A textbook lesson in how to screw things up when a simple press statement would have saved the day
I found out earlier in the day that Omar Fathi Bin Shatwan, Libya’s former oil minister, who was reported by Associated Press as having come to Malta “in a fishing boat”, actually came here in a trawler, yes, but not just any old trawler. It’s the one used by a group of Maltese businessmen to ferry aid out to Misurata.
Mr Bin Shatwan is now staying at the Westin Dragonara Resort where he has been visited by the Labour Party’s Karmenu Vella and where he is accompanied for much of the time by a Maltese businessman, a Mr Sullivan. His wife and three children are with him (but more about that further along).
John Dalli Today is currently berating me in its online version for revealing Mr Bin Shatwan’s whereabouts in an earlier post (“a local blogger” – somebody tell them that nothing which happens on the worldwide web can possibly be local), claiming that his security has had to be “beefed up” as a result. What tosh. He could have moved to a different hotel if he was really that bothered – but he wasn’t, so much so that up until the time of writing the reception desk had no instructions not to put calls through or give out his room number. And he’s staying under his own name.
It occurred to me that he might have come here on the returning aid ship because Associated Press reported that he got to Malta on Friday, and I knew that the aid trawler had returned to Malta that same day. So I phoned my contacts who work on the aid shipments and after some humming and hawing they said that yes, he did hitch a ride on the return leg.
So I asked some questions and here are the answers.
Q. Was he alone, or were there others who fled with him?
A. He was not alone. There were many others.
Q. Who are they?
A. I don’t know.
Q. Why are you allowing people without visas onto the returning vessel? That constitutes facilitating illegal immigration.
A. We are not responsible for the ship. It is the captain’s responsibility. We are only responsible for the outward journey and not for what happens on the return journey. I think you are making a bit too much of a fuss about it. Visas for Malta are issued in Tripoli. He couldn’t go to Tripoli for a visa.
(The Maltese embassy in Tripoli has been closed for some weeks.)
Q. Would somebody who is not a former Libyan oil minister have been given the same treatment, and allowed on board without a visa? Would he have been given a visa while in transit?
A. As I said, we have nothing to do with the return journey. It’s up to the captain to allow on board anyone he wants to.
Q. I hardly think so. The Libyan captain would not have known who to call to rush a visa through for a former Gaddafi minister. Mr Bin Shatwan probably knew a few people in Malta who he could call himself.
A. Politicians always look after their own.
Q. Yes, and in western democracies, they are answerable to the public.
A. I don’t think it was interesting to the public to know that this man came to Malta or how he got here. He hasn’t been a minister for some years.
Q. You’re wrong there. If it were not interesting, the Associated Press would not have wired the story round the world. And if it were not interesting, I wouldn’t be speaking to you about it now. Don’t you think that allowing these people to use your aid ship to come to Malta builds negative perception about what you are doing, and that it might lead to accusations of ulterior motives – that the primary purpose is helping people to escape, while the aid is just by-the-by? Are the people who use the ship to flee from Misurata to Malta, like Mr Bin Shatwan, paying to get on?
A. No, nobody is paying anything. I think the attitude is that they should help anyone to escape who wants to escape. But as I said, we have nothing to do with the return journey. If you want my honest opinion, yes, I do think it damages perception about our aid efforts. But we can’t do anything about it.
Q. When you gave an interview to The Times last week, you spoke about the prime minister having appointed a liaison officer in his office, to help you get things sorted for these aid shipments. The prime minister confirmed, in a subsequent interview, that this is so. Is this liaison officer the person who sorts out the visas for the people who come to Malta from Misurata, like Mr Bin Shatwan? Who is the liaison officer and why haven’t his name and number been made known to other aid organisations?
A. I don’t know whether the liaison officer has anything to do with the visas. I have nothing to do with the visas. I can’t tell you who the liaison officer is.
———-
Then I called Melvyn Mangion, spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Q. I have confirmation that Omar Fathi Bin Shatwan came to Malta on the returning aid trawler, and not “on a fishing-boat”, and that he was not alone but one of a party. How many others were there, who were they, were they all issued with emergency visas and if so, on what grounds? Is the liaison officer at the Auberge de Castille there to handle visas or to handle aid requests?
A. Please email your questions and I will get back to you after speaking to the minister.
Q. Certainly not. You are expected to be fully prepared and briefed to reply to any question from the media as it comes in. I am not going to email questions and wait for an answer at your convenience. If you don’t know how to answer my questions, or if you are not authorised to do so, then please take them down and ring me back.
