More dispatches from the other Malta: OMG, Franco really did take me literally
Alison Bezzina has written a blog-post for timesofmalta.com, in which she expresses her concern that somebody as paranoid (my word, not hers) as Franco Debono has been left in charge of the parliamentary select committee on reforming press law.
Debono has now commented beneath the post, in a manner which leaves no doubt whatsoever that his culturally alien mindset, the product of the Other Malta, means he is unable to ‘read’ things and actually takes them literally.
The “fierce attack” on his mother was a throwaway joke that she should be arrested and charged with crimes against the state for foisting her ‘tifel biezel’ on us.
Franco Debono really did take it literally as an appeal to the state to arrest and prosecute his mother for dumping him on us, which he should know is not possible – even if it weren’t a wisecrack – given that he is one of Malta’s top criminal lawyers (why do I suspect that he is going to take that literally, too?).
Here is the relevant bit of his comment, beneath Alison Bezzina’s blog-post:
2) the only thing i asked the PM, due to reasons which i do not think should be exposed here, was to condemn a fierce attack on my mother ( which has since, it seems been explained by its author as a joke), who is not a public figure.
Now let’s tackle this ‘public figure’ business, and explain it very carefully so that the chairman of the parliamentary select committee on reforming press law is sure to understand it.
When women (or men, for that matter) who previously maintained an invisible profile go on the nation’s most widely watched prime-time show, with their politician sons (or daughters), to discuss the life, aspirations and upbringing of that politician son (or daughter), they divest themselves temporarily of their privacy and expose themselves to public discussion, debate and yes, even criticism and ridicule.
The solution is to not go on television in the first place, and to maintain your invisible/low profile that way. You cannot expose yourself on television and expect only praise, or no comment. And you certainly cannot go on television and demand that all criticism or ridicule be silenced by force of law or by other, blackmailing means.
5 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Well said, Daph. This fellow is really thick and he is blissfully unaware of it.
I’ve always believed that those who appear on Xarabank go there on purpose because they are attention-seekers, and want the viewers to talk about them, their make-up, their dress, their hair, their relatives, and what they say or they do not say.
Someone once dubbed Xarabank as Malta’s Jerry Springer Show.
Where did I go wrong?
I’ll tell you where you went wrong.
They’re not attention-seekers.
They’re praise-seekers.
They DID get the attention, only not the sort they were expecting.
To them, I say ‘tough’.
And if they think that they can mess around with the press law while everybody sits back and watches passively, they’re very wrong.
People who court the attention of the viewing public on a prime time tv show to help promote their very public and controversial offspring lose any right or privilige of remaining a private person ,
For someone who waved his high school results around he might have wanted to capitalise his ‘I’s’ and check his spelling…adeguately (pun intended)