A top might be better at spinning than Corto Farrugia in the role of head of government communications
The decision to hold the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Malta in 2015 has been spun by the government’s minuscule head of communications on Twitter as acclaim for his boss/Malta. This is ‘massive’ he said, in an Ali G moment that was most unwise, given that everyone’s favourite photograph of him is of his head photoshopped onto Borat’s tankini.
What he didn’t say is that his boss made the spur-of-the-moment offer when Mauritius announced that it was pulling out of hosting the meeting itself, citing opposition to Sri Lanka’s human rights record. In other words, Mauritius isn’t going to host the meeting as a sign of protest, because hosting the meeting means hosting Sri Lanka, and it doesn’t want to do that. Mauritius was not at the Sri Lanka meeting last week.
But the Labour Party, as we know, just loves a human rights oppressor and has the real hots for dictators of all hues everywhere. If it adores China it is obviously going to have no problem with Sri Lanka.
Anyway, Agence France Presse has been reporting the news far more clearly than Corto Farrugia on Twitter, so read their report.
Malta to host next CHOGM: Commonwealth Secretary General
Colombo (AFP – 17 November 2013): Malta is to host the next Commonwealth summit after Mauritius pulled out in protest over the decision to hold this year’s gathering in Sri Lanka, the organisation said Sunday.
“The prime minister of Malta has invited the Commonwealth to hold CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) 2015, with Malta as the venue,” Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma said at the end of the summit in Colombo.
“It (the offer) was received by all members with acclamation,” Sharma told reporters.
Mauritius had been due to stage the biennial gathering in 2015 but its Prime Minister Navin Chandra Ramgoolam announced just ahead of the Colombo gathering that it no longer wanted to play the role of hosts, citing Sri Lanka’s human rights record.
“I have made it perfectly clear that human rights are more important than hosting a Commonwealth summit, regardless of its importance,” Ramgoolam, who boycotted the Colombo summit, told lawmakers.
The leaders of India and Canada also stayed away from this year’s summit after allegations of war crimes committed by Sri Lankan government forces at the end of the country’s 37-year ethnic conflict.
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http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/malta-to-host-next-chogm-commonwealth-secretary-general-447166
Nevertheless, the Labour version of this story will be presented in the media and that is what most people will believe and parrot on.
The very few exceptions reporting a true picture will be labelled as negative and accused of playing down or sabotaging this government’s massive success.
Many comments beneath this article are a case in point: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131118/local/the-draw-of-foreign-passports.495185#.Uonq8su9KSM
So many, too many, just parrot on what they are fed without bothering to find out what the difference between residency and citizenship means. And when some point out this flaw in their thinking, the reaction is “mhux xorta”, “kemm intom negattivi, tikkritikaw biss”, or “you don’t want to admit this government is being successful”. They will never be convinced otherwise.
The core LP supporters, like Privitera, need to cling to this belief. Acknowledging their flawed thinking and the unethical behaviour of this government would shatter their world, since they would have to question their own self, past and present behaviour and everything they are. It is psychologically safer for them to continue creating their own reality and filtering out the uncomfortable truths.
Did Joseph Muscat have anything to say on the human rights issues in Sri Lanka? Did Cameron ask him, and if so, what did he say in reply?
Great, I didn’t know the reason Mauritius pulled out. Some image we’re creating for Malta.
Massive. For all the wrong reasons.
The CHOGM will be an excellent opportunity for anti-government protests to be given international prominence.
Fools rush in
We are forgetting the power of attraction exerted by having one’s photo taken with the Queen or Prince Charles, and not just any old Obama…going up in the world, are the Muscats. Sorry, what’s Sri Lanka and human rights compared to a photo for the growing collection of frejms tal-fidda fuq is-senduq?