A bouquet from Lourdes for Mintoff
Mintoff won at bocci - but only because he forced people to keep playing until he did, and they were too frightened to win.
From Kenneth Zammit Tabona’s column in The Times, yesterday:
Way back in August 1982, while trundling down half the length of the Italian peninsula on the way back from Lourdes in the famous White Train, a fracas in one of the cabins disturbed the peace of the night.
A humongous quarrel had broken out between a group of Maltese women pilgrims who hitherto had been noticeably good humoured and jolly. The reason for the quarrel was that one of the ladies had brought with her a bouquet of the type usually reserved to place at the foot of the Incoronata statue at the end of the Lourdes Esplanade.
Her five friends pressed her and pressed her to explain why she had brought this bouquet with her on the train. Finally, she admitted that she intended to give it to Dom Mintoff as a birthday present: Is-Salvatur, as some people still call him, possibly because his birthday coincides with the feast of the Salvatur (Our Saviour) in Lija on August 6.
Hence, the fracas and the bouquet was torn to shreds and thrown out of the window somewhere near Genoa.
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Overall, I’m struck by how gullible and naive so many of Dom Mintoff’s supporters were. They believed in him the way you would a religious figure, not a politician. And how badly they misjudged him. Imagine believing that a sod like that he would be pleased and touched by, of all things, a bouquet carried all the way from the Madonna shrine at Lourdes by train to Malta, by some poor fool of a woman.
His reaction would have been a series of crass curses and arm gestures, and he would feel nothing but contempt for the person who brought it to him. How difficult could it have been to see this?
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A typical example of the Maltese attitude ‘I’m all right, f*** you, Jack’. According to timesofmalta.com, a Maltese passenger on board the ‘Titanic’ cruiseliner had this to say about the ship having to make a U-turn
“Someone had a heart attack. I’m not really worried. I’m planning on having a drink with the captain later,” Mr Borg said.
Did you really have to be so crass, Mr. Borg?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120411/local/-No-panic-as-Titanic-cruise-does-a-U-turn.414936
“His reaction would have been a series of crass curses and arm gestures, and he would feel nothing but contempt for the person who brought it to him. How difficult could it have been to see this?”
Let’s put it this way. KZT’s article would have ended like this:
“Hence, the fracas and the bouquet was torn to shreds and thrown out of the window somewhere near the Auberge de Castille.”
He was such a stinking miser that he never wore underpants (vide picture)
That would explain why he carried the belt with a big “bokkla.” He did not want to be caught with his pants down.