Muscat needs to have ‘stand up to be counted’ defined for him by a native speaker of the language
Tweedledum and Tweedledee, standing up to be counted.
Muscat said in parliament last night that he and Manuel Mallia are doing what they’re doing because they ‘stood up to be counted’.
Muscat and Mallia are not native speakers of English. They have no grasp of the subtle and not so subtle nuances of the language, of the implied, as distinct from overt, meaning of words and phrases.
‘Standing up to be counted’ is a demonstration of altruism and not of self-interest. One does not stand up to be counted for one’s own gain. One stands up to be counted in defence of others. Above all, one does not stand up to be counted when one is in the country’s most powerful position. One stands up to be counted from a position of weakness in defiance of the powerful. That is where the ‘standing up’ comes in.
This, reported today in Times of Malta, is a perfect example of standing up to be counted.
NGO resigns from LGBTI Council, sees preference of some rights over others
The human rights NGO Aditus said today that in view of the ongoing controversy relating to push backs of asylum seekers, it had presented its resignation from the LGBTI Consultative Council.
“Since Aditus foundation is a human rights organisation believing that all human rights are universal, we refuse to endorse this Government’s clear preference of some rights over others, of some groups of persons over others, particularly when motives seem to be exclusively based on increasing national political mileage,” the NGO said.
“The Minister for Civil Liberties’ silence in the face of potential human rights violations of the worst kind further confirms our need to distance ourselves from the council,” the NGO said.
39 Comments Comment
Reply to J.J. Click here to cancel reply
Aditus deserves all our respect.
Not at all. Aditus should have known about Muscat’s pushback policy when they tacitly endorsed him before the election. But they deserve some respect for trying to make amends for their terrible, terrible mistake.
Yes, right. Where does Helena-civil-liberties-Dalli stand on this? And not a peep on social solidarity from Marie Louise-soap-dishes Coleiro Preca.
She has a visit to the NCPE planned this morning (in a few minutes’ time, in fact). That should be interesting after all this fiasco.
They both should “stand up to be counted” and hand in their resignation in protest.
And where is the Minister for EU Affairs on this? Why is he hiding?
True, there should be another minister involved here besides Manuel Mallia. I had higher hopes for Helena Dalli, but it seems she’s there for the pay just like the rest of them.
Her son, who will be a lawyer soon, vented on his Facebook that too many virgins are popping up in his Newsfeed.
A charming man, I’m sure.
Well done Aditus.
Why has Mrs Prime Minister gone AWOL? It’s not like her to skip a chance to tell us what a kind, caring man her husband is.
‘Kind and caring’ might be Michelle’s opinion of her husband.
But his horrendous and cynical act yesterday in singling out and separating 50 still disorientated men from their families, for illegal deportation within hours of landing in Malta, makes him out to be the selfish, horrid, little shit that I, and tens of thousands of others, have always thought him to be.
X’tahwid.
Niftakar in-nanna tghid kif mal-Labour tqum filghodu u tara biex gejjin.
Kliem ix-xiħ żomm fih … ;)
Jien nannu…u nista nikkonfermah!
Indeed well done to ‘Aditus’.
Believing that one human life is more precious than another is a dangerous road to go down. Such arguments open the door to eugenics, euthanasia, concentration camps and you might as well forget any notion of gay rights.
“Believing that one human life is more precious than another…”
Didn’t we all walk down that road in the 70s and 80s during the Socialists ‘golden years’?
This is just a rehash of those glorious years.
Shame on the clowns.
You know what?
The clowns are no longer funny.
Daphne, your apt definition of the term ‘stand up to be counted’ reflects on PL’s perception of Malta as a member of the European Union.
They have always believed that we are ‘makku’, and as a result frantically react without much thought or concern for their words or actions when they feel threatened.
They believe Malta is weak and by their reactions weaken Malta’s position to the extent of attracting a negative reaction from the European Court of Human Rights.
How about the silence by the President? Does he condone these actions?
How does Giovanni Bonello feel about this? Does it make a difference to him, actually?
Like many others I watched the Malta evening news yesterday and was horrified to watch immigrants – including women & babies sleeping literally on the floor in the Police Depot.
In this day and age not even domestic cats & dogs sleep on the floor as generally their owners provide them with specific pet-cots.
Apart from being degrading, this is also inhuman.
