Handbags at dawn
The ‘handbags at dawn’ jokes are all over town already. Well, I must say that between the two of them, Cyrus Engerer and Marvic Camilleri have really had a negative effect on the already not-too-great way gay men are perceived by some sectors of Maltese society.
They’ve helped reinforce prejudiced ideas.
When you’re part of a ‘minority’, then like it or not you’ve got to behave like an ambassador for that ‘minority’, because many people will judge all gay men by the behaviour of a few, all black people by the behaviour of a few, all Muslims by the behaviour of a few and – outside Malta – all Maltese by the behaviour of a few.
Marvic Camilleri has pictures taken of himself while he has sex with another man and then ‘confesses’ on his Facebook wall that he has a fetish for doing it.
Cyrus Engerer enters Marvic’s flat while Marvic is out, copies his hard drive, goes through it for the most unedifying pictures of coupling, and emails them to Simone Mizzi at The Body Shop, Marvic’s employer. Then he emails them to Marvic’s colleagues at the office and to a group of friends and acquaintances.
Il-vera fihom priza t-tnejn.
And meanwhile, Cyrus puts on a false front about this and hides it from his party bosses, so that in the spirit of how wonderful he is and what a great public performer (yes, he certainly is good at that), they ask him to give a keynote speech at the party general conference. Because they didn’t know what he had done, or that he faced police prosecution for it.
Then, after telling the world how lovely the Nationalist Party is and how much better than Labour, he runs off to Labour because Nikita Zammit Alamango – timesofmalta.com’s ‘star blogger’ who can’t form a simple thought or sentence – had impressed him with her amazing ideas.
The damage they have done to how homosexual men in public life are perceived by others is unquantifiable. They should be ashamed but clearly are not.
Gay icons? Liberal icons? They should be pilloried for sabotage. People will now say that if this is liberalism, then they want none of it.
That’s what comes from stupidly linking liberalism to sex and marriage, like an army of benighted idiots has done.
Ask me again why I prefer Lawrence Gonzi, Carm Mifsud Bonnici and the rest, even with their votes against divorce legislation, to people like this and to the Opposition leader who says that their behaviour doesn’t concern him because it’s “private”.
I can never, ever imagine Lawrence Gonzi or any member of his cabinet doing anything so nasty, stupid and vindictive or even brushing it away as being of no importance.
Of course it is important. It is valuable insight into the person’s character, and you must be of dubious character yourself to be a party leader and say it doesn’t matter.
This isn’t about homosexuality. This is about criminal spite and horrendously poor judgement.
68 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
This very appropriate comment was posted beneath the timesofmalta.com story this morning.
” Stephen Moyer
Today, 11:26
For all those of you who are too incompetent and narrow minded to get their facts straight, you should either keep your mouths shut or understand the specifics.
Firstly this case has nothing to do with politics or gay marriage and adoption so please do not veer off topic. This is about an evil act allegedly committed by Cyrus Engerer, and whether he is a public figure or not does not change the fact that he committed a severe crime and jeopardised not only Mr. Camilleri’s career, but more importantly his personal reputation.
Mr. Camilleri is a victim in this case and the only clown in this circus of events is Cyrus Engerer. He definitely deserves justice for what he has done as an act so cowardly is unspeakable.
All those of you who think this is a witch-hunt against Cyrus, don’t be fooled. Although we in the gay community had high hopes for Mr. Engerer, he does NOT deserve our sympathy or even our vote for that matter. Cyrus is a disappointment to our community and I will no longer stick my neck out for someone who has committed such an awful act to his ex lover.
A note to Mr. Camilleri – Stay strong, we are on your side. Justice will prevail. “
“a severe crime and jeopardised not only Mr. Camilleri’s career, but more importantly his personal reputation. ”
And its motivation was that he is gay.
In the position of Mr. Camilleri, I would have invoked whatever law there is on discrimination and dissemination of hatred on basis of sexuality.
This commentor would do well to follow his own advice and keep his mouth shut. Many of his assumptions are based on false premises. It seems that no one spare the two parties originally involved knows all the details surrounding this conflict. I somehow doubt that Mr. Camilleri is looking for Mr. Moyer’s “support.”
agreed
you are becoming rediculous and ludicrous not to say that your journalism has lately become as cheap as that of the website you criticized in other posts….. shame on you to have fallen so low as the same people you criticize. The people you idolize and praise, men like President Emeritus EDDIE FENECH ADAMI, LAWRENCE GONZI are great just because they did what they had to without losing any shred of diplomacy and dignity…. shame on you
590 people gave Cyrus Engerer their first preference PN vote in the last local council elections. I wonder how they’re feeling now?