A. I am the minister’s spokesman. My job is to say what they tell me to say. I can’t take the initiative.
Q. I cannot believe you are telling me that. As the minister’s spokesman, you are the minister’s interface with the media and the public. Your role is to be proactive, not reactive. You should be sitting down every morning and evening with your minister and he should brief you about everything which has occurred. Then you should decide what information should be released proactively (before anyone asks for it or shows you up by releasing it before you do) and plan how to reply to questions on information that you have decided not to release, because people are bound to find out. When you get a question from the press, you should only revert to the minister as a last resort and not as the default position. And you should never ask journalists to email their questions to you. It is you who are at their disposal and not they who are at yours. I’m sorry I’m hectoring you like this, but this is really unbelievable.
(A reciprocal bollocking follows, which I shall not report here, as we ended on a civilised note.)
Q.Please go to your minister and tell him that I want to know how many were on that boat from Misurata, what their names are, whether they were granted emergency visas, and on what basis.
A. OK, if that’s the way you want it, I’ll ring you back.
(Five minutes later)
A. The minister told you that at this moment there is no information which he believes should be divulged, and that the case of Mr Bin Shatwan is not of public interest anyway. He is not a goverment minister anymore.
Q. Please go back to your minister and tell him from me that it is not up to him to decide what is of public interest, that he is obliged to respond to questions from the media and does not do so on a voluntary basis, and that Mr Bin Shatwan’s case was of public interest to begin with, but has been rendered more so by the manner of his entry into Malta. Please also make a point of telling him that we are no longer living in the days of Dom Mintoff and ‘mhux fl-interess tal-poplu.’
A. I’ll ring you back.
(Ten minutes later)
A. The minister said that only one person asked for an emergency visa, Mr Bin Shatwan, and that he had a Schengen visa anyway so it didn’t really matter, but he had left his Schengen visa behind.
Q. If he left his Schengen visa behind, then he must have arrived without a passport, because visas are stamped into passports and not kept separately in a wallet. Please be specific. If he arrived without a passport, how could you have known who he was?
A. There were people who could vouch for him.
Q. My information that he was not alone is 100% reliable. So how can you tell me now that only one person required a visa?
A. That is what the minister told me. That only one person required a visa. You could always check with the immigration police to see if they had any requests themselves.
Q. Surely you are not serious. It’s your job to check with the immigration police, not mine. Or are you telling me that your minister doesn’t know whether aid ships are being used to bring in people without visas, and that he can’t be bothered to find out?
A. That’s all I can tell you. Sometimes we say nothing because questions lead to questions and then more questions and it never ends.
Q. It never ends because you don’t release the information to start with. If you want to avoid persistent questions, try giving the answers first. And in any case, your job is to answer questions. So I don’t know why you’re complaining.
(Another reciprocal bollocking followed, in which I told Mr Mangion, the foreign minister’s spokesman, that they cannot apply the methods and mores of bandclub communication and bandclub politics to the international scenario, and that they had better get a grip on themselves, and in which he told me that it’s not his fault etc etc etc and why don’t I see XYZ.)
——-
Meanwhile, I had rung the prime minister’s communications officer, Gordon Pisani, with the same questions (he wasn’t daft enough to ask me to email them to him), and he rang back immediately.
A. There were five people in the party: Mr Bin Shatwan, his wife and three children. One of the children has a British passport, so only the remaining four were issued with emergency visas. They arrived in Malta at 2pm last Friday.
——–
So I rang the foreign minister’s spokesman again.
Q. Please explain why you felt it necessary to lie to me and say that only one emergency visa was issued, when there were four, and that Mr Bin Shatwan was alone, when he was with his wife and three children.
A. That is what the minister told me.
Q. Then perhaps you had better tell your minister that it is most unwise to lie to his spokesman, who then unwittingly finds himself lying to the press in turn.
A. Look, I already said that I am the spokesman and that I say what they tell me to say.
Q. Yes, and I have already explained to you that you and your employer misconstrue the requirements of your job.
(More reciprocal bollocking follows.)
A. After all, I don’t see what’s so interesting about this story. The man isn’t a government minister. He’s not under a travel ban.
