Sic transit gloria mundi
Published:
February 21, 2010 at 10:34pm
Ghandkom computers hawn gew?
From ‘freedom fighter’ – ahem – to drainage inspector. How glad I am to have lived to see the day. And this is from Facebook, of course.
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Gloria mundi! Il-glorja tad-dinja! Kull fejn kien ikun dejjem jibbammja? Gloria mundi meta jirrispettak kullhadd .
Erm, Latinorum, motu pro Daphne utilisatum currente anglorum loquus est, et non significat in insula malte in anus transverberata cives gloria viderunt, get the point?
Baxxter: All I got from what you wrote is that you are a doctor and that your Latin is as good as mine.
Great minds think alike and fools never differ, so I will try to decipher what you tried to say: The earthquake Daphne created is going to bugger the little island of Malta and the people will see glory.
Not really. I wanted to use the phrase in the present tense and as a description of this island: “din il-gzira *****ija f’s****”, but my Latin is not up to scratch, I’m afraid. Anyway. Now I understand why the Romanians executed Ceaucescu. Senile ex-dictators are like a giant two-fingered salute to the rest of us. And they are untouchable.
Dear Daphne,how can you be so cruel? You are talking about one of the best Maltese politicians, who has made mistakes like everyone. At least you should have a little respect for all our Prime Ministers including Mr. Dom Mintoff.
That particular politician destroyed Malta and is the worst thing that ever happened to Malta.
Respect him? Very funny!
He will be remembered as the greatest Maltese in recorded history when people will be saying Daphne who?
[Daphne – No, Twanny, you are confusing notoriety with greatness. The Maltese language does not allow for the differences in meaning of fame, notoriety, infamy, greatness, and so on, because it is pedestrian and the product largely of pedestrian minds. Unlike Mintoff, I did not seek fame. I had it thrust upon me, largely thanks to the efforts of – sweet irony – your Labour Party. Also, you can bet your drainage inspector pants that had I sought to be prime minister, I would have made a damn sight better one.]
It’s called “delusions of grandeur”. Look it up. ;)
And just because you command of Maltese is so poor (maybe not your fault) don’t assume that others are similarl;y afflicted.
Fama
Notorjetà
Infamja
Kobor
[Daphne – Oh, those really look like Maltese words to me, Twanny. Only the last one is: kobor. My knowledge of Maltese is excellent. You just can’t bear the fact that I’m bilingual and that I have two mother tongues, not one. It tees you off, given how hard you struggle with English. ‘Delusions of grandeur’: funny you should mention that. I remember using it in an essay aged 12 and my teacher, accustomed to bog-standard pidgin, demanding to know where I got it from.]
Or I can help you get a job at Rupert Murdochs News Corp where I worked for the last 12 years before retiring. He has newspapers and websites all over the world so with all the fame that was thrust upon you it should not be that difficult.
[Daphne – What were you doing there? The filing? Accounts? Admin? Just wondering.]
I can easily say that I was a toilet cleaner Daphne but you asked a serious question. I was a newspaper advertising consultant.
I see you are one of those misguided individuals who think that only words derived from Arabic and in use for hundreds of years are “Maltese”. Using that same logic would strip English, for example, from three quarters of its vocabulary which is made up of a host of words derived from Latin, Old German and French, amongst other languages. To say nothing of the many terms ‘borrowed’ from the tongues spoken in their former colonies. (khaki, for example, is an Urdu word meaning ‘dusty) Believe it or not, Maltese also contributed a word – “spitchered” air-force slang meaning finished or donefor – which many etymologists think is derived from the Maltese “spiċċa”.
As for my struggles with English – well, about the same time that your teacher was demanding to know where you got “delusions of grandeur”, the examiners of Oxford University were giving me a Grade A at GCE A Level. They must have known something.
Cruel? It’s not as though Daphne dressed Mintoff herself.
You’re bl**dy right he’s made mistakes. It’s disgraceful that so many people had to suffer them.
Do you call them ‘mistakes’?
Those were atrocities that Mintoff committed not mistakes.
That’s right, Carmel, how can we be so cruel? We should end Mintoff’s misery.
Ghadhom ma’ sabulux post …..hadd ma’ jridu.
