UNBELIEVABLE. READ THIS AND WEEP.
If you never lived during those times, think yourself lucky, not unfortunate.
This is a statement released by the Labour Youth Forum. They’re regretful that they never had the opportunity to experience Mintoff’s reforms directly, but they know that they are now benefitting from everything he did.
WHAT WENT WRONG, THAT PEOPLE IN THEIR 20S THINK THAT ALL THIS IS MINTOFF’S DOING, AND THAT LIFE IN THE 1970S AND 1980S WAS LIKE LIFE NOW, BUT EVEN BETTER?
The worst – the very worst – of the Nationalist Party’s policies back in the 1980s and 1990s was ‘reconciliation’. Because you know what? Reconciliation comes after the facts are laid out, documented, recorded for posterity, thrashed out, discussed and then dealt with.
Now look at the result. The Nationalist Party has been hoist by its own reconciliation petard. It is now facing a whole generation of people that have grown up entirely under their governments and think that Eddie Fenech Adami simply got behind the wheel after Mintoff left the car and carried on driving in the same direction, but you know, making a mess of it because he wasn’t as good as Mintoff.
Stqarrija
21 ta’ Awwissu 2012
Maħruġa mill-Forum Żgħażagħ Laburisti.
Tislima lill-Perit Dom Mintoff.
Il-Forum Żgħażagħ Laburisti jsellem il-memorja tal-Perit Dom Mintoff, riformatur li l-ħidma b’enerġija żagħżugħa tiegħu rat t-twelid ta’ pajjiż modern, b’stat sekulari li jwennes l-ekwità soċjali. L-arkitett li ta d-dawl lill-Welfare State u wessa’ x-xibka soċjali bil-kisba tal-Ħelsien mill-ħakma kolonjali barranija.
Minkejja li aħna żgħażagħ u ma kelliniex l-opportunità li ngħixu direttament ħidmietu, aħna l-ġenerazzjoni li qed ngawdu u ngħożżu l-frott ta’ din il-ħidma sfieqa.
Forum Żgħażagħ Laburisti
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Can we send you a couple of even more incredible screenshots from Facebook?
On the other hand perhaps better not, I almost threw up when I saw them, or that might have been an after effect of all the bubbly!
.. min jaf kem jiktbu affarjiet sbieh fuqek la jasal iz zmien li thallina .. gieli qadt tahseb naqra minjaf kem ghamilt gid bilsienek .. .. you re a role model .. id dwejjaq l ghandek fhajtek mux sew li jehel hadiehor miek daphne u int mara wisq sabiha ma nafx al fejn et tamel ekk wisq helwa wisq qas aw bhalek xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx love you from you secret admirer ajma kem hi helwa x fiha
malti malti malti
Not at all the best advert for brand Malti, are you? Those who style themselves as Malti pur are invariably subliterate and horrendously ignorant. We already knew that so there was no need to prove it.
This is absolutely true. I am nauseous from reading eulogies to this man on Facebook posted by people in their teens, 20s and 30s who have been fed idealistic bullshit by their parents all their lives.
And they’re Malta’s future – yes bang your head against a wall or just pack up and leave.
The greatest mistake that the Nationalists made was to treat the Maltese nation like any leaders would treat a mature nation.
They failed to understand that the majority of Maltese are infantile and expect a government and leader who mollycoddles them from cradle to grave.
They’d rather have fish handed out to them and be told to shut up than be taught how to fish and allowed their freedom.
Martin,
I so totally agree with you. I’m just as baffled because especially with people younger than I am, I’m constantly thinking, “What the f**k do they know?” – I’m pretty sure it’s their Mintuffjani parents, like you said.
However, I’m 34 years old (1978) and I do have a few childhood memories of how life was up until ’87.
I remember that there was a time when I didn’t know that other chocolates existed besides Topsy, Catch and Dairy Milk. Then my mother’s cousin who lives in UK came for a visit and brought with her, or rather smuggled in, a Mars chocolate bar. She came to visit and gave it to us. When she left, it was an event!
I remember very clearly my father gathered us around the kitchen table and very ceremoniously cut the bar into 4 pieces. My parents actually Told Us to eat it slowly and savour it (rather than stuffing our face with it in one go like kids do). So my sister and I ate it as slowly as possible and I remember what a humongous effort that took! Then we fought over who is going to lick the chocolate shards left from the cutting, off the table (yeah… kids!).
