Come the revolution – AUX ARMES, CITOYENS!

Published: September 30, 2010 at 9:30pm

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I love it. The well-fed Tony Zarb went to ‘Brussel ha jipprotesta’, representing the starving masses and this unusually perceptive internet warrior didn’t even notice. Kien wortit, ukoll.

T Camilleri – 30 September 2010 15:15
WHEN ARE THE PEOPLE GOING TO BE ORGANIZED AND START DEMONSTRATING LIKE THE REST OF EUROPE. THE PN MISERS ONLY WANT TO GIVE US €1.16 PER WEEK. IF IT’S A REVOLT THEY WANT LET’S START REVOLTING TO SWEEP THEM OUT OF POWER.




38 Comments Comment

  1. Rover says:

    There are many European citizens who would relish a small increase in their salary at the moment. Instead they are queuing up at their local job centre.

    I wonder what Tony Zarb might have to say to them when they forklift him on to the soapbox. “I’ve just paid EUR400 for two tickets to the Sir Elton concert. Now comrades let me enjoy my Havana and screw you Jack.”

  2. Vanni says:

    “Revolting” indeed

  3. Antoine Vella says:

    Perhaps T. Camilleri hasn’t noticed but we already find Labour revolting.

  4. Bus Driver says:

    T. Camilleri, you and your ilk are already amply revolting. There is no need for you to start.

  5. Leonard says:

    ISSA DAQSHEKK

  6. MikeC says:

    So he missed Tony’s trip and he also missed the fact that the MLP has ALWAYS been revolting……

  7. Min Weber says:

    It is revolting, isn’t it?

  8. Chris Ripard says:

    With apologies to the Pythons (viz “Life of Brian”):

    What have the PN misers ever done for us . . . except for peace, democracy, dialogue, free trade, a new airport, a digital phone system, a new power station, a new hospital, new roads, new schools, new ferries . . . absolutely nothing, right?

    • il-lejborist says:

      You forgot the invention of the wheel and the light bulb. Oh, and I am positive that, as we speak, Gonzi and his team are working hard to find the cure for HIV and cancer too.

      • bla vot says:

        Have you not got your energy saving ones then?

      • Karl Flores says:

        True the cure for HIV and cancer weren’t found, so far, by Gonzi PN. But it was Gonzi PN who introduced the POYC saving thousands of euros to those in need, if you know what I mean? And there’s lots more, yet to come, in the (many) years remaining.

  9. anthony says:

    1.16 Euro per week is too little. They will have to eat cake on that pittance.

    A seat to watch Sir Elton with Toni will be equivalent to four years’ wage increases.

    No wonder they have been revolting since the 1950s with a break during the wage freezes of the eighties.

  10. Grezz says:

    I think the revolutionaries made it to Lidl in error:

    “Monday, 27th September 2010

    Queue that turned a Lidl too rough
    George Attard Manche, Gudja

    I have always fancied myself as a carpenter and having seen Lidl’s offer of an electric table-saw with laser controls I woke early to join the queue outside their premises at 6.30 a.m. A queue was a very broad way of describing the phalanx of humanity which grew tighter and tighter and broadened by the minute.

    When the doors opened at 7 a.m. there were some 200 mortals, 10 abreast, with one aim in life which happened to coincide with mine. The minute the racing gate lifted, they were off; I was shoved to a side like a bit of flotsam and eventually got near the counter which of course had been denuded of anything resembling a table-saw.

    Then the fun started: Someone yelled “they have opened a side door” (in the vernacular), but this was behind the mob and to the right, behind serried ranks of food and vegetables. Of course those who were at the front of the queue waiting impatiently for some restocking, now found themselves at the back of a running horde of demented beings; the Pamplona bull run would be a doddle compared to this. When they got to the door, packed like sardines, and with imploring, fluttering hands a woman (well the person was wearing a skirt) launched herself over the top of the front ranks screaming “give it to me” – I assume she meant the table-saw and blow me if she wasn’t handed one and lived.

    My carpentry will have to wait, but perhaps Lidl should consider the simple expedient of issuing tickets to the front of the queue for the prime objects on offer, which can then be collected in an orderly fashion.

    I would also commend to the Malta Rugby Federation that a scout sent to witness the ability of some of the shoppers might well result in some star finds for our national team.” ( http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100927/letters/queue-that-turned-a-lidl-too-rough )

    • LG says:

      I read this article and found it horrifying. In Italy, where I live, there are promotions on sales every week. The large department stores such as Auchan and Carrefour can’t carry stock of white goods and other appliances so they sell them at even 20 percent of their original price sometimes.

      What I cannot understand is that, in the last eleven years that I have been here, I have never ever seen a queue or a squabble over buying stuff.

      And please note that this is central Italy, not Sweden.

      Why do these things happen in Malta in 2010?

