Comment of the day: Watch out, there’s a major AH on the roads
‘Get out of my frigging way, peasants’
Sent in by Johann Camilleri:
So my sister and her husband are at Melita FC last Saturday morning, as my young nephew trains there.
Joseph Muscat is there too watching his daughter play football as he does practically every Saturday morning.
My nephew is in a different class that ends earlier than young Miss Muscat’s class and so left earlier, at about 11:30.
About 15 minutes later, whilst stuck in the usual traffic down regional road my sister and her husband heard a siren behind them and assumed it was an ambulance and so dutifully crammed to the side like everyone else.
Imagine their surprise when they saw it was no ambulance at all but the PM’s car preceded by what they assumed was his bodyguards’ car with sirens wailing.
Obviously the PM cannot be expected to wait in traffic like everyone else, can he, and it couldn’t have been any emergency because he had been sitting down on his rather voluminous back side draped in The North Face clothing for the preceding 90 minutes.
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Breeding will out. In the case of Joseph and Michelle Muscat it gushes out with their every move.
And this was the guy who called Dr. Gonzi arrogant? I’m lost for words, Daphne – please help.
[Daphne – I’ll just give you some advice. When you hear that siren and see that it’s the prime minister, don’t move aside to let his entourage overtake you. Just carry on driving in front of them, and slow your speed. What can they do – arrest you for impeding the prime minister’s passage through traffic? Imagine the headlines.]
What headlines? On your blog only. The newspapers except for perhaps The Malta Independent, will pretend it didn’t happen. Sadly even the Times is compromised. So much for independent press.
Now watch the Prime Minister have a law passed so that ministerial cars have special status on the road.
I am going to take your advice to Spock, and I will go one step further.
The next time I’m driving and I hear that siren and I find it’s the prime minister’s car, I will move the car to the middle of the road, stop the car, get out of it and ask the prime minister’s security to arrest me.
May I add to your remark. There is jurisprudence in the Criminal Courts of Appeal to the effect that emergency does not give any driver the right to violate or breach any law for there is nothing in our laws that stipulates that official cars or service cars on an emergency are allowed any other speed limit than that stipulated by law.
Other case law stipulates that when a driver drives at excessive speed he is deemed to be driving in a dangerous and reckless manner. So your advice is quite sound advice, Daphne.
[Daphne – I know it is. I used to do it all the time in the 1980s and so I know from experience that you can’t be arrested for doing that because ministerial cars do not have special status under the law. Back then it was even more fun doing it because there were so few cars on the roads – Labour paradise and all that – and the speed limit was 25 miles an hour. So whenever I saw some car containing a Labour minister coming up behind me, I’d slow right down to 20 miles an hour, centre my car in the middle of the lane and pretend to be deaf.]
Same thing happened to me yesterday. It was an unmarked police car – a white unmarked Ford Focus with the blue police lights.
Then Joseph Muscat’s Alfa sped past all the traffic.
Idiots. He was in no hurry whatsoever and if his escort car and his driver can drive at that speed, then so can everyone else. Bring Gonzi back anytime.
Joseph Muscat must have watched too many films as a child.
Like many of us he must have enjoyed the sight of a police car chasing the criminal, with the officer shouting “follow that car”. Again like most of us he must have dreamed of the day when he could do and say just that :follow that car.
We eventually grew out of that phase. Joseph Muscat apparently didn’t. At last he is having his dream come true. Didn’t he himself say he dreamt of being the youngest Prime Minister Malta ever had? That is two of his dreams being fulfilled. And he is smugly enjoying it. The child in him has not grown up yet.
‘Bring Gonzi back anytime.’ Unfortunately it is now too bloody late.
Oh given the chance how I’d love to do that ! Perhaps we could organize a flash mob at that place and time , jump out in the middle of the road at the first sound of the siren and dance to the Malta Taghna Lkoll tune . They could hardly arrest us all could they ?! Imagine the headlines then .
He had to rush to pick up the twin sister from ballet.
M’ghandhomx Burmarrad FC jew ?
He is always in a hurry because he is always late. I’m not condoning it, but merely remarking about it.
