One for the parish priest: GOD DOESN'T WANT BIKINIS EITHER
Din wahda ghall-pjazza ta' Balluta: DIRTY BIKINIS GO HOME
Letters to the editor, The Times, today
An indecent attitude
Dunstan Crockford, St Julian’s
The other day I witnessed a modern form of “lynching”. A young foreign student was wearing a bikini in Balluta Square. At first nobody said or did anything but as she decided to leave and was walking down the few steps to the pavement, a mature woman loudly screamed and ran towards her.
This attitude sparked off a crowd of around 10 persons all howling names at the bewildered girl: “dirty”, “go home”, “shame”, “get dressed”. One even threatened to throw her in the sea! At this point the foreign girl was joined by her friends and plucked up some courage. She crossed the road and took photos of the hostile crowd. Naturally this provoked more insults.
In no way am I condoning the girl’s attire but surely there are decent ways to approach situations like these!
61 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Dreadful. But the comments below the article are even worse – it seems that most commentators are just concerned about bad publicity!
OIM.
Eh, but this time it is unlikely that the parish priest will find Playstation to support his plea. The costume of Lara Croft, the one in Tomb Raider, makes bikinis look holier than a nun’s habit.
I just love girls in bikinis. Call me pervert please :)
I suppose these ‘lynchers’ were all God-fearing Labourites from the lazy corner, weren’t they?
[Daphne – I wouldn’t know, but you seem to have insight into the matter. Perhaps we should ask Manwel and Joseph Cuschieri, who grew up there.]
I didn’t know there were God-fearing Labourites! I always thought all Labourites were xjaten! maybe it’s me reading your comments.
I don’t think that these lynchers were Labourites from the lazy corner or from any other corner in Malta.
“Il-Hamalli mhux ser jiehdu skandlu ghax min hu hamallu jikxef jaf is-soltu, sew jekk ikun jixraqlu u sew jekk mhux”.
[Daphne – No, you’re right. They must have been mittilkless women who vote PN. How in heaven’s name did you bring party politics into this? Who cares how they vote. Who KNOWS how they vote?]
Troy, cannot but agree with you. I thought God feared the Labourites.
ALLA JRID BISS MURTALI U QUBBAJD.
I got that sort of reaction once; in an(other) Arab country for wearing shorts.
I would have thought that the bikini has as of a very long time, been accepted and I cannot see how anybody with a TV at home can be scandalized by seeing a girl so attired. Deep down I think it all boils down to sour grapes and wishful envy!
They’re still illegal in all Malta except for the circumference & enclosed pools.
I weep
try to whip out a camera in a play ground in the UK…
Of course, had it been, say, a Maltese man with one of those beer bellies that mean he’s forgotten what his feet look like, perhaps covered in hair, possibly reeking of sweat and covered in grime, wearing nothing but a pair of small shorts and a thick gold chain, that would have been ok.
I was standing next to one – in a bank queue! – the other day. You see them everywhere and can’t help but wonder what, if anything at all, goes through their Paleolithic minds when they step outside.
Between that and a young student in a bikini, it’s a no-contest as far as indecency goes.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
So many things happening out there, yet many in Malta are stuck neck deep in the 1960s. And what’s worse, like them, the other side is in the same mud-fill, finding little better to do than to rebuke them as they did in the 60s.
These ‘liberal progressives’, of course, thought EU membership would solve this backwardness, when in fact, membership just stripped us off our sovereignty, relieving us of the most important decisions in financial, monetary, fiscal, economic and foreign affairs, leaving us to deal with the putrescent social issues ourselves.
It’s like placing a lid onto a can of worms, leaving enough holes for the smart ones to leave, enveloping the rest in total darkness.
Is that how you crawled out of the can Kevvy? Through one of the holes?
I haven’t left, Purdie. I moved temporarily, the experience having confirmed my deepest suspicions.
Ah, yes, Kevvy. Wonderful Brussels–enjoying free meals on the Grand Place with the other socialist ‘Gravy Trainers’. Isn’t that hammer and sickle up your ass uncomfortable?
For heaven’s sake – leave politics out. I suppose there are many “KEVs” who benefitted greatly when Malta, thanks to the PN, joined “freely” the EU.
NISA HOXNIN BIL-LEGGINGS: ALLA MA JRIDHOMX!
Hekk ahjar?
haha funny but soo true!
I rather think that Daniel Cardona, the Zebbug parish priest, is honest (the billboard ain’t a delicate touch, but that’s another matter). No matter how ‘modern’ and ‘enlightened’, a priest is ultimately a purveyor of cosmologies whose opinion that ‘divorce is bad’ is rooted in the belief that God doesn’t want it.
