The first bit of this comment shocked me, so I’m putting it up for discussion
Posted by Luigi, yesterday:
Can you explain this to me. If you and your family are self sufficient and don’t need any government whatsoever to move forward in life, then why worrying if there is a change in government? You and your family will still move forward.
If people want to elect a Labour government, no one, and nothing will stop them. People elected Sant in 1996 and rejected EFA, they forgot what the country went through in the previous years due to 16 years of Labour government, let alone now what they will do.
The only hope for the PN to be re-elected is to change Gonzi. The GonziPN campaign backfired a few years later.
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Though I don’t agree with the sentiments expressed on the nature of wealth and achievement, the points Obama makes here about everyone and everything being locked in together might be a good answer of sorts. My thanks to the reader who sent it in.
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It’s the conditional ‘if’ that’s a giveaway.
Some people live in a parallel world where electing a government is like winning the World Cup – it only affects you if you care about it.
I was under the impression that we voted for what is good for the country and not what is good for us individually. Friggin selfish louts all of them. Why change just for the sake of change.
Where do you live? Surely not in Malta.
You are right I suppose – I am still dreaming on.
etil: have you missed that even GonziPn MPs , ex-MPs, and a former prominent minister, are either saying it outright. Or strongly hinting it ! Besides the thousands of “genuine” nationalists who have decided to join Dr. Muscat’s movement !
In theory a fair point.
The issue is whether, especially in tiny Malta, one could really be “self-sufficient”. The policies of the Government, and resulting economic growth (or lack of it) will effect everyone through tourism, education, health etc.
Moreover, one needs to remember that locally the parties’ policies area sometimes diametrically opposite (when these are known) making the effect of having a party or another in power bigger.
On the other hand, I could understand a “self-sufficient” family in say, a French remote village, who feels that whatever party is in power won’t affect it.
This partly explains why voting turnout in Malta is much stronger than abroad and why in foreign countries turnout in urban areas is stronger than rural ones.
The obvious problem with that first statement is that you’re only self-sufficient as long as the government does not intervene.
The history of the Labour Party in government is littered with episodes of intervention that ruined many of the previously self sufficient.
Aston: Do you also refer to Dr. Sant’s labour government ?
In Maltese we would say “argument bazwi”.
Whatever your circumstances, and whether one is self sufficient or not, we all need governments to create the right situations and atmosphere for one to move forward, whatever our abilities.
Just changing Gonzi will not be enough. The P.N. has to get rid of all those who brought Gonzi to this situation.
It was not true that he was “par idejn sodi” as a matter of fact he will be remembered as a very weak leader.
If it’s true that the lacklustre attitude of the Maltese tends to bunch things together to come up with an answer, your reasoning reflects just that.
There’s collective responsibility and then there’s political will to tap into it to move forward.
What you do is a bit like accusing the PM of having reformed MEPA creating stringent no nonsense measures, ‘bureaucracy stiffling business’ and still giving him the flak for not providing comprehensive enforcement to the abuse. The latter would require doubling the number of officers.
As if the abuse perpetrated by individuals is a matter of the state. Why even the basics of good design are to a degree laid at the PM’s door. The reform was made with the intention to uncover who’s willing to subscribe to the public idea and who won’t. Some can’t, no matter what.
It is not a situation, it’s a perceptive mindset, the first generation early 90’s free for all now that Mintoff’s gone holding back. Quantity, familiarity in concepts and humdrum methods learnt locally recalled as the future.
The greatest controversies surround decisions which may imply we change the way we live, Public transport, investment, urban planning, work, economies of scale as a solution to employment. In other words, consumption and efficiency in everything we do.
If a shop in Valletta isn’t selling shoes because of a new shopping phenomenon, one can’t expect government to do something. Especially if the owner pays a pittance in rent, explaining why he never had to think competition in the first place.
When Joseph says he’ll bring back a level playing field, one hopes he’s not eyeing those who couldn’t care less for the quality of their activity and demand that any advantage gained by others who did, be eradicated.
Sustainability of services, resources and aspirations, faced by any government seem perenially out of the equation.
The real question is whether the PL, with its meetings held behind closed doors, is a sustainable option, and perhaps even try to imagine what risks we face should Labour lose.
Given the record it managed to gather, repeatedly out of synch with the electorate, the consequences may well benefit the individual as well. Or better, the more time passed the less credible they’ve become, to the extent they won’t commit to policy. One is led to suspect that’s because they believe these to potentially carry the same defect again.
It’s not Gonzi’s fault.
He’s called Luigi, isn’t he?
You need delve no further into his background to account for this attitude.
Can you clarify your point?
