Do some people actually live in a parallel universe?
This comment was posted beneath Malta Today’s story on poor old Peter Xuereb, the preposterous thug who violated a student’s right to privacy by asking for her name (he wouldn’t have had to if she had observed the convention of introducing herself before speaking).
I read this sort of thing and wonder just how it is possible to become so detached from reality.
Xuereb’s intervention had a Gestapo and NKVD smell. A high official paid from public funds suddenly became a secret agent and demanded and got personal information from a poor 20 year old university student.
His action is abusive, illegal and infringes basic human rights. In any other free dmocratic country there would have been a public outcry and massive student protest. Here, in GonziPN’s Malta we live in a chickem-farm ruled and guarded by pigs.
Public officials break the law openly, use psychological measures to terroriz students and while the university students who are supposed to be the avante-guard of the anti-establishment movements fail misrably to show solidarity with one of their number who was brave enough to confront the supremo of arrogance himself.
And what about the media ? That is the public-financed TVM and the Queen of all sycophants The Times ? They all lie low in the shadow of a creeping authoritarian system as witnessed by the cheek of a public officer turning himself into a Gestapo agent demanding the personal details of an university student…and after this ugly incident he has even more cheek in defending his dastardly intervention that Arriva had nothing to do with Gufo’s visit to the University and anyhow, he had to keep law and order.
If these heavy-habded actions were to continue under one guise or another, we’ll soon be searching for missing students. The Argentine desparicidos’ was sealed when ‘repectable’ high public officials began to terrorize psychologically university students and nobody cared to notice, let alone protest.
Nicola Abela Garrett deserves praise and solidarity. She dared to shame the big Gufo himself in public. It’s a pity that she was left alone….and in the lurch.
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Everyone, including her peers, is making her out to be some sort of victim. She’ll be getting laid on that story for the rest of her student days. Not such a bad deal after all.
Labour chicks do it better
Baxxter, did you spell ‘laid’ correctly?
(Dare you, Daphne) OK, I thought it was funny.
Nope, I still don’t get it.
However, there is some truth in what my colleague Steve said.
You see, Harry, in the Old Continent (home to naked, oil-covered discus-throwers and fierce bearded warriors), most students are naturally left-wing. Unless, by some extraordinary bit of luck, you happen to bag the scion of some old aristocratic family, your standard female student will have the sort of ideas of a promiscuous Mother Teresa.
Hey, who are we to complain? If they want us to be socialiststs, then we’ll play along. After all, the game’s worth the candle. And the peace pipe which goes with it.
She can play the victim card now, during the university years. She might be enjoying the limelight right now, but this victimhood and heroine status won’t work when she tries to look for a job, in the private sector at least.
[Daphne – I don’t think it will affect her chances at all, and it shouldn’t.]
Not all her peers think Nicola’ a heroine or a victim. It’s just that those hailing her as such are voicing their opinion while those that don’t are keeping quiet and getting on with their studies, like me.
This was just a publicity ploy by an over-indulged child that took on a life of its own with some unpleasant consequences; I certainly wouldn’t be proud of getting a friend fired.
I know a lot of her peers who are of the same mind.
These people must be on drugs or something.
It reads like a Maltarats article, reality-disconnect, punctuation and all.
On another note, it’s funny how, even now that the plot has been exposed, Ms Garrett is still being considered by some as a heroine.
Can Ms. Abela Garrett explain what she means when she said she was “forced” to give her name?
I do not see any “force” being used here. Surely if there had been any use of force, One would have shown it in their footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PMS-xITpks#t=1m05s
Actually, having seen the video again, can we get Ms. Abela Garrett a Jaguar?
Where did you read this?
Sorry missed the intro!
She was very ill-mannered and will have to live with it, I’m afraid……but it was her choice. Pity she abused her free education. I wish her luck but she must learn how best to get a message across.
“We’ll soon be searching for missing students…”
Really now…as in the search for the missing (found three years later hacked to pieces in a well in Buskett) accountant, Lino Cauchi.
Isn’t this incitement? If there was no public outcry, could it be because the minister’s reaction and subsequent statement were, to say the least, appropriate.
What exactly is the plan here? Is it a coincidence that Evarist Bartolo has come out saying he won’t respect agreements made by this government?
Argentine desaparecidos?
