How can people in Malta gets to be so dumb?!!!!!
Published:
June 9, 2010 at 12:11pm
Telegraph operator sends crucial information from Malta to Somalia
Some people just aren’t aware that they are the ones who are minn ta’ wara l-muntanji. Who’s going to be patient enough to explain to Mr Depasquale here how ‘people from Magadishu’ can find out what happens in Malta?
He posted this comment beneath a news report on timesofmalta.com which tells how relatives of the young Somali fisherman who died in the Simshar explosion are suing the owner of the boat for damages.
Sander Depasquale
Incredible!!!! How can people from Mogadishu gets all this information about the maltese law!!!!
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Kollu tort tal-mentalita’ missjunarja taghna. Ghax hlief naraw ritratti ta’ nies suwed bilqieghda fit-trab imutu bil-guh ma naghmlux. B’konsegwenza ta’ dan is-Sur Depasquale, u nissusspetta li l-bicca kbira tal-Maltin mieghu, minghalihom li ghandek xorti ssib pitazz u lapes fil-kontinent kollu tal-Afrika.
Ahjar iqabbdu l-kompjuter u jtellghu erba’ ritratti halli jiehdu ideja cara tal-bliet tal-pajjizi tal-Afrika.
Il-pajjizi ta l-Afrika mhumiex kollha bhalma ghallmuna tal-missjoni. Dan ha narawh dalqaqt meta tibda t-tazza tad dinja tal-football. Imma mill-internet, is-Somalia ma tidhirx fi stat ahjar.
Biss biss lanqas gvern m’ghandhom! Kulhadd jaghmel li jrid.
Dan ma jnaqqas xejn mid-drittijiet li ghandha l-familja ta’ dak iz-zaghzugh li miet fuq is-Simshar. Jiena aktar nistaghgeb jekk hadd mill-familjari tal-vittmi l-ohrajn ma fittxew ukoll ghad-danni.
[Daphne – X’tistenna? L-armla ta’ l-iehor mohha biex tibbummja minn fuq hadd iehor. Ta’ 28 sena u lanqas jigiha biex tahdem. Mohha biex teqred li l-pensjoni tar-romol mhux bizzejjed ghaliha. U kjass shih ghax ‘skopriet’ li ghandha l-istatus ta’ squatter fid-dar taghha, u miskina jahasra issa l-gvern irid bilfors ihalliha hemm tibbummja sa kemm tmut. Ma, x’pajjiz.]
tibbumja? daphneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Mr. Attard, fl-‘exposure’ tat-tazza tad-dinja, mhumiex ser juruk il-faqar li hemm fis-South Africa – kemm nies suwed u nies bojod li jighxu fix ‘shanty towns’ bhal Soweto.
It is however unbelievable that the Maltese provided this unfortunate fellow with work, and he dies together with Maltese in a horrific sea accident, and we get claims against our fisheries department from Somalia!
[Daphne – You’re another one who doesn’t get it. It is not the ‘fisheries department’ which is being sued, but the young man’s employer. This is a civil case, and bully for them. Quite frankly, I am at a loss as to why there was no prosecution. It is glaringly obvious that the employer is criminally liable here – taking his employees out to sea with no knowledge of how to use the safety and rescue alert equipment is enough basis for prosecution. And we haven’t even begun on what caused the explosion – or how the owner of the boat got to survive by monopolising the only flotation aid for himself, his father and his son, while his two employees were the first to drown.]
Question: do they ask for compensation from the pirates who get the fishermen killed attacking western and eastern commerce? They are for sure breaking health and safety (for others too!) rules and are surely not insured!
[Daphne – We have laws which govern these things, Mr Muscat. Law is territorial. Maltese fishermen operating in Maltese waters are not free to put their employees at risk on the grounds that those employees are from Somalia. Nor is this a ‘tit for tat’ situation: their pirates raid ‘our’ ships so we commit manslaughter by taking their fishermen out to sea on risky vessels. Also, piracy is covered by international law, not national (territorial) law – so you can use a Somali pirate anywhere really. But you do have to get his name first.]
