THE PHOTOGRAPH THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO SEE
…but which the Brussels Turnip was stupid enough to upload on his Facebook page, confirming his root-vegetable status for the next 50 years.
I have a good feeling for the size and nature of crowds even off the internet and the broadcast media, and all I could think when watching footage of Mintoff’s lying in state and funeral was, despite the references to ‘large crowds’ even in the independent press, that this was a serious case of erba’ qtates and most of them were ancient or members of the underclass, who had turned up ghal-harga u biex iseksku.
This photograph of St John’s Square as the gun went past with a box containing Mintoff’s corpse on top just confirms that.
I couldn’t help but compare to the way that square was packed solid with people when the Archbishop said a mass in 1984 for the future of Malta, which was imperilled. Tens of thousands of people turned up, jamming the cathedral, the square outside and crowding right up Merchants Street (and I mean the street, not the pavements).
I was one of them. Labour thugs and police then charged the crowd with batons, and all I can remember in the confusion is a sea of screaming women trying to protect their children, fathers running and carrying babies shielded close to their chest, pushchairs spinning, old people stumbling and crying, and everyone running and running.
With my boyfriend, I took shelter in a doorway in Melita Street (my grandparents’ house, but they weren’t at home) and we watched in horror as two policemen went down the entire length of that stretch of street, smashing with their truncheons the windscreen and windows of every car.
And when they had finished doing that, they climbed onto the roof of the first car, jumped on it hard until it was severely dented, then moved along doing the same to every car in the row.
One of those policemen was literally foaming at the mouth.
So my feeling that hardly anybody turned up to Mintoff’s funeral spontaneously was 100% correct. So much for the hype and the manufactured sensation.
And so much for Mintoff’s fabulous legacy and for – what was that Lino Spiteri said today? – Mintoff’s death having united the country.
Trid tkun vera qieghed tghix dinja ghalik biex tahseb hekk. What Mintoff’s death did was remind sensible people of just how horrible, nasty, criminally spiteful, mean and petty he was. Oh, and how lousy he was at his job, too. Mustn’t forget that. He was the original Not Fit For Purpose.
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it seems that the idiots who did turn up for this circus were trying to look for a place in the shade.
Apart from the fact that although comparisons are odious, the situation was much more different in one of the recent State funerals, i.e. of Guido de Marco (2010). And the excuse of the heat does not apply as even this happened in August and it was in the middle of the afternoon.
Suldati ta’ l-azzar eh? All of them are in the shade ma jmorrux jiehdu xi xemxata waqt il-funeral tas-salvatur.
My thoughts exactly.
And the feature on Dominic that was featured today in The Times would make readers think that Dominick is some Labour fanatic. Far from it, people who know the man also know a few other things about this hard-working man.
Maybe you can give your liver a rest now. It must have been a hellish week.
[Daphne – It’s possible to celebrate without drinking, Martin. You should try it sometimes.]
Nothing to do with drinking it’s the overproductiuon of bile that can do it in.
[Daphne – Oh my, that’s why the Mintoffian underclass has a much lower life expectancy than any other sector of society.]
The same happened in Cottonera on Friday, no one lining the road linking Cospicua to Vittoriosa. They had to delay proceedings before the hearse got to Hamrun, lots of phone calls urging people to gather outside headquarters.
Dap ma qlajtx daqqa ta lembuba min ghant il pulizija dakinhar ??? Imniehrek kien jolqtu zgur !!!! U forsi jcekinulek kien ! Dik in nejka li ma qlajtx daqtej lembuba , kummisarju konna namluh lil dak il pulizija .
What a sad specimen you are. . . tsk tsk !
Typical of one of the herd.
Well we all know that the man could not have delivered his legacy alone, without the foot soldiers so keen on violence. I believe you have stated your position well, oh loyal foot soldier!
Hmieg ta’ Malta li harab mil-Maghtab, jimporta nindirizzak hekk?
Minn kliemek nista nimmagina li nhaseb li mhux qieghed il-boghod.
