Updated: AT LAST! WE HAVE A POLICY! ISA!
In my newspaper column today, I wrote about how odd it is that the leader of the Opposition is always the one to speak about matters of finance and the economy, and that there appears to be no proper shadow minister of finance, which is worrying.
And bang on cue, he was out on the hustings in Qormi this morning, standing in as shadow finance minister again.
But the good news is that he revealed the first of Labour’s post-2013 policies at last.
Hold your breath. This won’t take long.
A new Labour government will do its utmost to solve the pensions problem by encouraging more human resources to take up employment, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this morning.
– timesofmalta.com
Smart, eh? Funny how nobody ever thought of it. Karmenu Vella must have been awake all night thinking that one up.
Idiots.
So he tells us that he’s going to persuade more ‘human resources’ (eh, dak ghandu pijajcdi fil-menicmint) to take up employment, but he misses out the crucial bit about who’s going to employ them.
Lesson 1 in basic politics and economics for Joseph Muscat and Karmenu Vella:
Create the demand for workers (jobs, that is) BEFORE you create the demand for work. If you create the demand for work without the concomitant demand for workers, all you do is ratchet up unemployment.
Lesson 2 in basic politics and economics for Joseph Muscat and Karmenu Vella:
Unless you plan on creating a Cleaners Corps on the lines of the Task Force and the Pijunieri, with which Mr Vella is most familiar, don’t even bother talking about getting women into the workforce. The tragedy of Maltese women is that by the time they wake up to the fact that earning some money might be useful, they have been out of the workforce for 20 years and most of them left school at 15 or 16 anyway. They are unemployable.
Even if you don’t destroy the economy and somehow manage to do better than this government, there are no jobs in any market that is opening up for women my age whose last paid work was in an office in 1985, still less for those who last worked in the 1980s on a factory floor. You can be the brightest, brainiest woman in the world, but if you have no work record between the ages of 25 and 45, and no training or tertiary education before that, you’re dead in the water.
So don’t talk about getting women into the workforce unless you plan on investing millions in training programmes, and even then there’s no guarantee that women will bother taking them up (even if they’re free of charge and you lay on transport), or that you can help create the jobs for them to fill once they get out the other side.
47 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Bahhar u Sewwi, Izra u Rabbi, Pijunieri, Tal-Kappar. Shall I go on for the young elves?
And now: Obloq u Ahdem.
You MUST mention Dirghajn il-Maltin. It had such a communist ring to it – it makes one shudder.
Il-fabbrika tar-Rix (believe it or not).
What a genius. Mesmerizing.
@ m’alla qalilna issa nista norqod b’rasi mistrieha….
He’s going to get women into the workforce, eh?
Let’s see now:
‘Dirghajn in-Nisa Maltin’ or ‘Dirghajn il-Maltin = Sezzjoni Nisa’.
He can always polish up this plan over the next 18 months.
F’hogor in-nisa Maltin, how about that?
The mother of all earthquakes in the field of employment policy.
And I will do my utmost to end the famine in Africa by encouraging the clouds to come forth and start pouring rain.
I am using one of the free public wifi hotspots run by the government by the way – i.e. your website has been finally unblocked :)
[Daphne – What do you know, it’s part of the great pre-electoral Nationalist conspiracy to expose as many people as possible to the magic spells of Is-Sahhara Defni.]
Any reason why the site was blocked and why it has been now unblocked?
[Daphne – Yes. After some experimentation I discovered that my site was pretty much the only one such that had been blocked, so I asked for an explanation and its immediate unblocking (I should have done that more than a year ago, when I first starting receiving reports that people couldn’t access it from public areas and the general hospital). It turns out that some smart-ass, almost certainly with an ulterior motive, had unilaterally decided to block it along with some sites that had been blocked for other reasons. When this ‘sabotage’ was discovered, it was unblocked.]
Istja, man kemm int genju, Guz!
Int tal-genn, is-salvatur gdid ta’ Malta.
Ghaliex ma tmurx tiehdu f’ so*m*k, pulcinell.
“Ghaliex ma tmurx tiehdu f’ so*m*k, pulcinell.”
I sincerely hope — but somewhat doubt — that (y)our thoughts will be echoed by the majority of the population come 2013.
I’m retiring at 55 and running for parliament.
That sums up the Labour Party: selling smoke in boxes.
I suspect one of the following;
They can’t manage policy
They won’t agree on policy
They cannot disclose the details given the nature of the measures being contemplated.
All three above to varying degrees.
It’s what happens when principles and consistency in one’s actions are ‘thrown out of the window’. The first for political convenience, the second due historical liability.
