Sigh – this from the progressive moderate party
I had better put on some knickers before the progressive moderate party spots me.
timesofmalta.com, this afternoon
MP seeks police investigations on porn films in hotels
The police are making inquiries about reports of transmission of hard core porn films on pay TV systems in hotels, Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici has confirmed in Parliament.
Labour MP Adrian Vassallo asked the minister whether it was legal for hotels to transmit hard core films on their pay systems and if not, why the police were not taking action.
He also asked the minister to ensure that the police investigated whether programmes which were being transmitted almost daily on cable TV were pornographic. If so, he asked whether they would be stopped.
The minister said the police were making inquiries about the alleged facts.
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“We’re like Iran with the added bonus of bacon and alcohol.”
— Maltese internet philosopher
You meant Saudi Arabia, with family rooms in restaurants, no women drivers, non-alcoholic beer, bacon made from beef, no RAI UNO on the hotel TV and a big firewall on the internet.
Is Dr Adrian progressive, liberal, moderate or a Taliban Mullah?
I meant non-alchoholic beer .
Dear god, not only did he babble it in parliament, he is now insisting on it: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100609/local/porn-free-mp-insists-on-censorship
So there we are. Dr Adrian Vassallo wins this year’s Raspberry Award for DUMBEST POLITICIAN.
Adrian (Buckle), he’s convinced that he’s right on this issue. I find it acceptable for an adult in a hotel to watch what he likes but don’t find it acceptable for so called artists to insult others with their works.
I find racist speeches and writings equally unacceptable.
So I would say yes to censoring works which insult other people, whether it’s disguised as art or not, and no for censoring adult films viewed by adults in hotels or anywhere else.
No one has a right to insult others – adult films in hotels are insulting no one. The authorities are also there to protect third parties from being insulted.
[Daphne – John, there is the world of difference between personal insult (son of a bitch) and mocking religious beliefs. The right to mock at religious beliefs, religion, whatever – our own or anyone else’s – goes hand in hand with freedom of worship.]
While some insecure individuals or groups are easily offended (insulted?) by criticism, others are delightfully immune to the artistic, verbal etc abuse thrown at them.
I view the right to offend in this context as a fundamental human right of speech. Legislate against it and the end result is an oppressive dictatorship by the strongest (read vicious) individual and/or group.
It’s better that few are offended, than freedom be repressed for the collective whole. Religion should not be exempt – the Inquisition proved that a few centuries ago.
On the other hand, incitement to hatred should be culled as soon as it rears its ugly head.
If we accept that we are living in a civilised society we would be accepting that there are limits for everything, even for mocking.
Some want the limits set high and others don’t want any limits. A society without limits is called a jungle.
I’ll remember that quote. Absolutely brilliant.
I wonder if they will shut down the wifi services as well, in case some lonely businessman wanders into smut on his laptop.
And right on cue, Maltese reality is stranger than witty quotes. I wake up to find that Adrian Vassallo would rather live in Iran – and he’d be among the enraged protesters – his words.
In any other European country, Adrian Vassallo would be history by lunchtime today. And where the F**K are Angela Callus and her cohorts of feminazis with their statistics on the subjugation of women in Iran when you need them?
Where is Mark “De Oppresso Liber” Montebello to tell us about conditions in Iranian prisons? Where Is Everybody?
What a lovely country we live in. If anyone would like to join me in burning our Maltese passports outside parliament, let me know. I’m not one to enjoy protests, but this takes the f**king biscuit.
This is getting worse than the fingerprints on an ID card.
So the Labour Party first complained because Edwin Vassallo said that the state has an interest in what goes on in the bedroom if it has to pay for the consequences. Now the same party wants to stop people watching paid-for porn in their hotel rooms.
I know how the minister can solve this. Put a levy on the damn thing.
Or put a fine on stupidity in parliament = cash cow.
Pat, yours is not a bad idea. What I had in mind was a Sex Tax.
Din jonqos issa ha jkollu izjed x’jghid Clegg.
ssshhhh – don’t wake up the honourable MP – he might realise there are tons of free porn available on the internet and ask the police to investigate.
I suspect the PL is putting into action that Memorandum of Understanding with China…
Maybe he wants to be on an ad hoc monitoring board.
WHAT!? PORN!? DISGRACE!
*sigh*
When politicians have nothing more to do …
Well done Dr Vassallo we need people like you in parliament who are not ashamed to stand up and speak about what they believe in. Nowadays anything goes – PORNOGRAPHY PROSTITUITION – nobody cares and we can see the results of all this in our youngsters.
