'I did not have sex with that woman'
With Sandro in the news, that should take a bit of the heat off me.
Joseph Muscat told us yesterday that he is ‘disgusted’ by attempts at linking him with “the assault on Vince Farrugia” – ‘the assault’, as though it came out of thin air and staff burst into Mr Farrugia’s office to find him being hit and kicked by the Invisible Man.
Nobody is trying to link the Labour leader with Sandro Chetcuti’s assault on Vince Farrugia. But those of us who don’t work for the Labour or GWU media have pointed out – as it is our duty to do – that Mr Chetcuti rounds up businessmen for dinner meetings with the Labour leader, in a multi-pronged Meet Joseph campaign.
So yes, Sandro Chetcuti is linked – and very much so – with the Labour leader.
Marisa Micallef does pretty much the same thing with the tal-pepe crowd, the difference being that, unlike Mr Chetcuti, she is paid to reel people in for meetings with My Dear Joseph, and she probably goes somewhere other than Madliena Cottage.
The Labour leader has nothing at all to do with the assault on Vince Farrugia. That’s true. But he has had a lot to do with the man who assaulted him, and there’s no denying this. That’s one reason why he doesn’t mention Sandro Chetcuti’s name, and speaks as though Mr Farrugia was roughed up by someone nobody has ever heard of.
The incident was triggered by a mobile phone text message which Mr Chetcuti is said to have written to Joseph Muscat and sent to Vince Farrugia by mistake. I have a transcript of the message but do not have permission to reproduce it.
When challenged about this message by fellow GRTU officials, Mr Chetcuti said that somebody had hacked into his iPhone and used it to send out damning messages in his name.
The dog, in other words, ate his homework.
PUT A ROOF ON ST PUBLIUS SQUARE
It was announced yesterday that Joseph Calleja will perform this summer with Claudio Baglioni and Dione Warwick on the Floriana granaries. I wonder how long it will be before Mrs Vella and her merry band of dilettantes, which now include Norman Lowell and the fascist Jo Meli, protest that this is completely out of order because there is no roof.
Ironically, Mr Calleja is one of the 128 artists and performers – most of whom are not artists and performers of any description, though he certainly is – who signed her petition against the ‘roofless theatre’ planned for Valletta.
These mega-concerts haven’t yet driven home the point to Mrs Vella and her dilettantes that whether the theatre has a roof or not is completely irrelevant for these purposes. It’s the size of the venue that counts and not the presence of a roof.
Whether the Renzo Piano theatre has a roof or not, Joseph Calleja’s concerts will always be held on the Granaries, at the St Andrew’s parade ground, or some other super-sized location, and because these super-sized locations are all open spaces, the concerts will always be held in warm weather.
They are rare events, expensive and time-consuming to organise, and no theatre, however large, can ever hope to contain that level of demand. This is because all the demand has to be funnelled into a single performance, unless Mrs Vella wishes to work out some alternative costing which involves paying the performers for several nights on the trot but with considerably less revenue for each performance night.
But then we know already that she deals in pie-in-the-sky rather than pounds, shillings and pence.
THE LABOUR LEADER HAS A BRAINWAVE
The Labour leader has had a brainwave which he hopes will deflect attention from the assault on Vince Farrugia. He told his supporters late yesterday that he thinks another university would be a good idea, to introduce competition in tertiary education.
It looks like Labour can’t get away from the Noah’s Ark syndrome: two of everything, including two universities for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it archipelago with a population of 400,000.
Give him another assault, and he’ll be suggesting a second general hospital, and perhaps even a second parliament, keeping whining Astrid happy by sticking it in an auberge alongside those tapestries, which are still rolled up and with nowhere to go.
‘Dear God, Toni. Sandro’s gone and beaten up Vince Farrugia. Now they’ll try to pin us down on violence. We’ve got to do something to make us seem more intellectual and high-brow.’
‘I’ve got a great idea, Joseph. We’ll talk about building another university.’
‘Fabulous, Toni, and it will be even better if we can say that Fr Peter is our adviser and will be our new rector.’
‘No, Joseph. I think the new rector should be Marlene Mizzi. She’s told us she’s reading for a PhD. It’s a shame that Joseph Cuschieri is not up to par. We could have given him the job and then he would be off the phone asking us when he’s going to get that sixth seat in the European Parliament.’
This article is published in The Malta Independent on Sunday today.
