Traffic news: how to throw your weight around with unmitigated third-world arrogance

Published: March 2, 2014 at 10:35am

Here’s a comment I received from somebody who ran the marathon last Sunday.

I was running the marathon and as I got to the end of the Mriehel bypass, going over the flyover, I hear sirens and looked back and saw two police outriders on their motorbikes with sirens wailing, going down towards the tunnel.

They were escorting, yes, THE Alfa Romeo, with the prime minister smirking inside as he whipped past the marathon runners with his ‘get out of my way’ sirens. And I thought, ‘Seriously, what a w*nker’.

Everywhere along the run, traffic was held up to let us through and people waited patiently for the cause, yet this idiot saw fit to weave through the runners and draw maximum attention to himself and his great importance. He just looked so crass.

And this has an epilogue. When I got to Porte des Bombes, the road leading from Pieta was closed and there was a group of men walking up. I thought they looked like the kind of men who would hang around the Labour Party club on a Sunday morning. And I assumed they were walking because the road was closed.

And then I noticed the hair and the sideways glance – Alfred Sant. And I thought no matter what I think of him, there’s the tale of one politician who’s aware and respectful of what’s going on today, and there’s that prime minister who has no clue.

————

This comment came in from somebody who was stuck in traffic last Wednesday during the afternoon rush hour.

At around 5.30pm I was stuck in traffic on the Great Siege Road near the side entrance of the Phoenicia Hotel in Floriana. Hearing a siren wailing behind me I looked in my mirror and saw a police motorcycle outrider, with blue lights flashing and siren going at full blast, trying to create a path through the traffic for some official car he was escorting.

When this car forced its way through and came alongside mine, I saw who the important person inside was: none other than Police and Army Minister Manuel Mallia.

I do not know what the emergency was, and why he was in such a hurry. But maybe someone had told him that the water fountain in St. George’s Square was now spouting free Faberge eggs.

————

This information came in by telephone call last Thursday lunchtime.

I work in St Julian’s and I’m really furious right now. Early this morning police from the Spinola station put up signs on several parking spaces close to the restaurant that used to be known as Chains, warning people not to park there.

The parking spaces were kept reserved all morning and we wondered why. Now it’s lunchtime and four cars are parked there. There’s a security officer standing outside the restaurant. One of the cars is his, a white Hyundai. Then there’s also a soldier in another car, Manuel Mallia’s official car GM14, and a BMW with a resident’s parking permit for Vittoriosa.

They’re inside that restaurant that used to be Chains, and the security officer and the soldier are on guard outside.

Manuel Mallia is the police minister and he used the police to clear parking spaces for himself, his security officer, his soldier and his guest outside the restaurant from early morning.

I am so angry at this arrogance and abuse, I can’t tell you.

I can confirm this last bit. The man who rang me was so agitated with fury that he could barely get the words out and I had to ask him to repeat the details several times over.




35 Comments Comment

  1. La Redoute says:

    Why does Manwel Mallia use an AFM escort when the AFM is short of staff?

  2. cikku l-poplu says:

    Nazi stile

  3. giraffa says:

    They are behaving as if they own the country – and I am sure they believe it.

    On Thursday morning I was driving up to Hamrun from the bypass before the tunnels, when I was overtaken by two police motorcycles, full lights flashing, making hand signals for me to let their carcade through.

    There were also one police car and a CID car at the back, which were sandwiching an official car, flying what looked to me like the Russian flag.

    The carcade then turned and stopped just round the corner from LIDL in St Venera. They blocked the road, police tripping over themselves to open the guest’s door, and this person – whoever he was – went running into the door which leads to the office above LIDL.

    Now I wonder what office that is – maybe a new branch of Henleys? I thought it was a gaming office, but could be wrong. What’s going on in this country?

  4. Wiki-Joe says:

    shocking

  5. Vagabond King says:

    Talk about arrogance. What about Mrs. Muscat and her friend Michelle Buttigieg (see Sunday Times Page 6).

    This is the same procedure used to engage Mrs. Konrad Mizzi: no call for applications, just a direct appointment.

    Her only qualification is an ITS course in Malta in the early nineties and of course a friendship with Mrs. Muscat.

    Mrs. Buttigieg and her husband were also guests at the Auberge de Castille on Inauguration Day: did they vote in the general election even though they live and work in New York?

  6. Wot the Hack says:

    Does anyone have a link to a video clip of the Net news item when they stopped the prime minister on his way out of the airport following his trip to Milan to support his favourite football team?

    The reaction and facial expression of the prime minister after he winds down the Alfa’s electric window on the driver’s side is priceless.

  7. Rahal says:

    Malajr sirna arroganti. Ahseb u ara aktar il-quddiem.

    Xi pjacir ittina Muscat. Kompli mixi hekk.

  8. C Mifsud says:

    I honestly believe that Malta was far better off under Alfred Sant than it is under Muscat.

    The arrogance of some of this government’s ministers and their friends is unbelievable. It is probably worse (with the exception of Lorry Sant) than the golden Mintoff years.