Q. If you can’t see what’s so interesting about this story, then you’re in the wrong job. If it were not interesting, the Associated Press would not have wired it around the world, and it would not have been reported round the world, either. In any case, it’s not for you to decide what’s interesting to the public. The public decides that, and the press delivers if you fail to deliver the information yourself. You should have issued a statement immediately he arrived, or failing that, the prime minister should have announced it at his press conference the following Monday. It’s bad enough that the public has been cheated of its due in terms of democratic scrutiny of government action, in parliament, because the Opposition has closed ranks with the government on this one and has no interest in asking questions. And then you have the nerve to say that the press shouldn’t be asking questions either?
A. Look, we didn’t release the information because he (referring to Mr Bin Shatwan) didn’t want it to be released. He’s a private person after all.
Q. What? The man comes here, trading on his political connections, to demand emergency visas for his entire family but one, and then dictates to the government of Malta whether it should release this information to the citizens of Malta or not? And the government of Malta thinks it requires his permission, or believes that its overriding obligations are to him and not to the electorate? This is unbelievable. I think both your minister and Mr Bin Shatwan need to have it carefully explained to them that this is not Tripoli under Gaddafi.
A. What I meant was why pick on him in particular? Malta is full of really high profile Libyans at the moment, and he’s nobody special.
Q. Thank you for telling me that. Who are they?
A. I can’t say.
Q. Can’t say or won’t say? Now that parliament is completely hamstrung on the matter of Libya, and we can’t expect any Opposition MP to demand information on the number of visas issued to Libyan nationals or the identity of high-profile members of the Gaddafi regime who are currently in Malta, you have a press question about it on your hands. I am not going to email it to you. Please ring me back.
A. All right.
———–
I’m still waiting. And I haven’t got the name of the liaison officer at the Auberge de Castille. I think some people don’t realise that they are no longer playing in the sphere of domestic politics, and that the methods they use for battibekki between Joseph Muscat and Lawrence Gonzi just don’t work beyond that.
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Daphne for President. But then again we like you too much to lumber you with that job. We said President for one reason: isn’t he the one who’s supposed to be looking after our citizens’ rights? Another one for onlyinmalta.com.
You’ll never get that phone call. Government employees like Melvyn Mangion are the reason this country is f**ked. Contacts over competence. That’s the way it goes. It’s frustrating to see my former schoolmates f**king up so spectacularly while rising through the ranks.
So you’re an old Aloysian. You must then be an exception to what seems to be the rule.
What is the rule? A high-flying career, love-handles, a receding hairline and a wobbly-bottomed girlfriend? I suppose I am an exception.
Yes, please tell us what the rule is. I’d really like to know. And Baxxter, if you are an Aloysian, you could, as one ‘serio et constanter’ to another, tell me who you are!
Let’s sing together “Work play day by day….”
Some Old Aloysians are girls/women.
Who’s the minister’s wobbly bottomed girlfriend?
That’s a thumbnail sketch of the average Maltese yuppie. There may be some adjustable parameters.
…College years crawl away…
Expect more and larger f…k ups whilst Libya is in turmoil. It’s interesting to see how far up favours for favours is going. Here’s hoping the pot boils over and we finally see the putrid reasons for all this fence-posturing .I wonder how we are looked at regarding our Schengen responsibilities.
The police should delve deeper into this story. There could be more to it.
I’m afraid the police are more likley to turn up at Daphne’s door to investigate her ‘interference’ in this ‘private’ matter.
I wouldn’t have said this just a few weeks ago because I had naively thought it was beyond them behave in this way.
I had them knocking on my door as well. Somebody, whose name I shall not divulge for the time being, used the police to harass me.
The Police are too busy making sure no girls had a beer while they listened to James Blunt….
If you need some consolation just have a look at Smash News to remind yourself that we’d be even worse with the other lot.
There’s just been a rerun of his scary interview by Musumeci and now he’s ranting about Europe and everything else.
Superb investigative work, Daphne!
If, as this “spokesman” said, Mr. Bin Shatwan is just an ordinary person (or something to that effect), then surely – having entered Malta illegally – he should spend the necessary 18 months in detention, as do those perceived to be lesser mortals? Or are some people more equal than others? The same goes for the members of his family who have been granted emergency visas.
What a messy situation! It make one wonder why strings have been pulled. Min jaf kemm hemm qrunijiet li ghad jridu jitkixxfu.
… jew li jibzghu li jitkixxfu jekk ma jaghmlux dak li jghidulhom.
I quote: “I think the attitude is that they should help anyone to escape who wants to escape.”
It is known that there are thousand of people wishing to leave Misrata. The Turkish hospital ship (ferry) refused anyone on board other than the patients and a few of their relatives.
