Luciano: in over his head and too damned stupid to know it
He reads Italian because idiomatic English is too difficult for him. There are too many hidden meanings which he misses.
In The Times, this morning:
Dr (Luciano) Busuttil observed that PfP membership was not in the PN electoral programme.
Dr Gonzi asked Dr Busuttil if he agreed with PfP membership.
Dr Busuttil said he did.
Dr Gonzi said it was therefore being registered that the Opposition agreed that PfP was in the national interest. So much for claims of betrayal. The bottom line, he said, was that the Opposition had presented this censure motion against Mr Cachia Caruana only for partisan political reasons.
(…)
As the session dragged on, committee members appeared to get bored.
PN representative Francis Agius scribbled on a notepad as his colleague Charlo Bonnici whipped out his smart phone.
On the other end of the committee table, PL representative Luciano Busuttil began leafing through a copy of Italian current affairs magazine L’Espresso.
——–
He favours Italian magazines. ENOUGH SAID. Anybody Maltese who chooses to read his current affairs in Italian because he finds it easier than English and can relate better to the culture and way of expression is toast to me.
To get to the beef in Italian writing, whether it’s news or just a plain old magazine article, you’ve got to fight your way through layers of meaningless fluff, redundant phrases and decorative expressions.
Three Italian paragraphs translated into idiomatic English leave you with just a single sentence, or perhaps two.
What is it I always say about the cultural split in Malta and the real reason that one bunch can’t get along with the other? It’s not really actually party politics, is it? It’s this sort of thing.
L’Espresso, for God’s sake. Somebody give him a copy of The Economist. He will never be able to understand what they’re going on about in The Spectator.
I should have guessed.
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Daphne, tghid hafna affarijiet tajbin int, imma meta titkellem hekk dwar it-Taljan u t-Taljani, vera tkun qed tohrog ta’ cuc. Qed tirraguna b’ mohh karattru tal-Carry On.
[Daphne -Lanqas xejn, qalbi. Hija l-pura verita. Sophia Coppola – an Italian-American, ironically – synthesised the alien nature of Italian culture brilliantly in her film Somewhere http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3cPbxCBGVo . The scenes shot in Italy are beyond brilliant: Telegatto award show, faux-chirpy ‘girl’ (middle-aged) show-business reporter, businessmen and their wives and all. I watched it in London, and I was the only one in the audience who laughed. Everybody else was just staring at the screen, wondering what it meant. It’s useful to be familiar with both.]
You dont understand Italian culture and humour. You wouldn’t talk like that if you truly did. You cant be an expert in everything under the sun.
[Daphne – Humour is cultural and contextual, and that is exactly my point. Italian humour isn’t funny to me. I find it too obvious and unsubtle. And yes, it is actually inferior to what I find funny because it requires far less skill and ability and demands far less of its audience. I certainly do understand Italian culture. Whether I like it is another matter. I find that much of it is stagnant and that it is only the traditional/historical aspects which can be warmly appreciated; much of the rest lacks vibrancy.]
I really don’t understand this Maltese obsession with Italy.
Many seem to believe it is the epicentre for style and culture. I love it when you ask Italians what they think of Malta (when mentioning how closely the Maltese associate themselves with them) and they laugh, shrug and say they are irrelevant.
[Daphne – THANK YOU. I especially hate the way Italy is seen as the hot-bed of style by Malta. ITALIANS HAVE NO STYLE. How many times do I have to repeat this? They do everything to a formula, which is the very negation of style. They are ultra-conservative in everything they do, which is the death-knell of creativity. Their clothes are boring, their homes are dull, and they fly too close to the edge of naff even in what is supposed to be their style hot-bed with the products coming out of the Milan design fairs. There are some brilliant, brilliant exceptions, but…the worlds of style and creativity have moved on, and they’re nowhere near Italy.]
Sure beats Britain though.
Not so sure about that Sir/Madam.
Take just one example: food
Old jokes associated bad food with the UK, but I can tell you that you will find top class cuisine in London rather than in Milan.
[Daphne – You’re right, and what’s more is that in London you’ll find literally everything, whereas in Milan it’s Italian all the way, and anything else is a crime and an insult.]
Daphne, you can’t bash Italian design like that. True, Italian design can be a bit extravagant sometimes but you have to give it some credit. But I do agree that Italy shouldn’t be seen as the hot-bed of style by Malta.
