Il-vera zejda din ta’ Franco.
Let's put these two in charge, shall we? NB This photo is being used for publicity purposes by Joseph and Michelle themselves.
His name has become a by-word for neurotic egocentricity, except with those who are neurotically egocentric themselves, those whose motives are self-interested and those who, because of limited intelligence and life spent in a sheltered bunker, just can’t see the bigger picture.
In The Times today:
IMF CALLS FOR MORE REFORMS
Ivan Camilleri, Brussels
The International Monetary Fund yesterday warned Malta not to take its economic resilience for granted, saying it required “sound governance” as the island enters what is likely to be a tough year.
This should be coupled with further reforms, particularly in relation to pensions, the restructuring of Air Malta and Enemalta Corporation, as well as better alignment of wages to productivity and improved rules for the financial sector, the IMF said.
The global authority on economy and public finances raised these issues while underling the island’s progress over the last few years, following an annual routine mission by its experts who met Maltese authorities, including the Central Bank and the Opposition.
Acknowledging the government’s “prudent macroeconomic policies” the IMF said the island had managed to rein in the deficit and put its financial house in order.
“Confidence in Malta’s public finances has been shored up by the European Commission assessment that Malta has taken effective action to correct its excessive deficit,” it said.
At the same time, it called for further consolidation over the coming years as the com-position of the adjustment “remains suboptimal, relying excessively on one-off and revenue measures”.
On the economy, the IMF concluded that after a strong recovery in 2010, Malta continued to perform relatively well in 2011 amid considerable turbulence across the euro area.
However, this year is seen presenting a real test as the threat of recession looms over the eurozone.
While Malta’s economic growth in 2011 was expected to be around 2.25 per cent of GDP, the IMF projected a downward revision to just one per cent, particularly due to the spillovers from the eurozone crisis.
“The primary challenge in 2012 will be the ability to navigate a highly uncertain macroeconomic environment with a deteriorating economic outlook, and ongoing banking and sovereign crises in Europe,”it said.
“Malta’s resilience to date cannot be taken for gran-ted; continued vigilance is required.”
In the current circumstances, Malta had to balance concerns over a slowing economy, which call for accommodative policies, against increased risks that require more prudent fiscal management.
Reiterating policy recommendations already mentioned in previous missions, the IMF said priority should be given to moving towards a balanced budget with a deficit correction of 0.5 per cent of GDP annually.
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Did he breast-feed as well?
[Daphne – My question is: why didn’t they use a blinking double-pushchair like the rest of us? I certainly did. Those pouches got hurled into the bin pretty fast, I can tell you, and they were already considered freaky back in the mid-1980s. There’s a reason why it’s only third-world impoverished peasant-women who strap their babies to their back or front. They can’t afford wheels.]
In fact, they are still freaky. I was given one when my daughter was born and never used it.
The head is never stable and it leans sideways or backwards even though there is the padding around the baby’s head.
Showy people, in my opinion.
[Daphne – Oh yes, I’d forgotten that business with the head lolling around. Babies young enough to be in a sling can’t hold their head up. When they can hold their head up, they’re too big and heavy for the sling. Major design/concept flaw.]
No, but he let it be known publicly that he changed nappies. Shouldn’t it have been taken for granted that he did, especially with twins?
Remember that infamous publicity shot of him posing with a pack of Pampers?
And then, to make him look all the more ridiculous, it slipped out that the picture was taken at Mile End, not Burmarrad.
Picture the scene before he leaves the house: “Mich, ha niehu zewg Pampers ghar-ritratt.”
Out of the thousands of things you can fault Joseph Muscat for, did you two really need to take issue with a baby harness? Wheels don’t go everywhere, particularly not in the countryside, and I for one am hoping I’ll never have to manoeuvre one of those horrendous double-wide buggies on the Maltese pavements.
[Daphne – I live in the countryside and have yet to see anyone walking around on Sunday afternoons with a baby in a sling. I do, however, see parades of babies in pushchairs.
A baby harness is something else altogether. It is literally that: a baby harness. You put the harness round your toddler’s chest and shoulders and you keep hold of the leash so that he can run around without getting away. It’s the equivalent of a dog’s collar and lead, except that – of course – it doesn’t go round the neck.
Why did I take issue with the sling? Because that picture is as false as the rest of him (and her). I’ll bet not one of the neighbours has seen either of them trotting around Burmarrad with a baby in a sling. The babies go into the car seats in the back of the Kia Sportage and off they go. Except that now they’re at San Anton School (ghax hemmhekk marru ta’ Daphne, allavolja hemm dik it-tikka problema li l-genes huma differenti).
You’re unlikely to have to use a double-buggy unless you’re planning on having children a year apart, or can’t conceive them naturally. Most twins nowadays are the result of IVF, not nature, which is why they’re fraternal and not identical. ]
They hide a man’s paunch rather effectively though.
And with disagreeing so vehemently with the e500 raise, they would afford even less a double push-chair for the twins.