Shame on the officer in charge at the Depot and on our Police Commissioner, who in his position & as a Legal Procurator he should know more than any of us the duties of his police officers and the rights of all human beings.
The pic of that infant may have somewhat distorted Maltatoday’s survey.
Lanqas downtown Mogadishu.
Perhaps they were busy preparing meals for them in the kitchen now that they have expanded their roles.
I clearly remember the photo with a line of immigrants boarding a chartered AirMalta plane after Malta agreed to take back immigrants who had continued their journey to Sicily. That was a few years back and unfortunately I can’t trace that photo. That AirMalta livery on that desolate runway in Sicily was definitely not a good idea for the airline.
Now, even if we look at the latest government actions from a purely materialistic point of view – which this government and our Prime Minister in particular are keen to espouse – there is a major consideration to be borne in mind.
In the process of bullying these poor souls, our Prime Minister was also going to irreparably stain the reputation of our national airline with not-so-difficult-to-foresee ripple effects on our vital tourism industry. I wonder what Labour cheerleader and MHRA President Tony Zahra thinks about it.
Joseph and the people shouldn’t be too worried about Malta being tiny.
We will soon have the land reclamation project going on.
Not a peep from the President? But this is not about anorexia, bulimia and Darleen Zerafa.
He cared about her not travelling business class but not these unfortunate people who travel in dangerously crowded little boats. Who has swallowed his tongue? Your time is up Mr. President. You had some respect at the beginning but it quickly faded away since.
The one person who stood up to be counted in this entirely shameful episode is Paula Meli Attard on Facebook.
Muscat and Mallia would have done themselves, and their country,a favour if they had remained sitting down or lying low.
By standing up and talking utter drivel they disgraced themselves and, to some extent, their country.
It is the 69 lawyers who filed a judical protest against the Prime Minister, the National Security Minister, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, the Police Commissioner and the Attorney-General who stood up to be counted and not Joseph Muscat and Manuel Mallia.
The expression he’s looking for is “we are making a nuisance of ourselves”.
Maybe they meant ‘we stood up to be mounted’. You never know.
Well done, Aditus!
On this migration issue, Kenneth Zammit Tabona decided to follow the advice of his personal object of lust and ‘stood up to be counted’.
On his FB page he posted a post to defend…….Joseph Muscat, and typical of him, point the fingers at the PN.
I never had any doubt that it was all bluff by josephmuscat.com. Hearing the debate on radio I wondered why nobody asked Joseph if the Libyan government gave permission for the return of the refugees.
Personally I think that there was no agreement and hence the Joseph’s bluff. But if there was an agreement it shows the hypocrisy of the Libyan government.
They stood up to be counted? They look like a standing toad-in-a-hole dish (two sausages with some pastry between them).
Well done to them! That is the right thing to do.
Muscat only used LGBT issues to gain popularity, like Mintoff did in the past with the poor.
The truth is that he doesn’t give a damn about LGBT issues.
And now we can see the truth coming to the surface. Muscat finally shows his hand, and gives us a taste of what is to come, of what he wants to turn Malta into. Back to the Golden Years we go.
And incidentally, all those who joined Labour’s gay ghetto, like Albert Gauci Cunningham, did so to please their vanity and nothing more. Not to mention the iced buns he and all the others got.
Now if Gabby had any sense she would withdraw that Gay Soldier award she gave Muscat. She must stand for human rights too, and not just civil liberties.
We warned them not to take Labour seriously and all we got in return was “You are brainwashed. You live in the past. Stop being negative”.
Now look at them. They were a couple of hours away of being part of the “movement” that stomped all over the human rights of desperate people. I hope they are feeling positive now. I hope they are happy they are so liberal.
And I will say this as a gay man myself: Muscat can take his civil partnerships and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine. I will not be bullied into supporting this monster. I don’t care about civil partnerships in Malta while this is still a danger.
We must stand together with our fellow minorities and stand firm. We must not be tempted to live like the very fascists who oppressed us in the past. Human rights for everyone.
http://youtu.be/Jdf0UwnPgbI
This is what happens when your PM doesn’t condemn discrimination but rather acts to the contrary. I very much doubt the date of the video is a coincidence.
In her degenerate mind, the lady in the video was also standing up to be counted a la Muscat.
The highest office of our country has effectively engaged in the spreading of hate speech.