In that sense Daniel Cardona is being more honest than priests who talk of ‘scientific proof’ or ‘referendum’. He’s much easier to engage too, because you know where he’s coming from.
What if we had scientific proof that bikinis are bad for us … or maybe a referendum? Any smokescreen will do.
Some years ago I ran a well-known establishment in Paceville and remember that young Maltese girls used our lavatories to change their clothing from conservative to, let’s say, bikini style. Imagine her mother being the one calling the foreign girl dirty.
One possible solution to the problem in Malta could be for the Archbishop of Malta and the Bishop of Gozo to set up their own political party/parties and contest the national and local elections. Would that not be more transparent than the current situation? I am sure the Maltese Catholic Taliban would be happier with the Archbishop as Prime Minister of the Maltese archipelago. After all, the Pope runs the show in the Santa Sede and the Afghan Taliban control large swathes of Afghanistan!
Are you suggesting we should then have another Archbishop Gonzi?
kemm inti vojt u bla sugu.
I don’t condone this lynching, but aren’t bikinis meant to be worn on the beach or by the pool?
[Daphne – The only thing between Balluta beach and Balluta square is a road, and that’s why many visitors don’t get the distinction. This is nothing new. Even back in 1980, the area known as il-Fortizza on Tower Road, Sliema, just off the beach, used to be full of visiting students, tourists and even local people crossing the road or hanging around in their swimsuits.]
I hate seeing bare chested male tourists strolling in Valletta, there’s what they call a dress code in many countries. In many European cities there were many clampdowns on people who wear inappropriate attire.
In Cannes women are seen topless on the beach, but when people want to go to the shops across the street they all dress up appropriately. Should we be different?
“The only thing between Balluta beach and Balluta square is a road, and that’s why many visitors don’t get the distinction.”
Funny how in Cannes they make the distinction.
[Daphne – Do they? I hadn’t noticed.]
I can just imagine the “mature” woman on the Balluta bench getting all hot and bothered having noticed a bikini clad young student in her favourite square. Her anger brewing up to boiling point, she then raises the hackles of her mates who up to then were quite content enjoying the breeze. She goes on the attack with the pack at her heels and in a fit of temper unleashes a completely disproportionate tirade when a few words uttered in a kindly manner would have done the job. When will we ever learn?
Jew tad-dahk jew tal-BIKI(ni).
But I suppose that getting rid of these attractive young ladies in bikinis from our streets is one of the measures to strengthen the family.
We are a truly primitive society, socially underdeveloped and narrow minded! We should have joined the Arab League not the EU!
The Arab league has STRICTER rules!
Mai dire mai
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ7LnJYPKfI
Joining the EU does not mean Malta is in the 21st century… yet. The time will come. We progress slowly but surely in spite of the PL and the clergy throwing spanners in the works.
About the bikini girl. Nobody said whether she looked gorgeous in her attire or otherwise. This is vital information. If in the affirmative I would have gone up to her and whispered in her ear: Alla hu akbar.
If on the other hand she looked disgusting I would have minded my own business.
I hate to say it but here it goes. The PN Government needs 10 years in Opposition now. Arrogance and treason has taken hold of this magnificent party.
I have been told that this mature woman and her friends were seen coming out of the Ballutta church a few minutes before this ”lynching”
How typically Christian.
Detto del detto,edgar.
Even Daphne put the parish priest in this story’s title!
In no time we will see someone writing that the the bishop of Gozo told the lady to hound this semi nude teenage girl in Balluta square.
In the early 1980s, topless girls could be seen everyday on any beach in Malta, including Exiles in Sliema. Though a newspaper-letter crusade was launched by the Maltese Mary Whitehouse of the time, I do not remember any harassment of these girls in the manner of the one being reported today and I do not remember any police prosecutions either.
If I’m wrong, anyone is welcome to correct me. The situation changed in the late 1980s when the campaign against the areola found a more conducive environment to succeed. The bikini top came back in fashion.
Without going into the merits of the case under discussion, I would ask the following question. Aren’t these self-appointed guardians of common decency, such as the woman who verbally lynched the girl, getting bolder now, comforted by the wave of official censorship instigated, at times, by Maltese and Gozitan bishops, priests and fellow-travellers?
I suggest that the effrontery of the conservators of the national moral health will grow or decline in direct proportion to the suppressive measures employed by any given government. And, at the present time, the tide seems to be in favour of those who consider it their god-given right to interfere in the lives of others and prescribe to them what they ought to read, view and do.
Only in Malta, of course, that nefarious den of retrograde Catholics. Er, or not?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/7865750/Tourists-face-250-bikini-fines-at-Spanish-holiday-resort.html
ftaht mohhok ghax mort erasmus? Kemm inti fqir fil-principji tieghek.
