Oh look, Philip Rizzo has got his iced bun
Philip Rizzo, who spent months using his disabled daughter (a woman in her late 30s in no fit state to protest against being used, though he and his political friends made her sound like a child) to the electoral advantage of the Labour Party, has got his iced bun.
Not that he needs it, of course, but some people always seem to need or want positions regardless of their financial circumstances. Alfred Grixti, whose iced bun it was to be made chairman of the Employment & Training Corporation (he is the Labour mayor of Zebbug and has held official posts within the Labour Party), has resigned from that position.
He did so to take up an even more heavily iced bun as the person running the Foundation for Social Services, which is responsible for the state agencies Appoġġ, Sapport and Sedqa (don’t look at me; I didn’t name them).
He will be replaced as Employment & Training Corporation chairman by Clyde Caruana. And Philip Rizzo is going to be the CEO.
Rizzo’s beef was that he was worried about what would become of his daughter after his death – who knows, maybe the same thing that became of her when he wasn’t looking after her for most of her life, and she was cared for by others? – and that he expected the state to make provision for people in his situation.
My response on this website was that people of means should make provision for their own children – there are legal and financial vehicles for that purpose – and allow the state to look after the children of those with no means. This did not go down well.
However, it is the truth.
Jo’s response was to promise him publicly (and others believed it too) that when he got into power he would create residential homes in every town and village so that disabled adults whose parents had died and who had no one to look after them would be cared for and be able to carry on living in the same neighbourhood.
Jo has no intention of delivering on this and never did. So instead of delivering a residential home in Sliema where Philip Rizzo’s daughter can live after he dies (I quote him, lest anyone think I am being too blunt), he has delivered a CEO position for Philip Rizzo.
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If Mr. Philip Rizzo is a gentleman – and I do not have any evidence to the contrary – he should never accept the position of CEO of the ETC until Jo implements that specific electoral promise for which he got full public endorsement from Mr. Rizzo.
This is persons with disability we are talking about here, and Mr. Rizzo is risking his credibility.
As things now stand, Mr. Rizzo has taken his iced bun before the 50,000 persons with disability to whom he referred in the quote below.
If Mr. Rizzo’s wish quoted below – which, I fully appreciate, comes from the anxiety of a parent of a child with disability – were to come through, then his own daughter would never have benefited from Jo’s promise, while he who has already reached his retirement age would be enjoying an iced bun which he really can afford to live without.
This is not the “Fair Society,” Mr. Rizzo.
“I am merely one amongst almost 50,000 mothers and fathers of a disabled offspring that wishes that my child would die before I do; indeed, I regularly pray that Philippa, who is only 35 years of age, will die before myself who has recently reached retirement age!”
http://www.maltastar.com/dart/20120921-father-forced-to-wish-for-death-of-daughter
It is amazing how Joe who was all out for meritocracy allows that people are appointed to these posts without issuing public calls. What he really meant by meritokrazija was that one had to be part of the Lejburisti clan to merit a post.
Where is MaltaToday in all this? Their journalists used to make mega stories crying foul whenever someone was appointed to these posts but now silence reigns supreme.
Is it my fading memory or is it a fact that, before the elections, Joseph promised that persons appointed to government boards were to be selected through a specialized committee ?
Define committee
Define specialized.
I think it was a parliamentary committee made up from both sides of the house, or something to that effect.
Who is Clyde Caruana?
Former Labour local councillor and paraded as an expert of the government in all education related press conferences.
Is he the one stating that unemployment has been rising since 2004 and not post 9 March 2013, probably caused by the fact that persons were previously not being struck off the ETC register?
Oh come on!