The flipside of Facebook: dirty linen gets washed in public
The Facebook communication that worked miracles for Labour in the last two years, and most particularly in the election campaign, has its flipside.
And that flipside has become apparent to it in government. When you’re in Opposition, you use Facebook to talk to electors. But when you’re in government, electors use Facebook to talk to you.
And as a result, lots of dirty linen is being washed in public (“mhux quddiem in-nies…”) whereas in another age this would have happened at a face to face meeting or over the telephone, and nobody would be any the wiser.
Here’s the latest: Sandro Mangion, chief of staff to the Parliamentary Secretary for Sport, Stefan Buontempo, being taken to task by a sports association.
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What sort of warped minds do some people have? Sure, it took Gonzi 25 years to give them something. Because in their minds, and the way they sell the idea that Gonzi was bad for Malta, Gonzi won the election in 87 and the PN did absolutely nothing the whole time.
It’s strange but true. Many people in Malta think that it’s high time we had gay marriage and divorce etc, and the Nationalists have had 25 years to give us all these things and they haven’t.
When you mention that they had much more pressing issues to address, like restoring democracy and getting into the EU (to name but two) they get defensive and act like those are minor issues (or fake ones) and didn’t really require that much attention, and why should they have had to suffer all this time just for that.
The same goes for Sandro Mangion. It may have taken the PN government to get around to funding a sports association, but first they had to sort out so many other things that were of greater importance so that we could have sports associations to begin with.
Sandro, that juvenile argument only proves to me and others that you are either stupid or think everyone else is a childish as you are.
Not only stupid, but very, very stupid. A head of secretariat to the parliamentary secretary answering that way on Facebook!
When one is in a certain position, one needs to be very careful how one writes, and states one’s opinion.
He said give us a chance, we’ve only been 100 days in power.
But where is the road map that the party was supposed to have? The vision that the party supposedly had? The only vision was power.
Seriously, it’ amazing how people in Malta don’t seem to realise how just keeping the economy standing when Malta’s neighbours crumbled was practically a 24/7 job. Most of them would be unemployed by now if it weren’t for the Nationalists in government, but they just don’t seem to care.
Many people in Malta think that it’s high time we had gay marriage and divorce etc, and the Nationalists have had 25 years to give us all these things and they haven’t.
So childishly true. To think that only 10-15 years ago Labour leader KMB argued that by joining the EU Maltese would not only lose their jobs to other Europeans but the AIDS incidence would rise sharply.
Seeing that nothing of this sort happened Labour is now orgasmic about ‘writing’ our sexual fantasies for all the world to see. Previously Maltese in general went about their lives without caring much about individuals’ sexual orientation and/or behaviour. Within a year or so since the introduction of divorce we now want the various types of sexual behaviours formalised … all in the name of ‘Love’,
We’re now saying that someone born as gender X some 25 years ago can now go officially as gender Y. For the first time the Gay Pride march is government-sponsored and endorsed by none other than the ambassadors of 3 ‘progressive’ countries. Is this a world first, too?
Because “Love is Love” I’m getting worried where this is leading to. With so much love and attention being showered on animals … oh, what am I thinking of?
Is this another case of ‘a bicycle community with a Mercedes mentality?
I’m all for same-sex marriage. But I don’t believe it was the Nationalists’ fault for not introducing it all these years.
What is more worrying is that in luring back the lost votes, the PN leadership is not only emulating JM’s leadership moves but literally playing the same tune now that he’s in government.
I still can’t stomach the public apology for the previous government’s appeal from the court sentence that altered Joanne Cassar’s gender on the official birth certificate. (Incidentally, who was the judge that decided in favour of altering such an indisputable biological fact)?
There is clearly a distinction between one’s sex (i.e. gender) and his/her sexuality (a psycho-emotional aspect of one’s personality). Surely not everybody has been fooled by the Xarabank explanation of Joanne’s personality as ‘a woman born into a man’s body’.
Returning to the PN, why all this panic about winning back the switchers? I’m sure they haven’t all switched because they have joined ‘the pink movement’. What about the other PN ‘faithfuls’ who voted for them because they are the better option for political governance and socio-economic development?
I thought the PN didn’t believe in ‘earthquakes’, so why all this fuss about the first 100 days of the new PN opposition – as if to erase the 25 years’ mistakes all at one go? Isn’t it obvious that the “bicycle people with a Mercedes mentality” were fed up with the same party in government and wanted to experiment with change?
Why don’t they take it more easy and let time give Labour’s ‘new way of doing politics’ more rope to hang itself with?
The Opposition’s role is to criticise the government’s policies and open our eyes to its implementation mistakes. Internal adjustments need not be so apologetically publicised just for the sake of switchers who at this early stage won’t admit they’ve been duped.
Don’t be bloody idiotic. Gay Pride being ‘government-sponsored and endorsed by none other than the ambassadors of 3 ‘progressive’ countries’ is fantastic and it’s done all over the world. That’s not to say that there aren’t plenty of Nationalists who are also very support of LGBT issues.
And please, educate yourself on transgender issues before you spout out that rubbish. That’s all it takes, the decency to know at least little about a topic before you say offensive things.
Enlighten us on transgender issues. Because I see human rights issues. And economic issues. And environmental issues. And scientific issues. And technical issues.
But I’ve never seen lesbian, or gay, or transexual, or bisexual issues. Neither have I seen heterosexual issues.
Alessandro Mangion is an interesting fellow.
First, he used to date Michelle Tanti (now Muscat) some 20 years ago.
Then, he discovered he was gay.
[Daphne – I see a pattern there.]
Then in 2003 he wrote an email to all the gays of Malta to vote EU. (The email was distributed by Peppi Azzopardi.)
Then he actually went to Brussels to work for the EU.
And now he’s the Private Secretary to St. Buon-tempo.
Saint Bonaventura you should have said … for certain people …
Nahseb li Buontempo sejjer jaqleb ghal Maltempo. U meta nghid li sejjer jaqleb ma jffisirx li sejjer jaqleb bhal Alessandro Mangion.
Allavolja kif qalet Daphne, “I see a pattern there”. And so do I.
Sandro had better watch out. Working till 3:30am on a daily basis is asking for trouble. Anyway it’s not the hours one spends ‘working’ that count, but how productive one is.
Is there really so much going on in this ministry (I highly doubt it) or does he go to the office at 11:30 am like the great leader?
Sandro Mangion anke ghamel zmien qaleb Nazzjonalist u kien fil-kumitat tal-PN Birzebbuga. Imbaghad ghidli li mhux imhawdin certu nies.
And so say All of Us:
Maghna tista’ tahdem anke jekk ma taqbilx maghna –
ghax Malta taghna lkoll.
Fi zmieni kienu jghidu li daw’ it-tip ta’ nies fl-ufficcju taghhom kien ikollom kwadru bir-ritratt ta’ Borg Olivier fuq naha u ta’ Mintoff fuq in-naha l-ohra.
Dan l-istess Mangion li kien il-boyfriend ta’ Michelle Muscat u wara indna li kien gay u waqqaf l-MGRM?