certain South German/Austrian undertone.
Actually, I had more difficulty in understanding Johnny Depp’s American English in Public Enemies.
Hey guys, maybe that clip will help:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXXxTjzQvao&feature=fvw
Movie trailer in German. Interesting side note: the swastika in the German film title got removed.
@ Andrea
The picture in the cover of the retail DVD-version, which is on sale in Germany, does show the swastika, but, as you say, the swastika is not visible in the German language trailer available on the internet.
I regret that I do not consider the German language trailer as too appropriate but my judgement may be prejudiced because I had seen the actual screen version release before I saw the trailer.
@Leo
Speaking about languages: have you seen Herrn Oettinger, ‘our’ new man in Brussels?
As we say: worse than Westerwave.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXPPu418C78
It’s worth watching it. He starts explaining in German that the English language is essential in every circumstance nowadays and then he demonstrates his own ‘English’ language skills (TC 00:26).
@ Andrea
Oettinger definitely has potential but for me he has always been a “Witzfigur”. I know the surroundings of his home town (Ditzingen) well as my wife comes from a directly neighbouring suburb (Korntal) and her uncle was a Physics teacher, later co-Rector, at the school, which Oettinger visited. Actually, we also find Oettinger’s version of the Swabian dialect very funny, especially when combined with his voice pitch and speech rhythm.
So the degree (like Dom Mintoff used to say) is a “karta tal-incova”? Sirt Mintoffiana issa?
[Daphne – No. But those who have degrees should understand that it is no longer an exceptional achievement – a first degree is now the attainment equivalent of what A-levels were in my time (early 1980s). Also, a first degree, and quite often a second one too, is not enough to indicate what a person is worth. With degrees from the University of Malta, I’m afraid to say, it is not even enough to indicate whether a person can spell or construct a simple sentence. Sad, but true. Though more and more people are now going through university, the standard of graduates has slipped, and badly too. That said, I’m all for having as many people as possible go through the university experience. They’re bound to learn something, at least they’ll learn the discipline of working for assignments, and better to have gone than not to have gone at all.]
“Though more and more people are now going through university, the standard of graduates has slipped, and badly too. ”
For certain courses though, especially the non-science ones.
[Daphne – Yes, of course. Science is a completely different matter. And the weeding-out process is very strict.]
Very true, Daphne, you’re perfectly right – coming from a graduate.
“…even on the BBC, not all journalists bother to use standard English and you hear a lot of regional and ethnic accents.”
It is not a case of journalists not bothering, but because it is actually BBC policy to discourage use of ‘standard’ English and to promote the use of ‘regional and ethnic accents’.
[Daphne – Except where the BBC’s World Service is concerned – there, its news readers have cut-glass accents, and this evening I actually heard one with an accent more usually heard in 1950s films. The BBC succumbs to ‘dumbing down’ pressure at home, but not when it’s involved in the business of promoting the use of the English language through its world service.]
One of my favourite accent stories pertains to my Irish aunt. When asked “What is the proper pronunciation of EITHER, does one say eether or ayether?” She replied “airther of tham’ll do.”
No “dumbing down” about it. That is a ridiculous, outdated notion. There is nothing to prove that somebody with a cockney accent is in any way better or cleverer than somebody with a plum in his/her mouth.
Same goes for Malta.
[Daphne – It all depends on your definition of better. Also, you might notice that people with plums in their mouths usually marry others with plums in their mouths, so that alone should tell you something – unless the man with the regional accent is very rich or famous (or both) and the woman with the regional accent is fantastically beautiful. But even then, people with plums in their mouths would rather marry somebody with a foreign accent than somebody with a regional accent from home.]
Yes, people are, naturally, more comfortable with people like them – so?
[Daphne – That’s it, Twanny, my point exactly: they define themselves by their degree. So ‘people like them’ are other people who define themselves by their degree. Other people with degrees, like me for example, don’t even think about it. It doesn’t define us, our lives, our work or our self-image.]
I wasn’t referring to the degees but to the accents.
[Daphne – I can’t tell what comment you’re replying to from the administration end, so apologies. But yes, I would say the same about accents, definitely.]
khemm thobbu tithku bikhom imfuskhom pajjiz ilu sejjer hazin min 1992 u ghadkhom bmohkhom vojt ? issa ara xgara dak li kelna bihhejnieh u issa qedin induru ghal l-gharab nergu .MELA IL PASSAT KELLU RAGUN ISSA GHOQODU JEW AHJAR NGHOQODU INHALSU IL KONTIJIET BLISKUZI TAZ ZEJT ..TAFU KHEMM ILU JITNAQQAR IL PAJJIZ UMBGHAD INSIBU XI WAHDA BHAL DEPHNE GHAL RAGUNIJIET PERSONALI POLITICI IMBGHATU AHNA
Mario Attard, tkellem ghalik. Jien li qed nara hu li m’ahniex inwaddbu il-flus fi bjar bla qiegh: it-tarzna, sussidji lis-sinjuri, u sistema ta’ trasport pubbliku tal-kawbojs, posta li ma’ taqlax penny. Kieku ma inbieghux il-banek, il-Maltacom u l-Posta nassigurak li bhalissa kieku kienu jkunu mimlija b’nies li ma’ jridu jaghmlu xejn u ma’ kienux jaqilghu in-nofs it-taxxa li qed idahhal il-gvern minnhom.