I remember having refused to move out of the way one time when President Edward Fenech Adami was entering the tunnels from the Qormi side accompanied by two motorbikes on an otherwise empty road.
As much as the accompanying policemen flashed and sounded their sirens, I refused to to cross the continuous single line, especially not in the tunnel itself, unless someone’s life depended on it. To the contrary, I calmly made sure that I was way under the speed limit and obstinately hogged the outer lane until the last inch of the white line, at which point I turned on my indicators and changed lane. The motorbikes drove on with the president in tow, without even a second glance in my direction, as they headed towards San Anton.
Although I’d willingly ram my vehicle onto any pavement to allow any emergency vehicle to pass, particularly having had my father in ambulance once before, this is not a courtesy that I would ever intend to afford to any politician or foreign dignatory, even more so if he is in the process of having his ego massaged by a chauffeur, luxury limousine, and police escort complete with the obligatory blazing lights and blaring sirens. Of course, under a labour government and their puppet commissioner, mine may be excessive bravado.
Probably had a packed schedule. On Saturday at around 2.30pm saw the PM’s car preceded by a white unmarked police car, with sirens wailing at Mdina Road, Zebbug, obviously going down the road at high speed.
I was on the opposite side of the road and as you rightly suggested if faced with the situation in the future with these behind me will not move aside.
Arrogance yes but such irresponsible antics can lead to traffic chaos and quite possibly accidents. Imagine driving in low to moderate traffic and suddenly hearing the awful siren signature from a vehicle a few meters behind. Happened to me once or twice and it leaves you rooted for a split second.
So what we have here on the one hand is a Prime Minister showing off that one can lead a ‘normal’ life after all (watching his daughter play footie) and on the other using irresponsible, illegal tactics to bypass traffic.
My trick is to tag along behind. I’m serious.
I wish that one day, they’d torch that bleeding Alfa. Too many times have I been side-swiped by that blithering idiot.
What a big difference between statesmen and salesmen. Once a great leader was visiting his home town in Qunu, and someone asked him who was he.
This was the great unforgettable Nelson Mandela that brought peace to South Africa without any bloodshed and who gave his people dignity minghajr ebda daqq ta’ trombi. (Maybe a lesson should be learned).
Maybe he really needed to go.
Just asking a question Daphne, are you able to put a link in place to enable us to upload your articles to various social network sites.
Doqq is-sirena kemm iz-zikk trid. Jien mhux se nwarrab.
Min iz-zeta tahseb li int?
Would you care to tell us in which country in the world the Prime Minister waits in traffic? Not being funny here but would really like you to answer that question. There again you can state that you don’t have an answer by simply deleting the question. I think we both know which option you will choose.
[Daphne – Prime minister wait in traffic everywhere outside the Third World, Mr Borg, unless they are wanted at an emergency meeting to announce that Britain is at war with Germany.]
That is total nonsense and you know it. Any country I have ever been in and witnessed the passing of even lesser mortals than the Prime Minister I have seen traffic being stopped by police outriders to allow official cars to get through. Can’t remember ever seeing Gonzi sitting in traffic!
[Daphne – If you were in any way mathematically inclined, you would know that the odds of your seeing Gonzi stuck in traffic were always going to be next to negligible, and not because he was never stuck in traffic, but because both you and he would have to be alongside each other in a traffic jam for that to happen. The odds would improve if both you and he were out in the rush hour every day in the same part of Malta and at precisely the same time, but what is the likelihood of that? I, on the other hand, see the prime minister blistering past with his outriders on a regular basis, but that is because the odds of my doing so are pretty good given that he lives down the road from me.]
Well by your description they definitely were not in a hurry to get down to Burmarrad for some brodu.
With regards to the comment by Gaetano Pace above I have an Italian friend who fell foul to exactly what he wrote, in Italy, and is still paying for it. You can never break the law. Not only in Malta.
The Alfa and Omega of Arrogance.
They certainly are making the best of it. Everyone is equal in this Republic of ours, but then some are more equal than the rest.
” Dawn in-nies qatt ma raw jew kellhom xejn” so what can one expect?
Those who need to feel important usually do so because they feel hugely inadequate. In this case I can understand why.