Biex gejjin? Jekk ma jitilghux jikkmandaw mit-toroq?
They just want to get to Minister Gatt. Directly, or through the people in his employ. This is Labour.
It’s no use trying to reason with these people. On the other hand, winding them up is incredibly easy and much more fun.
Instead of searching for missing students they should be searching for missing brain cells.
Antoine, They will not find them on Malta Today.
Happening tonight…
House party at Consuelo’s and Musumeci’s place in Siggiewi. Judge Lino Farrugia Sacco is one of the invitees. Plenty of flashy cars parked in Siggiewi’s main square.
Din bis-serjeta’? Mela tlaqna jew?
Dawn ilhom xi 25 sena li telqu. Issa qed jippruvaw jaghmlu “comeback.”
Why do I have a sneaking suspicion it’s Saviour?
I have Labour tendencies but I shudder when I read such stupid comments from puffed-up brats who have no the slightest idea of what we had been through during 1975-1987.
it seems that they had never read or listened to speeches by members of the Labour Party personnel.
If I was Nicola’s father the last thing I would do is praise my daughter for using such language…..and I think that this benchmark should sum it all up.
Yet nothing surprises me anymore and there is a big chance that her parents are proud ‘bit-tifla’ and are enjoying the limelight similar to that generated by a cheap Big Brother reality TV show.
So true, I was thinking what my dad would have said to me if I did something of the sort during my university days. Also I don’t think I would be very happy if my son (not yet of university age) did something like that in public.
Carmen Sammut
Another journalist lost his job … this time because he took a cue from facebook! Spot on Josanne … two weights, two measures.
Josanne Cassar | Two weights and two measures
josannecassar.com
I was present at the infamous Alfred sant debate at the University when Alfred Sant was booed and heckled by University students – actually I was one of the journalists asking the questions on stage so I had a perfect view of the audience of hundreds of antagonistic students. As usually happens whe…..
LikeUnlike · · Share · 14 hours ago · Privacy:Shared with: Public.3 people like this..
Marion Attard smells like fascism to me….not surprised
13 hours ago · LikeUnlike.Marisa Micallef double standards….
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I know Peter way back from the ’90s – he was always polite, media-shy and the academic type. So, unless he changed now, which I doubt, I’m sure it pains him to see himself a subject of public debate.
I must say though that if what Ms Abela Garrett is saying is true, then Dr Xuereb acted inappropriately. The least that he could have done is to introduce himself before demanding her name.
And that talk about stipends was as silly and uncalled for as her insult to the minister.
I think we should all stop micro-analysing and speculating before there’s any more fallout.
Dr Gatt is a big man who can take a slap, bounce back and move on. There’s no need for an army of fans to come to his rescue.
His resilience is legendary in Maltese politics and I have no doubt that he will eventually get to the bottom of this mess in public transportation.
Forsi Dr Xuereb is a bit “bombastiku”, as was his uncle the ex-rector?
That would hardly qualify him as a ”thuggish Stasi agent” though.
”Thugs” huma il-marmalja tal-haddiema aristokratici li kienu jingabru spontanjament Tal Qroqq, f Tal-Barrani , quddiem il-binja tat-Times,gol-bini tal-qorti u il -Curia , go Main Street Bkara etcetc
Well this shows what kind of ‘journalism’ Malta Today boasts about: daft, rude, non-sequential AND has spelling mistakes. And it has Labour written all over it. I fail to understand how people still take it seriously in 2011.
People like this are clearly total nutters — and therefore dangerous.
It is most worrying that a newspaper publishes this trash online, and that this person walks the streets.
No they do not live in a parallel universe. They are just so frustrated that the P.N. can accuse the MLP, or whatever they’re calling themselves now, of things like these while the MLP cannot accuse the P.N. of doing the same.
So they try to find an opportunity to somehow make it look like they are suffering like we did under the MLP. Try as they might they cannot re-write history and frustrated they will have to stay.
If the Maltese do decide to elect the undeserving, on all aspects, it will not change the fact that the Nationalists can hold their head up high while Labour, if they had any decency at all, should forever hang their heads in shame.
you rise in defence of a thug. Her name is none of his business. This makes you a thug and a defender of bullies
How, by posting his identity in her previous entry?