Ma’ jfissirx li ma’ baqaghax nies li ma’ jridu jaghmlu xejn li jahdmu ma’ entitajiet tal-gvern u mal-gvern. Dawn it-tip ta’ nies ghadek issib minnhom: dejjem igergru kontra l-gvern waqt li huma jiskartaw, ipejpu , jiehdu l-kafe, jilghabu fuq il-kompjuter u jiehdu s-sick leave kollu.
Ma’ nafx il-ghala imma fakkartni f’dawn is-sangisugi, ghax it-tgergir taghhom hu ezatt bhal tieghek.
@ Daphne: I don’t find anything wrong with a union joining forces with another union as long as they do it in the worker’s interests.
In Malta there are two types of workers who work under totally different conditions: those who work with the private sector and those who ‘work’ in the public sector (as per my comment above). Maltacom/Go workers probably experienced the difference. I work in the private sector, and witness daily this ‘upstairs downstairs’ situation in the employment sector.
I’m from a ‘rahal’ and I don’t have that mentality! I was quite amazed when I heard that such a thing existed.
In today’s The Malta Independent
http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=100633
“Some of the people were aghast that such a priest had been foisted on them (in Italy) without them receiving any warning, but others objected to the protest. They claimed that, in the months he has been in the new parish, he has succeeded in attracting more and more young people to the church.”
————————————-
Where do you start….
How about the local “dottore” degrees churned out like pastizzi. What’s the lawyers and notaries contribution to this little island? Take the courts, they are a mess – mainly because they are run by lawyers, the delays,the ‘monti’ atmosphere, accusations of corruption by ex chief justice, isn’t it depressing? And Malta, run by an other lawyer, an ” ex-Catholic Action” lawyer at that. Who, is to blame for the mess we are in? Isn’t it a case of mea culpa, mea maxima culpa?
Muscat Patrick
I don’t remember Malta being a better place to live in when it was run by an architect.
Not at all, dear Patrick. Neither is it because Dr. Gonzi belonged to the Catholic Action nor is it because he is a lawyer, by profession, that Malta’s going through tough times. Nobody disputes the fact that the world is going through an economic crisis. Whichever and whatever, news you hear of or read about it’s all ‘bad news’ from all over the world. I’d count my blessings if I were you, stop complaining, and thank God we’ve got Dr. Gonzi as prime minister.
It is depressing, of course it is, and the sooner we get out of this mess the better. If, however, it is having to choose the better of ‘both’ evils, so to speak, to sort it out, it still leaves Dr. Gonzi + Co. our no 1 choice. I, sincerely, believe that in 3 years’ time things will be much better and it will be Dr. Gonzi who will still be our prime minister leading Malta to prosperity.
Nothing to do with this commentary, but if you´re going to write anything about the “Front favur Dom Mintoff”, I just would like to inform people that I am setting up a similarly inspired group: “Front favur il-Hobz biz-Zejt”. It is about time I guess.
I wonder if it is going to be included in the new Moviment tal-Progressivi.
Did you see this!
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100124/local/front-maltin-inqumu-becomes-front-favur-dom-mintoff
93 years old….. ija mank tolqtu sajjetta.
Baxxter: 93 years old and he still has fire in the belly.I’m no great fan of Dom but if only Joseph had a pinch of Dom’s sense of direction for a starter.
Is-soltu argument. If only kellna autobahns as good as those in Germany in 1936….
U hallina mill-fire in his belly. Dak lanqas spunk in his loins m’ghad fadallu, and that’s saying much. He’s positively senile.
I’ve no doubt he’ll live to be at least 120 though.
@ Karl Flores.
After your eulogy of the rain- priest, ( witch doctor) I had to finish off with Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate ” Alleluljah”!
At least your choice of music is excellent.
@Baxxter
Attent habib. Min jixtieq id-deni lil-garu jigi go daru. Sajjetta ma tafx fejn tolqot. Tista tolqot ukoll lilek u lill-ommok
Nispera li tolqot lili. Ghax xbajt. U m’ghandix il-bajd noqtol lili nnifsi. (anke ghaliex naghti sodisfazzjon lil hafna nies, u ma rridx)
Don’t do it Baxxter – you’d be sorely missed.