He’s a sophisticated man
Published:
October 27, 2012 at 1:39pm
Franco tells us that he has experienced the sophistication of city life. Somehow, I don’t think he means London, Paris or New York.
Valletta, perhaps?
Franco Debono
Oct 27, 2012 @ 11:03:34
those are the roots.
in the pjazza tar-rahal people are closer to their roots, minghajr ix-xinxilli tas-sofistikazzjoni tal-ibliet illi fiha s-sabi9h taghha.
i have an experience of both
and that is a BENEFIT. a major one.
min jesperjenza l hajja tar-rahal izda wkoll is-sitemi tal-ibliet dak ghandu beneficcju kbir ghax mhux ristrett.
fl-irhula tiltaqa mal-universita tal-hajja, l-universita tat-triq
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I cannot say it enough. What a plonker.
Oh he’s a man of the world, our Franco is.
Now just which world exactly is up for discussion.
Of course he’s sophisticated… He has an office in Valletta… with room for a pony.
Brilliant.
Good one!
Ha ha ha — have to hold my breath for a while.
ABC, you beat me to it! I realised he was referring to Valletta.
On the other hand, I do not wish to be interpreted as stating that ‘tar-rahal’ is in any way inferior or being from Sliema superior. I have befriended people from all walks of life and it is the upbringing which determines character (50/50 – nature/nurture).
[Daphne – Sliema is a village. The suggestion that it is anything but that is ludicrous. I should know. I lived the first 26 years of my life there. That’s how I know Silvio Zammit. As for Valletta, even more so, because it’s more contained. I should know that too, because that’s where my father’s from. In Sliema, each parish was a village. In Valletta, the whole place was and still is. You could never walk out of the house without everyone knowing your business. The fact that Franco doesn’t know this shows just what a rahli he is, and I make no excuses for using the word.]
Proof of this is the large number of professionals who have moved to Gharghur, Qrendi, etc.
Opportunities are there for the taking, education and technology have changed social structures as we knew them to be. I wouldn’t put this down to any political party but simply catching up with the rest of the globe.
I’m sorry Logikal, but do you really think villages were an agglomeration of illiterates before the internet?
Mintoff drew his power by inflicting class hate in those places before proceeding with the real thing.
Franco tries to draw imaginary lines when the problem is his alone.
‘Ma kontx naghmlek minn hemm’, sigh.
I do not normally refer to people as ‘minn hemm’ or ‘l-ohxon’, l-irqieq, etc. The place where one is raised can determine the outlook of that person but within a local context it is given too much weight.
If villages (as you state) were not an ‘agglomeration of illiterates’ why did Mintoff instil class hate in those areas? What psychological weakness was he then drawing on? It is pointless to deny that illiteracy was rife in earlier times and this can be attributed to the economic structure in Malta.
We have witnessed how a modern economy is knowledge based as against one which is dependant on uneducated labour.
My view is, that although the level of education has improved tremendously over the past decades, most of the ignorance today can be tied to a lack of reading and critical analysis.
Maybe because those areas had been left to their own devices as soon the war broke out and the language question closed. I make particular reference to the third, fourth, fifth and sixth districts.
True, it was a necessity, but it also meant any microstructure was left to face his initial moves. The PN was in tatters and Borg Olivier had decided to turn the page.
No British bases, no dockyard, no urban traffic to speak of, and no PN either.
Mintoff soon found his chance in religion, creating a division in the name of the socialist struggle. One of his first moves was to duplicate village life, a parallel them and us and to hell with the meaning of celebrations supposedly meant to unite. The first Labour party clubs were all band clubs, or alternative clubs to the Azzjoni Kattolika.
It is not by coincidence, then, that Mintoff’s first struggle on a national scale would be against the church, its influence and the physical design of these communities. I wasn’t in the least surprised at the idolatry shown at his death.
Mintoff simply filled a vacuum left by the PN, sometimes he had his allies, sometimes these held back, explaining his erratic political moves, integration today, independence the morrow.
It doesn’t mean the phenomenon was absorbed without any ado, those who tried to resist in the early days, however, found themselves alone. The degeneration stands to this day, where the more grotesque the yearly spectacles, the better. People like me grew up making it a point to spend the weekend somewhere else. Problem is, these days, everywhere’s the same.
It wasn’t weakness, just the morphology, language and access to the place. What cannot be ignored is that throughout those crucial years up to 1964, this country flew the Union Jack, surely some responsibility lay in those quarters a well. Blaming Mons.Gonzi is too easy,
Hopefully our idea of access transcends the islands.
Which unfortunately I see as the latest victim of Labour’s repeated lie , a subtle no, where everyone gets to put their feet up and have a rest. Ghax Maltin, go figure.
Of course you don’t, I was just repeating something I get ad nauseum, and which if I may, contradicts the posit itself. To think it’s meant as a compliment.
Daph, I lived in Sliema for 27 years and I’m 43. Pre labour/post labour and I’m stating that as that was the biggest transformation for Sliema. The property speculation destroyed Sliema as I knew it and that was it.
Sliema was a village but it is certainly not a village today (within a Maltese context). My father was also from Valletta (!) so…Sliema had its own fair share of busybodies, rude and also educated people as other villages had and still have.
Yes, Sliema is still ‘parish driven’ but a large number of pensioners still live in Sliema as it is convenient for their daily needs, both physical and spiritual.
The point is that a person who lives a sheltered life when young and sometimes also in adult life will find it hard to adapt and understand social situations. This brings out anxiety in some people, others react defensively or aggressively.
‘Experience of both’ sounds bi, or is it just me? Well let me see…the chap professes to be bilingual, bipartisan (in a sense), tal-belt u tar-rahal….etc
In the sawt, there are no pjazza tar – rahal. Some idiot who thinks that Maltese must be limpid pure, decided that the pjazza does not exist any more; now it is called misrah.
I think that Franco is out of work.
He has so much time on his hands.
A busy lawyer does not have time for these petty things.
It makes a bit of a difference from where one lives. Franco seems to have a taste of both city and village life, but it is your roots which count, I think.
Once a rahli you remain a rahli, no matter how much you mix with city life.
Reminds me of Joseph Muscat boasting of his Brussels life-style.
@ Crockett. Certainly not bisexual – more like asexual
With all this talk about sophistication and the city, maybe he’s just a metrosexual.
city+sophistication = polished
http://youtu.be/TBQAuw4NYLA
Wow! Star form 2 student and a feet-on-the-ground cosmopolitan as well.
How can he go wrong?
Ali G and Staines as the centre of his universe.
Tal-biki l-mentalità.
In the meantime…here’s another sophisticated one going on about ‘dictatorships’…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20112404
Message for Andrew Borg Cardona from one of his many admirers: Dear Andrew, I faithfully follow your thoughts every Saturday. May I say – brilliant – but somehow, I feel that your writings are water off a duck’s back in so far as the “lil elves” are concerned.
Likewise “room for a pony” – I think wasted humour – unfortunately.