Problem is any respect he could have had within the ranks followed, leaving him with nothing but a survival instinct facing their multitude of expectations. Whatever yearning he had for authority has been overcome by fear of transverse blackmail, especially those who reaped their gains in 1998.
Playing for time has only reinforced the rumour that he’s in no position to leave any of them out.
Is he too concerned who to trust? Because in that case it’s a never ending game within Labour, and with twenty five years in opposition behind them, the rapacity is turning unbearable. He can thank Mintoff for that.
“A new Labour government will do its utmost to solve the pensions problem by encouraging more human resources to take up employment, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this morning.”
By raising the pension age?
By limiting the number of students going to university?
By removing unemployment benefits?
By reinstating il-Korpi?
But will “its utmost” be good enough?
Does Karmenu Vella know of Joseph’s brilliant plans?
What happened to reducing the electricity bills?
Which comes first?
How about reducing taxes?
How about doing much more than the NP government and not raising taxes?
Which ‘free’ services will he cut?
Will he still defy court should it finally find for the government regarding the tax on car imports?
Does he condone Magistrate Consuelo Scerri-Herrera’s conduct unbecoming a judge?
Will he support her impeachment or will he prop up her brother Jose’ Herrera, possibly a future Minister of Justice?
Will he still continue to harp about Corruption in government or he would fall silent if the tables are turned on him?
Will funds for capital projects suddenly dry up?
If so, what will he do with hundreds of workers now gainfully employed rebuilding roads, maintaining/restoring fortifications and other heritage buildings?
These are questions which Joseph should answer and not be vague about ‘trying’.
The proof is in the pudding and over the last several years we have been eating pudding not just speculating about how good the pudding would probably be.
We tend to evaluate facts and tangible results, not empty words and promises.
The present government will be judged in 2013 on the basis of accomplishments during this legislation and what it has achieved thus far is enough to see it through another victory.
In the meantime, Joseph continues to ‘try’ hard finding himself and what he has found so far is plain and simple – he is well out of his depth.
Remember Joseph, Gaddafi’s helping hand has withered.
How is our Joe going to drag the Qormi housewives, with rollers and everything, to take a full time job in key sectors of the economy, away from the daily errand of a chatty life in Qormi.
Or will he rather encourage young people to take up employment rather than pursuing tertiary education?
P Shaw, why Qormi and why housewives?
[Daphne – I assume it’s because Muscat was speaking in Qormi at the time and addressing the issue of women who don’t work.]
:
‘Dirghajn in-Nisa Maltin’ or ‘Dirghajn il-Maltin = Sezzjoni Nisa’. (Peter Pan)
Everyone knew that D.I.M. meant Dirghajn il-Maltin. Don,t make the ingenuous mistake of asking what B.I.M. stood for (apart from Bailey Industries Malta). The “B” stood for the Maltese word for female breasts – and that corps did not really exist.
What are all those women going to do? Knit bears for Michelle’s teddy collection?
Honestly.
Trust this twit to talk about creating workers before he tells us how he plans to best Gonzi by creating work.
Typical socialist Labour: they just don’t link jobs to the economy AT ALL.
“A new Labour government will do its utmost to solve the pensions problem by encouraging more human resources to take up employment”
Nice one Dr Joe.
So what does this mean exactly? Is he, as PM, going to go round telling the unemployed, ” Ejja guys, let’s go to work!”?
It’s not like all those who are unemployed are so by choice. Some are struggling to find a job. Some would love to have a job but can’t find one, or can’t find one suited to them, although with the world as it is at the moment it’s going to be tough for people to be picky.
If he is referring to those people who don’t want to work even though they can then he has a problem. Those people are LAZY and expect the government to pay for everything for them.
So, Dr Muscat, who are you talking about exactly? Are you saying that you are going to tell all those benefit parasites that they have to get off their lazy backsides and make their own money? And how exactly does one do that?
You see, there is only a lack of willingness to work among those type of people and not among those people who have dreams, aspirations and goals. So taking on the unmotivated, uninspired and underachieving individuals who go out of their way to stay away from a job is going to be tough and the only way to get them working is to take away their benefits.
Incidentally, do the Labour supporters who fit that description know they are going to be made to get a job?
The other gem in his uttering is the new group of beatified businessmen that for the past two years, have kept workers on their books even though they have been losing money. According to this bright ass, the fact that Malta has one of the lowest unemployment rate is not due to the government but thanks to these businessmen.
Maybe we should commemorate 18 September as another national holiday in the same vein as Freedom Day.
For the Labour Party the significance of their declaration today is a major leap.
Today they gave birth to the first of their blissfully ignorant policies. Hail the new leadership – a visionary come just in time to save our country.