So what is this special treatment to Omar Fathi Bin Shatwan and family? Aren’t we all waiting now to know who these other high profile Libyans are! They must be more special than Mr Shatwan since “he’s nobody special”.
I wonder whether the various spokesmen dealing with the press on behalf of government (OPM, ministries etc) have ever heard of Alastair Campbell. They are reactive not proactive; up to now they have had quite a cushy job, but with this crisis boiling away merrily, they find that they are having to deal not only with Maltese journalists who get fobbed off with anything (bar one).
We have seen the results in the Sky News and Al Jazeera interviews; we are learning news items about Malta from foreign news channels and press agencies. Today we had the Italian Interior Minister Maroni speaking about the refugee boat tragedy and trying to fob off responsibility on the Maltese authorities by speaking about territorial waters, search and rescue area.
The AFM issued a press release for domestic consumption and nobody issued a well written, reasoned rebuttal to be sent to ANSA, the Italian news agency. We are not dealing with a punch-up during a local festa here but with events which will shape the perception other countries have of Malta for years to come.
The AFM is just about the only institution in the Maltese islands which is not staffed by utter nincompoops. They even took it upon themselves, on their shoestring budget, to set up a press office a few years ago. Of course the mandarins up at Palazzo Paris-Hilton-io won’t let them release statements to the international press, since they regard it as their purview. Lions. Led. By. Cretins.
I wouldn’t completely agree. I have worked with the army and they have their fair share of nincompoops. On the other hand there are many government departments with extremely good quality and motivated individuals.
I agree though that in most situations, there are problems with the top management. After all it would be their role to make sure technical work is done by persons who are suitable for the job.
I know. Some officers kicked upstairs to the Detention Service spring to mind. But in the main the AFM is the last remaining bastion of efficiency and effective organisation. The further away we move from 1964, the harder it will be to maintain standards.
Some time in the late 21st century, this is what the average AFM soldier will look like:
http://www.israellycool.com/liberian.jpg
@Tonio Borg – I would like to know (and have got a right to know) who all the high profile Libyans currently present in Malta are.
Please do not let us find out through the foreign press, as we have found out about other matters of public concern.
Half of Malta’s problems come from the perception that everyone has the ‘right’ to everything from illegal parking to information which the government deems inappropriate at certain times.
Privileges are mistaken for rights and moreover the expectation is, in this case, that the information, right now, is of vital interest. To whom, may I ask?
I ask, with no inference, has Daphne any press accreditation? I ask because I do not know. It is odd that no other ‘seasoned journalist’ made such an issue out of this incident while over forty entries, mostly siding with Daphne, took to their keyboards and express similar views.
Daphne, it is known that one can catch more flies using honey rather than vinegar.
[Daphne – I’ll just draw a deep breath here. Press accreditation? For what? Press accreditation exists to prove to people who don’t know you from Adam that you really are a journalist and that you work for the organisation you claim to work for. I’d like to see some Maltese government spokesperson try to ask me for accreditation to prove that I write for a newspaper. Secondly, I am afraid that yours is the perfect illustration of the anti-democratic mentality: Big Brother Knows Best. We part company on this one, sorry. You know, these debates are really fascinating. I’ve long held that you can predict exactly where somebody will stand on an issue, what attitudes they will have to certain things, by working out their cultural backstory. There is a very clear division among those who vote for the Nationalist Party between those who were raised in the British mindset and those who were raised ‘Italian’. Those who were raised ‘Italian’ have a very tenuous understanding of democracy and freedom of expression, and think of the government as a benevolent (or non-benevolent) parent who knows best. It’s led to an underestimated cultural division in Malta, with reciprocal incomprehension. People who think as you do (on these and related matters) are literally alien to me, and I have no doubt that people who think as I do are alien to you, even though you have lived among them for decades in another part of the world]
The information, right now, is of vital interest to the thousands of publications worldwide that have run the story, and to the several million more who read those publications.
Shatwan himself is aware of this. He has already given several interviews, and not only to the Times in Malta.
I understand you perfectly. I come from the Catholic-Italian mindset you mention. The benevolent pater familias is cultural baggage I struggle to break away from all the time. I assume, and hope, kids today have a better chance of growing up with a more independent mindset.
Icelanders just realised that they shouldn’t have trusted their government a long while back. We’re better off learning that lesson before parliament flays our skin for the benefit of the few.
The Maltese know him well, he says, and then goes on to mention only politicians:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110407/local/shatwan-says-he-can-help-now-that-he-has-escaped-form-libya
Should Melvyn Mangion satisfy Daphne’s curiosity?