It is, since she neglected to do so before speaking at an event he organised in order to, in brevity, be a total punt.
That is exactly why I bother that liberal Saviour Balzan has decided to block my access to his site. It was such a pleasure confronting them on their home ground. I am sure that my arguments, based on true documented facts, annoyed them so much that this liberal gentleman had to come to their rescue.
Pity the ‘big Gufo’ said it was not such an issue and considered the case closed. It would have enhanced the thug’s image so much!
The Times does not lie. They just say the truth.
She had it all prepared. She boasted with Bonanno that he should come and bring his notebook and she’ll gve him a story. it was anything but spontaneous. Malta Today’s defence is to say the lesst really miserable. But anything against the PN goes. Even lies.
lol someone is reading George Orwell???
Not too sure about getting laid, but she certainly was instrumental in blowing Matt’s job.
Comment of the week.
Well she shot to instant fame ……………….. others are still desperately trying ……… sour grapes?
With today’s social media, I am having second thoughts as to whether the might of the pen as we traditionally know it still has the desired effect as it used to.
I wonder what expletives Abela Garrett’s idol, Dom Mintoff, would have used on learning that there are university courses in theatre studies and that students are paid a stipend to take them?
In his time, courses in economics, philosophy, languages were deemed a waste of time and money and they were scrapped together with their the lecturers.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111009/local/government-s-failures-on-smartcity-shameful-muscat.388415
Daphne you are hereby being condemned of character assassination!
[Daphne – Ghandu x’jghid ukoll, is-sid ta’ Super One. What a nerve.]
Desparicidos? I think they need a reality check:
Here are the real desparicidos:
http://www.yendor.com/vanished/
These are some of their mothers:
http://womennewsnetwork.net/2010/10/21/argentina-mothers/
These are the grandmothers of children born to women held in secret prisons. The children were spirited away from their real parents who were killed, in many cases, by being tortured to death and then dumped at sea
to http://www.abuelas.org.ar/english/history.htm
This is the story of ‘grandson 101’, taken away from his real parents at birth
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12620384
And this is the main architect of Argentina’s Dirty War (1976-1983) in which thousands disappeared. He was a military dictator who took power by force, not a democratically elected prime minister who can be removed by the same mechanism that put him into power in the first place.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10521294
And here’s what a real desparicido’s life was like.
http://www.yendor.com/vanished/tortured/candeloro.html
Now, compare that to being asked for your name by an identifiable person in a public place.
Sad and true is the fact that a generation of youngsters only know a PN government. What baffles me though is how they can hero worship Mintoff, KMB and think that those years were, well, uneventful.
http://www.facebook.com/notes/matt-bonanno/my-side-of-things-by-matthew-bonanno/262837083754952
I guess we all missed the part of the story where she got the knock on her door in the middle of the night, or where she was whisked off to the Police Depot for two days of questioning and a dose of sleep deprivation, or where she was chased down the road by a gang of menacing thugs wielding bicycle chains, or where she was pepper sprayed and tasered to within an inch of her life. The poor dear.
What’s most frightening here is that she went to all that trouble to maintain a veil of secrecy over her plans (placing a modest, cryptic announcement on Facebook, restraining herself by only inviting one journalist to her demonstration) and still ended up having her name plastered across every newspaper on the island. How awfully tyrannical and totalitarian.
Praise should go to those who have the “balls” to speak out their mind against the “establishment”. We’re living in the year 2011, not in the1980s.
Shame on those who try to go against freedom of speech, even if it is in a spontaneous and a bit ‘vulgar’ way.
Some members of the “establishement” need to be ‘talked’ to that way.
This might not be the 1980s but there’s still quite a few of us who are still suffering the consequences of those terrible times, when the education of an entire generation was butchered and quashed.
Of course this story riles us up! I would gladly have hobbled to university with my feet tied together, had I been given the chance.
And here’s this upstart show-off making a spectacle of herself, all because she did not have the sense to start early enough to get to school on time.
You don’t need any ‘balls’ whatsoever to be rude to a person who is too mature and well-bred to do anything about it. And as to the spontaneity: would she have invited her friend, the journalist, to be present if she were merely planning to politely tell the minister that she was not satisfied with the bus service and could he please see to it that it is improved?
Lol…imagine this guy living in countries like Syria or China!