[Daphne – Actually, Rita, the main users of porn in Malta tend to be YESTERDAY’S youngsters, the ones raised in a wholly repressed environment.]
Rita, prostitution and pornography are old hat. They didn’t start with the election of the Gonzi government. They’ve been in Malta since żmien żemżem. They don’t call prostitution the oldest profession for nothing. Your friends in the PL should find some real issues (if they can) to blacken and blemish the PN.
Sorry to interject, but the oldest profession is lawyer: “First there was chaos”.
And who said that lawyers aren’t prostitutes?
You were asking for it :)
Hitler had your same preoccupations. God forbid the masses should succumb to debauchery. They should focus on procreating the Aryan race and fighting for the Fatherland.
The 1000 year Reich needs soldiers of pure mind and strong sinew.
Ajma my goodness. All this close-mindedness makes want to puke.”He also asked the minister to ensure that the police investigated whether programmes which were being transmitted almost daily on cable TV were pornographic. If so, he asked whether they would be stopped.”
Mela no more E! Entertainment probably since in-nies tal-mohh maghluq might see Dr 90210 as being pornographic, not to mention Girls of the Playboy Mansion.
MTV will be out too because of the R’n’B music videos. So will Italian channels. So will Living and the rest. So will the BBC, come to that. So we will just be left with the likes of Dejjem Tieghek Becky, and the creme de la creme of Maltese drama (the old ones, ta because some new shows might have sex in them.
Yes, well done, Malta, let’s censor TV now – and then we can all go on the internet and push those porn-sites even further up the Top 50 most viewed sites in Malta.
Next up: Police asked to investigate what is sold on the shelves at newsagents.
Then: Malta bans all R’n’B Music because their videos are considered pornographic.
After that: Malta bans the internet and Facebook.
U le man, lura minflok il-quddiem sejrin.
Adrian Vassallo should tune in to NERD TV
Please, allow me ….. LOL !!!!!!!!
Better that the police should investigate the Muppet Show while they’re at it, because I heard there’s some hard core porn on that as well these days.
Troy, And while they are at it, they should investigate also One’s Teletubi: I think with some imagination, one can say they exceeded the limit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXRAbON1jBY
Including those featuring some Labour personalities, like Toni Abela.
Rigressivi estremi, mhux progressivi moderati.
Having said all this…Paceville has 5 strip joints….
My God, does EVERYTHING in this state have to be regulated?
Sure enough, Labour will probably order the banning of sites such as RedTube because you’ll find a hell of a lot of explicit content there.
Keep it coming, this is just so progressive.
Quick question- Is porn illegal in Malta? If so then we are soon going to have a huge problem, since so many people visit so many porn sites on the net in Malta. Aren’t they the most frequently visited sights by Maltese people?
[Daphne – Yes, they are.]
Porn sites are the most visited… worldwide. Remember that poor sod of an analyst in the United States some months back, when a live TV interview with financial analysts was on air? The camera caught him surfing porn sites in the background.
Well serves him right for viewing porn on his employer’s time!
@ David Buttigieg
U ejja Mr. Buttigieg that’s not the point. Of course it serves that twat right. I, however was adding on to E.C.G.’s comment. Porn sites are the most visited in the whole wide world. It’s a statistic, check the web.
Comment of the year, possibly:
Joe Zammit:
“If you are against paedophilia, you MUST necessarily be against pornography because normally pornography leads to paedophilia, prostitution, free sex, and all the other evils that destroy marriages, families and societies.”
O Zammit is at it once again! He brings me to tears, that guy.
Sometimes, porn helps genuinely “cold” couples or at least one part of the couple. Not all porn is used wrongly.
I will post none of my own comments lest I may be censored and, possibly, prosecuted. I will post quotations from others, starting with this gem:
“This film is apparently meaningless, but if it has any meaning it is doubtless objectionable.”
— British Board of Film
And here are some more selected from many:
(1) Take away the right to say “fuck” and you take away the right to say “fuck the government.” ~Lenny Bruce
(2) The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion. ~Henry Steele Commager
(3) Censorship reflects society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime. ~Potter Stewart
(4) The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book. ~Walt Whitman
(5) What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books. ~Sigmund Freud, 1933
(6) Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings. ~Heinrich Heine, Almansor, 1823
(7) Assassination is the extreme form of censorship. ~George Bernard Shaw, “The Rejected Statement, Part I,” The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet, 1911
(8) To choose a good book, look in an inquisitor’s prohibited list. ~John Aikin
(9) We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. ~John F. Kennedy
(10) The censorship method … is that of handing the job over to some frail and erring mortal man, and making him omnipotent on the assumption that his official status will make him infallible and omniscient. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, speech, Jan. 20, 1935
(11) Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there.