This Libyan ex-minister arrived in Malta because he used his network of friends (in high places).So what? Weren’t his agreements he signed beneficial to Malta? Wouldn’t you have done the same thing in his situation? Shouldn’t a visa be issued to a person with his family fleeing his embattled country ruled by a mad man? As long he’s not wanted internationally for any misdeeds, he’s welcome like all his compatriots who come here ‘in bona fede’.Should we send him to the Hal-Far camp-site?
In Malta we have Libyans from both sides of this war. The situation is like when we had Italians who supported Garibaldi and Italians who were against the unification of Italy here fighting each other (1860).
I imagine that Libyans are spying on each other and are not trusting each other . When the moment comes they will be at each other’s throats here in Malta. It’s a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ this will happen.That’s why police take photos in demonstrations in front of the Libyan embassy. There could be bad characters on both sides of the fence.
Melvyn should be careful about the information he divulges to third parties about persons who are potential targets in this conflict, they have rights too .
If this trawler was doing this ferrying of supplies and people to and from Libya, now that it has been exposed it has become more difficult for it to pass unnoticed in Libyan territory. If the Tripoli authorities shoot at it, no one can state that it was not transporting persons clandestinely out of Misurata to Malta.
[Daphne – John, we get the politicians you deserve.]
“Daphne’s curiosity” is not “curiosity” at all. The information she asked for is in the public interest. That includes you, too.
Of course he should have gone to Hal Far. (He did enter Malta illegally, after all.) Either that, or grant all immigrants who came to Malta illegally visas on humanitarian grounds. Kemm tirraguna min fejn t*hra.
Grezz, qabel ma takkuza lill haddiehor li qed jirraguna minn s***u, ivverifika l-kas sew.
Omar Fathi Bin Shatwan applika meta kien ghadu mili l-boghod mix-xtut ta Malta u inghata Visa. Ghadaqstant la dahal bla ma kien mistenni u l-anqas illegalment.
[Daphne – Angus, get a grip. You are talking about a man who abused his influence – and about Maltese politicians who abused their power – to grant emergency visas to a whole family of people purely because they were personal friends who had the right connections. Try bringing in one of your friends on a boat and getting them to ring en route for a visa, and see what happens. Humanitarian basis indeed. I think it is highly significant that Bin Shatwan didn’t join the rebels in Benghazi as others did before him, and instead fled the country like Musa Kusa did. What does that tell you?]
Grazzi lil .Angus Black, hawnhekk sar post tat-tghajjir meta xi hadd jipprova imqar imeri lil dis-sinjura li tilqaghana f’dan is-sit . Mhux qed inkun sarkastiku.
Grezz qalet li jien qed nirraguna minn sormi, meta hi l-anqas biss taf id-differenza bejn emigrant klandestin ekonomiku li jissakkar Hal-Far, minn refugjat mahrub minn pajjizu minhabba gwerra, li kien ilu mistohbi erbghin jum Misurata ghax probabilment jekk in-nies ta’ Gaddafi kienu jafu fejn qieghed kienu jgieghluh jahlef li hu favur Gaddafi u jzommulu lil-familtu bhala rahan, jekk le kien jispicca taht it-trab hu u razztu kollha.
Riedu kummissarju ta’ l-emigranti, ara tidhollux Grezz!
Qed inhoss li f’dan is-sit hawn xi haga li m’hix tinkwadra sew; din ir-rabja kollha ghax mhux isir li qed tghid Daphne ghaliex? Tfahhar lil Gordon Pisani u tikkalpesta lil Melvyn Mangion. Sa fejn naf jien il-PROs tal-ministeri huma immexxija minn Mr Pisani, u il-Ministru Borg huwa parti mill-gvern.
Innutajt li zdiedu l-kontributuri anonimi li jinsultaw u naqsu dawk li jiktbu f’isimhom.
Innutajt li naqsu dawk li jikkontribwixxu u zdiedu il-“cut and pastes” mit-Times of Malta. Biex naqra l-kummenti u l-ahbarijiet tat-Times nahseb nafu mmorru; klikkjatura l-boghod kull ma hi.
Nahseb li din l-attitudni hija sintomu ta’ xi rabja mohbija, ghax sincerament ma nara xejn hazin li ex ministru ta’ pajjiz fi gwerra, fittex lil min hadem mieghu ghal-gid taz-zewg pajjizi biex jehilsu minn halq il-mewt.