I was confused rather than shocked.
What I expect from the government is that it ALLOWS me and my family to be “self sufficient”.
The government should facilitate this by identifying opportunities and opening doors for the general public to make the best use of these opportunities. What we do NOT need is a government that, deliberately or through its incompetence, hinders the individual’s attempts to better themselves and their families.
The anxiety many of us experience at the thought of a possible change in government is brought on by the not-so-irrational fear that Labour will close some of these doors.
We’ve seen it before and have been shown no convincing reason to believe that much has changed in the Labour Party.
SPB Stop reading In-Nazzjon and watching Net TV, and you’ll be able to see things much clearer. And get rid of all your self-imposed “fear” !
I get a lot of the same from those who declare they intend not to vote.
The idea seems to be that Labour under Joseph will find ways of maintaining social benefits at the expense of someone other than the ‘middle class’. A middle class made up of these gurus of social isolation obviously.
What I’ve noticed is that they’re mostly males in their late forties, self- employed, single or on their umpteenth girlfriend or, and this would be the clue to their spite, living in a limbo with a separated woman.
They’ll be the ones who used to brag about avoiding VAT a few years back, followed by methods of avoiding to pay the real bill for a pool, and when even that became unfashionable, make it uncool, have resorted to blame GonziPN.
The problem these people have is with society in general, Facebook walls utterly loaded with gibberish, memes and a particular insolent stupidity. Set in their ways, incapable of even understanding anything beyond them.
Their business would be a shambles, overtaken by events, change a hassle. GonziPN, and this where they go to great pains to avoid mentioning the real track record, shouldn’t have done any of that, creating a myriad of new opportunities. Still, they can’t be bothered, life, in a way, was easier.
And on they go about bureaucracy, how dare ODZ become an unbreakable taboo, why can’t we play at part time farmers or bluff on a Sunday afternoon in the latest cabrio?
They believe the model proposed today belongs to someone else. Their loss.
Sandro Chetcuti may be grotesque, rest assured he’s admired.
Twisted logic.
Self-sufficiency does not imply abdication of responsibility. That couldn’t be more contrary to the spirit of democracy and social justice.
Besides, the idea that self-sufficiency is independent of a country’s leadership is ludicrous.
It’s a *result* of policy and, even from a strictly egotistical point of view, any one who’s self-sufficient should want more people to be self-sufficient around them because that means there’s more likelihood that the self-sufficiency is entrenched in the ecosystem and sustainable in the long term.
Not to mention that its an extremely selfish attitude.
As for the second part of the comment. Well. Not sure what he means by ‘backfired’.
People here in Malta still vote on the basis of what’s in it for them, in the narrowest sense possible.
[Daphne – Actually, I think (and observe) that many people in Malta don’t vote on the basis of what’s in it for them, but on the basis of what will be taken away from others they don’t like.]
It is truly sad however we will get the government we deserve ultimately. And it seems as though we do, after all, deserve a Labour government.
What gets my goat every time is how these people manage to live in a bubble. Don’t they watch or read the international news?
Don’t they speak to people other than their immediate circle? I do, and the picture of life in Malta is rosier than even the Nationalist Party tries to convey.
Sssssssssshhhhhh don’t tell the world.
Lady Oscar: Are a member of the clique of evil, or related, perhaps ?
How can you “not need any government” to “move forward” in a civilised country?
Unless you’re eking out a living as a hunter-gatherer in some jungle, there’s no way you are going to get around “needing” a government.
If by “needing a government” luigi means “having a friend in power who can grant you favours”, then that is a different proposition altogether.
I do “need a government” to “move forward”, but not because the “government” would grant me favours, but because it would hopefully create a climate of prosperity and opportunity which I could exploit.
Well, I considered the bit that shocked you to be a half truth. It might very well be that if a family is rich enough to be “self sufficient” (and still that’s a myth because everybody is dependent on state infrastructure) then there is little a government can do to destabilize it short of seizing its funds and assets.
However, the truth of the matter is that 99% of families are not “self sufficient”. They still need a stable and competent government that is able to keep the economy stable for them to prosper.
And even in the unlikely event that a large number of families are filthy rich, their duty as citizens in a democracy obliges them to vote for a government that has the country’s best interests in mind and not one that wants power at all costs without explaining how it will bring about its much vaunted change.
“Don’t ask what you can do for your country. Ask only what you can scrounge off the country, whilst sitting on your lazy arses and mocking the incumbent government every step of the way”.
This is the short-sighted mentality that is going to see Labour at the helm in a couple of months.
When people have no knowledge about the bigger picture beyond their doorstep, and don’t care anyway, this is what happens.
