Melvyn Mangion
It has been brought to my attention that the foreign minister’s spokesman has started a whispering campaign telling journalists and anyone else who will listen that I am critical of Tonio Borg’s stance on Libya because my husband no longer works for the foreign ministry.
My husband never worked for the foreign ministry. And even if he had and no longer did so, I certainly would not react by criticising the foreign minister. I did not have a Maltese village upbringing and do not have a bandclub mentality.
I have registered a formal complaint about this behaviour.
I am critical of Tonio Borg’s stance on Libya because I disagree with it and disapprove of it. I am critical of Melvyn Mangion because, as spokesman for the foreign minister, he is not fit for purpose and completely out of his depth. He lacks the skills and sophistication to do the job. He does not even know what the job requires.
He texted me tonight to say that I am the only journalist who thinks so (he kept up a barrage of texts until almost midnight). I did not reply, because by then I was thoroughly fed up of him, that I am far from being the only journalist who thinks so. I am probably the only journalist at liberty to tell him so because I don’t have employers and also because I don’t think I have to soothe and appease him to make sure he takes my calls. I know that it is his job to take my calls and answer my questions, that it is what he is paid to do, and if he refuses to do so, well then, we’ll have to see about that, won’t we.
Other journalists might not tell him where to get off asking for emailed questions because they are young and untrained and don’t know that this is completely unacceptable in a news environment. They have been brainwashed into thinking that this is the way things are done. But it is not. It is crazy and it is hopelessly amateurish.
They do not know that the correct procedure is for government ministers to sit down with their spokesmen twice a day – first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening – to go over the main issues, the side issues, foresee questions and agree on answers. Then the spokesman goes off and does the necessary fact-checking and background research for those answers. Then, when reporters call with questions, he can and should answer them there and then, over the telephone or in person, himself.
I’ll cite two examples, one from a democracy and one from a dictatorship: Jay Carney and Mousa Ibrahim. Both face the press on a daily basis and answer questions without asking for emails or popping backstage to see what Obama/Gaddafi thinks they should say. They will have worked it out beforehand.
But a prerequisite to all that is engaging somebody with the right set of skills. Mr Mangion might be good at all sorts of things I don’t know about, but as a government spokesman he just doesn’t cut it. And he won’t ever cut it because he doesn’t have what it takes. He’s a non-starter.
To be fair, Mr Mangion is not alone in thinking that his way is the correct way. The problem cuts right across government communications, with two or three notable exceptions. They have turned the working life of journalists into a tedious and impossible hell of bureaucracy, and in doing so have made a rod for their own backs.
When you ask for emailed questions, you get them: reams and reams of detailed questions that require a morning to get through with written replies, when a telephone call would have been over and done with in 10 minutes. So some spokesmen or ‘communications coordinators’ procrastinate for days without answering, saying that they don’t have the time. By then, the story has been and gone. Reporters with malicious intentions take advantage of the situation, to ask in writing the sort of questions they would never have the guts to ask face to face or over the telephone.
When I first started working, we had to submit our questions in writing (pre fax and certainly pre email) to the DOI and then wait for days for an answer. When the media functions of the Department of Information were devolved to individual ministries, we rejoiced, thinking that we had finally entered the democratic age and that we would be able to ring ministers’ spokesmen and get our answers there and then or on the same day at least.
Instead, we found ourselves dealing with several DOIs instead of just one: a DOI in each government ministry, all of them asking for questions to be faxed and now, for questions to be emailed. Our working lives, far from becoming better, had become worse. Instead of chasing just the one person at the DOI, and leaving it up to him or her to chase the ministers, we found ourselves chasing several people and trying not to go berserk at their inefficiency.
I never accept written answers or written questions in news journalism because crucial parts of the answer are often non-verbal, and also because written replies ring false and sound artificial when quoted. This is the proper way. Other Maltese journalists should put their foot down and do the same, with the backing of their editors who should file formal complaints about requests for emailed questions and ministers’ insistence on giving replies in writing. Writing is for press statements, which are different.
Mr Mangion has also been posting slightly crazed remarks about me as status updates on Facebook. His potty remarks, complete with his name and photograph, are automatically uploaded onto the Facebook wall of his legion of Facebook friends, and can in turn be seen by their Facebook friends. This is high-risk behaviour for a foreign minister’s spokesman, for reasons that will not have to be explained to real politicians and journalists.
This afternoon, I registered a formal complaint about his behaviour with the Office of the Prime Minister, and asked that my complaint be communicated in turn to the Foreign Ministry. I copied Mr Mangion in on the complaint because I am not in the habit of doing things behind people’s backs.
At 10pm tonight, I received a text message from Mr Mangion apologising for ‘hurting your feelings’. I replied that my feelings are not hurt, that I am at the receiving end of more and worse on a daily basis, and that my feelings are not the point. I had registered my complaint not because my feelings were hurt but because his behaviour is completely inappropriate for a senior government spokesman and that it is something with which the government should be seriously concerned, given that he represents the most high-profile ministry after the prime minister’s office. The issue here is his dangerous behaviour and his unsuitability for the job, not my feelings.
Then a barrage of off-the-wall text messages began and carried on until I had to ask him, at almost midnight – which is why I am still here – to leave me alone and stop harassing me. Here was the man who presses ‘reject’ when I ring him to ask him for information or to check facts about something his boss has said or done, and who stupidly boasted on Facebook this afternoon that he does so, suddenly discovering a passion for arguing with me via SMS at night.
And still he just can’t understand why his conduct is completely unbecoming (and really unwise) for somebody in his position.
The general gist of his stream of messages is that he had “to step up action” (his words exactly) in saying things about me on Facebook after I insinuated he is gay.
This took me completely by surprise, and not just because I had taken it for granted that he is gay. I don’t know why, but I just did; call it second-nature professional observation of human behaviour, if you will. Nobody told me anything and I am famously indifferent to people’s sexuality, clocking it in the same way I clock their hair colour and with about as much interest, which is why I never bring up the subject – because I just don’t care.