– Clare Boothe Luce
(12) Obscenity is whatever gives a judge an erection.
– Anonymous American Lawyer
(13) A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to. Granville Hicks
(14) The censor’s sword pierces deeply into the heart of free expression. Earl Warren
(15) Censorship, I believe, is the most dangerous enemy to all human communication, and piety of intention is probably the most dangerous, the most virulent and the most self-satisfying. Chuck Jones
(16) The sooner we all learn to make a decision between disapproval and censorship, the better off society will be… Censorship cannot get at the real evil, and it is an evil in itself. Granville Hicks
Hypatia, Lenny Bruce was wrong. There is no way you will “fuck” the government. The government will always “fuck” you…
What have the Maltese done to deserve these leaders? Or are they representative of the general Maltese outlook?
Don’t hotel rooms count as bedrooms? Isn’t the government supposed to keep its nose out of the nation’s bedrooms?
I’ll bet euros against imqaret that many will now be checking into hotel rooms to see if they can determine the difference between legal and illegal hard core porn?
The MP in question is a complete prat. As porn is available free on the internet, investigating this source is a waste of police time – in my view, a worse offence. When will the Labour Party learn to stop interfering with people’s private lives?
in Australia the government wants to censor the internet from all the unsavory stuff…
politicians are a weird lot
JAB, Australia has a Labour government. Maybe it is a case that “Labour politicians are a weird lot.”
I do not think that Adrian Vassallo ws talking on behalf of the Labour Party but was stating his own views as is his right. I cannot see why people should take this against Adrian. I am sure he is genuinely concerned about the increase in prostitution and like activities in Malta. We have to be fair in our comments.
I am being fair now: Adrian Vassallo should leave the Labour Party (and resign from parliament) and found the Malta Catholic Fundamentalist Party.
Then he can stand for election on that platform. BUT HE CANNOT, C.A.N.N.O.T., use his position as MP to push for this version of Catholic sharia law.
And he is not alone. Which is why I am absolutely livid. Just when you thought we’d been dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century, here comes this pillock with this dangerous idiocy.
As I said in the Musumeci post…he is free to air his views…we are free to ridicule them/him. Isn’t free speech a bitch?
If his supporters still regard this man highly after saying he’d prefer to live in Iran, then this is a sad country indeed.
@ red nose,
You’re wrong. He has been quoted as saying that in case of a vote in parliament he will not vote against censorship.
Is Adrian Vassallo a budding magician as he is trying to create something out of nothing simply to tarninsh the government?
Of course hardcore porn is shown on hotel pay systems.
His next question will probably be whether it is legal for the police to investigate hotel guests who pay to watch porn in the privacy of their room.
Gej id-djuq jekk il-Bambin irid.
Niskruplaw bil-hmerijiet u imbaghad ma hawnx aghar minnha.
Kemm ahna qaddisin u tal-knisja. Chiesa e casa, kollha kemm ahna. L-adulti ghandhom dritt jaraw u jisimghu li jridu u li joghgobhom, hadd mhu sid hadd.
L-importanti li dawn ic-channels ma jkunux accessibbli ghal minorenni, ghalkemm bl-internet xorta hemm ic-cans u il-periklu. Imma lukanda suppost taghti kul tip ta’ servizz jekk irridu nzommhu ma lis-istandards ta’ barra.
Il-pornografijja qeghda f’ kul kantuniera daz-zmien, tant li nahseb hafna tilfu l-interess ghax anki it-television mimli. Mhux bhal ma konna fis-60s u is-70s. Ghalijja dan qajjem argument BAZWI.
Oh no! Some men will not have soft porn on Jimmy after bonding over football. I say men, because few women I know enjoy watching porn.
What a dilemma if you’re a Labour supporter and a hunter in Vassallo’s district but you also like to check into a hotel for a bit of porn every now and then.
Sigh . . . I’ve heard of third rate politicians but this one sets new standards of mediocrity. Equally worrying is that Hon Mifsud Bonnici took him seriously.
