After reading what John Dalli said, now read Barroso's words
Compare and contrast EU Commissioner Dalli’s declaration this morning, that Gaddafi should make his own decisions and that protestors may have staged shootings for the media, with the words of EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.
With his words, John Dalli shames and embarrasses not only himself but also his country, because he speaks as somebody appointed by Malta to the EU Commission.
timesofmalta.com, today
TIME FOR GADDAFI TO LEAVE – BARROSO
Ivan Camilleri, Brussels
The European Commission yesterday trebled emergency funds to help ease the humanitarian crisis developing on the Libyan borders with Egypt and Tunisia as Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva flew to the area to personally oversee the EU operation.
Speaking after a meeting of EU commissioners yesterday, Commission president Josè Manuel Barroso announced the allocation of €10 million in EU emergency funds to help set up tents to provide food, temporary shelter and medical aid to thousands of refugees escaping Libya through the Tunisian and Egyptian borders. Mr Barroso said about 140,000 refugees were now amassed on these borders and the EU wants to help in this humanitarian crisis.
He left no doubt on how the EU was viewing Col Gaddafi’s future. “The completely unacceptable actions of the Libyan regime over the last weeks have made it painfully clear Col Gaddafi is part of the problem, not part of the solution,” Mr Barroso said.
“It is time for him to go and give the country back to the people of Libya, allowing democratic forces to chart out a future course. The situation we are seeing in Libya is simply outrageous. We cannot accept this,” he insisted.
Addressing himself at the Libyan people, Mr Barroso said the EU was behind their plight and would do all it could to support them achieve their wishes.
“From Brussels, I want to specifically say this to the young Arabs that are now fighting for freedom and democracy. We are on your side. We remember our own experiences in Europe when we were fighting for democracy – in southern Europe, in central and eastern Europe, where some were saying the fight for democracy will not be successful. Now some are saying the same about the Arab world – that Arabs are not ‘fit’ for democracy. I believe Arabs are ‘fit’ for democracy and we are on their side,” Mr Barroso said.
EU member states are also stepping in to help ease the humanitarian crisis. France will send heavy-lift planes and a ship to secure an air and sea bridge with which to ferry 5,000 Egyptian refugees home within a week.
British Prime Minister David Cameron also announced an airlift to bring migrant Egyptians home from the Tunisian border area, with the first flight scheduled to leave for North Africa today. Italy yesterday also decided to build a refugee camp on the Tunisian border with Libya to host about 10,000 refugees.
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http://www.counterpunch.org/gupta03022011.html
“We are no sugar daddy,” says J Camilleri.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110303/local/eritreans-plead-for-help-for-asylum-seekers-stranded-in-libya
J Camilleri
Whilst I agree that these people are in need of assistance, I wonder to ask why everyone always turn to us and Italy? Aren’t there any other countries in Europe? Aren’t there any other countries in middle east themselves? Aren’t there any other countries in this whole world?
Why do you always expect everything from this tiny little rock in the Mediterranean? Unfortunately I beg to differ with these Eritreans. We already are giving much by you being here when our own children and families need help themselves. So don’t expect more from us, we are no sugar daddy!
If you need help evacuating your brothers and sisters to other countries I’m sure we’ll be there to assist as usual but expect none more from us! Our national interest should and MUST come before!
Time for John Dalli to follow Gaddafi and retire from public life. At least he doesn’t have the noose to worry about.
Why is it that I read Barroso’s words as “Time for John Dalli to leave”?
John Dalli is an albatross round the PM’s neck.
[Daphne – He’s an albatross round all our necks. As Malta’s EU Commissioner he makes us look bad: Malta la valletta di Gaddafi once more.]
Can he be censured by the European Commission?
Can we push to have him impeached, more like.
“Malta la valletta di Gaddafi once more.”
Or perhaps you mean “Malta la prostituta di Gaddafi” once more? If so, just don’t tell Berlusconi.
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_sirte_2nd.html
Yes, as Daphne so eloquently put it, the man is a ”peasant” and a dangerous one at that, but most of all he is a disgrace to Malta.
I trust that our PM will in due time tell him exactly what he thinks of him, and please sir, make it a public admonishment.
Gaddafi and John Dalli should both go as they’re both an embarrassment to their countries.
So for the following couple of months I’ll be judging public figures by their pronouncements on Libya and the Middle East. I have the unfortunate habit of remembering things like these.
Thanks, Dalli, for showing us your true colours. Your presence on John Bundy’s show was well choreographed and almost got me.
I have always considered John Dalli to be an embarrassment to the country. I wonder why they appointed him to represent us in the first place, other than, maybe, to have him out of the way – except that he isn’t.
I am not one to defend John Dalli, but he is right. The Western media (especially the BBC) has been distorting facts to unimaginable extents. Simply unforgivable.
As for Barroso, please! I wouldn’t bother giving much attention to this arse-licking, ex-Maoist charlatan.
John Dalli was out of order because he speaks as a commissioner of the EU.
I know he was out of order, La Redoute. But that concerns me less than the fact that he’s right.