Kellu fama tajba ghax mid-dehra hadem genwinament ghal dak li kien jemmen fih, talab visa hu u gej u ILQAJNIEH b’idejna miftuha, ghax hekk kien jixraqlu. Lil min kien jistmana meta kellu l-poter, ghandna ntuh rispett reciproku.
L-Inglizi laqghu lil-ministru ta’ l-affarijiet barranin li jghidu li kien il-mohh wara atrocitajiet. Ma nahsibx li dahal Tunez bla ma’ hadd gharfu!
In a free democratic society it is the FREE press that keeps the balance. Lose this balance and the slippery spiral downwards allows dictatorships to form from insignificant people during normal times.
In addition to a free press you need an effective opposition to ensure a fully functioning democracy.
The opposition should be raising hell in parliament about the obscene manner the government is treating the public with regards to all that is happening in Libya. However, in Malta the media is simply not fit for purpose and the opposition is (very conveniently) fast asleep on these matters. It’s an absolute disgrace!
And to add insult to injury, Joseph Muscat claims that he is going to make Malta a truly European country through the introduction of divorce. How about a real opposition for starters?
Truly European country my foot….
This is not the Melvyn Mangion I know!
I really think he is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
We are really lost for choice, Daphne.
“Shouldn’t a visa be issued to a person with his family fleeing his embattled country ruled by a mad man?”
There are millions who fit that description. 800 of them are in detention in Malta right now, children included.
Daphne, may I suggest another question to put to Mr Mangion?
“What academic and professional qualifications do you have that justify the senior position you occupy within the Ministry?”
I believe this is a pertinent question since his wages are paid by the taxpayer.
It was Andy who asked that question. It wasn’t me, honest! (Give ’em hell, Andy)
I have a sneaking suspicion that based on his responses quoted above, he has loosely translated his job description from “spokesperson” to “messaggier”. Unfortunately for him, many of us who have completed secondary education know the difference.
Maybe his visa was fast-tracked because this http://www.shatwan.com/dr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=83 impressed somebody.
Daphne, you can be a thorn but I wish we had more aggressive journalists like you in Malta.
Do not expect to get a medal from the government but you’ll get appreciation from the general public.
Marelli, qisek xidja :))
High Profile Libyans in Malta? Really?
Tell you what, why don’t we give this info to the people at Skynews, Al Jazeera, BBC etc? There is no way that these school boys will be able to treat them the same way. Then perhaps they might actually stand up to the plate.
What do you say?
I happened upon an online version of one of the best books that I had read when I was a young teenager. It seems painfully pertinent today: Orwell’s 1984.
“Suddenly he began writing in sheer panic, only imperfectly aware of what he was setting down. His small but childish handwriting straggled up and down the page, shedding first its capital letters and finally even its full stops:
April 4th, 1984. Last night to the flicks. All war films. One very good one of a ship full of refugees being bombed somewhere in the Mediterranean. Audience much amused by shots of a great huge fat man trying to swim away with a helicopter after him, first you saw him wallowing along in the water like a porpoise, then you saw him through the helicopters gunsights, then he was full of holes and the sea round him turned pink and he sank as suddenly as though the holes had let in the water, audience shouting with laughter when he sank. then you saw a lifeboat full of children with a helicopter hovering over it. there was a middle-aged woman might have been a jewess sitting up in the bow with a little boy about three years old in her arms. little boy screaming with fright and hiding his head between her breasts as if he was trying to burrow right into her and the woman putting her arms round him and comforting him although she was blue with fright herself, all the time covering him up as much as possible as if she thought her arms could keep the bullets off him. then the helicopter planted a 20 kilo bomb in among them terrific flash and the boat went all to matchwood. then there was a wonderful shot of a child’s arm going up up up right up into the air a helicopter with a camera in its nose must have followed it up and there was a lot of applause from the party seats but a woman down in the prole part of the house suddenly started kicking up a fuss and shouting they didnt oughter of showed it not in front of kids they didnt it aint right not in front of kids it aint until the police turned her turned her out i dont suppose anything happened to her nobody cares what the proles say typical prole reaction they never —
Another bit from the book that I borrowed from the school library and read when I was a young teenager. I wonder if Carm Mifsud Bonnici and the fascist obscenity laws lobby know about such great works of literature as George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and that they were part of the O level syllabus (for 13 to 15 year olds) Reading it then it did not seem to affect me negatively but looking at it now I wonder what the puritans will say:
“It was even possible, at moments, to switch one’s hatred this way or that by a voluntary act. Suddenly, by the sort of violent effort with which one wrenches one’s head away from the pillow in a nightmare, Winston succeeded in transferring his hatred from the face on the screen to the dark-haired girl behind him. Vivid, beautiful hallucinations flashed through his mind. He would flog her to death with a rubber truncheon. He would tie her naked to a stake and shoot her full of arrows like Saint Sebastian. He would ravish her and cut her throat at the moment of climax. Better than before, moreover, he realized why it was that he hated her. He hated her because she was young and pretty and sexless, because he wanted to go to bed with her and would never do so, because round her sweet supple waist, which seemed to ask you to encircle it with your arm, there was only the odious scarlet sash, aggressive symbol of chastity. “
A former Libyan minister, his wife and three children, having watched Misurata bombed and destroyed, living in self-imposed house arrest for fear of life and limb, decide to flee for safety. In the process he uses his contacts in Malta to get emergency visas. What’s the big deal here?