K Scerri(1 hour, 36 minutes ago)Dear Carm Mifsud Bonnici,
If you are concerned about Porn FIlms being shown in Hotels, I would recommend you to visit one of the many ‘Lap Dancing’ Places in Paceville. Live shows on Stage (including Shower Acts ) Private entertainment in closed sections of the club (including so Called ‘Happy Endings’ as xtras)…..and no Tax receipts whatsoever for these ‘legal’ services…….and if you happen to be in one of these clubs during a police inspection you will experience how well equipped these places are to disguise themselves (CCTV Cameras in every corner , Control Room monitoring all movements and Digital Radio Communication with Security (also under cover).
Good Luck! http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100608/local/mp-seeks-police-investigations-on-porn-films-in-hotels
Daphne, there is a regular commenter called Joe Zammit on timesofmalta.com whose remarks are just hilarious. Here are just a couple of his insights:
If you are against paedophilia, you MUST necessarily be against pornography because normally pornography leads to paedophilia, prostitution, free sex, and all the other evils that destroy marriages, families and societies. If you don’t want the consequence, don’t put the cause!
Pornography is a crime, especially when it is organised.
Pornography has been the ruin of marriages and families.
It has often been revealed that when a person is accused of some sex-related crime, that person had also indulged in some type of pornography.
Let us all save our society from the FILTH of pornography!
And from another called Carmel Dalli:
they dont feel ashamed of being obscene themselves and seeing pornographic films to excite their egositic selves. and then they dont feel ashamed of raping their own kin in their own homes or properties
And yet if they want to damn their souls away, they are welcome to hell and damnation. Were their own fathers and mothers ashamed of being catholic? Or are they ashamed of bringing up such vulgar and beastly children into our world? No catholic is ashamed of being so.
They should hear what “Dun Victor Grech” (the cassette guy not the real Dun) has to say about the subject. You can probably find the clip as “taz-ziemel.mp3”
In my view the reply was as pitiful as the question.
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
Adrian Porno Pants.
Let’s not waste any more valuable police resources chasing shadows in trying to uncover hotels which offer ‘pay by view’ adult films to their guests.
Don’t these people who complain ever go abroad, where this ‘service’ is available in most hotels – after all, one only gets to see them if one is willing to and is ready to pay to do so.
Hotel guests who are used to finding this service wherever they go come to expect it also in our hotels. Can this country please shed its fundamentalism and be allowed to join the rest of the world?
Issa dahhaq, Bundy!
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/r1/ms10dart.asp?a=9592
You may be missing a serious point in this story. Apparently there are multiple investigations into the business of hotel chains offering porn around the world. However this is not about knickers or morals, it is because the practice is a perfect vehicle for money laundering, which is of course a very serious matter.
[Daphne – Mike, chains of five-star hotels have no interest in being involved in money-laundering. Most of them are American anyway.]
Mike, Are you serious?: Please explain in more detail eaxactly how this is a perfect vehicle for rmoney laundering.
To MP and JB, all I know is that special forces are investigating, I guess that it’s a feasible system because the bills are probably not specific.
mike, money laundering is done by big banks who are only too glad to look the other way, how can porn be more effective at money laundering than banks?
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/economy/getting-dirty-money-clean/1121/
Daphne, I’m just quoting fact, not an opinion. Hotel chains are being investigated all over the world for money laundering through porn, but I am sure they are not culpable, as the facility will have been sub contracted.
Mike, can you provide any links to internet news on this?
I cannot see how money laundering can be carried out watching a porn channel in a hotel at a rate of maybe Euro 10 per night, when dinner in a hotel is likely to cost Euro 40 or more, and daily laundry bills are likely to add to around that figure also. Are you going to suggest that hotel chains are being investigated for money laundering on dinner – and laundry?
Probably better than using wi-fi. Less laptop burns, bigger screen.
And now you can watch it on HDTV – soon-to-be 3-dimensional.
You seen nothing yet! Wait until we see the first one topless on our beaches and all hell breaks loose. You forgot that we are all practising Catholics fejn jaqblilna! Pogguti not welcome.
Can Adrian Vassallo be more specific and indicate on which programmes on cable TV I can find pornography, as I must have missed them? Stupid person.
Your comments remind us of a mini-skirt.
Long enough to cover the subject.
Short enough to be interesting.
Dr. Adrian Vassallo MD was found guilty by the Medical Council and given a warning. He was writing false sickness certificates to a 14 year-old student from Gzira, accompanied by a young man, unrelated to her, so that she played truant. Her mother caught her out and reported this MP to the MC. This is public knowledge as it appeared as a small item on The Times.
If this is true, then what are the journalists waiting to seek an explanation.
