Woman who made the news by shouting “you fucking wanker” at PN cabinet minister is given €10, 000 by this government
An extremely gifted, focussed and determined young man I know recently applied for a Malta scholarship to study the performing arts in London.
He was turned down. He auditioned for one of the world’s leading schools of the performing arts, in London, and was accepted, chosen from among hundreds of applicants.
When the school was told that he had no way of paying the fees, which are considerable, because he had no scholarship from Malta, the school itself gave him a scholarship for the entire three-year period.
I will not mention the school because it will identify the individual, but I wish I could do so because it would give you – or at least those who are informed about the field – some idea of the scale of what I’m talking about.
To put it in comparable terms, it’s like being turned down for a measly Malta government scholarship on the grounds that you’re not worth it, and then getting a full scholarship from Princeton, Cambridge or the London School of Economics.
Now I discover that Nicola Abela Garrett, the insufferably awful and ill-bred woman who stood up to shout at a PN cabinet minister (not at “Austin Gatt”) at a university event and called him a ‘fucking wanker’ – something nobody civilised would do in that context regardless of who the minister is or which party he represents – has been given €10, 000 by this government.
We had discovered after the event, through her indiscretions on Facebook with a real fucking wanker called Matthew Bonanno, who lost his job at The Times as a consequence of this, that the stunt was planned and staged to look impromptu for the media – just like ‘hunter’ Jeremy Portelli accosting Simon Busuttil in Paola.
Nicola Abela Garrett has got her reward: a €10,000 Malta Arts Scholarship – the very same for which somebody far more deserving was turned down, only to get a far greater scholarship on meritfrom one of the world’s top schools.
Abela Garrett will be reading for a master’s degree in acting at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in London. Perhaps she was selected for the Malta scholarship on the basis of her excellent acting in the role of “student overcome by anger calls minister fucking wanker”.
She graduated last year and has spent the past year doing nothing much, but fortunately the government changed and now she’s off to London, with fortuitous timing alongside another person involved in the performing arts, Norman Hamilton.
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They can sing ‘Taghna lkoll’ one more time.
I am so glad the young man still found support for his studies, but this whole thing remains nonetheless shameful.
It is tragic not only for the individual(s) directly involved in this case (probably another capable young person has been left with no support) but for all the promising young people who aspire to further their studies. This is so disheartening for them.
Unrelated to the above topic.
Are we back to the student-worker scheme?
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-08-02/news/60-of-youths-are-unemployed-in-certain-eu-countries-2234056705/
Frederick Testa can now start drafting a nice teledramm for her, given that she will not be able to do anything else. He can refer to Joan of Arc for inspiration, and write a story about a woman who ‘stood up to be counted’.
To her credit, NAG has been in a number of plays recently – including the MADC’s recent staging of Much Ado About Nothing.
[Daphne – So was I, at that age. So are many, many others. One does it for fun. It doesn’t take much in Malta (no offence meant to anyone at all).]
She also has a first degree in Theatre Studies, while your talented friend doesn’t seem to have a degree (from what you say, it seems that he has applied for an undergraduate course).
[Daphne – A degree in theatre studies, Roderick, means zilch. A first degree does not qualify a person for a scholarship. Scholarships are there for exceptional people with exceptional potential, not for party favourites who pull campaign stunts.]
By that fact alone, NAG is more qualified, in the eyes of the scholarship awarding body, to receive the scholarship.
[Daphne – I am afraid that you have your assessment criteria upside down. Scholarships are not for ‘qualified’ people but for exceptional people. This is a mistake that is made often, so I don’t blame you for making it too. If scholarships were awarded on the basis of paper qualifications, there would be no need for an interview, references, or peer review. All you would have to do is present your certificate.]
As an example, a couple of years ago, many people lost out on MGSS funding for their PhD because people with PhDs were applying for postdoc research, and the extra qualifications gave them an unassailable edge over those with master’s degrees.
[Daphne – Rubbish, especially when you consider that one of the successful applicants was the utterly shameless Jesmond Mugliett. I had written about it. He was shameless in applying and the relevant authorities were shameless in giving it to him. And the PN was shameless in failing to rap him on this one because of his one-seat advantage.]
Having been through the scholarship interview and awarding process myself, I also know that there is very little in the way of consistency.
In any case, your young friend is lucky. Dealing with the scholarship department is a bureaucratic nightmare.
[Daphne – Luck has nothing to do with it, Roderick. That is the point of my piece. Merit does. London – meritocracy. Malta under Labour (and less so under the PN) – total bollocks.]
Daphne – Jesmond Mugliett was awarded a STEPS scholarship, not an MGSS scholarship (which funded MAs, PhDs and postdocs). I was referring specifically to the latter. I believe the Malta Arts Scholarships have a similarly wide scope, and previous qualifications and grades obtained therein will have a bearing on “merit”.
Like it or not, it’s how things work here, and again, I speak from personal experience.
Re: MADC – I know. But my point is that she has productions to put on her CV, and I’m under the impression that the more you have, the better the chance of showing you’re committed to the art.
So were the daughters of JPO and Varist respectively. They got a STEPS scholarship this time last year. Roderick, you don’t know a hoot about scholarships or academic merit, sorry.
Roderick, just because she has taken part in a couple of MADC productions does not mean that she was actually good in the role.