Forsi jaghmlulu lapida bhal din, biex ikollna fejn immorru nisfnu http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2010/02/18/more-fun-on-facebook/
The only misery I can see is the pitiful individuals who populate this blog, safe in the knowledge that they will only read what they want to read and thus illude themselves that they are not a sorry enclave total cut-off from reality.
You should have the courage to venture into the outside world.
[Daphne – This is the outside world, Twanny. Almost 50 per cent of the people who visit this blog don’t live in Malta. It’s your living-room and your kazin which are cut off from reality. In fact, the downward slide of the magistrate and the politician is partly due to their being cut off from reality, forever surrounding themselves with sycophants and people who tell them that they have a ‘right’ to this and a ‘right’ to that. Also, if I were you I would stop using ‘illude’ because, like ‘inexistent’, it is – well – non-existent. The restaurant critic Mona Farrugia uses both all the time and it drives me up the wall. What do you and she imagine when you see them underscored in red – that your computer is wrong? Repeat after me: DELUDE. NON-EXISTENT.]
“I can see is the pitiful individuals who populate this blog,”
including Twanny.
I’m afraid my dictionary (Collins, 6th Edition, 2003) disagrees with you and gives “illude” as a verb meaning “to trick or deceive”.
[Daphne – Not used at all, I’m afraid. The word you wanted was ‘delude’. People delude, not illude, themselves and others. It’s only the noun – illusion – that’s used now, and I trust you know its meaning, which is not at all the same as delusion.]
As for the rest, I’m sure that many thousands of tourists visit London Zoo, but that does not make the zoo “the outside world” for the denizens.
[Daphne – A very illogical and stupid comparison; indeed, the very sort that I would expect from somebody who votes Labour and thinks that Mintoff was marvellous.]
La Redoute took the words from my mouth
@ La Redoute
It’s called “slumming”. ;)
Yes, he is breathing our valuable oxygen.
@carmel
“who has made mistakes like everyone” – from what he is wearing, seems like old habits die hard.
In fact I can see that he still finds “l-issikar tac-cintorin” fashionable.
The plus side is that we can’t smell that terrible stench that accompanied him when he wore the same outfit to court, rubber boots and all.
… maybe he though it was carnival, and dressed up as a robber johnny. http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-images-green-condom-with-water-drops-image11454804
Ah! How weak minds forget so soon!
“…. one of the best Maltese politicians….” I hate to imagine who could possibly be worse – maybe Idi Amin? Mugabe? Mao? Luckily none was a Maltese politician.
Mintoff wanted to sell Malta to the Brits. When that failed the MLP started their deceitful propaganda claiming that Mintoff always wanted independence!
He criticized the economic and defence agreement obtained when Malta became independent in 1964, then upon its expiry he proceeded with replacing it with…erm – nothing. Instead he went door to door cap in hand asking for charity. He went to Libya, North Korea, China, played the Brits vs the Russians, went to Romania and other Communist countries, controlled trade, dismantled banks and let the infrastructure rot.
So if that’s the best the LP has to offer, thanks but no thanks and don’t dare say that things have changed. Not when Joseph brought back those who had long been rejected by his own party and who belonged to the same corrupt regime of the 70s and 80s.
I am sure that if anyone bothers to write Mintoff’s biography and be truthful about what he/she writes, they would probably not go beyond a chapter or two because the rest would be a litany of misery, under achievement and a disgrace to our nation.
This whole post and most of its comments are so childish that it’s embarrassing. The following comment was posted in the Times Of Malta last month by a Mr Tony Borg. I have no idea who he is or where he comes from but his words struck a chord because they are so very true.
“It seems that getting back at each other is more important than getting on with the job of improving Malta. After over forty years living overseas when I visited Malta last year I found that you have more holes on the roads, more badly designed flats, are about to ruin the City entrance, dispicable public transport system, can’t get a full prescription fullfilled at any pharmacy, hatred between people of different political views……. should I carry on? It seems the wrong Maltese citiziens stayed in Malta. My blood boils when I see how you all let Malta down. Shame on you!! What have you done to “din l-art hewa taghna?”
Prosit Mr Borg whoever and wherever you are. You hit the nail absolutely on the head.
Oh dear. How does all you say – or quote Tony Borg as saying – exonerate Mintoff?