You are probably referring to the last paragraphs in this?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080529/local/young-doctor-suspended-for-possession-of-heroin-cannabis
No, I’m sure about it. I do remember the case very well. Maybe you can ask the Medical Council as this is public knowledge.
last paragraph charlie.
I’m sorry, but what year is it here in Malta?
The plot thickens:
“Labour MP Adrian Vassallo would rather live in Iran and riot in the streets to defend his religion than live in a country where pornography is available in hotel rooms.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100609/local/porn-free-mp-insists-on-censorship
I’m ready to donate cash towards a one-way flight ticket to Iran.
I’ll chip in
Count me in Stefan, and maybe another ticket for Owen Bonnici.
‘Labour MP Adrian Vassallo would rather live in Iran and riot in the streets to defend his religion than live in a country where pornography is available in hotel rooms.’ (The Times of Malta)
Er, Joseph, are you listening to this?
How pathetic Dr. Vassallo is. If he does not want to watch porn or films which might somehow offend his religion he has every right not to do so. But why does he want to impose his ideas on us?
Are his ideas supported by the party he forms part of?
Is this what we will get if Labour is in power?
His idea of controlling what we see on TV might sound funny to some, but will this even extend to what we read in books and on the internet?
Will his government block and filter internet and satellite reception like they do in Iran? Will Google results be filtered, and bloggers prosecuted?
Will Dr. Vassallo start flogging women who in his fundamentalist opinion wear revealing summer clothing?
Will Dr. Vassallo have religious police patrolling our beaches making sure bikini bottoms cover 90% of the ass-cheeks? I’m sure he’d love to be measuring bums himself.
Will Dr. Vassallo screen every TV, cable or satelite programme before it is aired in Malta to make sure its within his accepted morality criteria – ARA VERU TALIBAN!
Will Mr. Vassallo block Canale 5 because it shows Caio Darwin – in the case of Madre Natura maybe Dr. Vassallo will ask her to start wearing a burqa next time it’s broadcast.
And anyway, hands off my dreambox, Sur Vassallo.
Whenever there is an article on timesofmalta about some morally questionable behavoir, someone inevitably mentions “free speech”. Beneath that comment, someone inevitably says that free speech does not give you the right to offend.
I would like to get some views about this here (if you don’t mind, Daphne). I would say that free speech gives you the right to offend. You wouldn’t need free speech to praise the Ayatollah in Iran.
You need it to tell him he sucks. In Malta I don’t need free speech to praise God…I need it to say he’s a fairy tale. A few good examples can be raised about Malta a few decades ago I’m sure.
It’s easily refuted by the fact that no matter what you say you are bound to offend someone. Their comeback seems to be that you are not allowed to offend the masses, or the established norm – quite a totalitarian thought.
As per Transport Malta regulations under Mr. Vassallo once he becomes Morality Minister under a New Progressive Labour Goverment.
http://drishtikone.com/files/images/BURQA.jpg
I’m surprised there’s no call to have porn sites blocked on the internet.
The year is 1431 – at least to some of our “illustrious” MPs.
The year is 2010 – the place could easily be Communist China or Saudi Arabia.
You all compare Dr Vassallo to the Taliban/fundamentalist etc but porn and Islam are similar in one respect – they both treat women like s * * * , so in that respect, your mentality is more fundamentalist than his.
Oh really? Do the Taliban pay the women they stone and whiplash? If that is so, I think I’ll do a John Simpson.
Believe it or not, the (legal) porn industry is dominated by women, and I don’t mean the porn stars themselves.
Unregulated porn treats everybody like shit. Same goes for any other unregulated workplace. I bet you like your China-made gadgets, Mr Ripard. Now spare a thought for the Africans who die mining rare earth metals and the Chinese workers who work 12×6 for a pittance. Might as well remind you that coal miners still go down dangerous shafts deep underground so China can produce your favorite stuff cheaply.
Let’s not confuse prudishness with respect.
It might come as a surprise to you, but in porn, female “actresses” are actually paid much, much more than the men. And they go into porn willingly, and they get out of it willingly.
Now try to convince some of the cretins on this forum, Jean. God damn! If I had the physique I’d be doing porn myself. Two years in the business, and I could have retired at twenty.
@Chris Ripard.
With the exception that many women go into porn willingly and get paid good money.
It is interesting to know that pornography was one of the main drivers behind widespread adoption of the internet. If I recall correctly, porn and gambling are responsible for about 40% of internet based revenue. Take that figure with a pinch of salt because I cannot recall the source.