Li tghid dak il-kumment wegga lili personali li ja jien Nazzjonalist u lanqas Laburist.
Jien wiehed innocenti li kont hemm u kwazi qatluni bis swat il-pulizija. Jien kont sejjer lura id-dar wara il-quddiesa.
Spiccajt kwazi mejjet li ma kienx ghal min ghinni u hadd il-kura l-Ingilterra ghax l-isptar baghtuni id-dar bid-demm fuq mohhi u emorogija interna bid-daqqiet.
Li kieku…. eh, li kieku jittrattawk hekk ghax tghid li trid tghid f’pajjiz demokratiku, kieku m’ghanekx computer id-dar, u ommok ghada tara ir-repeats ta’ Id-dar Tas-Soru.
Mintoff kien manipulatur, bully u inkompetenti.
Li ghamel hu seta ghamlu pulitikant iehor b’nofs l-intelligenza tieghu, b’dinjita’, rispett, ghaqal, inqas tbatija u iktar success.
Malta qieghda ghoxrin sa tletin sena lura mil-bqija ta l-Ewropa…. l-ekwivalenti ta’ zmien Mintoff fil-poter.
Imma zomm . . . ma ndunajtx? Skuzani. Insejt li int ghadek hemm.
Issa, meta jhalluk tohrog minghajr chaperone, forsi tinduna.
Mur hudu f’ghoxx Mintoff, Lorry Sant, KMB u l-hodor, l-injoranti u il-hmieg u d-dlam li tinsab fih.
Learn about life, moron.
Ghandkom ghira baswijaMa tistawx taccettaw li dan kien l-akbar funeral statali li qatt sar….ir ritratt li tellajtu ma jfisser xejn.jekk ridtu tkunu tafu kemm kien hemm nies miskom attendejtu ghal funeral u mhux tigudikaw min fuq ritratt..Forsi kontu tatu l-ahhar tislima lil min vera haseb fil-fqir….issa jekk ghalikom min haseb fil-fqir ghamel xi haga hazina nixtieq inkun naf xtip ta nies intom..
Dazgur li haseb fil-fqir, kif seta’ jfaqqru aktar.
Ghadkom thewdnu kif se ssibu iehor, donnu jekk le taqtghu qalbkom li ssiru nies. Din inthom tghiduha.
min hu komdu u jabbuza bhaddiehor jahsiba bhalek habib….ax kif tkellimt donnu lilek dan il gvern ghamlek nies….
“Haseb fil-fqir”.
Ghax gie qassmilkhom gidu.
Il-vera qabda injoranti u cwiec.
Ghax lilek dan il gvern qassamlek gidu hux? Bhala mara lilek tak il-maternity leave,childrens allowance u sahansitra tak id dritt li tivvota ghax siehbek ma riedekx li jkollok dritt tivvota…ghax ghal gvern tieghek in niesa kienu qabda injoranti u cwiec…
[Daphne – Dalwaqt tibdew tghidu li Mintoff tana mhux biss il-maternity leave imma t-tfal ukoll.]
Well, that’s what one Mrs Bondin could possibly claim.
Dan il-gvern GAB, mhux tani, opportunitajiet godda u serhan tal-mohh biex illum jien qeghda nghix hajja dicenti.
Dan il-gvern lili ma tani XEJN hlief il-liberta LURA li hadli sidek Duminku Mintoff. Il-ftit jew wisq li ghandi illum huwa biss mertu tieghi ghax hdimt u irsistejt ghalih jien, u jien BISS.
Partit ma jittellghax fil-gvern biex jaghti. Partit jittellgha fil-gvern biex imexxi pajjiz fid-direzzjoni it-tajba.
Simon, jekk inti trid mhux daqshekk difficli tbiddel il-mentalita tieghek. Tghallem ahseb b’mohhok u uza is-sens komun. U jirnexxilek.
Min jahseb fil-fqir ma jfaqqarx nies, Simon.