I watched her in this production and she was extremely mediocre especially when compared to the other performers. Unfortunately I also watched her in another production at St. James and even there she was very mediocre.
She was very stiff and her facial expressions and mannerisms in both productions were the same.
Having said that I do not know what the competition was, but if she was a yardstick then it does not auger well for the Arts in Malta
To be fair, landing a main role in an MADC play nowadays is a touch more challenging than it might have been in the 80s. Particularly for an actor in their 20s.
The situation is slightly different than what I made it out to be, actually (although what I said re: the MGSS still stands).
NAG’s and your unnamed prodigy’s studies fall under two different sections of the Malta Arts Scholarships. 60% of the fund is awarded to those studying at undergraduate level (or the equivalent); the other 40% is allocated towards those studying at MQF level 7 or above (MA+).
And yes, lucky. Lucky not because he got the scholarship he so evidently deserved, but because he did not have to deal with the bureaucrats at the Directorate of Lifelong Education. Ask anyone who has had to deal with them during their studies and they’ll tell you why.
Roderick is right.
It is a common occurrence in this country to apply for a scholarship and get turned down. I got turned down by STEPS and MGSS despite being offered a place at Cambridge. Welcome to Malta.
Do you go to the theatre? Never seen you there. Watched anything good recently?
[Daphne – All the time, but never in Malta, so yes, you are unlikely to see me.]
Expensive habit. There are some extremely high-quality performances in Malta, you know. Would you disagree?
[Daphne – Yes, I disagree. Amateur performances are like amateur art – I’m just not interested. They’re not good. They’re good for Malta. I find many of them pretty offensive; others I find tedious. Of course, there are many plays I would never watch, elsewhere, but at least you have the choice. And no, it isn’t an expensive habit. I don’t travel for holidays, but for work and family reasons. And I would never travel just to watch something, as so many people in Malta do. I will only watch something if it happens to be on and tickets available while I’m there.]
Ma tmurx l-istagun operistiku Ghawdxi tal-Astra u l-Aurora, Daphne? Tsk tsk. Qed titlef l-apici tal-kultura.
Glad to see the standards of meritocracy remain unchanged elsewhere.
And glad to see that Ms Abela Garrett herself is unwittingly showing how much of a wanker she and her lot are.
Unfortunately, female candidates are preferred over their male counterpart. This happens in all subjects especially ICT were brilliant minds are turned down to select female candidates so that the women quota is reached who are still good but sometimes not as good as the rejected male applicants.
That’s not the case here, though, is it?
Even if it were so, why choose her? Was she the only female candidate?
Maltese scholarships? Don’t get me started.
Yet another reason for young people to pack up and LEAVE that blasted island forever.
Let’s give ’em the Mother Of All Brain Drains.
With €10,000 the government can sponsor two much needed toolmakers for the manufacturing sector.
Why do toolmakers need sponsorship, Gahan?
They get their stipend and are employed as apprentices, going on to full-time after a three year course, when they start off with close on €20k/pa (and soon pass that with overtime and shift allowances).
I think I spotted a typo. Did you mean ‘performing tarts’?
Ha!
‘Scholarship’, every time I hear the word or every time my daughter has to be on the road in the middle of the night to catch a low cost airline flight, I simply think of the impudence of the highest office who collected money and used his influence for the benefit of his in-law.
That word will always carry a sour taste for me because it has become a synonym for deceit. How many can say that they have a board position before they even got the qualification?
M. Cassar, this scholarship business does not affect me personally in the least.
My children were head-hunted overseas. Thankfully.
I can empathise with you as a father of four.
The horrendous scandal you refer to was resignation material if ever there was one afflicting these blessed Islands.
Nothing happened then and nothing ever will.
This is Malta. A miserable parish.
You cannot deny that we need to invest in understanding, preventing and curing eating disorders here in Malta.
Nithanzru wisq, ahna l-Maltin.
Scholarships in Malta are a joke. This young man is not the only one who’s lost out because of others being better connected.
People like this young man and others who are all capable of doing great things will remain in their host countries. The idiots who couldn’t make it on their own steam return to Malta. Brain and ethics drain.
Both parties are equally culpable of this. At least (and as usual), the Nationalists had the decency to widen the opportunity base for people wanting to further their studies.
I pity this NAG girl. She is being rewarded for being deceitful, manipulative and rude. Alternatively, she sold out which simply shows she lacks character.
The Nationalists couldn’t very well put foreigners in charge of Maltese scholarship selection boards. Things were just as bad back then.
The only way out is literally a flight out of Malta. Leave this rock to the thieves, pimps and scoundrels. And to the sons, daughters and fuck-buddies of.
All this is evidence of the low standards that this new government considers as reflecting Malta’s true image, locally and abroad.
Please be reminded we are under PL government. Everything is possibble except for those who vote PN.
I though you could only get a maximum of 8000 euro. And this one got 10,000 euro! Or is the Malta Arts Scholarship administered differently?
And by the way, her recent portrayal of Hero in the recently staged Much Ado About Nothing was uninspiring to say the least. After the show, my friends and I all agreed that her performance was bland and that she was completely out-shined by her colleagues.
May I ask how she was awarded this scholarship of the scholarship results aren’t even out yet?