Not to mention the stellar work done by Manu Maltes lately…
As if it wasn’t bad enough already, thanks to Cyrus and Manu, people will now equate “gay” just with “gay sex” all the more now. And moral corruption…
Daphne, I’m not sure I understand your point about liberalism, sex and marriage. What is so stupid about making a connection between these things?
This is not a diss or a rhetorical question. I’m genuinely curious.
[Daphne – Political liberalism is not concerned with any of those things. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberalism/ ]
Cyrus Engerer has almost demolished what the Malta Gay Rights Movement had painstakingly built since it was set up in 2001 – exactly ten years ago.
Through reasoned argument, Sandro Mangion, Gaby Calleja and several others had put gay issues on the political and social agenda – not posturing or ego-tripping, just talking reasonably about the logical conclusions that come out of a belief in equality.
If you believe gay men are equal to straight men, and gay women are equal to straight women, then there are some conclusions you must draw, including same-sex marriage. They could see others’ points of view as well, and they argued convincingly.
Of course, they didn’t make same-sex marriage their raison d’etre. They argued against the homophobic mindset most gay people encounter in Maltese society and the anti-gay discrimination and bullying they experience all the time.
Then Cyrus Engerer became the gay poster boy doing good work in the party that can change things (because the Nationalist Party HAS been the party of change in Malta since 1987) and, in any case, the party in government.
Yet, he was hiding this skeleton in his closet. And this is the problem with people whose ego is bigger than themselves and who don’t have any team spirit – fronting gay issues within the divorce movement while knowing he can easily become a liability; duping his own party, Joseph Muscat and the press in his crossing over to Labour.
How are gay people to argue about same-sex marriage now? The shining example of a reasonable and ‘normal’ gay man has become a weapon in the hands of the anti-gay brigade.
Cyrus Engerer used the homophobia against which he was supposedly working to pay back his ex lover for breaking up their relationship.
A local gay icon – if you can call him that – and his associates are mentioned in the media for days on end for all the wrong reasons. And then trying to shift the blame on his own godfather plus Prime Minister’s closest person who’s trying to help a Labour candidate by then. Shockingly unacceptable.
Cyrus Engerer has turned out to be a sordid tale and a liability for the Maltese gay movement. So unfortunate.
.
All true, but how many no-brainers post ‘Well done Cyrus’, ‘Kuragg Cyrus’ and similar comments under the reports of this fairy tale?
The Labour elves cannot go beyond that now, can they?
.
@ Li Ding
They must be feeling very upset by the way they were misled during the campaigne. I would like to know however how his promoters and backers are feeling now? I think that these 590 voters deserve some form of explantion from whoever was behind his nomination.
This does not make him a ‘politician’ (as he describes himself. One becomes a ‘politician’ once he/she is democratically elected to serve his/her constituents in parliament. A public figure he certainly made himself very recently. I wish him luck but I have my doubts about his political aspirations.
Spot on.
After all, according to MLP supporters, Cyrus hasn’t done anything wrong except watching some pornography which we all do anyway…
[Daphne – And he’s not even accused of that. The pornography in question is the photographs depicting Marvic Camilleri.]
You know, in complicated amorous relationships, women, generally speaking, seek revenge – be it revenge against their (ex)man or his new partner. In homosexual relationships, this type of revenge goes up to the next level. Cyrus clearly proves this the more he tries to justify his actions.
[Daphne – As if. Cyrus’s vindictiveness is male vindictiveness not gay vindictiveness. What about that man in L-Iklin a couple of years ago, who put up on the parish noticeboard news of who his wife was having an affair with, including photographs? What about all the women shot, strangled and stabbed in a vindictive frenzy? How many have there been recently, including that woman shot and killed in a car in Mgarr by an ex lover who couldn’t stand the thought that she’d left him? When – in Malta, at least – have you ever heard of a woman doing any such thing?]
See it this way. There’s no point getting too worked out on the issue. People need to belong – in some cases we have no choice (such as we don’t choose our parents), but in many other cases, it’s a deliberate choice. You belong in the circles you deserve. Clearly, Cyrus’s natural place was MLP all along. The one mistake that PN needs to avoid is to take him back if he comes to his senses any time soon.
Unless it’s with MLP, to me, his political career is over. He landed himself in a real mess – no Marvic no Party.
