Do they wind him up as well? Or is Joseph Muscat digitally operated?
Just look at this – it’s like something from The Manchurian Candidate, where the big boys choose a puppet and remote-operate him into a powerful political role so that he can work for their purposes.
Now Joseph Muscat has even been given a FOOT-OPERATED TELEPROMPTING DEVICE so that he can read out his spontaneous speeches to the masses, like the one I wrote about in my newspaper column yesterday.
Here he is, reading out a speech about his mettocracy where everyone can get ahead even if their name is Yana Mintoff, on Labour Day. This is a screen grab from, of all things, Super One TV.
Cameraman Byon Jo Zammit’s brain must have been addled by the sun. Or maybe they thought we’re too thick to know what that is.
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It looks like it’s connected to a sound mixer so it’s probably something which works like a guitar pedal. I’m afraid you have been reading too much David Icke recently.
[Daphne – Why would the party leader be operating a sound mixer while speaking to the crowd, Mark.]
If you look carefully you can see the screen of the teleprompter on the far left of the image.
It is that piece of glass angled at 45 degrees at the top of a thin black pole.
Actually, there are two teleprompters on this stage. The obvious one is next to the loudspeaker in centre shot, the other appears just under the One News logo.
You can just barely make out the reflector screen of the first one; that of the second is not visible because it’s obviously facing Muscat and the photographer caught it edgeways.
I don’t know honestly, but I can’t understand how this could be funny or sinister in any way.
Oh Daphne – no wonder the PL dislike you (to put it mildly) – you uncover their secrets.
And what a stupid idea that foot-pedal is, too.
He has to stand there, looking a robot with burnt-out leg motors, and carry all of his notable body weight on one leg for the whole duration of his spontaneous speech.
Cruel bastards.
And what if his foot slips on the pedal, like on the clutch pedal?
That system has an automatic gear system. It does not have a clutch pedal.
Aghfas ‘like’ biex titla’ fil-gvern.
Tghid b’dak l-apparat jista’ jisserfja fuq l-internet u jiccekkja l-Facebook wall ta’ Botox Jeff waqt il-meeting?
He still has the Super One reporter’s mindset. He faces a crowd like he’s reading the evening news.
The Supreme Leader of the Workers Aristocracy then delivered an impeccable telepromptu speech.
But that’s one of the things he must know how to operate, back from the days he was on One TV.
On another note, this noble gentleman clearly has no qualms about using his public position in the European Parliament to lash out against the party in government and bash his country.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120504/local/minister-failed-to-heed-european-commission-warnings-on-deficit.418268
Pity we cannot see the carrot hanging over the pack of jack asses cheering him.
What is he reading off?
[Daphne – A teleprompter, Mark. It’s that thing with a screen in front of him. The text of his speech runs down it and he reads it. By operating the foot-pedal, he can slow it down, speed it up or halt it while he draws breath.]
Who writes his speeches ?
Mhux Jon Favreau tighid.
Saint Francis of Assisi was one of his writers. Remember ‘Where there is hatred, let me sow love…’?
U le x’inti tghid dak qed icaqqlaq saqajh ghax qed iweggghu iz-zarbun.
Nahseb Mintoff kien jixtri tuzzana teleprompters kieku kienu jezistu fi zmienu.
OMG, Daphne! Good work for picking that up.
You know, if he doesn’t refer to written notes, then it gives the imbeciles the impression that he knows exactly what he’s saying and that he believes in it because it’s coming from the mind and heart.
In any case, idiot-board is another name for a teleprompter. There you go.
http://www.maltastar.com/dart/20120504-the-pn-bully-boys-are-back-in-town
Nakita’s back it seems, with an I-Pod.
Dawn in-Nazzjonalisti ma jaharbilhom xejn.
Kif qatt ma nistghu niehdu ruh?
I don’t see anything wrong in having this device.
Just like we never saw anything wrong in having Fr. Peter write the speeches for Dr Fenech Adami.
What’s wrong with it.
[Daphne – Silvio, I don’t know how to explain it to you, but I think it’s best if you work it out for yourself by trying to imagine Mintoff reading one of his rabble-rousing speeches off a teleprompter, or Fenech Adami reading one of his inspirational speeches in the dark days of the 1980s off another one. They wouldn’t have been so moving or impressive then, would they?]