Mur staqsi lil min qed jerga jmiss il faqar habib…jew qed tghixu fxi parti ta Malta li jistaw jghixu dawk maghzula biss?
Ta’ xejn tipprova ddawwar il-kliem, Simon.
Dal-ghageb li taghmlu ghax Mintoff kien jahseb biss fil-fqir kollu ta’ xejn. Li kien jahseb fl-injorant naf, imma kien jaghmel hekk biex izomm il-kontroll. Li kien ragel, kien jghin in-niex iqumum fuq saqajhom, mhux izommom taht subajh.
@Simon
B’dak li qieghed tghid, qed turi li ghadek zghir fl’ eta. Meta miet George Borg Olivier, in-nies sahansitra hanqu it-triq Dicembru Tlettax, Il-Marsa. Sahansitra l’ karozza tal mejtin giet imbuttata min nies li kienu hemm prezenti…mill Belt Kapitali taghna sal Marsa! Ma rajt lill hadd jidhak matul il cortege tieghu, mhux bhal m’ nuttajt is-sibt li- ghadda!
Simon ipprova dahhalha f’rasek u wara fiehem lil dawk kollha li huma fanatici bhalek illi ahna ma jimpurtaniex mill-funeral statali!
Ghandna affarijiet iktar importanti minn dawn ic-cucati! Se nsemmilek 3 biss, li s-salvatur taghkom qatt riedhom:
XOGHOL, GUSTIZZJA, LIBERTA’
I rest my case.
There’s nothing wrong with that picture. The right hand side of the square was reserved for those who hated Mintoff.
Can’t you see them? Those are the ghosts that voted for Partnership in 2004.
Sadly, many of them predeceased him.
Isma’ l-aristokrazija tal-haddiema titkellem!
I’m sure many of the people in the photo (and elsewhere in Valletta) were tourists, curious about all the fuss.
yes and the tourist start singing the national anthem of malta, yeh right, you just got only one part where they left it open because some body called for a bomb scare in that area,. the rest of Valletta was packed with ppl, (who knows why somebody called for a bomb scare that day? maybe thinking ppl will leave?)
Is that what mummy told you?
I bet many of those present were tourists. Everybody mentioned the absence of Alfred Sant, was George Vella present? I must have missed him.
Daphne,
FYI and for fairness’ sake, the crowd had to move in under the Bellini collonnade and up the better-shaded Zachary Street because the blazing sun was too much to contend with. The moment the coffin was lifted down from the gun carraige people moved in to fill-in the blanks of that sunny area in St. John’s Square to cheer the late Dom Mintoff, everyone in his own personal way, some sobbed, some stood and thanked him and some shouted their own slogans. I personally chose to remain still under the collonade with my son and husband, to be present for that one man who, were it not for the policies he spearheaded, two generations ago, I may have not had the opportunity to be raised in a fairly middle class family, enjoying free public school education, obtain 14 O level certifications and 5 A levels, graduated twice from University up to the level of Master’s degree (one degree of which was earned in 1999 in class alongside yourself) and today be gainfully-occupied in a stimulating and interesting environment as well as pursuing motherhood simultaneously.
So, just to put your mind at rest that some, if not most, of the people who were in Valletta last Saturday were not, necessarily, obese and toothless dumbwits who have nothing on their minds expect hounding after and chewing on social benefits to be able to get by day by day while staying at home doing nothing but watching telecooking or telebejgh.
If I remember you well at University 1995-1999 who had good brains then, and I suppose those same brains should still be at your disposal now, to admit that not all Labourites (and Mintoffjani, for this anecodate’s sake) are featherbrained twits … some of them (lo and behold) actually have that grey matter you so overtly boast of having of lot of yourself.
[Daphne – Who in God’s name told you that you went to school and to university only because of Mintoff, or that he made your family middle class? Can’t you see the inherent contradiction in what you’re writing here? Ask yourself why I went to university in 1993 instead of in 1982. Why was I in your year? Go on, answer that. Then tell me about Mintoff and education. Or for that matter, Mintoff and the middle class. If you were in my year then you were 11 when the Nationalist Party came to govern in 1987. You have about as much experience of life under Mintoff as I have of life under Borg Olivier. In other words, you grew up under the Nationalists in the same way that I grew up under Labour. Ghandek xi tghid, ukoll.