I always love reading your blog over lunch – and today is no different, if for no other reason because you provide an intelligent point of view over facts which are, let’s face it, pretty boring and dull.
At any rate, I despair when I see that our future PM (he won’t be mine for sure) saying “in open court” (as it were) that Cyrus Engerer’s acts are a private matter. How can the circulation of sexual photographs after the break-in and, presumably, hacking (or at any rate, violation) of somebody’s computer be in any way private?
So, I ask, if Politician A (whoever he is) kills his partner in the privacy of their own home, that’s surely a private affair, isn’t it? Particularly if it was in a fit of jealous rage: so, judging by Muscat’s standards it’s private.
So, don’t we, voters, have the right to know that Politican A is capable of killing somebody in a fit of jealous rage? What is private? When you’re in politics nothing is private (in my humble opinion) particularly if it involves the violation of the law.
At any rate, these shenanigans have led me to remark to a friend over coffee a couple of days ago: ara vera pufta trid tkun (excuse my French). I didn’t mean it the “wrong” way but there you have it.
And I have a couple of male gay friends with whom sometimes I even went out shopping so I have no issues there. Still, I cannot agree with you more that these shenanigans have tarnished the reputation of the members of our society who lead their lives with the dignity expected not of homosexuals but of everybody, in reality.
One last thing: why do we need to parade a person’s sexuality? What I do in the bedroom with the person I love (or I fancy or whatever) is my business as long as that other person is of age and consenting.
I hate this ghettoing of gays in the PL. It is so incredibly demeaning and degrading.
Veru tal-biki!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMqSmiC_xHg
”…….really had a negative effect on the already not-too-great way gay men are perceived by some sectors of Maltese society” – and what exactly are you doing to avoid this happening, Daphne? Revel in this story and give it maximum exposure on your blog so that those sectors of this Maltese society would have more to laugh about?
[Daphne – I could always pretend it isn’t happening, I suppose. You know, like the Labour Party did (and is still doing) with the war in Libya.]
I genuinely do not think you’re a homophobe but it looks like you’re working extra hours to earn your place amongst the homophobes. Who knows, they might even appoint you Presidentessa of the hate-club. Imagine that!
[Daphne – Oh what rubbish, honestly. The day I find myself constrained to start using ‘Janet & John’ language so that people with the mind of a 10-year-old can understand what I’m saying is the day I’ll call it quits.]
I cannot fathom what made you change your ways about Cyrus so quickly.
[Daphne – Here’s a clue: I found out that he entered his ex’s flat without permission, got into his harddrive without permission, copied the contents without permission, went to the trouble of finding the email addresses of his ex’s boss and colleagues, and emailed them photos showing that same ex in a compromising position. This is DISGUSTING. But as I told a (gay) friend, it’s not the sort of thing a gay man would do. No, it’s exactly the sort of thing a man, fullstop, would do. A woman might rip up your shirts, say, but whatever she’s going to do, she’ll keep it private. Men like their revenge to be public and to involve as many other people as possible, without a thought to the consequences of doing that or of how many people are going to be hurt besides their intended victim.]
You know, in the story about Manu Maltes you went about how journalists should not take things at face value, implying they should run a background check. Perhaps you should have done the same with Cyrus before saying that he is ” a rising star – if the Nationalist party had any sense”.
[Daphne – Oh, so true.]
Up untl then, even if he was not on the PL side, he was still a star in your eyes. He then goes Labour and all that changes. This is nothing but a crusade!
[Daphne – Al, I am going to spell this out clearly. It’s not because Cyrus went to LABOUR that I changed my mind about him, but because he switched, end of, just days after delivering a panegyric about how wonderful the Nationalist Party is. That kind of flakiness opens up all sorts of questions about the person’s psychology, and then comes the news of that act of vindictiveness. All in all, not a person you can trust any time soon.]
[Daphne – Believe me, Al, this is not an attack. Were I to decide to attack Cyrus – and boy, does he deserve it – there would be blood and guts all over the walls (a metaphor). But I don’t because I actually feel sorry for him because he’s still young and so mixed up. He cuts quite a tragic figure at this point – all that promise, up in smoke. And you don’t have to stick up for him just because he’s gay like you. You’re not all in this together. I don’t stick up for women just because they’re women.]
I genuinely love reading your blog and in many cases you are well & truly spot on, but when you go on about the same matter, over and over again, it just becomes irritably tiring and very unamusing!
Have a fabulous & glittery weekend :-)
Al, ka ic-chunky
Oh, Daphne, believe me, I would never stick up for someone who’s gay, just because they’re gay; I’m not the Gay Spokesman, or Spokesman for Gays.
