I thought Muscat was supposed to be creating a new mentality, not encouraging the old Sicilian one of patronage

Published: January 22, 2013 at 10:58am

Now remind me – who am I singing for, exactly?

So here’s why William Mangion was in the PN video in 2008 and in the JosephMuscat.com video this year. He explained it all on Kalamita, a Super One show hosted by a hideous little creep who looks like something you’d have found hiding in the lavatories at sixth form (Alfred Zammit?).

He switched his support to the Labour Party because some time ago, when he was in financial difficulties and needed a job – the market for washed-up old singers being particularly poor except for campaign videos, apparently – he actually WENT TO THE PRIME MINISTER AND ASKED HIM FOR HELP.

In which country can you do this? And instead of saying, wow, I could get straight through to the PM and no phalanx of security guards blocked my path and told me to f**k off with my demands, William Mangion told Labour TV’s audience that he was displeased because the work they found for him “was not to my expectations”.

So then he tried Joseph. One of Labour’s many outreach programmes, which for the last four years have been operating exactly like the Moonies and other suspect sects, seeking out and drawing in life’s losers, unhappy people, the embittered and the miserable, those with grudges who feel hard done by, and promising them that with Jesus, who loves them, they will never be wanting, probably got wind of him and put him in touch.

“Sirt habib hafna ma’ Joseph,” Mangion said, “ghax fehmni, semghani, gie jiekol ghandi d-dar…”.

Ah, but did he find him work that meets his expectations?

We’ll have to wait for the upcoming JosephMuscat.com government to see that. There are going to be a lot of jobs going in childcare, apparently. Willie Mangion should start practising his nappy skills now.




57 Comments Comment

  1. H.P. Baxxter says:

    Mhux fier. Labour never got in touch with me, and I’m as embittered as they come. I must be a lost cause even for Labour.

    • maryanne says:

      Your fault. Invite Joseph for lunch like Mangion did.

    • silvio says:

      Be patient,they might still come for you.
      It would be a real pity to let such brains go to waste.
      You will know they came because all around you there will be Light and heavenly music. That will be the time to gather up all your belongings and follow the Star.
      I’m talking from experience.

      [Daphne – They don’t ‘come for’ people with brains, Silvio. I hate to say it, but I’m evidence of that. So’s Baxxter. Labour doesn’t approach me for the same reason that members of fervent religious groups don’t. They know it’s a lost cause at the outset because I’m going to fight back and win my arguments.

      To make a convert, two things must be present: psychological weakness of one kind or another, and low or medium intelligence. It is these factors which make for vulnerability, and hence, conversion to an empty cause or religious group. Because what we are seeing here is precisely that: the methods used for conversion to a sect. If you ask switchers about their political views, you will find them at a loss. They can only talk about ‘hurt’ and ‘feeling wanted’. That’s sect-talk, not politics. I support the Nationalist Party because I agree with its policies and its way of doing things, not because it makes me feel wanted and needed and loved and listened to. It’s not a Jesus-freak organisation. I don’t support the Labour Party because I don’t agree with its policies, such as they are, but more particularly because I don’t like its way of doing things. It’s politics, not a support group for alcoholics or the newly bereaved.]

      • H.P. Baxxter says:

        Well, for 60k a year, a CEOship and my own secretary, I would sell myself to Beelzebub himself.

        But they’ll never call me, or many others, because you know what, despite their bullshit about welcoming everyone with open arms, theirs is still a closed circle. Anyone who switches to Labour hoping to get a slice of the pie is severely deluded.

      • Last Post says:

        Nice one Daphne. That’s a good, brief lecture about conversions of all types!

      • Eldarion says:

        “I support the Nationalist Party” Treating political parties as if they were football teams.

        [Daphne – Listen carefully as I explain this. In idiomatic English, one SUPPORTS a political party. This makes one, for example, a SUPPORTER of the Conservative Party or a SUPPORTER of the Labour Party. Religions, on the other hand, have BELIEVERS. Rock groups have FANS. Football clubs have, yes, SUPPORTERS TOO. Pastimes, hobbies and sports have ENTHUSIASTS.]

        Do you watch their matches at Ta’ Qali, Daphne? Sad country, it’s a pity that at the end of the day we have to end up with one of these sorry parties in government and a set of people celebrating who don’t even know what the word “manifesto” means.

      • Jozef says:

        Agreed, this country confuses Catholicism for pious feudalism.

        Mintoff did the same. Politics, in his book, were an unnecessary pain, if abstract principle deserved implementation. Sophistry, the elite’s, not of the masses.

        The easiest trick to rational infallibility and temporal power.

        Muscat appeals to those who are having second thoughts about European values, which constitution’s draft was hijacked by those who fell into the same trap.

