Tonio Borg wants a change in position
Is this an accurate report of what the foreign minister said in Qatar, or has something been lost in translation?
The Times, today:
A ceasefire had to bring about a change in the Libyan government’s position and not just be a status quo, Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg told the contact group that is working on the Libya crisis in Qatar.
The ceasefire, he said, had to include the withdrawal of Libyan government troops from their positions and from the villages they occupied.
I can’t ring his spokesman Melvyn Mangion to check, because when I tried to ring him last, he pressed the ‘reject call’ button six times on the trot.
Well, if he doesn’t want to give me his boss’s version of events, so be it.
People in Libya are not fighting for a change in the government’s position. They are fighting to change the government system and those who run it and shore it up. And what’s all this about ‘Libyan government’ anyway, when the world’s leaders and media are talking about ‘the Libyan regime’ and ‘Gaddafi’?
And while we’re about it, would Maltese people, especially those who write for newspapers, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE UNDERSTAND that you do not use the past tense throughout when reporting speech. This is grammatically wrong and it gives rise to misunderstandings. When you read through this report about what Tonio Borg said in Qatar, you’d assume that the ceasefire had happened already and this was a postmortem about what should have happened but didn’t.
You don’t use the past tense because something was talked about yesterday, if that something hasn’t happened yet. It is Tonio Borg’s speech which is in the past, and not the ceasefire. The ceasefire hasn’t happened, so it shouldn’t be written about in the past tense.
When writing, if you’re in doubt about which tense to use, just ask yourself ‘Has it happened already?’ If it has, then use the past tense. If it hasn’t, use the present, conditional or future, depending on the situation. And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE NEVER use the conditonal (would) unless there is doubt about that thing happening. ‘Would’ is not the future of ‘will’, though lots of people writing for the newspapers in Malta seem to think so.
So:
A ceasefire should bring about a change in the Libyan government’s position and not just perpetuate the status quo, Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said in Qatar yesterday. He is there to (blah blah blah). He said the ceasefire must be based on the withdrawal of government troops from towns and villages.
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Absolutely! I’m simply fed up of these morons. In a way it’s worse than mtlastar’s infamous typos and glaring mistakes because you expect better from The Times.
No, nowadays you don’t expect better from The Times. Today’s paper is a far cry from what it used to be. In fact, that is exactly what I expect from The Times.
“Fed up …because of glaring mistakes!” Kemm hawn min jilaghbha tad-dejjaq! As if anyone cares ……..
If he wants a change in position, he should consult the Kama Sutra.
That’s it, some gallows humour. There’s nothing we can do to force these morons from power. Democracy sucks.
I meant it.
Baxxter, you’re slightly confused, mate.
“Democracy sucks.” And what about dictatorships?
Ask the Libyans!
I’m not confused. Did I ever say I preferred democracy to dictatorship? At least cronyism is done upfront under a dictatorship, and incompetent insiders don’t hide behind a facade of transparency and due process.
Democracy in Malta has been a monumental failure. It will only get worse. Because to be elected you need to be popular, and to be popular you need to cater to the lowest common denominator. Tonio Borgs and Melvyn Mangions will then thrive.
Baxxter, go see ‘Battle for L.A’ it should lift your spirits up a notch; you are becoming morose .
That film hasn’t made it to this part of the world yet. And how is a movie supposed to lift up my spirits? It’s not like it’ll change anything. After the credits roll by, Melvyn Mangion will still be secure in his post. Perhaps he will even have been promoted. X’sahta ta’ pajjiz.
Baxxter, indeed ‘democracy sucks’. We need leaders who can say, without the slightest hesitation:
“Capital must protect itself in every possible way, both by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, mortgages foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through process of law, the common people lose their homes, they will become more docile and more easily governed through the strong arm of the government applied by a central power of wealth under leading financiers.
These truths are well known among our principal men, who are now engaged in forming an imperialism to govern the world. By dividing the voter through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting for questions of no importance. It is thus, by discrete action, we can secure for ourselves that which has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished.”
That was Bank of England Governor Montagu Norman, addressing the US Bankers’ Association in New York, 1924.