That apart, the IMF in typical fashion beat about the bush because what it recommended, is already being done by the government.
One does not maintain course, increase employment, contain inflation, reduce deficits and improve health and education without raising taxes, by not put in place what the IMF suggests.
If only the (purposely) blind will open their eyes and appreciate our privileged position Malta enjoys while other countries around us are floundering and find themselves on the brink of insolvency.
We will never know how Malta would have fared under a Labour direction-less government. My guess would be that by now we would have been knocking on the IMF’s door begging for charity in order to have enough to pay civil service salaries, pensions and maintain the most basic forms of education and health services.
Then the IMF would have set the rules including cuts in salaries, pensions and canceling any infrastructure projects which a mediocre Labour government would have embarked on.
Daphne, you’re wrong on this one. Visit any European city and you’ll see parents with strapped-on kids either to their bellies or backs. The reason is not of an economic nature, but of a mobility one.
It’s kind of tough getting a pushchair on and off trams for example.
[Daphne – It isn’t at all. And you’re speaking to somebody who got around with three infants, not only two, so it’s not as though I’m speaking from observation rather than experience. I’ll tell you from that experience that getting a pushchair (especially the ones which fold into almost nothing) on and off vehicles, pavements and so on is infinitely preferable to walking around with six kilos strapped to your chest – and that’s why you’ll usually see men, not women, carrying infants around in baby-slings. They want to prove something. As for the women who choose this horribly uncomfortable (for all concerned) method of transport, they’re generally the ones who have bought into the theory that babies need to be stuck to their mother, and that third-world women carry babies around because it’s ‘natural’ and not because they have no other choice. The only woman back in my baby-time who used one of those things also wore Birkenstsock sandals in public, strange clothes made of hemp, and pulled a woollen pair of pants over her baby’s nappy – in August. And she nearly passed out when I brought out the Nesquik.]
Intellect, it’s not that this or anything else is wrong in itself. But when Joseph Muscat does anything, it looks so… contrived. Put on. Choreographed.
Then his wife compounds it by wearing big designer shades on her forehead (The Glitzy Temptress) WHILE cradling a baby (The Devoted Mother).
Yes Intellect they do, but think of it this way: if the mother or the father carrying the child in the harness accidentally falls, trips or slips, think about what could happen to the baby.
Besides I think the weight of the baby makes one lean forward. You automatically create bad back posture.
Babies fall into a heap five seconds after you put them in those things – but then again, maybe the Muscat babies stayed fully upright or perhaps walked the day after they popped out.
Issa jappuntaw lil Manwel Mallia Ministru tal-Gemelli u jindirizza dawn l-affarijiet bil-galbu u bir-reqqa bhala parti mil-missjoni tieghu biex jaghti xi haga lura lil-pajjizu.
Since when are Japanese tourists considered ‘third-world impoverished peasant-women’?
[Daphne – Why tourists, and why Japanese in particular? Most people who travel with infants also travel with a pushchair. You are clearly not somebody who has ever tried walking around with six kilos strapped to your chest.]
I’ve never walked with 6kg strapped to my chest, but I imagine it beats folding pushchairs every time you find yourself in an underground station (no, most of them don’t have lifts) or crammed on a train during rush hour.
[Daphne – No, in fact it doesn’t. Common sense should tell you that a few minutes spent folding and unfolding a pushchair (and they’re flick-switch simple) beats two hours walking and standing with 6kg strapped to your chest. You’re talking to someone who knows. You forget, until you are rendered unable to do it by that dead weight on your chest, how many times one needs to bend at the waist, even slightly.]
Many Maltese will learn that navigating through Oksford Strijt is very much unlike a leisurely stroll at Għajn Tuffieħa.
[Daphne – In fact, it is a lot easier than a leisurely stroll at Ghajn Tuffieha because you’re walking on a hard surface, not sand, and it is also a lot less crowded.]
Carrying babies in these pouches makes them more mobile and flexible with their movements.
A double-pushchair is very obstructive especially if they travelled overseas by public transport, such as the metro in Brussels.
[Daphne – I respect your opinion, but exactly how many infants have you had to carry around, Paul? Have you used a double pushchair? I have, and for years, because when one of them left it, another replaced him immediately. One does not have a choice between a double pushchair and two slings, because one person cannot carry two babies in slings. If you’re one person, you need a double pushchair, unless you have a husband who is unemployed or leader of the Labour Party. And quite frankly, if you’re two adults, then you don’t need a double pushchair either, because you can each push one. You’re talking to the expert here because for a while I couldn’t even leave the house without an accompanying adult, given that all three were aged two and under and had to be pushed. There weren’t any triple buggies that I knew of, and probably still aren’t. And as I said, the sling ended up in the bin.]
Then again, it was a good twenty years ago when you last had to go through this, Daphne.