      • Manum says:

        Quoting Daphne

        “To make a convert, two things must be present: psychological weakness of one kind or another, and low or medium intelligence. It is these factors which make for vulnerability” and I add “sheer blatant opportunism”.

        Touche.

  2. ciccio says:

    Miskin, will.i.am Mangion ma kellux gobb, u Muscat mar jiekol ghand Mangion, flok Muscat stieden lil Mangion biex imur jiekol ghandu.

    • Angus Black says:

      Tghid Gowzef ha l-ikel mieghu?

      Bla gobb, bla flus, bla ikel?

      Mela x’temghu, gemba hobz bil-kunserva u bit-tonn taz-zejt

      Tghid meta jilhaq prim ministru jistiednu ghandu Joseph? Jew ghax prim isir haj klass f’daqqa wahda u William iqishu ta’ klassi baxxa?

  3. Gahan says:

    Manuel Mallia has emailed me.

    Dear Citizen,

    If, like me, you read all about the kickbacks being paid to senior figures within Enemalta in yesterday’s Malta Today, you would have been shocked but not surprised. As a lawyer with a long background in criminal law, I thought it important to examine the case in detail and what it says about the culture of this government.

    What is very clear is that the Prime Minister and those around him have some serious questions to answer. These are:

    What influence does the fuel oil importing lobby in Malta have on government’s policy to keep this country totally dependent on heavy oil to generate electricity?
    Do these bribes explain the near-hysterical opposition to our clean gas plantproposal which has the support of Nationalists, the Malta Developers’ Association (MDA) the business community and at least one of PN’s own former Ministers?
    When did he first hear of the payments that were being made to Francis Sammut or others, the middle-man in the Enemalta oil procurement bribery scandal?
    Has he or any of his Cabinet colleagues ever received information about corruption in the way fuel is being procured?
    Why was the procurement procedure for fuel at Enemalta changed by the Cabinet in 2003?
    What prompted the decision to make Tonio Fenech responsible for Enemalta, and why did Fenech refuse to answer reporters’ questions on the natural gas pipeline last week?
    Will the Prime Minister set out exactly how the people on Enemalta’s oil procurement board are chosen?
    Will the Prime Minister or the Minister publish immediately all the names of people appointed on various oil procurement Enemalta board since the year 2000?
    Will the Prime Minister now publish all related documents justifying the government’s decision to choose the BWSC Power Plant over gas, and thus keeping Malta hooked on dirty, heavy oil?
    This case shows exactly why we need a change of government. GonziPN has become beholden to insiders and special interests. I hope you will join me in urging the Prime Minister and his team to come clean on corruption today.

    Yours sincerely,

    Manuel Mallia
    Labour Candidate

    My reply:
    Instead of losing yourself in rhetoric, and shedding doubts on the government, do you have the answers to these loaded questions, Dr Mallia?

  4. rc says:

    The fact that the government FOUND him a job at all would make me switch to another party in the blink of an eye. Unluckily, that other party is Labour, so that would be a step down.

  5. Miss O'Brien says:

    Sur Willie,

    Lejliet li Joseph Muscat qaccat lil Anglu ‘l barra kien qed jiekol ghandu wkoll.

    Lilek jaghmillek l-istess meta ma jkollux iktar bzonnok jew xi hadd jghidlu li ghandu jaghmel hekk “…inkella…”

  6. Smirnoff says:

    He is working at Studio 7 as a telesales executive.

    [Daphne – So Joseph found him a job then. And it’s to his expectations.]

  7. just me says:

    It is disgusting the way the Labour Party uses people. And so many are not wise enough to realise it.

    What does William Mangion expect? Maybe if the Labour Party is elected to government, prime minister Joseph will get him a contract with a major record company.

    The work available for singers in Malta is mainly in hotels and at weddings. Can the prime minister interfere with who hotels employ?

    Can he interfere with the entertainment people choose when they get married?

    William Mangion should be thankful that some work was actually found for him.

    If it was not his expectations, hard luck. Like all the rest of us he has to do his part to find work and not expect to get it gifted to him just because he is a well known singer.

  8. caflanga says:

    Wasn’t Mangion a member of the PN committee at Dingli? Ghax la tkun fil-kumitat, suppost ghandek il-connections.

  9. Max says:

    Old habits re pjacieri die hard.

    Labour never change.

    We are in for a tough time.

  10. Antoine Vella says:

    What is amazing is that someone like William Mangion can tell such a story and expect to elicit sympathy and what is even more amazing is that he receives it, at least from fundamentalist Mintoffians.

  11. mandango70 says:

    Now why don’t you tell us the story of Eileen Montesin? She switched too, and the story’s much spicier.

