UPDATED WITH VIDEO: Franco Debono wants you to ring him. His number is 9998 8877.
Keep it up, Franco! URGR8T :))
Franco Debono wants you to ring him.
How do I know this?
He let the nation know when he was on Bondi+ tonight. That was some wild scene with his phone. It rings – live on air – and he sneaks a peak in full view of the tens of thousands of people watching him, then presses Refuse.
He does it once, twice, and Lou asks him to please turn it off, saying that he should have done so before he walked onto the set.
FD: Iss, tajba din. Se toqghod tghidli meta nitfi l-mobile ukoll.
The phone keeps ringing. He keeps checking it.
Then Lou finally tells him to go ahead and answer, it doesn’t matter (meaning, of course, the opposite).
LB: Rega cempel il-mobile. Irrispondi. Ma jimpurtax.
FD: Eh, hekk naghmel. Mela se tiehu gost int.
LB: Ma gara xejn.
FD: Ha nitfih. Ijjj, ara, anke mitfi qed idoqq. Dawn nies qeghdin icempluli biex jghiduli kemm jien sejjer tajjeb.
He returns the smartphone to its previous position on the table in front of him, like a chav in a restaurant, even though it’s off.
On my sofa, I work out what the real problem is here. It’s not that he’s got a personality disorder (though that too). The worst part of it is that he’s so very ill bred. His manners, speech and deportment are just plain awful.
I sat there and all I could think for a while was that it isn’t any wonder he’s picked a fight with the Nationalist Party. His spiritual home is Labour. An effing chav, that’s it. He talked about going to Italy and how much he loves everything Italian. I can tell you this, Mister Franco: try living in Italy with uncouth manners like yours and you’ll be out in the cold in no time at all.
I decide to ring him live on air to tell him that anyone who wants to know the precise, idiomatic meaning of the British insult ‘c*nt’, which is used only for men and doesn’t have the same meaning as the Maltese insult using the name of the same body part, has only to watch this show.
But his phone is finally not in a position to respond. Damn.
So I’ll tell him here: Franco, you’re a c*nt. And no, it doesn’t mean gh*xx.
And while I’m on the subject, you might think you look slick, but every time I see you fidgeting and jerking and gesticulating on television in your snappy syoots, I can’t help thinking that you’re straight from central casting as an extra in some low budget mob movie set in New Joisey: Frankie di Bono or Frank Rankovitz.
And in case you’re wondering how I have his number: I’m one of those poor, benighted people he used to badger and pester and call each time I wrote something about him or failed to mention him.
I’d put up a Franco Debono-related post, or a post he thought should be related to Franco Debono but wasn’t, and BRNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG.
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‘Anke mitfi qed idoqq’. Marelli l-mobile lucidu bhal sidu – jixghel anke meta mitfi.
I tried calling too. Voicemail. Never felt so disappointed in all my born life *cue smiley*
I called and he answered, how sweet.
I told him that I got his number from this blog-post and he just said “Eh, b’daqsekk?” almost snapping at me and in a tone indicating that he is totally oblivious to the fact that his number is here because Daphne is taking the piss out of him.
On another note, he sounded tired/drained/down. Poor thing, completely oblivious to what’s happening to him.
[Daphne – Errrrm, you left out the most important bit: why did you call him?]
Because he wants me to, as your headline says. Keep with it, Daphne.
I must say, Daphne lately I’ve been sympathizing your ignorance but now it’s gone beyond limits….on the other hand Gerald I admired your innocent comeback hahaaa.
I wonder if anybody can give any significance to Debono’s mobile number.
999 is an emergency number
It should read 666.
Of course we can. It indicates a person on a steady decline.
the number is descending like everyone’s patience / support. First slowly (3 digits at a time) then in 2’s (picking up speed) until he’s finally blown into oblivion with a bang!
I was on the sofa watching and felt the same things you describe, plus a really big urge to get up and smack the television set.
Lou Bondi shoudn’t have had to tell him to switch off his phone. He should have done it of his own accord before going on the show, like everyone else does when entering a lecture or meeting of any sort.