But I don’t think that Muscat (or Gonzi for that matter) need to rouse rabbles or inspire people these days.
In 2012 I would think that the best way of getting people behind you is to lay out the facts and highlight and/or explain what they mean and how they relate to each other.
Flies and ointments, I know, but there you go …
Does anyone recall that clip of Gonzi delivering a speech and T. Fenech prompting him?
Pity I can’t recall the occasion.
One of the benefits of a teleprompter is that a recod of the speech is kept. This would have been very helpful in reminding Gonzi of all his unfulfilled promises, made prior to the last elections.
Silvio,
You are in the habit of mixing up lettuce with………………………
Johnnie, four dots would have been enough. We all know what you meant to say. Putting a lot of dots can only reflect your state of mind.
That’s old technology. He doesn’t know about Bluetooth yet.
Bluetooth? That’s convenient. Saves on airbrushing the red.
Hello friends of liberty – just to let you know there’s a gateway into another world that I’m sure the antropologists among you would very much like to explore.
It’s a long ride and it treks you through unfamiliar paths, far removed from the botox spectacle or Joseph’s quest to become prim sindku tan-nazzjon. As such, closed minds need not venture so far out of the box.
It’s in California. It forms part of a huge phenomenon. And since everything is inter-connected, it affects our future more than Botox Jeff or any prim sindku can imagine. It also makes more sense… once you get it, that is:
http://youtu.be/kQTaOpZ7Zf0?t=3m2s
Hey Kevvy! So happy to see you^re studying antropology. Minute insects appear to interest you. Any ants in your kitchen? Jeez, the wifey^s going to be pissed if she finds them.
Where’s his teleprompter?
Well at least he still has some control over events – he gets to decide when to flip the page.
He looks like he is doing a Karaoke party with that equipment. Who knows, maybe he was reading the lyrics of David Guetta’s Without You?
Fools we might not be, but it is the type of illusion that mesmerises the crowd in front of him. Kemm hu bravu Joseph taghna, kapaci jaghmel spijc minghajr ma juza karti.
I dislike him as much as the next (reasonable) guy but is this not the electronic equivalent of a good crib sheet?
[Daphne – I’ve never seen Eddie Fenech Adami or Lawrence Gonzi use a teleprompter or even notes when addressing a public meeting. Nor Mintoff, for that matter. The fact that Joseph reads his speeches is the reason they are so very flat and uninspiring. He sounds literally as though he is reading out somebody else’s words, precisely because he is.]
After all if it’s good enough for most US presidents …..
It is a bad pic, mind
It’s good for the US presidents because each word uttered by the US president, let alone speeches, is literally dissected and analysed by thousands of journalists and government officials around the world to interpret and construe the real meaning and whether it signals any particular policy.
US presidents do not have the luxury of speaking liberally, unlike prattikament Maltese prime ministers who operate in an unsophisticated context.
The fact that he sounds flat and uninspiring has nothing to do with the tool. Perhaps he needs to practise a little more in front of the bathroom mirror, pedal at the ready.
Whilst I applaud Eddie Fenech Adami and Lawrence Gonzi for their oratory skills, this is more indicative of excellent memory (and tempo, voice control) than quick thinking.
We have public debates for that.
Then the teleprompter will be as useful as a chocolate spanner. Inconspicuous earphone anyone?
If Obama can use it, so can He.
Seriously though, this is a reflection of the lack of creativity within persons who aspire to be seen as professional in what they do. They choose the easy road, copy what is ‘good’ and make it your own. I’ve been on the receiving end of this and only constant change, or continous improvement, is the key.
Inspiring speaker, eh? Words str8 from d heart (sorry, can’t draw one here).
He’s in good company – Obama uses one as well.
You really are short of pegs, aren’t you?
[Daphne – Ah, but Fenech Adami didn’t, and nor did Mintoff. And those are Joseph’s benchmarks. Obama uses a teleprompter because he gives complicated speeches. You have to be pretty slow to need a teleprompter for a basic speech in easy sentences about a mettocracy.]
I see you did not mention Gonzi. And I don’t blame you, considering the walking disaster area he has turned out to be.
