Sparkle-brain Refalo
Labour MP Anton Refalo, whose constituency is Gozo and who shares a love of antique furniture with Magistrate Consuelo Herrera, addressed the Labour Party conference yesterday.
He likes the idea of an underwater tunnel between the two islands but thinks it should be examined more closely – not because of the touted nine-figure sum it will cost to construct, but….wait for it….to make sure that people who live in Mellieha don’t end up using ‘their’ Gozo hospital because it’s a quicker drive than getting to the one in Malta.
Perhaps Anton Refalo would like to examine the proposal more closely to ensure that the tunnel doesn’t also mean -heaven forfend – that people from Mellieha (and Mosta and Sliema and Fgura) go to Gozo to eat in ‘their’ restaurants and buy things from ‘their’ shops.
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OMG – and we are going to be governed by these people.
If there is a good reason for a tunnel/bridge, it is exactly that – for the Gozo Hospital (expecially outpatient and surgical divisions) to be utlisied to the full and thus reduce the load on Mater Dei.
Just when I thought that it couldn’t get worse.
Mentalita ta’ Ghawdxi. Didn’t you ever hear them complain that we ‘Maltese’ go to Gozo and dirty the place? They forget that most restaurants’ patrons are Maltese.
As if Gozo’s Hospital is not financed with our taxes too.
Correction: mentalita ta Laburist Ghawdxi. Nassigurak li in-Nazzjonalisti Ghawdxin (li huma maggoranza) ma jahsbuhiex hekk, inkluz jien.
U ejja Daphne, din cajta hux, mhux veru qal hekk!
[Daphne – http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110205/local/labour-says-yes-to-gozo-tunnel-but ]
He doesn’t even know what the Gozo hospital is: a glorified clinic. That’s why people from Gozo are brought to ‘our’ hospital in Malta for many procedures.
Dave, on this point you are wrong. For most routine operations and procedures (the ones that have the longest waiting lists at Mater Dei), Gozo is well equipped but obviously underutilised.
I remember a time, many years ago, when the Gozo Hospital used to be considered by many as much better than the one in Malta. However that was only because St Luke’s had fallen into such a sorry state that almost anything would be considered much better.
Talking of “chicken brains” is an insult to the chickens when referring to the narrow mindedness of these people.
One must not be surprised, however, at such parochial and small minded thinking.
If the leader can think like a rat (and he is supposed to be the sharpest knife in the Labour drawer) over the Tunisian and Egyptian crises, I am sure his intellectually challenged followers are capable of much worse.
Do you have a youtube link for this?
Dawn in-nies dnub jinsabu Malta u mhumiex fis-Senat Amerikan flok Obama u Clinton.
One has also to look seriously at the risk of, say, Maltese hairdressers crossing over to take the Gozitan’s jobs.
Hadn’t you noticed that there are no hairdressers in Gozo? Why pay when you can do it at home?
What are the chances that they aren’t doing that already? You know, hogging the busiest day of the week, for example?
What else would you expect from him?
Very funny is it?
Tragic, actually, Carmel.
But isn’t this notion of “theirs and ours” inculcated in the Gozitan psyche by the very fact that the PN government insists on having a Ministry for Gozo? The more importance they’re given, the more they assume, I say.
The in-breds’ inbred.
Sad man. BUt then I’m not surprised. His leader looked at the uprisings in Egypt and saw $$$$$$$.
Dear Daphne, all that you mentioned above was the same thing I thought when reading that said by Labour MP Anton Refalo. It is a shame having such M.P.s, in parliament. It is a pity that the Labour Party is being let down by same. I, for one, abstain from voting for the MLP, only because of a few similar members in the Party, the Glorious Party I once embraced.
Glorious party? What periiod were you referring to, Mr. Flores? This one, perhaps? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doky8I7mJSI Or maybe this one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M_ijO8SUE0&feature=related Or could it be this one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI2BxaYmNyA
Glorious party indeed!
I think a bridge would be better than a tunnel. What’s this rubbish about a bridge ruining the landscape? What landscape?