It took me by surprise because nowhere had I said or written or even suggested that he is gay, largely because in my world being gay is not a matter for comment because it is irrelevant. Mr Mangion, on the other hand, appears to inhabit a world in which being gay is considered a matter for shame or embarrassment and the suggestion that one might be gay is a reprehensible insult.
I have no time for homophobic talk, so Mr Mangion and I were at cross purposes at the outset. I asked him exactly where I had said or suggested he is gay, and he quoted a line I wrote earlier in the day, saying that he is not a particularly brave man if he can’t even deal with a woman.
Talk about lost in translation. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as I responded: “Melvyn, you need help with your English. I did not say you are gay. I don’t care if you or anyone else is gay. Deal with it. And stop harassing me at night.”
I had to keep reminding myself: this is the foreign minister’s spokesman in the middle of a major crisis in Libya. His main concern is whether people think he is gay.
His response?
“U need help with many issues.” (My response: “Hardly. Like I said, stop texting me.”)
He continued to insist that lots of people had told him they interpreted my words to mean that he is gay. This is obviously something that preys on his mind, for reasons that it would be distasteful to examine here.
I said to him that I have been around a long time and I don’t believe that anyone called him, that this is what HE is thinking. If people think a man is a closet homosexual, they are not going to rush to ring him and say “Oh look, X must be insinuating here that you are a closet homosexual”, especially when there has been no such insinuation. On the contrary, they will carefully avoid the subject, and redirect the conversation if somebody is uncouth enough to bring it up.
Also, if a man goes around touchily imagining that people are discussing his sexuality, or taking dramatic offence about imaginary (or real) remarks to this effect, then he has some issues that need not be gone into here.
Mr Mangion’s shortcomings in strategic communication are illustrated by the way he himself raised the non-issue of his sexuality with a journalist who doesn’t care about his sexuality, via a series of pestering text messages at night. What exactly did he imagine the outcome would be? If he were good at his job, he would have been able to foresee this outcome.
“Am no gay and you did hurt my family and dear ones with that comment,” he texted me.
I felt like texting him to ask what sort of family he comes from, if in his household being gay is considered to be cause for ‘hurt’, but I have long experience in dealing with this kind of character (when you’re in public life, they come at you from all angles) and know that what they seek is engagement and texting them back gives them another reason to text you again in response.
My, my, they’re engaging real sophisticates down at the foreign ministry. Tal-ghageb. Now Mr Mangion is going to feel exposed and that he needs to protect himself, and my 46 years on this earth have taught me what that means.
Gejja xi wahda li tinkiteb.
Melvyn, read my lips: I don’t care if you’re gay and I don’t care if you’re straight. I don’t care if you’re out and proud and I don’t care if you’re in the closet. I’m not interested in whether you like men or like women. I’m only interested in the answers you can give to my questions. You’re paid to answer questions from the media, so just stick to the brief instead of quarrelling with journalists about whether you’re gay or straight, when they didn’t even bring up the subject themselves and when the sexual inclinations of Melvyn Mangion are the last thing on their mind. If this is so much of an issue with you that it’s affecting your ability to do your job, you’re going to have to make some decisions, or have them made for you.
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Melvyn Mangion is in need of a new position. He should be shown the door.
Oh wouldn’t it be fun if he were to be replaced by Baxxter.
[Daphne – Shame nobody knows who Baxxter is, except he (at least, I assume he does).]
H.P for foreign minister’s spokesman.
I’ll second that.
Hell why not foreign minister in fact. Sure he could do a better job.
Do I know who I am? DO I know myself. Nosce te ipsum. Thus spake Linneus.
Fate has conspired to single out Mangion. But he is merely one example out of hundreds in the Maltese Civil Service: average to below average guys promoted far beyond their capabilities.
Historians tell us that Louis XIV, monarch though he was, had a gift for recognising talent, and surrounded himself with men of quality and intelligence. Gonzi seems to be the exact opposite: affable and honest, but hopeless at recruitment skills.
Many incumbents predate Gonzi. It is the general inertia of the civil service that is most deadening. The stars are dulled and the dullards shine.
Gonzi’s government adds insult to injury by hiring and promoting one’s schoolmates to stratospheric heights. You know, the ones who never shined but who inveigled their way into the headmaster’s good books. Look at the ages and qualifications of government-appointed CEOs and then come back and answer this: are they really so exceptional that we should promote them in this exceptional way?
In many situations there isn’t much to choose from. Most of the talents are gobbled up by private companies and more and more by international organisations. Most of these ministry people are handpicked inner circle people (so forget about qualifications/experience).
That’s not true. Quality will go elsewhere (if indeed it is accepted elsewhere) only because the Elsewhere offers a higher starting salary, while the civil service would offer some scale 9 pittance. Unless you’re in the inner circle, in which case you’re propelled straight into the CEO’s position while you’re still green behind the ears. Rules and regulations seem to be magically suspended when some people are earmarked for the top jobs.
“Affable and honest”
What have you been smoking?
Can I have some?
The problem is that the people who are really cut out to do a good job in Mangion’s position would probably be bright enough to instead opt for a job with more opportunities and better remuneration.
*wet* behind the ears, or green, but not both.
I’m getting my metaphors confused. See, La Redoute’s is the sort of sharpness that is needed in ministerial speechwriters. Top shelf thinking!
And it’s “shone” not “shined”.
H.P. Baxxter, salary is not the only reason quality moves elsewhere. It is definitely an important reason, but if you see that opportunities for career progression are non-existent, you are unable to start any projects because “there is no money” and you are surrounded (and led) by incompetent jerks, the outcome is obvious.
In these situations, salary differences make changing jobs simpler (and less painful) to explain.
My guess is that Baxxter works in Brussels.
Nope ! He probably works on moonbase alpha and gets really worked up because he is not due back on earth till next year. He really needs to box somebody’s ears and the waiting is killing him.