Or Gaddafi’s Libya during Malta’s Golden Years.
Or Malta, during Malta’s ‘Golden Years’.
It is obvious that Labour want a victim.
If the student is in Theatrical Studies I would give her a Cum Laude because she grabbed the imagination and the attention of a large audience.
The execution of the stunt was perfect but the script was of poor quality.
[Daphne – I watched the Super One video of the scene and wished I hadn’t. Until then I had been thinking ‘angry young hip student’, but then I got somebody’s angry mother, scolding with all the hand and arm gestures of an irate middle-aged woman. Not cool. At all. I was disappointed.]
My mum never called me a fucking wanker, bless her.
[Daphne – Not that bit, for crying out loud, but the bit where she stood and shouted “You should be ashamed of yourself” while pumping her arms up and down. Very mummyish.]
Some mums close their eyes and pretend they’re dreaming.
@ Ms DCG, if you watch the sort of footage depicting ”protesting” adults that is passed off as headline news on a daily basis on ONE news, you would not be surprised if their offspring behave the way this young woman did.
THAT is THEIR version of free speech.
Comparing this episode to that of the desaparecidos in Argentina is comic if not pathetic. Calling a minister a f****** w***** is a “student’s right” but taking her particulars is Gestapo style!!!!! Unbelievable
[Daphne – Nobody took Miss Abela Garrett’s particulars, Stiefnu. You have to be a police officer to do that. If she had observed the normal convention of introducing herself when standing up to speak, rather than keeping seated and shouting, then nobody would have needed to ask her name.]
Exactly. Well said, Daphne. Imagine if somebody behaved llke that in front of Muammar Gaddafi… or Queen Elizabeth.
@ peter borg olivier
‘Imagine if somebody behaved llke that in front of Muammar Gaddafi… or Queen Elizabeth.’
Or Mintoff, Lorry Sant, Wistin Abela, Danny Cremona et al
Nicola Abela Garrett has certainly made a name for herself. A bad one. In a year or two the bus service will improve. Perhaps she will too.
As a university student, she could have easily used her mind and made her point effectively in a dignified way but instead she chose the ignorant way to show her frustration.
Daphne, you are right about the parallel universe. Life in Malta is detached from reality, probably due to high level of insularity in the islands and lack of interaction with the rest of the world.
While the spoilt “heroine” considers a ride on a bus as a burden even though she receives a stipend, the late Steve Jobs considered inconveniences during the college years as eye-openers and a priceless experience, even though his working-class parents could not afford college.
This is what he stated of his experience at Reed College.
“It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms. I returned Coke bottles for the 5 cent deposit to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.”
The following link includes the full speech. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/steve-jobs-told-students-stay-hungry-stay-foolish/2011/10/05/gIQA1qVjOL_blog.html%20
I tell you P Shaw, observing Maltese day-to-day life from the outside is a real fun experience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IfaklmbcLU&feature=share
An Elve production. ‘IntoLLerance’ is their brand name.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/2011/1009/update-sacked-journalist-speaks-up-to-tell-his-story
You just have to read the comments posted beneath this story. They are an education.
And then read this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/08/camila-vallejo-latin-america-revolutionary
Quite!
However I must add this: one thing the PN government seems to have overlooked is teaching peole to write good Maltese and English.
But then again, it is Malta Today readers we are talking about… *sigh* I guess there is no antidote for proud stupidity! “I’m stupid, I’m proud of it. So accept me as I am.”
“The editor as a fatherly figure and mentor should have called him to his desk , gave him a good telling off and then perhaps explained firmly in paternal style the limits of responsibility and initiatiive which a rookie can assume.”
Oh dear me.
@John Anon
You assume that Nicola Abela Garrett is telling the truth.
For example, how do you know Peter Xuereb said anything about stipends?
Her own statement is this: “He continued to say that I should be grateful for my stipend. … I’m also assuming that he meant I should buy a car with my monthly grant. I thought that that money was supposed to be spent on university material, not motors. And as I recall, Mr Gatt had told us to leave our cars at home, thanks to the new service.”
She even said that she *assumes* something about what he (is alleged to have) said. How far can the truth, if there is any at all in this, be stretched? It’s all just blah blah.
There are comments claiming that he “forced” her name out of her and that he “refused to reveal his identity”. How, pray, did he force it out of her? And are we sure he was asked for his name anyway?