Refalo’s dilemma could be solved this way:
IN on the ferry
OUT in the tunnel
Even the daily commuters will be pleased that way. They will get to work in a jiffy, never mind the trip back home.
Don’t suggest this to Refalo. He’ll take you up on it only because it’s crazy. You cannot have the ferry work one-way only. How will it fund the cost of the empty legs?
… it wasn’t a serious suggestion … I hesitate to call it a joke because it didn’t make anyone laugh, apparently :)
Sounds like a strict importation quota for Gozo. Ever hear of tourism?
Am I right I right in saying that I once read on this blog that the total assets owned by Gozitans were in excess of 600 million euros?
If so, they can quite easily invest some of this dosh to, at least, investigate the feasibility of a Malta-Gozo tunnel – but it’s a well known fact that Gozitans hate to separate themselves from their euros and dollars (Australian and American).
Maybe I’ll stop eating in case my daughter calls and finds me with my mouth full.
Din hi mentalita’ miskina Għawdxija li sfortunatament mhix limitata għal Refalo biss.
Għal kull ħaġa ta’ xejn issib minoranza li jwaħħlu fil-‘Maltojn’. Tiftakruha l-isplużżjoni tal-Għarb? Kien hemm min intervistawh fuq it-TV u qal li l-kamra taret minħabba n-nar li xtraw m’għand il-‘Maltojn’.
X’tippretendi, meta kullhadd, inkuz il-prim ministru taghna, issa adottaw il-frazi IDJOTIKA “il-poplu Malti u Ghawdxi”? BLATA ta’ 360 km kwadru u rridu ninfirdu f’regjuni, u north u south. STUPIDI, IDJOTI, KRETINI u IMBECILLI.
And these are the people who might be governing us after the next election.
Voters, think twice.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. What an utter moron.
It will be interesting to hear from the PL what the likely increase in the cost of living will be to the starving masses. I wait in anticipation.
It’s the same Alfred Sant anti-EU mentality, only more insular.
It’s dual insularity.
Tajba din. It’s OK to take the taxes of ‘the Maltese’ to run Gozo hospital, but it’s not OK if the people who pay for it actually get to use it sometimes.
So what is Anton Refalo and his constituents planning on doing? Putting up a sign saying MALTIN LE outside the hospital and other signs saying MERHBA GHAL MALTIN outside all those restaurants in which not a single Gozitan will ever spend a cent when he can eat at home?
It is not his fault.
He is Gozitan and a Labour man to boot.
Tin a cp schjitt p’ spart i recchj …..
……(Puglia dialect .. translated .. He only uses his head to separate his ears)
There goes another one straight out of Jurassic Park, destined for political stardom when Labour are elected to govern our country.
Has he been appointed as spokesman for something or other? Everyone and his brother seem to have been given a bone to keep them happy. Refalo is probably the one in charge of zvilupp ta’ Ghawdex tan-North.
Let’s see now what his contribution to the tunnel debate has been so far. Put up a road block at the Gozo end and send back to Malta any suspicious ambulances carrying Maltese patients. Only those that can show a Mellieha identity card may be allowed in on the strength of a bilateral agreement with the Mellieha local council.
Any Maltese holidaymaker taken ill while spending his money in Gozo is to be summarily sent back to Mater Dei, preferably on a ferry so as not to congest our tunnel.
Are they all nuts?
Did Malta sign double tax treaties and reciprocal social security agreements with the government of Gozo yet?
Aqtawli il-kurzita.
Joseph Muscat qal cucata nhar il-Hadd bil-progett ambizzjuz li irid itellgha il-Maltin jahdmu Ghawdex, u issa Refalo qal illi ma jridx li tal-Mellieha imorru l-isptar ta’ Ghawdex flok jinzlu Mater Dei.
Dawn jaqaw iridu jizirghaw il-mibgheda bejn il-Maltin u l-Ghawdxin?