Perhaps that is why ‘democracy sucks’, Baxxter. Because it doesn’t really exist.
As for Lilliput, you cannot expect any better.
@Kev
You give new meaning to the word ‘bore’.
At times, I am heartened by the fact that Kev shows signs of progress. But then, all of a sudden, he sends signals of relapsing.
@la Redoute
Or try Marsa. Charlon might help.
I think you meant @Tonio Borg.
@La Redoute
Definitely yes.
The guy’s totally out of his depth.
This is worth reading – “I don’t mind democracy coming to Libya in, say, 20 years’ time.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/uk-loving-true-believer-sells-gaddafis-message/story-e6frg6so-1226036217419
A blooper in the current ‘breaking news’ headlines on timesofmalta.com:
“Man acquitted from seriously injuring colleague”
Somebody’s been thinking in Maltese.
quote Daphne:
[I can’t ring his spokesman Melvyn Mangion to check, because when I tried to ring him last, he pressed the ‘reject call’ button six times on the trot.]
Mr.Mangion could seem to be a man of courage. However, he also seems to dislike those, who teach him a good and appropriate (professional) lesson.
[Daphne – Men of courage answer their phones and deal with the problem. Cowards run away, and I believe there is a special description for men who are afraid of dealing with a woman, but let’s not be too specific. I suspect you’re being sarcastic about his courage, anyway. He’s been busy slagging me off on Facebook, where he thinks I can’t see and won’t know, and spreading Labour-type rumours about me, fondly imagining I won’t find out within five minutes, as befits his mentality. As I said, spokesmen are the reflection of their bosses.]
quote Daphne:
[When writing, if you’re in doubt about which tense to use, just ask yourself ‘Has it happened already?’ If it has, then use the past tense. If it hasn’t, use the present, conditional or future, depending on the situation. And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE NEVER use the conditonal (would) unless there is doubt about that thing happening.]
Would the “could”, which I perused of, not be conditional?
Mr Mangion is a bit of a M.O.
R.O.N.
At least that is the impression I have of him.
A bit of a moron? More than that. Check out this hopeless letter. Malta, which claims English as an official language, has thought it most wise to engage as spokesman for the foreign minister, no less, a man who speaks and writes English like a Chinese functionary.
http://archive.maltatoday.com.mt/2010/05/09/l2.html
Please don’t tell me that this is how Melvyn Mangion got his job as spokesman for Tonio Borg, through the online job centre, vacancycenter.com:
“Customer Testimonials: Melvyn Mangion – Zurrieq
First of all I would like to thank you for your kind attention you put in me during this period, and secondly I thank you very much for the job you found me. For me this is a great opportunity to extend my skills for the future, and also to learn more about Industry. Again I thank you and wishing you all the best for the future. ”
http://www.vacancycenter.com/EN.Customer_Testimonials.aspx
And one who doesn’t know the difference between a common noun and a proper noun.
Crackpot Central, you missed this one, complete with a smiley emoticon:
“I am writing this thanks giving letter as a small appreciation for the great opportunity you led me to. I am very happy here and I was welcomed in a friendly way by all colleagues. It’s been a month now here and I can conclude that it was a very fine start to an ambitious challenge. Hope I will not meet you for years to come! :) And thanks once again.
Melvyn Mangion – Zurrieq”
“a very fine start to an ambitious challenge”? Ha ha ha!
Benjamin Barber published an article in the Guardian yesterday calling for the world to ‘open the door’ to the ‘patriot’ in Saif al-Islam Gaddafi.
Here’s another published in response;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/14/saif-al-islam-gaddafi-open-letter
Go on Baxxter, tell us a bit more about Melvyn Mangion.
I never met him. Only know about him through my extensive network of unwitting contacts. He looks like the type who would scorn me. You know, the successful lawyer/European studies type vs. puny little shit like me.
Normally I would try to avoid such people but Malta is wall-to-wall yuppies. Like that other git Jacques René Zammit, convinced that I hate him because I’m some Norman Lowell follower and he’s the Defender of Liberty or something. I just have no time for him because his words are devoid of sincerity. Because he pontificates without feeling. Writing, and telling us about stuff, and gobbing off is an intellectual exercise for him.