So to all this, fishing and sea accidents come with the territory: our territory is however better than mogadishu!
[Daphne – Exactly, Mr Muscat. That’s why the parents of the dead man can sue his employer. However better than Mogadishu Malta might be, it clearly isn’t good enough. If it were, the owner of that boat would be facing prosecution. Instead, he got a sympathy parade and a visit by a government minister rather than the police.]
“The judicial letter was filed against the owner of the boat Simon Bugeja, his wife Sharon and Dr Anthony Gruppetta on behalf of the Fisheries Department.”
Doesn’t that mean that the ‘fisheries department’ is being sued as well?
[Daphne – Yes, for negligence in failing to ensure that the boat’s ‘captain’ knew how to use the emergency equipment. But that’s the ‘covering all bases’ approach. Direct responsibility is borne by the employer, who has tried to pass off responsibility already by saying that ‘nobody gave them any training’.]
Quite true, Daphne, and if I’m not mistaken it was George Pullicino, who also gave a heartfelt speech – unbelievable!
“…or how the owner of the boat got to survive by monopolising the only flotation aid for himself, his father and his son, while his two employees were the first to drown.”
Veru, x’arukaza! Daphne would have allowed her father and son to drown first. But not everyone is a super hero like our diva.
[Daphne – Those are mitigating circumstances, Kevin, but they do not make for immunity from prosecution. It is then up to the court to decide whether the caption-owner of the fishing boat was justified in saving himself, his father and his son over his employees. Nowhere is there any indication that he tried to save those employees.]
Oh!
“Nowhere is there any indication that he tried to save those employees.”
So barring any such indication he remains a suspect.
Inspector Caruana Galizia would have clouseaued her way differently, of course. In the absence of witnesses, CCTV footage, or even an actual scene of crime, she would have interrogated him with kitla & klamar and charged him with manslaughter, assuring the magistrate that he’s guilty because she’s ‘an expert in human nature’.
Tridx ghandi ghalqa tintefa’ tahratha ghat-tadam u l-patata ghal zmien il-ghaks?
[Daphne – Kemm int antipatika, miskin, Kevin. What exactly are you trying to excuse and justify here – a boat-owner taking his son, father and employees out to sea without knowing how to use safety and emergency equipment? An unexplained explosion which, on the one hand, shattered the boat immediately but, on the other hand, gave the boat-owner enough time to knot together an improved flotation aid? You really have a problem, don’t you. If I say something, then you have to disagree and be disagreeable. Yes, I am pretty good at human nature, and I am astonished when what is blindingly obvious to me is not similarly obvious to others. Was I right from day one in my character assessment of Alfred Sant, or was I wrong, for instance? Have you any idea how many tedious gatherings I had to sit through, in which he was lauded and admired by those who can read people like they can read Chinese? I think that at least we can agree on that.]
You’re off on a tangent now. I’m not trying to excuse or justify anything. I am saying that in a republican democracy you cannot just charge and convict a person on the basis of ‘expertise in human nature’. You need tangible evidence for that. Surely you understand thus far.
Your suspicions, no matter how sound they may be, remain conjecture (and believe me, circumstances could exist which you’d never expect). If they want to sue him privately, well and good, that’s their prerogative, but what’s Daphne doing in the midst of this private matter?
[Daphne – It’s not a private matter, Kevin, but a very public one. It was all over the news, people were asked to raise funds, and the survivor, I believe, even got a sum of money delivered personally by the minister responsible for fisheries. And after the initial emotion was over, people began to think – rather too late.]
Don’t whinge about ‘kemm naqbad mieghek’ and all that girly stuff, Daphne. You do your job and I do mine. I commend you for no longer deleting my comments, but you remain a walking contradiction… and, of course, one of the most influential lilliputians on the rock.
You think you’re a liberal, when in fact you’re what we call a ‘neo-liberal’ – which is just another blue-shaded Statist within the red-blue paradigm. True liberals haven’t existed for a number of years now (John Stuart Mill – now he was a liberal. Unlike you, for example, he immediately understood the falsity and disastrous consequences of criminally prohibiting substance use). Today, any true liberal would call himself a ‘libertarian’. I am sure you would not understand this – you’d not call yourself a ‘liberal’ if you did.