And what a stupid excuse, too – “they were sheltering under the colonnade”. Daqshekk kienet kbira l-folla: hallew spazju taht il-colonnade, hej. If you think that was a big funeral, you should have seen Il-Fusellu’s.]
@ M. Calleja
Are you for real? “Mil-liema sema waqajt?’
All the things you mention as your achievements:
“obtain 14 O level certifications and 5 A levels, graduated twice from University up to the level of Master’s degree… and today be gainfully-occupied in a stimulating and interesting environment as well as pursuing motherhood simultaneously”… were all possible as a direct result of Nationalist Party policies and notwithstanding the absolute mayhem and misguided so-called governance by the pre-1987 “Moviment tal-Haddiema”.
To be honest, the only thing I can fault the Nationalist Party on is that their education system created people like you – who although with a Master’s Degree still cannot discern basic facts and analyse accordingly.
@maltawarrior
Thank God, mhux mis-sema injoranta u biased li waqajt minnha int.
Go get a life … and a new nom de plum at that!
[Daphne – Nom de plum. Lovely.]
I have no personal view on Mintoff.
However, when I heard he sent his children to school abroad, it told me all I need to know about him.
He sent his children to school abroad? Yes well, the champion of the working class was known for the odd inconsistency.
[Daphne – Yes, Rudolf, and what’s more, not just any school but Cheltenham Ladies’ College, which means they were almost certainly there as charity students as there is no way on earth he would have paid the huge fees.]
To add a few more:
1. champion of the poor, yet he married into wealth
2. champion of the working class, yet he married aristocracy
3. champion against the British, yet he married a Scottish woman.
Looks like his private life was anything but reflecting the clarion calls in his public life.
Mintoff didn’t marry into wealth. That was the hold he had over his wife.
If a person who earned a Masters (in whatever) can be so brainwashed, what hope is there for the semiliterates who swallow every bit of garbage thrown at them by the Party which embraces the failed ministers and their policies of the 70s and 80s?
Such a hopeless case, I despair!
How lucky you are to have, Ms Calleja, to have been able to go to university.
Me? Not so lucky, I’m afraid. I have 8 O-levels and 2 A’levels but that wasn’t enough thanks to Mintoff’s policies because, well, because i went to a church school. And we all know how that turned out….
I take it you were a university student when Eddie was PM.
Again… lucky you.
Good for you Mrs. Calleja, you managed to go to university thanks to your grades and to the Nationalist government, whilst I did not manage to go to University despite my grades and thanks to Mintoff, like Daphne.
Maybe feather-brained wasn’t the word to use, but ignorant definitely is.
@ Ghoxrin Punt
….. and so say all of us!
You could only go to university because the PN led government increased the number of courses, removed the need to have a sponsor ( student worker), changed that into a stipend system, opened evening courses, and assisted mothers through child care services.
Under Mintoff you could have only chosen either to become a teacher, or an engineer, or a pharmacist, or a doctor, or dentist or lawyer or architect. We were ony 800 students, today over 10000, under continuous threat that the government would top our sponsorships and thus be kicked out of the course.
And not to mention the numerous times that the aristocracy of the workers were led to the university to give us their blessings.
Daphne,
My reactions to your reaction:
“Who in God’s name told you that you went to school and to university only because of Mintoff?”
MC: Whoever mentioned the word ‘only’? I am also grateful that the PN carried on on the excellent work Mintoff started, but it is an indelible fact that only Labour governments cared for the poor and downtrodden as my widowed grandmother and fatherless mother were, post-WWII, as also most people from the inner harbour area, from where I hail.
“Ask yourself why I went to university in 1993 instead of in 1982.”