Not for me it isn’t. I mean every single word I say. Like when I said I want to blow myself up in Gaddafi’s tent and take the despot with me. I’d do it in a heartbeat. Neither Mangion nor Zammit will mourn my loss, and I’d be the happiest man alive for a split second.
Nothing personal about my comment H.P. but it seems like you’re in need of a good shag.
Care to oblige?
Ooooh, and to add insult to injury, people will now take it that I’m not a particularly brave man. Advice from a friend: whenever I wake up feeling a bit on the downside or aggrieved, I walk over to the bathroom, look straight into the mirror and say, “How are we doing today, sweetie?” Then I burst out laughing. Never fails.
If a certain Huda Ben Amr arrives in Malta , how shall the authorities treat her? When the shit hits the fan in Tripoli a qualified bet is that Malta looks like a safe haven. Have our authorities any planning in place should an exodus of regime cronies arrive here in Malta?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110414/local/libya-recognition-not-linked-to-approval-of-gaddafi-regime-borg.360291
Which Libya is he talking about, Tripoli or Benghazi? More ambivalent talk !
I stumbled upon our dear Foreign Affairs minister speaking on Radio 101 this afternoon. I managed to stick with listening to him for barely five minutes before finding myself unable to cope with the insults to my intelligence.
In those five minutes he never once mentioned Gaddafi by name, persisting in referring to “the Libyan government”.
He also managed three indirect references to Daphne, once again failing to mention her name. Simply pathetic!
I really regret having wasted my last two election votes on him and JPO. Well, I guess it’s always better than voting Labour.
Daphne, I consider you as an opinion writer, you write commentaries on what’s happening. An opinion writer is not a journalist.
[Daphne – John, what you consider me to be is largely irrelevant. It is what I am that counts: a newspaper columnist. Newspaper columnists are journalists.]
You are confirming my thoughts; you have an axe to grind against Dr Tonio Borg and now Mr Melvyn Mangion is on your hit list. I wrote this comment to this blog in reply to one of the many anonymous commentators (Baxxter) and you left it there ‘waiting for moderation’. It is still waiting I just copied and pasted it here.
[Daphne – I have no axe to grind where the foreign minister or his spokesman are concerned. I have a very low tolerance threshold for amateurism especially at that level, where Malta is represented on the international scene. I cannot accept a situation where the second most important government spokesman (the first is the prime minister’s) is an untrained and unschooled inadequate who lacks the required level of sophistication to represent the foreign ministry.
As for the foreign minister, I disagree with his views, his methods and his approach. He is tal-Muzew and I am not. You are tal-Muzew and you agree with him. It’s a free country.
I believe that you should declare your interest. Your zeal in defending Melvyn Mangion, and your detailed knowledge of him, denote a personal relationship, which is highly likely given that you are both from the same small village, Zurrieq. The mistake Melvyn Mangion made was to behave as though I am some newly arrived naif and not an old hand in this game of 20 years and counting. You make the same mistake yourself.
Your comment was left hanging because I forgot to delete it. I had no intention of uploading for your own sake because it is chockful of stupidities and posted under your own name. However, if you insist, then so be it. Here goes.]
John Schembri – SATURDAY, 9 APRIL AT 1053HRS
” ……comms coordinator for the Euro Changeover Committee (aka ‘The Big PN Gravy Train’)”.
Baxxter , are you calling the Euro changeover committee a PN gravy train? You made me recall what a good job in PR this bloke did under the guidance of Alan Camilleri in this Euro changeover committee. At times it was too obvious that he was doing the work not chairman Alan.
I stand to be corrected but I think Mr Mangion is an accountant by profession.
In my opinion a minister’s communications officer does not necessarily need to be a university graduate , more than anything he’s got to be a good communicator and assertive.
For example, Richard Cachia Caruana is a capable communicator, he’s not a university graduate and was even younger than Melvyn when he started working at the OPM . Now he’s our EU representative.
Baxx: if you douse yourself with petrol and set yourself alight , you’ll be wasting petrol and polluting the environment.”
[Daphne – As I said, you seem intimately acquainted with Melvyn Mangion. If you must pretend to be a disinterested party coming to his defence, then at least try to be subtle about it.
