Another Taghna Lkoll worse-than-disastrous appointment: Mario PHILIP Azzopardi

Read this article in the Times of Malta today. I’ve excerpted a bit of it below. It’s about that narcissistic psycho, Mario Philip (don’t forget the Philip) Azzopardi, the washed-up and failed ‘film director’ who decided to return to Malta and revel in Labourdom because, now in his 60s, his future in Canada is long since behind him.

Sounds anything like Albert Marshall? You’ve got it – two of a kind.

I once had lunch with Azzopardi, many years ago and for my sins. He wanted to discuss a film project, which was going to be about ancient Rome. I took along my copy of Jerome Carcopino’s Daily Life in Ancient Rome, which at that time was far and away the most useful and accessible on the subject. He took it, looked at it as though it were, say, a box of matches, didn’t comment or thank me, and put it in his bag. I was too well brought up to say ‘Hey hang on, that’s mine.’

He then proceeded to spend the next 90 minutes talking solidly about himself with a rigid and unchanging facial expression and dead, angry eyes. I was not there as a person, but as a pillar of salt to be talked at. I have met many ill-mannered boors in my time, but this was not just bad manners. There was something wrong with him. I have had one other identical experience since then: with Franco Debono.

This is a very good story in the Times of Malta – it’s the sort of thing that people need to read so as to understand what is really going on. But something in it needs to be corrected. Azzopardi did not just direct one advert for the Labour Party in its 2013 election campaign. He produced every single one of the Labour Party’s campaign videos. Off the top of my head right now: the signature theme video ‘Malta Taghna Lkoll’, in which he featured along with other self-interested opportunists like Ramona Frendo and Albert Marshall’s wife, and his niece Alessandra Pace; the infamous ‘Courage to Vote’ video filmed in Hugh Anastasi’s house and starring Floren Sultana of Scoglitti restaurant; the theatrical video in which Narcy Calamatta plays an old man sitting on a bench and reminiscing with some boys about Malta’s glorious past fighting against the British; the very frightening video in which a speech given by Muscat is recorded in Hitlerian ‘rise and fall’ intonation cut with rousing applause and ‘War of the Worlds’ type music to visuals of shouting crowds waving MALTA TAGHNA LKOLL placards…and there are more.

There is something else that needs to be mentioned in the Times of Malta report: the real source of Mario Philip Azzopardi’s influence on the Labour Party, and the real reason he throws his weight about, is the fact that he is Joe Vella Bonnici’s brother-in-law. Azzopardi’s wife is Vella Bonnici’s sister, and Vella Bonnici is one of the key people in the corrupt Labour Party machine. He heads Identity Malta – enough said.