What?
I’ve been reading a report of Joseph’s latest sermon, in Malta Today. Can he really have said this?
“Nobody is born without skills, abilities and potential.”
Everybody is born without skills. Skills are acquired as you go through life, and sometimes not at all. Babies have no skills.
Eventually, they learn how to slot the round peg into the round hole, but some babies never even learn to do that and in middle age they are still trying to slot the round peg into the square hole.
Everybody is born without abilities, except for the ability to breathe, suck milk, crap into nappies and bawl. We aren’t even born with the ability to smile. That’s how bad it is.
Lots of people are born without potential. There are so many variables: genes, time and place, who’s prime minister at the time…I could go on.
There is intrinsic potential, and there is actual potential. Take me, for example. I suppose I was born with quite a lot of intrinsic potential, but no actual potential because when I was six years old Dom Mintoff came to power and I didn’t see the end of the Labour government until I was almost 23, married with one child and another on the way.
Lots of my contemporaries feel the same way: that we have spent the last two decades trying to make up – uselessly, in some ways – for lost time, while fighting tooth and nail to make sure that the bastards don’t do the same to our children (and we have managed, so far…).
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I agree totally with Daphne about skills and abilities.
These are acquired.
Potential is a different kettle of fish.
However it is clear Joey had no idea about what he was saying.
Joseph Muscat just mouths a string of disjointed cliches, because after saying that everybody is born with abilities he then mentions “acquired” abilities.
He was speaking in Maltese, however, so certain clangers must be attributed to the journalist: young people “showing off” their skills and, of course, Dalli’s own “vindication”. And Americanised spelling too.
Yeah right…..that’s why everyone is born with, common sense!
Amen.
A totally inane ass.
Joseph’s statement begs the question: “Was he born or hatched?”
“Everybody is born without skills…Everybody is born without abilities, except for the ability to breathe, suck milk, crap into nappies and bawl. We aren’t even born with the ability to smile. That’s how bad it is.”
Every rule has an exception. Take this one here, for instance – everyone can “truly appreciate” his “natal color-matching skills and design.”
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2011/01/in-a-world-of-their-own/
Then Joseph became PM and said, ‘let us now create babies in our image’
I was watching this with some friends – we had exactly the same reaction.
Did you notice that tonight he seemed a bit unsteady in his speech? Almost as if he’d forgotten about it and hastily put together some random and obvious statements?
Holy shit!
Joseph is trying to play the intellectual.
U mur ‘l hemm. Is-Sup tal-MUZEW bhalu kien jghidilna:
Opium for the masses, and all that…
Perhaps he was trying to convince himself he was born with skills.
Well, he is not one to choose his words carefully and perhaps he meant “talents”.
Perhaps he doesn’t know the difference.
Perhaps this sentence helps him: certainly public speaking is not a talent of his but sadly it isn’t a skill he has mastered either.
Go to 1:40 where he extends his wishes to all mothers….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hv76ItdYzI
I find it in very bad taste to play on people’s personal situations. Especially when you’ve been a testimonial to the industry in question.
Aside from the poor and atrocious rhetoric, there is a philosophical school that attributes ‘tabula rasa’ to human agency.
We learn everything except those behaviours that have survival function. These latter behaviours are ‘instinctive’. That said, I should point out that those who use these arguments usually continue talking about cultural modification and control.
One cannot help feeling the sense of impending doom (oh, and that is learnt too – we all learnt what Mintoff and the Reds did in the 1970s and 1980s).
Hi Daphne,
I have just received this email from the Labour Party.
From: PL Communications Office [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 21 May 2012 05:20
To: Reachair
Subject: Garanzija għaż-Żgħażagħ – Tagħlim Taħriġ Xogħol
Matul dawn l-aħħar ġimgħat il-Partit Laburista poġġa l-edukazzjoni fuq quddiem nett tal-aġenda.
Għalina l-edukazzjoni tiġi l-ewwel.
L-edukazzjoni hija ċ-ċavetta għall-mobilità soċjali, biex titwettaq il-ħolma ta’ kull omm u missier li wliedhom ikunu aħjar minnhom.
Kien għalhekk li Joseph Muscat ta Garanzija liż-Żgħażagħ li titwettaq taħt Gvern Ġdid. Garanzija li nagħtu l-opportunità lil kulħadd li jsib futur fit-Tagħlim, f’iktar Taħriġ jew fix-Xogħol.
Tellaqna proċess wiesgħa ta’ diskussjoni, ma’ żgħażagħ, għaqdiet taż-żgħażagħ, studenti u s-soċjetà ċivili.
Issa jmiss lilkom li tixtarru l-proposta tagħna u tagħtuna l-ideat tagħkom dwarha.
Irridu li kull żagħżugħa u żagħżugħ jilħaq l-aspirazzjonijiet u l-ħolm tagħha jew tiegħu.
Permezz ta’ Garanzija għaż-Żgħażagħ ta’ Tagħlim, Taħriġ u Xogħol, qed nagħtu l-għodda biex iż-żgħażagħ tagħna, huma min huma, ikollhom l-opportunità li jeċċellaw u jagħmlu suċċess.
Ara d-diskors ta’ Joseph Muscat hawn.
Aqra d-diskors ta’ Joseph Muscat hawn.
Ara r-reazzjonijiet għall-proposta ta’ Joseph Muscat hawn.
Tista’ tkompli tgħin ukoll biex nibqgħu nibnu dawn l-ideat, u nagħmlu ħafna aktar għal pajjiżna, billi tagħti donazzjoni.
________________________________________
EDUCATION – TRAINING – JOBS
Our guarantee for young people
The Labour Party has placed education at the forefront of its policies in recent weeks. Education is our priority.
Education is the key to us all making the most of our potential, and for young people it is the crucial starting point, the very foundation of their eventual career and life choices. And naturally every parent and guardian wants to see all of their children reach their full potential.
This is the reason Joseph Muscat launched this initiative and guarantee of education and training for jobs. A guarantee that means everyone will be given the opportunity to develop their skills and individual talents in higher education and training, so that their education and skills will lead to work which reflects their true potential.
This initiative is the result of widespread consultation with young people, their parents, youth organisations, as well as, crucially, all those who work in the education and civil spheres.
However this is not enough. Now we would also appreciate more of your feedback on this proposal so that it can truly reflect individual needs, so that all young people will realise their potential, whatever the individual needs and circumstances.
You can mail your suggestions to us here.
This guarantee is, we think, the best way to ensure we have a generation of young people who have every opportunity to achieve, a proposal which recognises the individuality of all of Malta and Gozo’s young people as a prerequisite to their future success.
A proposal for a better future for us all.
Donate whatever you can to support our initiatives.
Click here to view this e-newsletter online | Forward this e-mail to a friend
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Maltastar has discovered 5771 unskilled persons without a job.
According to Joey’s theory these people were never born.
Really a case of the left hand being oblivious to what the right hand is doing.