He was at an event where everybody knew him – and she was the ‘complete stranger’ there – so why didn’t she just ask anyone who was in the vicinity? Because they wanted a witch hunt that’s why!
And then Super One report stretch it into that he forced her to give her “particulars”. And so on. It is all just the usual Labour rubbish.
You who know Peter Xuereb can decide whether you believe this Abela Garrett attention seeker and Super One — or rely on your first hand knowledge of Peter’s character.
People do not change – if anything they get mellower with time. So if you remember Peter as “always polite, media-shy and the academic type”, he is likely even more so today.
Could this be another staged set-up like the Eurovision one?
Can anyone explain to me what Peter Xuereb does for a living and what he intended to do about Ms. Garrett, having obtained her name? When he asked for her name, did he make clear who he was? What kind of pressure did he put on this twit to obtain her name?
There’s no way I would have given my name to anyone, without knowing whom I’m giving it to and why, in similar circumstances as these.
If there isn’t a satisfactory explanation, Peter Xuereb has simply provided the opportunity to Joseph Muscat to come out with his insane claims.
I think we need to know. Can anyone enlighten me?
I am thankful for all the complaining I hear about our government because it means we have freedom of speech. ~Nancie J. Carmody
Labour really have a cheek to speak about character assassination — what are they doing to ‘il-Mafjuz’/’Gestapo’/’Nazi’ etc Xuereb?
And all because he was doing his job running an ICT event that Abela Garrett was disturbing without having the least bit of interest in. (Of course not, she’s a Theatre Studies student, only interested in her own voice and appearing on Super One.) Wouldn’t anyone try to get their show back on the road if someone was there disturbing the event and trying to attract attention away from what was really happening there?
Tejatrin ta veru.
Labour have always played dirty — and the way they have handled this incident and blown it out of all proportion shows that they haven’t changed a bit since their old ‘glory’ days! But then again, we see this on a daily basis — so are we surprised? Noooooo.
Let’s not make the mistake of thinking that there is any truth in what their media machine says. They work on the basis that if you throw enough mud, some of it will stick — regardless of the truth.
Maybe you should feel happy about this. You’ve spent the last few days talking about nothing but a girl at University who expressed an opinion that you disagree with. She’s given you plenty of material for you to defecate upon the ignorant populace.
Luca, just because you’re deep in shit, why blame Daphne?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111010/local/man-to-face-trial-for-torching-bar-after-argument-with-partner.388522
Unbelievable! Torching a bar with people inside and causing Eur40,000 damage, and punishment is a suspended sentence. Yes, indeed our judiciary is best suited for a banana republic.
‘He (Joseph Muscat) would personally never tolerate actions against anybody who told him he disagreed with everything he did, Dr Muscat said.’ (http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111009/local/government-s-failures-on-smartcity-shameful-muscat.388415)
There you are, Daphne, a guarantee of your safety and right to speak freely from Joseph Muscat himself. Xi trid izjed!
I think I’m living in a parallel universe… I mean, WTF!
“Dr Pullicino Orlando was replying to questions by defence counsel Toni Abela”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111010/local/jpo-says-he-was-coached-by-peppi-azzopardi.388568
Here’s another who lives in a parallel universe:
“People like Mr. Xuereb assume that the little power they have being the ministers’ lackeys will last for ever.” Giordano Bruno
I don’t know ‘Giordano Bruno’, but I do know that Mr Xuereb doesn’t need a minister to find him a job.
Gestapo and NKVD indeed.
I seem to have missed the bit where Ms Garrett was dragged away screaming to to be dumped in some dark cell. Perhaps the press was censored by the GonztaPoNkvd and that’s why we never heard about that.
“His action is abusive, illegal and infringes basic human rights. In any other free dmocratic country there would have been a public outcry and massive student protest.”
I’ll take a lesson from that and make sure I never ask anyone his/her name lest I plunge the country into chaos.
The action of someone asking for the name of a person who has just made a public statement in a public place cannot be different from the recording of images of that person in video footage for broadcasting on One TV.
“Xuereb’s intervention had a Gestapo and NKVD smell”
If the young lady had ever been exposed to those two institutions she would now be singing a different tune, if she would be capable of singing at all….Probably along with all the members of her family also.