MC: I did ask myself that question a number of times in that Archaeology Farmhouse lecture room, across the table from you, and I assumed, as much as you are now assuming about my life, that you were too busy reproducing in your twenties to realise the value of furthering your education. Ooooooooh! Am I being too blunt?
[Daphne – UNBELIEVABLE! No, I mean really, un-fucking-believable. Do you mean to say that you have missed every single newspaper report or account of the situation at the university under the Labour government. Do you even know how people GOT IN to university? Do you know that there was NO Faculty of the Arts, no Bachelor of Arts courses and therefore, no archaeology course? Do you know that your hero Mintoff CLOSED DOWN THE FACULTY OF ARTS because, he said, the degree is useless and you can all become teachers instead?
So there the six-year BEduc course was born. Do you know that students couldn’t become students unless they had a ‘sponsor’ or that they had to work for a pittance for six months, then study for six months, so that courses which now take three years then took six? Do you know that you had to go through an approvals process that had nothing to do with your academic qualifications, or that you had to jump through the hoops of a ’20-point’ system in which you were penalised for going to a private school and other similar ludicrous matters? Listen to me, and listen to me well: I had 14 O-levels – the serious and proper ones, not MATSEC – and three A-levels and came out of St Aloysius College, and I couldn’t go to university BECAUSE THERE WAS NO COURSE I COULD OR WOULD DO EVEN IF I COULD GET IN IN THE FIRST PLACE. The courses on offer were: engineering (out), medicine (ask my cousin Aidan Zammit Lupi about that one), pharmacy (out), dentistry (out), law (forget it), notary (ditto), teacher (over my dead body), public administration (like hell). Sounds good to you?
If you think I didn’t go to university because I was having children at 18, you’re cracked. I had my first child at 21. Had I lived in a fucking – excuse my language but people like you are absolutely insufferable in your determined ignorance – I could have easily fitted in a degree in between sixth form and my first child. Three years, right? And I actually sat my A-levels at 17, not 18, anyway. You really are hopeless you know, and you might have sat across from me for four years, but I haven’t a clue who are. That’s the amazing impression you made. If you were scintillating, I might have noticed. I certainly remember all the bright ones. Tal-biki.]
“If you think that was a big funeral, you should have seen Il-Fusellu’s.”
MC: It is cheap to compare funerals.
[Daphne – It’s called irony. I’m guessing there isn’t much of that in your Mintoffian household. It’s a foreign concept.]
FYI:
Most of my colleagues at work are PN supporters and they know my leanings are social democratic and they respect me as much as I respect them. We also feast each other’s achievements because that is what true comradeship should be like – an exchange of opinions not an exchange of insults.
[Daphne – Social democrat? And you vote Labour? You’re with the wrong party. And anyway, God knows how you worked out that Labour is social democrat, because we haven’t seen a single policy to speak of. But oh wait, they TELL you they’re social democrat. So that’s all right then, no need to look at the evidence. God, I wonder how you got through your archaeology degree without examining evidence. And another thing, it’s fete, not feast.]
But … ‘nough said … it is my mistake – I should have never posted on your vile hatred-disseminating blog, prying into and preying onto other people’s lives, whilst assuming that your life is better than everybody else’s. There is certainly no fine line between freedom of speech and freedom to insult: both a quite clear and totally distinct.
What a pity! I remember you in much better days, when your writings were so much more inspiring even if just to listen and read to your good mastery of the English language. Now it is just trash.
But curiosity killed the cat … and I should have continued to ignore your blog, as I shall exactly be doing right after this full stop.
[Daphne – You know, the thing your incursion here has taught me – not that I didn’t know it before really – is how you can be sitting across from a Mintoffjan ahdar/hadra for four long bleeding years, conducting normal conversations, while they conceal their true nature and sentiments. Growing up where I did taught me that Mintoffiani are like snakes in the grass, slithering around pretending to be something else so as to be socially acceptable. On balance, I prefer the fox kem andek variety of loud and in your face Mintoffjani. At least they’re not pretending to be anything else.]
