Martin Scicluna made a fatal error in juxtaposing my description of him with his of me
Unfortunately, Times of Malta undermined its own columnist by accepting this piece for publication: half of it is composed of something I wrote, and the other half is a shambles.
Scicluna lacks the intelligence to see the error he made, but it should have been immediately obvious to his editor – unless his editor is trying to do to him what Baku Joseph did to Pullicino Orlando in sending him to make a fool of himself and expose his true nature on Xarabank.
If we must go along with the stereotypes here, Scicluna – who wishes us all to know that he is 79 and not 80 (which still makes him a good few years older than my parents, but never mind that) – comes across as your archetypal spiteful and irrational woman who left school at 15, hasn’t read a book in her life (except perhaps the Da Vinci Code and Fifty Shades of Grey), can’t think analytically or make a rational argument, and bitches at me with senseless insults because 1. I push all the convent-school playground buttons, and 2. she lacks the ability to counter an argument or an accusation in the proper manner.
And strangely, I’m the one who comes across as a rational man with organised thoughts expressed in organised language. I think if you were to give the two pieces to anybody without telling them anything about who has written them, and ask them to guess which was written by a spiteful, nasty, bitchy fishwife of a certain age with more hang-ups than a classroom coat-rack, they’ll tell you it was Martin Scicluna’s.
If I am still writing articles for the newspapers giving you the benefit of my great and unutterable wisdom in 30 years’ time – sorry, that should be 29 – do please remind me that it’s time to get off the stage and stick to gardening.
I hate to state the obvious, but people like Martin Scicluna should stay out of meddling with this country’s future because it is our future and not his. The man hasn’t even got any children to be concerned about. And that’s why he gambles and takes massive political risks. When the chickens come home to roost, he won’t be there to count them.
It says a lot about him that in these troubled times, with secret deals from Baku to Beijing and ministers with Glock-touting drivers shooting at people in dark side-streets and suspicious circumstances, the chief concern of Times of Malta’s op-ed columnist is to make himself even more ridiculous by trying to get back at me for describing him and his type perfectly. It would have to be me to do it, because as with anthropology (and this is really a form of anthropology) you have to live with the group you describe and be assimilated by it. You can’t do it from the outside.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141217/opinion/Trolls-snobs-and-prats.548590
One gets to the second paragraph and already realizes that this man does not even understand what an internet troll is.
I said before and I say it again, Daphne Caruana Galizia is our national treasure and is an excellent and highly intelligent internet troll.
Martin Scicluna is seeking misguided redemption. He may not be around when the chickens come home to roost but he’s in the slurry pit along with the rest of us right now and he seems to be feeling it.
Climacteric, indeed. Passive-aggressive snob that he is.
Bull’s eye! All that was missing in his article was the usual boasting about his working life – which he only hinted at.
Scicluna has now stooped to a very low level of personal insult from the columns of the once respected Times of Malta. This is a disservice to himself and to the newspaper for which he writes.
Daphne you say:
“I hate to state the obvious, but people like Martin Scicluna should stay out of meddling with this country’s future because it is our future and not his. ”
Totally agree with you.
He complains because you referred to his age. Of course his age matters.
At his age, he shouldn’t be meddling with politics any more. As you say, this is our future and not his which we are writing about here.
I insist: at his age, he should now be narrating history so that it will not be forgotten, and had he done so, then there would be no way he would have told the country to vote Labour.
He should have been here in the 70s and the 80s – not on the precipice between life and death, or life and dementia – to give us our future.
I can mention a number of other 80-year-olds who regularly contribute to Times of Malta and who are simply doing a major disservice to the Maltese nation.
It is about time that this group of octogenarians – who think that they are fashionable 20-year-olds trying to appear cool with the crowd – give us a break and enjoy their retirement and the special yearly bonus of Eur300 specifically tailored for their needs.
He says that a friend drew his attention to Daphne’s blog-post about him (that blog-post was written a long time ago) which is why he read it, because he never reads what she writes. He’s lying, because Daphne wrote that originally in reaction to his criticism of what she writes.
So one assumes that if he criticised what she writes, then he reads it. What sort of former senior civil servant would criticise something that he hasn’t read?
If he doesn’t read what Daphne writes, then he is in no position to say that he doesn’t like it or that he doesn’t agree with it. On that basis, we have to conclude that it’s Daphne he doesn’t like (because she doesn’t like him) and not her views or the way she writes them.
