Comment of the week
Posted by Hypatia
Yes, Maltese politicians either think we live in cuckoo-land or they want us to believe that we do. I cannot think of any country in Europe or anywhere in the west where politicians possess such poor knowledge of their own society.
But imagine… if we had to enact a divorce law and the Pope had to come to visit again, how could we give him the impression that Malta will be for ever a paladin of Catholicism, a true and worthy child of our Father the Apostle Paul who even removed the venom from the Maltese viper to prevent us from ever being poisoned?
It’s a metaphor: the poison from overseas will not prevail against us. Uninterrupted Christianity since apostolic times. How could we convince the Pope that we are unlike all the rest of the rotten world that has forsaken its values? Some fanatics will tell you that, if you want divorce, just leave the country and settle elsewhere. This is the special preserve of Catholics only.
These little islets always speak in the superlative: we are the most hospitable, not just hospitable; we are the most Catholic, not just Catholic; we have the most beautiful country, we have the most interesting history, we have the best work force, we have the best values, we have the strongest families, we have the best festi, the loudest bangs with each village outdoing the next.
Yes, tezori. We have even invented words like “mill-iprem”, more than “prim” which already means “prime” (of the best quality) but the primest (like saying the firstest).
It is the psychology of Lilliput. Jonathan Swift would have written about Malta instead of Lilliput had he known of its existence. We are in the middle of the sea which is in the middle of the world. The cosmos is Maltacentric.
We are a hub of this and a hub of that. We have a vision 2015 too. What sort of vision is it? Would we still be without divorce in 2015 when we are destined to be a centre of excellence?
Maybe the absence of divorce is conceived as part of that excellence?
In a world where satellites and the internet have turned the planet into a global hamlet, we still think of ourselves as different from the rest. I only completed very short courses in psychology and cannot make a proper analysis. Perhaps someone else can.
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Indeed, we need to modernise and become ‘more European’. Just look at how fast things are moving in the rest of the EU – France, for example, is banning the Burka, ignoring a recent ECHR decision against such a move.
Despicable? Not really. After all, the ECHR will have to become irrelevant since our fundamental rights fall squarely under the European Court of Justice (Part 2, Charter, Lisbon Treaty).
I cannot imagine how the police will enforce this law, but I know how it works: first you open up the borders and let the Muslim population soar to over five million; then you impose anti-racist laws on those who reject them; then you radicalise the practicing Muslims – play one against the other and let the empowered forces of the state enforce more new laws to keep the order (and the trr’rsts at bay)…
The Italians call it ‘la strategia della tensione’ – but the Americans and the Brits are best at this game, since, unlike the Italian state, they’ve hardly ever been caught – not officially anyway.
Conspiracy theory? Not really. It’s not a theory it’s fact, while conspiracy is what history is entirely made of.
All esoteric for you lot, I know, but then you are truly Maltese – still debating the divorce question. Have fun. I’ll meet you on my next leg.
Enforcing it on women is quite tricky, but there is one aspect of the law I really like. In cases where the husbands forces the burqa on the woman he can be fined up to €30k and face jail-time.
Not sure how that will be enforced really and I’m sure there were laws in place already to cater for such acts, but still I like it.
kev, your ‘exposé’ would smell of conspiracy if governments were a monolithic entity.
Fortunately there are many competing undercurrents vying for influence in a healthy democracy. So you get a mishmash of policies that manage to keep the peace whilst accommodating a pluralist society.
We are still debating divorce because it is not law yet. What do you want us debating? Erich von Däniken’s theories?
Kev? Conspiracies?
Come off it!
Pat, that’s the justification they’re using and I think it’s so hypocritical they’d better find another excuse. Of course if the husband forces his wife to wear the Burka she has a right not to! Existing laws cover that area well enough. Have you checked on what Burka-wearing women are saying? How can a free society enact a law on dress code? It’s bloody crazy! What next?
Joseph A. Borg – first, it’s not an exposé, but a very simplistic way of describing what happens. Do you think I don’t know your argument well enough? I live on this planet too – been there, mate… a very long time ago, now.
Since you are clearly unaware of the missing components, it would be like teaching calculus to someone who hasn’t yet grasped the long division. What you call “competing undercurrents” is nothing but a charade. These ‘currents’ are shaped by the illusion created by the mainstream media and the few who own them. There are six media conglomerates in all, ostensibly fighting across the red-blue divide (the Maltese media feed from this same funnel). It’s really a sophisticated version of the Soviet media netwórk. I’ve seen this happen a long time ago in the Soviet Union where I studied for four years. Most intelligent people fell for it.
