Unbelievable: look who's talking about preaching retribution

Published: March 4, 2011 at 11:09am

John Dalli sits with Labour deputy leaders Anglu and Toni at a Labour Party event to celebrate 40 years of collaboration between the Labour Party and Muammar Gaddafi

I’m glad to see that somebody has got onto the Prisoner of Zenda at last, though we’re now almost two weeks into the Libya crisis, and they had to wait for a ‘business breakfast’ organised by the Malta Business Bureau this morning.

Maybe every newsroom in this country has lost his telephone number, or perhaps they don’t care about John Dalli and Libya but only about John Dalli and gOnzIPn.

It’s pointless having me try to ring him because he hates my guts and won’t take the call (I’m guessing you’ve noted he’s not big on rising above things – see points on ‘retribution’ below).

Unfortunately, it was a reporter whose agenda – at least from what I know of him and the angles he takes – tends to coincide with John Dalli’s, which might be why he didn’t get him up against the wall about his reputedly extensive business interests in Libya and his connections there with the Gaddafi regime.

Nor did Kurt Sansone ask John Dalli why his brother Bastjan, the prisoner of Corradino who hears voices at his cell door and from whom the prisoner of Zenda hasn’t distanced himself but rather the opposite, ran off to seek refuge in, of all places, Libya, when the Malta police were looking for him in connection with that cargo of green soap intercepted on the Jolly Roger off Fawwara one night.

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timesofmalta.com, this morning

Libya events amount to civil war – John Dalli
Kurt Sansone

Muammar Gaddafi’s acceptance of Hugo Chavez call for conciliation could be an indication that he is feeling uneasy on the ground and is trying to find a way out, EU Commissioner John Dalli said this morning.

Having had close personal business ties with Libya, Mr Dalli said he feared the current situation will sow the seeds for more strife.

“I know the Libyans and as much as they believe in forgiveness, they also preach retribution,” he said.
Mr Dalli was asked about Libya during a breakfast meeting on EU competitiveness, organised by the Malta Business Bureau.

Mr Dalli said it would be wrong for anyone to tell Libyans what to do but condemned the violence that is going on.

He said it was “pitiful” that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted she was relying on media reports to know what is happening in Libya.

“The media is treating this almost as a reality show and sometimes I doubt whether some of the images we see are stage managed,” he said.

Mr Dalli said that what was happening in Libya was a civil war.
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Well, he’s a fine one to talk about retribution, having dedicated the last seven years to its pursuit. The word he actually used was ‘vindication’ and Kurt Sansone cleaned it up to make him look better, not like somebody who thinks that ‘vendikazzjoni’ translates as ‘vindication’. Anyway, the word they were both looking for was ‘vengeance’.

John Dalli has become Retribution Central, but perhaps that’s why he rubbed along so well with the henchmen of the Gaddafi regime. He either picked up the traits or he had them to start with, and they understood each other well. If the Libyans he knows are the sort who preach retribution, then this gives me a pretty clear idea of the kind of people he mixed around with. The Libyans I know don’t preach retribution or seek to get revenge for something they think has been taken away from them.

So he thinks that some of the images he sees on the televison are stage-managed. The trouble is, he didn’t say by whom or which ones, and nobody asked him. Does he mean that Gaddafi is stage-managing press trips (we know he is) or does he mean that nasty Americans and Al Qaeda are faking shots of dead people? I think we should be told.




9 Comments Comment

  1. Mark says:

    Kurt Sansone and John Dalli: good combination. They are both driven by one agenda: the anti-GonziPN agenda.

  2. Bus Driver says:

    Once a prima donna, always a prima donna – even when not a very successful one.

  3. Ragunament bazwi - the Kurt Sansone edition says:

    Kurt Sansone identified John Dalli as a former foreign minister, implying that this is his sole connection with Libya.

    [Daphne – He did say that he has business interests there.]

    • Ragunament bazwi - the John Dalli edition says:

      Sansone used the past tense. Has John Dalli no business connection with Libya, directly on indirectly?

      [Daphne – Doubtless he will tell us that his daughters did it.]

  4. Maria says:

    I was wondering where “Johnny taghna” was.

  5. el bandido guapo says:

    Suppose we were expecting Hillary to publicly state that her info was coming from the CIA’s operatives on the ground, and advanced surveillance equipment instead… yes really.

  6. .Antoine Vella says:

    The report says that Dalli had business interests in Libya. The implication is that he doesn’t anymore. Is this true?

    I’m not versed in international protocol but it doesn’t seem proper for an EU commissioner to pass denigratory remarks about the US administration. Although not responsible for the EU’s foreign policy, Dalli is part of the Commission after all.

    Sansone’s report is not correct on another point. Dalli said “…one has to understand, it is in their nature, in their religion, that while we preach forgiveness, they preach vindication (?) “ I’m not sure about the last word but it sounded like ‘vindication’.

    If this is so, it’s not only a glaring malapropism (due to phonetc translation from Maltese) but the whole statement smacks of crude stereotyping (he also calls Libyans ‘headstrong’) which is totally inappropriate for a man in his position.

    One of the reasons Dalli suspects the video clips are stage-managed is that he sees “placards in perfect English.”

  7. TROY says:

    Just imagine if we had John Dalli as prime minister now instead of Lawrence Gonzi.

  8. Grezz says:

    Maybe he’s just trying to save his family’s asses, in case they return to Libya at some point in the future.

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