nice try .. but you did not keep to the argument ..

By the way, the pic at the top with Mintoff and Gaddaffi is really nice, can we now have the one where GonziPN awards the Gieh Ir-Rebubblika medal to Gaddaffi please?

[Daphne – Try communicating with reference to your solitary sex life for once.]

As the little girl became more confident and adventurous in her conversation, she asked my wife, “Are you with Joseph?” The girl had taken her conversation with my wife, this attractive and grandmotherly stranger, to the next higher, and for her most natural, level. My wife, naturally, answered “Yes.”

In this exchange, there is the pure innocence of this girl from Bormla, who adopts the faith and aspirations of her parents. There is also the cultural divide that for now shields this child, as a child, from the larger history and a larger truth.

Yet, there also are the seeds of “identity” being planted and implemented as another article of faith, as much as the family is the natural home for the foundations of religion, education, and an eventual future for when this child becomes an adult.

One can only hope that children, as adults, maintain their natural curosity and inhibitions to dialogue, so that eventually their convictions and aspirations will be founded upon a genuine respect and tolerance for individuals, and respect for ultimate truth.

When a political party and its adherants disregard the latter, it is no wonder that an entire generation grows up and is fitted with its emotional armour in defense against most, if not all, rational discourse.

There still is possible hope for the children, but the generation of their parents and adults cannot be transformed so easily: Joseph himself [in his attempted political reincarnation] is one of its products: “Believe in me, follow me, do not doubt, I am your truth and salvation, your identity, your being.”

Any person who becomes an adult is expected to use their powers of reason and to seek truth–not to be automatons or carbon-copies of someone else’s personhood, or a mini-me of their parents. Adults, committed to this, must provide the tools and personal space for individuals to achieve this.

God bless the little girl from Bormla and her parents. God help us all.

Because if, when someone criticises or even insults you, the only reaction you are capable of is violence ‘Toffendili l-lijder nigi ghalik’ it shows you are incapable of debate, discussion, and civilised argument.

In short, you will be acting like some fundamentalist or thug in a Third-World state or some banana republic

Well said.

The vacuum created by Muscat is having its effects.

I call it the Mintoff syndrome, who knew how to hog any space required by democratic dialogue.