Let me give you the simplest of examples: tell me, what gave rise to the CO2 tax scam? Are the people asking for it – apart from a few oblivious Greenies? Are politicians acting on behalf of the people? Or did the big lie, claiming that global warming is antropogenic (when the evidence is abundantly to the contrary), come from the very top – supranational, world entities, to be exact.
And what about the disastrous ‘Swine Flu’ hoax, aided and abetted by the totally corrupt World Health Organisation? Do you know that laws were passed in many European countries empowering the police and the army to force people to take the shot if it came to that? Belgium is one of them. And it’s not only about making a fast billion or two, you know… but I’ll stop there on this one.
Do you know anything about the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission, the Club of Rome, The Council on Foreign Relations (US), the European Council of Foreign Relations, the New World Order, the One Wiorld Government… or would you suggest they don’t exist? They’ve been writing about these same things for over a century – the collectivist Fabian Society, for example, as well as many secret societies that fashion the world we live in – mainly the West. Read what many past presidents and prime ministers had to say about this secret web.
I believe I know a thing or two about admissable evidence and I have read many of their papers, and it is really not difficult to rationally connect the dots once you know what their intentions are. It’s very hard to believe at first because you’d never come to accept that these elites could be so powerful and so evil in their intentions. They have no country – they are globalists. The globe is their field of play. Their diktat is what eventually becomes law, and if the people are against it, then the media would see to that – through fear-mongering and a thousand and one other things. As Gore Vidal once said – and I’ll paraphrase: ‘you cannot imagine the contempt with which the elites view the common people’. He would know – he’s one of them. As was George Orwell… I mean, perpetual wars between Oceania and Eurasia? Can’t you see today’s perpetual wars against terr’rsm? And that’s yet another long story…
I could go on to tell you who these people are, what their intentions are and why, but I cannot go on forever.
As for your von Daniken wisecrack – please, don’t reveal your backwardness on such serious issues. It says a lot about where you (still) stand.
Kev, thank gawd ‘you cannot go on forever’. Bet you love re-reading your underwhelming sermons from the mount.
@Kev
I can only gauge you on one issue, ie where you say:
“Or did the big lie, claiming that global warming is antropogenic (when the evidence is abundantly to the contrary), come from the very top – supranational, world entities, to be exact”
This statement is so completely and manifestly wrong, so completely against the science (both theory and observation) of the last 180 yrs that I have to conclude that the rest of what you say is equally bunk.
Is evolution a conspiracy of the elites too?
tinfoil hats and rubber wallls….. there’s a song in there somewhere
Mike C – Indeed, the Medieval warm period must have also been man-made, as were other such periods before that.
You lot are really no different than the Soviets – I had similar arguments with a few of them. You couldn’t break the illusion, not with the ‘pluralistic’ Soviet media spelling out their world – and believe me, it did look like they had various political arguments. The taboos were understood by all, just as the Western taboos are.
And yet, when you know HOW it works and WHO the players are, and what the direction is, then it’s very easy to grasp. You even realise that it could NOT have been otherwise.
What is the truth, Kev? Please tell me, for am eager to learn and have no master to serve.
Please excuse the digression, Daphne and Hypatia. This thread has taken a life of its own.
And Purdie? Ah, never mind…
kev, thanks for your erudite response. Your brainy brain shows through. Since I am not of your caliber and cannot understand all these machinations by the 5 media conglomerates (are you referring to disney, ge etc?) and other monstrous entities (the 7 sisters etc…) hell bent on world domination (maybe you watched too many re-runs of Pinky & the Brain).
Anyway to cut it short: I try to see the world in terms of cold facts and phenomena and how they interact. You are anthropomorphising everything. It;s not much different than the greeks of old trying to make sense of the world and coming up with their typhon or cronos etc…
Ehh, ha ghalieh hej, Joseph A Borg… Yes, Disney all along and some Greek machinations too. And yet, I’m such a St Thomas you wouldn’t believe it yourself.
Kev, was going to ask Daphne if I could take my beer with me when we got chucked out of her bar. However a CC wil do just fine, thank you. Will offer you a couple of Duvel when next in Brussels.
I, surprisingly, agree on your politico/divorce comment.
Hello there, Purdie. Wrong thread, of course, but no one is perfect.
Never worry about being chucked out by Daphne. Flatterers are very highly regarded here.
Hypatia has painted a nice portrait of the Maltese society. She describes the extremism within our society, which makes me wonder how we do not have many extreme political parties.
