Malta Today: the Nationalist Party is after Lawrence Gonzi (il-partit warajh)
Oh, the troublesome scenarios caused by poor knowledge of idiomatic English. It’s not just Franco Debono, Luciano ‘Il Sogno’ Busuttil and George Vella, either.
There’s Malta Today. Here they are, clumsily translating what the prime minister said during a TV interview and having him mean the precise opposite of what he actually said.
“Today I can say I have the entire Nationalist Party after me,” Gonzi replied.
I suppose the word they were looking for was ‘backing’, or even ‘behind’.
When somebody is “after you”, my dear friends at Malta Today, it means that they are out to get you, and not that they are backing you.
Franco Debono, for instance, consistently believes that people are after him.
The mental image conjured up by the sentence that the entire Nationalist Party is after Lawrence Gonzi is one of the prime minister fleeing in a mad sweat as an entire baying mob headed by Paul Borg Olivier and NET chases him with bared fangs.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFM9AREN62I
I was looking for one of his chase scenes, this one’s more appropriate.
That’s exactly what I thought reading the title of your post – “Why the hell would the PN be after its leader? Unless they are starting to believe the hogwash that it’s all Gonzi’s fault or something”.
Then I saw “Maltatoday”.
Are these journalists who graduated B.A. (Hons.) ? Is this what the university is turning out – people who cannot speak or write properly in English ?
To be fair, I’d forgive the MaltaToday for the occasional cockup.
What was once the recommended daily read during my secondary school years for learning some decent English, The Times, in these last years has been rendered into an antithesis of the English language.
Labour is after you, Daphne.
Having promised them so much, Joseph will have the entire Labour Party after him should he lose the next election.
The prospect of having Jason, Ronnie, AST. il-Guy, JDG chomping at his backside doesn’t bear thinking about.
Now that’s one hell of a baying mob.
It might be truer (and sooner) than you think. :)
[Daphne – You know, Martin, you’re so keen to have Joseph Muscat elected that I’m beginning to wonder what your vested interest is and what you, personally, stand to gain. Because other than that, your stance defies all logic and reason.]
The entire party, eh? And I thought it was just Franco Debono who was after him.
Please stop pointing this out to them. Where else am I going to get my cheap laughs at their expense?
Why are they after Gonzi? Has he done something wrong?
Compare and contrast.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120604/local/pedestrian-injured-by-falling-object.422711
http://www.maltastar.com/dart/20120604-french-woman-injured-in-gzira
[Daphne – Maltastar has found the only known piece of metal which takes walks in Gzira.]
It is reassuring to know that we have the entire PN after Gonzi.
It could have been much worse.
Apres moi, le deluge.
Fools.
“The mental image conjured up by the sentence that the entire Nationalist Party is after Lawrence Gonzi is one of the prime minister fleeing in a mad sweat as an entire baying mob headed by Paul Borg Olivier and NET chases him with bared fangs.”
Here’s music to do with that image:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpc5_3B5xdk
The funny thing is that most of Malta Toady’s readers will actually (mis?)understand that as what Lawrence Gozni actually meant, that the party is backing him.
Those who can see the mistake probably stopped reading Malta Today several years ago anyway.
Malta Today’s online edition is almost as poor as the Times of Malta when it comes to bad grammar, dreadful spelling and labyrinthine sentence construction.
One other thing: what on earth is a nice man like Roger doing in business with a person like Saviour?
The idiots. The supreme idiots. They still can’t get it right. This is their latest version:
“Today I can say that I have the entire Nationalist party are behind me,” Gonzi replied.
A nice man like Roger. Are you serious, Amanda? He has become as vile as his business partner.
He’s very nice to me, gel. Always has been.