Lock up your daughters! Joseph is after them (but not in that way….obviously)
I hope the spray-on hair and make-up are holding up under the lights - I've got to give Justin Bieber a run for his money
My friend has just sent me a letter which his daughter, newly turned 18, received in the post from the Labour leader, on stationery headed with the Partit Laburista logo and address.
Muscat addresses her by her first name, as one does with children and animals (to whom he wouldn’t be writing letters anyway) and then goes on to place himself on the same level by telling her ‘Bhala zaghzugh, nixtieq insir naf il-fehma tieghek’.
Bhala zaghzugh indeed.
At almost 40 (and with male pattern baldness and middle-age spread) he’s old enough to be her father. At Muscat’s age, I would never have dreamt of putting myself on the same level as my 18-year-old son and his friends. It would have been weird and they would have thought it creepy.
Joseph Muscat is clearly suffering from a bad case of arrested development, compounded by the fact that he had children relatively late in life.
He is not aware of the shocking reality (well, it would be shocking to him if he were forced to face it), that he is now more than a generation older than those who will be voting for the first time.
He is as old as their parents, and I know for a fact – because I have plenty of exposure to people that age – that they do not see him as their contemporary but as their parents’ contemporary.
People who grew up with older parents, especially when they go on to become older parents themselves, don’t realise that this is not really the generational norm. In real life outside that bubble of warped generations, anybody 20 years your senior is your parents’ generation, not yours.
But you must read the letter, below. It is an essay in chavdom, made more ridiculous by the fact that this particular one was sent to a young woman who is already reading for a degree and who has serious career plans.
You are now 18 and this means a lot, Joseph Muscat tells her. You can get a driving licence and you can vote (for me). That’s it. As her father told me when he emailed me a scan of the letter, such pearls of wisdom.
Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt: maybe he didn’t want to sound like a grown-up.
But here’s the interesting thing: in his stupid attempts at putting himself on the same level as an 18-year-old, he ended up coming across – precisely because an 18-year-old thinks of somebody aged 39 as ‘my parents’ age’ – as a patronising adult talking down to a kid.
My friend’s daughter’s reaction when she read the letter:
“How dare he speak to me like I were a 12-year-old?”
———-
PARTIT LABURISTA
Centru Nazzjonali Laburista
Triq Mile End
Hamrun
Ghaziza (first name inserted here)’
Li taghlaq 18-il sena jfisser li tkun tista’ tiehu decizjonijiet dwar hajtek b’mod aktar indipendenti.
Nifhem sewwa li din hija okkazjoni important ghalik, kif kienet ghalija u ghal dawk kollha li ghalqu din l-eta.
Jista’ jkollok aktar indipendenza fil-mobilita ghax tista’ ggib licenzja tas-sewqan, u anki takkwista d-dritt li taghzel lil min trid jirrapprezentak u lil min ghandu jmexxi lil pajjizna.
Bhala zaghzugh, nixtieq insir naf il-fehma tieghek dwar kif flimkien nistghu nfasslu l-futur ta’ pajjizna.
Nixtieq nisma’ minghandek l-ideat tieghek, kemm jekk naqblu, kemm jekk ma naqblux, kif ukoll jekk thossok indipendenti minn kull partit politiku. Inkun onorat jekk tiddeciedi li taqsam mieghi l-ideali u l-holm tieghek ghal hajtek u ghal pajjizna.
Il-Moviment ta’ Progressivi u Moderati jikber u jistaghna meta jisma’ u jitghallem bil-hsibijiet tieghek u ta’ hafna ohrajn.
Biex nibzghu ghall-ambjent fil-korrispondenza taghna, napprezza jekk tkun trid taqsam il-hsibijiet tieghek billi tibghatli e-mail fuq l-indirizz personali tieghi [email protected]. Nassigurak li nwiegbek personalment biex naghmlu konversazzjoni onesta u miftuha bejnietna.
Nistenna minghandek.