I have actually been attacked by members of a Facebook page for apparently siding with you. Can you believe that?
[Daphne – Yes. I’ve being saying this out loud, Al, but few people seem to be listening. That sort of person isn’t ‘liberal’, but the complete opposite: totalitarian.]
Anyway, back to the case. I would however stick up for someone who, at the moment, is being attacked from all four winds. Yours, is a strong force Daphne and I hate to see all these posts about him.
[Daphne – Not as much as I hate seeing somebody only a few years older than my children, with so much promise, who overcame the problems of his background in such an outstanding manner, self-combust through a series of poor decisions. His mother must be going through hell, and though I don’t know her, she’s the main reason I’m restraining myself here. As for his father, well…..perhaps ‘liberals’ (they think the word means ‘anything goes’) like Saviour Balzan and Matthew Vella should understand that no child wants to grow up seeing their parents smoke dope. The most telling thing that Chris Engerer said to the press was ‘I thought about giving up when my son went into politics, but I didn’t.’ Nice one: “I thought about being a major problem dogging my son, but then I said f**k it and didn’t bother.” Here’s something else to chew on: when you buy illegal drugs, however soft, you buy them from dealers. I trust you realise that a politician cannot have a father doing this kind of thing.]
I agree that the act in question is rather vindictive. However, all I can say is that only them two know what really happened behind that closed door. If, as you said, Marvic posted on some fb wall that he has a fetish for being photographed in compromising positions, I do not see what the fuss is about.
[Daphne – Really, you don’t? I guess it takes all sorts, Al. Let’s just say that normal people – gay or straight normal people, that is – have absolutely no desire to do anything similar and even if they did, they would know not to because photographs hang about for a long, long time and have an unpleasant tendency of coming back to hit you between the eyes whether you are in public life or not. It’s even worse nowadays when there are no ‘negatives to destroy’. One of the most major incidents in the Maltese parliament in the last 20 years was caused by just such photographs involving Dom Mintoff and a woman who was not his wife (and not just any woman, either, but an act of betrayal within the immediate family). Lorry Sant had got hold of them and tried to use them – blackguard that he was – to blackmail Wenzu Mintoff. Any person who needs to be photographed while having sex (yes, straight people too) should head off to a therapist. I can’t understand how they find compliant partners, quite frankly. Most women know to run far and fast if a man asks for that kind of thing.]
Really and truly, he should be at home, in all his glory ”giving praise”, to, I don’t know, one of Manu’s 12 films perhaps?
But joking aside, I feel terribly bad for both Cyrus and Marvic – and again not because they are both gay acquaintances of mine, but because this whole thing really, grew way out of proportion. As you said, he is still so young and very mixed up. We all can do without further mixing him up.
[Daphne – I agree. What you’re talking about is empathy and it’s great to see that somebody has some.]
Everything else seems to be crumbling around us and we’re focusing on this petty story.
[Daphne – On the contrary, Al, everything is NOT crumbling around us and that is why we have nothing better to do than distract ourselves with this kind of thing. If we were living in Greece we would not be talking about Cyrus Engerer.]
Overall, it’s wasn’t a very good week for us gays, now was it? First Manu and his ”alive by kiwi” story, then the ”Cyrus vs Marvic” saga and yesterday the incarceration of Tristan B for going all Steven Russell on Patrick Mallia.
Al, ic-chunky
“for us gays” .. again with the distinction that us gays are seperate from them straights. U le jahasra.
AL you were attacked by two assholes from the Facebook page you are referring too and now you generalize the whole group. Incidentally those two guys are not just assholes on Facebook, they are assholes in real life too, and you let them get to you about insignificant stuff.
Learn from Daphne and don’t let people get to you. Tons of stuff is said to her and about her, and she never lets it get to her or quits. Right, Daphne?
Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?
Imagine I was defending a straight guy for doing the same to his ex girlfriend. Calling you a heterophobe or a man-hater or some other rubbish.
Someone should probably explain to Al “ka ic-chunky” that the majority of gay men do not perceive this to be an attack on gay people, but rather, criticism of an individual, who had not the best of intentions and lied blatantly.
And oh, the majority of gay man do not have glittery weekends. They have regular weekends just like everybody else.
No wonder straight people keep thinking of gays in terms of glitter and fairy wings, because it is people like you who are enforcing that stereotype.
Humour, JohnUSA, dear. Humour! Or do you spell it humor?
