Infants, children have drowned; people have only the (wet) clothes on their backs. And Joseph Muscat says HE feels abandoned.
The video footage and photographs of the dead, the drowning and the weeping survivors are too much to look at. Those children staring out of the vehicle window as they were taken away – you just know that nightmare journey, a journey they can’t possibly understand, is going to stay with them for the rest of their lives.
And then we have to read this:
Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, says Europe is turning a blind eye to the problem and his country has been “abandoned”.
“This is a European problem. Malta, Lampedusa, Italy – we are not our own frontiers, we are Europe’s frontiers,” he said.
“These people, these desperate people are looking for a future in Europe and Europe, our colleagues, cannot turn a blind face to all this.
“We feel totally abandoned. There’s no mincing these words. Abandoned.”
– ABC News, Australia
Exactly who, in this situation, are the abandoned ones? Certainly not Malta, and certainly not the prime minister. But his egocentricity is paramount, as always, and his language reveals that.
I am not too happy, either, with the way Muscat seems to think that Malta and Lampedusa are Europe’s frontiers. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Under such terrific stress, what with dealing with drowning children while at the same time turning up at a big birthday party for his own children at Girgenti Palace (I mean, come on, how many things can a man be expected to do), he momentarily forgot about Ceuta, about southern Spain, about Cyprus, about Greece, all of which have a massive ‘first point of contact’ asylum-seeker situation precisely because they are EU border states.
My next gripe might sound trivial, but believe me, it isn’t. Turn a blind face?If our PM is going to be pressing home Malta’s suit as the premier place to learn English outside England, he had better try harder. ABC actually corrected him in its synthesis, saying ‘blind eye’ and then quoting Muscat’s ‘blind face’.
That kind of gross error of idiom just makes him sound like a clunky redneck, though no doubt Kitten from Malta will see fit to tweet Muscat to say how wonderful he thought his performance was.
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Some people arrived without any clothes on their back.
Maybe we should write to ABC australia to dissociate ouselves from Muscat self-centred idiocies.
His solution not long ago was to separate the men from their families and send them handcuffed to Libya on Air Malta.
Does he not yet realise that nobody worth a bean gives a flying fuck what he has to say?
Thank you for expressing my exact feelings. That’s what I thought when I read Joseph Muscat’s statement.
Muscat’s statement about Ali Zeidan’s abduction a few days ago was equally bad. Instead of clearly condemning the abduction in every possible way, he simply said that he was concerned about the developments in Libya and about Ali Zeidan’s welfare.
Crucially, he also said that Malta is keeping a close eye on the fluid situation and said that Malta will always be a friend of the Libyan people.
To me, that sounds like he was getting ready to extend a hand of friendship to whoever grabs the reins of power, even if that happens to be Ali Zeidan’s abductor.
Of course it is. He said more or less the same thing when he thought Gaddafi would win.
Those children’s eyes said so much, didn’t they. God knows what they have already seen in their short lives and then to be flung into the Mediterranean.
Heartbreaking! And still the racist comments continue on timesofmalta.
There are some lovely people collecting clothes etc for these poor people but I believe they are being hindered in their work.
Very sad.
It’s a disgrace that people who arrive here have to depend on charity for their basic needs to be met. Voluntary work should supplement, not replace, publicly funded, properly managed, person centred support systems.
That could only be the reasoning of somebody who was brought up – as an only child – to think that he is the centre of the universe.
Muscat says its Europe’s problem, but in the meantime Italy is organising more patrols in its seas to save migrant lives (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24515906). Will Muscat follow suit?
An eye for a face. A tooth for a…..?
A lot of Maltese are really isolated from what living in the wider world is like. Maltese are really protected from harsh reality.
The moment Lampedusa received €50 M in aid from EU.
Bob the Builder panicked.
I have read on facebook that a group of women had set up a playroom at Hal Far filled with toys. This helped to put a smile on the faces of these children.
All the toys have been recently removed and placed in a store. The order was given by Minister Mallia. The room is now empty. So the toys were removed not because the room was needed for some other use but for no apparent reason.
I obtained this information from a Facebook group: Help the Children at Hal Far. Unfortunately the group is a closed group so only members of the group can read the posts there.
It seems people are being urged to write to Mallia and complain about this.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/451189018241972?__user=825992870
Update, posted on FB
Francesca Bianchi
I have good news, just spoken to Mr. Mario Gauci the head at Hal Far, he has very kindly reassured me that the kids play room is only being relocated and not taken off, the stuff has been put into storage until the ex-teaching room will be converted into a play room for the kids as they need the cabin for new residents (until yesterday it was still empty)…..we are so glad to hear this news we will keep you updated we hope to have the new room up and running over the next couple of days! Fingers crossed!
He’s portrayed himself (or thinks he has) as Saint Joseph since the horrors of the Lapedusa tragedies, in the hope that people and the media have very short memories.
Doesn’t the man realise that turning tragedy back on to us (himself) will only wash with the idiotic ‘taghna lkoll’ xenophobes who helped put him into power? To the rest of us, he is just sickening to listen to. Oh excuse me, was I being ‘negative’ and ‘isolating’ myself with that remark?
When will he ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ and realise he’s actually the man in charge now, and no longer in opposition?