Dejjem tieghek,
Joseph Muscat
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How did Joseph and the elves get hold of the details that triggered this letter? Who gave them access to that particular database? Was this access granted with the written permission of the person involved?
[Daphne – My sons began to receive similar letters when at the University of Malta. It is quite obvious that some Labour mole on the lines of Sabrina Agius is leaking personal details from the University of Malta students database to the Labour Party. They also acquired their email addresses.]
My kid used to get similar letters from the Labour Party years ago when at university.
They got them from the new electoral register. My son received one yesterday and after some careful observation he just asked me, “ Why wasn’t the Maltese version side signed? And why there is no mention about my education? OK I want to have a car but I can’t have it all, can I ? ”
Whoever wants to reply to Joseph, here’s his address:
[email protected]
Seriously but the university needs to investigate these abuses.
Yes.
– In the same way that airmalta should investigate how, in the run up to the last two elections, every employee received a personalised letter promising them that their job is secure.
– in the same way that the VAT, ETC and/or tax departments should investigate how, in the run up to the elections, each self-employed person received a personalised letter saying that the PN did so many things for the self-employed.
– and in the same way that university should investigate how, in the run up to these last few elections, every person who graduated in certain subjects/faculties receives a personalised letter.
Breaches in data protection are not only bad when tal-lejber do it you know.
@ toro
Re your parting shot:
“Breaches in data protection are not only bad when tal-lejber do it you know.”
I am glad to see that you acknowledge that there was a breach of the data prorection act made by Labour minions.
You will understand that I will hesitate to accept the veracity of the instances you mentioned in your post. After all Labour and their apologists are well known to be economical with the truth as long as this serves their interest.
However, and worryingly, you strike true Labour form with the belief that as long as the naughty nats do it, the clean labs can do it too. I thought that Labour is supposed to be selling itself as a better, cleaner alternative, and not as more of the same. If you can’t be better than the nats, why should we choose labour?
I received the same sort of letter from a PL politician wannab, who addressed me as zaghzugh when I turn 50 in a couple of years. The letter did bring a big grin to my face though, because it went along the lines of ”being so young you only know the tyranny of the PN in government”.
Now that is bare-arsed cheek to say the least .
I have a feeling that this is more a typo than anything else.. they forgot to amend zaghzugh into zaghzugha….
Having said that I’d rather have the future prime minister suffer from arrested development than (pre-printed) sexism… the latter has by far more consequences on society.
Which future prime minister?
“You are sixteen going on seventeen,
Baby its time to think”
When I turned this girl’s age not so long ago, I received a letter from Joseph Sammut MP encouraging me to join the Armed Forces of Malta, with as much as saying that his office would help me fill in the application forms.
I had completely different plans ahead of me at that moment (which included, amongst others, knowing how to fill in application forms myself), and that letter ended up where it belonged to in no time.
In the ‘waist paper basket’?
I agree with Alison Bezzina. The ‘zaghzugh/a’ was meant to refer to the recipient. Probably it should have read ‘Nixtieq insir naf il-fehma tieghek, bhala zaghzugh/a, dwar kif flimkien nistghu nfasslu l-futur ta’ pajjizna.
[Daphne – Unless this is yet another ‘eats, shoots and leaves’ mistake, then no, it does not. In the sentence ‘As a young person, I wish to know your opinion’, the ‘young person’ refers to the ‘I’. To mean what you think it means, it would have to be written, ‘I wish to know your opinion as a young person’. I would expect the future prime minister to be familiar with simple grammar, but if you are correct, then I expect too much.]
Maybe his advisors from the Fondazzjoni Skip are not too familiar with simple grammar.
‘Bhala zaghzugh, nixtieq insir naf il-fehma tieghek’, is an ambiguous sentence.
I think Dr Muscat was not referring to himself as ‘zaghzugh’, he needs to get a grasp of Maltese syntax.