As for Sant, I think qed thallat il-hass mac-cass… no fishing in this area, Daphne – not today.
[Daphne – Girly stuff? Neo-liberal? And it’s back to your ‘legalise drugs’ arguments. The one thing on which we will never agree.]
No, it’s not about the ‘legalise drugs’ argument at all. That’s just the stress test for those who call themselves ‘liberal’, but are unknowingly Statists. Understanding the drugs charade is only Level One of distinguishing reality from political illusion.
“The one thing on which we will never agree,” as you say?
Not really. There’s a mountain of truth that’s totally unknown to you and your smug applauders. And when you get sporadic glimpses you scream ‘conspiracy theory’ without knowing what it means and to what it alludes. It explains why you’re a neo-liberal, that is, a fake liberal.
This all ties into the argument above because you’re poking your nose into private matters – which is a very Statist attitude. It is now a private matter because the State is done with its investigations and found no evidence to justify crucifying the sole survivor of the tragedy. A tragedy with which you have no connection whatsoever.
[Daphne – Kevin, I’m too bored to take this further. Just one point: public interest is not justified on the grounds of personal connection with events.]
@DCG:No,madam,we should never employ somebody from today onwards who dies alongside our fishermen,and then sues one of the victims for compensation as if the victim was at fault because he survived!
[Daphne – The man who survived is patently NOT the victim. He is the one who made others victims – and they died, including his own father and son. The captain/owner of a boat is responsible for the safety of all those on board, whether they are his guests or his employees. It is his responsibility to ensure that all is in order. If it is NOT in order, then he is responsible for the consequences. Did you miss that furore with the Gozo Channel captain? That was what it was all about. There was nothing wrong, as it turned out, but he took the correct course of wishing to be 100% certain.]
Plus as ‘Captain’ of the boat it is his duty to put his employees’ safety before his and given them the ‘life raft’.
I’m not saying this didn’t happen, I wasn’t there, but I did enough safety training for my tiny little boat to know that he did not follow safety procedures.
I suspect that the fact that a basic life raft that’s up to EU standards costs at least 3000 euros and needs to be properly inspected (pricey if done professionally but necessary) at least every 2 years.
Mela ..`.people` is a collective noun, hux? So ‘get` not `gets`. Ojj Daphne, you’re OK jew? U tghidliex li ghamiltha apposta, ghax the IhateDaphnebrigade ma jemmnukx u jghidu bik ta. Jekk jindunaw, that is!
[Daphne – I thought it was obvious that the title mimics the quoted comment.]
Pat II: the clue is in the ?!!!
Some people are so literal…and no, I do not mean ‘literate’.
Talking about health and safety, Gozo Channel springs to mind!
@ E.Muscat (and everyone else using the same line of reasoning)
Please stop talking about the Somali as if being given a job was an act of charity towards him. The man was employed because the captain needed an employee. Full stop. Although I cannot say this as a fact because I don’t know the details, probably a Somali was chosen because the captain could get away with paying him less than he would pay a Maltese, as usually happens.
As Daphne rightly points out, a captain is fully responsible for all people on a ship/boat and if regulations are not adhered to the captain is answerable. If the employee had been Maltese, the Maltese family would also have taken the captain to court over the matter.
[Daphne – There is a Maltese woman who has grounds to sue for the death of her husband on that same boat, but she is apparently too ignorant to know this and instead makes her living by taking buses round towns and villages and begging for alms by telling people that she is ‘the Simshar widow’.]
Am I alone in thinking that the report by Dr Anne Fenech was vague and inconclusive?
[Daphne – Did you read it? Or did you just read the newspaper reports? There’s nothing vague and inclusive about Dr Fenech.]
I am alone it seems, but some of Dr Ann Fenech’s findings raised some questions in my mind.
Here are a few, although I stand to be corrected.