Back in August, Scicluna referred to Daphne as a ‘commentator’. Now he calls her ‘arch internet troll’. Given that he is 80 – apologies, 79 – he has no idea what an internet troll is.
Martin Scicluna should be proud that Daphne Caruana Galizia mentioned his age. He referred to the Prime Minister’s speech to the London School of Economics on the topic “The Commonwealth at 65”. At 79, Scicluna is even older than the Commonwealth.
You raise a super-important point about the ages of contributors to Maltese papers. Hear, hear, with knobs on (not Jeffrey).
Most columnists seem to be either 40-something women living the eternal teenage, forever telling us about the latest exciting ‘eatery’ or their trips to Thailand, or men with the minds (or actual ages) of 70-year olds, dropping quotes from the latest ‘clever’ paperbacks they’ve read (you know who you are).
I don’t buy the papers to read the bleeding obvious. I want my brain to be challenged. I want fresh perspectives and out-of-the-ordinary opinions. Otherwise it’s not a paper but a parish newsletter.
I find none of the anger, irony, cynicism, wit, intelligence and insight that makes good op-eds.
It’s no wonder my generation have stopped buying the papers and have turned to other sources for informed opinions. There is a whole world outside this tiny speck of rock. My parents’ generation should be seen (if that), but not read. Sack them. And give us Generation-X columnists.
[Daphne – I am your parents’ generation.]
And you are the exception that proves the rule. You are a hero to Generation-X and Y. The Millennials are catching up too.
He’s a fine one to talk about insufferable snobs.
Dear Mr Scicluna, I looked up the dictionary for a definition of the adjective ‘conscience-stricken’, and it read: “greatly troubled or disturbed by the knowledge of having acted wrongfully”.
After having done that, I read your article in Times of Malta again (because I couldn’t believe my eyes the first time I read it), and everything started making sense.
This guy’s so lucky to have had his article (well, half an article) published in Times of Malta. What a waste of page space, really. Well done, Daphne, you’ve dwarfed him, well and good.
The one thing that got him going was class.
He must make up with the lower middle class.
Scicluna, you just gave yourself away. Daphne’s description isn’t her view, it’s yours.
Mr Scicluna, just a short note about us ‘right-thinking’ people: it is because we follow Mrs Caruana Galizia’s views and news coverage that we are in the right state of mind.
It is at times like this that I support euthanasia. Biex jistrieh u iserrah.
Sorry, Martin, but you had it coming.
What strikes me the most is that Times of Malta always take great pains to never, ever mention your name or your website—using general terms like blogs, bloggers and the social media when obviously referring to this website—but then they publish an article like this one.
Look at this article about the record views that Malliagate generated on ‘social media’ for comparison.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141216/local/Malliagate-had-the-twists-and-turns-of-a-soap-opera.548452
The “blogs, bloggers and the social media” gave the news that Mallia’s driver had shot at another driver far earlier than Times of Malta did.
Reckon the editor gave him all the rope he needed to hang himself. :-)
His is a case of galloping dementia methinks.
Is he forseeing the Gieh ir- Republika award?
He’s probably angry he didn’t get one last week.
Isn’t it interesting that these egomaniac idiots all claim and actually insist that they do not read the blog of the blogger with no name?
It is all about egos. These people (including Astrid Vella, Marco Cremona, Andrew Azzopardi, Kenneth Zammit Tabona) have an over-sized ego in Lilliput island and feel they should not be questioned since there is no substance behind the facade and the ego. Outside these shores they will be nobody.
Joseph Muscat managed successfully to massage their ego. He knew their weakness.
“It’s the egonomy, stupid.”
I asked him if he wanted an iPad or a tablet. He said he was in need of neither an incontinence aid nor any medication.
Given that Mr Scicluna doesn’t read what you write (I cannot understand what he does all day), will another one of his very helpful friends please alert him to the above post just in case he misses it?
Who was Martin Scicluna?
Here are the words of another staunch Labour supporter immediately after the March 2013 election. He clearly lists what Labour are expected to achieve and whilst reading through we can mentally tick the done boxes. Let me give you a heads up, I ticked the gay rights box BUT even that was clouded by the PM’s employing, trusting and promoting a convicted gay porn bully.
http://andrew-sciberras.blogspot.com/
I wonder how many would have believed, back then, that the Labour government would manage to NOT do so much.
Now it is not a question of believing, it is a statement of fact.