33 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Dear Daphne
As usual, a really fabulous well written article. I just wish I had your flair for writing. Right on the spot!
In all fairness, Joseph Muscat has done the right thing in completely shutting out Sandro Chetcuti. If the PL has decided to adopt a zero tolerance attitude towards violence then I, for one, am not going to complain. I take it that the PL is showing its adherents that if they step out of line they will not be defended.
I trust that the spiritual heirs of il-Qahbu, il-Qattus and it-Toto are taking note.
Pat, how do you mean? I read that lawyer Dr. Emanuel Mallia is heading Sandro Chetcuti’s defence team. Is Dr. Mallia not part of LGBT Labour and the Labour Business Forum?
Not defending criminal behaviour doesn’t mean that you disown a person completely and give the impression that you hardly knew him.
Another spark of genius by Joseph il-mexxej Muscat. We cannot afford our electricity bills, we cannot afford a new parliament, we cannot afford an extension to the power station but we can afford meddling with a long established university and set up another one just for the sake of competition.
Qalbhom perzuta ghal kompetizzjoni dawn in-nies.
Joe Muscat has really lost it. He has no idea that we are already having difficulty in performing research at the university due to lack of funds and staff, and now he wants a second university. He has still not been clear enough on the presence or absence of stipends for this new university. Nor was he that clear as to whether students would be expected to pay.
Can he really imagine that a foreign university would open a campus in Malta free of charge?
Taking the following as a definition of a university: “an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects” he seems to be unaware that we already have a second national university – MCAST.
Today, MCAST is already awarding degrees and the number of degrees is bound to increase in the next few years. Though in a sense competing with the University of Malta for funds (this has already taken place), MCAST complements the university rather than directly competing with it.
Yes, why not build another university? Joseph Muscat said he wants Malta to be the best country in the EU. With another university Malta will be the country (proportionately) with the greatest number of universities in the EU if not also in the world. For goodness sake let us talk sense.
Wasn’t Cuschieri reading for a degree long distance?
yes, the distance between a degree and his brain is beyond reach
Yeah right, he says he was accepted at the University of London. As if.
Thank God for this blog. It is now compulsory to check facts on this blog before reading the news reports on the other media.
For example the Labour media avoids mentioning the name of Sandro Chetcuti as if he never existed or was active in the Labour Party, while The Times is desperately covering up the context of the story: that is, the damming SMS which was intended for Joseph Muscat. Unfortunately for these flawed (MLP media) and archaic (The Times) news organisations, and luckily for us readers, internet is now the main medium/source for news.
Astrid Vella should take a hint from Joseph Calleja and fill up the Floriana granaries piazza with her supporters next time she protests about the roofless theatre.
Please fix your blog’s Blackberry version, Daphne. It doesn’t read well on my small Blackberry screen. All the words get overlapped, which is a pain for me, because your blog is blocked on government servers so I have to leave work even earlier to catch the latest posts on my home PC. All you need to do is create a separate style sheet for small browsers.
I thought you said you were a hospital doctor. What are you doing messing around with a Blackberry?
checking Daphne’s blog of course. Every hour. Why do you ask?
This blog isn’t blocked only on the MITA (state) network but also on the free WiFi in the outpatients waiting-hall and the canteen at Mater Dei Hospital.
I think Joseph Muscat is right to state that we need another university. Maybe the PL supporters will learn something one day.
Riya, he said university not kindergarten.
Maybe he meant ‘repeater class’.
Someone’s probably made this observation, but just in cases, try and spot Sandro Chetcuti’s name in this report.
http://www.l-orizzont.com/news.asp?newsitemid=61138
When all is said and done, it is a very great improvement to suggest having TWO universities when a predecessor of LP leader Joseph Muscat gained notoriety by reducing our one and only centuries-old university to near vanishing point and by decimating the university population.
Jew nejja jew mahruqa.
Although, of course first he set up another “new” university, as I recall. Do I see a pattern emerging?
It’s called reinventing the grindstone.
While the assault issue seems to be the main point of interest I’d like to add a few thoughts on the middle section regarding the roofless theatre.
As one of the 128 who signed the petition, I agree with what you wrote regarding large concerts taking place in summer and outdoors. However, accompanying concerts of that scale are enormous sound-systems which do not lend themselves to all types of performances.
If using a roofless theatre in Valletta for, say, an orchestral recital, even people talking on a mobile phone as they walk past the theatre would be enough to interrupt – as a people we tend to be anything but quiet and soft-spoken. I can also imagine that music from nearby cafes and fireworks would also be a distraction.