Al,
Maybe it hasn’t occured to you, but the actual homophobe in this whole sorry mess is Cyrus himself. I have a feeling that Cyrus wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of circulating those photos had Mr. Camilleri been copulating with a woman rather than a man. If this were the case, the whole thing would of course be supremely ironic given what Cyrus purports to stand for.
Al,
Can’t you see that Cyrus Engerer in just a few days has become one of the worst adverts for gay issues in Malta?
All the gay lobby needed was Cyrus’s shenanigans, Manu Maltes’s inches and Tristan B.
Cyrus is now a fallen angel, suddenly turned to villain, and he cannot stop putting his feet in his mouth, as I can see from maltatoday.com.
I’ve just had an argument with a woman about gay marriage and adoption and immediately she fires away: “Mela ma nħallix xi wieħed bħal dak tal-films ta’ Bormla jadotta t-tfal, jew xi wieħed bħal Sajrus u sieħbu. Mhux hekk!”
She’s not the type who would ever read Daphne, but she could see Manu Maltes and Cyrus Engerer gracing the front pages put there by journalists intent on taking a hit at the government and at the Prime Minister.
Now the huge boomerang has hit them and still they can’t fathom the big collateral damage they’ve caused the gay lobby.
.
No we shouldn’t pretend it didn’t happen. Let democracy work and let all the story come out, A gay novel perhaps can be written, based on this story, to teach young gays what is right and wrong.
That said, I don’t care what a certain part of Malta thinks about gay rights. That same part of Malta has its own equally bad sex scandals and they have no place to judge. I know of several marriage break-ups that included violence and stealing.
It is so unfair to expect the gay community to be perfect while the dominant straight community is far from it. Logically and legally the gay community’s argument will win out eventually.
@ Tim Ripard. It is those who are looking at the story from one side of the political fence who are saying ‘well done Cyrus’ and ‘kuragg Cyrus’, not those who are – as should be – regarding what happened as an evil act against another human being.
Let me get this right – the deputy mayor of Sliema emailed out nude pictures of his ex-boyfriend to belittle him, an investment planner at the London Transport Authority writes disparaging remarks on a blog (from his office computer).
A magistrate sends bunches of virtual roses to persons arraigned before her. Someone needs to teach these people that internet use leaves a trace – that the web is a megaphone – and, more importantly, that they should act their age or at least try to respect the posts they occupy.
Pathetic or better – verament tal-biki.
Nikita Alamango’s blog on the Times has gone silent since the 19th July.
You seem to have gone and made the same mistake you had done with Jeffrey. You thought both him and Cyrus were future stars for the PN and they then went on to prove you wrong.
[Daphne – Damn right.]
I once wrote “forget Cyrus; he is easily replaced, and people like him can only cause trouble”.
We should all stop giving him importance by keeping him in the limelight. People like him tend to destroy themselves, so forget he ever existed, and he will be forgotten in a few weeks’ time.
I propose that one of us goes on hunger strike, for some irrelevant reason, so that we draw the attention of the media away from Cyrus. Who’s going to start?
Nobody gets it right all the time – especially when you’re dealing with out of control people.
Xi pjacir kbir ghamel lil PN meta mar inewwah fuq spallejn Joe Muscat u jilghaba tal-vittma ta’ intolleranza u homofobija. How vindictive and spiteful he is.
Dear Daphne,
I would like to know exactly from or which facebook wall have you read to get this information that Marvic has a fetish because on his own wall he never wrote this statement.
[Daphne – Perhaps it was a message he wrote on somebody else’s wall. He wrote that he feels like he’s in the closet all over again and that he’s going to come out and admit it: he has a thing for that sort of photography. This subject has become too ridiculous for words.]
Manu Maltes would be so proud
Nick, he might have repainted his wall and you do not know about it.
Perhaps or he wrote it on his wall? You are contradicting yourself, Daphne.
[Daphne – No, actually somebody has just reminded me – see comment elsewhere – that he wrote in the wall of some Facebook group for gay men in Malta.]
Oh now “somebody has reminded you” …and who is this somebody an elve of yours? Therefore, even you have elves.
[Daphne – Yes, somebody posted a comment here. You can read it too. Elves are people who post fake comments on the internet pretending to be, variously, Sliema housewives, Nationalist liberals or gay men. And just in case you still don’t believe me, I took the trouble of finding the actual comment. Here it is:
Marvic Camilleri posted in The Maltese Gay Community.