    [Daphne – Ah, but she switched because Labour was against EU membership and she was outright all for it. And unlike other Laburisti who voted for the EU then PN in 2003, and promptly went back to Labour, she worked out that a party so jacksh*t wrong about something so mammoth was unlikely to get anything else right. And in this, she is correct.]

  12. SPAM says:

    ‘Beggars can’t be choosers’ does not apply in Malta.

  13. FP says:

    28/9/1991: Radio101’s inaugural broadcast, opening with William Mangion singing:

    “You may say I’m a dreamer” (“Imagine”, Getting Closer).

    I guess for all these years he’s been dreaming of a dream job, and now has finally found it in the Moviment tal-Mejkewixx.

    “But I’m not the only one”.

    He can say that again.

  14. marks says:

    Willie Mangion should start practising his nappy skills now.

    Priceless. I nearly died laughing

  15. pm says:

    Can he tell us what was offered? And what were his expectations?

  16. caflanga says:

    Didn’t William Mangion’s cover version of Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ (when he was lead singer of Getting Closer) open Radio 101’s first broadcast? And the presenter was John Bundy.

  17. Tania says:

    Wasn’t he in the lineup, singing at the New Year’s Eve Concert at Pjazza San Gorg just a few weeks ago? Did he do that for free? Did Joseph get him the gig? Doubt it.

  18. Nighthawk says:

    He was playing in St.Georges Square on New Year’s Eve as part of the official celebrations. Did Joseph get him that gig too?

  19. charlie says:

    So could Mangion tell us what josephmuscat.com has promised him?

  20. Galian says:

    josephmuscat.com’s cabinet just got even larger. Enter the Minister for Music and Live Concerts, Mr. William Mangion.

  21. RosanneB says:

    William Mangion is double-faced no doubt!

  22. RosanneB says:

    By the way, kien bis-sahha tal-PN li mar il-Eurovision in 1993.

  23. Pink says:

    totally unrelated but this is Gavin Gulia’s status:

    Gavin Gulia
    Bongu Boys and girls, jekk tridu isellmu Happy Birthday lil Mexxej Joseph Muscat ifqghu dan l-istatus bil-likes….

    Ifqghu dan l-istatus?? Seriously? Ghalfejn dawn ic-cucati huma biss jiktbuhom?

  24. WOW says:

    Seems he returned to his roost. If I am not mistaken his late father was an avid, loud Patrick Holland man.

    • Norwegian Wood says:

      Yes, you are right, William’s father used to canvass for Patrick Holland.

      But this was until 1979 when socialists broke into Dr Eddie Fenech Adami’s home in Birkirkara and beat up his wife and wrecked the place.

      At that point, Wilfred Mangion tore up his Labour Party membership card and started canvassing for Dr Michael Refalo.

      Mr Mangion continued to support the Nationalist Party until his death.

  25. TinaB says:

    Since when does someone go and ask the Prime Minister’s help when he/she needs a job?

    It seems that the mentality of some people, in this stupid country, is getting worse and worse.

    No wonder we’re going to have Joseph as prime minister in less than two months from now.

    Cringeworthy.

  26. Jozef says:

    Isn’t this why Labour refused the EU in the first place?

  27. Giovanni says:

    William Mangion who requested a job from PN instead of holding on to his job at studio 7

    http://www.inewsmalta.com/dart/20130122-william-mangion-ka-ta-kollox-possibbli

  28. TROY says:

    William should have approached the Thai King and asked him for a singing job in one of the same, same joints.

    Photo above reminds me of the Luqa monument.

  29. Riya says:

    William Mangion seta mar jahdem bhala kantant gewwa Thailand ghax darba smajtu jghid li kienu ofrewlu xoghol b’salarju tajjeb bhala kantant.

    Allura nghid jien ghalfejn baqa Malta? Sinjal li kien qieghed jghix tajjeb nifhem jien.

    Fi zmien il-Labour nies bhal William li kienu jkantaw jew idoqqu fil-lukandi kienu qed imutu bil-guh ghax il-pajjiz kien spicca bla turizmu.

    It-Turizmu li jiftahru bih tal-Labour kollu gie bis-sahha tan-Nazzjonalisti ghax il-pjan tat-turizmu ikun sar ghaxar snin qabel mhux f’xi sena.

    Meta waqaf gej it-turizmu li hadmu ghalih in-Nazzjonalisti spiccajna flop u kien hawn nies bhal William qed imutu bil-guh.

    X’sar minnu zmien il-pjazza tal-Premierre gewwa il-Belt fi zmien il-Labour fejn kulljum kien ikun hemm il-jazz band u kullhadd jixrob u jixxala?

