The embedded codes in British English – apparently they are as mysterious to some as those in Japanese
Can we please grow up and face reality? Nobody liked Mintoff outside Malta except the pick of the crop of the world’s most heinous dictators: Chairman Mao, Kim Il Sung, Muammar Gaddafi, Nicolau Ceaucescu, and whoever happened to be running the worst of the South American dictatorships at the time. And nobody liked him at home bar those with soup for brains and the moral code of a sea urchin.
It is astonishing how most of the Maltese press and its readers took the Prince of Wales’s description of his clearly trying time with an obnoxious man literally as a description of Mintoff’s strength and valour and the prince’s admiration.
It is so very obviously the opposite. What he is saying here is that Mintoff was insufferable (if you are going to waterski, does it have to be “on and on” for hours?), that he was so competitive he even felt he had to compete with a guest (a royal guest) three decades his junior, that he was crass and ill-mannered (no courtesy to his guests and to what they would like to do; no concern when his guest was tired and fell back), and that he was rotten company.
The use of the word ‘remarkable’ here is ironic. One can be remarkable for all the wrong reasons.
The sooner we all stop being so ridiculous and literal, the better for us all.
I read this and it is clear to me that the Prince of Wales didn’t like Mintoff at all and thought him awful. Am I speaking a different language? No. I just speak the same language properly. I can’t understand how these things are dismissed as subtleties which can be missed. They’re wearing headlights and are painted neon pink.
From a report in Times of Malta:
(The Prince of Wales on the subject of Dom Mintoff)
“When I was in Malta on one occasion,” he said, “I remember Mr Dom Mintoff, who was a remarkable Prime Minister, invited me to go water skiing with him, and he was very keen on water skiing but he was one of those people who go on and on water skiing for hours and hours. And I remember he wore this extraordinary bath hat, bathing hat, and put wax plugs in his ears. Anyway we solemnly waterskied around most of Malta, until I could bear it no longer and dropped off, and let go of the rope and he went on. I never saw him again!”
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The last sentence says it all “I never saw him again” – relief.
[Daphne – No, not relief. Astonishment at his appalling manners and boorishness. You don’t just drive off and leave your guest in the ocean.]
Muscat would only have got the message if Charles added at the end of his recollection “What a sh*t!”
Mintoff was never an asset to Malta but an embarrassment.
P.S. Joseph Muscat will follow in his footsteps pretty well.
I loved the Prince’s ending to his recount of the day out ski-ing. Although so many years have passed, he still sounds relieved at not having seen Mintoff again. Hilarious
You should have heard Ramona Frendo and Michael Falzon on radio this morning. Ramona Frendo was bursting with pride and going on about how “Mintoff never let go of any rope”.
Most Labour supporters do not realise it but Mintoff’s alleged physical prowess is very similar to that of Mussolini who used to be filmed while swimming heroically against the waves.
[Daphne – Vladimir Putin, too. And in Mintoff’s case, it was doubly important to make him out to be some kind of strongman in the public eye, because in real life he was an absolute midget – really short and puny. He can’t have been more than 5’2″.]
There was a case when Mintoff had fallen off a horse and hurt his head very badly, but didn’t want anyone to find out that he was injured and going to the UK for treatment. He kept it secret all along because he didn’t want anyone to think he was human.
[Daphne – Actually, he hadn’t fallen off a horse at all. He had been roughed up by a man he had cuckolded; his own brother, as it happens.]
In fact the wound on Mintoff’s scalp had the perfect shape of the edge of a vase and it was discreetly sewn up in private hospital and not at St Luke’s Hospital like any other mortal.
I remember reading a newspaper report about the ‘fall from his horse’ incident and its aftermath ‘at St Luke’s Hospital’.
The strong man was ‘reported’ to have said to the doctors and nurses, on his regaining consciousness after surgery, “Habbattkom, hux?”
There were quite a few cabbages around who believed the whole shenanigan, however.
Some people, and Ramona Frendo – raised a Mintoffian in Zejtun – is one of them, feel so insecure and have such inferiority complex that they need to transfer their aspirations onto a hero.