And on live television, this negligence is even worse.
I just can’t believe his egomania. For crying out loud, every decision the PM took in these last months were all HIS ideas! Indeed.
The amount of times he contradicted himself was astonishing. First he says that he never wanted to be a career politician, then just two seconds later he says he’s sacrificing his political career to drive home these important points.
The pure green envy he has for Chris Said was in his press conference last weekend. Instead of feeling honoured that Said asked for his assistance and cooperation, he throws a tantrum and says: now he’s the minister, he makes the decisions. Why should I hold his hand? Am I his little child?
I don’t think his mother ever taught him the meaning of waiting or the meaning of No or respect for others.
Do us all a favour Franco, resign, let the country move on in peace and go get psychiatric help.
He reminded me of a slick oily hood in a Mafia film.
Franco, how low can you go.
Daphne, saret drawwa tieghek li kull meta xi hadd mil parlamentari nazzjonalisti ma jaqbilx ma Gonzi w il-klikka tieghu, tispicca thamgu u tirridikulah. Min mara nteligenti bhalek (u miniex ironiku) nistenna iktar. Jekk il parlamentari jikkritikaw, xi haga hazina hemm bilfors fit tmexxija.
Tghid se tehodha kontra Gonzi xi darba, I bet you will.. You dont know it but you should side with labour too.. you got their touch…
[Daphne – ‘Tghid se tehodha kontra Gonzi xi darba, I bet you will’: too late, my dear. I did so spectacularly over several months in the first half of last year, on the issues of divorce and the war in Libya. ‘Jekk il parlamentari jikkritkaw, xi haga hazina hemm bilfors fit tmexxija’: not necessarily. There could be something wrong with those individuals, and in fact, there was. ‘saret drawwa tieghek li kull meta xi hadd mil parlamentari nazzjonalisti ma jaqbilx ma Gonzi w il-klikka tieghu, tispicca thamgu u tirridikulah’ – that’s because I share their take on things, which is why I vote for them. I’m not in the habit of voting for those whose general views and attitudes are markedly different from my own. ‘Min mara nteligenti bhalek (u miniex ironiku)’: jahasra, if my mother hadn’t chucked my school reports, I’d have been able to show them to PBS.]
I’d add douchebag just before c*nt.
[Daphne – No, because it dilutes the effect. C*nt, as used in a Guy Ritchie film, is more acute.]
Woah, is this legal?
Will ‘he looked at his phone on TV’ stand up in court as a reason for breaching his privacy?
[Daphne – Court? You can’t sue for that kind of thing. Relax. He uploaded his own phone number on his website. And his address. And even his email address. Go there and check if you don’t believe me. Using your argument, telephone books and Go’s online directory are illegal because they breach privacy on a mass scale, telling everyone where we live and what our telephone number is.]
At least you can’t sink any lower. I especially liked the part where you accused Franco of being ill-bred, then proceeded to call him a cunt. That showed great breeding. As did the pathetically anglophile appropriation of the term chav.
[Daphne – Anglophile takes a capital letter. Well-bred people swear as much as the working-class. It’s only those in between who are fastidious about that kind of thing. But well-bred people will never place their phone on the table in that situation, still less leave it on and check it. These are subtle distinctions that are hard to understand, I know. You have to be trained in them from birth, or else be particularly good at catching up later. Otherwise you’ll end up like Franco Debono: a chav in a snappy suit.]
Surely posting someone’s private phone number online as a prank is at least as childish as an MP producing his school certificate.
[Daphne – Where on earth did you get the idea that his number is private? It’s not. He rings people repeatedly, from the prime minister downwards, and sends – by his own admission – thousands of hectoring text messages. Get a grip.]
To be honest you seem unhealthily fixated. Maybe you should turn some of your armchair psychiatrist energies on yourself, because at this point my money would be on you ending up in Mt Carmel before Franco.
[Daphne – This is my work, sweetheart. And I’ll just tell you this: if there is anyone who knows what unhealthy fixation is, it’s me: precisely because I have to deal with an army of unhealthily fixated people on a regular basis, you among them. I’m not fixated, but I sure as hell provoke that sentiment in people, I wonder why.]