Martin Scicluna is not only a prat, but apparently also a tool.
He came up with that stupid phrase, “uglification of Malta”, and it has remained with us since, only to be misused and abused by the same people with whom he now shares his metaphorical bed, and who who have no qualms in using it to justify the further ‘uglification’ of Malta, this time at all levels.
Scicluna does not admit it, but he comes across as a servile, left-over coolie (certainly not a colonialist), because he still reckons li l-Inglizi ghamluh nies.
He has never, however, explained to us how he manages to reconcile his love for Albion with the fact that Mintoff fuelled the flames of hate for the English.
That’s easy, both for integration.
To my generation (yes, age again), he looks like one of those small-islander Maltese with a massive ego, who left Malta to make his fortune, had his bullshit knocked out of him by the real world, realised he couldn’t impress anyone, and so returned to Malta, where his fawning audience is so much more gullible (especially when you drop hints of dangerous missions in Northern Ireland).
We know the score. In the UK he was a nobody among millions. In Malta, he is Somebody Very Important, among a few hundred thousand.
In other words: We. Are. Not. Impressed.
It pains me that there is no decent club or hunt he can retire to (because then he wouldn’t be all over the place with his “opinions”). Should’ve stayed in the UK.
I take it the Times of Malta don’t pay on a per-word basis. Just as well.
“Caruana Galizia’s views should be unacceptable to all right-thinking people”.
This poor chap is really and truly detached from the Maltese present-day reality.
I know hundreds of people who not only follow this blog but do so assiduously and religiously.
These friends of mine include leading members of the professions including the judiciary. They also include top economists, academicians, businessmen and entrepreneurs.
It does not seem to me that they find Daphne’s views unacceptable. On the contrary.
According to this Scicluna these people are not right-thinking.
If so, this country is really in big, big trouble.
The people I am talking about are the ones who are keeping Malta afloat in spite of the efforts to the contrary of Government.
[Daphne – Well, I would like him to explain how he has decided my views are unacceptable to all right-thinking people when he doesn’t know what my views are. He himself said that he doesn’t read this website.]
Martin Scicluna owes you a big apology, Daphne. If there’s one thing I hate with a passion, it is people’s ability to catch the wrong end of the stick when they really should know better.
Does he get paid by Times of Malta for that “article” ?
Judging by what is quoted, I think Daphne contributed a good 50% of it.
Martin, you are NO match for Daphne and you had better believe it.
Does he always wait many weeks and fill half a page in a newspaper to take revenge on a ‘dead sheep’?
He’s so hilarious: “a friend told me about Daphne Caruana Galizia’s website – which, obviously, I don’t read”.
Sort of: “I know my homework seems to have been copied, but, the dog did it”
How old is he? Oh, yes – 79.
I feel hurt when people refer to old age to ridicule a person. I am 70 and still very active.
People of my generation suffered under Mintoff who did his best to ruin our future.
People my age contributed heavily to get rid of the Mintoff government and kept voting the PN and continue to support the party as it is the only party that guarantees freedom.
It is not age but mentality and principles that make a man.
No one’s using age to ridicule anyone. I just think that newspapers shouldn’t be choosing 70-year-olds to write their op-eds. Note too that Malta has 40-somethings with the mind of an OAP. They shouldn’t have their pieces published either.
Of course there are cases where you have to turn to 70-year-olds for a ‘with-hindsight and experience’ perspective (think of an op-ed on the comparison between 1989 and 1945, for instance). But in the main, opinions should be made and led by younger people. Youths are out for the same reason – not enough experience, not enough maturity.
I do acknowledge though that people my age did put Mintoff and this time Muscat in government. Goes to show that age by itself is neither here nor there.
Ghaliex dan l-ghageb dwar dak li kiteb dan il-gurnalista dilettant li jrid jitkellem fuq kollox u kulhadd b’awtorita’ li tizboq lil dik tar-Regina Elizabetta, li tant jammira. Jien ma naqrax x’jikteb, ahseb u ara kemm niddiskutih! Martin Scicluna hu l-personifikazzjoni ta’ l-alla falz, li jrid lil kulhadd jisimghu u jadurah. Dejjem ifittex il-pozizzjonijiet gholja fl-Ghaqdiet li jinfiltra fihom u jipretendiha tal-oraklu li ghandu l-ahhar kelma, meta fl-jghid la ssib originalita’ u lanqas sugu.