I wander how many people will turn up for your funeral Daphne. I suppose even your 3 pepe boys will be ashamed to be seen at the funeral of their bitchy (but high class….. obviously) mummy.
For the rest it will be National party day.
is this what you want to sow daphne.. your pages are all full of hatred and you’re making people hate each other too.. stop it before you ruin your life completely. you will reap hatred one day when you least want it.
… And still you read and comment.
Whywhy…. I can’t speak for Daphne and hate is a big word for me, so i won’t go as far as saying I “hate” anybody.
However, you must realise that this division is a legacy of Dom Mintoff and a direct result of his Golden Years.
We have been deeply hurt, and the scars run very, very deep.
So it’s all very well for moderate PL supporters (I suspect you are one) to tell us to get over it and that it was in the past…. but we don’t really believe that it is in the past – not when the likes of Alex Sciberras Trigonas, Il-Guy, Leo Brincat and Angelo Farrugia are likely to be running the country again (I genuinely don’t believe that Joseph Muscat will be – he’ll just be the potato head at the front of these corrupt politicians who smiled as we got beaten up and had our youth snatched from us).
we don’t know what the future brings Mr Montebello, hopefully not what the early eighties were and violence did stop over the years, thanks to EFA and also to Alfred Sant and Joseph Muscat who have both disagreed with it and stopped it, you must see that. Violence nowadays takes a more subtle form you should see that too.
And HPsauce, I have been in this blog for a week, and it’s shocking. So I will stop coming here. There is a load of hate here. People don’t need to discuss things this way. This is another form of violence.
it is true though, this has been a nauseating experience for mintoff haters .. mintoff has united the labourites again and the nats can’t take it , that is what this hatred is all about.. they know how the opposition is all for one again..
From some feedback I got, it actually is the other way round. The re-writing of history with the deification of that sorry man who ruined generations of Maltese has managed to reignite some Nationalists who were – to say the least – tepid.
Seeing “il-marmalja” back in the streets and shouting Mintoff’s name is surely an eye opener for many.
And no, it’s not hatred, it’s incredulity …
I didn’t go and not even open the tv to see. I wasn’t interested
at all. The wrong things he did to our nation, I can’t forget them. We were taxed up to our nose, the business men were taxed at 65 percent on their income.
To buy a video player from Malta it was six hundred Maltese lira, all electronics items where taxed at 120 percent on their value, that’s what Mintoff did to us.
A tv set was 450 Maltese lira, when Adami’s was in power he put it down for 250.. I like to ask the people who have common sense, who was the prime minister that cared for his people?
To save two hundred pounds , those days you have to work at least two years, because the salary those days was peanuts compared with today.
The eighties were curious times indeed. While no one should ever deny the involvement of Labour ministers (a la Lorry Sant, Wistin, Joe Grima) and Labour thugs (qahbu, qattus, indjan), I find it quite sad (from a historical point of view) that possible sinister workings of the other party are seldom mentioned.
Just to name one example, why on earth did the PN appoint Rizzo as a police commissioner when he was responsible for the farcical arraignment of Peter Paul Busuttil in the Raymond Caruana murder? Of course Rizzo always denied his involvement in the arraignment (no surprises there) but it would take a fool of the gullible type to believe his denials.
And that’s just one of the mysterious ironies that pepper our history. I reiterate, I’m not absolving any of the MLP violence, I’ve never even voted for them (or for the PN, for that matter) but I’d like to see a re-rewriting of that decade from a more objective point of view.
Thanks.
When they talk about work , they make me laugh. When Mintoff was in power, the women that work with the goverment automatically they lose their job.
In Malta we have many spinsters, because they didn’t want to lose their job. Look back with the teachers.most of them they didn’t marry for that reason, they had a good job and they didn’t want to lose it.
It was under the pn that the women were allowed to stay working and now most of them keep their jobs.
Another one to remind you how much Mintoff loved the workers and he had a gold heart for the Maltese. The civil servants when they retire they had what they use to call it (so mma) he stopped it. Although the workers contributed for it, it was nIce that when you retire you collect the lump sum.
