Comment of the day (or night)
Posted by ‘Matthew’ on this site:
I have been thinking a bit more about how Maltese newspapers and television channels discuss Franco Debono as if he is perfectly rational and it struck me that in Malta, Kim Jong-un being constantly described as ‘chubby’ would be considered a personal attack.
Conversely, every newspaper and news channel worth its salt realises that there’s something very wrong about being fat while reigning over a starving population.
This year Venezuela will be holding elections. Reputable news sources are discussing Hugo Chavez’s ability to lead the country through another cycle considering that he is recovering from an undisclosed form of cancer.
Proper news sources are also wondering about Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s ability to lead Argentina considering she has also recently undergone treatment for cancer.
When John McCain was running for president, everyone was wondering out loud whether he would pop his clogs before his term is out leaving the United States in Sarah Palin’s hands even though he seemed to be a very healthy and strong individual.
When Ted Haggard was accused of hiring male escorts, all sane journalists reported the fact, not because they cared about his sexual exploits, but because he had been such a vocal anti-gay campaigner.
The same goes for Silvio Berlusconi’s dalliances with young girls. Men having relationships with young girls is not unheard of but when you’re disloyal to your wife, you’re so powerful and you’re reigning over a stagnating country, being more concerned with young girls and the state of your hair matters.
In Malta, discussing these issues is considered a personal attack.
Someone who raises these issues is immediately labelled sexist, ageist, nosy or whatever name people decide to call you.
[Daphne – A vicious witch who spreads poison and must be controlled by the prime minister or snuffed out by the Labour Party in government.]
Alfred Sant’s shrouded illness (which later turned out to be colon cancer), Alfred Sant’s and Joseph Muscat’s obsession with their hair, Cyrus Engerer’s vendetta on his boyfriend, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s confusing marital life, Consuelo Scerri Herrera’s parties… business interests, health, sexual orientation, social life, religious beliefs, wealth, mental state and so on. Pretty much anything is considered ‘personal’.
What Maltese journalists (for want of a better term) don’t seem to realise is that, although anything can be considered personal, once an issue affects other people’s lives or runs contrary to your public persona, if you are a public person, that issue stops being personal no matter how intimate or embarrassing it is.
At the moment, we have a bizarre situation where we have a huge white elephant wandering around the room and almost everyone seems to be ignoring it.
If people still had doubts about Franco Debono’s mental imbalance, his eye popping performance on Bondi + should have laid those doubts to rest.
The fact that the media is still discussing Franco Debono as if he is perfectly normal and rational a week later shows that we are a country firmly in denial.
In my opinion, our fear to tread on any toes “to avoid personal attacks” is more of a threat to democracy than any of the issues raised by Franco Debono.
If Malta were a vigorous, healthy democracy, psychologists would be working overtime analysing Franco Debono for journalists and news channels, and everything would be discussed in the context of who Franco Debono is – and the matter would possibly also be discussed in parliament or brought before the president.
Franco, it’s not personal, it’s business.
Anything less is a gross injustice on the whole population and it means we are are happy letting a narcissistic, vicious person with a huge ego ride roughshod over everyone as long as we are not seen to offend him.
17 Comments Comment
Reply to WhoamI? Click here to cancel reply
Read this too – about Joseph’s fondness for blue:
http://pawlugatt.com/
in all fairness, Labour’s propaganda machine appears to be working much smoother than the PN’s.
I think they have employed shit-hot marketers to position them closer to the PN in order to appeal to floaters.
Both parties are well aware that there is an element of guaranteed votes for them, and they always fight over the 12000-15000 floaters.
Traditional Labour voters will vote Labour, no matter how insane or hollow their electoral manifesto is. In previous elections, the Labour Party always peaked too early, and the only issue they now need to solve is how to keep the momentum once they reach the peak.
The problem I see at this point is that the Nationalist Party looks weak in party terms and not up to the game. Gonzi’s request to Austin Gatt to help with the election campaign says a lot about the abilities of Paul Borg Olivier and Gonzi’s confidence in his abilities.
The “maltemp ekonomiku” issue is all very true, but it’s starting to sound rhetorical now.
I do have to say though that Gonzi’s government has managed to do an impressive job with shielding Malta’s economy despite the severity of the situation. It’s almost business as usual in Malta.
And the country will never believe the maltemp out there unless something happens. So because nothing happened so far, Gonzi’s claims sound exaggerated – though they’re not.