All the open-air theatres mentioned in the press so far to bolster the ‘for’ arguments are all secluded and do not occupy a position as important as the ROH. When the Regent’s Park theatre is shut for 9 months every year it’s not as much a waste of space as having a dark theatre on Valletta’s main street. I’m sure that the architect will create a work of art out of the theatre that will be beautiful to look at, but having a useless building by city gate for most of the year seems a waste.
[Daphne – Your repeated use of the term ‘roofless theatre’ discredits your arguments, as it does Astrid’s. An open-air theatre is not a roofless theatre, for the simple reason that its design would never have been conceived with a roof. Therefore it cannot be ‘roofless’, in the same way that, say, a glass is not ‘handleless’. Also, I find it interesting that when you mention similar venues elsewhere, they are ‘open-air theatres’ while the one in Valletta is a ‘roofless theatre’. ‘Having a useless building by city gate for most of the year seems a waste’ – have you yet to discover that neither the Mediterranean Conference Centre nor the Manoel Theatre are used during the warm months – and is that a waste?]
Thank you for your reply.
The main reason why I refer to the theatre as being ‘roofless’ is because that is the issue I have with the design. It is also how it has been referred to in the press and the use of the word makes it clear which theatre is being discussed. I appreciate that the footprint might not be able to take an opera house, but an open-air theatre is not the solution, for reasons outlined above.
[Daphne – The expression is used in the media because it has been fed into the system by a propaganda machine, and not because it is accurate. People who are not easily brainwashed use the proper expression ‘open-air theatre’. The expression ‘roofless theatre’ does not exist in idiomatic English.]
And on the waste issue, both the Manoel and the MCC are used in summer. Not as much as the winter months but they are used. If however, they weren’t being used during summer, both buildings do not occupy a site as important as the ROH and both serve as museums and art centres which carry on all year round.
[Daphne – They are not used in the summer except in truly exceptional circumstances. I find it quite ironic that a group which claims to be championing environmental causes insists on a theatre with a roof, so that it can be used in the summer without fear of fireworks, and without regard to the phenomenal cost of air-conditioning involved in packing several hundred people into a small closed space in June, July, August and September.]
Just a thought; I actually think the term ‘roofless theatre’ to be more descriptive than ‘open-air theatre’ irrespective if it exists or not. The latter is a bit vague and could mean many things including a theatre with a roof and no walls while the former exactly indicates the part of the theatre which is missing. ‘Open-air’ is the correct terminology but ‘roofless’ is more accurate!
@ Courter, Maryanne et al,
I haven’t taken leave of my senses. It’s just that I know that one fine day (God help us all) Labour ARE going to win the elections and I find myself desperately snatching at any ray of hope that they have put the championing of violence firmly behind them.
At least, during Sant’s 22 months we didn’t have any shenanigans that I remember. I hope against hope that Muscat has the clout to keep his hyenas caged.
At least they didn’t say that Vince Farrugia asked for it.
Some people did say exactly that “Ma’ Vince Farrugia ma tafx fejn int.”
Then there’s that paragon of cutting edge reporting, Malta Today, who produced a front page story linking Chetcuti to former PN minister Michael Falzon, one of their own columnists, and Josie Muscat, a former PN MP.
Did they mention Chetcuti’s connections to Joseph Muscat and the PL, Malta’s government-in-waiting?
Do pigs have wings?
This is really news, Labour wanting another university, when it was Labour thugs who tried to clamp it down and silence all the students.
Maybe it will be a Labour indoctrination university, where students learn the Labour version of architecture, medicine, history (with no mention of the independence and the violence of the 1980s), education (in reception classes) and so on.
Could someone tell me the origin of the title “Doctor” attributed to Joseph Muscat leader of the progressives?
[Daphne – He has a doctorate in public policy or similar.]
Why not integrate the new university in the Piano project? It will be the world’s first roofless university.
I was at a professional meeting and was discussing with a colleague of mine from Luxembourg and he was surprised about Malta having a university since Luxembourg doesn’t have one with a population of 500,000. Malta being an island and cut off from the mainland Europe he could understand the need for a university but asking for two I think is dreaming or fantasising. I think there are already some educational institutions that provide courses at tertiary level so I do not think we need another university. With such thinking and policies we are in for a brilliant government in 3 years’ time.