[Daphne – It’s the same in English, Paul. And in Italian and French.]
The Peter Pan Syndrome.
I received a similar letter addressing me as ‘Anzjan’ when I turned 28. I believe it was from Marie Louise Coleiro Preca.
Ghaziz Ekonomista Dr. Joseph Muscat,
Li taghlaq 36-il sena jfisser li ghandek id-dmir tiehu decizjonijiet dwar il-pajjiz b’mod mill-aktar serju.
Nifhem sewwa li din hija okkazjoni important ghalik, kif xi darba ghad tkun ghalija u ghal dawk kollha li ghalqu din l-eta. Bdejt toqrob lejn l-40, u ma ghadekx zaghzugh, u tidher. U ta’ Quaranta, ix-xitan jibda jittanta.
Dwar l-indipendenza fil-mobilita (din ma nafx x’ghandha x’taqsam, imma la semmejtha int!), int ghandek iktar minni, ghax ghandek karozza mhux hazin, li ghalijjjjha qed titlob li jinghatalek lura parti mit-taxxa li kont hallast. Jien ghalija l-iktar importanti hijjja il-mobilita’ tax-xoghol, u bl-edukazzjoni tajba li qed nihhhhu minn din ghandi hafna.
Bhala kap tal-Partit Laburista ghal dawn l-ahhar tliet snin, huwa jiena li nixtieq insir naf il-fehma tieghek dwar kif qed tipproponi li tista’ tfassal il-futur ta’ pajjizna. Dan ghaliex sa issa ghadek ma tajtniex pjan wihhhhed.
Nixtieq nisma’ minghandek l-ideat tieghek, kemm jekk naqblu, kemm jekk ma naqblux. Inkun onorat/a jekk tiddeciedi li taqsam mieghi l-ideali u l-holm tieghek ghal hajtek u ghal pajjizna, ghax s’issa ghadni ma fhimt xejjn. Il-living wage ghadha alive, jew mietet u dfintuwwwha?
Il-Moviment ta’ Progressivi u Moderati jikber u jistaghna meta jisma’ u jitghallem bil-hsibijiet tieghek u ta’ hafna ohrajn li hemm madwarek, izda s’issa ghadna ma smajna xejn. Possibbbbli li meta tikkunsidra li madwarek hemm erba’ veterani li l-eta taghhom flimkien titla madwar milllennnjuu, ghadkom ma hrigtu bl-ebda policy ghal-pajjiz? Hlief buzzwords politici ma tajtuniex?
Mela x’naghmel ma nibghatlekx l-emails fuq l-indirizz personali tieghek ta’ [email protected]. Mela dak ma hux ihhekkjat mil-Partit Nazzjonalista?
Nistenna minghandek.
Dejjem tieghek,
Zaghzugh/a veru/a ta’ Eighteen
Haha Ciccio – excellent. You had me in stitches.
Simply brilliant.
Most probably if Muscat’s children were 18 years old he would feel old by now, but his children are still very small so maybe he feels young for that reason.
Regarding personal details usually the political parties have the electoral register handy.
‘Regarding personal details usually the political parties have the electoral register handy.’
Yes, BUT the recipient has just turned 18, so she is not on the electoral register. Her details were sourced elsewhere.
A 39-year-old with young children tends to feel old, especially with so many younger parents at the school gates.
On the other hand, this is where one can write and tell him where to shove his 51 proposals [email protected].
I once received a letter from the then MLP informing me that I am entitled to Meals on Wheels. I was all of 22.
Several employers received Kurt’s round robin email gleefully announcing the maternity leave coup. Why would an employer be thrilled to hear of an additional expense and inconvenience?
I did receive some sort of letter from Labour last year, too. Luckily the dustbin was inches away when I opened it.
Mela hsibta SABRINA?
Hi Daphne, could you send me your email please?
I sent you something but it didn’t deliver so probably sent it to the wrong email address.
Thanks
[Daphne – [email protected]]