They've done it
The old flag of Libya, flying above the embassy in H'Attard today
The old flag of Libya has been raised on the Libyan embassy rooftop in H’Attard, to great cheers from demonstrators who have been standing outside the embassy even in the driving rain, since Monday last week.
The ambassador said this morning that he did not ask the police to intervene because he did not want any clashes between them and the demonstrators, any violence, outside the embassy.
I think he waited until Malta made its position clear and final before allowing demonstrators to take down the green flag of Gaddafi’s revolution and raise the old one.
He strikes me as being one of those ‘correct procedure’ types.
I looked through the notes I took at the demonstration outside the embassy a week ago, and saw a quote I took from one of the Libyans there, about the green flag:
“Dik mhux taghna. Dik tieghu. Dik ghalina tfisser habs.”
Having grown up with Libyan green in Mintoff’s Malta, I have the merest inkling of how they feel. The Libyan flag was everywhere in those days, flying atop Villa Drago in Sliema, the Mainguard outside our parliament house, the embassy (just about acceptable) and on a myriad of Gaddafi-related occasions.
Back in those days, we said ‘Libya’. Now we know to say Gaddafi.
Some of the comments beneath the relevant report on timesofmalta.com as usual beggar belief. One told the demonstrators to go home and leave H’Attard in peace now that they have got what they wanted. Another called them part-time heroes who protested outside the embassy instead of at home in Libya. Perhaps he remains unaware that for many of them, Malta is home. I imagine he knows that the Maltese in London back in the 1970s shared our objection to Dom Mintoff, with the exception of Soho man Jean Agius.
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FACEBOOK WALL UPDATE
David Friggieri and Franco Farrugia commented on David Friggieri’s status.
Graffiti should seriously consider gate-crashing a couple of talk shows
Franco Farrugia likes this..
Franco Farrugia No. Wrong! Graffiti should first be slightly more mature, more organised, and know exactly what they want. I am the first to defend them against those who are against them. But they have to clean uup their act and not be given bad advice, David.
Yesterday at 8:25am · Franco Farrugia Did you read Bocca’s article of insults, hurled at Graffiti? He is your colleague at Uni. Why don’t you speak to him about it, face to face?
Yesterday at 8:29am · Franco Farrugia Imissu jisthi, juza termini bhal dawk! Bic-carlatana habiba tieghu!
Yesterday at 8:30am · Franco Farrugia Fejn iridu, umbaghad, jaghmluha tal-puri iktar minn Kristu!
Yesterday at 8:30am · Franco Farrugia Ghandek lil xi hadd ma jixtieqlekx gid, David! Din id-diskussjoni reggghet sabet ruhha fil-blog ta’ D. X’pateticita’ ta’ nies, hux, imma? U ghadha tahseb li ahna ‘stalkers’! X’mara minfuha biha nnifisha. Tad-dahk u tal-genn fl-istess hin.
2 hours ago · David Friggieri boqq, can’t find it. i’m fine with criticism and sarcasm, no prob. but fascists tend to go a few steps further and hit below the belt. we’ll see what they come up with.
I wonder what course he is studying at the moment this Soho man. He is always seen at the Malta university canteen.
Probably catering, then.
You forgot to mention our old passports. And the embarrassment when showing them to the passport officers abroad.
Wonderful!
Great. But why do we recognise dictators in the first place by accepting their diplomats?
[Daphne – Because once you recognise the state – not its ruler – you have to accept its emissaries.]
Malta passport embarrassment: I well remember being stopped at a Swiss border post by an incredulous Swiss policeman who evidently had never seen anything like it before – bajtar tax-xewk, wheat winnowing instruments etc – retreating with my passport to his glass cubicle to consult some superior, holding his sides with laughter then trying to put on a straight face as he handed it back to me before waving me on.
Sometime in the late 80s I was on this five-week course in the Swiss town of Rheinfelden where you could walk across a bridge into Germany. I still remember the first time I did this and was returning to Switzerland.