Always strikes me as odd how the god crowd tends to dislike his creation so much.
If I were god, I’d be insulted.
That is the best way to promote Malta with European visitors,never learn ehh.
So this is interesting- in France they have banned the wearing of the full face burqa. Are they going to have the same approach to bikinis on the beaches of St Tropez? Where does this silly interference in other people’s lives stop. Live and let live – if you do not like like it – do not look at it. If you cannot avoid looking – than enjoy.
[Daphne – The burqa is banned because it is a symbol of the oppression of women, not as a matter of personal taste.]
The burqa is banned because it is a symbol of the oppression of women
One* could also argue that going topless is a symbol of the oppression of women. I’m sure you, Daph, have nothing in common with those butch feminists* advocating this approach. If anything the burqa is a symbol of a subversive culture that is at loggerheads with the fundamentals of western enlightenment. An advertisement of their intolerance towards local mores and our secular values. The best excuse to extirpate it is on security grounds.
By the way Syria did the same: no burqa. I bet Egypt is bound to follow unless Mubaraq is so physically weak that he cannot implement the new directive coming from Washington and Paris…
this, from a spineless (social) liberal
* one and the same
liberals to the torch. roasted and salted.
“The burqa is banned because it is a symbol of the oppression of women”
Plus there is the security aspect.
I think we should follow the example of Cannes and host our own Hot d’Or. There’s nothing that Marc Dorcel could teach us about perversion.
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/CIA_report_into_shoring_up_Afghan_war_support_in_Western_Europe,_11_Mar_2010
This classified CIA analysis from March outlines possible PR strategies to shore up public support in Germany and France for a continued war in Afghanistan. After the Dutch government fell on the issue of Dutch troops in Afghanistan last month, the CIA became worried that similar events could happen in the countries that post the third and fourth largest troop contingents to the ISAF mission.
The proposed PR strategies focus on pressure points that have been identified within these countries. For France it is the sympathy of the public for Afghan refugees and women. For Germany it is the fear of the consequences of defeat (drugs, more refugees, terrorism) as well as for Germany’s standing in NATO. The memo is a recipe for the targeted manipulation of public opinion in two NATO ally countries, written by the CIA. It is classified as Confidential/No Foreign Nationals.
She probably had had enough of seeing her husband ogling the young girl. Remember the rows of drooling, old pervs staring incessantly at students sunbathing on the rocks between Fortizza and Surfside in the 80s?
Tiftakar lil dawk in-nisa jipprotestaw kontra t- ?
Maaaaaaaaa!
I certainly do not agree with the attitude of verbally attacking a person because of his/her attire. All I can say is that bikinis etc. are for the beach and not to be worn when strolling on the seafront in Sliema/St. Julian’s or even on the buses as some of the tourists/students have taken to doing lately.
There is no excuse if a beach is across the road. We have to draw a line somewhere. Not all Malta is a beach and we have to politely make the tourists aware of this. No hysterics, when we see indecently attired people, a polite word or two would suffice.
I have to agree with you. You look at both sides of the coin in a sensible and non-biased way, which is more than I can say for most people on this blog. Well done :)
Jiena nahseb li din il-farsa kull ma kienet xenata ta’ gelosia.
I don’t agree with people wearing beach wear in the roads. BUT it can be difficult wear to draw the line.
Many tourists don’t realise that leaving the beach at Balluta to buy a cold drink from the kiosk on the square means they should cover up.
The same applies at Font Ghadir and the Exiles.
Exactly. All they have to do is wrap a sarong around their shoulders and they’d be fine.
Bikini anguish of another kind..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1297610/ALEXANDRA-SHULMAN-How-tiny-bits-fabric-cause-anguish.html
What a load of confusion! Seems like many here are measuring the degree of progress by the amount of skin exposed. More progress, more skin visible, so goes the idea, it seems.
The heart of the matter however is, that one’s attire should be consistent with what your guests expect. The insulting behaviour towards the visiting girl cannot be condoned, but neither can the wearing of a bikini in a town square be accepted either. Ignorance of the rules is no excuse.
A continental driver who accidentally veers to the right-hand side of the road would be heavily punished, and the fact that he is used to driving on the right at home would be no excuse! As the saying goes, when you are in Rome, you do as the Romans do.
This has nothing to do with backwardness or forwardness, but with what is propriety.
If she had the assets she did well in showing them.This is all jealousy. Do these people go to church? Are they called Christians? Kif jghid il-Malta: jekk il-forn jara hotobthu jaqa u jmut sobtu.
A woman is as old as she looks, a man is old when he stops looking and that is where maturity really creeps in.