Nobody nowadays has a right to impose his/her beliefs on others. Therefore, in my opinion Dr. Vassallo is wrong on all counts. However, at the same time, one cannot deny that most of the respondents here, judging by their aggressive reaction towards Dr. Vassallo’s comments, are certainly avid porn fans!
[Daphne – I’m neither a porn fan nor an aggressive porn fan and I feel the same way about Adrian Vassallo. If he were not MP, I would argue that he has the right to speak his mind and that WE have no right to shut him up or shout him down for not seeing things the way we do. But he is a legislator, voted in to represent us and not to impose his morality on us. As a legislator, he is perfectly positioned for imposition and to make things worse, he has the imposition mindset.]
Avid porn fans my foot! If you think that, you’ve missed the point. What we’re all defending vigorously is everyone’s right to live in freedom.
@H. Meilak
You are missing the boat Mr. Meilak
Will JG Vassallo write a column for the Times defending his son Adrian in his heroic defence of our morals? I bet JG will say that we do not understand his son and that Malta, because of the PN in government, is riddled with porn.
In a democracy, society gets the government it deserves.
The speaker said that the public does not appreciate the parliament’s work. How can we take the parliament, specifically MPs like Dr. Vassallo, seriously when their ideas as legislators are stuck in the Dark Ages?
Is it possible that the only thing that Dr Vassallo could come up with to get some attention was this stupid question and equally stupid comments? Next time he wants some media attention he could put on a pink tutu and pirouette round St George’s Square.
Well done, Dr Vassallo – I’m sure you’ll fit in nicely in Iran. If you would really like to contribute something to Maltese society, then pay for a chartered flight from your own pockets and fill it in with other progressives like yourself.
How I wish I could send those Morality Police to Dr Vassallo’s office to pick up his computer and trace his own internet browsing history. That should be fascinating. Fatima and Lourdes websites? Perhaps.
Are erotica fiction books also objectionable to Dr Vassallo? Well, he’ll have to do some reading first… I can suggest a couple of good titles to get him started.
This is even better than rikotta.
Did anyone notice that Dr Vassallo agreed with the principle that government has a right to dictate ”what happens in the bedroom because the government ends up bearing the cost”. He obviously doesn’t subscribe to all the recent hullabaloo dished out by the PL press, his fellow MP’s etc.
Why don’t you give flak to your own ranks, idiots?
What next, public stoning and the burqa?
A Porn Less (PL) government.
Next Left.
maaaaaa… kemm hu bniedem tedjanti. Live and let live Dr. Vassallo dear.
Dear MAGRIN what has politics got to do with what I wrote. Dr Vassallo is the only MP who has been trying to get rid of the prostitution in Gzira for quite a while but unfortunately to no avail.
Politics has a lot to do with what you wrote. You were praising an MP who wants to take freedom-loving Malta into the realm of a jackboot dictatorship that is Iran. And for what?
So that you can live in prostitution-free Gżira?
You can always move to another place if you don’t like the locale. Freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom to watch what you like are sacrosanct privileges. Dr Vassalo is free to express his opinion … but not to trample on the rights of others by sending the police, Nazi-style, to stop them from enjoying what they want to do, as long as it is lawful.
In Europe, on average, a hotel room bills one pay-TV service per room per month. This is approximately what the TV companies charge the hotels per month for leasing the TV units.
It basically subsidises all the other channels and the TV unit in a hotel room which clients rightly expect. Can you imagine being billed for TV in your room, same as WiFi or a mini bar?
It does not make the hotels porn sellers, nor does it make tourists porn addicts. it is simply a service which a customer can choose or decline to partake of.
This MP should get off his high horse and turn his attention to more serious issues.
Dr Vassallo, could you please let us know if you have ever used the internet? Did you do any surfing and, something cropped up? Please do not misunderstand me: what I really meant was this. Once I was looking for the site “Virgin Airlines” of Richard Branson. And all those of you who do surf the net know what were the most obvious results. Of course, I forgot about the airline…….
So Dr Vassallo, can you please tell us if you had any such accidents during your research? And could you please also tell us if you had always continued with your research. Please no lies: that will be against the religion you are trying to defend.
As for your other comment which I gathered from the Times, regarding that 30 years ago we had no single mothers because there was no pornography in Malta. I remember that 30 years ago, most of the Maltese used to go for day trips to Catania. And one of the most popular meeting places was a square just off the market. Today it is the McDonalds. Before it was a pornographic cinema. It was really convenient for the day trippers to do some shopping and then get a rest in this place.
