I can’t stand to see any man debase himself by crawling to another
It was a little bit sickening listening to Labour deputy leader Toni Abela fawn and crawl at the Labour Party general conference.
It is embarrassing to see a man humiliate and debase himself by heaping over-the-top (and misplaced) praise on another man who is in a position of power over him.
But some people have neither pride nor dignity, and by refusing to cut him loose over that drugs-in-the-Labour-Party-club episode, Joseph Muscat has made Abela his slave in everlasting gratitude.
This doesn’t happen if you stick by every one of your men. Muscat clearly knows, either intuitively or because he has read up about it, that the strategy is to demonstrate apparently arbitrary mercilessness with some individuals pour encourager les autres, while selectively and strategically defending others and protecting them.
Those you defend will then become your absolute slaves, so grateful for your protection that they will do anything to keep it. And you must always let an air of barely perceptible menace lurk below your general air of affability, so that people like Toni Abela are left in no doubt that they survive purely at your pleasure, and will therefore strive even harder to please you.
“He has the diligence of Paul Boffa, the courage of Dom Mintoff, the humanism of Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and the mind of Alfred Sant. All these together make Joseph Muscat,” Toni Abela told the conference.
Statements like this should make any right-thinking person uncomfortable, because there is a touch of the old North Korea about them.
But most of all, they should make Muscat uncomfortable – it is not actually a compliment to be portrayed as a jigsaw puzzle of other people’s perceived attributes when you think of yourself as your own man.
Perhaps being thought of as the sum total of the apparently better parts of his predecessors suits Muscat’s plan of a historic narrative of which he is the culmination.
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When I read that quote I felt sick. How exactly are any of those comparisons good?
I am convinced that Joseph is the sum total of his predecessors’ bad parts.
Boffa is not included in my sum total.
The garbage started with Mintoff and never stopped.
Toni Abela stopped short of saying Muscat has the divinity of the Messiah. Perhaps next time.
Exactly!
This is the Messiah Complex.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah_complex
When I read the report, I was half expecting Toni to tell us that his master walks on water on weekdays, and changes water to wine on weekends. At this rate we’ll be lining up to touch his hem soon.
Also person that has a bit of everthing can be known as ‘jack of all trades – master of none’ used in reference to a person that is competent with many skills but is not necessarily outstanding in any particular one.
Karmenu’s humanism?
I know, right? I mean, after they tried to much to make a huge thing about their “apology” you’d think they wouldn’t even mention those people.
But look at them now, first they float the idea of having a museum to Mintoff and now they are calling KMB a humanist.
So we were right after all. Their apology was no apology at all.
It is most unfair to compare former prime ministers with today’s politicians.
If my grandfather Paul Boffa were alive today he would not have been amused.
I distinctly remember when I was a very young kid and some friends from the UK had come to see him at his home in Pawla when he was already confined indoors due to his failing health.
One of these friends in the midst of a conversation which I was not understanding too much told my grandfather that he thought he had similar characteristics to the former British Premier Clement Attlee.
My grandfather stopped him talking and told him that people cannot be compared as circumstances and times are different and each person has to be judged on his own merits.
I distinctly remember when I was a very young kid and my grandfather Pawlu Boffa get very upset when some friends from the UK who were visiting him told him that he reminded them of British Premier Clement Attlee.
He was not at all amused and told them firmly that they should judge people on their own merits and achievements as times and circumstances and issues are totally different.
I was very young but still remember the episode and imagined him getting very upset had he been alive today.
X’jonqos Issa? Jilaqlu s*rmu litteralment? As for Michael Falzon (tal-Labour, mhux x-PN) – has he got his just desserts yet?
I have a little Red Book Of Chairman Mao in my antique collections which I can lend to Toni Abela. It could give him some inspirations to heap more praise on his great leader.
Chairman Mao’s deputy Lin Biao wrote preface for the Red Book, singing a hymn of praise to God-like “greatest leader”
… then, the faithful deputy died a pitiful death in Mongolia desert soon after…when running away from his great leader fearing for his dear life…
Malta is getting hot now, so a bit of goosebumps to chill down might not be a bad idea.
And what about Joseph’s own mind or decisions – does he have any mind of his own and can he use it?
Well, Gonzi did stick out his neck for JPO but that didn’t quite help in the long run.
Toni Abela is wise enough to play the fool.
He forgot one word which aptly describes Joseph – a crafty fox.
Karmenu’s humanism. Was he refering to the teachers’ lockout by any chance?
I can easily guess the odour emanating from that moustache.
And no, it’s not nicotine.
IM Beck coined the phrase josephmuscat.CON. How very appropriate. It should be used as liberally by the Nationalist media as Gonzipn was by Labour’s.
Let us all be thankful. Our Toni forgot all about the sun.
If Joseph is the sum total of his predecessors’ bad parts, is it right to assume that he is a grotesque creature named Josephstein created within the hidden walls of the Centru Laburista at the Mile End.
Kieku jien flok Muscat ma tantx kont niehu gost li jqabbilli mohhi bhal ta’ Alfred Sant ghax mhux awgurju tajjeb.
Bil-mohh ta’ Sant kull ma jista’ jdum jiggverna hu ta’ 22 xahar.
According to Toni Abela, Joseph Muscat is the product of quadruple cloning. The first and most successful in the world.
Should be taken up by and recorded in the Guiness Book of Records
In Joseph Muscat’s version of Labour’s and Malta’s history, who were Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and Alfred Sant?