Mhux ta’ bizzejjed ghandu l-mara tmexxieh minn denbu; in-nanna jonqsu.

The one-man band we called Trikkas was a beacon of light for those whose recognised what was wrong with the oppressive regime, the police state, we loathed so much.

In one of his performances he very clearly said, “Biex niftakkru fl-imghoddi u biex inkun avvzati ghal-futur”, right before he performed his Maltese version of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven, a song which he transformed into a protest against police brutality and state control.

Never would I have imagined that such a statement would be so relevant as it has become today. I always post this statement in my guest posts on this blog as my website (just google Marcus under Daphne’s blog site), but only now has it really sunk in that we should remember what we went through in order to prevent a repeat of the times that we were put through.

If anyone has the excerpt of the track, especially with the phrase, “Biex Niftakkru fl-Imghoddi u biex Inkun Avvzati ghal-futur”, please upload it to youtube (or anyother host) and post the link here.

It was 1984 not 1986 I think that the SAC was closed. Not sure if Joseph was a student in 1984.

If the massive unemployment we had during his time is anything to go by, then he was nothing short of a spectacular failure. A minister of industry who resorted to employing 8000 men and women within the civil service and government bodies a few months if not weeks prior to the 1987 general election.

How about that for a record to be proud of.

And yet he seemed about to take flight for all the gesticulating and posturing at the general conference. You would have thought direct foreign investment was chasing after him for a slice of the action in the toothpaste, toilet paper and chocolate market.

Let’s see what this paragon of industry left behind after 6 years of yachting in and out of Ghadira. So 8000 jobs costing the taxpayer about EUR60,000,000 a year in wages, national insurance contrbutions and administration. Money that had to be raised every year in every budget.

Someone asked “where have all the millions gone?” in an earlier post. There you go, not a bad place to start.

This old Mintoffian unemployment minister, one tit short of an udder and labour spokesman for the economy and finance, is now writing our future to 2018. How about that for a Labour scoop.

I would say that Joseph Muscat is behaving politically like a fox. He sees Mintoff’s death as a great opportunity to fill a vacuum in the party.

He will quickly move in and claim he is the new saviour. And the propaganda has already began. It actually began when we were told he was one of the youngest leaders of the party, with Mintoff.

However, as you suggest, he probably underestimates the fact that so many people despise the Mintoffian years.

But I believe that he also underestimates another important quantum which you mentioned. It’s Alfred Sant’s presence in the party.

Did Joseph forget the underground tuitions we used to get as if we were Jews in Nazi Germany?

Was it then when the nanna told her nephew how great Mintoff is?

Does Joseph honestly think those were Golden Years?

Once a port of call for NATO warships, Malta under Labor increasingly turned to the Soviet Union, North Korea and Libya for economic and military aid.

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And, typically, that amateurish policy was designed to fail:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,923653-2,00.html#ixzz1DeH1YA3H

Mintoffs assault on the church may be designed at least in part to distract attention from economic problems. The unemployment rate has been estimated at close to 20%, and tourism is down. Despite the huge trade deal with the Soviets, not a single ruble’s worth of merchandise has been exchanged so far. “It’s a very traditional pattern for the Soviets,” said a State Department official. “Massive trade agreements, good publicity, then nobody pays attention to the follow-up.”