1. Melvyn Mangion did not do a good job as PR officer for the Euro Changeover Committee. Had he done so, I would have noticed, but I actually remember remarking at the time what an absolute disaster it was – and I didn’t even know until now that Melvyn Mangion worked on it, so it’s a shame you had to bring it up yourself.
2. If Mr Mangion is an accountant, then he should not be working as a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Also, I have checked your facts and find that Mr Mangion is not an accountant (ACCA) but has a first degree in commerce – a B.Comm. Again, this of itself and with no further training does not qualify him for the second most senior spokesperson post in the government. All university education is useful and brings a certain discipline to the role, but he needs more than that. He has been allowed to think that he is doing a good job, because people in the media complain privately and do not feel at liberty to tell him off like I did. This is a problem which cuts right across government communications, with a couple of notable exceptions. Instead of having one DOI like we had under Labour and the first years of the PN government, we now have an individual DOI in each government ministry, with all the attendant bureaucracy and inanity.
3. Mr Mangion is a poor communicator, and assertiveness should never be confused with rudeness or uncouth behaviour.
4. Richard Cachia Caruana is an economics graduate of the University of Malta and a marketing graduate of the London Business School, where he was reading for a doctorate when he was called to Malta to work on the Nationalist Party’s 1981 election campaign, and never went back. There is no possible comparison between him and Melvyn Mangion at any level, and anyone who works in the field will tell you that – even those who hate him. If you fondly imagine that Mr Mangion can become Mr Cachia Caruana simply by sticking at it for another few years, you are dreaming. Again, anyone who works in the field of politics or journalism will tell you that. The latter has two crucial attributes for the role which the former consummately lacks: sharp intelligence and social background. Both are essential when dealing with people at that level. The spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs is not a band club secretary.
I think you should be told that as I write this, I am having to deal with a series of harassing and totally unbalanced text messages from Mr Mangion – at 10.30 at night, including one which says that I insinuated he is gay when I said that he doesn’t even have the guts to face up to a woman. If you think this is appropriate behaviour for the foreign minister’s spokesman, you are wrong.]
When I commented to what Angus Black wrote, you published this answer days later, when the comment could not be easily read .
“John Schembri says:
FRIDAY, 8 APRIL AT 1851HRS
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”
[Daphne – I upload lots of comments days after they are submitted, John, and not just yours. This is usually when they are long and tedious and I really, really can’t be fagged to read through them in the course of a long and tedious working day. Last December I uploaded no comments at all. This website is my hobby, John. I do it for FUN, not as a paid job. When I have to deal with difficult people accusing me of this and that and taking offence, I just wonder where the fun is exactly. The temptation to tick all boxes and press ‘Bulk Action Delete’ is enormous at the end of a long day.]
Your articles influence people, and it’s good to check the veracity of certain reports. But I find it unacceptable that you expect the foreign minister’s spokesman to take your calls. Write an e-mail and when he’s available he’ll answer you. For all I know he could be in a meeting with his boss when you’re calling.
[Daphne – Ask yourself why my articles influence people and if you get the answer right, you also have your answer right there as to why Melvyn Mangion just doesn’t get it. You find it unacceptable that a journalist should expect the foreign minister’s spokesman to take her calls? For heaven’s sake, John. I’d to see Melvyn Mangion try to tell the BBC or CNN to send an email with questions which he can then answer at his leisure. You really don’t know how things are supposed to be done. Have you ever seen Whitehouse spokesman Jay Carney tell a journalist to email questions, or pop backstage at a press briefing to see how his boss wants him to answer or check what he should say? He’s fully briefed and delegated to respond. That’s the way it should be done. Even Gaddafi’s regime does it that way, for crying out loud: Musa Ibrahim is the regime spokesman and he answers questions there and then.]
I’ll be sending a copy of this comment to Gordon Pisani.
