Mrs Muscat’s Society of Friends (sorry, frents)
Eleven female inmates showcased their delicately patterned draperies and curtains this morning as part of an initiative which will see them being employed by a private factory.
Mrs Muscat, who never misses an opportunity for what she thinks will be positive publicity for herself, even if there is an inherent risk that it might backfire, hauled the press over to the prisons yesterday and made a big show of the fact that “my friend the interior designer Mary Grace Pisani has taught the women prisoners how to sew and now they will be sewing for a private textile company”.
Let’s leave the blatant sexism aside (sewing is for girls), and instead examine the more interesting details of this story, which are not reported.
Here they are.
Mary Grace Pisani is NOT an interior designer. She is a curtain-maker who is something of an authority on how to make curtains and who has written a book about the subject (published by the slimy fence-straddler Jesmond Bonello of Content House – but that’s another story).
She works for B4 Textiles, the textile company which provides a bespoke service for cushions, curtains and similar. The fact that Mrs Muscat significantly omitted to mention the name of the ‘private company’ for which the prisoners will be sewing curtains and cushions (and of course, no reporter bothered to ask, forgetting that the devil is invariably in the detail) means that it is almost certainly the one for which Miss Pisani works, B4 Textiles. They are going to get cheap curtains made by prisoners and slap on a generous mark-up for themselves. Or they might pay the prisoners the going rate and see this as their way of ‘giving back’. Who knows?
Either way, Mrs Muscat should not have got involved, but given that she did become involved, then she should divulge the full details: my friend Mary Grace Pisani, who makes my dresses, taught women prisoners how to sew curtains so that they can make curtains for her company on the cheap.
Or, as Times of Malta reported it:
Ms Muscat explained that the initiative was the brainchild of her friend, interior designer Mary Grace Pisani, who organised a three-month workshop where she taught the inmates how to sew.
A private textile company will be using the services of the inmates, who will have a “little factory” at the Correctional Facility. The money they earn will be stored for safekeeping in their bank account and they will only have access to it once they’ve completed their prison sentences.
You would expect the private company making use of the prisoners’ sewing services to provide them with sewing-machines, but Mary Grace Pisani’s curtain-making business is not only getting cheap labour. It has also got, for free, the sewing-machines on which the cheap labour will be performed.
I quote Times of Malta again:
As the chairwoman of the Marigold Foundation, Mrs Muscat donated two sewing machines to Rise Foundation, who were also helping out in the initiative.
Mrs Muscat (right) at Malta Fashion Week last year, wearing a dress made for her by Mary Grace Pisani, whose work she promoted.
Mary Grace Pisani (centre) who makes curtains but also clothes that look like curtains.
Mrs Muscat (centre) with Mary Grace Pisani and the new Social Policy Minister Michael Farrugia, at the prisons yesterday, admiring curtains made by prisoners.
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What happens if another company approaches these women?
I suppose ‘the money they earn will be stored for safekeeping in their bank account and they will only have access to it once they’ve completed their prison sentences.’
Presumably none of them have children to support.
There are interesting details there too. How much are the women being paid? When and how is the money paid out? Who administers the bank accounts and in whose name are they held?
Thanks for keeping us posted on these unethical enterprises. That is journalism.
Can the harvesting of human organs for profit be far behind for the Joseph Muscat crew?
I wouldn’t doubt that Jo has a Chinese wizard hidden behind some of those curtains telling him what he has got to do.
All that Chinese money to win the election did not come with no strings attached.
Cheap labour. Is this something a Labour government should promote? Will these women have deadlines to reach? This goes beyond rehabilitation once orders start coming in even if it’s only from one company. The labourers will have conditions imposed on them and they won’t have a voice.
A bespoke tailoring outfit manned by prisoners. Now that would be rehabilitation.
The dress in the first picture reminds me of an uncircumcised manhood. Very fitting (symbolically speaking) for a prime minister’s wife, particularly if she has him by the balls.
They really know the word exploitation.
Now next thing we will read about how a prison inmate stabbed another one with a pair of scissors.
What we read in the reports is all eyewash. There are lazy prison inmates who are eager to get out of their cells, so they will ask for tuition for which they will just stare at their tutor and who will volunteer to “work” as long as they earn something on the side while staying out of the YOURS section.
You can take a horse to the water but you cannot make it drink. You are mostly dealing with very clever and lazy criminals – though there are some few exceptions, of course.
Wow, is this unfair competition or what? Free electricity, free machines and maintenance, workers who are not unionized and not exactly free to look around for better pay.
Also, free supervision and timekeeping AND free board, healthcare and lodging. Any more &s and we would be in China.
Precarious work?
Unbelievable!
Now this is journalism.
Thank you and God bless you, Daphne.
I wonder if this could be considered as illegal state aid to the private textile company.
Can Mrs Muscat kindly specify how much these prisoners will be paid per hour?
It’s a known fact that B4 charges exorbitantly for their products and they will make a huge profit, needless to say.
Ferry + Pisani = Fersani
The brand is named like those houses where the couple join pieces of their names to invent a new word.
Fresani is a new line of fresh-fruit yoghourt by Danone.
Daphne,
This got me surprised though. Jesmond Bonello, a fence-straddler. You mean he is cosying up with Labour too after all he “got” from the PN?
[Daphne – He has been for a while. That’s why he got Miriam Dalli of Super One to edit one of his magazines, and not because she’s known for her brilliant career in print. It’s also why it was another one of his magazines which carried that absolutely ridiculous and embarrassing photo-interview with Mrs Muscat, in which half her body was shaved off and her face, skin and hair were reworked to turn her into a different person. And it’s the reason why the Labour Party stays off the subject of his relationship with Alan Camilleri and how, where Alan Camilleri was involved, Jesmond Bonello tended to be too, somehow, including as a director on the board of Malta Enterprise (because he has such a long career in industry…).]
What does one expect from the “rock” we live in? A fashion brand labelled Fresani – I bet we will see this fashion label during the next Milan Fashion Week.
Just to draw your attention and remind you that MADAME FERSANI WON THE BEST UP AND COMING DESIGNER AWARD IN MALTA’S FIRST EVER ‘MALTA FASHION WEEK’ IN 2011.
Yeah right – that’s her, the curtain-maker.