Daphne, less replying to idiots and more funny Franco blogs please.
tohrog il-velenu xoghlok daphne? ax hlief velenu u attakki personali ma taghmilx purcinella.
Even if someone’s number is in the phone book, supplying it here and inciting people to call him is harassment. As you can see above, people took your headline literally.
[Daphne – If you want his address and email too, here they are: http://www.francodebono.info/ . Click on the Contact section and you have everything you need just in case, as he himself puts it in his abysmal English, ‘you require to contact Franco’.]
It’s true I wasn’t taught from an early age that swearing in public shows good breeding. You’ve certainly put me in my place on that account.
[Daphne – It doesn’t SHOW good breeding. Lots of well bred people don’t swear. But lots of others do. It tends to be those who are afraid of being thought ‘hamalli’, to use their terminology, who don’t swear only because they’re afraid that’s what people will think of them. Of course, there are different sorts of swear-words and there is also a sense of the appropriate context in which to swear and how to do it. But as I said, these are all things one learns growing up and it’s hard to teach them at this stage. Swearing is like humour, I’m afraid. It should also be tinged with humour as otherwise it can appear savage. I find it impossible to laugh at anything that is sold as humour on Maltese television, for instance.]
I’m sorry to hear that this is your work. It must be exhausting to be meanspirited for a living.
[Daphne – Actually, that’s not my work. You clearly come from a different cultural background and just don’t get it. Stick to Malta Today. It’s half-owned by somebody from my exact cultural background (not Saviour, I hasten to add) but he has clearly decided to reach a very different sort of audience. It’s the internet, it’s free and available to all, but like everything else it has market segments and audiences. This is not meant for you and you are unhappy with it, so move on to something more satisfying. Your real problem, I suspect, is that you are fairly intelligent, have acquired the language and some education, and so feel yourself alien to the kind of discourse and communication on sites like maltatoday and maltastar, yet at the same time you have not learned the subtleties (which are not subtle at all to me and others, but anyway) which distinguish mean-spiritedness from the satirical mockery of very public figures. Mean-spiritedness, for example, is getting two cocks to fight each other to shreds, and not writing that the man who is holding Malta hostage used to do that.]
There is only one advertisement on this blog, so the income must be minimal.
[Daphne – I do not take advertisements, What. That is a favour to a friend. I will, however, be taking advertisements shortly because I am under heavy pressure to do so from advertising agencies. However, it is not as simple as that because there is a considerable amount of administration involved.]
Writing a weekly comment for the Independent probably wouldn’t pay the bills of a ‘well bred’ lady either. I wonder who might pay you to systematically insult and harass into madness and resignation every opponent of the Nationalist government.
[Daphne – I have a magazine business, What. But then you are the sort who wouldn’t have noticed. I also have a husband and my sons are all financially independent. You reveal your social origins when you assume that well bred women have lots of bills. The opposite is true. Well bred women are raised with the concept of thrift. ]
I took pleasure observing Franco’s body language. His overwrought behaviour indicates that he is going to have some very serious problems when the whole thing is over and he’s a nobody again. Forever.
His gestures and way of reasoning look so Tony Abela style to me
Maybe it was his mother on the phone.
or John Dalli.
Sure there’s someone else behind this.
With a colossal ego like his (and such impressive school results to boot) I wonder how he hasn’t yet made it to Chief Justice, Attorney General, Speaker, and Archbishop rolled into one.
This whole affair would be hilarious if it weren’t so needlessly destructive.
My guess is that Franco Debono will be remembered as the man who intentionally toppled a stable government at the wrong time and for the worst kind of reasons.
My hope is that he will then be forgotten.
Franco always wanted to be popular. Isn’t he proud of his 1000+ votes?
4,359 people on FB are fascinated by him. Here’s what one of them says:
Martin Spiteri
NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP, I PRAY THE LORD MY MOBILE OFF TO KEEP. AND IF IT RINGS BEFORE I WAKE…….I MUST HAVE FRANCO’S PHONE BY MISTAKE
Miskin sallbuh, u issa lanqas it-telefon mhu se jkun jista’ jirrispondi!