Marvic Camilleri 11:50pm Jul 27
I am a bit tired of feeling I have something to hide, I feel like I m back in the closet, so I thought of letting you all know, I m out. I have a sex picture fetish! Judge if you like, but it is support that one needs in such cases.
You got it from the Maltese Gay Community and as long as I know that’s a secret group and not open for public. So in someone’s else affairs, profiles, etc. you like to insert your nose but when things comes to terms and if someone stick his in your’s “Holl xagharek u gib iz-zejt”
[Daphne – How can a group be secret if it’s on the internet and has many members? This idea that something on Facebook is ‘secret’ is beyond hilarious. If you want to have a secret discussion, meet in somebody’s front room, like Magistrate Herrera does with the Leader of the Opposition, now that she’s learned the hard way that the internet is not the best place to do it.]
You have informers Inside that community so that they can report what’s said and done. Don’t you know Daphne that there are other secret groups within the whole Facebook community. Be up to date Daphne. I am in a Maltese secret group and it has nothing to do with lgbt labour or Maltese gay community or an anti-gay group or religious, political so come and so forth.
[Daphne – By definition, nothing that is on the internet can ever be considered secret, because it isn’t.]
Are you a member in this gay community?
[Daphne – Why would I bother, when I have friends who are?]
What I also find appalling is that he has not resigned from the Sliema local council. I hope he’s not planning to retain his seat – conviction or no conviction.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110729/local/faa-dismayed-at-manikata-church-permit.377914
“This week FAA followed an application to install telecommunications equipment on the beautiful, historic Mtahleb church. Should our architects not know better than to submit an application that would negatively impact such a gem?”
Why did FAA choose not to include the architect’s name in their press release?
Case Number: PA/05148/10
Location of development: Mtahleb Chapel, Ix-Xaghra ta` Fuq L-Imtahleb, L-Imtahleb L/O, Rabat, Malta
Description of works: Installation of mobile telephony equipment including telecommunication antennae.
Applicant: Ruth Grech
Architect: Robert Musumeci
ha ddum tippurcinella ?
Ghaliex? Il-fatti miktubin cari u tondi bla tlaqlieq ma jdoqqux ghall-widnejk?
Dan hu l-uniku post fejn insiru nafu xi haga ‘in context’ u mhux sempliciment x’qal wiehed u x’qal l-iehor.
Dan gurnalizmu u mhux rapurtagg jew tghawwig tal-fatti kif imdorri tisma’ int. Dawk vera pulcinellati!
I am lost for words on the above topics.
What I can say is that I am beginning to suspect that my parents’ assessment of the local situation could jolly well be spot on.
They are both into their ninth decade and very much compos mentis. I visit them every evening. They follow all the local news.
Often their parting shot is ” Malta sejra lura bhal granc”.
I dread to think they might be right.
PBS news reported this evening that the Lija local council won a landmark victory against the developer of the controversial block of flats near the Belvedere. Is this the developement that a certain magistrate got entangled in a couple of years or so ago?
It’s got to be it.
Lija Council 1, Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera 0.
See the history below – it’s got to be reliable because it’s from Maltatoday.
http://archive.maltatoday.com.mt/2008/08/31/t12.html
I admit, this bit is hilarious:
He also authorised the magistrate “to accept any condition even if absurd and unreasonable which the local council imposes on me, if Magistrate Scerri Herrara thinks this is opportune.”
Surprise surprise, the architect of this controversial project is no other than……Mr Musumeci.
What a happy coincidence.
I also couldn’t help notice how, during the news item about the new Progress Press building, the PBS news caster yesterday described the perpetrators of the torching of the Times during the Labour government as “il-Marmalja Socjalista.”
I can’t see the PL attacking the PBS on this and appearing to defend the marmalja.
I’m bored of the Cyrus Engerer situation. As a politician he shouldn’t have done what he did, and I’m sure he understands this. And I’m surprised it wasn’t made public as soon as it happened.
It is a private matter to private citizens, but he is not a private citizen.
Whatever your opinion of Cyrus, the situation doesn’t reflect badly on either party.
Whoever decided to leak it to the press at the same time that Mr Engerer left the PN must have had some hidden agenda, but to be honest I really don’t care about the whole thing anymore. I wonder who that person was. Which was the first paper to report the whole thing? And where did they get the info from?
Nick Fenech,
Marvic wrote that statement on the wall of that Facebook group for gay men. I know because I saw it.
Any MP, any minister, any government official any ambassador any banker any xxanker (sorry can’t say what I want here) any person who has lived a full life has something unbelievably embarrassing that she would like to keep private.
