A discriminating chairman
Published:
June 5, 2012 at 10:24pm
Did Herr Flick really call Francis Zammit Dimech a “discriminating chairman” during tonight’s sitting of the Nuremberg Trials?
I doubt it, because he spoke Maltese. Yet both The Times and Malta Today made the same mistake in their live internet reports.
To call somebody “discriminating” is a compliment. It means that he (or she) knows how to pick the best.
It does not mean a person who discriminates against others, which is what, I imagine, Leo Brincat said (in Maltese) and meant.
That would make him discriminatory, not discriminating.
Herr Flick (right, in socialist jumper) with Il-Guy, Karmenu Vella, in the Golden Years of Labour
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Tah ic-certifikat!
“If you believe the questions you are making, and if you ever become minister for European affairs, we will have a disaster in Europe,” Mr Cachia Caruana told Mr Brincat.
Could someone kindly translate/interpret ‘If you believe the questions you are making’.
I can’t understand what is alleged to have been said.
If you believe the (loaded) questions you are making ‘are valid’.
[Daphne – I think John’s point is that questions might be made in Maltese (taghmel id-domandi) but in English, they are put or asked and never made. I would suggest that questions are asked in Maltese, too, and that having them made is yet another corruption of the language. I’ve noticed that when I say ‘issaqsi d-domandi’, some of my interlocutors are momentarily confused as they work out whether I am suggesting asking something OF the questions, as in: “I don’t know the way, so let’s ask those questions who are sitting there, because they might know.]
Francis Zammit Dimech and Tonio Borg objected about the questions Ex Minister Leo Brincat was fielding to Richard Cachia Caruana who is only the messenger/implementor of the policy of his government.
Thank you for your explanation, John, though frankly you’ve confused me even further.
You say that Leo Brincat was fielding the questions. I thought it was Cachia Caruana who was being questioned, not Brincat.
I’m not an expert in the English language but from the context of what happened at the Richard Cachia Caruana trials I made that conclusion.
Leo and George were asking a lot of questions which were not relevant to the subject. They did not focus on Cachia Caruana’s involvement- legal or otherwise- of Malta/PFP/NATO relations.
No one can be pinned on second hand evidence (‘detto del detto’), but Leo Brincat thinks otherwise.
A lawyer/MP worth his salt would not vote against Cachia Caruana basing his judgment on hearsay: leaked documents of what an American Embassy official, who never met Cachia Caruana, reported.
Would you vote for Brincat to represent us as a minister in the EU, John?
I bet my bottom dollar that Cachia Caruana would hand in his resignation by next year when we will have Leo Brincat and George Vella as ministers.
Note: I don’t make any difference between domanda and mistoqsija. One is derived from Italian the other is Semitic.
@Daphne : Is there any difference for you between “Issaqsi mistoqsija” and” Issaqsi domanda”?
I understand that this statement was said in Maltese by RCC , can we have it in Maltese?
If RCC really said what you quote. Than this show nothing less than impertence.
[Daphne – He wouldn’t have said what was quoted here. “Make questions?” Follow the line of questioning, and see where the impertinence, and much worse, truly lies.]
Impertinence? Extremely mild and tolerant, considering they are hiding behind parliamentary privilege to accuse him of treason.
Bloody cheek, considering Leo Brincat formed part of the illegitimate Labour goverment of 1981-1987.
In the timesofmalta.com online comments, someone referred to the forced resignation of Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici as a ‘Punic victory for the Labour Party.’
The entertainment never ceases.
Probably a misprint. They must have meant a ‘pubic victory’. They’re all trying to work out how to fix their hair. Curly transplants are all the rage among the balding reds.
Expect more below-the-belt tactics.
Do they wear merkins too?
Harry is right – it’s a pubic victory. Labour’s cocks won this time.
Actually, who ever used the expression “Punic” victory seems to have no understanding of the Carthaginian “Punic” Wars. Rome actually defeated Carthage, but then again perhaps the majority of PL supporters have not yet become proper historians.