Page 41. Para 9.
a)Was the position of this mystery boat recorded by Italian fishing authorities?
b)Bugeja said he recognized the boat therefore why was its’ owner not located, and interviewed?
c)Bugeja also said he knew it was based in Lampedusa and not mainland Italy.
Page 41, Para12.
a)Were the three ships that left Freeport, as witness stated, identified? If not, Why?
Page 41 Para 11. The boat burned for 6 hours producing a huge black plume.
a) what distance would one expect such a plume to be visible from?
b) which boats were known to be within that radius?
Page 37 Para 30.
a) Was Borg Costanzi /Datatrak asked whether they had records as to how many cases of corrupt software were reported and rectified since the system was launched?
b) if so, was this confirmed?
Page 47 Para 3.
Simon was hopeful that he would be found because of the datatrak device and the EPIRB. In subsequent interviews, he was not asked how he could have been so confident about the EPIRB when he said time and again that he did not know how to use it.
Cue furious upgrading of existing fishing boats’ safety equipment… not. Although after the Greenpeace clashes, I bet they are being fitted with weapons. Ah, priorities…
In Malta, we put a price on life and clearly, this one just wasn’t worth the investment for Simon Bugeja.
But… weren’t the clashes with French fishing trawlers? Regarding weapons, years back there were many shooting incidents between Tunisian and Sicilian fishing boats, incidentally.
Get off from your high horses of moral rectitude:this blog is famous for its mockery and irony, usually. We are only talking of a fishing boat and not a cruise liner. A fisherman’s life is hard and dangerous, so forget your fancy talk and think of the easy money the lawyer is planning on making.
[Daphne – Whether it’s a commercial fishing-boat or a cruise liner, it remains a workplace and Simon Bugeja was and remains criminally and civilly liable for the death of his employees. Nobody, it seems, had the heart or the guts to point this out when he was plucked from the sea after having watched his son die. But we can’t forget that others died too.]
A fishing boat on which people are employed as crew is considered to be a work place just like a factory, etc on land. The employer must ensure that he and his employees are covered by an adequate insurance policy.
It is about time that the victims’ families took this road of action to get some form of compensation. I think that someone should also tell the Maltese Simshar widow that rather than continue to travel from village to village, town to town asking for handouts, she should take the Somalis’ example and follow suit.
The racist comments when any African is mentioned on the Times are unbelievable.
A 22-year-old Somali dies in a car crash, and the comments on timesofmalta.com are: Who gave him a licence? Who lets them drive cars in Malta? Where did he get the money for a car?
Black guy gets killed: Why are the police wasting their time investigating? They are all murderers!
HIV. TB. THOSE BLOODY AFRICANS!!!!
Then when the pope or Christianity is mentioned, we are suddenly are Christians.
I think we live in a land of SCHIZOPHRENICS!
Good point Jason. But no, we are not schizophrenics.
We are opportunists. We go a la carte in everything. We are the epitome of selfishness.
We do what we like, say what we like, interact as we like. Then we go to confession (or used to), go to mass on Sunday morning, receive Holy Communion (pogguti, fornicators the lot) and keep up appearances.
We elect a non government because we are promised the abolition of VAT risking our homeland’s eternal annihilation in the process.
I am not sure whether we have a national motto.
My suggestion: L-ixkubetta fiha l-grillu kulhadd jaghmel kif jaqbillu. In English: I am alright f**k you Jack.
Daph have you ever been to John Zammit’s Liberal Party website? It’s a treasure! Check out this page…..very liberal indeed.
http://www.malta-liberals.org/Events.htm
Ara min hawn!
http://www.malta-liberals.org/images/Mifsud-Bonnici.jpg
http://www.malta-liberals.org/images/HANS%20RITA%20JP%20JZ.jpg
Is John Zammit grabbing Jean Pierre Sammut’s ass here?
Their only fan appears in the photograph.
In my opinion this tragedy has left many of the more important questions unanswered.
I am not sure why it should be so but I have my suspicions.
This latest development is most welcome.
I still have some faith in our justice system.
