United in cant

Published: April 11, 2011 at 4:45pm

The Labour Party has sought to clear up any misunderstandings that might have arisen from Muscat’s words on Super One radio yesterday, by saying that “the government should respect human life while being firm and letting no one abuse of Malta”.

What cant.

How can ‘standing firm’ and refusing to save lives at sea ever be construed as respecting human life? It is the polar opposite.

THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD RESPECT HUMAN LIFE WHILE BEING FIRM AND LETTING NO ONE ABUSE OF MALTA.

That statement sounds curiously familiar. Ah, yes – it’s the government’s stance on the Libyan crisis and the coalition. And the implications are the same.




32 Comments Comment

    • Kenneth Cassar says:

      Of course. The problem is Gaddafi. The solution can only be the removal of Gaddafi.

      • u jien naf says:

        I agree “the problem is Gaddafi” what I doubt is “the solution can ONLY be the removal of Gaddafi” Even if he is removed it will still take some time for the Libyan people to bring to justice all those people who where his inner circle and who are responsible as much, as Gaddafi, for all their suffering.

        Strange enough, all the defecters where once in his inner circle. Should these all go free, just because they joined the winning side? U JIEN NAF..

      • Kenneth says:

        @ u jien naf:

        Of course it will take time. But it will take more time if Gaddafi stays longer. And of course, Gaddafi’s removal will only be the beginning of the necessary reforms. As for his inner circle, let’s hope justice will be served. But even if not, Libya without Gaddafi is always better than Libya with Gaddafi.

        Let’s hope that Libya forgives us for playing “neutral” while Gaddafi butchered their people.

  1. Kenneth Cassar says:

    Enough with this “national interest comes first” bullshit. Where human rights are involved, they come first.

    Why do Maltese politicians and their “leaders” (yeah, right) have to create such a dilemma for moral persons, come election time?

    • Very good, Kenneth. You are correct, and this is what is really surprising coming from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Tonio Borg, a supposed specialist in human rights. Sort of makes you think twice about the term specialist, doesn’t it?

      Nevertheless, I fail to understand your reference to moral persons and the dilemmas they face come election time. Honestly, you’ve lost me there.

      • Kenneth says:

        @ Etienne Calleja:

        “Nevertheless, I fail to understand your reference to moral persons and the dilemmas they face come election time. Honestly, you’ve lost me there”.

        It’s just that I’m sick of having to vote for the lesser evil.

  2. Antoine Vella says:

    Letting no one abuse of (sic) Malta? How about not letting the PL “abuse of Malta”?

    • ciccio2011 says:

      “THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD RESPECT HUMAN LIFE WHILE BEING FIRM AND LETTING NO ONE ABUSE OF MALTA.” Except Gaddafi of course.

  3. Carol says:

    You spelt ‘cant’ wrong. And I’m not referring for the apostrophe which should have been before the last letter.
    wink wink

  4. yor/malta says:

    Everybody should be made to watch a film of a mass drowning , not the fast type, but the type where family and friends try to hang on and little by little the crowd of heads in the sea diminishes in size with close ups of parents and siblings fighting to stay afloat in a dark black sea. Maybe, just maybe, the rhetoric will change .

    • La Redoute says:

      Sadly, it won’t. When people are dehumanised, those who consider themselves human don’t care what happens to them.

  5. Karl Flores says:

    Sounds more like an oxymoron.

    • Hot Mama says:

      Moron is the operative ‘word’. What a bunch of losers. Kemm ma niflahhomx! Ma nistax nifhem kif nofs pajjiz jemmnu fihom! Ara fiex ha nigu! OK rant over. I needed that. Thank you for the space

  6. lino says:

    Carol, an online dictionary is not such a big deal, so I do not know what you understood by ‘cant’ being spelt wrong. Besides there’s no apostrophe in the word ‘cant’ as it’s used in the above context, wonk wonk. If you can’t understand what I’m saying google ‘cant’ and if you can’t even do that, just tough luck.

  7. lino says:

    Besides, one refers to something not ‘for’ something.

  8. NGT says:

    Very Byronic sentiments you’re displaying:

    “The truth is, that in these days the grand primum mobile of England is cant; cant political, cant poetical, cant religious, cant moral; but always cant multiplied through all the varieties of life… I say cant because it is a thing of words, without the smallest influence upon human actions… “

  9. Denis says:

    Typical of Joseph Muscat. His racist comments obviously got bad reviews and now he is trying to garner some votes by making an apology.
    If that is not cheap populism.

    [Daphne – He is not apologising. On the contrary, he reiterated his views this morning.]

  10. Grezz says:

    Naf li m’ghandux x’jaqsam, imma … the less said about such people the better. Madonna santa, x’nies!

    “The cable … also points out that a month earlier, Brigadier Carmel Vassallo, commander of the AFM went to Beijing for a five-day visit at the invitation of China’s Chief of Military.

    Vassallo told an embassy official that his visit was unrelated to the visit of China’s Vice-President, and did not result in the signing of any agreements or arms sales.

    Vassallo added that he had been “amazed” by the red-carpet treatment he was given during the visit, including multiple-gun salutes normally “reserved for heads of state”.”

    http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110411/local/wikileaks-publishes-first-malta-cable

    Arani, Ma, arani, u ejja!

  11. For those readers who would like to draw a few parallels with the Malta-Libya crisis, here’s another one which, is strikingly similar in effect and, by analogy, shows why we ought to have more than a passing interst in what is going on in Libya.

    It negates our Government’s (read PM + Opposition please) stance completely and dispels the logic (sic!) that seems to fuel the egocentrics and capsiet (pl. of capsa – Maltese for spineless individual):

    http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/11/kumar.el.paso.juarez/index.html

  12. Ghar u Kasa says:

    When there’s a politically owned TV station trying to cover up for a gaffe from the leader of the same political station, well that’s something! Progressive and ‘dejjem fuq in-naha taz-zghir my… well, my Alfa !

  13. Maria says:

    Does Joseph Muscat know that failure to offer assistance to somebody who is in danger is a crime?

  14. u jien naf says:

    So the Italians did it again, They refused to send their boats to the rescue. What would have happened, if we had taken Muscat’s advice and did the same? Who would have been asked to take that decision and be able to live with it? U JIEN NAF.

    • yor/malta says:

      The Italians still have not come to terms with the atrocities that they committed in Ethiopia. During 1937 a type of mustard gas was used on civilians by the Italian black shirts; 275,000 Ethiopians were killed by gas or bombs.

  15. Back at the ranch says:

    http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/politik/international/ghadhafi-regime_will_hilfsaktionen_fuer_misrata_verhindern_1.10218802.html

    EU foreign ministers on Monday in favor of supporting their own combat forces for the evacuation of refugees from Libyan cities. The regime in Tripoli will prevent this by all means. Anyone other than the Red Cross or Red Crescent will be shot.

    The Libyan regime will respond to any relief efforts of the European Union for the city Misrata with force. Besides the Red Cross and Red Crescent, no one was allowed to help, the regime said.

  16. April Showers says:

    http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_17816558?nclick_check=1

    “Since the operation against Libya began in March, the U.S., NATO and Qatar have deployed several C-17s to Crete, while Canada is using the small island nation of Malta for its C-17s.

    Both islands sit in the Mediterranean Sea north of Libya.
    On April 7, Canada announced it would be sending a second C-17 to Malta, along with a naval frigate, 240 sailors and support crew and an elite crew of 13 military reconnaissance soldiers.”

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