Understanding contemporary history would be useful, perhaps more so than “ancient” history.
Worst of all, the actual idiomatic expression in the English language is “pyric” victory, as in “burning” (consumed by flames). A “Phyrric victory” is what the PL actually obtained, but this is exactly opposite to the meaning (apparently) intended by the online PL commentator.
It seems that some people are in love with the sound of words [and believe that arguments are won by their volume and emotion], but have no competence in understanding the meanings of their words [but then again, when do words have to mean anything, if they are simply weapons meant to have their intended effects?].
This probably reflects the ABC/DE educational divide of core PN supporters versus PL supporters. The latter more likely vote with their feet (in this case rushing to the ballot box according to their political master’s voice) and less likely with their heads (because education and critical-thought would be essential requirements).
Certainly, “English” is not the commentator’s strong point, even if the individual may hail from higher socio-economic levels [considering all of the language errors that may be found regularly in The Times, and in other English-language sources].
Entertaining, perhaps.
But this makes you question some of the redeeming values of our educational system, and what might be done to fix it.
Perhaps teachers need more support to do what needs to be taught, rather than our system of currently paying students excessively [and regressive socially, in terms of investment needs and best use of resources] to be students.
Education and job creation are the most important areas for social concern. Oh yes, and then some people want to guarantee school-leavers at age 16 that they will have jobs (for life? and what kind of job?), if they drop out of the educational system. The implication of the PL proposal also seems to suggest that 16-year-olds should become wards of the state.
Individuals need the proper support and encouragement to be responsible for their own lives and futures, for which purpose education ought to be their maximum priority and opportunity.
Failure to take up those opportunities should not be rewarded by society; but neither should individuals be condemned by their failures or the failures of society. Life-long learning should be supported, as is required by the ever evolving circumstances of global and local economics.
Nice jumper….Daphne, any idea who the Saddam lookalike (behind Flick and the woman) is?
[Daphne – No. The man next to him is Censu Moran, and “the woman” is Miriam Spiteri Debono.]
Could he be Tony Abela?
[Daphne – In-Nutar? Why would he be on a Labour podium?]
No, it is Toni Abela – now deputat mexxej tal-partit.
No, Toni Abela the present deputy leader of DebonoPL.
[Daphne – I thought it might be; not sure, though.]
No. The woman is not Tony Abela.
Jeez, are they all fools? Scary future.
Scary, but the entertainment is GUARANTEED.
Izjed ma tikteb u tikxef dawn l-affarijiet li ma jitwemmnux izjed nikkonferma li imnalla hawn nies bhalek li jikxfu u jfehmu certa intrigi. Izjed ma naqra u insir naf izjed nixtieq nahrab il-boghod mil-futur vicin li jmiss lil poplu Malti.
Kemm hawn min hu faccol, injorant u ipokrita.
That’s Victor Sultana.
Victor Sultana is just behind Karmenu Vella. Toni Abela behind Herr Flick.
No. Sultana is the one in the dark glasses behind il-Guy.
Leo Brincat was part of the 1981 cabinet of the KMB legacy. Was he unbiased and non-discriminatory when he headed the housing ministry of those times?
Having run out of arguements and trick questions, Herr Flick has fallen back on the PL’s favourite – Plan XYZ : the politics of envy (Maltese “lanzit”).
I think that person is some doctor called Victor Sultana. He was a candidate in the golden era.
Herr Flick? No, more like Herr Engelbert Von Smallhausen, his assistant.
Labour’s proving one thing, It will remain Mintoff’s creation, Alfred Sant just a hiccup.
Saviour Balzan was on inkontri this week (I think he’s been adopted as a Nuxxelinu). You should have seen him mention the ‘hnizrijiet tal-Labour’ to maintain his notoriously balanced view. Joe Grima wasn’t impressed.
You obviously missed Deborah Schembri defending the Labour regime on the 80s on Bondi + yesterday.
Was it Joe Grima snorting through the mike when Saviour was mentioning those “hnizrijiet”?