No, it is not the Roman Villa.

I take it you are are taking a degree in English?

We also yearned for more, and what we yearned for has been presented to her and her age group on a silver platter after a decade of struggles with a heartless regime, so that she and others can take for granted that which for us was beyond reach.

She and others who are too young to have experienced it firsthand should never be afraid to visit the past, because it is our past which has built her present and hopefully contributes to her future.

Yes Daphne. I am sure you have a vast experience when it comes to riding buses (you sure have when it comes to finding excuses though).

[Daphne – Nicola Abela Garrett has no experience riding Austin Gatt, and yet feels perfectly entitled to comment on his sexual proclivities. But there you go.]

And who exactly do you think you are? Who would want to work for an evidently partisan W.? I am sure she made more friends than you think.

[Daphne – Oh, I wouldn’t believe her if I were you. I used that kind of excuse all the time. ]

[Daphne – Newspaper columns and blog-posts are by definition written from a personal angle, Mike. That’s the way it works. I want less talk about me, not more. But that’s difficult in my line of work, so I just have to live with it.]

You feel that ‘having a university to go to’ is a privilege, she comes from a time where education is a RIGHT.

[Daphne – Education was always a right, Mike, even in medieval times when I was 20. But rights can be violated. University education is not a right – schooling is. Universities have selective criteria for entrance, which means that a university can never be rightfully accessible to all, but only to those who are smart enough to make the grade. Unfortunately, the fact that our university lets everyone in, doesn’t charge them fees and even pays them to go there has given rise to this false idea that a university education is a right, rather than the privilege of the qualified and able.]

You base your argument on things that happened over a generation ago – proving yourself no better than the 70 year old ‘mintoffjana’ who sits at home on her plastic covered arm chair saying that things were better back then.

[Daphne – Arguments are of necessity based on facts, and facts are sometimes the product of events. A generation might seem long to you because it is your entire life, but the minute you hit 25 the years are going to fall away and you’ll wake up aged 45 wondering what in God’s name happened. Oh, and you’ll remember every last detail of what happened 20 years ago like it was yesterday. And then you’ll understand what I’m talking about. I’m not going to bicker about this because I just don’t feel like it. I’m not being patronising because of your age. There are people my age who are just as childish, irrational and simplistic. There is something in Malta which arrests people’s development, and I have not been able to work out how and why.]

The only difference is that you say that things were worse.

Unlike you or the 70 year old ‘mintoffjana’, Nicola Abela Garrett comes from a time of higher expectations. A generation of ambitious youths who yearn for more rather than feeling good that they’re not living in the past.

You either have a false sense of reasoning when it comes to appreciation/evaluation or you’re heavily biased.
I can’t make up my mind, so I’ll go with both.

[Daphne – Your last sentence should be emblazoned on T-shirts and sold on campus.]

Without thinking about the ramifications of her appalling language, Nicola Abela Garrett became infamous in Malta for a long time to come. Not a nice label to carry around.

Exactly the opposite of what a certain midget called Edward Fenech Adami did strutting down Republic Street, surrounded by his thugs and shouting “Fejnhom il-laburisti?”

Kulhadd ghandu xi jxomm.

[Daphne – Another Super One fairytale, I’m afraid (literally so).]

I’m sure a lot of people think you deserve to be brought down a few pegs as well but respect for doing it to someone else who deserves it.