Troy knows Baxxter’s true identity, but my lips are sealed.
ta’sapienza. H.P. stands for Hans Peter, but don’t get excited; that’s no clue.
Hans Peter as in the Great H P Baxxter the front man of the Techno group Scooter? Ah yes, we remember them well! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._P._Baxxter LOL!
On a more serious note, it is not always remuneration that sends potentially excellent civil service material scooting off. Many are those who would like to serve their country.
However when many realise that the system is geared to, as La Redoute puts it, dull any stars, most prefer to look elsewhere.
Mediocrity not only breeds mediocrity it also promotes it. Like will have like.
I hate to say it but this goes all the way to the top.
I remember when at the time of Gonzi’s swearing-in as PM, Daphne wrote a scathing article about how Mrs Gonzi was presented at the ceremony.
If I remember correctly it was a slightly less uncouth version of ‘u hobbuha il-din’.
I’m afraid Daphne was right on the nail that time. We are currently being led by a team and opposition which are distinctly lower middle class. Their values whether in terms of principles, aesthetics or religious are frankly parochial and their lifestyle also.
In such an environment it is difficult for anybody with a modicum of education to find nurture and find themselves promoted up the ranks, let alone pole-vault to the top.
They will have even less chance when the people at the top show every sign of being unsure of themselves, and are suffering from inferiority complexes.
People who are confident are the first to admit their mistakes.
Somehow I see neither Melvyn, nor his boss, nor indeed any of the cabinet ever admitting of such a thing. More’s the pity.
This guy’s behaviour is unacceptable and a symptom of a wider malaise. In our daily lives, many of us have to deal with the unacceptable behaviour of employees in government and public authorities.
Good on you to expose this guy and hopefully others in the future.
If he was a raving iron then he might be better at his job.
They do love to chit-chat, don’t they?
[Daphne – Not necessarily, and that’s a bit of a typecasting remark, isn’t it?]
Mangion may not be gay, may not be straight, may not be tall, may not be short but he sure is stupid.
This article shows Daphne at her BEST. Well done keep it up, You’re great.
Melvyn, I always thought you would be an exemplary public official. Collect yourself immediately and if you are in difficulty seek advice rather than taking it out on DCG.
If in a media related job, DCG’s work is one of the very few local examples you should follow.
I have to emphasize that we should consider ourselves really lucky. It is becoming more obvious that we are witnessing the dawn of ‘Homo Imbecillis’ and the genetic mutation must be occurring in the area of Malta’s Foreign Office and its whereabouts.
So you did not have a Maltese Village mentality…..what a pity.
Hahaha loved this, started off seriously enough and ended up hilarious.
As we all make mistakes, the way forward is for you to apologize to Melvyn. After all he is not a public figure but a vehicle of a public figure. What worries me is when public figures such as the leader of the opposition come out with indecent comments, such as that of praising what lead to the death of innocent people, something that even the country responsible for has apologized. Who is asking for his head? Or have we come to accept such comments for the Partit tal-Jaqq.
[Daphne – Melvyn Mangion is spokesman for the foreign minister. Not only is he a public figure, but one who is subject to scrutiny. With your reasoning, Mousa Ibrahim and Jay Carney – to mention two examples who can’t but be known to you – are not public figures and should not be discussed. The leader of the opposition has nothing to do with it. That is a separate matter. Your reasoning is symptomatic of the Maltese malaise: kulhadd jizbalja. You seem unable to distinguish between an otherwise competent person who makes a real error of judgement and behaviour that is the result of chronic incompetence. I have nothing for which to apologise. I don’t even want him to apologise. That is not the point. The point is that we cannot go on appointing incompetents to key positions.]
Even you dear Daphne have such a Mediterranean flare about you!
[Daphne – Actually, Bob, apart from my physical appearance, I don’t. In everything else, I am completely at odds with the Mediterranean way of doing things and just can’t stand it. I think the generally lackadaisical and slipshod standards, and tolerance for poor behaviour, are completely out of order.]
But the truth is that we all make mistakes, what would be wrong is if he drags it out. I would not go as far as comparing him to the other you mention. Jay Carney is a different animal, knowing well all about journalism after being a leader in it himself.
[Daphne – Exactly, Bob. You’ve summed it up. Now please tell me why a B.Comm graduate with no journalism or international relations experience, and no training in public affairs was chosen as spokesman for the foreign minister.]
Let this be a maturity step in the right direction… and if not… a fall down the pit of life.
Melvyn Mangion is, what, 30? How many more years does he need to ‘mature’? Maltese people revel in amateurism and childishness, which is why his behaviour might not seem unusual.
I’ve seen more maturity in some 18-year olds, but, then again, they tend to be people who have been exposed to the wider world.
“completely at odds with the Mediterranean way”….Depart I say and let us have done with you. in the name of God go, I dont think Somalia is in the Med.
That is precisely the attitude that has brought standards so low.
Why, even Baxxter has departed these shores, it seems.
“You’ve summed it up. Now please tell me why a B.Commerce graduate with no journalism or international relations experience, and no training in public affairs was chosen as spokesman for the foreign minister.”
Bazinga….
Earlier, on an other thread you wrote: “Richard Cachia Caruana is an economics graduate of the University of Malta and a marketing graduate of the London Business School, where he was reading for a doctorate when he was called to Malta to work on the Nationalist Party’s 1981”.
And here you’re writing : “Now please tell me why a B.Comm graduate with no journalism or international relations experience, and no training in public affairs was chosen as spokesman for the foreign minister.”
I don’t think it has to do with qualifications, it has to do more with personality and how passionate the person is for the job.
[Daphne – Sigh. For that job you need: 1. the right training; 2. the right personality; 3. the right social background/home training/upbringng to enable you to deal with people at all levels and in all sorts of situations without f**king up; 4. the right academic qualifications (marketing, public affairs, public relations, in this case possibly international relations too); 5. the right work experience (journalism, public affairs, public relations); 6. a stable personality; 7. the ability to prioritise and not to confuse being busy with efficiency and goal-orientation.]
