Malta’s special envoy to the World Tourism Organisation just won’t stop digging
Malta’s special envoy to the World Tourism Organisation seems incapable of learning the basic lesson that he IS his role and cannot continue to behave like Joe Grima.
He is back on Facebook this morning, justifying himself for what he said about the human rights organisation, Aditus, and its director – saying that he did it on his personal Facebook profile and in his own time. What a mentality. I just cannot believe that he can’t understand the difference between the free time and personal Facebook profile of a supermarket check-out girl and of somebody in an official role like his.
With people who have a role rather than a job, there is no distinction between free time and paid office time. You are your role. If the prime minister robs a bank in his free time, it is still the prime minister robbing a bank.
If Malta’s special envoy to the World Tourism Organisation insults and denigrates the director of a human rights NGO, makes Islamophobic comments and pours scorn on Renzo Piano’s gateway to the capital city he is meant to be marketing to the world, it is Malta’s special envoy who is doing that, and not Joe Grima, cittadin privat.
How hard is this to understand? I’ll bet he understands it perfectly well – he has a better education than he pretends to have, the same education as his brother Godfrey – but just doesn’t give a hoot because his problems are not of comprehension but of personality and attitude.
And now here he is, digging a bigger hole by creating a situation in which Malta’s special envoy to the World Tourism Organisation is going into head-on conflict with one of Malta’s most important newspapers, Times of Malta, and making fun of it. He has construed that newspaper’s straight and very tame reporting of Aditus’s press release about him as a direct attack on him.
What, was Times of Malta not supposed to report it? And he is crowing because the majority of the comments beneath Times of Malta’s report are against Aditus.
Malta’s special envoy to the World Tourism Organisation is totally off the wall. What is he doing here – creating a Them and Us situation in which he stands with the unthinking, illogical racists and xenophobes in a public battle with a human rights organisation?
Madness.
The majority of comments beneath that post are against Aditus because the people who read the story are incapable of understanding the essential point of what it is about. The subject is not whether immigrants should have the vote. That’s a separate issue.
The subject of the report is whether people in official roles, like Malta’s special envoy to the World Tourism Organisation, should be insulting human rights organisations (or anybody else, for that matter) on the internet, making xenophobic and Islamophobic remarks and being vulgar and disgusting. And the answer to that has to be No whether you agree with the special envoy’s views or not. Joe Grima is not just anybody. His behaviour, in that role, is an embarrassment to the role and to the country and government he represents.
Neither the country nor the government needs or wants that level of embarrassment and vulgarity. He is a bad front for Malta and a bad front for the government. Joe Grima can self-humiliate as much as he pleases, but he has no right to do that to the government and country he represents.
Imagine an ambassador of Malta making statements like his on Facebook and then saying ‘Oh, but I did it in my free time on my personal profile.’ Come off it, Mr Grima.
And if that’s your personal Facebook profile, then why is it emblazoned with your official role and function?
The prime minister himself acknowledged, when he was leader of the Opposition, that people in certain positions should not say certain things. That is why he claims to have removed Anglu Farrugia as deputy party leader for something he said about a magistrate, and Joe Grima from his Labour TV talk-show for the incredibly horrible things he wrote about Fr Lucie-Smith.
But come the entry to Camelot, both Anglu Farrugia and Joe Grima are installed in important and sensitive official positions: the one as Speaker of the House and the other as special envoy to the World Tourism Organisation.
And the prime minister apparently no longer cares what his people say and how they behave towards others in embarrassment of their role and function.
22 Comments Comment
Reply to Kevin Click here to cancel reply
Joe Grima should also provide a translation of his posts in English. Or is he afraid that the WTO might take issue of this and put pressure on the PM to kick him out?
If Grima stands by his “concerns” then he should specify them in English for all to see.
“bhala cittadin privat!”
He just doesn’t get it, does he!
Do people with a ‘role’ have private time off, or are they engaged 24/7?
[Daphne – Exactly. They don’t. The prime minister is always the prime minister, even when he is on holiday. It’s not a JOB, it’s a role.]
In Grima’s case it’s also a roll as in drooping layers of fat around the midsection.
Joe Grima has several rolls. A day.
Bdejna b “ixewxu” !
He’s like a little girl having his usual tantrums.
Beware: if he’s ever fired from his post as the PM’s special envoy, he could end up being recruited as an obese policeman.
Here’s one who thinks Joe Grima should be removed from his position. She considers his obnoxious and insulting approach to be unacceptable.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/comment/blogs/40051/Think_first_type_later#.U57EInKSzbM
ħadd ma jieħu gost meta Joe jirfislu il-kallu.
Leave him alone. The nearest thing to a stand-up at the moment.
The PM no longer cares because the absence of a forthcoming election means he is not worried over losing votes.
In his free time….ghandu jmur jimxi ftit u mhux joqghod bilqeghda fuq l- internet.
I am surprised that you are surprised. What do you expect of Joe Grima? He was a minister of a corrupt and violent regime.
Joe Grima once referred to the then leader of the Opposition Eddie Fenech Adami as a “pufta” during a Labour mass meeting – very liberal and progressive – and during his time at TVM he also punched one of his colleagues. Honestly I do not expect anything better from this vulgar and disgusting person.
And the President of Malta is also sounding off.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140616/local/president-migrants-voting-idea-jumps-the-gun.523576
Complain here:
http://know.unwto.org/content/contact-us
What’s worse than an amateur? A racist amateur.
Amateur is not the same as incompetent.
Fir-reazzjoni tiegħu għat-talba tal-ADITUS li Joe Grima mhux biss ineħħi l-kummenti iżda jagħmel apoloġija, kelliem għall-gvern saħaq li fiċ-ċirkostanzi li l-istess kummenti tneħħew mill-ewwel, kif kien indikat fl-istess ittra li bagħtu lill-Prim Ministru, il-pożizzjoni tal-Gvern hija li: “Ma jaqbilx mal-kontenut ta’ dawk il-messaġġi.” – It-Torca
The fact that Joe Grima was not made to resign his post confirms that the government does not really disagree with what Joe Grima wrote but is simply distancing itself to avoid damage from friendly fire.
If Mr. Joe Grima is known to have a good standard of education, and, if I’m not taking things for granted I would also add, intelligence, it must be that he has suffered some mental deterioration.
In the above Facebook post he sounds just like a nine-year-old with severe behavioural problems, so we should either pity him, or, he really does deserve a severe rebuke.
Whichever it is, he definitely has to be removed from his role as Malta’s special envoy to the World Tourism Organisation to avoid further harm and humiliation to our country.
Things seem to be getting quite out of hand for the Prime Minister and yet it is us as a nation who suffer the consequences.
Seeing this saga unfold makes me shudder. I would think that, in order to make Joe Grima special anything, the prime minster must think that he is a ‘persuna ta’ kwalita u talent’. Now apply this definition to the IIP scheme, aren’t you reassured?!
Once an idiot speaks you only expect to read idiocy.