Back to the Golden Years with “The Republic of Malta” and “Ir-Repubblika ta’ Malta”. Actually, it’s “Republlika” on this invitation.

Published: May 22, 2013 at 11:13am

Some days ago I heard that instructions had been given to have Malta restyled as “the Republic of Malta” and “Ir-Repubblika ta’ Malta” in all official correspondence/communications.

I couldn’t believe it. I mean, for heaven’s sake.

Then I received a copy of this invitation (not the actual invitation, of course, but a scan of the thing).

The DOI is still using plain old ‘Malta’, so maybe there’s some kind of ‘war of words’ going on here. Either way, they had better sort it out and dispense with the ‘republic’.

What with our fantastic president and whatnot, everybody knows we’re a republic by now, four decades down the line, and there’s no need to spell it out.

Imagine if everyone else in Europe started doing the same: the Republic of France, the Republic of Italy, the Republic of Greece, the Republic of Portugal, the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Germany, the Republic of Slovakia…

The Czech Republic is styled that way because of a very particular set of circumstances.

invitation




38 Comments Comment

  1. Calculator says:

    “for heaven’s sake”, indeed.

  2. canon says:

    Has Marlene Bonnici been appointed Ambassador by Joseph Muscat?

    [Daphne – Try to keep up, canon. Marlene Bonnici replaced Richard Cachia Caruana last year.]

    • Snoopy says:

      Another, unfortunate, mistake by Lawrence Gonzi – first putting a Labour-leaning person like her as the Director of PPCD, then when she did not succeed in getting a position in Brussels and after she had resigned from her Directorship, placing her as a special Perm Sec on EU funds and then Malta Rep for Europe.

      • Ta'sapienza says:

        Her speciality at PPCD was extreme pedantic nitpicking to make sure that companies lost approved EU funds.

        This was disastrous for smaller companies and not only were the funds lost, but the government fined for failing to allocate them.

        I thought politics were involved to try and irk as many people as possible. Then we get Ian Borg crying about excessive bureacracy and how much funds we stand to lose.

        If it were up to this gal, all funds would have been lost in Gonzi’s tenure.

  3. mattie says:

    Bejn is-sebgha u d-disgha?

    Allura jekk immur fis-sebgha, biex inkun puntwali, tghid jigu jew ghadu mhux cert il-hin?

    Jien nafha li meta tistieden, taghzel hin fiss ghall-avveniment biex jibda. Il-kelma ‘bejn’ m’ghandhiex tintuza.

    • RoyB says:

      Le, mattie. Hija normali hafna li f’avvenimenti ufficjali bhal dawn, fuq l-invit jinghata ukoll il-hin fi x’hin mistenni jispicca l-avveniment.

  4. The Shadow says:

    On SatNavs Malta is not listed under M, but under R – Republika ta’ Malta. Weirder and weirder.

  5. mattie says:

    Correct if wrong:

    ‘L-Ambaxxatrici u r-Rapprezentant permanenti?’

    Should it not read: L-Ambaxxatrici u r-Rapprezentanta permanenti?

  6. Jozef says:

    Bejn is-7.00pm u d-9.00pm.

    Ma jmurx jasal tard.

  7. RoyB says:

    Kull ma jonqoshom bajtra u luzzu.

  8. TinaB says:

    OMG.

    X’misthija.

  9. ciccio says:

    So is the Prime Minister going to rename the representation offices in Brussels as Dar ir-Repubblika ta’ Malta tonight?

  10. Manuel says:

    And Gensa is back on the menu for the upcoming Notte Gozitana. Back to the 80s, Zepp. Soon they will shove back in our faces the Emblema Mintoffjana tar-Repubblika, bdi-dghajsa u l-imghazqa.

  11. Big Daddy says:

    Notice how letters from the Maltese alphabet (like ġ and ħ) are printed in a jarringly different font, completely at odds with the one in which the invitation is printed… so bloody unprofessional.

  12. mattie says:

    Imbasta b’xeba interpreti, traditturi u nies iggradwati fil-Malti, imbaghad bicca invit jinkiteb hazin!

    Dak l-invit juri li ghalkemm f’Brussell, il-Maltin jibqghu qabda nies injuranti, lura u mbecilli.

    U jekk nibqghu sejrin hekk, Malta mhux ha zzomm riklam tajjeb f’pajjiz haddiehor. Zbalji fl-ortografija kien jonqos.