My point is the underlying issue here, not tasty chocolate. This goes beyond the simple fact that we couldn’t eat whichever chocolate we pleased. The point is how it affects you as a kid. Some restraint is good – but there are reasons and there are reasons why you don’t give your children everything they want to have. And living under Mintoff’s tyranny and his “nissikkaw ic-cintorin”, was definitely NOT a good reason.
I remember I sometimes went with my father to his workplace (Xandir Malta, now PBS). And to go in, we had to walk past soldiers wielding assault rifles. Not a holstered handgun “just in case there’s trouble” – no, an assault rifle. I was not a weapon expert at age 6 – but I was so scared shitless that I remember the shape of the weapon, so now I know what it was.
The reason the soldiers were there was things were SO BAD that the government feared a strike against the state and people taking over the national radio and TV station.
Both my parents come from Labourite families, but they were smart enough to think for themselves and eventually saw the light (I’m talking about my parents not the rest of their respective families). But they lived in a locality where 95% of the population are “Mintuffjani-Socjalisti-joqtlu”, as they themselves like to put it. So we had to endure insults showered upon us from balconies, throwing red paint on our door, scratching my father’s car, people throwing “botti” all the time every day for years at my mother while shopping for groceries. And that’s the adult stuff – but even us kids suffered from other brainwashed Mintuffjani children.
I remember my mother crying many a times, because she wouldn’t be able to take it anymore. From a kid’s point of view, my parents were indestructible, almighty, the tallest, the strongest – so seeing my mother break down like that filled me with indescribable fear, helplessness and despair. All I could do was cry with her and hug her for dear life coz I had no idea what was wrong and I was clueless as to how to make her stop.
Not to mention schools. We attended church schools so when Dear Dom decided to close them down, for a period of time we were attending classes in a one-car garage – 25 pupils stuffed in there. We were denied the right to have a decent place in which to get our education and denied the right to have a decent lunch break and expend our energy in the schoolyard. How stifling and gloomy and I used to get sick because of the petrol smell.
Then there’s my father who used to come home from work, lie down and just stare at the ceiling because he would be worried about his job. He lost count of how many raises and promotions he missed because of our other ‘dear’ Lorry Sant.
We, as kids, shouldn’t have had to live through this. My parents showed us only a fraction of how worried and unsafe things were – and they did so only when they were caught off guard – like catching my father looking awfully worried – or when they couldn’t take it anymore, like my mother crying.
I can’t claim that I had a happy childhood and it’s thanks to how bad things were back then. And they were made worse by the mentality and attitude of the ‘popolin’ as well. Sometimes, it was like we were living in a warzone coz some genius would decide out of the blue, that he should set the Nationalist’s Party Club on fire. Then the next day we see the aftermath and it used to fill me with fear. That’s not how kids should live their life.
What I mentioned here is but a small fraction of what I remember from those times.
RIP? RIP my ass!!! Why should he rest in peace when he and his politics made our life so freaking miserable?! The only thing I thought of when I heard that he died was “Oh my god it’s gonna be hell with traffic!” … and some expletives directed at his soul.
You are truly a co** sucker
They failed to understand that the majority of Maltese are infantile and expect a government and leader who mollycoddles them from cradle to grave…agree, but that’s exactly what PN government continued to provide…more Socialism.
We now have a welfare state that counts over 1 billion euro and the PM is actually proud of that!
you talk about Socialism as it was only promoted by Mintoff alone…what about EFA? Gonzi?
they are all socialists!
@Martin….. I couldn’t agree with you more. You are a perfect example of that philosophy! Infantile and annoyed that the government you voted can no longer afford to mollycoddle you. So it’s easier to say that it shouldn’t be done.
Maybe you’re right… you should bang your head against the wall, then pick up and leave because the immature attitude you have is unacceptable to a nation that expects to be treated with respect as it should!!!!
By the way, I am no longer in my 20’s and 30’s and the language you used to describe the ideals my parents gave me, is the poor result of what your parents taught you!!!
“This is absolutely true. I am nauseous from reading eulogies to this man on Facebook posted by people in their teens, 20s and 30s who have been fed idealistic bullshit by their parents all their lives.”
Likewise those spewing hatred despite not having lived a day under Mintoff. What’s good for goose is good for the gander.
Ma nahsibx li Malti pur huwa pur wisq ghax m’ghandux kelma wahda tajba!
Ekwita’ !!!!
Let me explain ekwita’ in those periods
1. People were scared to say that they supported the P.N.
2. The word in-Nazzjon could not be used as name of the PN’s newspaper.
3. In 1987 prior to the elections the windows of head office buildings of Air Malta were covered in posters for Labour candidates. Imagine driving into the complex to a view of buildings covered in huge posters of MLP candidates.
