The lazy bugger does it again
Leading the congregation at Xewkija are Jean Pierre Azzopardi’s family, President George Abela, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and PL deputy leader Anglu Farrugia, representing party leader Joseph Muscat.
– timesofmalta.com, this afternoon
I am completely against having the president, the prime minister and the leader of the opposition go to the funerals of people who blow themselves up making fireworks.
Unless they have known the dead on a personal basis or they know their families, the president, the prime minister and the leader of the opposition should go to the funerals only of those who die honourably or who have made a significant contribution to the country.
If a soldier is blown up in the line of duty, then yes, they should make a point of going to his funeral.
But if men blow themselves up making fireworks, then our political and national leaders should stay away, if only to convey the message that this is not acceptable behaviour for men with families, that it is not acceptable behaviour for anyone.
I have written about this before because it never ceases to upset me.
You behave badly and irresponsibly and there’s an entire delegation of big cheeses at your funeral. You spend 50 years changing the nappies of babies abandoned by their parents and there’s no such delegation.
Wonderful. But then this sort of behaviour ties in with our magical thinking about death and superstition and fate. The president, the prime minister and the leader of the opposition, in line with the medieval-peasant thinking to which these islands are prone, go where the high drama is, without thinking clearly about what they’re doing or the message they’re relaying.
The leader of the opposition? Well, no – he stayed away this time, but not for the reasons I have described. He stayed away not to make a statement about the behaviour of the dead but because he’s a spoiled and lazy bugger and he didn’t see why he should be fagged to do it when he could send his deputy instead.
And the reason he didn’t send his wife instead of him, as he did with Guido de Marco’s state funeral? Nothing to do with the pushy pair having taken the message on board that the party leader’s wife can’t represent the party. It’s because they saw that state funeral as a glamorous occasion for Michelle to mix with VIPs, but a peasant funeral in Gozo is something else again.
And maddeningly for them, it was just the sort of funeral where Michelle Muscat’s presence would have been entirely appropriate in her own name, playing the role of Compassionate Woman. She’d have scored lots of brownie points, however false the behaviour.
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A PL spokesman said that Joseph Muscat was given the advice not to attend two funerals after each other because of his medical condition.
What medical condition?
It’s clearly not a medical condition which affects his ability to take a cruise or be a guest on a Super One show last Sunday night.
Cut the amateur dramatics, Joseph.
[Daphne – In my circles, we call that kind of man a lady. He hurts his leg dancing and then plays the invalid – where it suits him. I’ve just read a report on the BBC site about a 27-year-old soldier who lost both legs and one arm when he stood on a landmine, went back to work in the army wearing two metal stilts and a false arm, and now plans to leave the army to work full time on helping to rehabilitate other people with damaged bodies. Mur ghid il-Joseph. And then when you consider that Alfred Sant led an electoral campaign while receiving treatment for advanced cancer… Unbelievable.]
Medical condition? For God’s sake he has a hairline fracture in one of his legs which he discovered two days after the August Moon Ball. This wasn’t exactly the result of trench warfare in the Great War.
Even if he were doubled up in pain and carrying a drip feed behind his back he should have turned up for the funeral and not sent his deputy. Unless of course he has an inkling where the audit trail is heading.
p dimech – it’s no joke. Try wearing high heels with a sprained ankle. Leave Joseph alone!
Perhaps Kurt Farrugia stole his high heels to wear around the house and get some idea of what it feels like to be five feet tall.
It is an effort to garner votes I’m afraid.
I would really like to see some tough legislation being introduced but that would mean meddling with a Maltese “hobby”.
He sent his wife to ‘hamd over’ certificates to students
.
” In the Labour Party club in Naxxar there was a woman who understands the struggles that can come across when studying: Michelle Muscat.” Maltastar
Melodrama at its worst.
Can anyone proffer one good reason why the head of state should attend the funeral of someone who was blown up by fireworks and not attend that of another who died as a result of over-speeding ?
As I grow older I seem to be understanding less and less the behaviour of others around me.
I am not sure whether it is creeping dementia. It could be that, having got wiser with age, I am now more adept at identifying other people’s errors of judgement.
“Can anyone proffer one good reason why the head of state should attend the funeral of someone who was blown up by fireworks and not attend that of another who died as a result of over-speeding?”
Is it because those who take his appointments choose the occasions where there will sure be media coverage?
Pajjiz tal-imgienen. Don’t even bother trying to understand. All the trappings of statehood and the thinking and behaviour of a medieval hamlet, with the kbarat paying homage to those who blew themselves up making fireworks to be let off in honour of a biblical figure who has been turned into a pagan goddess, with more status than her son.
…with more status than her son, eh!
@ Kev
Wow, don’t tell me that Joseph Muscat wears high heels now.
Mela, p dimech! U qed jghidu wkoll li meta ssellifhom Kurt ghal gita f’Paceville qabdu l-vertigo.
One should be cautious when judging dead people. De mortuis nil nisi bonum. If you have no knowledge of Latin you can look this up.
For once, I find myself on the same page as you, at least as far as the fireworks bit is concerned. But (and there’s always a BUT) to me, though Muscat’s appetite for exposure is admittedly quite significant, it is still nothing in comparison to the prime minister’s PR libido.
There was no event, big or small, private or public, that involved a TV camera, the cheesy bugger hasn’t shown up at. He was also present at that skateboarding arena opening at the Msida roundabout a few years back (coincidentally a couple of days before an election). I mean, a prime minister opening a skateboard arena inside a roundabout for crying out loud! As you say, “Lie down and weep”
MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY! How comforting it is to know that I am not alone.
Using the same yardstick, if someone dies in a traffic accident or while practising his/her favourite sport be it skydiving, abseiling etc then the MPs, president, prime minister and leader of the opposition must turn up to the funeral.
Hloqtu precedent, sinjuri!
This is Gonzi’s most worrying trait. This pandering to the sentiment of the proles. I didn’t join the EU so we could further entrench this turn-of-the-century Sicilian way of doing things.
@David
Personally I was not aware of that particular Latin saying. However, I would expect that after I am gone, there would be some immediate reactions.
Some would honestly shed a tear or two.
Others would know about me perhaps because the hearse carrying me would be stuck in traffic, and that would be the appropriate time for them to play a guessing game of who it might be.
Lastly I have a notion that others, on being asked about my ‘departure’, would answer ‘oh really’, to put it mildly.
Just live this extraordinary experience called life. Love your country, ‘la patria’ Don’t bother much about heaven, do good, if there is heaven than you will gain much, if there isn’t you will lose nothing.
The fundamental issue is: picking up dangerous hobbies will increase the risk of an early departure, but, and this goes for the living, no one has the moral right to jeopardize the life of innocent victims. We are moving towards a tragedy of massive proportions.
Maltastar reporting at its very best:
“Update: During his homily, Dun Gorg explained how the accident was one of those circumstances in life that one cannot have any control over.
Dun Gorg explained that, as being the head of the Fontana Church, he would organise many religious activities with the family and was even raised with four of the victims.
He explained how for 17 years, two of them, Raymond and Noel, where altar boys.
The parish priest went on to explain how many of the victims came to him for advice throughout the year.”
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/r1/ms10dart.asp?a=11903
I hope it wasn’t for advice on pyrotechnics. WE DO HAVE CONTROL OVER EXPLOSIVES. Well done, Father. Pile on the idiocy.