The honouring of the undeserving: an update
Mark Camilleri, 25, who was this morning honoured by the state, at the behest of the prime minister, with a Medal for Service to the Republic, didn’t bother to turn up to the ceremony to receive it from the president, even though he accepted the honour.
He wasn’t taking a stand there; if you take a stand, you turn it down, not accept it and then avoid the ceremony.
Kristina Chetcuti reports in Times of Malta:
The editor of the newspaper Mark Camilleri, who had set up the Front Against Censorship, accepted the award but failed to turn up at the ceremony. When contacted, he said “I am very busy, it slipped my agenda.” He is now the chairman of the National Book Council.
The Front Against Censorship was nothing but a vehicle to raise awareness about his own case.
As though it is not offensive enough that the Labour government saw fit to make this inarticulate, ill-mannered, uncouth and uneducated man chairman of the National Book Council, when he can barely speak or order his thoughts, it had to honour him too.
But as long as he rooted for Owen Bonnici with the help of a few rehearsals and a teleprompter:
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So what’s the agenda, shave?
What do you think of our revolutionary’s take on D’Artagnan, Baxxter?
Cravat or sash around the neck?
All I can say is he won’t make it past Malta’s shores. Not with those silly novellas, not with that brain, and not with that shirt collar.
I doubt he has any intention of going head to head with foreigners. Why would anyone want to leave the rock anyway? Isn’t it the be all and end all?
If I may, Guevara c’e, ma non sei tu.
It slipped his agenda? Seriously? He’s about to be one of the recipients in a state honours ceremony, and he forgot. I am sure he had better things to do, right?
Yes, he just had to be facetious.
It slipped his agenda? Seriously? What the hell does “slipped my agenda” mean?
It must have fallen off the page.
He sounds like a robot.
No, he just sounds awful.
I am not a trans-gender Labour doctor who thinks that Sliema is studded with Baroque buildings.
I am never going to get that Gieh ir-Repubblikaa.
‘Ms Vella persists in her pet myth of pioneering the existence of baroque architecture in Sliema’
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20060117/letters/sliema-house-not-baroque.66228#.UqtQGLSRKGk
Awarding idiocy
Grace Borg should be rewarded next to complement Astrid Vella.
Why does every R he pronounces in English sound like a racing car revving up?
Because he’s a tw@
The President’s speech is a long series of clichés and unsuccessfully attempts to tackle too many subjects with the result that superficiality reigns supreme.
His arguments are mostly hazily expressed and the speech is remarkable for being banal, commonplace, a lot of hot air rising into the clouds. If the President intended his last “important” speech as some sort of testament to the nation about his lofty principles, I consider it a dismal failure.
Would Dr. Abela have refused the post of President had his nomination been approved only by the minimum required in the House of Representatives? Dr. Abela too owes his position to the PM of the time, Dr. Lawrence Gonzi.
Now he insists on wide consensus for the next President, though some of his predecessors, in my estimation, were far better men of state than he, even if they were not elected unanimously. His unsolicited advice on the choice of his own successor is in very poor taste indeed.
What exactly does Dr. Abela mean by “a strong President”? The President is as strong as the Constitution of Malta allows. If the President is not happy with the role assigned to him by the Constitution, he may resign at any time or he should not have accepted the role in the first place.
Does Dr. Abela consider himself a strong President because he organises a lot of fund-raising activities that attract crowds eager for an outing? This makes him an excellent impresario rather than a strong President.
And what about his preoccupation that Malta has a low birth-rate? What’s his preoccupation about? Does he mean that he is worried about an aging population and who will pay for future pensions? If not, it seems to me he must be worrying that the steady growth in Malta’s population is due to immigration by foreigners rather than through the offspring of Maltese “true bloods”.
Historically speaking, it was rightist regimes that insisted on increasing birth rates and awarded medals to mothers who bore ten or more children.
What Malta needs, in my view, is a President who is a man or woman of state and who concentrates more on his constitutional role rather than eclipsing it by going before TV cameras on fairly frequent occasions, even on programmes where a Head of State looks awkward, with the pretext of raising charity funds.
When the UK gave the awful, ex-boy band member, Tory bootlicker Gary Barlow an OBE, I thought that Western standards had reached one of their lowest points. I sometimes forget that Malta exists…
Post graduate? His command of the English language is simply appalling.
I who never went to secondary school speak better English than he does.
Blimey, they were in opposition for 26 years, and they still managed to bring up a new “generazzjoni socjalista.”
Why does he have a Russian accent in the first video?
