Men? Can't trust them. Give them an inch and they'll run off with some tart and leave you to starve.

Published: May 22, 2011 at 4:06pm

Joyce Cassar and Anna Vella of the No To Divorce Movement have sent a personalised (Ghaziza Charlene) ’round robin’ letter to women who are eligible to vote in Saturday’s referendum.

The letter portrays women and children as the victims of irresponsible men who will leave them to starve in the gutter without a second thought, while maintaining their new families.

In this world view, no woman works and men call the shots. All women are responsible and madly in love with their spouses, but no men are.

The letter rounds off with the exhortation:

LE ghall-abbandun tan-nisa

The flaw in their argument – so glaring that I’m taken aback they can’t see it – is that if men are so damned irresponsible and not to be trusted then we shouldn’t ban divorce. We should ban marriage.




45 Comments Comment

  1. Moshe Dayan says:

    They’re really scraping the barrel.. I’ll bet they’re afraid of something.

  2. David says:

    These two are a disgrace to the emancipation of women. After the country has striven for equal rights for both genders, here come Anna Vella and Joyce Cassar portraying women like they are an inferior gender, and always at the receiving end of things.

    Just like animals.

    I sensed a lot of bitterness in Joyce Cassar’s outburts on Xarabank last Friday. Might I suggest that her campaigning is motivated by her own personal experiences rather than objective and rational thinking?

    • Grezz says:

      My thoughts exactly.

      It’s also rather hypocritical that, having had her marriage annulled herself, she’s against divorce. Would she have felt so strongly against divorce had she not managed to get an annulment? Just wondering.

      • David says:

        Deborah Schembri, on timesofmalta.com, had a spot-on answer to ‘Joyce Cassar’ type attitudes.

        She said that if, driven by revenge, you throw a hot coal at a person who wronged you, you’ll end up burning your own hand and possibly miss the target.

        I know I may be giving too much praise to a woman who, to me, was unknown before this whole divorce business. But I’m enamoured of her eloquent way of delivering a logical and well thought out argument, which is a rare thing to come across on this island.

  3. Interested Bystander says:

    I love it here because it’s like living in a land where no-one grows up.

  4. Karl Flores says:

    It takes two to tango.

  5. Etil says:

    Joyce Cassar and Anna Vella are happily married women?

    There are women who want to divorce their husbands.

  6. Mario P. Sciberras says:

    Dawn in-nies ma jisthux jidhru fill-pubbliku?

    Giesu, Gesu Marija, x’ipokrezija.

  7. gel says:

    I am sure Joyce Cassar can teach us a thing or two about men’s behaviour.

  8. Love and Second Chances says:

    Although I will be voting in favour of divorce, I must say that I find the Yes campaign pamphlets very off-putting indeed.

    I am voting in favour, not to give “love a second chance” but because divorce is a civil right. Love has absolutely nothing to do with it.

    • Alchemist says:

      And I’m voting YES because if LE win we’ll have another 5 years of argumenation when we should be thinking about more important matters!

  9. Linda says:

    What a bitter, angry woman Joyce Cassar seems to be. She is hell-bent on revenge! Is this how she wants people (especially women) to vote? Out of spite? Guess what Joyce …some women are also causes of marriage break-ups, some are unfaithful, some abandon their husbands and children too.

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      Joyce Cassar had acted in a monologue on this very subject. “Kontrollati minn bicca laham qisha zalzetta” were her very words.

      • Grezz says:

        Inspired by Strauss-Khan, perhaps?

      • H.P. Baxxter says:

        This was back in the days of Lino Sant and Joyce Cassar’s high culture programme on Super One. It was all in the name of art of course, but I still found it jarring. Then she resurfaces ten years later campaigning against divorce legislation.

      • ciccio2011 says:

        “Kontrollati minn bicca laham qisha zalzetta”

        Well, I know it may not be a new joke, but in this case, women will have no excuse to make both ends meat.

      • Grezz says:

        @Baxxter – And there I was, thinking that you were just joking! Maybe somebody should dig up a YouTube video of it, and put it on a loop on TV until next Saturday.

    • attent01 says:

      Shame, putting all men in a bad light. Women are just as much culprits in all this. And men are patient, at least I was patient enough for many years and gave her many chances but to no avail.

      So what should I do, keep on suffering together with my children and family? These LE people are really to be ashamed of themselves and have nothing better to do.

  10. John Schembri says:

    Let’s read it. I assume that if you read it you have a copy of this round robin.

    [Daphne – I’ll have to type the whole thing out, John, and I couldn’t be fagged to do it. Then some smart Alec will take issue because I haven’t used Maltese characters, and off we’ll go down that road. Somebody sent me a PDF, so I can’t copy and paste. But apparently it’s being discussed on Facebook, so maybe someone could be kind enough to post a link here.]