Yes, that’s right. He wasn’t just nattering away to his wife (purse – not bag – tucked under armpit), daughter and extended family at some Portomaso cafe in relative privacy. Even there, one should “izomm id-dekor”, ahseb u ara meta jitkellem fil-pubbliku bhala reprezentant Malti.
Kev, you are unbelievably tiresome.
It’s not surprising that you’re more concerned about Dalli being ‘right’ than his being out of order, seeing as you’re more concerned with international conspiracies than with what is really going on in Libya.
In your determination to labour a point, you say some astoundingly stupid things. If Dalli was out of order, then he was not right. Period.
You’re right, Kev.
Was it not a distortion of facts when the BBC showed images of Gaddafi and dubbed in a voice over saying “All my people love me. My people will die for me all of them.”
And was it not a scene straight from Hollywood when Gaddafi was shown raising a white umbrella while sitting in a golf buggy?
Ciccio2011, I lack the patience to go through the whole thing. The BBC and their cohort are experts in the art of deception.
I’ll just say one thing: this sudden change of heart towards the people of Libya is neither serendipitous nor incidental.
Why was the BBC mum all the while Gaddafi was being propped up by Western leaders, yet it goes into this deceitful frenzy only now when the time is ripe? The propping up is certainly not helping today, so why? Is the BBC so callous towards its ostensible public mission?
The answer is in the question. It is all a matter of timing. That’s right, this ‘Jasmine revolution’ across the Arab world was not only foreseen, it was predetermined, which does not necessarily mean ’caused’ as much as it was ‘allowed to happen’ and its way paved.
If I have time I will outline some interesting insights emerging from the alternative media (which is where REAL investigative journalism takes place, not the BBC-Pravda).
We wait with bated breath. Something tells me this is going to be as thrilling as Gaddafi’s book of short stories, “Escape to Hell”.
kev, I’m sure the US has some plans archived somewhere about invading Malta. They have plans on invading the UK, and France and Italy.
AFAIK part of a general’s job is to take part in the theoretical invasion plans and war gaming new technologies, tactics and strategies. Iraq’s invasion was war gamed well before Rumsfeld/Cheney came around with their invasion lite and the outcome was always negative unless the US military went in with a massive force. That’s what Shinseki said.
By the same token, I’m sure the CIA and part of the diplomatic corps (civilian as well) has its fingers meddling around all countries of interest (natural resources & weak governments/dictators). I assume you read the Quiet American. What Iraq and Afghanistan and Cuba’s Bay of Pigs and the uprising against Chavez etc… have shown is that unless the people are ready to die for the cause then there’s nothing much that a foreign force can do short of a massive invasion to pin down the territory from day one.
This is an indigenous revolution the effort is local period.
On Xarabank tonight, the Graffiti guy asked why we and Europe didn’t act before. If there wasn’t a strong enough indigenous upwelling of protest, then a European intervention would have been a very expensive fool’s errand. Kif jghid il-Malti: tidħolx bejn il-basla u qoxrità għax tieħu reħita.
Sorry Joseph A. Borg, but you’re on the wrong track. What you’re talking about is hardly relevant to what I’m saying.
Now had you referred to the 1970s Kissinger deal that’s about to expire – the we-cap-our-oil-and-buy-yours-while you-buy-our-debt deal – then I would have sensed you were on the right track.
Here are some pearls – which I’ll throw randomly here for all to sniff. After the region is inflamed, and the Kissinger deal expires in the form of a double-cross, the Saudis and their satelites will be left holding worthless treasury bonds in the trillions, while the capped oil in the US will be uncapped, not to the benefit of the American people, who will have to pay over $200 a barrel for their own oil in the new global currency, but to the benefit of the globalists who own them and whose country is the globe.
There, now have a good laugh.
At least we can say that prisoners serving a sentence in Brussels are free to speak their mind. I am not sure we can say that about prisoners taken by Gaddafi.
http://euobserver.com/9/31923
Meanwhile, the director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, Howard Davies, has resigned because of links with Libya. These links included accepting funds for the university from Gaddafi’s charity fund and agreeing to train Libyan civil servants.
Quite frankly I don’t blame him for having these links. I mean until a few months ago, we thought Gaddafi was a ‘reformed’ man (compared to what he was in the 80s). But he felt that it wasn’t appropriate to be in such a position and at the same time admitting that he had links to Gaddafi.
So I ask myself why should a director of a London university feel compelled to resign just because he accepted funds from Gaddafi while an EU commissioner who has business ties and interests with the Gaddafi family, doesn’t? Isn’t the latter in a more grave situation and doesn’t he have a more serious cause for resignation?
The difference is in the moral fibre of the two men: one is motivated by a sense of decency, the other by his own pride.
The article referred to Mr. Barroso and Prime Minister Cameron: two gentlemen, who whether one agrees with their political views or not, always show a certain dignity and a certain grace. John Dalli never loses any opportunity to drive home the fact that he possesses neither of these qualities.
Ghaxxaqta nahseb, Gann, ghax anke go Brussels irrapurtaw x`ghedt.