This comment tries to justify the reasoning of not voting or of giving Labour a chance as argued by some floaters or ‘unhappy Nationalists’.
These go further to argue that they are not directly linked to the government, key officials or to the party by means of employment, business leads, tenders, favours etc etc.
At face value, I can state that I am not directly linked either, but one cannot stop there and reason as such, though it’s easy to fall into this short-sightedness.
The state of the economy, trust and business confidence will have an effect on everyone.
This comment is very short-sighted and not valid at all.
We live in an age where even what happens in distant countries and economies affects us in Malta, more so our very own government when our country is the size of a village.
That is the most selfish statement I have read in years.
I too feel that with my standard of education and with that of my family I can withstand most financial storms etc but when we remember what we went through and that the ideology and most of the people that will be running the show are still the same people, then God help us.
Well, they are nearly the same people but with some added chips on their shoulders.
Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.
Luigi is irresponsible in his reasoning, but is fairly typical of most people. L-ewwel jien!
And do you seriously think that a Labour government will be able to steer the ship of state as safely and calmly as the PN, with all its quirks and blemishes?
The forthcoming election should help the PN clean its stable, with the PN voters choosing their representatives carefully.
I for one was blinded by JPO (one of the worst character judgements I ever made in my life), but next time round I will be very selective in my votes, but not at the risk of having a government ‘run’ by Joseph Muscat.
Spot on .
Why are you shocked? The MLP and their supporters think it’s their turn to steer the ship from the bridge. It’s not a problem in calm seas, normally, though they made sure they screwed that up in 96/98 anyway.
Now that we are in the middle of a storm – though we don’t see or feel it only because the evil GonziPN are doing such a great job of managing the recession around us away from us through hard work and astute decisions – they want to have a go at the wheel.
They are so simplistic in their thinking that it is scary.
It is reflected in their lack of ideas, lack of vision, lack of policies and ultimately in the ignorance they show when they proudly put forward comments like the one above.
I hope Luigi does not have Hoxa’s Albania and AST’s friends, the North Koreans, in mind who both professed self-sufficiency with disastrous consequences to their populations
Do I sense a campaign for the beginning of Lawrence Gonzi’s end here?
[Daphne – That campaign has been going on for eight years, Stingray. Please don’t say you’ve only just noticed.]
This is just a provocative question. Perhaps Luigi should be sent back to the classroom to learn all about “government”.
Change Gonzi? Why? He has delivered.
Yes, one scandal after another !
Name them, Sur Eddy – scandal is what you think may be a scandal but not that others necessarily think so too.
Typically Maltese. L-ewwel jien u Alla sidi.
Whatever anyone says, Gonzi is a great statesman surrounded by less capable ministers and parliamentary secretaries and an even less capable party machine.
He is doing a great job trying to steer that ship on his own, and that is why it’s GonziPN. In his case Gonzi would be better off without the PN.
Agreed on the party machine.
Oh Yes, we saw his statesmanship last Friday on Xarabank – trying to dupe voters with the Brazilian company, not realizing that he would end up with egg on his face within a couple of hours !
So what, Eddy? Let’s say you are right, a small mistake from a great statesman. It is useless to argue with you anyway. You voted for KMB in 1992.
It is very easy to stir emotions against the successful people and those who made it. This is the basis of socialism.
Obama ran a campaign of class warfare, and division and it did wonders for him. In the US the top 1% earners pay 40% of the taxes, and Obama insisted they pay more. His ads insisted that these rich are capitalist vultures and should pay much more.
This successful strategy triggered the struggling portion of the population to go out (rather than not voting) and vote against the rich, represented by Romeny (who is very rich himself).
Obama managed, very successfully, to divert the anger away from himself and his failed policies, towards the rich and the self-employed. In times of frustration and depression this is easy.
Look at the way Hitler manipulated the anger of the Germans during a period of depression, the Greeks voted for a 37 year old irresponsible radical with no solutions, and the Italians are voting for 5 stelle (run by a comedian with no solutions but lots of protests).
‘In the US the top 1% earners pay 40% of the taxes’
That statistic (if it is true) is meaningless. In fact, depending on what the actual incomes and tax bills are, 40% may be too low.
A quick example: let’s say there are a hundred people, one of whom earns 1 million dollars a year, and the rest earn $10,000. If income tax is a flat 10%, then the 99 pay a thousand dollars, while the millionaire pays $100,000, thus paying more than 50% of the total. What, exactly, is wrong with that?
So that 40% figure may be too high, or too low, or just about right, depending on circumstances.