I distinctly remember my grandfather covering my eyes, unsuccessfully, on a bus while travelling through Floriana. There was an explicit poster advertising a “Sex in Sweden” film not far away from the MLP club. Was there a cinema in the vicinity during the early 80s?
[Daphne – SEX IN SWEDEN! Forgive me this one: OMG! I actually remember that poster. Yes, the porno-film cinema in question was just down the road from the MLP club. I think it was called the ABC? Now it’s used as a sort of space for warehouse sales and things like that.]
I also remember my visit (1986) to the notorious City Lights in Valletta. The cinema was airing a distinctively educational film on the interpersonal relationships possible while playing tennis. I remember the date so well since it was the day after I finished secondary school.
It must be a world record that Malta has exalted such stupidity to the highest institution of the land.
Mamma Mia. This guy is a grown up person of 55. By grown up, I do not really mean mature. I think that maturity passed this fellow by when he was in the Azzjoni Kattolika or some other religious group like that. What a wimp! Does he realise that we are living in 2010? The guy is certainly living in the wrong time frame and the wrong continent.
Fejn huma dawk tal-group ta’ kontra ic-censura. Mhux ser jghidu xejn dawn? Ara kieku qala xi wiehed minn ta’ Gonzi kemm kienu joqomsu.
U jekk Dr Vassallo jdahhal il-hsieb fil-kuriduri ta’ mohhu li il-prostituti ser jinqataw mill-gzira ghandu ftit taz-zmien iehor ihabbel rasu ghax mhux talli waqfu jew naqsu talli fit-tmienja ta’ fil-ghodu ikunu diga b`kollox barra fuq is-siggijiet.
Hallina, dott, u mur ghamel xi haga ohra ta’ siewi u jekk dawn l-affarijiet ma jinzlulekx dabbar rasek f`post iehor.
Over 90 comments, and not a single one by a certain libertarian by the name of Kev from Brussels. This must be a conspiracy.
“victor pulis – And then we have parliamentarians scandalized because some tourist wants to watch porn in the privacy of his hotel room. This is the real scandal” http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100609/local/a-childs-expensive-first“
I was wondering whether the MP in question really believes that all the massage parlours scattered all over Malta are REALLY just that.
I think that in everyone’s enthusiasm to denounce Dr Vassallo’s views, an important point has been overlooked: pornography is still illegal in Malta.
Unlike China and Iran, a blind eye is turned when it comes to hardcore pornography on the internet and in hotel rooms (although it’s still very much a no-no on magazine shelves) but the fact remains that possessing pornography in Malta is against the law.
As some people pointed out, the government doubtless has more pressing matters to attend to than worry about the country’s consumption of porn. All the same, while such laws exist, people like Dr Vassallo and anyone else advocating other forms of state approved censorship will always have a valid argument when they point out that an existing law isn’t being enforced.
Please note that I’m not agreeing with Dr Vassallo – I’m just pointing out to all the porn crusaders that while their vigour is to be lauded, it’s not properly aimed.
What does the law say exactly? Any lawyers here?
CHRIST! What a typically Maltese attitude. Then let’s change the fricking law, for god’s sake.
And I don’t think there are any “porn crusaders” here. “Anti-idiocy crusaders” more like.
Thanks for the compliment. I am married to a Maltese and would be hard pressed to find a more amiable race of people.
However I think you’ll find that the predominant Maltese attitude is expressing excessive and often misdirected displays of passion when a more logical approach may be more appropriate oh Mr Baxxter with the saucy name. Had it not been, perhaps it might have been more apparent to you that we share the same viewpoint.
As you correctly concluded, the law is the issue that needs addressing here – not Dr Vassallo’s views and especially not his right to express them. However, as you might imagine, this is easier said than done.
The Citylights cinema is a case in point: everyone knew what kind of movies were shown there, but when the government decided to finally enforce the no-porn law after god knows how many years of toleration, I don’t remember hearing of anyone protesting or calling for the law to be changed.
While the laws on pornography and other forms of censorship remain as they are, there is nothing that will stop this government or the next from enforcing them whenever it sees fit.
Moreover, while pornography is merely tolerated and not openly legalised, there is nothing to regulate it – meaning that child pornography, rape videos, and other less savoury examples of the genre are indirectly tolerated also.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-08/mir-hussein-moussavi-was-a-war-criminal-who-killed-political-prisoners/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsL2
There you go Dr Vassallo. What a lovely place to be in. Hanging prisoners from cranes four or six at a time. BTW, they were left leaning ones so you would do well to keep your views to yourself while you are there. Enjoy your stay and don’t bother to send us a postcard.