Like the woodworm in beams, always there munching holes and weakening the structure.
I thought the accent was pro-Italian wanabee.
It’s a shame the English is so rotten. Obviously “Ir-Realta” means different things to different people, and he believes himself an authority on the matter. No wonder the standard slips: a University degree, with some, has become a manner of reinforcing inherited idiotic tenets.
The story was in fect.
The Univerzity owtoritiz.
How eloquent.
Here is another one who deserved the Gieh ir-Repubblika. For the service rendered to the reputation of Malta in Europe and the World, and for keeping us in the international press on a regular basis.
http://news.yahoo.com/eu-court-annuls-approval-basf-39-amflora-gmo-113920810–finance.html
“EU court annuls approval of BASF’s Amflora GMO potato
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europe’s second-highest court has overturned a decision by the European Commission to allow the cultivation and sale of a genetically modified potato developed by German chemicals group BASF.
The General Court of the European Union said on Friday the Commission had failed to follow the bloc’s rules when approving the Amflora potato, which is genetically modified to produce extra starch for use in the paper industry…”
And then there is this part:
“RULES BROKEN
The surprise approval of Amflora was one of the first decisions taken by the EU’s then-health commissioner, John Dalli, who took office in February 2010. Dalli was forced to resign from the Commission last year after being linked to a tobacco bribery scandal.
It was only the second time a genetically modified plant had been approved for cultivation in Europe, and prompted an angry response from environmental campaigners and consumer groups who strongly oppose the technology…”
In Malta, this was reported here:
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/world/EU-Court-annuls-controversial-Dalli-decision-on-GM-maize-20131213
See also:
http://www.dw.de/eu-court-bans-basfs-amflora-gm-potato-annuls-commission-approval/a-17293624
Of course, this is of no news value for Times of Malta and for Reno Bugeja’s PBS news. Maybe its a hot potato.
I am morally convinced that therein lies a corruption scandal of snus proportions.
Don’t get me started. “I have Maltese potato in my blood…”
His vanity didn’t let him refuse the award but then he also wanted to imitate Vella Gera’s (false) populism so he compromised. He accepted the medal but boycotted the ceremony.
Joey got what he deserved.
A snub of the first order from a vulgar moron.
Veru pajjiz tal-Pudini.
A Danton wannabe without the joie de vivre, panache and oratorical skills.
There is a diplomatic way of saying NO and a diplomatic way in conveying the same message in one gesture. But to turn it on oneself in the most silly, negligent manner with a banal excuse, reflects very adversely on the poor chap.
Well that’s Jum il-Helsien over, or was it Jum il-Hlas because it can be as confusing as child birth (hlas and helsien) with all those awards for favours rendered being bandied about.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Online-poll-puts-Lawrence-Gonzi-as-favourite-for-president-20131213
A road map pock marked with professors in mediocrity.
Just a bunch of rednecks and their accolytes running the country.
Another billboard/YouTube elf who got his iced bun. What else is he going to give his supporters. Free apartments and cars.
I wonder how this man would pronounce your own name, Daphne: Defffknee, Duffknee, Deafknee?
Just love the opening ‘In feeeeekt’ part. Enough to not watch any further.
Thanks for promoting my video.
Mark could be a person who struggles to express himself in front of a camera, but knowing Mark as I do, I find an intelligent person who had enough passion to fight for what he thought was right at the time.
Through my experience of interviewing people for documentary work, some people find it hard to express themselves in front of camera, but that doesn’t diminish their intelligence in any way. Well, I never judged their intelligence on their ability to speak to camera.
Struggles to express himself in front of camera. You make it sound as if he was being interviewed by the BBC or CNN.
Sounds that you can do better. Good on you mate.
We might not be BBC or CNN, but we always try to do the best possible with what the resources are.
[Daphne – You’d be a lot more credible if you were to use your own name. Anonymous people fighting anonymously against censorship are a contradiction in terms and defeat their own objective. Imagine if I were to do the same.]
Stephen Sackur
Li tkun taf tiggieled ma jfissirx li xi hadd hu ntelligenti.
Tfisser biss li l-persuna taf tiddefendi lilha nnifisha. Haga komuni – ‘trait’ li hafna anzi bosta nies ghandhom – ma hi ebda xempju ta’ bravura.
Exactly – no Genie of the Lamp there.
I now see why this guy always crosses his arms.
His over the top arm and hand gestures while he speaks could be deadly to a bystander.
One of the RARE occasions that I FULLY agree with you Daphne !