Personally I always loved Scandinavian design and Scandinavian style in general. It’s very minimalist, modest yet very effective and forward-looking. I’d like to see more Scandinavian style, design and fashion around rather than always Italian.
“What is it I always say about the cultural split in Malta and the real reason that one bunch can’t get along with the other? It’s not really actually party politics, is it? It’s this sort of thing.”
Couldn’t agree more with you on this.
Once, someone told me that the reason why he sides with Italy in football and not England is because the Italians have given Malta a lot, and the British never gave us anything of use.
What jarred wasn’t the fact that he sides with Italian football (I don’t care about football myself) but the justification he gave for that. I mean, seriously?
I bet one reason why we’re not in the mess Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are in is the 164-year-old injection of British influence. What have the Italians given us exactly, except the influence in culinary culture and artistic heritage, which is certainly not what makes the cogs turn?
[Daphne – Food and art? If only. Not even that. They gave us a load of bombs in the Second World War and a political heritage and attitude that some people just can’t shake off.]
Quote’ [Daphne – Food and art? If only. Not even that. They gave us a load of bombs in the Second World War and a political heritage and attitude that some people just can’t shake off.]
The bombs you mentioned were never directed against Malta or to cause harm to the Maltese people. Italia (and Germany) never declared war on Malta. See the relevant War declarations.
We were dragged in a war because of the British oppressors who occupied our islands against the wish the Maltese.
If the Union Jack was not hoisted on the Governor’s palace, rest assured, that Renzo Piano’s services would have not been required.
Once at it, why dont you ever lambast the British authorities for not helping out financially in ‘rebuilding’ the theatre? After all it was to defend their empire that Malta suffered so much. Nothing for our advancement.
Ah, excuse me, forgot, we should be so grateful, the King has recognised our efforts and gave us a piece of alloy, which the gahan malti is so proud.
[Daphne – Yawn. I did cover my mouth, though.]
Another idiot who doesn’t consider the strategic position Malta had in military terms.
Do you honestly think Parnis, that the Nazis and Fascists would have left us alone had the British upped sticks and left? No.
They would have invaded because they wouldn’t allow a potentially hostile base smack in the middle of their supply routes to the North African theatre.They would have bombed us to rubble, like they did, and then invaded.
Another believer of the moronic “mitna ghall-barrani”. Would have died anyway, with or without the British.
As technology and military capabilities improved, with longer range aircraft and submarines, Malta’s position in the centre of the Med became less and less important until Hooray! Inhlisna!
An entire generation defended this country including my grandparents and would have been forced to do so even if there were no British forces.
I really can’t stand morons and idiots like you who spit on their efforts..
“If the British had upped sticks and left”
What reason would there be to bomb us to rubble?
They would have just marched down Kingsway, and I am sure they would have been welcomed by many Maltese.
Than it would have been the British who would have bombed us to rubble . and it would have been the same Maltese who would have welcomed them when they marched down Kngsway.
Our destiny, up to 1964, was always to be the prostitute of the Med.
[Daphne – Up to 1964? Up to 1987. Jew insejt lil Gaddafi.]
Were it MicroMega, but L’Espresso? It’s De Benedetti’s answer to Berlusconi’s Panorama.
As for the culture split, I say the real taboo is thinking that the bourgeois (oh dear) can’t speak both. Il terzo gode.
[Daphne – Speaking both is not enough. It goes beyond that. Language is the expression of culture and society. In the case of English, devoid of the latter understanding, all you know is Globish. It is, in fact, one of the reasons why I was never interested in learning Italian properly. The forma mentis which shapes it is alien to me. I just can’t speak or think in that way and use 20 words where two will suffice. I’ve noticed that the Maltese people who take best to Italian are those who like chatting and have a chatting frame of mind. I hate chatting. I won’t even have a telephone conversation unless it’s about work or something perfunctory.]
Agreed. I’m used to the Milanese, dry and no time for useless banter.
They always got my sense of humour though, made me feel at home. I sensed they felt closer to me than someone from Rome, wasn’t the terrone.
In a way they’re pretty much like the Japanese, free until a coming of age, except theirs never happens. Berlusconi let them to it, chat shows everywhere.