Now that I think of it, I suspect that the extremists have found their home in the mainstream parties.
It seems, more like, insisting on, ”inraqqu l-pannu bill qara hamra”
Should we deny women, especially those whose children are working, are fully grown and self-sufficcient, not in need of resources other than living, in peace and love, the chance to remarry?
Should we deny, the chance to men too?
And, should we deny it to those couples, where both agree on divorce?
One wonders why Opus Dei has not yet taken off in Malta or has it?
[Daphne – It has.]
Yes, I know a couple of members.
When I questioned one of them on how he can speak so vehemently against Freemasons and yet join an organisation like Opus Dei, and also warned him about some of the shadier aspects of the organisation, he answered, and I believe he was sincere,
“It’s impossible that there is anything wrong with Opus Dei – the Pope made the founder a saint!”
David, those are minions – they know absolutely nothing about what their top superiors are up to. They don’t even know WHO they are. They see only the visible heads. Opus Dei, Freemasons – the ones you meet are all unknowing minions.
Here we go again. The ‘All Knowing Kev’ holds forth once again. Did you order a new white robe now that the sales are here? I hear they have a super discount on the ‘Shroud of Brussels’.
Yes and they run countries (well, that’s partly true, many politicians are openly Freemasons), and you can even get a better deal from your plumber with a secret handshake.
Purdie, I could teach you a thing or two about your country, such as the forces behind its near break up in the late 1990s, but then it would be a complete waste of time.
My country’s doing just fine, Kev. Your ‘waste of time’ is continuing to post your bletherings. Did you find that shroud yet?
Vive le Québec libre, kev!
Baxxter, I assume the Great Kev was referring to Alberta. Get with it. Quebec was subdued in the 70’s.
The ones I met didn’t look very subdued.
Baxxter, “le Québec libre” is fine by me, but the forces behind the move is another matter altogether, having nothing to do with freedom.
Purdie seems to have forgotten the 1995 referendum, which the Québécoises lost by a very narrow margin, and he knows nothing of what came later. The following year, the secretive Bilderberg Group conference was held in King City, just north of Toronto. The decision to hold their annual conference in Canada was related to a planned Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Quebec in 1997, which never materialised.
The 1996 Bilderberg conference was the first to be widely reported by the press since the first Bilderberg meeting in 1954 (especially by the influential Toronto Star). It is reported that front-man Henry Kissinger was furious and he told the now-disgraced media mogul Conrad Black to do something about it. Black was at the time bidding to take over the Star.
Such a declaration would have fragmented Canada, paving the way towards ‘Continental Union’ with the US by 2000 – clearly delayed. Yet what is now termed the ‘North American Union’ (which also includes Mexico) is still on the Bilderberg agenda.
The globalists love such unions. While being a step closer towards their ‘one world’ government dream, it is much easier to control one centralised, supranational government than having to deal with a multitude of national governments.
This thread has digressed into conspiracy theories; here is an article from the Malta Independent (06 July 2008) regarding Opus Dei connections with Malta:
Everyone can be holy
by Mariane St.Maurice
“It is in the midst of the most material things of the earth that we must sanctify ourselves, serving God and all mankind.” With those words, St Josemaría summed up the objective of Opus Dei, a personal prelature of the Catholic Church he founded in 1928. When he started Opus Dei, which means “Work of God,” and is commonly referred to as the Work, St Josemaría wanted to spread a way of living one’s faith by sanctifying work and daily tasks.
During his life, through his lectures, writings, travels and simple way of life, St Josemaría taught that everyone can be holy by giving glory to God in all the little things they do, and by doing those things as well as possible. On its website, http://www.opusdei.org, the Work describes its mission as “helping people turn their work and daily activities into occasions for growing close to God, for serving others, and for improving society”.
Every year, on 26 June, the anniversary of his death is celebrated with Masses in his honour all over the world. In fact, though it started in Spain, Opus Dei now counts about 87,000 members in over 65 countries, most of which have centres for activities related to and organised by the Work. Members include supernumeraries, who generally are married men and women, numeraries, who live in centres and work on the apostolic activities of the Work, associates who live with their families, and priests.
Of the 87,000, more than half are in Europe. In Malta, though there are no centres yet, there are some members who attend activities such as meditations given by a priest, talks and classes, and who receive spiritual direction. Most of those activities are directed by numeraries who come once a month from Rome.
It was those Maltese members, their families and friends, who filled the pews of Our Lady of Victories Church in Valletta on the evening of 20 June, as Malta’s Archbishop, Monsignor Paul Cremona, celebrated the Mass in honour of St Josemaría.