  9. Jozef says:

    There’s the same model for sale at a second hand delaership in Pieta’, same colour, same trim. Been there some time now, no doubt no one wants to be assimilated with our dear leader.

    Meantime,

    http://www.lettera43.it/upload/images/10_2013/l43-matteo-renzi-bicicletta-131023180340_big.jpg

    On his way from Palazzo Vecchio to greet Napolitano arriving by train.

  10. observer says:

    Probably Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ is best known for the mock ‘commandment’ ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.

    It would be useful to remember that the novel ends with a ghastly scene of the half-drunk pigs’ criminal gang (i.e the animals’ supposed liberators from human slavery) swilling beer with their former masters.

    The newly enslaved other animals look on unbelievably at the rowdy gathering, utterly incapable of distinguishing between the four-legged pigs and the two-legged others.

    Have things in Malta reached that stage already? I would be afraid to say ‘no’.

  11. robert says:

    Daphne don’t you get it? These are very important people! VIPs. They run the entire nation and have a great deal on their shoulders.

    The last thing they must worry about is spending time in traffic or not having their vehicles nicely parked outside restaurants.

    Every minute lost out of their time is a minute lost from ruling this great nation and bringing it closer to great prosperity. We are soon going to be filthy rich with all those sold passports and by becoming friendly with oil rich ‘dictators’.

    There is so little they can do on their mobile phones inside a car. And let’s face it, we all get terribly carsick when reading documents in a moving car.

    So let us respect the great importance of these very big men in this very important nation of ours. Stop getting jealous simply because Malta is crammed full of cars and not enough parking spaces.

    Next time you or your readers meet these VIP cars again, the best action is to stop, stand up straight as an arrow and SALUTE.

    Sieg heil, Manuel.

    • Tabatha White says:

      They must have been advised to conduct themselves with pomp and ceremony at all times.

      Gaddafi had his female outriders. What’s missing here is an upgrading on the models used: No Aston Martins in the mix yet, no Ducati’s either.

      Where genuine regal pomp is lacking, there are plenty of wanabee contenders.

      It’s not for the lack of effort, but the result is a joke.

      There are so many discriminatory threads, if one wanted to pull them out and isolate them into single lines of attack.

  12. Taghna biss says:

    Sheer arrogance. Certain people think they became immortals on these islands simply because they have been temporarily empowered to administer them.

    They are abusing galore of their privileges and instead of serving the country and the people as they should be doing in accordance to their oath, they are demanding to be served, to be seen and treated like selfish kings.

    This attitude is self destructive and eroding the whole idea of honest politics and the real meaning of proper governance by example.

  13. Harry Worth says:

    If I had to be in such a situation, I will surely not pull to the side.

  14. Rumplestiltskin says:

    This is behaviour suited to the despots that Labour loves to consort with.

    • curious says:

      They will tell us that she is qualified to do the job. Just like Mrs. Konrad Mizzi.

      Mhux x’taf imma lil min taf.

  15. canon says:

    It is arrogance of the highest order.

    • curious says:

      Arrogance, what arrogance?

      “The government is refusing to disclose how much it is paying Irish media expert Leslie Skipper for providing communication services to the Prime Minister and various other ministries.” (Times of Malta)

  16. Veronica says:

    I can confirm the last item, having driven past this restaurant last Thursday at around 1pm. There were about two or three official-looking cars parked right outside and a small group of people inside eating all on their lonesome – it looked like the restaurant had been reserved just for them.

    At Tony’s Bar just around the corner I could see at least two ‘xuffier tal-Ministru’ types in wraparound sunglasses sharing a beer or two with a couple of traffic cops. All very cosy.

  17. Freedom5 says:

    Having attended the Nadur carnival after some 15 years, I found that everyone was commenting about the heavy police presence at every corner. Probably more police were deployed than at Sydney’s Mardi Gras and Amsterdam’s Queen’s Day parades put together.

    Manuel Mallia is really out to make his presence felt. Small man syndrome.

  18. ken il malti says:

    Here is some politically tinged bit of humour:

    Joseph Muscat was touring the countryside in his chauffeur-driven Alfa Romeo car.

    Suddenly, a donkey jumps out onto the road, and they hit it full on and the car comes to a stop.

    Joseph Muscat says to the chauffeur: ‘You get out and check, you were driving.’

    The chauffeur gets out, checks and reports that the animal is dead.

    ‘You were driving; go and tell the farmer,’ says Joseph Muscat.

    Hours later, the chauffeur returns totally plastered, hair ruffled with a big grin on his face.

    ‘My God, what happened to you?’ asked Joseph Muscat.

    The chauffeur replies: ‘When I got there, the farmer opened his best bottle of whiskey, the wife gave me a real country style feast of a meal and the daughter took me upstairs and made love to me.

    ‘What on earth did you say to them?’ asked a puzzled Joseph Muscat.

    ‘I knocked on the door, and when it was answered, I said breathlessly to them, “I’ am Joseph Muscat’s chauffeur and I’ve just killed the jackass.”

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