Muscat on Malta’s relationship with Communist China: “The benefits are pulpable”. You can say that again.
Listen to the prime minister’s spiel about why Malta is so geographically important and such a key tourist destination: it’s stuck in the 1970s and 1980s.
Our geographical position is unique (oh yes, indeed – this in 2014). We have the oldest buildings in the world (ho-hum). We have a unique mix of cultures (no, we have just the one and it’s insufferable most of the time and not much different to that of our neighbours, and who cares anyway).
Chinese tourists can base themselves in Malta and explore Europe (what, Sweden?). “Nobody else has that” (typical Malta c-centru tal-univers u jien tifel tar-rahal).
And another thing – the Chinese interviewer speaks better English and with a better accent, despite all the disadvantages of growing up not exposed to English, than the Maltese prime minister does, despite his having grown up on an island where English is 1. compulsory, and 2. an official language.
“The investment dey are doing.”
MAKING. Make. You MAKE an investment not DO an investment. You’re the bloody prime minister. Get that basic verb right at least because you’re going to be talking about it, presumably, a lot of the time over the next four years.
“I find it VERY fascinating.” Very fascinating? Fascinating is hyperbolic as it is. There is no such thing as VERY fascinating.
I couldn’t be bothered with the rest. I could parse this and pick it apart and point out that he sounds like a sixth-former meeting his first foreigner and talking the usual spiel about his unique island, but I couldn’t be fagged to do so. What I think is this, and it’s probably what everyone who meets him outside Malta thinks: IF THIS IS THE MALTESE PRIME MINISTER WHAT IS THE MALTESE ELECTORATE LIKE?
It’s so ruddy obvious the man doesn’t read, doesn’t have exposure to people who speak the language, and worse still, has the bloody arrogance to believe he needn’t bother learning it because he can make himself understood at a basic level.
A bad accent I can take, because that’s really difficult to get rid of in middle age. But there really is no excuse at his age and with the advantages he has had for such poor command of the language, such lack of eloquence, such limited vocabulary, such erroneous use of verbs. NOT WHEN HE IS PRIME MINISTER.
What can I say? I’ll say it in the vernacular. Issa the Chinese they come and they do us an investment and the investment it will be pulpable. And maybe we will send the Maltese to the China for to learn the English ghax ahjar hekk, mela we bring the Chinese in Malta for to learn us the Chinese u nispiccaw mimlijin Cinizi mhux bizzejjed kull fejn tmur tara qabda suwed.
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He meant culpable.
The benefits are truly “pulpable.” We’ll be crushed underfoot to pulp by an oppressive government formulated on a Mao style of rule.
Another deliberate bit of misinformation: “Malta was one of the first countries to recognise China…”. Malta was indeed among the first to recognise the People’s Republic of China: this is not pedantry, but a very important distinction.
You’re absolutely right. Yes, as usual, anything Muscat says needs to be taken to a forensic laboratory and examined in detail, where the devil lies.
“…one of the first countries to recognise China” referring to 1972 is the sort of language one uses at the local political club, but not what one uses in an exclusive interview on CNTV.
Perhaps Muscat would spend some time explaining what the PRC is next time he is at the Burmarrad Labour party club.
Oh, by the way, did his trip to China include a visit to technological Taiwan?
Malta stopped being geographically important ever since aircraft carriers became floating islands.
Well said. All the talk about strategic position is total hogwash anyways – always has been.
The English had Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Suez, Aden, Oman and south Africa in their hands as they policy of blocking off the rest of the world from the far east.
Malta was just another base – nothing more. We threw in the added advantage that the Maltese Roman Catholic Church was in cahoots with the Papist English Haters – as long as they kept their privileges – which mostly was the right to keep Maltese ignorant and subservient to them.
And the strategic function of Malta? Well it was the biggest whore house this side of the Atlantic – so I suppose it was strategically based for any British sailor on his way to spend some time in lands full of darkies.
Our history is a pathetic fabrication of delusional lies – but who can blame us considering the facts.
One last thing, if our part of the Mediterranean is so important, why is it that Sicily – the biggest island of the Mediterranean is mostly empty agricultural waste land ?
Chip on shoulder or what?