Wow! 112 comments at time of writing…I have a simple solution.
First of all we have to determine what’s porn and what’s not. Therefore I plan to send my resume to the Hon. Minister applying for the position (horizontal?) of ‘reviewer’ of all these movies being shown in hotels. It will be a long investigation on my part since watching an never ending supply of these films, and sticking strictly to Union rule of no more than eight hours of work a day, with suitable breaks between features (and making notes), then it may take more than a lifetime to come to any sensible conclusion.
For a matter such as this, being of wide national interest I shall request a decent salary of say 40,000 euro a year. That should pose no problem since a precedent has already been set and by the looks of it, 40,000 euro is yielding very little in return. My job would have no room for ‘inefficiencies’.
I hope that the Hon. Minister will consider my application favourably.
jomar, re. the 40,000 Euro and no results: I love you, and I want to have your babies.
Jomar, the Hon. Minister is likely to consider your salary request an OBSCENITY.
CENSORSHIP, DIVORCE, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, PORNOGRAPHY, GAY “MARRIAGE”, THE WORKS: THE CRUX OF THE MATTER IS THE SAME FOR ALL………………………
LEGISLATORS AND THE “UPSTAGING” OF GOD….
The questions are often asked: What is the common good and how to find it? Is it a subjective notion, an elastic and malleable concept? Can it vary from person to person and what to do about it in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society of believers, non-believers, different faiths and fallen-aways?
We might as well face it: The common good is ONE; it derives from the Teachings of Christ, Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Its source is to be found in the social message of the Church He Himself founded to be sole custodian and definitive interpreter of His Teachings and of the lifestyle He so lovingly entreated us to embrace.
Christ knew, and so does the well-formed conscience know, that the easiest way to an erroneous relativism, a misconceived individualism, a sure-fire way of falling into error, is for mankind to distance itself from this SINGLE font of Divine and Eternal Truths handed down by God Himself! The solution then, for legal minds who have not been bowled over by a deceptive world, and for politicians of goodwill, is simple: Go back to this ONE-AND-ONLY source of evergreen TRUTHS which no age can ever change simply because they are ageless and forever: God is no fool who did not foresee till the end of time.
For the legislator who is a convinced catholic there is no problem: Such person knows beyond any doubt that the WHOLE truth lies in the source of his beliefs, regardless of what the people may think or want. And all responsible legislation must be based completely on this source. .When God told us how to live for our own good here and hereafter, He spoke for all mankind without exception and, being God, he foresaw the different mentalities, the multiple controversies and divergence of opinion that the various ages would produce. So He taught for every age till time morphs into eternity…..
The legislator, then, must act like a well-trained and conscientious, moral parent who, sure of what is good or bad for his child, does not give it what it wants or thinks it needs; but only what is really good for it. The personal beliefs of individuals who will be affected by legislation should lose all relevance if they run counter to his/her certainties, since legislators are duty-bound to legislate for the common good. And once the common good has been established and its authoritative source identified, legislators become conscience-bound to remain faithful to its tenets. Their responsibility before God to whom they will be held accountable should make them who shirk it shudder. It should send a chill down the spine of those who would pander to societal whims or reach out for approbation or the retention of their parliamentary seats.
The common good, therefore, is objective. What is bad does not become good by majority vote, or because the majority would practise it and wants it signed into law. And since good-catholic legislators know the medicine, they cannot give sugar-coated poison without falling down on their jobs, no matter how vociferously it is demanded. Armed with the ENTIRE and OBJECTIVE TRUTH and the sure-footedness which it engenders, the genuinely-catholic legislators can not but base their conduct on the UNIVERSAL Guiding Principles of the Holy Catholic Church regardless of what their countrymen believe or want, no matter what the people’s different convictions may be.
No creation can upstage its Creator; no human being can do better than God; no mere mortal can devise a way of living more conducive to inner peace and serenity than that proposed by The Author of all Life. Any futile attempt at one-upmanship on God is bound to end in failure and destruction. Above all, it is an affront to God and to human dignity and a disservice to the community and to the people they have sworn to serve…..
Marcus Flores
[email protected]
What surprises me most is that a particular theatre in Valletta, a stone’s throw from the Law Courts, had been screening nothing but blue films for several years and the authorities never took any action. Can anyone explain?