Because of my job, I am in close contact with a number of international financial power-houses, and I’m always told that Malta is on nobody’s radar.
No one is too worried about its financial rating, financial abilities to meet debt, the industry, etc.
One of the reasons for this is levels of materiality. On an EU-wide scale, Malta’s debt is immaterial. But the more important measurement is that the country has never had a problem refinancing its borrowings (sourcing new credit lines in the forms of government bonds for instance to repay previous bond issues).
It demonstrates a high degree of trust in the country’s financials.
If this is not a KPI for Gonzi’s government, then I don’t know what is. And it is at this point that “Finanzi fis-sod” starts making sense. But for Labour buffoons, this is just a punch line or a sorry promotional tag.
Labour’s propaganda keeps avoiding product comparison.
It explains the mixed messages being sent out, Bondi was spot on when he asked why is it they’re playing for time even though they declare they’re ready.
All this parallel positioning has done, is to create conflicting concept ideas, which ones to be discarded, still an issue.
Yesterday’s ‘l-aqwa kabinett li qatt rajna’ spells no solution in sight, and the plan to go for testimonials.
Toni Abela made it clear earlier promises depend on the situation at hand.
Their next step will be to lament the disadvantage due the early election itself interrupting the execution of the 2008 manifesto, hence no possibility for judgement, an attempt to eliminate comparison of electoral programmes.
They intend to send out the message that if they make it to power, it will still be business as usual.
‘Mohhok mistrieh’ becomes ‘inhallukom tahdmu’. Note how their message, however, still delineates a distance in mentality.
They also make it a point to call the PN ‘il-partit ta’ Gonzi’, to alienate people avoiding a direct confrontation with the Nationalist Party. The conclusion is due an imbalance in portfolios. Their have been a number of not so subtle attempts to distance Lawrence Gonzi from Eddie Fenech Adami.
It’s called positive replacement, used extensively by Japanese carmakers in the 90s when they launched their luxury brands. Lexus were made to look like Mercedes, yet branded Lexus by Toyota and Kia’s doing the same nowadays, borrowing heavily from Volkswagen’s styling language.
The method is preferred by inexperienced companies who try to penetrate established market niches. Problem is, these keep changing.
Positive replacement works best in newish markets, not where the brands being targeted maintain a strong presence, in symbiosis with their clients. Mercedes can sell an A class, Lexus cannot.
Watch how quickly Franco Debono will go from a never-was to a has-been.
To “would-like-to-have-been-but-wasn’t, you mean.
To “would-like-to-have-been-but-wasn’t-and-will-never-be”, you mean.
The message that the PL is an admirer of blue was supposed to be subliminal – now the cat has been let out of the bag.
You are perfectly right Daphne. I now look forward to your journalistic masterpiece along these veins on Simon Busuttil.
What about him? He’s a true gentleman.
Debono’s ego is actually quite small and fragile, which is why he takes offence so easily and why he needs so much attention all the time.
Typical narcissist.
What about Franco’s body language and facial expressions, especially when facing journalists like Lou Bondi?
Anyone can see what’s on the face of it, but to the trained eye there must be a wealth of information.
Even the way he looks away from his interviewer and into the studio must speak volumes.
Last Monday Lino Spiteri wrote that the prime minister had ‘permitted’ vicious attacks on Franco Debono and he even gave credence to Debono’s blabberings.
It is truly sad when even seasoned columnists like Spiteri are taken for a ride and moreover utter complete nonsense such as permitting personal attacks by none other than the prime minister.
What one has to bear in mind is really quite simple. Would Debono be withdrawing his support if he had been appeased and given a cabinet post?
And the clear short answer is no.
We tend to forget that Lino Spiteri, though he resigned from Sant’s cabinet, remains a champagne socialist and like all such people they are united in their hatred for PN.
“Members of Parliament of the party in office should be extremely reluctant to vote against the government, or even to hold individual ministers to account, if that would embarrass it.”
“The team must not be weakened by some of its members making clear in public that they disapprove of the government’s policy.”
“If they do not like what the team is doing, they must either keep quiet or leave.”
Unbelieveable.
Yes, that would be indeed a very, very bad understand how democracy works. But luckily some people change, learn and become wise over the years.
It is not surprising that journalists are treating Debono as if he were normal.
Even Lawrence Gonzi is.