He thinks he is the voice of the nation, but he speaks for his microcosmic village subculture
I have always suspected that Franco Debono grew up in one of those Maltese families who felt utterly disengaged from the Second World War and the issues involved, seeing it all as something that did not concern them, and into which Malta was dragged minhabba is-Sultan Ingliz.
His cavalier description of the prime minister as Hitler, this morning, only serves to convince me further that this is the very subcultural microcosm in which he was raised.
Debono clearly has no understanding of how deeply offensive his casual use of the insult really is, and not to the prime minister, but to the millions who lost their lives, their limbs, their children, their homes and their mental health in the fight against Hitler, and the millions who were murdered by his men in death camps.
I will make a comparison to Hitler, because it is apposite. Watching Franco Debono over the last year or so has made it easier for me to understand something that I previously found difficult: how a man as seriously disturbed as Hitler could systematically break down all the barriers to absolute power with nobody able or willing to stop him.
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Village mentality:
– l-aqwa li ghandna d-degree ta’ l-Universita; biha nsiru ‘puliti’;
– bid-degree, naqilghu hafna flus meta nsibu jopp tajjeb;
– bil-flus nixtru hafna hwejjeg designer tal-Pony, Gant u R. Lauren;
– bil-flus insiefru ‘l hemm u ‘l hawn;
– nixtru xi Toyota jew BMW;
– nitfghu Rolex jew Audemars Piquet fuq idejna;
– u jekk xi hadd ma jaqbilx maghna, Alla jzommilna lsienna, ghax ahna nies bravi u hadd iktar ma jista jkun ahjar minnha.
Village mentality (2):
– igergru fuq tas-Sliema….’iiiii xi dwejjaq ta’ post u ta’ nies kollhom pepe’. Lanqas bicca parking ma tkun tista ssib.
Jigifieri igergru fuq tas-Sliema, imma ihobbu jintefghu hemm ghax jinzlu bil-karozza u lanqas ‘bicca parking’ ma jsibu.
– igergru fuq il-fletsijiet kollha qishom ‘pigeon holes’ quddiem il-bahar imma huma kuntenti joqoghdu go xi sqaq metru l boghod minn xulxin, kuntenti jisimghu l-istorbju tat-televixin jaghti fuq is-super one. Kuntenti b’Cetta, iffissata fl-indafa, tant li fil-ghodu kif tohrog ghax-xoghol tasal imdardar b’dik ir-riha tal-flixkun Dettol li tkun tefghet fuq il-bankina, waqt li tgerger kemm qeridna dal-gvern.
– igergru fuq id-dawl u l-ilma u huma l-iktar nies li jahlu dawl u ilma.
– igergru fuq kemm ghola d-diesel, u huma l-iktar nies li ghandhom karozzi.
– igergru fuq kemm sejrin hazin bhala pajjiz, u huma l-iktar nies li ghandhom gadgets: telephones cellulari ta’ l-ahhar, ipad, iphone u ipod. Flett skrijn, teblet, u Satnav.
Qeridna dal-Gvern: LOL!
Le, se jeqred lil-gvern, il-poplu Malti u Ghawdxi !
Audemars Piguet muxx ‘Piquet’ – if you intend of using brand names please spell them correctly.
*intend on
[Daphne – Neither, actually, Mr Borg. The correct way to say it is ‘if you intend to use’. You are confusing it with ‘if you are intenT on using’.]
Well, since your mentioned it, muxx is spelt mhux. Please learn how to write Maltese correctly if you intend expressing yourself in Maltese.
Not that you’ve said much but anyway. The only way people like you know how to communicate is through your designer branded clothes, accessories, your iPhone or Blackberry.
You’d all be like chickens if you didn’t have your Pony t-shirts, Blackberry and iPad with you. Come to think of it, designer clothes, gadgets or not, you all look like chickens anyway. You don’t know how to socialise without these.
– u nixtru mowbajl tant hu soffistikated li mitfi u xorta iccempel.
Plus villa sabiha imma nibqghu mqabbdin mad-dublett tal-mummy.
Cat; minghalija Franco, jekk qed joqghod mal-mummy, sabiex ma jhallix lil-genituri tieghu wehedhom, wara li saru tant insulti u theddid, tant li hemm il-pulizija ghassa mad-dar taghhom !
Mur gib kieku dawn l-affarijiet isiru taht il-PL b’Dr. Muscat prim ministru, xi tghid !
[Daphne – Kien joqghod maghhom minn qabel. ‘Sabiex ma jhallix lil-genituri tieghu wahedhom’ – int bis-serjeta? They’re hardly 80 and crippled. You saw the mother on television: she looks like she could wrestle an ox.]
Well said, I was having the same conversation yesterday.
The shrill insistence on democracy was one of Mussolini’s tried and tested battlecries, whoever opposed his manner after he was elected, was either arrested or assassinated. (Hitler adored Mussolini and imitated his every move to obtain his seat)
When a socialist mp, Matteotti, was murdered and the house came down on Mussolini who was still a prime minister answerable to parliament, he took it on himself to assume political responsibility for the murder declaring parliamentary democracy to be a plutocratic regime for its own ends.
That the mission he was after cannot be lost to an individual.
In short he used his ‘failed efforts to reinforce the democratic process’ as the excuse to dismantle the institution turning it into the fascist council, ban political parties and declare himself duce. His cause was the Brutus.
It’s a perverse relation between the exasperation of meaning of words and an utter lust for power that incites the followers for more. The identification with the leader becomes a gut instinct to remove everything in the way so that the aims are achieved.
Italians have been discussing this mechanism for sixty years, managing to face the demons, the Germans, I’m afraid, haven’t.
Prosit Daph. Your last para. says it all – perfect understanding of the whole Franco saga.
His thinking is too old-fashioned, out-moded, does not apply to the politicians and Maltese people out there.
I was never impressed by him.
Is it possible for the media to just ignore him ? That will be the end of him really.
Calling anyone a “Hitler”, especially a political head of a country, has nothing to do with a village mentality.
Most villagers in Malta and Gozo would never dream of making such a comparison, and anyone who is so irresponsible enough to do so could as well come from a town as well as a village.
Only a person totally ignorant of who Hitler was, and what he stood for, could utter such an insult. Of course, he could also be a person with a perverse sense of values.
Attenti ghax ma tantx toghgbu il-kelma “rahal”.
Mela ha nghidulu ‘rahli’. Ghalkemm ghalxejn ta, ghax qal li ma jaqrahx dan il-blog u jghid ukoll li min jaqrah ghandu l-problemi.
Mela hawn nies li ghandhom il-problemi?