Like you Daphne, I voted for the first time and am so happy that my vote contributed to bring down the Labour regime after 16 horrible, suffering years.

On that day, it was a joy BEING ABLE TO EXPRESS THAT JOY as for 16 years we couldn’t even express or voice anti-Labour sentiments otherwise we were beaten, insulted or worse still, a bomb was put to explode near our houses.

It was Eddie Fenech Adami who built and re-structured Malta’s society as it is today. A tribute to a great statesman who changed Malta from a communist like third world country into a modern European member state.

The people who were so happy living under the Mintoffian regime, were the ones who got a ‘gobb’ or a ‘flet jew plot’ tal-gvern, easily obtaining signatures from cabinet ministers to buy a colour television or a landline at home.

It was corruption at its best in all sectors. For us Nationalists, even jobs were so hard to find. With all the situations which made us suffer so much, I cannot for one single moment think of Labour ever deserving a vote from me. As you wrote yesterday Daphne, Labour is no better option for Malta.

It’s funny (and sad) how the persons who seem to spend the most time on Facebook spewing all their bile are the Mintoffjani – it seems that they’ve conveniently forgotten that Mintoff was against the introduction of computers on this island, and that back in those days, if you wanted a computer you had to smuggle it!

U le, I’m well aware of what could have been done, just like you are aware of how better things can be within the current administration if we were only to have a Prime Minister who is able to lead all his constituents under one umbrella.

How can a party in government actuate their policies when all its energies are being exhausted on trying to portray a unified front. This when Franco Debono didn’t even bother attending the General Counsel.

[Daphne – Council. What you should be saying, Richard, is how extraordinary it is that DESPITE FRANCO things got done as they should have.]

http://www.michaelbriguglio.com/MA%20THESES%20-%20Chapter%206.pdf

Refer to pg 145 for the unemployment rate and GDP figures.

[Daphne – Richard, the ‘unemployment rate’ in those figures does not take into account the thousands of people artificially employed in labour corps, or the 8,000 put on the public payroll in 1986/first few months of 1987. Also, this research is vitiated by virtue of its author’s identity and his father’s role in creating the economic conditions he describes (Lino Briguglio was active in the Labour Party/government in the 1970s). Any comparisons on GDP should not be retrospective, but made with the SUBSEQUENT years. You have concentrated on telling yourself how well Mintoff did. What you should be doing is finding out how much better he could have done (economically) and with no human cost.]

Anyway, I assure you that I do not share the same sentiments as the “Mintoffiani”. (the likes of having you rigged up to the power station and unleashing ‘klieb tal-wolf’ on you isn’t really my thing)

What I find interesting is how you are able to push all the necessary buttons so as to bring out the worst in people. You say that you were brought up with the notion of pro-bono work, when it is clear that what you are doing has its own rewards.

You are continuously harping on how Labour has not changed and the comments you receive are a reflection of this. The thing is, that you choose to omit the period between 1971 and 1979, when our GDP was escalating year in, year out and the tourism industry was shaping Malta and it’s economy, with the trickle-down effect being enjoyed by all.

[Daphne – Oh, how wrong you are. I actually remember one of my sons, engrossed in academic research work at the time, exclaiming in astonishment over the GDP graphs for the Mintoff/KMB years compared to the rapid escalation in GDP after 1987. I don’t think he’d really believed my ‘this was Albania’ description until the figures stared out at him.

I think you are ridiculous to suggest that I should admire the years 1971 to 1979. Perhaps you forget that I actually lived through them and they were utter hell. Unnecessary hell, as it turned out, because Mintoff could have easily done what Fenech Adami (the political successor to Paul Boffa) did and introduce economic reform without instigating class hatred, closing the economy, destroying education, and stamping on basic freedoms. There is no way on earth that GDP could have been high when there was such mass unemployment.]

Le ta.

[Daphne – Yes. Definitely. ‘Ibda minnek’ is the direct imperative to the person you are talking to. ‘Ibda minnhom’ translates as ‘start with them’. ‘Ibda minn huma’ translates as ‘starting with them’.]

“ibda minn int” should be “ibda minnek”

[Daphne – Not necessarily, no. ‘Ibda minn int’ is ‘starting with you’, and ‘ibda minnek’ means ‘you start with yourself’ (the imperative). I know it’s hard for you to accept this, but I really am bilingual, you know, in the real meaning of the word as opposed to Globish/working-class Maltese gibberish.]

[Daphne – Ibda minn int, zgur.]

Maybe Ms DCG can fish it out from the archived thread for us to admire. She is a ”friend” of the tooth fairy as well.