And you ask why the government did not anounce his arrival? A former minister? Whatever for?
This is what I mean by ‘Pollyanna’. You say I’m deluded. I say you’re lost in the twigs and the branches. The forest is no delusion. Delusion is when you apply the connotation of ‘mhux fl-interess tal-poplu’ strictly to the local scene implying that your beloved West is immaculate and beyond secrets, let alone lies.
You know, every time you pop in with your Pollyanna – Western conspiracy tripe I find myself wondering what point you’re trying to make.
So the Ministry should not have announced Shatwan’s arrival, you say? Do you also think they should refuse to answer questions?
Clearly, Corinne, you subscribe to the belief that Western governments hold no secrets and tell no lies. No room for discussion here.
On the contrary, I believe they do.
That is why I think people should ask questions. You, of course, think otherwise, except, possibly, in the case of some EU officials.
“A former Libyan minister, his wife and three children, having watched Misurata bombed and destroyed, living in self-imposed house arrest for fear of life and limb, decide to flee for safety. In the process he uses his contacts in Malta to get emergency visas. What’s the big deal here?”.
No big deal so far. Hundreds of other Libyans are trying to leave the country. The big deal is that he actually GOT the visa, while hundreds of his equals (or so they should be treated), haven’t.
Of course, someone with a Maltese backwater mentality finds no big deal in nepotism.
Do you live in the real world, Kenneth? So you believe this is a big deal. Good for you.
Do you live in the real world, Kev? So you believe this is not a big deal. Good for you.
I thought that what was happening in Libya was all staged for the media kev. Now all of a sudden it has become true has it?
No longer a series of staged events by the Western covert agents who surrpetitiously intend to overthorw Ghaddafi for Libya’s oil, kev?
Where are you kev?
You are making less sense by the day, Etienne. Too impatient to attack, less time to think.
But here’s a gem for you: your Western overlords have long decided to hand over the Arab world to the Muslim Brotherhood. Extremists, yes, but controlled. you wouldn’t know how that works because you’re too busy trying to prove what a wunderchild you’ve become.
Stop pretending that you know what’s going on, kev. No, the West has not handed the Arab world over to the ikhwan. The revolutions in Egypt were started and carried out by secular youth. The revolution in Libya also appears to be generally secular. Yes, the Islamists will try to hijack things and they are working hard in Egypt, but suppressing them and willfully keeping the population stupid and poor is not going to make the threat they pose go away.
@The King’s Breech – I’m not talking about who started it but about who’s been designated to benefit. The overlords of the West will even backstab their ‘friends’, the despotic House of Saud and their oil-rich cronies. Not even little big-chum King Abdullah is safe.
But why waste breath? It will all unfold this year and the next.
Kev, some time ago, you said we should stay out of this because don’t know how the “Jasmine Revolution” will end up. Now you’re saying that the Arab world is to be handed over to the Muslim Brotherhood, who are “controlled”. So do we, or don’t we, know how this is will end up?
As an aside, does the “Arab world” you mention here include Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states?
“The overlords of the West will even backstab their ‘friends’, the despotic House of Saud and their oil-rich cronies.”
Spineless politicians backstabbing each other, what is world coming to? You think King Abdallah doesn’t do the same by using petrofunds to fund every rabid Wahhabi loon out there?
I’m sorry but I have to side ever so slightly with kev on this one. In Egypt nothing much changed. I bet the US is going for a forced truce that will keep the old power structures in place.