Hopefully, thanks to the action of the Somalis, some light will be shed on this murky episode.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW9hFO_K1EQ&feature=related
what a bag of laughs
Dik l-armla tas-Simshar diga giet darbtejn thabbat il-bieb b`envelope kollu flus u tghidli mintiex tgharafni? Dan hu abbuz u il-pulizija ghanda twaqqafa ghax ma tistax titlob fit-toroq b’dan il-mod.
Jekk tmur in-naha taghha kullhadd jghidlek ghaliex ma tistax tlahhaq mal-hajja. Ghaliex ma tnehhiex dak il-ghazz u il-vizju li ghandha u tmur tahdem?
Rigward l-imigranti, iva veru jien wkoll nghid l istess, dawn kif ghandhom karozza? Kif ghandhom mobile? Kif xi kultant ikunu liebsin hwejjeg tad-ditta li jien l-anqas naffordja li nixtri?
[Daphne – Pippo, the clothes are donations through charity, organised by volunteers. I know this for a fact because I used to help collect and sort them for a time. Just because an item of clothing is ‘tad-ditta’ it doesn’t mean that the original owner hangs onto to it for the rest of his life and until it falls apart. If you can afford to buy good clothes then you can also afford to give them away and you don’t regard them as family heirlooms. Also, I am surprised that you and others who think as you do are able to recognise ‘hwejjeg tad-ditta at a distance of many metres while driving past the Marsa roundabout. If a T-shirt is emblazoned with the name of a designer so large that you can see it while driving past, then it is not -tad-ditta’ at all. Mobile phones cost nothing nowadays – you can pick one up for 25 euros, and that’s on the retail market. On the second-hand market they’re even cheaper. If you were stuck here in the way immigrants are, a mobile phone would be your first purchase and your lifeline. As for the car – ditto. How many immigrants have cars? Almost none. You read that newspaper report and you assumed the car was his. But I have to say this: you knock them when they sit around and don’t work, and you knock them when they work harder than your compatriots do and earn money. The shame is that the legions and regiments of Maltese bums who live off social services or sit around in their government jobs don’t learn some lessons there.]
Darba il-monsinjur kien qal li dawn in-nies li jaghmlu hawn Malta hu li jahdmu biex jibghatu il-flus li qraba taghhom gewwa pajjizhom.
Mons hu pacenzja u jekk lilek jghidulek hekk u tiblahha lili le ghax jien nara b`ghajnejja x`jaghmlu.
U dawn in-nies jigu impjegati mhux ghax cheap labour ghax meta mort il-Marsa biex insib wiehed kif qaluli alla jbierek ma talabniex lira is-siegha, talabni b`kemm naqla jien f`gurnata minn fil-ghodu sa fil-ghaxija.
[Daphne – Mbasta. Lira fir-siegha? Where are you living? The going rate for odd jobs or ad hoc services is way higher than that. Even five years ago the going rate for a home-cleaner – and not through an agency, might I add, but on the ‘black market’ – was Lm10 for 9am to 1pm: Lm2.50 an hour.]
Konna ahna l-Ewropej li sfruttajnihom, sraqnihom, umiljajnihom hu trattajnihom ta nies ta’ tielet dinja, Uzajnihom bhala skjavi, hammignilhom l-ambjent, x’ahhamnilhom lill mexxejja taghhom sa’ biex nottjenu permessi ghan-negozju, tfajnilhom skart tossiku hu fil-waqt li qed nohdulhom kull ma’ kellhom hallejnihom f”injuranza, b’infrastruttura fqiera,hu f’certi pajjizi, sahansitra, konna ghamilna lokijiet pubblici ghall bojod hu as-suwed, separati. Tal bojod kien fihom ilma shun hu l-kumditajiet kollha fil waqt li ta’ suwed kienu ghar min dawk li kellna Malta 60 sena ilu, ghall min jiftakarhom.
Fil bicca l-kbira taghhom dawk iz-zraben hu hwejjeg ohra ta’ ditta, kif inhuma maghrufin, hawn Malta, inkluz il-mobile phones, jinghataw ghax ma jkollhomx uzu taghhom aktar. Izjed huma qedghin jaghmlulna pjacir jehilsuna mill imbarazz li qieghed johdilna spazju bzonnjuz gewwa id-dar taghna milli ahna qedghin naghmlu karita’.