    L-ahhar li rajt id-dottore f’video klipp, gabuh imbaqaq mar-rapprezentanza ta’ pajjizi ohra, jghajjat ghax ma’ kellux interpretu tal-Malti.

    Kieku jien nghajjat fuq l-izbalji tal-kitba li hemm f’dak l-invit.

  13. Wot the Hack says:

    Actually, shouldn’t that be “The Private Fiefdom of the Zerafas” rather than the “Repubblika ta’ Malta”?

  14. mattie says:

    Ghandhom il-pjacir jistiednu l-Maltin fil-Belgju u l-Lussemburgu ghal laqgha ma’
    L-Onorevoli Prim Ministru u s Sinjura Muscat
    ———————-

    Kellha tinkiteb hekk:

    Ghandhom il-pjacir jistiednu l-Maltin fil-Belgju u l- Lussemburgu ghal laqgha ma’
    L-Onorevoli Prim Ministru ta’ Malta
    Dottor Joseph Muscat u S-Sinjura tieghu

    • Tracy says:

      Ghandek ragun, Mattie. Meta dan l-istess invit jintefa f’xi kexxun u jinstab xi sittin sena wara, min ikun sabu jkollu jhabbel rasu u jara min kien Prim Ministru fl-2013 ghax ismu ma jidhirx fuq l-invit.

  15. mattie says:

    Jekk il-Prim huwa specjalizzat u jidhirli li ghandu l-Ph.D, dawn misshom tawh it-titlu tad-dottore kif jixraq.

    Min qed jiktibhom dawn l-affarijiet?

    [Daphne – Not really, no. That is the proper styling. The fact that he is prime minister supersedes his doctorate. Many people never use ‘dr’ even when they have a doctorate. It’s just not done, really.]

    • mattie says:

      I’m not impressed. By what we’ve seen so far, fi Brussell, xeba njuranza hemm. Qas jafu jiktbu.

      Kieku nifforma parti mill-Kunsill Nazzjonali ghall-Malti, kont nahdem sabiex nibaght lil dawk l-injuranti, sena kors fil-kitba tal-Malti SEW.

      U mhux jithallsu minn fuq darna ghall-dik il-pastazagni ta’ nvit!

    • Chris says:

      He can start by removing the abusive prices of Air Malta tickets.

  16. H.P. Baxxter says:

    It’s not just that either.

    Some of us outside the public service represent Malta in international institutions, of which there are literally dozens. Of course we never got any instructions, never will, and even if we did we can happily disregard them. So here we are in this surreal world where our ministers talk to Johnny Foreigner about the “Republic of Malta”, he answers back re “Malta”, sends me an email about it, and I reply to both saying “Malta”.

    In a nutshell, fat lot of good did their instructions do.

  17. mattie says:

    nibaght = nibghat, sorry.

  18. PWG says:

    Sounds like and starting to feel like pre 1987 Malta. As someone remarked above il -bajtra u l-luzzu jonqos. It gives me an uneasy feeling. I wonder what it does to the switchers.

    • Calculator says:

      I’m sure some switchers don’t care as long as they’re happy in their own world, while others don’t care enough for history to see how this is repeating th past.

  19. etil says:

    Paving the way for the second Republic? Also they do not even know how to word an invitation. Sheer plain ignorance coupled with arrogance.

  20. Antoine Vella says:

    Of all the possible fonts they chose one – Kunstler Script – which doesn’t have Maltese letters.

    It’s funny in an embarrassing sort of way and, of course, this has nothing to do with josephmuscat.com being in government for only two months.

  21. Polly says:

    Meta mara tkun ambaxxatur tibqa ambaxxatur u ma ssirx ambaxxatrici. Il-protocol jitlob li l-mara tal-ambaxxatur biss tkun maghrufa bhala ambaxxatrici.

    L-istess nghidu, sinjura mhallef u mhux imhallfa.

    Bil-Franciz, Madame l’Ambassadeur ghax l’Ambassadrice hija il-mara ta’ l-ambaxxatur.

  22. Cikku says:

    Eagerly waiting for Victor Laiviera to comment on the horrible spelling on his FB.

  23. lorna saliba says:

    Hope we’re not going to have the bajtra tax-xewk and the luzzu on our national emblem again. Reminiscent of the Stalinist years.

  24. Matt says:

    I agree with you but just wanted to point out that in Germany, they do refer to the country using the word republic in official documents: Bundesrepublik Deutschland.

    • Ta'sapienza says:

      True, but I think that it’s a bit of a throwback to when they wanted to differentiate with the DDR.

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