The more time passes the more cynical I’m getting. I hope I’m wrong though.
Macduff, the Muslim Brotherhood is not exactly controlled by the West, but by their overlords, whose objective is not a strong West for the West’s sake, but for global control. In other words, the West is a means to an end. We are tools in the hands of globalists.
So when I say ‘controlled’ it does not mean there will be peace between a Muslim-Brotherhood-controlled Arab world and the West.
My last comment ended on the following lines (the last paragraph disappeared):
Conflict, war and destabilisation is what would help them achieve their objective of ‘one world government’.
Kev, int kellek xi teenage crush fuq Hayley Mills?
Gloria Swanson, Baxx.
Forget Pollyanna the old movie. The term as used today connotes naivete and obliviousness.
Jew forsi fuq Daphne, ghalhekk dejjem “jihovverja” hawnekk.
Ghedtlek “teenage”, mhux “a previous life in the 1920s”. Però taghtiha lemha lil Sharon. Top hole!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/07/us-libya-malta-idUSTRE7361MR20110407
My comment above should have read Interpol. Tonio Borg would do well to be careful that Malta is not sanctioned.
Oh wow. That IS interesting!
quote Daphne:
[As the minister’s spokesman, you are the minister’s interface with the media and the public. Your role is to be proactive, not reactive. You should be sitting down every morning and evening with your minister and he should brief you about everything which has occurred. Then you should decide what information should be released proactively (before anyone asks for it or shows you up by releasing it before you do) and decide how to reply to questions on information that you have decided not to release, because people are bound to find out. When you get a question from the press, you should only revert to the minister as a last resort and not as the default position. And you should never ask journalists to email their questions to you. It is you who are at their disposal and not they who are at yours. I’m sorry I’m hectoring you like this, but this is really unbelievable. ]
HEAR ! HEAR ! HEAR !
Next it will be Gaddafi and his family coming to Malta.
Maybe some of them are already here. Would Melvyn Mangion care to say who the “important Libyans” already here are? Unless he specifies, the general public can only be left free to speculate … until such time as we gleen the information from foreign news reports.
I’ll sum up the current state of our two major parties in Malta.
PN vs PL = D**ks vs Idiots.
Anybody who thinks this is wrong need only look at this article as an example of the above statement.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110406/local/organisations-express-support-with-2-800-young-people-who-will-not-vote-in-referendum
PL screw up and PN doesn’t care to solve the problem that Labour caused, because they’ve become d**ks.
In general, both are amateur, opportunistic, nepotistic and self-serving wotsits who’ve sold out a long time ago.
Democracy is failing all over the world, because the wrong people are voting and the right ones just don’t bother anymore, because they feel helpless while they look on at retards waving flags and banners while their political parties turn into ‘corporations’, each a slave to the highest bidder.
We need a new political party, one that deserves to be elected and which isn’t elected because of “family voting patterns”, or (because) the other one is far worse, but because it is there to collectively and successfully lead a country into prosperity (and do so in an ‘honourable’ way).
I’ve been reading this blog post over and over again and I can’t for the life of me understand at which point Mr Spokesperson thought he was doing a good job at handling the situation. I mean, has this guy been to university? Watched the news?
Even watching a couple of episodes of “The West Wing” would teach him to do better next time.
Oh yes he’s been to university all right. The University of Malta. And it shows. His career path is so perfect it’s been adopted by the International Bureau for Weights and Measures: PN councillor, comms coordinator for the Euro Changeover Committee (aka ‘The Big PN Gravy Train’), private secretariat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then spokesman.
Thirty years old and already set in the old ways. There is no hope for the rest of us. I think I’ll douse myself with petrol and set myself alight in front of Castille on my next visit to Malta.
No SDM at the very beginning, Baxxter?
Step 1: Yes minister, yes minister, yes minister.
Step 2: ?
Step 3: Remove firmly wedged size 9s from mouth before getting promoted.
If you really want to know which high profile Libyan ‘characters’ are in Malta right now, you don’t need to go to the government to get an answer.
I personally saw one of Gaddafi’s cousins a week before it all happened. Since then further cousins have arrived and also family members of some of the people closest to him.
Watch this space and Mr. Anonymous will provide you with names. As I said, no need for bureaucrats.
What is the cousin’s name and is he still here?
Very interesting! Thanks!
Can you get the info about “the number of visas issued to Libyan nationals or the identity of high-profile members of the Gaddafi regime who are currently in Malta” from Gordon Pisani again since he seems to be much more of a help?