At 1.00, the Prime Minister says:
“We are taking the relations between our two countries up a notch or two, where we are signing – upon the recommendation of Premier Li Keqiang – when we met last year – a medium term cooperation agreement whereby we will be the first European country to have an actual Memorandum Of Understanding on where and how the two countries will invest together.”
I think that in there, there is enough material about which to write whole books of political and economic comment.
1. The MOU was recommended by the Premier Li Keqiang. We have it from the horse’s mouth. So it was China which recommended the MOU, and of course, the prime minister of Malta said yes to whatever China recommended.
And what are the odds that if China recommended something, it is primarily in the interest of China?
Mr. Li is probably eyeing China’s presidency some years ahead, and is putting together the pieces of the global map jigsaw puzzle over which he will have control. He is probably busy empowering premiers and presidents around the globe in the hope that they will form part of the team of ‘leaders’ on whom he can rely when he is leading China. He will find “young” Joseph Muscat a perfectly aged tool that can last him for several years during his reign.
This case shows how China is worth studying both from within – the impact of its government on its own people – and from outside – how it views the world as a means to its own development and power.
Whose interests was Joseph Muscat protecting when he signed the MOU – Li Keqiang’s China, or Malta?
2. The prime minister points out that Malta is the first country to have an MOU with China covering areas of investment together.
And I am sure that we will remain the first and only European country ever to sign an MOU about investing together with China.
In Europe, it is business that invests together, not governments.
Can Muscat give Malta one example where a European government is investing in joint ventures with other non-EU governments in any market?
Dr. Muscat, in the European Union we live in democratic countries – even if this is not thanks to you – and not in so called “socialist-capitalist” dictatorships where everything is dictated by corrupt leadership imposed on us.
3. I do not understand what constitutional or treaty arrangements the Muscat government has at its disposal to make joint investments of public money with another sovereign state.
In order to make such investments, Joseph Muscat is sharing the country’s sovereignty, national security and national interest with a country with which, as far as I am aware, there are no treaties or constitutional arrangements.
So when did the people of Malta give their government the right to share the country’s sovereignty and national interest with China? Was this in Labour’s electoral programme?
I’m afraid the Chinese who can afford to ‘do’ Europe will settle for Paris, Milan and London. It’s where the shopping is.
If they’re into old buildings they’ll go for Rome, Venice and the usual pittoresco. Where they can also try skiing down the Alps as they explore mittel Europe. I’m afraid wine tasting is a tad difficult to beat in those regions as well.
Spas, I’m afraid, are not exactly lacking either. That covers every German speaking canton and region north of the Alps.
If they’re into very old buildings, they’ll hop on a TGV in Milan or Paris, experience the best cuisine Europe has to offer and pop over to Stonehenge. Then it’s back to London to throw in an apartment in Belgravia, or maybe one complete tower in the City.
Ghax Malta is nice. Hafna markets bil-panties kinky. I’ve seen tourists abandoned among stalls selling all possible detergents, the ultimate experience.
And no, this isn’t my being ‘negattiv’. If Paris is where Americans base themselves to explore Europe, why should the Chinese do otherwise?
And no, we don’t have the oldest buildings anymore, Turkey claimed that title a couple of years ago.
Exactly. If the Americans and the Japanese – both of them long-haul tourists with a lot of money to spend and very willing to see different destinations – did not make it to Malta, then the Chinese will not either.
The first preference of any Chinese tourist living in the Eastern and Southern provinces would be to travel to Beijing and Shanghai.
Then to the regional destinations where among other attractions, they have many relatives: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan.
Then, America would be the next destination they would want to visit: it is just across the Pacific Ocean.
In the Eastern and Southern provinces, it is unlikely that the Chinese have ever heard about Malta.
When something is palpable, you can touch or handle it, even though the word is often used to describe things that usually can’t be handled or touched, such as emotions or sensations.
“Pulpable” as in pulp fiction?
If the benefits are “pulpable” as claimed, he can ask Michelle to give them a churn in her food processor. After 10 minutes, she can return the pulped benefits back to him and he can try to create a benefit-mache bust of his favourite dictator.
Scary, disgusting and bordering on illiteracy. He comes across as a jerk and does a disservice to his country, plus this program does not seem to be a professional one and it shows the level of consideration that China has towards our PM and Malta in general.
What’s with the em em em em at intervals between sentences? Idiot.