One customer relations officer I know in a big hotel here in Malta is a dentist by profession, he has an outgoing personality, and knows how to deal with his hotel clients (sometimes big conferences), he’s formidable because he does it with gusto and intelligently.
[Daphne – Is he required to answer questions on policy, advise his minister and handle the press? No. He is required to be nice to hotel customers. No comparison. If he messes up, does it become a news story? No. Is he representing the government of Malta or just a hotel? Just a hotel, not the government. John, give up. You’re like a terrier with a bone on this one. This is my world, not yours. I know what I’m talking about. I know nothing about your world of engineering, and I wouldn’t dream of hectoring you about it, so please.]
And while at it , may I ask what makes a journalist? Please don’t tell me that one has to sit for Evarist Bartolo’s or Lou Bond’s lectures at the university.
[Daphne – The job makes the journalist, John. Then it all depends on whether you can deliver. Or not. It’s pointless having a degree in journalism if you don’t have the instinct for a story or if you can’t write to save your life. You also need very wide general knowledge and the ability to link things to other things, which you can’t do unless you have a quick mind and a highly retentive memory.]
“I am completely at odds with the Mediterranean way of doing things” – you should spend some time working in the Caribbean :)
Public relations is an art. Even with experience in journalism, working in PR shows you to be in completely different waters. Anyone in such a position should know that the cardinal rule is to keep tight rein on the tongue, no matter how right one thinks one is.
While I do believe that DCG has made the point and does not need to labour it further, Mr. Mangion needs to take a deep breath, apologise to his client (even if he thinks he’s right, that is immaterial, he is into custorer relationship too in that position) and put the whole thing down to experience. When in a hole don’t dig.
[Daphne – I have made it clear already that I don’t want an apology, that this is not about ‘my feelings’ and that the point at issue is whether or not Mr Mangion is fit for the job. This is not about the incident, but about what the incident says about Mr Mangion’s suitability for the role.]
“One customer relations officer I know in a big hotel here in Malta is a dentist by profession, he has an outgoing personality, and knows how to deal with his hotel clients (sometimes big conferences), he’s formidable because he does it with gusto and intelligently.”
Yes, and he was also struck off the medical register, which is how he ended up in the hospitality industry in the first place.
Is this a question of getting what you pay for or a career path for, Lord have mercy, a wannabe politician?
…and for your information I did have a Maltese village upbringing but I do not have a bandclub mentality I always formed part of tal-Muzew (as I know you do not like them, but they have also lead to great formation) and also the local confraternities. It is the so called Maltese Village voter that has kept Malta away from a socilaist government for so long.
[Daphne – No, it isn’t, Bob. It is people like me. That’s why, when large numbers of people of my socio-economic profile begin to rumble with discontent, the Nationalist Party begins to worry. It is people of my socio-economic profile who nearly lost the Nationalist Party the last general election. It is because others of my socio-economic profile made a huge effort and spent a lot of money to come back from overseas to vote that the PN scraped through. A mere 750 people made a difference. It is people of my socio-economic profile who elected a third Labour MEP when they usually vote PN in a general election or don’t vote at all. Look at the figures. We – people like me – are the shifting factor in the PN, and when people like Melvyn Mangion and so many others reduce the party’s image to one of chavdom that is almost parallel to the Labour way of doing things, people like me are alienated. There has been a system process of alienation for some years now: people like me are left feeling they don’t belong anywhere politically because the chavs are literally everywhere, and chav standards are the rule. It’s not policy that will lose the Nationalist Party the next election: it’s chavvy behaviour, slipshod standards and an ‘anything goes’ mentality. This is so far removed from the ‘Camelot’ years of Fenech Adami that I am left breathless. I am not talking policy here, or even prime ministerial competence – just standards, and the understanding that not everybody in Malta is lower middle class or working class and those who are not have different expectations and cannot relate to the general dumbing down.]
Elections are won on figures, mass figures and not individuals… it is a fact that the majority (if not all) of PN core supporters in villages all go out to vote… on the other hand in the so called ‘town’ areas especially in the Harbour areas, lower percentages of Nationalist voters do actually drop their vote at the polls.
As a staunch Nationalist (as I have vowed never to see the socialist in power again) I find your comments just and honest. In fact I have not commented for a long time as I had nothing to comment on.
I have never well understood who the people of your socio-economic profile are, they are very invisible…
[Daphne – There are a few thousands of us and we are certainly not invisible to each other. We are invisible to you because we have been rendered invisible through the consistent and systematic dumbing down of the Nationalist Party, over the last few years, into an animal 100% geared to the lower middle class and working class. I go to the rare government reception and it is like a tieg tar-rahal, full of people I have never seen in my life, wearing awful clothes and cramming food into their mouths as though they are starving. At the last one I went to, there were even people in track-suits and others with babies, complete with dummies, in push-chairs. People were shouting instead of talking. Ten years ago, these used to be super-smart occasions. So yes, people like me have become invisible. Our existence has been denied or countered by the rise and rise and rise of chavdom, low standards and hammallagni. Even the government is doing super-naff things like releasing for publication in the media letters of thanks from David Cameron.]
As for the close victory in the last elections, the loss of votes came from the Sliema area mainly Qui Si Sana… an area I would never have associated you with as I find the people there (I say this as an elitist villager) quite repulsive. As for you, I believe you have better taste and better mind, so please do correct this image I have just dreamt up of you protesting against the George Bonello Dupuis gardens! ;)
[Daphne – Bob, this is unbelievable. It is exactly where I am from: I spent the first 21 years of my life on the Hotel Preluna block and the next six on Tower Road. That is what I have tried to tell you: that when people from Sliema (a very wide category that does not necessarily include only people from Sliema) don’t vote, the Nationalist Party is in serious trouble, precisely because it is we who are not the constant factor and we who make or break the party’s fortunes. And we have been rendered invisible. I will never not vote and risk electing Labour, as so many people like me have done, but I can see why they get angry and don’t. And I understand their alienation from all the chavdom. Why do you think that it was mainly ‘people like me’ who reacted so negatively to the prime minister’s press conference about Malta as a military base? Because it was so lowest-common-denominator. We really found it disgusting.]