      Incidentally on one of my more recent visits I passed by Lidl on the way home from the airport. I suggested a visit to my mother who quickly said “Leeeee, very often there are queues and people fighting over items there. I don’t go”. And I thought she was exaggerating!

    • claire abela triganza says:

      L-isfortuna ta’ Malta hi li certu nies qatt ma jbiddlu l-kultura taghhom, u tibqa tintiret.

      Sfortuna ohra hi li n-nanniet qedghin irabbu lin-neputijiet u certu nanniet li jhaddnu il-kultura ta’ l-injuranza ma nafx x’edukazzjoni qed jaghddu lil dawn il-povri kreaturi.

      Nahseb li l-poplu ghandu jkun aktar konxju tac-childcare centres u jaghmel uzu minnhom meta sfortunatament in-nanniet ma jkunux ta’ certu kultura u edukazzjoni.

      • red nose says:

        Ghax dawk ta mohhom maghluq jaraw biss stazzjon wiehed u ma jafux xqed jigri fid-dinja madwarhom! Anzi issa qed jistennew “living wage” li tkun tinkludi cruise.

  11. Paul Bonnici says:

    In the UK, where I am writing from, workers would thank their lucky stars to keep hold of their jobs, let alone expect a salary increase.

  12. Leonard says:

    Has someone coined a Maltese word for “whistleblower”?

    [Daphne – I think it’s ‘whistleblower’ in the proposed legislation, and fortunately not wisilbluha.]

    • Pravilno says:

      Il-kelma eżatta hi “minfaħissuffara”, kelma Maltija minn għeruqha.

      [Daphne – Yes, but it doesn’t make sense in Maltese because the concept is lost. It’s derived from the English expression ‘to blow the whistle on’. We don’t have a similar expression in Maltese. In fact, you’ll find that many people don’t even know what a whistleblower is it’s just a meaningless word to them.]

      • H.P. Baxxter says:

        The Maltese word would be along the lines of “is-sefsief”. Now put that into a piece of legislation.

      • A.Charles says:

        I am looking forward to seeing the word ‘whistleblower’ made Maltese, like futbol, cermen, etc.

      • ciccio2010 says:

        The whistleblower has sometimes been confused with the shit stirrer. Try a translation of that, maybe?

      • Leonard says:

        I agree with Daphne. I think that in a vox pop there’d be a few people who’d think that a whistleblower is a referee. I would have gone for “Att dwar min jikxef il-borom ta’ haddiehor.”

      • H.P. Baxxter says:

        shit stirrer = wiehed li jaqla’ l-hara

  13. Wouldn’t it have been fun if this blog existed in the days of our previous telephone system.

    We felt relieved if we ever managed to get through to someone first time.

    Mind you it was hugely entertaining to overhear conversations and then at some point join in.

    It was also a convenient excuse “Sorry, I couldn’t get through”.

  14. red nose says:

    T.Camilleri – Nothing new – the usual story – just look at the daily news daily from Europe and see how OUR workers are faring. Then start complaining about the mandatory increase. Did you go to Elton’s concert?

  15. Mario Bean says:

    “Come si possono definire poliziotti che si comportano così? Che lanciano gas lacrimogeni e pietre contro i civili?”, ha incalzato la folla il-Presidente dell’Ecuador Correa.

    We have seen it practised in Malta during Labour’s reign of terror. And if they try something like this in Malta they will have to pay a much bigger price than they are paying at the moment.

    To the Opposition benches they have been condemned and that will be the place that they will remain in, for ever should some red hotheads or anarchists of theirs try anything funny like destabilising our country. They will regret it for ever.

  16. claire abela triganza says:

    Ghal li jista jkun dawk li se jmorru Brussell biex jipprotestaw ghandhom xi airticket b’xejn ma l-UNTOURS jew minn buthom ser ihallsu?

  17. red nose says:

    Nahseb li issir gabra specjali sponsored minn (Super) One TV

  18. Hot Mama says:

    Looking at Zarb is enough to go an austerity diet…

  19. Rita Camilleri says:

    Only 1.16 euro per week? I won’t be able to buy my Super 5 ticket. Kif gabna Gonzi.

  20. Whistleblower could be ‘kexxief il-qerq’.

    • Gahan says:

      “Saffarielu” mhix tajba? Kont qed niccajta.
      Nippreferi li naddottaw kelma Maltija bhal “neffieh is-suffara” milli nara “wisilblower”

      • H.P. Baxxter says:

        Nippreferi ma naddotaw xejn, ghaliex il-kuncett huwa totalment aljen ghall-mohh Malti. Hawnhekk mhux whistleblowers ghandna, imma backstabbing turncoats, li hija differenti.

        Semmuli kaz wiehed fejn il-motivazzjoni ta’ xi hadd Malti qatt kienet l-onestà u l-integrità.

  21. red nose says:

    “Spjun” mhux ahjar? –

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