Typical inferiority complex trying to blow up his bubble. He lost me after 5 seconds.
“…but we’re basically at the footstep of Africa….”. Hilarious.
As opposed to doorstep, one imagines. The imagery is apt. He’s behaving like China’s doormat.
I had detected and commented here on BS’s “gurnalizmu laghqi” about Joseph Muscat’s Chinese mission already on 8 July – when the Maltese delegation + “selected media” were still on their way to Tienanmen Square in Beijing.
I find it quite unbelievable that Saviour Balzan was impressed by China’s development, massive concrete highrises, roads and flyovers while on a journey with the Prime Minister of Malta who was invited to an Eco Forum in the depressed province of Guizhou. Wasn’t BS an active environmentalist in his younger days? Well, maybe he has changed.
Based on 2013 statistics published by the leading global economic institutions (IMF, World Bank – better not mention the latter in China), China’s GDP per capita is less than one-third of that in Malta. Chinese GDP per capita ranges from US$ 6,000 to US$ 7,000.
That’s what all that wealth which BS saw in China boils down to in real terms for the Chinese people.
And this is before factoring in the situation of human rights in China.
It is to be expected that BS sees a concentration of wealth in Chinese cities – which in all cases represent a tiny fraction of the world’s inhabited surfaces. China has one-seventh of the world’s population, which was estimated to be slightly above 7 billion in 2013. You need to build many high-rises to pack a population like that in city residences and offices in an economic manner when people are living on an average of US$ 6,500 per annum.
China’s population is estimated at around 1.4 billion, and that is with a one-child policy. Yet, only half of that population lives in urban areas. Which on the one hand means that there is scope for twice the urban development that BS saw in China.
But it also means that 700 million people – more than the population of all the 28 countries of the EU taken together – live in rural areas and have probably never seen the Chinese cities which BS speaks about.
And yet, “China” – meaning the sovereign funds of the Chinese communist dictatorship – have trillions of US$ to invest around the globe, promoting other dictatorships and depriving the present and future population of the third world from the enjoyment of its natural resources.
Palpable is still wrong. He means tangible.
Tangible is still wrong. He means he’s making the most of it, as his wife said they would.
You can have pulpable, a word describing an object which can be ground or shred into a pulp.
Or you can have palpable, a word describing an object which can be touched.
I think that neither of these two words is appropriate to be used to describe benefits.
Daphne, for the benefit of your readers, the video above is the one I reported missing in my post here:
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2014/07/no-wonder-the-taghna-lkollers-are-so-comfortable-with-china/
The original link to the video is now working. Well done, China Daily – for a Chinese company, you deal with your customers’ complaints “astonishingly quick.”
http://video.chinadaily.com.cn/2014/0709/3435.shtml
I had analysed the prime minister’s ‘performance’ in the video here:
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2014/07/china-puts-prominent-writers-under-house-arrest-as-us-secretary-of-state-john-kerry-visits/
Is this guy serious? WTF – the prime minister talking as though he was in school, about Malta being in the middle of the Mediterranean and showcasing Chinese products in Malta so that Europeans can come to Malta and view them so that they don’t have to fly all the way to China.
Imma dan bis-serjeta?
Bl-akbar serjeta’, siehbi – u nghidlek ghaliex.
L-ewwel, ghaliex hekk qalulu biex jghid dawk ta’ Bejing, wara li mlewh milja papra mixwija.
It-tieni, anki kieku ma qalulux hekk, ghaliex hu nnifsu ma jafx jghid mod iehor.
It-tielet, ghaliex l-idjoti li jhobbu jsegwuh hekk biss jiehdu gost jisimghuh jghid – inkella ma jkollhomx ghal xiex icapculu.
“We’re one of the best financial centres…”
Yes, thanks to the PN. Kemm jaf jiftahar b’rix hadddiehor.
“The benefits are pulpable”.
That mouth can pulp pretty much anything.
I cannot believe the PM was giving a guided tour to a chap who did not even bother put on a tie properly!
One hour to reach Cairo? Is he serious. Is he Malta’s or Cyprus’ PM?
He’s on a roll, promising all sorts to every Chinese in the vicinity at the moment.
We’ll pick the bill later.
tjurisim; ishjus; awer …