All is true in your words Daphne, but I will still keep going and I will still keep knocking at every door, so when your type of people give up and give in, the risk of being under a dreaded socialist regime will not happen, at least not with my apathy.
As for chavdoms, these are here and they will stay, so either we all meet at one spot and call a Republic free from such people, or we keep our heads up and ignore things from time to time. It is stressful, as last night when commemorating Malta’s bravery (in the George Cross ceremony), some shit-for-brains bellowed down his phone ‘qed idoqqu l-innu bl-ilma’, in his faded jeans and with his shaved head.
[Daphne – See? That’s what I mean. Nationalist-organised occasions are now no longer distinguishable from Labour ones. But they used to be, and how. I’m not talking light years ago, either, but roughly 10 years. The Nationalist Party was more successful when it was like that, because, as I find myself explaining time and time again to brick walls, the core vote will always be there, but it’s the rest who need to be kept on board. Imagine a man in faded jeans with a shaven head bellowing into a mobile phone at a George Cross commemoration ceremony a decade ago. It would have been unthinkable. There would have been rows of the sort of people who are derided as tal-pepe, who would have been proud to be there. Now we just don’t go, because any such invitation is almost an insult. You turn up and find the place full of trolls. Sounds like an awful opinion? Well, it’s a fact – so it has to be accepted.]
You consider yourself as a non-constant factor in election dynamics, and yet you imply that you will always vote PN no matter what. That’s one hell of a paradox, if you ask me.
[Daphne – I am one of the exceptions. It’s not a paradox at all. I said ‘people like me’, not me. I repeat: people like me, by refusing to vote, nearly lost the PN the last general election. And Louis Grech was elected MEP on the strength of votes from people like me. That’s how Labour got its third MEP: thanks to Mr Grech and his success with people like me (but not me – I like him a great deal but he knows I will never vote Labour.]
“light years ago”
Also, Daph, hate to poop in your party, but light years are a measure of distance, not time.
[Daphne – Of course. Light years away. I’m tired.]
now that I read the lat part you do have a point. But it is not you alone that keeps the PN in its place, and God help us come 2013 that we people let go.
How likely is it that a lower class hamallu PN die-hard stalwart will vote Labour come 2013? More likely than disillusioned Sliema-bred voters who dislike spelling mistakes, Italian-style discourse and uncouth behaviour in officialdom? That’s the sort of question that PN strategists should be answering.
It is not the C2, D and E voters who are abandoning PN in their droves, but A and B. They voted PN into power in 1987, 1998 and 2003. Now that PN has been recast in the image of the Xarabank crowd – which it needn’t have since the C2-E Nazzjonalist ahdar will look up to anything labelled PN – who will speak for the A and B?
Candidates and parties are elected when they speak FOR the people, not when they speak LIKE the people.
But who am I kidding. With the likes of Melvyn Mangion running PN’s political machine we’re headed for a big clusterf**k.
“There has been a systematic process of alienation for some years now: people like me are left feeling they don’t belong anywhere politically because the chavs are literally everywhere, and chav standards are the rule. It’s not policy that will lose the Nationalist Party the next election: it’s chavvy behaviour, slipshod standards and an ‘anything goes’ mentality. This is so far removed from the ‘Camelot’ years of Fenech Adami that I am left breathless. ”
Irrespective of the socio-economic background, I have the same feelings. However, my fear is that even in policy, the PN, or the PN government, is now strongly influenced by chavs. I have a strong feeling that a good grasp and appreciation of basic fundamental principles are missing in key policy making.
Daphne, I tie this to that remarkable comment you made about democracy and individual rights in your recent post about divorce.
[Daphne – That the individual is not to be sacrificed to any perceived notion of the greater good is a fundament of all Nationalist Party policy since the late 1970s at least (I don’t know enough about the party’s policies before then). The party’s stance on divorce jars so badly because it turns this principle on its head. It is a misinterpretation of that principle: the individuals which the party sees are abandoned women and children. But the individual we are talking about here is the abstract Individual: the idea that a group of people cannot gang up against a smaller group and force them into a state where they are denied divorce merely because it pleases the larger group to describe this as the common good. All of Mintoff’s damaging and ultimately self-defeating policies were devised and implemented in the name of the greater good. Who is to define that greater good? Most of history’s atrocities were perpetrated in its name.]
I confirm once more that I agree with you.
Individual rights are the cornerstone of human rights and justice.
I think this familiar Thatcher quote sums it up: “There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families.”
I know that you won’t care about this, but I’m sure others here will surely agree with me on this one:
The Libyan crisis has brought to the fore the sad state of Maltese journalism. Our suspicions on the reliability and skills of a number of our politicans were confirmed with aplomb…
Yet somewhere in the darkness, a beacon of light emerged and is still shining bright…dazzlingly so.
Thank you Daphne!
Well written. Let this be a warning to all those civil servants and ministerial appointees who think that their job is to act as a rotweiller or bodyguard for their ‘mahbub ministru’ when in fact their job is to serve the people of this country who, by the way, are paying for their salary through their taxes
If a journalist gets those types of answers, just imagine what an ordinary citizen wll get when he queries a ministry. Truly, this is a country run by village lawyers.
Unfortunately, some people are appointed to public positions not due to competence but due to who knows who and so on. In Malta we have a lot of competent people who are doing silly jobs, because they were never affiliated to a political party or with people in power, or to some kazin tar-rahal.
As a journalist (a press-card holder in any case) I would be more likely to back Melvyn’s claim that no journalist has any reservations about his work if I didn’t receive the email treatment over two simple questions last week.
I have yet to receive a reply, although my editor and I were repeatedly pestered about the article I wrote, in which I said that Melvyn couldn’t answer my questions at the time. He objected to my saying that.
Unfortunately, such methods are not uncommon among government spokesmen.
rendered
pls ignore previous.