Though most attendees were Maltese, there were also people from countries such as Spain and Italy. Monsignor Cremona, who celebrated the Mass in Maltese with six con-celebrants, took the opportunity to emphasise Opus Dei’s presence in the Catholic Church, saying that it is not a separate entity but rather an additional aspect of one’s faith.
Mgr Cremona related the readings and the gospel to past homilies of St Josemaría, underlying the accessibility of his words and way of life. “It is Christ who chooses the appropriate time for each and every one of us to follow him,” he said. “Nobody is born holy, but we can discover (interior life’s) meaning and live it by walking with the Lord.”
Opus Dei has been the target of much criticism in the past, but its community is still growing strong and expanding globally. It has recently opened centres in Russia, and, when St Josemaría was canonised (recognised as a saint by the Church), an estimated crowd of 300,000 from all corners of the world assembled in St Peter’s Square in Rome.
On the occasion of the canonisation, Pope John Paul II said of Josemaría that he had called Christians to “raise the world towards God and to transform it from within”, and not to be taken in “by a materialistic culture, which threatens to dissolve the most genuine identity of the disciples of Christ.”
At the Mass in Valletta, Archbishop Cremona reminded the faithful that St Josemaría is like any other saint – he is a saint of the Catholic Church, just like St Paul, St John, and the many others, but with a new approach to holiness.
“I felt happy to hear another Maltese person, particularly because it was our archbishop, speaking so positively about the words of St Josemaría,” said Alison Gauci, a 22-year-old who attends activities of the Work.
The Mass was followed by a reception to which everyone was invited to share food, drinks and chat. Monsignor Cremona was also present, and took the time to talk to individuals and take pictures before leaving a room full of people hopeful and determined to see that Opus Dei keeps on growing.
Suits me, as long as the Quebecois don’t ask for French citizenship.
Kev, your amazing ability to Google the world and treat the info as your own is remarkable.
Kev, what is this propaganda against a Soviet-style super-state government? Are you after seeking world fame with Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Andrei Sinyavsky, Yuli Daniel, Natan Sharansky and Andrei Sakharov, to name a few?
Wrong again, Purdie. Although I google a lot (do you skype your research through dancing angels?), this time I got the info from Daniel Estulin’s well-researched book about the Bilderbergers.
As for the referendum, I had 1996 in mind, but I always check my info, so I googled it to find out it was 1995.
Any prospect for a sound argument from you? Why not tell us what you think about the NAU?
Kevvy, your skin is so thin that you could become a condom–at least you could be useful, once. Difficult to rationalize how one with such a massive brain and gift of the gab does not comprehend when he is being wound up. On the other hand, your self-importance and absolute lack of a sense of humour probably limits any awareness on your part.
Oh, you’re such a funny boy, Purdie! And subtle too. Tickle me, please.
[Daphne – Will you and Harry take this outside, please? I’m throwing you out of the bar. And Kevin, please stick to the subject next time. What are your views on PN and MLP approach to divorce legislation?]
And while Kev reads about the Bilderbergers, someone else dines out on hamburgers…
Political cowards is what comes to mind, Daphne. They’re waiting until the polls tell them it’s politically expedient to hop on the divorce bandwagon. Their religious belief is hardly the issue… well, except maybe for Tonio ‘Abbati’ Borg.
But Joseph Muscat’s would-have-been divorce bill, although highly insufficient, helped stir the pot somewhat. So let’s give both Joseph and JPO a small round of applause for their efforts.
Now may I have a double gin and tonic, please? And a Canadian Club for Purdie – with plenty of ice.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100714/local/high-commission-flies-the-flag-for-gay-pride-week
Thank your stars you’re British and Dutch!
“The theme of this year’s Pride Week is ‘Rights Now!'”
As opposed to last year’s, when it was ‘Rights Then’?
At least Ms Stanton has not replaced the Union Jack with the Rainbow Flag, as British ambassadors did in Poland and Latvia.
I have to say I find absolutely nothing to disagree with except perhaps that Malta has the loudest bangs! I have heard better.
Is that the author of Queer Mediterranean Memories?
If yes, just wanted to be sure that by “bangs” he really meant the festa fireworks. The only better ones may be in Gozo. Not that the Bishop of Gozo would necessarily be happy to know that.
What will these holier-than-thou anti-divorce fanatics do when, hopefully, we’ll have divorce on this bit of rock? Move to the Philippines?
Wish they would…