  11. Rachel says:

    http://alternattivadivorzju.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/250806_168331896561715_166555226739382_439671_2030788_n.jpg

    The version I found isn’t very clear. Let me know if this works.

    [Daphne – Thank you all who posted a link.]

  12. Grace says:

    How the hell did they get hold of our personal information? What about the Data Protection Act? I know the political parties have access to the electoral register, I hope that no one used his/her professional position in the civil service to get such private information.

  13. red nose says:

    If divorce legislation gets through and a poor couple cannot afford the expense involved and also they have no means of sustaining the other partner? What happens? Who takes care of the children of these two poor people? Or is divorce going to be for those who can afford it?

    [Daphne – They work, like everyone else does, and earn money and support themselves.]

    • Matthew says:

      If marriage legislation gets through and a poor couple cannot afford the expense involved and also they have no means of sustaining the other partner? What happens? Who takes care of the children of these two poor people? Or is marriage going to be for those who can afford it?

      Ta-da.

    • That is not the point. Of course there might be people who for some reason or other will opt out from applying for a divorce.

      This thing is in fact happening right now with separated and even annulled couples. The point of legislating in favour of divorce is that those who want it have a right (or should have) for it.

  14. Lomax says:

    As I said many times here, I can’t take this much longer. My husband is away this week, lucky him, (he’s coming back on Friday night) and I really envy him that he’s away during this excruciatingly, tear-jerkingly boring week.

    Having said that, I still am not decided on how to vote. Most probably I will only decide on Saturday morning. I had decided to vote Yes, then No, then Yes again, then No again.

    Never in my life have I been undecided in this way.

    Yet, the campaigners – both sides – are putting me off so much that I can’t bear the sight of any of them smugly celebrating “victory”.

    At any rate, in a week’s time this will be over. To be honest, I’m sorely tempted to vote Yes if for no other reason to nip this whole charade in the bud, though by now it has blossomed into a nice bunch of thorns.

    We’ll see. I can’t wait for all this to be over. That’s my only certainty.

  15. el bandido guapo says:

    Let’s have a laugh at these people, shall we? Until we realise of course that we share with this country and this country alone, a highly dubious honour.

    Oh, and an overbearing, intolerant and intensely invasive Catholic church.

    http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110523/world/Philippine-champ-Pacquiao-leads-anti-condom-fight.366749

  16. red nose says:

    It is really amazing how many people have no respect for other person’s feelings and ideas. What a shame! Those ant-Christs should lower their heads in shame for being so crude in their hateful remarks about our religion.

    • Kenneth Cassar says:

      And I suppose sending a personalised letter to my wife, trying to give her the impression that I might leave her as soon as divorce is introduced, shows a lot of respect.

      Unfortunately for them, she didn’t even read it. Off to the recycling bin it went, along with the other rubbish.

  17. Bezzun says:

    Joycie qalb ta’ qalbi. Don’t be two-faced.

  18. Pete says:

    Imma kif dawn in-nies ma jafux jisthu?

    Tajba din l-ewwel inti, li qed taghmel kampanja shiha ta’ LE, tkun hadt dak li ridt xi zmien ilu imbaghad trid iccahhad lil haddiehor milli jaghmel dak li ghamilt int taht forma ohra.

    Ipokrita ghal miljun darba.

    Jiena ser nivvota IVA b’sahha. Jiena m’ghandix bzonn divorzju imma hemm barra hemm nies, irgiel u nisa li qed ibatu u jistghu jibdew mill-gdid. Il-gvern + Knisja + nies bla qalb bhal Andre Camilleri, Joyce Cassar, Anna Vella et Co. ma jridux ituhom dan ic-cans imma jriduhom IPOGGU.

    TAFU TISHTU JEW?

    Hemm bzonn li dawn in-nies jiehdu taghlima sew u ghalhekk nohorgu nivvutaw IVA.

  19. Impatient says:

    I wonder who is funding all their propaganda.

  20. Steve Forster says:

    Leave my wife…..God no, she’ll kill me!

  21. red nose says:

    I wonder why the “yes” sustainers did not bring up Elizabeth Taylor’s example of what divorce means.

    [Daphne – For the same reason that nobody brings up Fred and Rosemary West as an example of what marriage means.]

  22. Woman from the South says:

    Dear Red Nose,

    What happens now when people seperate and live with somebody else?

  23. A gay man says:

    Oh Joyce, oh Joyce! You are such a Serafina!! (Anna Magniani in The Rose Tattoo)

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