In what way can you ever be self sufficient? Even if you’re a millionaire, your income will surely decrease, and your lifestyle changed.
a) If you’re living off investments, there’s a good chance of paying more taxes under Labour.
b) If you have a well paying job, you have a good chance of either loosing it or taking much less home.
c) Your expenses will rise exponentially under Joseph’s Hollande model.
d) Malta will no longer be the same, they will probably stop all forms of embellishments all over. Back to rubble walls and Acacia.
Phili B.
You nailed it with point d. I shudder to think what they’ll come up with for Valletta European capital.
I say they’ll scrap it, too expensive and no jobs to talk of.
200 words to say “Fuck you, Jack – I’m all right”.
Malta is now part of the First World and that gives us a ranking on levels equal to the most advanced world economies including the US, Germany etc.
Our Human Development Index is very high and is the measure used to assess performance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_World
No mean achievement by a series of excellent Nationalist governments and thanks to the foresight of its skillful politicians.
But we should not forget that Malta was Second World when the labour party was in office and practised models which were synonymous with failed communist and centrally planned economies.
Malta needs good governance to protect what it has achieved.
He might not necessarily be brainwashed so I will afford him the benefit of the doubt.
If Luigi feels that living in a country run by an incompetent fumbling lot equates to moving forward then he is perfectly right.
I might have reasoned out things the same way he does, forty years ago.
However, after having lived and worked in Malta in the seventies and eighties, my way of reasoning changed completely and irrevocably.
I’m going out on a limb here, but I sort of agree with the comment.
Let me explain. This is nothing but another version of the classic Maltese reply of “il-Maltin irnexxielhom imorru barra/isibu gopp/jistudjaw u jibbrillaw” because of the government. In short: “you owe your success to the government”, a standards PN mantra for the last dozen years.
Which is nonsense, just like saying that you will still be successful regardless of the government.
There is no correlation between personal achievement and government. Sure, the latter can change the circumstances of the former, but the point of electoral democracy has always been to elect the best option. That’s it. This modern fixation with being all you can be and the world being your oyster and champagne supernovas and all that has skewed our thinking.
As for me, my human condition won’t change one iota, regardless of whoever is in government. But I was never stupid enough to believe that it could, so I vote according to another (some might say higher) purpose: to keep out of power the party that ruined Malta’s chances. That’s it. And if I have to hold my nose or wear a gas mask to vote that corrupt bunch PN, then so be it.
The PN mantra was never ‘you owe your success to the government’ but a call to do something with one’s life, given the instruments provided.
From Eddie’s ‘kuragg’ to Gonzi’s ‘flimkien kollox possibbli’, both Catholics to boot. Escriva’ in a tie.
If anything it would be ‘you owe your success to your fine choice of government as well, don’t screw it’. .
Yes” Flimkien ma tal-klikka , kollox possibbli”, Even fooling most of the people for so long ! But soon the fooling will be over !
I’ve been hearing that kind of statement for quite some time now. The shock isn’t there any more.
What still shocks me is the Luigi ‘prototype’. It is not the young voter who has no first hand experience of the Labour government in the 80s. Invariably, he is a 50+ year old self-employed who wouldn’t have missed the chance to fight for his rights and attend all PN mass meeting in the 80s.
This Luigi ‘prototype’.
i) He compares today’s PN bunch with Eddie’s bunch. He argues that today’s bunch (even if not corrupt as you say, and still better than the PL bunch) need to be kicked out of the party.
ii) He is not ready to give the PN bunch another chance.
iii) He is not that crazy to give Franco Debono / John Dalli / Jeffrey Pullicino ‘alternative party’ a chance.
iv) He will not consider voting Labour because that is completely against his principles.
So the Luigi ‘prototype’ is very seriously considering the option of not voting at all, even if the natural consequence is a Labour government that he has chosen by default.
Unfortunately, his fatal mistake is that he assumes that the PL bunch cannot possibly ruin the country in 5 years and that a new PN bunch will make it in the following election.
You clearly think the PN is good. I don’t. I just think Labour is beyond bad.
The call to do something with one’s life shouldn’t be part of political discourse. It smacks of the nanny government which the PN has come to embrace. We’ve gone from Labour’s Mintoffian social engineering to the PN’s Paul McKenna policymaking.
No you are wrong there. I do not think that the PN bunch is good at all, and like the Luigi ‘prototype’, I have decided not to give them my vote. Fortunately, our vote allows us to give the 1 vote to any new PN candidate and stop there. That way I will not feel guilty of giving any advantage to Labour, or having given a full vote to the present administration.
Baxxter, don’t want to sound condescending but there’s a limit to how much one can ignore the reality of the place.