‘hatred between people of political views’ – who’s most to blame for that?
There are no prizes for answering this question.
Those at the Centru Nazzjonali must have had yet another leakage…
Finally, some real wit (and I am not being sarcastic).
All Tony seems to be saying – without mentioning Mintoff or anyone else is GROW UP!,,,and I concur completely.
[Daphne – I’m sorry, Frank, but you’re the one still stuck in the 1950s, and after 50 years in Australia to boot.]
Please read Mr Borg’s comments again, neither Dom Mintoff nor the 50’s were mentioned, everything that was said was about Malta TODAY (your favourite newspaper)
La Redoute was the only one to bring Mintoff into these comments. It seems to me that the anti Mintoff brigade are the ones who are stuck in a time warp.
[Daphne – Not at all. We’ve moved on. The ones in a time-warp are those who still lament the passing of the Mintoff years.]
Sorry to disabuse you of that notion Frank, but you were the one who brought Mintoff into your own discussion by posting your comments on this particular page.
It’s quite clear that you are besotted with him. It’s just as clear that many are not. You are in no position to pass judgement as to who is correct. You left Malta with your parents in the 1950s, didn’t you? Your defence of Mintoff would have been a whole lot more credible if you returned to Malta when he was in power.
Stuck in a time-warp? That’s rich, coming from someone who is a pastizzionline (or whatever) fan, 50 years after leaving Malta. http://www.facebook.com/friends/?id=584697509#!/frank.scicluna
Sorry Zepp, I don’t understand the point you make. Are you being critical of people who like pastizzi? I confess to enjoying a few on a weekly basis. Incidentally, they are extremely popular with people who were introduced to them by Maltese friends.
Just by the way Zepp, you would have noticed that when you went snooping for my Facebook profile that it was open for anyone to see and not hidden because I have nothing to be ashamed of.
The fact that the worst thing you were able to find was that I like traditional Maltese pastizzi – not the ones you may be thinking of, is ample proof of that.
Incidentally Daphne, now that you guys raised the name of Mintoff, I can tell you that whether the people on your side can accept it or not, once he departs this world his gravestone will be inscribed with the simple words “Dom Mintoff, The Father Of Modern Malta”.
[Daphne – If you think he was the father of modern Malta, that’s because you were not living here in 1987. THIS is modern Malta, and the only part he played in it was in bringing down Sant’s government and making it possible for us to join the EU.]
Who are you, Frank? Mintoff’s personal undertaker?
You’d better make that a large gravestone to accommodate all the dancers.
Frank, if that inscription goes ahead, I would want the following inscription on my grave: “Illegitimate child of modern Malta.”
But I will not dance on any tombstone, either.
Oh Daphne, if you guys can forget your hatred for a minute you will realise that Mintoff’s vision was fifty years ahead of its time.
Remember when he proposed integration with Britain in the 60’s, before you were even born? That would have been the first step in the eventual integration of Britain…and Malta, with Europe.
There’s none so blind as those who will not see!
[Daphne – Yes, right, and then today we’d be part of Britain with its mess and its plummeting currency, rather than an autonomous member state of the European. U hallina. Those who wanted to be part of Britain were free to go there, and thousands did, just as you went to Australia.]
If Mintoff’s vision were fifty years ahead of its time, it wouldn’t have taken us back to the dark ages.
If Malta was so wonderful under Mintoff, what made you stay in Australia instead of coming back? I’m serious.
I will be serious as well Zepp. When you start a new life overseas at the age of 12 then commence a working career, get married and have a family it’s far more difficult than you think to uproot everything and take them half way round the world.
I was married with a newborn third child when Mintoff came to power in 1971, we were building a decent life here in Australia and it would have been highly selfish of me to destroy all that for my young family.
Had I still been single and despite having my parents and 9 siblings here, I just may have taken the step that you are curious about.
How I envy this scicluna guy! He wan’t here when Malta was literally burning with nothing in our shops. Hallina Frank! Jekk issa int qieghed hawn Malta, gawdi is-sliem u li-standard of living li qed ingawdu; jekk qieghed barra minn Malta, ghalaq halqek, ghax allura hlief cucati ma tkunx tistgha tghid.