[Daphne – Feel free. He’ll only wonder why you’re sending it, because unlike Melvyn Mangion, I do not work for Gordon Pisani or the government, so you might as well send it to the Pope or Margaret Thatcher too. I, on the other hand, have filed a formal complaint about Melvyn Mangion’s behaviour, with the Office of the Prime Minister, precisely because Mr Mangion works for the government. He is paid to answer journalists’ questions, not to sulk, reject their calls, fight with them and harass them at 11.30 at night (which is when I am updating this comment) with crazy SMSes about whether he is gay or not (as if I care). I hope you are not going to tell me that this is normal behaviour. Unfortunately, I seem to hold a magnetic attraction for slightly off-kilter individuals who seem to think that they have some kind of relationship with me just because I am so ‘public’, so I can tell you through long experience of dealing with this kind of person that no, it is NOT normal behaviour. The man obviously has some serious issues to deal with. He should not be dealing with them in such a high profile position because he is obviously unable to prevent himself dragging his personal baggage and sexual identity crises into the workplace.]
I’m not intimately acquainted with Mr Mangion. I ‘know’ him because he was a local councillor in the village where I lived for the past 25 years. Your info about him seems to be more. precise than mine. Listening to him on the radio while working during the Euro changeover is not an intimate relationship.
You pigeonhole people. I like Tonio Borg and I’m not intimately acquainted with him. He’s not tal-Muzew and neither am I .
[Daphne – I don’t pigeonhole people, John. I profile them, and I do it fairly accurately and sometimes as part of my work, so don’t diss it. You and Tonio Borg fit the same profile, so I am not at all surprised that you like him.]
My apologies to RCC.
The thing is that I hate this hounding against a person by so many anonymous cowards, who probably attack your targets out of envy.
[Daphne – Wrong. They criticise him for the same reason that I (under my own name) do: highly visible shortcomings. Just as I can profile people, so I can identify targets of envy and motivation. Tonio Borg and Melvyn Mangion are definitely not targets of envy. They provoke irritation at the fact that people who are so inept can get so far because of the weaknesses of the system, and in doing so, cause so much damage. At least, that is the perception.]
You did this to Astrid Vella , at one point I defended her , don’t try telling me that we were in an intimate relationship.
[Daphne – That’s a different story, John. Astrid Vella was a big story two years back. Melvyn Mangion is not a big story, just a footnote. There have been many footnotes on this website and none of them provoked you to zealous defence. Did what to Astrid incidentally? Criticised her? My, my, we can’t have that, can we. Naughty Daphne. Astrid might cry, because she thought public life was all about having nice things said about her.]
As for making questions to a government spokesman ; surely one won’t phone Jay Carney and expect him to answer his phone call while Carney’s being briefed by President Obama.
[Daphne – Certainly not while he is briefed, but at any other time yes. He or an assistant is expected to take the phone. And while he is briefed, somebody takes messages for him and he rings back. He does not text ‘I am during a press conference’ as Melvyn Mangion did with me this morning and then fail to ring back, instead choosing 10pm as a really good time to start messaging me. If you don’t think that he should be expected to take calls during the day, please explain to me why he thinks I should answer his text messages at 11.30 at night. ‘I am during a press conference’! Unbelievable: a foreign ministry spokesman, representing a country where English is an official language, who can’t speak the language. That alone should disqualify him for the job. I am at the end of my tether with this all-encompassing amateurishness. The low standards in this country drive me berserk. It’s not that we don’t have people who can do the job. It’s that we don’t even understand what the job is, and so think that pretty much anyone will do.]
And I follow press briefings on TV and it’s not unusual to hear expressions like “I’ll take five questions from the floor” or “no more questions” or the spokesman points his finger at pre-selected journalists and avoids the unwanted ones.
[Daphne – That’s due to time and nothing else. It is not comparable to a refusal to answer questions routinely. You know, John, you’re beginning to get on my nerves. You’re an engineer, right? Do I hector you about engineering or try to teach you what engineering involves? This is my world we’re talking about. I understand it. I know it. I have worked in it since I was in my early 20s. It is not your world, so please cut the patronising and typically Maltese arrogance of trying to teach a doctor how to heal patients. It’s one of the most frustrating aspects of Maltese life, the idea that any job can be done by anyone and that everyone knows about everything and is fit to comment. It’s precisely this kind of abysmal attitude that leads to disasters like sticking people of Melvyn Mangion’s calibre in the role of spokesman for the foreign minister.]