[Daphne – More than that. And nothing has changed. Babies and their parents are still the same size, shape and weight, and pushchairs are pushchairs. If anything, today’s pushchairs are easier to flip closed and open, making slings more redundant, not less. Also, the equipment changes between 1986 and 2012 are minimal, unlike the equipment changes over the previous generation, which saw the move from those big perambulators with removable carry-cots to the striped, lightweight MacLaren buggy that rolled up like an umbrella. Why are you men so exercised by this matter of slings, anyway? Take it from a woman: a man wearing a baby in a sling looks ridiculous, not attractive. A man with a pushchair is fine.]
Who gives you the right to write on behalf of “us”? Who is the “rest of us”?
If found those pouches sometimes pretty comfortable.
Considering the bad pavements in Malta the government sometimes forced me to use “those pouches”.
If you look to some higher developed countries you will see that they are quite popular there.
“Third-world impoverished peasant-women” can afford wheels but cannot use them because they have streets and pavements like Malta!
That photo was taken in St.George’s Square in Valletta prior to its refurbishment. The parking lines and the floor are recognizable.
This is the most prominent place in the capital.
Probably now Joseph is already planning the next step…the twins waving to the crowd from the palace balcony in the coming months with Michelle crying and hugging them like a happy family looking forward to a bright future after years of persecution.
Ahh… but it’s unfair to launch personal attacks or even mention the leader’s twins. But it is OK for him or Labour media to explicitly exploit those twins like this for purely partisan reasons.
You know… this is the first time in decades Labour have a ‘normal’ Leader with a ‘normal’ family and not a lonely figure.
And they just can’t get over it, can they.
A joey should be in a pouch and not carrying one.
http://images.northrup.org/picture/xl/kangaroo/joey-in-pouch-closeup.jpg
Debono abstention would not be solution to crisis – Prime Minister
If he does not want anyone to comment on his family , he should not use them so blatantly to gain votes.
animals of burden
Daphne, what is most tragic is listening to people who have previously voted PN, stating that “it’s time for a change”, as though time is a reason for changing government.
Scoop: Il-Kap tal-Oppozizzjoni u l-mara tieghu jaghmlu attakk personali fuqhom infushom billi jesibixxu pubblikament ritratti taghhom bit-tfal minorenni taghhom.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120124/local/grace-borg-has-a-change-of-heart-will-not-be-election-candidate.403705
Heck. What a spoilsport and just when things were starting to get really entertaining.
Different subject but the latest news is
http://www.timesofmalta.com/…/grace-borg-has-a-change-of-heart-will-not...
Qisna qeghdin wara s-suq. Mela din politika?
Tghid Franco Debono jaqra din?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMT9XImEJx4&feature=related
Some Labour party history.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20030316/local/mlp-treated-me-very-cruelly-mintoff.154446
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120124/local/i-am-very-different-from-how-people-portray-me-franco-debono.403704
Is there a place in Joey’s skip for this born-again Buddhist?
It is ‘dirty’ and ‘disloyal’ to even publish these photos!
I know you have been the victim of ‘dirty’ Labour journalists (and I sympathise with you on that) but this doesn’t mean a journalist of your talent and taste should go so low to these disgusting levels to salvage a couple of votes here and there.
I have read on this blog the ‘Tucks Force’ story a million times and not one word on Gonzi’s aRJuplani and ROASTER!
People have become immune to these unethical and dirty propaganda tactics. This blog and the PN need to change tune if we are to hope for a miraculous comeback. Let’s come back with content and results and lose this dirt since it further distances us disgruntled PN voters.
[Daphne – Oh stop it and pop a Prozac will you. Mur arak tghix l-Italja jew l-Ingilterra. Jew jaqaw hawn Malta kaz specjali?]
Do not call the subject journalist. The blog clearly proofs that she is NOT.
Proves, not proofs.
U ejja gejja teqred kontra s-slings issa! Ghid sempliciment li ma jghogbukx ghax forsi peress li diga catta minn quddiem iktar kienu jghattuk. Sieheb tal-famuz artiklu li kont ktibt fuq il-breastfeeding din!
Isma Desperate Housewives gie migbud il-Bidnija jaqaw?????
[Daphne – How patient one has to be when running a website like this.]
@ Claudette
Jaqaw hrabtilhom mis-sett ta’ Absolutely “Fabulous”, specifikament min gol hair-do ta’ Joanna Lumley?
Imma ghala, biex tistaqsu mistoqsija, tridu tuzaw il-kelma jaqaw?
Forsi ghax mistoqsijiet banali?
My wife and I would tend to agree with you, Daphne. We all wish that we could carry our infants with ease and through hope we had also bought one of these slings – did not even use it twice.
All the points you mentioned, Daphne, are spot on and from experience I can say that even a double buggy is better (we needed one as the kids were very close in age).
One other point – you can only wear this thing for a few months in Malta. As soon as it starts getting warm, the sling becomes unbearable.
qeghda sew purcinella ahjar thares lejk innifsek ax vera qisek purcinella. Imma ma thobbx ux meta xi hadd jattakak personali – l-aqwa li thammeg lil haddiehor inti ux