As soon as the border guard saw the green passport and started to examine it I could see an immediate sense of fascination coupled with suspicion. I was taken in; questions, checks on computers and a marked sense of disappointment when it turned out that I was just a normal, law-abiding European after all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PXhxgt_ML8
“We DON’T love him. His hands are stained with blood. With children’s blood. We love Omar Al Mukthar who fought for twenty years for independence and gave us this flag. This is the flag of independent Libya.
Thank you. We thank all the Maltese people and the Prime Minister. He’s one of the best. And it’s the news reports that say that, not just I. He saved the lives of thousands of people. Not just Maltese – from China, from all over the world. We thank everyone and we apologise to Malta’s police. Thank you, thank you.”
Two timesofmalta.com comment gems for you:
Louis Gialanze
)The Eritrean people in Libya can always go back to their country where they are sorely needed. They wil be too much of a strain on the economy of Malta; an island bereft of any resources,which gets 60 per cent of it’s potable water from the sea.
mario gellel
MIN JAF, FORSI IKOLNA IL-MALTIN TA L’AWSTRALJA JIPROTESTAW KONTRA IL-GVERN TA GONZI TALLI FAQQAR LIL MALTA U GAB LIL MALTIN JITTALBU ?????????
KIF INGHIDU>> F’DIN ID-DINJA KOLLOX POSSIBLI……..
GREAT MINDS DISCUSSING IDEAS ON RAPHAEL VASSALLO’S FACEBOOK – that would make you an idea, Daphne. Are you their sole topic of conversation? Some intellectuals, hanging around in a conversation where somebody calling himself Kaiser Farrugia refers to you as It. There’s a word to describe people like this: inadequates.
Patrick Galea i know it’s daphne, but it’s also lord of the rings, so i’m a bit torn on this one… :D
Marco Attard Add “nerds” to the list of things Defni both hates and uses as an insult.
Karl ‘Kaiser’ Farrugia Simple minds have simple ideas. This includes sticking to stereotypes like it’s a gospel.
Karl ‘Kaiser’ Farrugia I think the best quote, and one of my personal favourites, in this case would be “Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people”. Daphne is happily standing somewhere between average and small.
Raphael Vassallo ah, boo, i left out the best bit at the end:
David Friggieri You can almost imagine a prison camp run by those folks. Nice, neat categories of undesirables: ‘Lord of The Rings fan’, ‘Unmarried’, ‘Maltese intellectual scum’, ‘Folks who once wore a Che Guevara T-shirt’…
Josanne Cassar and a special pen reserved just for…obsessive jealous stalkers
David Friggieri Oh and ‘Men who fathered children latish in life’. That’s a big no-no.
Jacques René Zammit Ich bin ein wankellectual.
Karl ‘Kaiser’ Farrugia I have this weird feeling that it (not an error) was bullied/molested by a somewhat unintelligent kid, wearing a Che tshirt, who comes from a Labour family, and whose parents were unmarried, and as it turns out, was a LOtR fan (taking the list from David’s previous comment). Oh, and hung out with radio celebrities. Must be the only valid reason for this idiot being who it is.
David Friggieri And while we’re at it. Does anyone know where The Times de Malte got that brilliant idea to place a jester’s hat on Joseph Muscat’s head in its cartoons? (I’m no big fan of JM but still want to know the logic behind it…)
Jacques René Zammit It’s jester joke. Geddit?
David Friggieri What’s the difference between John Galliano and…? Ejja, ghidilhom Gwakk. hehe
Jacques René Zammit do you know the secret of comedy david?