Let’s fast-forward the whole thing shall we?
Let’s look into the future, say in five months’ time, with Labour in power and a totally irrelevant Franco sitting by his phone hoping and praying someone will call him.
Poor sod.
All the newly unemployed can amuse themselves by calling to thank him.
Anke mitfi jdoqq! Tajjeb?
Bir-rispett kollu.
“mamma mia gidba fahxija. Qed tigdeb. Mamma mia.”
Attention: whoever voted him into parliament. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?
Apparently, Franco Debono went around bad-mouthing his rivals and selling himself. He must have been very persuasive.
Compare and contrast with this sinewy old warrior: General Sir Mike ‘Darth Vader’ Jackson, live on the BBC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueRTZNVwQBM
Dr Debono reminds me of Dom Mintoff. He is very crass and rude. He accused Lou of lying, what a cheek! ‘Giddieb’ is a very strong offensive word, he could have used other less offensive wording.
It is rude to place a mobile phone on a table, this lowers the status of the host and is disrespectful.
Dr Debono has already committed a political suicide, Labour wont touch even him with a barge pole, he is a liability.
Franco Debono acted in a way to belittle Lou Bondi, it is clear.
He came across as a bully.
He raised his voice repeatedly during the programme.
He put his mobile there on the table, and he left it on and kept checking it, and it was ringing. What bad manners: insolent not just to his host, but to the many people watching the programme.
I’ve come across a few personalities like this.
Klipp ta minuta ma jfisser xejn quddiem il massakru li sofra Lou Bondi fil programm tijaw stess, Franco Debono ta stampa cara ta xed jigri internament fil Gvern, b’lejalta lejn il poplu li tah il Vot, Kien bir ragun li in nies ivvotawlu ax huwa persuna ta principju u li zamm ma l-idejal tijaw.
Missek gibt il klipp tal-Prim Ministru icapcap lill Austin Gatt, b’wiccu min quddiem isostni li jridu fil Gvern u jikkontesta al l-elezzjoni li jmiss, Dazgur, il progett tal Arriva mit taxxi taghna hargu, u mhux min butu,
Kull punt li amel Franco Debono huwa Validu u ta sugu, Kellu bzonn ghanda aktar individwi bhal dan, li jitkellmu il lingwa tal poplu u jiggieldu il gustizzja fuq l-interss personali.
Ghal grazzja tal-argument halli nghidu li ghandek ragun. Xorta jibqa l-fatt li Debono mhux qieghed jagixxi sewwa. Sena ohra kienet tasal l-elezzjoni u kien jiddeciedi jekk jergax johrog mal-Partit Nazzjonalista u l-poplu jiddeciedi wkoll lill min irid jiggvernah.
Lili mistoqsija wahda wegibni. Ghalfejn irid iwaqqa l-gvern u ghalfejn issa? Wisq nibza li r-raguni VERA jafha biss Debono u xi ftit persuni ohra.
Jiena qed nistenna wkoll li kemm l-Opposizzjoni u anke l-President jgharfu jiddeciedu ghal-gid tal-pajjiz u jaghtu nifs qabel tigi elezzjoni anke akkost li tinghata data tal-elezzjoni ghal-iktar tard din is-sena imma mhux immedjatament.
Jien moralment konvinta li l-anqas Joseph Muscat ma jixtieq elezzjoni immedjata u dan ghal hafna ragunijiet.
The people phoning him were not phoning to say that he is doing well but to blow raspberries through the phone.
He must like raspberries then because he kept his phone on through most of Bondi+
Franco’s Special Mobile on sale
http://youtu.be/bqOmAW4lSaM
C*nt is not just used for men. I’ve used it effectively for all sorts of people, women too. But agree 100% with what you say.
Or was his mobile on because someone was suggesting what he should say and how he was coming across?
Dear Daphne, I always knew that your a real low life person with no morals at all but giving out Franco’s number is the lowest you can get.
[Daphne – He gives it out himself, sweetheart, on his website. http://www.francodebono.info/ ]