[Daphne – No doubt. AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHY CYRUS ENGERER IS BEING PROSECUTED – BECAUSE HIS EX-BOYFRIEND WANTED TO KEEP THOSE PICTURES PRIVATE.]
You can’t get an apple if you plant potatoes …
All this begs the question as to why Cyrus should have been given an assurance that such proceedings would be heard behind closed doors?
[Daphne – You’re right, of course. That’s decided by the magistrate at the start of the case.]
And who will that magistrate be? Da dum…
Also, that it would only take five minutes and that it was something ‘very small’. These things lead to heartbreak, financial losses and even suicides.
Neither life will ever be the same again. So, potentially ruining someone’s life is considered ‘very small’, is it?
I couldn’t believe its veracity when I read that.
It’s strange that you should apply your “whatwhenwhowherewhy” technique selectively.
I call it the Mainwaring syndrome – after Captain George Mainwaring of Dad’s army.
Sticking up for one’s side is commendable – but believing that “my friends can do no wrong” is naive to say the least. After the Mistra debacle one would have thought that people won’t be so quick to take up the “victim’s” cause. Especially when one knows the provenance of bad pieces of work, so to speak.
[Daphne – I don’t apply it selectively, Reuben. I apply it only when there is reason to suspect trouble or when a crisis breaks out. You can’t go through life suspecting everyone, like a mafioso on the run.]
We’re talking about a “rising star” here – not Bertu tal-haxix.
[Daphne – No, we are talking about a young man of just 29 with good presentation, well spoken, and most significantly, with the perseverance to overcome certain great difficulties in his background and gain a place at a postgraduate college which is very, very difficult to get into. There was no reason for anyone to suspect anything untoward in his personality, though people of his generation, I’m told, thought otherwise. I am not of his generation.]
I really cannot understand the fuss about Cyrus Engerer and the allegations that he circulated pornographic material.
Hasn’t the Prime Minister recently visited the hunger striker, Mr Cini, who is publicly known to be a gay porn ‘star’? If the head of government had no qualms about visiting the home of a known gay porn star who undoubtedly has pornographic material at home (at least porn fims he participated in unless he did a Savonarola and burned them all) than hasn’t the government given its tacit (or even explicit) consent to the porn industry?
Why should the police under the government headed by the same PM take so much exception at Mr Engerer’s misdemeanor if the PM is visiting prominent people in the porn industry which survives specifically by selling their video material? Have the police began proceedings against Mr Cini or could it be that the PM’s conscience now finds hard porn acceptable but soft home-made porn immoral?
Who is well versed on pudendal matters and can enlighten me on these delicate differences?
[Daphne – You are extremely confused. Cyrus Engerer’s case is not about pornography but about illegally obtaining somebody’s private pictures and circulating them with malicious intent to cause harm to that person.]
The Times reports that,
‘Mr Engerer is charged with misusing a computer without authorisation, circulating pornography and vilifying Mr Camilleri’.
If the report is correct, Mr Engerer IS being charged with circulating pornography. In other words, the coviction if there is one, has to address the charge on pornography.
On the other hand you are saying ‘Cyrus Engerer’s case is not about pornography’ whereas one of the charges is for circulating pornography.
[Daphne – Mr Farrugia, people are charged according to the specificities of the law. There is no law which says speficially ‘It is a crime to steal pictures showing your ex boyfriend having sex and circulate them to his colleagues and friends’. The crimes are ‘circulating pornography’ (and what’s more, to people who didn’t want to receive it) and vlification of the person featured in the pictures.]
Very confusing indeed especially while our PM is making house visits to gay porn stars. So where do we stand? by the Law or by the PM’s notorious (but erratic) conscience?
[Daphne – It’s not confusing at all. It’s very simple. If you visit a murderer in jail, does that make you in favour of murder? It is, in fact, incumbent on those who profess Christianity to visit prisoners – ‘I was in prison, and you visited me.’]
I am asking because I am confused, as you said, and you seem to be very conversant with all matters legal, moral and pudendal.
[Daphne – No pudendal, no, though I’m pleased that you’re learning new words and increasing your vocabulary.]
So you agree that pornography and its acceptance or rejection by Society and the Law is a matter under scrutiny in the Cyrus Engerer case.
[Daphne – Only as a minor issue. It’s called ‘having the book thrown at you’: the main charge, then a list of others. For example, you’re involved in a fight in Paceville and your list of charges includes disturbing the piece, GBH, illegal possession of a weapon, resisting arresting, injuring a police officer, and so on.]