Here’s another one for Labour’s skip: Edward de Bono and King Gaddafi.
Interesting. Could you develop further re Edward de Bono?
[Daphne – You must have missed this: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110918/local/The-audacity-of-thinking.385122 ]
Oh, now I get it. I hope Edward de Bono made his millions with some real consulting, instead of these LSD-induced proposals. I mean, we’re always told to think out of the box, but he sounds like me during one of my desperate interviews.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110918/football/tarxien-crushes-qormi.385292
It might change shortly but heading and actual result don’t match.
Qahbu, that is a provocation not a solution.
It is the essence of creative thought. Many claim to have identified it, including De Bono, but in reality it is a natural stimulus to a creative effort. What De Bono certainly did was to create his form of process based on it.
Dan bozza tal-mija, kaxxa infernali ta’ genju naturali.
what does ‘isa’ mean? AT LAST WE HAVE A POLICY! ISA!
isn’t that supposed to spell qisa?
[Daphne – Isa as in ‘isa hej’.]
qisa hej, not ‘isa hej’
[Daphne – Really? I didn’t know it was a real word with official spelling and pronunciation. Qisa means ‘similar to’.]
Similar to would be written: qisha
Isa in the sense intended by Daphne is written exactly as Daphne wrote it: Isa.
I think you might be right. Qisa does mean ‘similar to’, however I was sure that the word qisa can also mean ‘come on’, as in ‘come on, let’s go’ – ejja, qisa ha mmorru.
The pronunciation lends itself to other words such as ‘qahba’ very commonly seen written as ahba by people who still consider our mother tongue secondary to the English language.
Really? When presented with the letter Q followed by a vowel, the first word you could think of is ‘Qaħba’? Qarquċ, or Qażquż, perhaps?
I take it Maltese is not your first language, is it?
Actually, i’m not Maltese. My father is Bjorn Borg and my mother was one of the original Borgs from Star Trek, the pseudo-race of cybernetic organisms. (Why are you ashamed of being Maltese “Baxxter”?)
Look who’s talking. You can’t even spell “isa”. That’s probably the first word you were taught as a child while straining away on the potty.
Yep you’re right.
So, now we have a former bank clerk of CET fame, a Mintoff-admiring perit pushing 70 years, and a old notary all aspiring to be the next Minister of Finance. Not to mention a hopeful PM, who, through my own personal experience, doesn’t know his GDP from his asshole.
‘The occupational hazard of democracy is know-nothing voters. (Malta certainly understands that) It shouldn’t be know-nothing candidates.’ (Maureen Dowd, New York Times, September, 18, 2011.
“..there’s no guarantee that women will bother taking them up (even if they’re free of charge and you lay on transport)…”
Actually, there’s a guarantee that women won’t take them up.
Considering that despite the attempted viral proliferation by ETC using every means imaginable (I got a message on Facebook, Twitter and via SMS), their scheme which offered 25 euros a week for a few hours of training in an area of their choice is still widely unsuccessful.
We have to face the music here – traditional Maltese housewives, complain as they might about lack of income or boredom, do not want to do anything to improve their position, unless it’s one of those “work-from-home” jobs.
I only have two words to say to all this: tal-biki.
I can’t believe it that JM simply doesn’t understand that first you create jobs and then people are encouraged to go out working.
And this “nisa li jahdmu” balderdash. If a woman has brains she works.
If a woman imagines herself as a baby-minder for the rest of her life, she doesn’t.
It’s as simple as that.
And that’s the mentality with which you would have been brought up. No government policy can change that, I believe.
I’ve always wanted to work, and I do. Women I know, who don’t, believe that it’s their role in society not to work.
Well, bless them, but that’s why I believe it’s just a mentality.
Fl-ahhar donnha xeghlet speci ta’ bozza.
Daphne, issa jew ghandek 6th sens jew joghgbuhom l-ideat tieghek! ;)
ferhan ghax cuc
Mhux ferhan ghax cuc, imma ghax jahseb li ghax rega gabar iz-zibel kollu fi hdan il partit, allura issa ma hemmx firdiet izjed.
Imma issa il-partit sar qisu fergha ta’ San Vincenz, nahseb li Malta tant giet il-quddiem taht gvernijiet Nazzjonalista, allura ftit huma dawk li ghad ghandhom fiducja f’dawq bhal Joe Grima, Karmenu Vella, Alex Sceberras Trigona u ohrajn ta’ l-istess pezza.
Ahjar jiffurmaw team ma’ KMB u jingabru taht id-dublett ta’ Gaddafi (jekk isibu fejn qed jistahba).