True they can be ultra conservative in taste, but that’s also a reaction to the propensity to extremism. The zenith reached in the lates sixties happened when everyone was involved.
If only we managed to do the same, Sliema wouldn’t be in the state it’s in, nor would we have to suffer the one who tries to hog that role for herself.
I miss the ones in Qui si Sana most. There, I’m nostalgic now.
Stereotyping is never a good thing Daphne…we don’t like it when people stereotype about Arabs, Asians and Americans etc…how do you justify this stereotyping of Italians? How can you say that they are all ultra-conservative?
[Daphne – It’s not stereotyping, Ian. If it were, there would be no anthroplogy or social studies. I did not say Italians are all ultra-conservative. I said that Italian so-called style is ultra-conservative, which means that it isn’t really style at all. It’s not style when you look like everyone else and are afraid to step out of the box and do something different.]
Fair enough. I never considered Italian style to be ‘conservative’ though, what with all their famous brand names, and ‘veline’. maybe I am used to a different definition. Then again, I don’t really care much for fashion.
[Daphne – That’s just what I mean: the famous brands and the velline. The only two Italian fashion brands with anything like proper style are Etro, MIssoni and perhaps Prada. Full marks for shoes, though.]
‘Veline’ is not conservative? Yes sure, the objectification of the female gender is a very liberal characteristic of the Italian culture.
Also, the way Berlusconi seemed to find no problem with hiring young women escorts for his parties, despite his public life, and the debasing comments he used to pass towards women political opponents who were not blessed with good looks – yes, that is very liberal too.
You’d say that maybe Italy isn’t Berlusconi, but they (collectively) put him in the lead time and time again, and the ‘veline’ culture was one promoted by his media.
Daphne, I am sorry but your idea of Italian design is very limited. The Italians invented Design and Function as one total concept. One only needs to read the Sunday Times (London) to feel that the British are very much into Italian design culture. You are very right about L’Espresso and Italian journalism; they are atrociously bad. Two/thirds of my family are Italian.
Antonio Marras.
Allow me a bit of stereotyping, Ian. Italian fashion:
The ladies – all tits and bums
The gentlemen – spivs
[Daphne – Thank you, John. In fact, those are just the scenes I described in Sophia Coppola’s Somewhere. The only exception is a girl reporter (aged 40), wearing bandbox-new jeans with stilettos (casual, because she’s going to meet an American filmstar), bouncing up and down in front of the camera and using hip words out of context because it’s a show for giovanotti, or whatever they call young people. I laughed so much, because it was so razor-sharp accurate, that I almost choked and had people shushing me from two rows around.]
The best book about Italy is David Gilmour’s “The Pursuit of Italy – A History of a Land, its Regions and their People”, first published in 2011 by Allen Lane.
Let us just avoid entering into the tedious polemic that Italy and Germany bombed Malta per se. Malta was a British Base and the bombs were intended to cripple the defences; naturally the smallness of our island resulted in bombs going astray to the detriment of the civilian population.
I similarly wish to keep out of the ‘Italian Style’ argument. it’s rather subjective and as we say in the vernacular ‘mitt bniedem mitt fehma’. ‘The fair land of Italy’ (Churchill’s way of describing the country) has contributed immensely towards Europe’s cuktural heritage. No one can deny that the peninsula has been the cradle of some of Europe’s greatest painters, authors, and architects who contributed immensely in putting the nation in one of Europe’s examples of excellence.
After all, clothes,and football are not the yardstick by which a country’s greatness is judged.
[Daphne – The Italian contributions you describe all occured before the 17th century. Four hundred years without making your mark is a long, long time. Repeating the same thing and calling it tradition kills creativity and innovation. This is not an ‘Italy versus Britain’ war. It is a discussion about social culture and its influences. The examples of Britain and Italy are used because those have been the two main influences on Malta. Clothes are the expression of creativity and their significance, for the culture from which they emerge, is significant. If you don’t believe me, walk down Republic Street, Valletta, any weekday morning.]
I have to disagree that the contributions happened before the 17th century. Let’s not confuse design with fashion.
[Daphne – We were actually talking about art, as I recall, in this particular case. Certainly not design. And certainly not industrial design.]
Britain was the first industrial power, why it never conceded design as a social instrument remains to be seen. Ruskin was onto something however, when he condemned the reluctance to accept the new aesthetic.