4. Beatings at the Sixth Form
5. Grovelling at some ministers heel to be granted a licence for a colour TV.
6….. The list can go on and on
Let me explain ekwita’ today
1. Irrelevant of which party you support, you are free to live your life.
2. Irrelevant of which party you support you have an equal opportunity at your place of work
3…. The list can go on and on
“Reconciliation.” What a failure. Reconciliation is not possible without the corresponding “truth”, real truth–not imagined or perceived truth.
Pilate had asked, “What is truth?” Christ, not a King of this world, then had pointed to himself for his religious answer, “I am the way, the life, and the truth.”
I am amazed when some of my PL friends (with intelligence, ambition, and material/professional success) describe Dom Mintoff as a “true Christian,” or another dear friend sincerely takes comfort in the bereavement of a family member to think that now their loved one (in heaven) rejoices in the communion and companionship of St. Dom.
Maltese civil, political, and religious society is greatly confused, perhaps actually schizophrenic, and most certainly pathologically materialistic.
If spirituality belongs to the realm of the Church, the Maltese Church also has much to reconsider regarding a generation of failure.
Genuine personal and community spirituality also is to be found in contemporary Malta. But for so many, politics, wealth, and power have been substituted for genuine religion.
“Houston, we have a problem.” And also in Malta, the problem is complex and deep, deep, deep.
gheziez zaghzagh laburisti, qedin jghidilkom li Mintoff kien politiku kbir, u ragel hanin! mela li kieku ma waqqghax zewg gvernijiet laburisti, ta sir Paul Boffa u ta Dr Alfred Sant, mela x’kontu tghidlu li hu? Aqraw l’istorja biex tiftfu mohhkom!!! u maljar tkunu tafu x’ragel kien!
@Martin
>>>They’d rather have fish handed out to them and be told to shut up than be taught how to fish and allowed their freedom.>>>
Exactly, exactly, exactly. This comment of yours nutshells their mentality perfectly.
What I could never understand is, why are approximately half of the Maltese thus inclined?
I think that this is the basis of Mintoff’s popularity:
He first keeps you starving, jobless, in need of even the basic amenities. He then chooses his supporters and starts giving them a ‘gift’ at a time; gopp mal-gvern, tellyphone, televixin (forget tal-kulur), plott, childrins allowers etc.
Where possible, he would punish those who antagonize him by stealing their properties, job transfers, allow lootings and beatings.
Imagine being homeless and suddenly you own a decent home, hold a well-paid job at which you can be lazy as much as you like, and in the meantime getting back at your wealthy but anti-Mintoff enemies.
No wonder there are many who hail him as ‘Missierna’, ‘Alla ta Malta’, and ‘Is-Salvatur’. Joseph can try to promise such gifts and more, but thanks to the EU, we’ll be closely observed for any such discrimination.
I am baffled by the Labour Party’s attempt to distort history.
The policies they credit Mintoff with, Social services, women’s right to vote, the abolishment of plural votes etc. were introduced by Paul Boffa and not Dom Mintoff. Mintoff’s brief tenure as Prime Minister in the 50s’ was largely dominated by the issue of ‘Integration’ with Great Britain.
So the 70s’ and 80s’ remain Mintoff’s real legacy, a period in our nation’s history that is best forgotten. His main contributions to the nation were its secularisation, and paving the way for Malta’s entry in the EU by toppling Alfred Sant’s government in 98.
For this, we should all be grateful. I am not trying to be sarcastic, I truly consider these to be great achievements that only a man of his ilk could have managed.
“Reconciliation comes after the facts are laid out, documented, recorded for posterity, thrashed out, discussed and then dealt with.”
You are right. But reconciliation comes also after justice has been served.
Punishment for those guilty. Rewards for the victims.
There should have been a Reconciliation Tribunal set up quickly in 1987 to deal with that process. Otherwise, it is only time – and it can be a very long time – that will deliver justice and true reconciliation.