[Daphne – Wrong. I did mention him. Read my comments again. I singled out Mintoff and Fenech Adami because they were party leaders in very different times, times of great emotion. Leaders who had to read their speeches off a teleprompter would have been non-starters. Lawrence Gonzi leads in the internet age, the age of television – but even if he had to read his speeches, he wouldn’t get away with it. Unless people are terrific actors, and trained actors above that, they cannot read as though they are speaking. They sound uninvolved with their own words, as though they are reading. And that’s why Muscat’s speeches sound detached. Incidentally, it was Alfred Sant who I didn’t mention, even though he was Labour leader for 16 years. He sounded as though he was reading even when he wasn’t. Funny you failed to mention him. Your party’s brainwashing must have had an effect on you already: Alfred who?]
No, EFA nd Mintoff did not use prompters. Nor did they have blackberries or tablets cos they were not of that age.
But EFA, for one, used copious notes written in large type.
[Daphne – Not when addressing mass meetings, Martin. When addressing parliament – and the notes contained facts and figures, which all speakers use when speaking for hours and having to refer to technical subjects. Cos? How old are you? If you’re young enough to write ‘cos’ you’re not old enough to have been at a Fenech Adami mass meeting. And if you are old enough and still write cos, you’re almost certainly intellectually and emotionally….challenged.]
Just for the record (not that you are interested in boring things like facts) Muscat was not reading his speech, merely consulting notes.
[Daphne – Hmmmm. Very well informed, aren’t you? And yet, you’re so proud to be Labour that, UNLIKE ME, you’re too lily-livered to put your name to your opinion, not even privately to me alone. Just for the record, that is one fact which I might find fascinating, almost certainly for the very reason you conceal it. Good to know you’re an activist and not just a fan.]
PS
Did you notice the huge crowd? :)
[Daphne – Martin, I’ve lived in Malta all my life. I am accustomed to the sight of 50,000 people massed together wearing red and chanting Viva l-Labour. The crowd on Labour Day is chickenfeed.]
Martin, have a look at this crowd, same place and a few weeks earlier, on a rainy day : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkwQGLafO_Q&feature=related
Note that the stage is facing Republic Street so that we can see a really BIG crowd of care free young people who have nothing much to worry about.
And BTW there is a lot of spontaneity.
It is indeed chicken-feed but still very depressing.
It was pretty big for May First. And I know for I have attended them all for many years. It is never as big as mass meetings are (or used to be).
[Daphne – There was never as big a PN mass meeting as the final one before the 1996 general election, Martin. It was quite impressive, and a great deal of fuss was made about it, with televison cameras scanning the vast crowd relentlessly. And I have no doubt it helped lose the election for the PN. Some people thought their vote wasn’t necessary.]
Mur arak lilek, ticcelebra l-ewwel ta’ Mejju fi zmien il-glorja ta’ Mintoff, fuq it-trakkijiet mimlijja barrin, fi zmien sebghejnijiet ittambar fuq ma xi banju u tkanta MA TAGHMLU XEJN MAL PERIT MINTOFF.
U vera ta, ghax irrangakhom ghal festa fl 1998 u issa, baghat lil bintu ha tirranga ghal festa lil Joseph.
There you go, getting personal again.
[Daphne – Personal? Hardly. I mean, the man IS particularly robotic, but that’s no reason to treat him as though he weren’t a person.]
You are wrong about EFA – he used notes ESPECIALLY when addressing mass meetings. I have seen several sets which a friend of mine – a Nazzjonalist akkanit and a collector of anything collectable – managed to acquire. I did not ask how.
[Daphne – Pathetic, Martin. Really sad. Fenech Adami, when speaking at mass meetings, was blown up large on a huge screen and filmed from close range for television. If he were using copious notes, you’d have been able to see them, and you wouldn’t have had to rely on your dubious friend. ]
The MLP mass-meeting at Il-Menqa (Marsa) in ’91 was probably the biggest ever – and the MLP still lost. Maybe there’s some sort of inverse rule.
In any case, we will not see those kind of crowds again cos ( :-) ) times have changed.
[Daphne – Yes, no thanks to your lot.]
Which explains why Joey found it necessary to set up his podium opposite tal-mqaret outside City Gate when belly-aching about something or other some days ago.
Houston, we have a problem. Labour has completed the balcony at Mile End, but where are they going to install the teleprompter for the inaugural speech of the new prime minister from the first floor?
Daphne you uncover the secret of a magician.
Radio & TV presenter, full stop.
Joseph gives new meaning to the phrase ”Artificial Intelligence”.