And that hero for them was Mintoff, is-salvatur. These people have never matured. They make good specimens for psychoanalytical study.
Imbasta marret Cambridge, Ramona hi! The subtleties of the English language are lost on her.
Also the dictator of Uganda Idi Amin. He himself was the main protagonist in a film that in fact only ridiculed him. All dictators have this in common. Not to mention also Joseph Muscat. If he were not stupid, would he be proud of what Prince Charles said over Mintoff, as he himself narrated this as if it is something to be proud of.
Prince Charles never saw Mintoff again. Would that we had been able to say that ourselves.
Mintoff had absolutely no respect. He would summon people to his office at midday for a meeting yet in some instances would keep them waiting outside his office for nine hours to wear them down.
More fool them for waiting.
It happened to me but I had been forewarned and I took a copy of Punch with me to while away the time. The trembling Castille staff outside Mintoff’s office were mystified at my chuckling while enjoying British humour at its best.
He would also summon people for meetings at 10:30 pm. Presumably because he could – and because he derived a perverse pleasure from inconveniencing people.
The words “I never saw him again” convey the speaker’s relief at never having to suffer the man again. And that’s when the guests laughed. It was the punch line, Kurt.
He never saw him again. That sums it all up, some host he was.
Our prime minister must have thought that the prince had something in common with him, yippee, he admired his salvatur, il-kbir Mintoff. ‘Xi hlew!’
Muscat then offered to host the next CHOGM meeting in 2015. If Dr. Gonzi did it, he too can. And such an invitation would surely make up for the ‘sale of EU passports’ fiasco. Surely.
Incredible! When I think this is the worst, something else comes out on the next day. At least I’m continuously giggling.
In their small mind CHOGM in 2015 is a way to “disprove” the “orchestrated” bad press:
https://twitter.com/alfredmifsud/status/402129245931319296
https://twitter.com/kurtfarrugia/status/401957553456054272
Twits tweeting like tw@ts on twitter. Obviously the persons tweeting are on state payroll as are the sponsored ads everywhere on the net telling us that with the budget most families with get the elusive 25% off.
Muscat picked up an offer that had been discarded by Mauritius and as a stop gap.
In the vernacular: Prince Charles kien qieghed jiehdu f’sormu b’Mintoff (u probabbli b’Muscat).
British humour is apparently as incomprehensible for many Maltese as it is for Joseph Muscat. They should really try to change their channel to the BBC more often.
Prince Charles should have been warned that irony is beyond many members of the Commonwealth. After all they misconstrue meritocracy, talent, transparency and so many other words in daily use, irony is not for the feeble-minded or the culturally different.
British humour is actually the best – so subtle but yet so direct.
It may not be generally known that whenever guests were challenged by Mintoff to swim against him, his entourage discreetly whispered in the guest’s ear, for heaven’s sake, to let the egomaniac win otherwise the rest of the day would be ruined for all.
That’s probably true and hardly surprising; the man was an insufferable sore loser. My grandfather and his friends used to have him over at their boċċi club from time to time, and he always told us that whenever Mintoff was losing the game, he’d go over and scatter all the boules and end the game there and then.
He also used to ‘feel ill’ whenever it was his turn to buy the post-game tea and pastizzi and never drink anything not from his flask. So he was quite the paranoid miser with an ego.
My interpretation of the prince’s remarks was the same as yours, Daphne.
However, I had no doubt that Labour sycophants would see it as praise. Just like when they interpreted the comment ‘when Mintoff was in power all the world knew about Malta’ as a positive one. Even now all the world knows (and is speaking) about Malta, but again it’s for all the wrong reasons.
A lovely example of disdain as expressed by the British.
Next summer we will see Joseph Muscat practising water-skiing so that in two years time he will be in a position to challenge Prince William on a fun trip round Malta.
Better invest in a decent tug boat then, because at the rate he is going there is no way you will see him on skis – more like a walrus mating.
Thank you it was so darn obvious. And our Prime Ministers remarks were pathethic.
Unless you are raised in a language you can never understand the subtle tones, innuendos and figures of speech that mark a language.