“[A] whole generation of people that have grown up entirely under their governments and think that Eddie Fenech Adami simply got behind the wheel after Mintoff left the car and carried on driving in the same direction, but you know, making a mess of it because he wasn’t as good as Mintoff”. That is exactly what happened, it is one of the failures of the Nationalist Party and it is an issue that still needs to be addressed. Mintoff may have introduced some reforms and made some improvements, he also started a few valuable national businesses and industries such as Air Malta and tourism, but there were also considerable costs, mainly because the centralised economic model he adopted eventually failed and brought deprivation with mass unemployment and acute shortages of basic needs. The economic situation improved considerably when Fenech Adami’s decentralised economic policy stimulated entrepreneurship, full employment, and Malta, eventually, started catching up with developed Western civilisations. Why is it so difficult to write this into the history books? The Nationalists will do well to engage a top range PR guru to hammer the truth through the thick skull of the Maltese under-educated masses.
Let us not forget that with its great legal reforms, the Mintoff government of the 1970s INVENTED sodomy and homosexuality.
It’s the equivalent of being a Polish neo-nazi in your 20’s.
I fully agree with your statement about reconciliation. Also, there is no forgiveness without justice. First justice should have been done and seeked for all those who suffered then forgiveness will be considered afterwards. For me it can never be the other way round.
If only for 1 week (but not more) we could relive the 70’s…. Just to refresh the memories of all those who forgot that not being able to eat a chocolate or buy medicines for our kids, or not having a shower with free flowing water…….. Were the least of our problems…… I can’t say he did nothing right because he did do things for Malta but he could have done many things differently and still achieved the same if not better results.
I’ve read most of what’s been written on this blog and have been tempted time and again to state my own too, alongside the rest of them.
I’m rather lost for words. Not that your sentiments weren’t known at the outset and you had been waiting for d-day with bated breath, but admittedly you did surprise me. Its amazing how low you could go. And you have had the cheek to call so many others that do not share your views (the undersigned included), vulgar and aweful.
I can think of only one apt title to confer onto you: “lurida cania”! And trust me, that’s way worse than the whole string of synonyms for puttana, like bagascia, baldracca, zoccola, miniotta and the works.
Possibli ghad hawn min toghgbu id-dittatura ta Mintoff f’dal- pajjiz ?
Ghext taht Gorg Borgolovier, ghext taht Mintoff, KMB u Alfred Sant jien, imma nirringrazzja l-Alla li ma kienx kollox doom & gloom ghax ghext taht il- kbir EDDIE !!!
Bhal Eddie la kien hawn,la hawn u lanqas ikun ghawn !!!
warning: we are infantile. we believe your ass is getting bigger to accomodate your ego, try and be nice for a change and yr diet might work someday
daphne
ghalfejn qed tiskanta?? x’tippretendi minn partit li dejjem ibbaza fuq l-injoranza tas-segwaci tieghu
it-taghrif (knowledge) u r-ragunar (reasoning huma l-akbar ghadu tal-labour f’malta
Interesting that youths today prefer the labour ideals to those nationalist. Maybe because they’ve been shown that in the ’70 and ’80’s their parents were granted land for free to build their homes, when nowadays, the best they can wish for is using the famous latrina ta’ Strada Stretta without paying!!! The only thing this government can boast about is the many flowers planted in the round abouts and having Daphne to defend them!!!!
ja mdejjqa bik inniefsek Daphne. Sib hobby u zvoga mieghu.
If you think that statement is crazy , you should listen to the balderdash they have been feeding their party faithful on all of ONE media, and hear what the opinionists dei miei coglioni are being allowed to say on BRAIN ‘s ”Realta” right now.
Martin advises Daphne and her ilk to “bang your head against a wall or just pack up and leave” to which I emphatically respond YES PLEASE.
I also ask this question “If Malta was such a horrible place to live in during Mintoff’s years, why did you not do the same as thousands of your compatriots and simply found a better country to bring up your families? It would have saved the island from all the violence that YOU, YOURSELVES, instigated during the following years.
The biggest lie ever told by the Nationalists was that Mintoff STOLE the 1981 election after which the violence on the streets erupted. It was conveniently overlooked that the constitution of Malta was followed TO THE LETTER by Mintoff and his government at that time.
Yes PLEASE, after the Labour Party gets back into power, as it certainly will in the next few months, just pack up and leave the country as Martin suggests…for which I would simply say good riddance to anyone who refuse to heed the immortal words of the great man – MALTA L-EWWEL U QABEL KOLLOX
ikkummentalna ftit fuq il-kaz ta’ queiroz
Unfortunately even the PN seems to have been drawn by this wave of eulogies.
The least I expect is for the PN, the Honourable Ministers and members of Parliament to refrain from commenting on Mintoff’s greatness.
This, at least in respect of those who were victimised during the 70s and 80s. Anything less is tantamount to forgetting the victimisation endured.