So this Melvyn Mangion handles “communications” for the “I wouldn’t say so” minister. Wonder how our Melvyn handled foreign journalists during the “Great Humanitarian Evacuation”, to join or not to join the Coalition and explaining away the neutrality clause after Resolution 1973 was passed, recognition or not of the Benghazi committee, issuing of visas while still on the high seas: he has had too much on his plate and must be stressed out.
He lets off steam on Facebook; that’s indicative of the mentality and not even knowing how Facebook operates. There was a similar case with one of our legal eagles (better than beagles) not so long ago.
The worst Facebook users are those in the 30/40-soemthing age-group, baring all (almost literally) for their “friends'” digestion, little realising that, despite their own profiles being private, their comments and photos are freely available to all if their “friends'” profiles are “open”.
Mr Mangion simply has difficulty in dealing with the fact that you are infinitely more intelligent and experienced than he his. He just doesn’t know how to deal with that. Forgive him but his pride is telling him to attack instead.
Please swallow your foolish old fashioned pride immediately Mr Mangion and just answer the damn questions put to you, which after all are related to the Ministry – not to you personally.
Politics and journalism in Malta really are the pits. The more I read, the more I just want to give up. I can’t understand how in the whole country there is 1 decent journalist and no decent politician. And the public just accept it. Pastazata.
It is amply clear that he is incapable of doing so because he is unsuited to the job.
Gaddafi got rid of almost all those that helped engineer the take-over on 1st Sept 1969 , thus his power base has been kept secure.
One notable exception was Major Jalud of the Warfalla tribe – even more interesting that now the Warfalla are on the side of the revolutionaries. Here things are done differently: intelligence, questioning minds and dissent are kept at bay by systematic employment coupled to opening of doors for that select group which shows no inclination to shine or rock the boat.
Cronyism has been lauded because it helps keep lesser men in positions of power. The sad fact is this state of affairs has become the accepted norm with a waiting incumbent just dying to add his personal touch to this tragedy in our civil service .
The new breed of PN would-be politicians, alas, is not like the old ones. The old ones had to fight for their principles to make their way up. The new ones are spoilt rotten since KSU days or earlier, only bothered about making their way to the top with barely anything based on merit, and ready to throw a narcissistic ‘cheese’ smile to the cameras whenever in the company of the PM or one of his ministers. Makes me wonder if these are really any better than Labour’s elves!
When general standards are low, there really isn’t very much to choose from.
Put it this way, if you’re smart, ambitious, talented, educated (properly) and have the world open to you, would you hotfoot it to the nearest village party club?
Exactly.
Well, with our politicians treating potential politicians of tomorrow like puppies who need a pat on the head and a bone to keep them happy, it’s quite obvious that it’s no longer a question of competence.
It’s obvious that the smarter, more competent people would leg it, with the result that our country gets run by the lackey dumbasses of their predecessors.
And then when you see how sensitive they all get when you question their competence or their balls towards doing things properly … seriously? How old are the likes of Melvyn Mangion mentally, 15 years old?
Exactly why not, La Redoute?
I know of many respected politicians, well educated professionals including magistrates and judges, lawyers, businessmen who were, over decades, the backbone of village clubs – band clubs, civic clubs and the sort.
But I forget, according to Daphne, all of the above could still have a ‘village mentality’. About time we stop insulting village people and not let undue praise go to the self-appointed ‘elite’ who constantly look down on ‘people with a village mentality’, because, quite evidently, it invariably goes to their head.
Exactly because it’s the less attractive option.
Time was when village politics attracted the best, but that could only have been for the lack of an alternative.
@Angus: If ‘village mentality’ means thinking “small”, being in constant need of praise for one’s achievements, lacking in character formation, being incapable of handling criticism, etc … then NOPE there’s nothing to praise about it at all!
Hands off the Village People! They were the best disco outfit of all time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9OO0S5w2k
Just goes to show you our Hobson’s choices come time to vote – quite sad really .
The problem with this country is that we try to get by with the least bit of preparation, and oh yes, a sense of entitlement.
The problem with this country is that we don’t know that we’re getting by with so little preparation.
What’s wrong with excellence?
Put us on the international stage and our shortcomings become glaringly more obvious.
We are not used to excellence and that is precisely why we boast to high heaven when we occasionally get something right.
Excellence is a choice, as is the lack of it.
This island is stained with the word ‘dilettant’. We cannot even get our road markings right. Fireworks are a game of Russian roulette and the list goes on. The network of family and friends is unhealthy. I do not see any end to it.
Daphne,
I normally do not comment or your articles, and I’ll be frank why I chose to censor myself.
Your ways of attacking ‘lejber’ supporters irritates me. I come from a humble family who were labour supporters – never gained any personal advantages, but yes they did support the party. While studying for my degree, I never thought that my family’s opinion would torment me throughout my career. This is because, as you might have learnt just now, (DOH!) the choice for employees in ministries or public entities are halved before the selection process actually initiates.
So my questions are:
Being a top journalist (excuse my rhetoric) how come you never noticed that something wrong in government appointments before the incidence of needing to e mail questions rather that phone call answers? – I happened to read in the media that incompetent CEOs in public companies did some ‘slight’ messes before, but you tended to ignore them……
Why don’t you extend your research to all governmental entities and analyse how many managerial positions are manned by employees who are less qualified/competent than their subordinates?
[Daphne – Timing is all, Lawrence. Without some kind of ‘news peg’, stories like that just become pointless background noise. Why would I just sit down and say ‘I know, I’ll write about Melvyn Mangion today’, just out of the blue, and then go on to describe this man called Melvyn Mangion who works at the foreign minister and doesn’t know his job. It would be like those people who grumble about ‘fireworks’ and ‘noise pollution’ or ‘development’. Yawn. The ‘peg’ on which the Melvyn Mangion piece hangs is my own personal experience. A story about managers of government corporations would not be interesting to my readers unless there were something like that to bring it alive. I turn the page when I come across that sort of thing. One big yawn.]