    Ghat-Turizmu haden Dr. Borg Olivier ghax hu kien ha hsieb jibni il-Lukandi fejn setghu joqodu it-turisti meta kien hemm arrangamenti serji biex jibdew jigu Malta ghax il-parlamentari nazzjonalisti dejjem hadmu bi pjanijiet serji.

    Min bena il -Hilton ta’ dak iz-zmien u l-Preluna u is-Sheriton?

    Dan iridu jkunu jafu iz-Zaghzagh. In-Nazzjonalisti dejjem kellhom nies b’imhuh kbar u b’vizjoni cara u li taghmel sens ghal gid tal-pajjiz u ta’ kullhadd.

    Wara certu zmien bil-Labour fil-gvern lukandi li ghalqu kien hawn.

    In-negozzjant onest qatt ma’ kellu fiducja fil-Labour ghax tal-Labour jew jidhlu shab mieghek jew ikissruk bhal ma’ ghamlu lil hafna nies li kellom negozzji kbar.

  30. Eldarion says:

    You VOTE for a political party and it’s candidates. You evaluate their policies for the next 5 years and then VOTE. But of course we’re in Malta and political IQ is so high it reaches the mesosphere.

    [Daphne – No, Eldarion. One SUPPORTS a political party, and one’s vote is a natural consequence of that. You see, in democracies that are far longer established than ours, people have well-formed political views (and others don’t bother at all), which means that they do not change their support for a political party at every election. If the political views of a mature and intelligent adult are, say, Conservative or Liberal, then those views tend not to change for the rest of his or her life. In Malta, where it is considered perfectly normal and acceptable to make public the fact that one will not vote, say, for the PN because one is ‘hurt’, the idea that one’s vote should be based on actual political views is something of an alien concept. You see, the thing you really don’t understand is that policies are not developed in a vacuum, They are the outcome of a party’s political philosophy. If you share that political philosophy, all else follows from there. I appreciate that this might be a bit of a problem with the Malta Labour Party, but perhaps it’s a case of seek and ye shall find.]

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      Is it all right if I SUPPORT Imperium Europa and VOTE PN, Eldarion?

      • Eldarion says:

        As long as you’re not voting Labour, you’re fine.

      • H.P. Baxxter says:

        Funny you should say so, because Stephen Farrugia and the ridiculous Letty Baldacchino are telling everyone to vote Labour over at Vivamalta.

        Fancy calling yourself a Europid and voting for the anti-European Third-worldist party.

        [Daphne – Arlette Baldacchino is the daughter of a Mintoff man, Alfred Baldacchino. He crossed the floor from the Opposition PN to the governing Mintoff party some time in the 1970s when we were at St Dorothy’s (in the same class) as I recall.]

    • rc says:

      I can see Eldarion’s point. I don’t support the Nationalist party but still vote for it, because its views and way of doing things is closer to what I think is right, compared to Labour’s. But they’re still too far off to really get my support.

  31. Eldarion says:

    What we have on this island aren’t political parties, what we have on this island are two big laughing stock’s. On one side we have a party which has made a farce of projects like Smart City and the Transport reform (€110 a year for a road license, for roads which are rockier than prince Charles’ marriage to lady Diana) and on the other side we have a Sociali- oh wait sorry, a Moviment which still employs Karmenu Vella and his communist cronies. This is what we have on offer for the next five years.

    • Angus Black says:

      Eldarion before you comment about SmartCity, tell me something.

      Late 2008, did you have the slightest idea that a financial collapse was just around the corner which would cause a world-wide recession?

      Did you know that the investors who are financing SmartCity were hit hard and lost mountains of cash holdings? Do you know that major construction projects in that part of the world were put on hold?

      Do you know that in the USA alone some 10 million are unemployed? Do you know that Canada has an unemployment rate of above 9% and ditto or worse in Britain? I will not quote numbers for Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece as I am sure you are quite familiar with their plight.

      The point is that unforeseen circumstances change plans and one has to adapt to circumstances, like it or not.

      Much ado is made of Dr Gonzi’s broken promise to cut income tax rates to 25% during the past legislature. How wise would that have been? Instead of losing millions in revenue, the PM chose to use those millions to shore up factories which were about to dismiss their employees and possibly close down permanently. It is estimated that a few million spent saved some 5000 jobs.

      What would Labour have done, I wonder! I hesitate to even think. Joseph was lamenting not too long ago that had SmartCity been on stream it would have employed some 3000 by now, This week a software company planning to employ 15 new employees stated that in today’s market, it is finding it difficult to hire fifteen workers.
      Maybe it is a blessing in disguise that SmartCity does not need to hire hundreds of workers or it would probably have had to import foreign workers.

  32. mandango70 says:

    It all goes to show.

    Switch and be damned. Ghax jisputtanawk f’sekonda. Typical.

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