People that where engaged with the government after 1978,are not entailed for it. Mintoff never liked people with money in their pockets.,
Il-Ġidra ta’ Brussell – rumanz ta’ Manwel Cuschieri.
This should be the next book in the SKS series.
Daphne – Neville Pace posted photos of Gorg Borg Olivier’s funeral should you wish to make pictorial comparisons.
The crowds were impressive!
[Daphne – Please download them and send them to me at [email protected]. Thank you.]
I was a secondary school student during the mid-eighties and I want to thank Mintoff for forcing me to learn Arabic (nothing wrong about the language itself), but “is-salvatur ta’ Malta” wanted to integrate the Maltese with the Jumaharija culture of his beloved friend Gaddhafi. Thanks again for ruining me three years of academic precious time when I could have learned other subjects that would have helped me in my future job seeking process.
At that time our passports were green and written in Arabic.
And read from back to front, too.
Speaking of turnips – apparently that is what Mintoff had called George Vella when the latter went to him to get his blessing to contest the post for leadership of the MLP.
KMB wanted Dr Vella to succeed him but Mintoff effectively destroyed Dr Vella’s hopes/chances by not supporting him. Apparently Mintoff threw Vella out telling him that he would not support a “gidra bhalek”.
At least on this we can agree with Mintoff’s assessment of character here, given Vella’s performance during the charade to oust RCC, to mention just one of his more recent failures to display logic.
Incidentally was Vella at the funeral?
Just for the sake of accuracy – Vella went for Mintoff’s blessing. At that stage there was no contest for leadership. Mintoff’s reply was ‘jien qatt ma bierikt gdur’.
Simon ipprova dahhalha f’rasek u wara fiehem lil dawk kollha li huma fanatici bhalek illi ahna ma jimpurtaniex mill-funeral statali!
Ghandna affarijiet iktar importanti minn dawn ic-cucati! Se nsemmilek 3 biss, li s-salvatur taghkom qatt ma riedhom:
XOGHOL, GUSTIZZJA, LIBERTA’
I rest my case.
Let me get this straight
Mintoff annointed George Vella as the Chief Gidra of the LP?
So we’re going to have a gidra for foreign affairs minister and a gidra in Brussels.
“Trid tkun vera qieghed tghix dinja ghalik biex tahseb hekk. What Mintoff’s death did was remind sensible people of just how horrible, nasty, criminally spiteful, mean and petty he was. Oh, and how lousy he was at his job, too. Mustn’t forget that. He was the original Not Fit For Purpose.”
I couldn’t agree more. Somehow, Mintoff’s death unleashed in me all the repressed feelings I lived through throughout my childhood all those years ago. Seeing him again on television, hearing the word “Mintoff” so many times, reading it in print, seeing how tragically wrongly history was being re-written, I felt a deep, a very deep desire to run about in the streets shouting: wake up! The emperor is naked. Wake up! We’re being taken for a ride. Open your eyes. Le m’ghamilx gid – he ruined our country, he ruined his own party. He was a tyrant, a dictator. He despised us all.”
I still need to go on a high point and shout this out. Yet, people like Joseph Muscat say that this was a “tislima ta’ poplu”. I boycotted Mintoff’s funeral and spent the day on the beach instead, ostentatiously posting pictures of the beach on FB to show that “no, to me that funeral is not happening. I couldn’t give two hoots”.
I don’t want to give a “tislima” to a dictator who ruined my family’s life and almost succeeded in ruining mine. I refused to go and see his lying in state and, above all, nobody has the right to rope me in with the “poplu” giving the “tislima”.
And no, it’s not a matter of letting bygones be bygones because if they really were bygones, we shouldn’t sit here and shudder at the thought of yet another election with its possibility of yet another Labour government which is clearly Not Fit for the Purposes. This is all Mintoff’s doing and I can never pay respects to a man who trampled on us, our rights, our happiness.