Italy happens to have the right structure for innovation and experimentation, an expanse of city states vying with each other for economical success.
Malta underwent the same upheaval proposed by the futurists as much as Germany’s Weimar was exploring the bauhaus. It’s what the PN was about, the fascism was everywhere.
We all know what happened next and shouldn’t ignore Italy’s renaissance after the war. Italy made of design, industry and the idea of added value to manufacture what Britain didn’t. It could, given the social pact concerted amongst everyone. It came to an end when Moro was killed.
We had Mintoff doing his best to rip the country’s fabric apart.
Right now, Italians, making use of the national jester, have taken to experimenting with democratic representation via the internet. Their virtual headquarters, Grillo’s blog, is amongst the first top twenty sites worldwide.
Not shy of the computer anymore, they intend applying to representation what we’re doing with blogs. Franco Debono, with his delusions of grandeur and his outdated idea of politics, the irony, wouldn’t even know what hit him.
[Daphne – It’s very difficult to respect a country that has so little respect for democracy that it invariably chooses jokers for politicians, and deliberately so. Beppe Grillo indeed. What an excellent follow-up to Berlusconi.]
I tend to agree with you. Italy is considered as the fairest land in the Med, but to say it’s great is something debatable.
Of course it could have been great, if there wasn’t that hideous incident of Piazza Loret, which was the work of the partiggiani who were nothing but communists.
The Italians have the habit of ridding themselves of those who try to make them great, from Julius Caesar to Him.
Who was it who said:
“Terra benedetta, gente maledetta”.
[Daphne – Did your father keep a bust of Mussolini in his study/the hallway, Silvio? I know of several Maltese families who did. And then some of them complained because they weren’t trusted.]
After the war I was with my father in Italy and some one offered to sell him the Skull of Mussolini.
My father remarked that He had quite a big head so how come the skull is so small.
The Ialian said, but that is His when he was still young.
You have to admit though that when it comes to cheese and salumi, nobody else comes close.
[Daphne – Salumi, yes, but with the grand exceptions of Gorgonzola and Parmiggiano, the French are better at cheese. And real Cheddar and Stilton are irreplaceable.]
Bottom line is Maltese people should not compare themselves to anyone. It only shows foreigners that the Maltese feel inferior to any European country. The italians, French, British and the lot don’t even think of defending another country except theirs.
[Daphne – Yes, right. Italy being a case in point with its contempt of the north for the south, or ‘Britain’, made up of the Scotland, England and Wales, with loyalities defined accordingly. Every country has these internal splits about identity. And yes, I think you are right in that it is ridiculous the way so many Maltese identify with Italy to the point of seeing Malta as an extension of it, when the reality is that Italy is a million miles away in every respect except geography, because for the crucial part of our socio-cultural development, we had the minimum of contact.]
Daphne, this is the first time that I am not agreeing with you.
Italy? Don’t make me laugh: Italy wasn’t even a country up to less than 200 years ago.
With British help, it finally came together in the latter half of the 19th century. And within 50 years it was a dictatorship.
In two world wars it twice fought on both sides. The Mafia were running most of the country within a couple of decades of its birth. It’s only conquest? Abyssinia – gassing peasants who fought with little more than pitchforks.
In the 50 years after the war, they had over 40 governments. And who amongst us hasn’t been caught up in a ‘sciopero’ at Fiumicino or Malpensa?
Given their record, should we be surprised at the mess they made of the No. 1 Dock/Rialto promenade?
Ha! Touche! Couldn’t have put it better! Italy was the greatest up to the settecento. From there onwards it’s all downhill!
Why does it always have to be Britain vs Italy? The Maltese seem to be obsessed with siding with one of these countries. Be it football, culture, favourite vacation destination, language; one invariably finds two fan teams battling which country does it best.
For goodness sake, does it really matter? And what about France and Spain and Norway or whatever?
I used to be an Italy person and vowed that I’ll never go to London because there’s nothing much to see (stupid me). Until I needed to go for an exam and discovered the charm of London. I suppose it’s silly to side with one country as both have notable interesting features.
Marelli
“Why does it always have to be Britain vs Italy?”
Simple. The British occupied us for two hundred years and on a clear day, one can see the coast of Sicily from Mellieha.
Marelli the Maltese are so partisan.