Andrew Vinci i’d say she has a crush on you
Raphael Vassallo andrew… i’m scared to even ask who you’re referring to, and what you mean. please don’t give me those kind of frights ever again, ever…
David Darmanin Ejja Raph, you’re in denial. You quite like her too :)
Raphael Vassallo right, that’s it. i hereby officially resign from the human race…
Andrew Vinci hehe :)
Matthew Vella Qaluli li kien hawn qatta’ wannabes fuq din it-thread…
Mona Farrugia Malli rajt ‘wannabes’ ghidt ha nidhol…
about an hour ago.
Matthew Vella @ Claire – if being a LOTR fan is the way to its heart I suggest driving a blunt spoon through it. Infected with cat aids.
[Daphne – Is this for real, or are you making it up? You mean to say that these are actually people in their late 30s and early 40s, talking like teenagers behind the bicycle shed and speculating about crushes? Tal-biki. Arrested development tal-babaw. As for Matthew Vella, he hates anyone he considers to have been privileged, but if you’re a builder with lots of money, that’s fine by him. It’s the other sort he can’t stand. Yes, driving a blunt spoon infected with cat AIDS through my heart, indeed: I’d like to hear the pants-pissing coward say that to my face. Nice editor they’ve got there at Malta Today. Really classy. As for that discussion on whether Raphael has a crush on me or I on him, I’m guessing that he hasn’t told them how he knows me.]
OH LOOK, ‘THE GREAT MINDS’ AND REVOLUTIONARIES WERE DISCUSSING ‘GREAT IDEAS’ ON FACEBOOK EVEN YESTERDAY: IQASQSU FUQ DAPHNE. They really do have an obsession with you.
———
Raphael Vassallo actually i’ll take back the ‘ironic’ part. There’s nothing ironic about it at all: lies, more lies and deliberate distortions are about the only things you can really expect from that direction anyway
Andrew Galea Well lets face it… she lost the plot a while ago
James Debono even in malta protesters burned an italian flag…
Miriam Dalli and they shouted during protests …
Karl Zammit German @ james i burn an italian flag every world cup! lol
James Portelli SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE buhahaha
Guido Farrugia Come off it Raph….. who Cares what Daphne says anyways!!!! She looked so darned stupid trying to intervene
James Portelli what a colossal gaffe
Raphael Vassallo lol – she evidently didn’t run a spellcheck on her latest headline: ‘The debearded wonder and his army of Lord of the Rings afiscionados and Che wannabes are planning a revoluzzjoni kbira’
Miriam Dalli beware: we are armed
Raphael Vassallo yeah… with dictionaries
Raphael Vassallo …afiscionado called Wanda…
Karl ‘Kaiser’ Farrugia Raph, you’re doing it all wrong… Daphne is an internet troll (and looks like a real life one too). You DO NOT feed the troll. Just let her preach to her fascist mono-cellular-brained pygmies, while you focus on thing that are REALLY important in life. Or at least more important than her. Like Grande Fratello.
Raphael Vassallo Yep. Very good point Karl. Any LOTR aficionado (which would be me by the way) should know better than to feed a troll…
Raphael Vassallo Took her a while but she finally corrected it. Clap, clap…
Guido Farrugia Corrected what? She could’nt have, could she? Never heard of anyone purchasing brain cells!!!
Anna Zammit She’s a waste of space, why bother?
[Daphne – The irony escapes my stalkers: they expend so much time and effort on discussing why I should be ignored and not bothered about. Il-vera braindead u ffissati. Oh, and James Portelli must be the James Portelli who is Julia Farrugia’s boyfriend, and whose father was a sort of Mintoff factotum on various state corporation boards. ]
Actually during the late 50s , 60s & 70s Dom Mintoff had a big behind-closed-doors following with the liberal minded Maltese in a crowd around West London & Soho, don’t you know, yes I can hear you laughing.
Jean Agius even though infamously ultra-Mintoffian, wasn’t the only Labour Soho connection – quite the contrary, Aguis was a ħut żgħir in a pond of bigger fish who danderly plyed their trade.
Perhaps the Malta High Commision Piccadilly party crowd objected to Dom’s administration, but I can”t imagine who else.