I understand that you have too much to do and that this is your hobby – I prefer gardening- but take heed and note what I’m telling you: for example this thread has five named contributors, me, you, your sister Corinne, David Gatt, Joe Zammit, and Leo Said the rest are anonymous , it has become like the Malta Today comments board.
[Daphne – I, too, garden. It is not either or with me. This is not at all like the Malta Today comments-board and I take exception at the insult because I do not allow mad, spiteful and slanderous comments. Those get trashed. All internet comments-boards are made up mainly of anonymous people. It’s a struggle spotting even one real name on timesofmalta.com, for instance, and that is Malta’s main comments-board. The thing you don’t know is that relatively very few people are actually anonymous on this website. They use a nick, but they give me their real names and email addresses, because they want me and nobody else to know who they are. You’ve got to respect that. It’s the way of the internet, so just let it go.]
All this hullabaloo started because you expected Melvyn to answer to your questions immediately. Melvyn asked you to send him an email, you insisted, and arguments ensued.
It has now escalated beyond proportion.
[Daphne – John, this started for one reason only: that the foreign minister’s spokesman is incompetent and, for other (psychological) reasons that are now emerging, unfit for the job. If that were not the case, this would not have happened. It did not start because he refused to answer my questions immediately. If you go back to my original post, you will see that my arguments are entirely about competence, not immediacy. I do not lose my temper because people refuse to do things immediately. I am not that sort of person – at all. It is has not escalated beyond proportion. It is entirely within proportion and has happened not before time. Damn shame no other journalist who has had to deal with his crass incompetence felt able to do something about it.]
Hanging up the telephone is impolite, but this also depends on what is being said on the phone.
[Daphne – Mr Mangion did not hang up. Hanging up implies there was a conversation going on. Mr Mangion presses ‘reject call’ and boasts about it on Facebook. This is another example of his incompetence and, as I said, psychological difficulties. It is worse than impolite. It is high-risk behaviour and extremely ill-judged.]
From what I can see it is more likely that a busy person like you finds it more easy to phone someone and get an instant reply rather than going through the proper channels.
[Daphne – All journalists are extremely tight for time. Mr Mangion IS the proper channel. At the risk of repeating myself: I know what I am talking about; you don’t. You are just trying to defend the indefensible.]
Melvyn did not oblige. Poor Melvyn and poor media coordinators and PR people if Melvyn gets the sack.
[Daphne – I’m sorry, but how does that follow? I think what you should be saying is ‘Poor country if he DOESN’T get the sack’, because that really would be putting incompetence and amateurism at a premium. They really need to pull their socks up fast, because between them they’re sinking the bloody ship.]
Unbelievable but true. Hypocrisy at its best. These people will never change.
stop judging melvin unless you know him. He is a good guy who does his job with the government. He is the one who works behind the scenes to defend us when the italian tv attacks us…
He is a good person (ta’ l-affari tieghu), and always willing to help everyone whatever the color. He is a true patriot cause he struggles to keep the Malta flag fly high.
So stop inventing lies – get your facts rights first. Keep up the good work Melvin
[Daphne – I haven’t lied, Adrian. On the contrary, I did the decent thing and did not reveal publicly the worst things he did and said, because they would have made him come across as – how shall I put it most tactfully – a person with psychological challenges. I did, however, include them in my formal complaint to the Office of the Prime Minister.]
Why are you afraid ‘when the italian tv attacks us’?
I imagine you’re referring to Massimo Gileti’s careless remark. A statement to correct that remark should be issued publicly, not ‘behind the scenes’.
Rather too much fuss was made of that incident, in any case. Malta’s clumsy actions on the international scene do far more damage than anything a Domenca In presenter may say.
The way people try to defend incompetent fools because they’re “orrajt” is even more pathetic than the fools themselves.
What a mentality: we don’t criticize Melvyn (“Melvyn”?) Mangion for the way he is failing us and the country, but criticize Daphne Caruana Galizia because she exposed his shortcomings. U le…
amazing daphne xxx
Malta’s clumsy actions! Malta’s? What about the Western powers’ clumsy action in Libya? The atrocious dictator is still there!