In view of this, Dr Gonzi’s action brings into question accepted moral standards which you had expounded on so eloquently when you exposed Mr Cini’s past (and pudenda on some of the website links on your commentary) while trivialising Mr Cini’s claim that he is effectively imprisoned at home thanks to Dr Gatt’s transport ‘revolution’ (his words, not mine).
[Daphne – I can’t see how. I have the oddest feeling that Lawrence Gonzi visited the man primarily as a Christian and not as the prime minister, which is why Muscat didn’t bother.]
Now your attitude changes drammtically and you compare Dr Gonzi’s visit to the porn star to the Christian maxim ‘I was in prison, and you visited me’. Are you admitting that Mr Cini is effectively imprisoned at home and that his protest was justified, in which case your comments on Mr Cini were truly unchristian? I sense inconsistency and ulterior motives.
[Daphne – It’s most ill-advised to play games of Gotcha with me, and others have discovered. The same list of Christian rules includes, among other things, ‘I was naked and you clothed me’ and ‘I was hungry and you fed me’. The point is not that Mr Cini was ‘imprisoned’, but that Christians are obliged to show compassion to all regardless of the crimes/wrong-doing involved, and this is clearly what informs the prime minister’s behaviour.]
By the way, I am most willing to expand my vocabulary (rather restricted in the orogenic locus you placed me in in your past comments) although I have not learned any new words from you.
[Daphne – You sound like a prat, but being a liberal, I will tolerate you and accept the fact that even you have a vote.]
I think it is time for Farrugia to have a break and pop two kiwis.
I am no prude, but the number of families and careers dashed by badly-judged sexual liaisons never ceases to amaze me.
It is incredible how many individuals, from all walks of life, (including those who show sound judgment in all other matters, bar the aforesaid) are willing to put everything into jeopardy, and go through the pain and effort to keep their encounters clandestine. And in a place this small, that must be quite an energy-sapping exercise, verging on recklessness.
Berlusconi, Bill Clinton, DSK to mention but a few politicians, a few congressmen, clergymen… and for the local touch, well a former police commissioner, members of the judiciary and now Cyrus…
Ulysses did at least have the foresight to instruct his men to tie him to the mast to evade the allure of the sirens… (and no, that’s not a pun for a local politician)…
This is about homosexuality: This is about the majority of gay men who flaunt their sexuality and suffer from jealous traits like the one endured by Cyrus Engerer which led him to the commision of an alleged crime. Contaminating our political spectrum with homosexiuals has depleted the value of our perception towards our political class and even worse it has heightened our conviction that gays and lesbians are a liability to the future of this country. Labour will accept them as he he has accepted all the dinosaurs of the past in an attempt to accomodate everyone and steal any vote he can from the upcoming election.
Glorifing the homosexual minority Daphne is not doing this country any favours
[Daphne – I’m going to take the liberty, Ms Saliba, of pointing out that you also hold rightwing racist views on immigration and Islam. I think it’s important to do so because some ‘Labour liberals’ out there don’t seem to understand this, and appear to believe that a political party (Labour) can hold reprehensible views on immigrants while being ‘liberal about gays’. It’s just not possible. People who are suspicious and fearful of immigrants and Muslims also tend to be suspicious and fearful of homosexuals. They also hold very strong views on women’s place in society.]
The reason I do is because the fear and abolition of the hard right has allowed communism and socilaism to seep into Europe. This is nowadays being disguised as liberalism which many interpret as open “permissivness” even though it is not.
It is a political and inevitable certainty that the hard right will rise again and Europe will be facing a huge political shift in the not so distant future. Sarkozy’s political slide on immigration is indicative of this due to his opponent’s(Marine le Pen) rising popularity. So wether you wnat to beleieve it or not this is happening.
I am not a racist, which means that I do not discriminate on colour but am fundamentally anti islamic. The reason being that no other creed contaminates and populates as much as islam and to one ultimate objective, expanding their demographics. I also wish to point out that this is not about suspicions and fear of Imigrants, this is about a silent invasion of a people who have considered us enemies and infidels for the last 2000 years and while we have evolved, they have not!
If you consider one who is a True nationalist to be a facist or racist, I tink it is a rather unfair comment!
Well done once again, Daphne, you described mine and various others’ concern.
I’ve had enough of this Cyrus and Marvic circus. They actually think people do not use the internet. Nude pics of Marvic were circulated on the internet almost three years ago. They are really not helping the gay cause. Now I know why we are stereotyped by society in general, as the worst possible type of gays are indirectly representing us.