In 1987 the place was a shambles, Mintoff’s legacy, eradicating any sense of social coexistence had to be repaired. It’s a long painful process, the message however, remains the same.
Note how Labour has taken to condemning the decision to get the shipyards off the taxpayer’s back, something this government managed to achieve, the same with the bus service. One serves the financial proposition, the other directly linked to the possible design offered on the physical level, (I can decide ergo I am)
With this kind of opposition, policy making becomes inevitably engaged with their blackmail, if it has to proceed.
Ironically Sant thought he could, lasted only 22 months. He was one who theorised then applied, not a good idea here.
Given the size of the place, inactivity due political detente results in the damage becoming profound, simply because we do not have a population which allows the required mix to recoup as soon as a direction is changed, it becomes a matter of rebuilding from scratch. It’s what the PN learnt.
What’s happening in the PN is what’s happening in the country, I say as always.
Jozef, huh? Can you restate that in simple English? The bit about recouping and population size and starting from scratch seems very interesting, but I need to make sure I understand.
Are you saying that the PN’s faults are not uniquely theirs but Malta’s? If so, then I agree.
Ignorance, idiocy, poor thinking skills, corruption, bigotry, small-mindedness, a sense of entitlement – these are all Maltese qualities.
So a stint in opposition will change nothing. Just look at Labour. They’ve been out of government for the last fourteen years but they’ve only got worse.
H.P.Baxter: On what do you base your conclusions ? On a distant past or on a future which you have not yet experienced ? Should one judge lawrence Gonzi’s government on those of Dr. Fenech Adami or Dr. George Borg Olivier ? Utter nonsense !
You admit that GonziPN was not good. The great majority agree with you. That is why they will be voting PL under Dr. Muscat’s leadership !
Please write my name properly. It is Baxxter, with two Xs.
Many will also be adding exclamation marks to their cries of joy at Labour’s victory. But that doesn’t make it right, does it?
Hold on, Privitera. One last gasp and then it’s nunc dimittis.
Baxxter, you’re simply a true blue.
H.P. Baxxter you could not have articulated any better the personal opinion of most educated Maltese.
Basically vote for the lesser evil.
Absolutely. And it’s useless for the PN to try to depict itself as anything else.
How do you know Gonzi is a “lesser evil” when you have not tried yet Dr. Joseph Muscat ?????
Oh but I have. He led the anti-EU campaign. So it’s fuck you very much, Joseph Muscat.
What are you getting from the EU Baxter ? Are you a Brit who has been given the chance to come and live here ?
Skuzi ta Baxter, indunajt li int Malti. Aktar u aktar nistaqsik x’hadt INT mill-UE ? Jew jekk mhux int, xi hadd fil-familja, jaqaw ?
Iva. Ghandi hija b’kundizzjoni rari, marda kongenitali li tehtieg trattament partikolari. U kieku ma konniex fl-EU kien imut hawnhekk. Issa kuntent?
Ma nahsibx li se taghmel xi differenza kbira fil-voti ghall-PN jekk minflok Dr Gonzi jigi pprogettat Dr Busuttil bhala l-mexxej futur.
In-Nazzjonalisti jirrispettaw u jhobbu lill-prim ministru, u ghandhom ghalfejn.
Min hu rasu f’postu jaf li l-inkwiet li nzera’ fil-PN u wassal biex jinqasam hu dovut, fil-bicca kbira tieghu, ghal bekbencer ghajjur afflittat b’kundizzjoni mentali. Jaghmel sens li PM bhal Gonzi bi track record eccellenti fl-ekonomija, l-edukazzjoni u s-sahha jigi sfiducjat minhabba dal-bekbencer?
Irriformula l-mistoqsija:
Jaghmel sens li PM bhal Gonzi, li ilu fil-poter mill-2004, icedi postu ghall-generazzjoni li jmiss, u ghal mexxej ahjar?
Iva.
Ilu fil-poter mill- 2004 ghax kien cedielu npostu FenecH Adami , li ried ilahhaq lilu nnifsu President. U qieghed prim ministru ghax irnexxielu JISRAQ l-elezzjoni tal-2008 b’inqas minn nofs kwota bil-biki ta’ JPO u l-hnizrjiet li twettqu fl-ahhar gimghatejn
qabel l-elezzjoni !
Imma din id-darba Gonzi sab zaghzugh li diga rebahlu f’kull kontest elettorali u fir-referendum tad-divorzju ! U L-KBIR GHDU GEJ, Baxter !
BaXXter. Kemm se ndum nghidlek?
Iva, zaghzugh. Jekk Muscat zaghzugh mela jien zygote.