X’hemm hazin billi juzaw l-isptar ta’ Ghawdex jekk isir it-tunnel, mela l-isptar ta’ Ghawdex mhux bit-taxxi tal-Maltin ukoll jimxi, ir-restaurants ta’ Ghawdex mhux bil-Maltin qed izommu wara kollox.
Iktar ma izommu halqkom maghluq izjed ahjar.
Could it be that Joe was referring to some intended transfers ‘according to the exigencies of the service and Dr? Refalo was thinking of a thank you for ‘services rendered’? Chi sa? Chi lo sa?
Snoopy, I am not wrong at all. I visited this hospital this week, and it is under equipped, and even in a sorry state. It needs refurbishment and upgrading to function like a real hospital. It is a far cry from Mater Dei.
Another bright idea by Il-Leader
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110206/local/decisions-on-gozo-should-be-taken-by-gozitans-muscat
According to him “Decisions on Gozo should be taken by Gozitans”.
In some cases it would make sense, in exactly the same way that local councils have the right to make various decisions in their locality, but in this case it is being said in the context of the tunnel project which would be funded by all of us and not by some local council budget.
Of course he could always make a ‘gabra’ in Gozo and build the tunnel out of what he collects.
As a Gozitan, I feel truly insulted both by Anton Refalo’s stupid suggestion and by the patronizing, uninformed comments some people are leaving on this blog. For one thing, Anton Refalo’s comments are not representative of what the Gozitans think.
They only serve to:
1) put us in a bad light and to instill more hatred and prejudice in people who should know better;
2) make us realize, come next election, that with all their flaws, Giovanna Debono and Chris Said are far better options than this dimwit by a million times.
There is nothing wrong with people from Malta coming over here for hospital treatment, if it would help to relieve the tough workload at Mater Dei. The only problem is that – as davidg put it – our hospital is under-equipped and in a sorry state. I would think that the people of Mellieha would rather drive the extra miles to Mater Dei than come to Gozo – even if there were a tunnel.
Anton Refalo would have earned my respect if he put forward practical suggestions on how to upgrade our hospital. I know of people who have to travel to Malta regularly to undergo chemotherapy.
Just imagine having to go through the journey to Mater Dei, what with waiting for the ferry in the scorching sun, then putting up with the ferry trip, when one is so seriously sick.
Malta and Gozo are one country and should be treated as such. This also means that people residing in Gozo should be treated in the same way as those in Malta. Parochial comments like those of Anton Refalo only serve to divert the public from this salient fact.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110206/local/we-will-not-allow-labour-to-rewrite-history-pm
“We will not allow Labour to rewrite history – PM.
The government will not allow Labour to rewrite history by painting the 1970s and 1980s as the ‘glory days’ when they were in fact shameful years for the country.
Addressing supporters at the party’s Birkirkara club, Dr Gonzi recalled that under those Labour years the government’s employment strategy was to create corps under military discipline, import restrictions, restrictions on colour televisions, the fear of walking around with the PN newspaper and the fear of being arrested and not knowing whether the person will come out alive from prison.
Dr Gonzi was referring to statements about the social reforms undertaken by successive Labour administrations in the 1970s made this week at the PL’s general conference.”
Dan jigi mil-Fratell nahseb. Insult permanenti ghal l-Ghawdxin kollha (imbarra l-Fratell).
Jien ikolli naqbel mat-tunnel. Kif titlesta inpoggi lil-Refalo fin-nofs u nalquha miz-zewg nahat bil-konkret. (qed niccajta ta’, miskin)
Dan Refalo min dejjem tuba kien.
Mela meta jkun sejjer lejn Ghawdex (wara li jieqaf il-Qawra fejn……..) mhux mil-Mellieha jrid jghaddi dan il-hmar. Jien ma nafx izda il-Mellehin ma nahsibx li jzommulhu ‘TOLL’
Gozo tunnel but no proper water infrastructure? What a country! Valleys are crying for proper maintenance, the water tunnel project to capture rain water?
I understand that it’s important to do the feasibility study before passing judgement but it would be mind-boggingly stupid to blindly go after this before tackling other infrastructure.