Karita’ ghax qedghin jahdmu? Jahdmu b’paga minima, hu xi kulltant anqas,hu jiccahdu mill beneficcji kollha li normalment ikollhu kull min hu impjegat. Ta’ min isemmi li dawn l-immigranti illegali, jahdmu sieghat twal, hafna, hafna aktar min dak stipulat fill ligi, hu imorru id-dar imbazzwrin. Mghux ta’ xejn illi, f’illi tara wiehed jahdem post, hu ftit gimghat wara tara iehor min flokk hu.
Li insemmu, wkoll, hu, illi fil waqt li ahna immorru id-dar insibu lill familja tilqana, dawn qeghin eluf ta’ mili l-boghod min darhom hu imcahhdin min l-gheziez taghhom.
Fl’Awstralja biss, hemm izjed Maltin jghixu hemm milli hawn jghixu gewwa Malta. Dan biex ma nsemmux il-Maltin li hemm jghixu kull rokna ta dinja hafna b’mod regolari izda hafna ohrajn b’mod illegali.
Hu nista naccertak illi fil bicca l-kbira taghhom, jigu jahdmu hawn ghax il-pagi taghna meta imqabblin ma dawk tal Filippini, per ezempju, huma ferm ahjar. Bil paga li jibghatu id-dar, qedghin jghixu lill familji taghhom, imcahhdin milli jarawhom.
Nahseb li kont nippreferi n’imxi wara l-purcissjoni tal gimgha l-kbira hafi, jekk mghux fuq l-imsiemer wkoll, darba fis-sena, milli nitlaq min pajjizi fuq qoxra tal bahar, nasal jew ma nasalx ma nafx.
Li ma nafux zgur,hu: l’ammont ta’ nies merqa fill bahar. Dawn gherqu biex jghixu kemxejn ahjar mill mizerja illi huma hu uliedhom qeghin fiha.
Wisq nahseb, illi dawn l-istess nies li huma kontra taghhom, ma jafux illi, ”izjed ma’taghti, izjed ma’ tircievi”. Hu tircievi wisq izjed, ”meta taghti minghajr ma tistenna li tinghata xejn lura”, li tircievi l-izjed.
Bhal ma niehdu nifs il-gewwa biex nircievu, nghatu nifs l-barra biex nghatu.
Fost kollhox, kollha kemm ahna suppost nittrattaw lill hadd iehor bhal ma nixtiequ li hadd iehor jitratta lilna, sa fejn naf jien. ta’ l-anqas.
It’s not hard to tell when you’re having a good day, Daphne. Nice of you to share the laugh with the rest of us. Keep them coming.
When I read that comment on timesofmalta.com, I wasn’t sure if I should cry, or laugh.
A boat captain is the boss of the ship. He oversees the crew and the entire type of boat they’re responsible for.
Last year, I needed to board a ship from its car deck, aka garage, on foot, being a roro vessel, with my umbrella open, when it was raining cats and dogs.
Since the master happened to be a ‘Palermitano’, and a very superstitious one, as soon as I set my foot on the entrance he demanded, that, either I close my umbrella or get off althoughI I had another 12 metres or so, to get under cover.
Although I obeyed immediately, still he told me ”Questa e la mia casa”
They probably used a very ancient form of meditative telepathy induced by a rare kind of Somali psychotropic herb to communicate the whole of the Maltese legal system, in bits and pieces of course, which explains why they took their time to sue.
Either that, or else they used morse code and a vuvuzela.
[Daphne – The vuvuzela is South African. You might as well say that the Maltese communicate using Scottish bagpipes, on the grounds that both countries are in a continent called Europe.]
U ajma Daph… the vuvuzela is as much South African as hobz biz zejt is Maltese…. it’s a plastic horn used since the 90s… hardly what I would call heritage..
still point taken… you know your Geography :P