Why are you attacking Mr. Mangion, when most of the spokesmen for the ministries are unqualified for the job?
[Daphne – Did I attack him? Where’s the knife? ‘Attack – what a stupid word. It’s called legitimate criticism. And I hope you’re not serious in suggesting that if I ‘attack’ one then I have to ‘attack’ them all ghax inkella mhux fier. This is the exact same argument made by critics of the attack (a real one) on Gaddafi’s regime: why attack Gaddafi when there are so many other dictators, blah blah blah. Ridiculous.]
Is it now that you realise that spokesmen like Mr.Mangion are hand tight of what information they divulge to the media?
Is it with Mr.Mangion’s sole actions that you realise we are not living in a country that promotes freedom of speech?
Kindly stop attacking this guy personally and start focusing on the macro problems of this country. – in this way you can become more credible with people with lukewarm attitudes to politics like the undersigned.
[Daphne – I hate to disappoint you, Lawrence, but I have no such ambition. You appear to have mistaken me for a politician.]
Regards,
Lawrence
PS i accept written replies to my questions… i am not that touchy! :p
Lawrence, you’re the one thousandth person who implores Daphne to write about topics they choose for her. Why? Anyone can write their own blog and expose whatever they want because, in fact, there IS freedom of speech in this country.
So, it seems that the choice the electorate will be confronted with in two years’ time is either a government run by rednecks or one run by village lawyers! The common denominator between the two is incompetence, stiffened by shear ignorance.
Can someone please start a revolution in this country?
Go right ahead.
Seriously, they should start teaching about the Streisand Effect. Do not attract attention to your own mistakes and shortcomings by complaining and bitching.
But Daphne, I think that Melvin Mangion did a good job when he fought off the arguments of Le Iene correspondent …
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=873430175#!/photo.php?fbid=1245493543791&set=a.1245493143781.2039081.1422986665&type=1&theater
http://www.video.mediaset.it/video/iene/puntata/94414/pelazza-gli-aiuti-negati.html
I think that he acted as a couragious spokesmen….
What was “courageous” about it? His Italian is good though, considering he’s Maltese.
[Daphne – Perhaps the other party was armed and dangerous.]
Courageous because he faced the “Iene” guys… why didn’t Tonio Borg face them? He sent his spokesmen to do it for him, so he is full of courage. .
Good job? At the end of the clip an impartial observer would conclude that it appears that Malta is the “bad guy”.
Why did Malta not sign? The reply: Because we didn’t want to.
Mangion’s mistake in that interview is that he did not elaborate on the reasons why Malta has not signed the Protocol in 2006.
The reasons seem to me self-evident: Malta does not have the infrastructure to assume the obligations emanating from the Protocol.
The almost-hysterical reaction of both Mangion and the other official to the legitimate question posed by the Iene reporter, goes to show his below-average abilities.
The Italian reporter gave Mangion a second chance, by highlighting the fact that Malta is given EUR 18 million a year. Instead of saying that that sum is irrisory and does not really help us, as we do not have physical space for more migrants, he replied that we need that money to buy boats!
Actually, the Italian reporter could have retorted: you buy more boats for what, to take the migrants to Italian territory? But the Iene chap – despite his bravado style – must have been flabbergasted by Mangion’s reply.
If only Mangion explained to the Italians why Malta does not think it can sign the Protocol, the reportage would have ended up in Malta’s favour.
Instead, he made a mess out of it.
And, by the way: his Italian is horrendous: is barchi the plural of barca?! Is “equipment” an Italian word?! It is much better than the Italians of others, granted. But still, it is not up to scratch.
He should have done like other professional spokesmen: he should have spoken in Maltese or English and get a professional interpreter.
Precisely!
I don’t agree at all! He did a great job.
Best post ever – mostly this:
They do not know that the correct procedure is for government ministers to sit down with their spokesmen twice a day – first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening – to go over the main issues, the side issues, foresee questions and agree on answers. Then the spokesman goes off and does the necessary fact-checking and background research for those answers. Then, when reporters call with questions, he can and should answer them there and then, over the telephone or in person, himself.
Here we don’t like planning ahead and sticking to the plan. We need a culture change and I’m including myself in this.
And still he just can’t understand why his conduct is completely unbecoming (and really unwise) for somebody in his position.
Seems like the behaviour of a petulant member of the old boys’ club. Shouldn’t spokespeople be old hands in the media? In a way it would make it worst as the whitewashing double-speak becomes more professional. Making it difficult to extract the wheat from the chaff.
saying that he is not a particularly brave man if he can’t even deal with a woman
ahahaa! having personally been at the receiving end of your feminist wisecracks I have to say he’s clueless or has a big guilt-trip. In a way I admire kev(in) as he seems to take all the criticism and sometimes bare insults dished by commenters to this blog with grace.
You don’t need to post this, but the term ‘light years’ is meant to be used for distance and not time.
I only mention it as I’ve noticed it used incorrectly twice.
[Daphne – I’m quite happy to post it.]
Hey, Baxxt! He’s another Old Aloysian – http://www.skolahbieb.com/MELEX/
So you are an old Aloooooishian too, Grezz? Would that be Grezzju or Grezzja?
Turns out that Melvyn Mangion actually does have a bandclub mentality. See below:
http://www.stcatherineband.org.mt/guestbook/index.aspx?pg=83
“Melvyn Mangion It-Tlieta, 22 ta’ Mejju 2007
Vera prosit ta’ bicca xoghol kbira li ghamel is-sotto kumitat tal-Kultura. Frott ta’ hidma b sinergija li ssir mill-qalb.”
“Daphne – Of course. Light years away. I’m tired.”
If you’re tired, Daph, take my suggestion: turn off the news for a moment, put the kettle on, fix yourself a nice hot cup of tea, watch an episode of Boardwalk Empire or Mad Men and thank me later. Nothing beats a fine TV show and a hot cup of tea after a restless day.
[Daphne – At 5.30pm? No, can’t. I have a magazine to wrap up and my Sunday column to write because I can’t do it tomorrow, and on and on and on. But I did catch Zodiac on television a couple of days ago. Absolutely brilliant film. Oh, and I drink hot cups of tea throughout the day.]
Bajd u laham – u Daphne trid tlahhaq m’Alla u max-xitan!
Kulltant nahseb li jirnexxielha tlahhaq.
Imma meta ccempillek wegibha mill-ewwel ghax jigrilek bhal Melvyn, ghax tkun mghaggla.
U jien ried idahhalni sahra u se jkolli nidhol, ghax hekk jehtieg il-klijent. Ghax tghid, tkun ghal rasek jew man-nies xorta tahdem ikollok. Ahjar nidhak.
If you’re referring to the Robert Downey Jr one, you’re absolutely right – a true masterpiece that one. The other Zodiac, however, the one released a year or so earlier, was utter crap.
[Daphne – Yes, Robert Downey Junior.]
I am not a big fan of you Daphne, but I must congratulate you for this piece.
People with the incompetence and inefficiency like Mr Melvin will contribute to the defeat of GonziPn in the next general election.
Can Mr Melvin tell us on which academic credentials he was employed as the communiccations officer for the Foreign Ministry? How can a person in such position lack a basic good command of English? He thought that you said that he is gay, in the context of ‘dealing with a woman’.
One small advice for Mr Melvin – go and invest in some good tuition and just keep your good work where it belongs, fil- kazin tal-banda taz- Zurrieq.
“Melvyn Mangion is spokesman for the foreign minister. Not only is he a public figure, but one who is subject to scrutiny.”
____________________________________________________
And that about sums it up. Mr. Mangion has really made an ass of himself. Conduct unbecoming to a public figure. Mr. Mangion, there are times when one has to speak up, and times when one has to keep one’s gob shut. Meaning grin and bear it, while repeatedly mumbling ‘mea culpa’.
Melvyn Mangion – Textbook case.
“Management’s ‘The Peter Principle’ states that “in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence”, meaning that employees tend to be promoted until they reach a position at which they cannot work competently. Evidently, Mr Mangion has reached his level of incompetence and needs to go. Now.
Daphne you might think it is distasteful to comment on certain aspects of this man’s behaviour and language towards you – I admire your willpower.
On the other hand, I’m a gay man who is blissfully far removed from this interesting tittle tattle – who shudders at the thought of someone’s ego being so severely shaken by any threat – real or imaginary – to their heteresexual image. So allow me to indulge…. I can’t help smelling a hint of inverted homophobia, coupled with a spot of paranoia and ‘old school’ bigotry very much in line with Prof Adams’ (1996) findings:
“Abstract
The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men who admitted negative affect toward homosexual individuals. Participants consisted of a group of homophobic men (n = 35) and a group of nonhomophobic men (n = 29); they were assigned to groups on the basis of their scores on the Index of Homophobia (W. W. Hudson & W. A. Ricketts, 1980). The men were exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual, and lesbian videotapes, and changes in penile circumference were monitored. They also completed an Aggression Questionnaire (A. H. Buss & M. Perry, 1992). Both groups exhibited increases in penile circumference to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli. The groups did not differ in aggression. Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies.”
:)
sorry, but I just couldn’t resist….
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/r1/ms10dart.asp?a=15014
Can Mr Melvin Mangion issue a press statement as to why high profile investors have been denied a visa? It is in the competence of the Foreign Ministry to grant visa….
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110416/local/Residency-scheme-must-not-strain-economy-says-Fenech.360529
Minister Tonio Fenech speaks about “high value people”: shades of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” ? I think the correct term is HNWI and UHNWI (High Net Worth Individuals and Ultra HNWI).
The dumbing down of the PN continues. The most obnoxious form of Labour-style xenophobia has now, apparently, infiltrated the Cabinet. How cheeky that a foreigner (a foreigner!) should settle in Malta and take advantage of the Maltese healthcare system. Mhux fier!
Of course, the Minister has failed to take into account (or at least, has failed to mention) the minor detail that all these “barranon” bring not inconsiderable amounts of retirement savings with them when they settle in Malta, funds which are in turn spent in Maltese retail outlets and restaurants, and paid out to the Maltese tradesmen who renovate and maintain these houses in the sun. Typical, “Malti tar-rahal” nonsense: Of course we take their money, anzi, we do so with pleasure! Heqq, but if they get sick, hux, we have to ship them back where they came from!
So it is only persons who are from the huge maltese cities are intelligent and know how to vote, have political, diplomatic and military acumen.
I happen to come from a village which produced famous surgeons, medical doctors, politicians, lawyers, first class politicians, scientists etc. It is not my wish to mention members of my family who are first class citizens. But well we are village people.
[Daphne – Yes, and they were suitable for life in Malta at the time. Now horizons have expanded and the requirements are different, so a village mentality that might have been suitable and perfectly adequate 70 years or even 40 years ago is completely inadequate now. Village mentality is an expression; it does not denote somebody who literally comes from a village, though in this case, yes, it does.]
BBC radio 4 is my favourite radio station. Its best journalist, John Humphrys, is probably the best journalist in the UK (together with Jeremy Paxman). He had no formal training in journalism and he left school very young. Top UK politicians are scared of John Humphrys and Jeremy Paxman; they avoid them and dread getting grilled by them. Journalists are born not made, in my opinion.
This is what you get when you employ people on the basis of political affiliation, rather than merit.
Blue eyes do not necessarily make you capable or efficient.
It will all change, chavsRus, when “ghajjtuli Joseph, inhobbkom” rules the country in a few years’ time. The blue-eyed boys will be replaced with red in tooth and claw who are super qualified, capable and very efficient all at the same time. Can’t get any better.
Any developments on this matter?
Melvyn Mangion is on sick leave.
Is he back to work or still on sick leave ??
Was he so traumatised, poor chap ?
Poor chap! I don’t think you know him do you?
No, I don’t… is he that bad?