A mental picture we can do without
Published:
June 3, 2009 at 1:02pm
Get it up for immigration
Last Saturday, Azzjoni Nazzjonali’s Josie Muscat gave a press conference. He wasn’t pleased that the two main political parties have taken up the issue of immigration and stolen his thunder and his main electoral platform.
“Immigration seems to have given them all an erection suddenly,” he said.
I think that’s one image we can do without.
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I think he wants to emulate Mintoff.
Did he actually say that? You’ve gotta give it to the man, he really is entertaining. Do you know the exact words he used in Maltese? I think it would sound even better.
@Charlie, below are the words of wisdom:
”Tajba din, f’daqq wahda qamilhom ghall-problema tal-immigranti!”
My comment really has nothing to do with the above. Can anyone tell me when the results of the voting will be out please?
[Daphne – By early afternoon on Sunday.]
Not this time it seems. There is some sort of Europe-wide agreement that sorting and counting i not to start till Sunday afternoon.
This is to avoid a situatrion where one country starts announcing results while others are still voting.
The EU Commission wants results to be held until 11 p.m. on Sunday, when polls will be closed in all countries. But the ruling mentions “official results” and that leaves a lot of room for manoeuvre by various countries.
Charlie, I was going to ask the same question. What did he say in Maltese? I am suspecting that it was something like ‘issa qamilhom’ or ‘kulhadd qamlu’, in which case, it strenghtens my suspicion that many use these terms without even realising the implication behind them.
What makes you so sure that, in this particular case, the speaker did not realise what he was saying?
Corinne, I am not so sure but just hoping that Josie Muscat does not stoop so low, and that he used this colloquial phrase like many Maltese do, without realising how vulgar it is. If not, I rest my case.
I can think of at least one other occasion when he made a similar gaffe. It was on a pre-election, televised BA debate and he was talking about single mothers ‘jieduh f’ghajnhom’.
AN have some valid candidates. They’re better than AD in my opinion.
That doesn’t say much about AD. Nor does it say anything about AN, for that matter.
I wouldn’t mind voting for Josie; he spoke well on Xarabank.
Daphne, you see what you get when you go by the principle that “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”?
You find yourself “in bed” with an AN supporter!
[Daphne – I don’t get your drift, I’m sorry.]
Ettore, I don’t know what you do in your spare time, but I don’t get in bed with people I vote for.
Daphne I assume that, unlike Graham Crocker, you know what the idiom “to get in bed with” means in political terms.
In this particular case, I was referring to the fact that you might think that you are in synch with him cos, like you, he is against Labour. Then, all of a sudden, you find yourself “in bed” with an AN supporter …
Scary isn’t it?
Actually, Ettore, Azzjoni Nazzjonali’s xenophobia makes it much more akin to the PL than the PN. A look at the comments on The Times website, if you can stomach them, will show you what I mean. Posts by PL and AN supporters are practically indistinguishable.
It seems though that this testesterone rush is scaring the boats off. I don’t know about you but I haven’t heard of any alien landings of late. Can’t wait till next week.
“Well, what a you going to do about it, whitey.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t101rO7WuAM
When you say ‘mental’, what do you mean exactly . . . . ?
[Daphne – As opposed to real, in a photograph, say, and not mental as in crazy.]
Azzjoni Nazzjonali – or as I like to call them Azzjoni Anali – seem quite appropriate here.
What did you think of AD’s stint outside JPO’s house and were you invited to the Mistra party?
I’m afraid this is all a storm in a teacup just because of a wrong interpretation of a Maltese expression. Unfortunately, Maltese suffers from the fact that some idioms have a double meaning — a normal day-to-day expression, and possibly a vulgar meaning. “Kulhadd qamlu ghal ..” means “everybody is showing an interest in..” If you don’t believe me just look up some good Maltese reference work, like Prof. Aquilina’s dictionary.
[Daphne – No, Tonio. ‘Qamlu’ means exactly that: his penis became erect. And that’s why it is used in the context of excitement or interest. Some people use it without knowing what it means, but that doesn’t make it less coarse or change its meaning. It’s the same with ‘brown-nosing’ and ‘toss’ in English: they’re used without any idea of their real meaning. In the case of brown-nosing, it means your nose is brown with faeces because you’ve stuck it up somebody’s butt. And toss is a reference to masturbation by a man. If you don’t give a toss you don’t give a wank, and a tosser is a wanker.]
I definitely do not agree with most of Josie Muscat’s political beliefs, but I deplore attacking people not on their principles but with innuendos and misrepresentations.
Such melodrama. Since when is having a giggle at someone’s expense, an ‘attack’? Perhaps you meant to say ‘criticise’? Somehow, I don’t think Dr Muscat is as worried about this as you are.
Daphne, here we can also add the widely used word ‘pixxikalda’. Many people use it when referring to someone who is very demanding as in ‘kemm hu pixxikalda’, without knowing that pixxikalda is the Maltese word for the the sexually transmitted disease Gonorrhea.
Did you go, Daphne? He’s your friend, after all.
[Daphne – I have to be dragged to parties kicking and screaming, so no.]
Daphne, if you insist on translating literally, just don’t apply for an EU job as a Maltese-English translator. They have rotten translators as it is.
[Daphne – Would you prefer ‘everyone’s got a hard-on for immigration?’. That’s the only way it translates. If there’s one thing you can’t fault me on, it’s idiomatic translation.]
I give up.
Not quite like you to do so.
Since we’re talking about homophobes and penises: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhKa-NVWEg8
I have two questions for you, Daphne, if you don’t mind. Do you think JPO has become what Alfred Sant was for Labour and what do you think of the whole Mistra fiasco?
[Daphne – No, I don’t. Sant was the party leader and would have become prime minister. And their personalities are completely different. I have already made myself amply clear about the ‘Mistra fiasco’, and was the first to do so last year. I think the issue was blown out of all proportion by people on both sides of the political fence. I also think that the Labour Party has painted itself into a corner on this one, torn between wanting to carry on hyping up the matter while also wanting to cultivate Pullicino Orlando as their vain hope of bringing down the government. You will hear no more from the Labour Party about Mistra.]
Why did the Nationalists bring up that J.muscat voted for illegal immigrants to vote when they didn’t want this issue not to be politicised?
[Daphne – Because it’s not political speculation, but fact.]
“The issue was blown out of all proportion” – his lies almost cost the PN an election.
[Daphne – I’m afraid that’s not the case. He was elected on the first count in two districts. You can’t have a situation in which people rushed out to vote against the PN (or didn’t vote) because of Pullicino Orlando – except for those who lived in the two districts he contested, who lived in a sort of bubble and did the opposite. The furore was in the aftermath and not before. Please don’t construe this as justification of what happened. It’s just that clear-headed analysis is important.]
JPO’s deceit was not blown out of all proportion; the opprobrium showered upon him was wholly appropriate. This deceitful part-time journalist/dentist/politician/farmer-speculator continues to be (or at least should be) a source of embarrassment to his party. An honourable man would have resigned his seat.
The fact was that the vote was on legal immigrants. I mean why all this fuss if they live here, work here and pay the bills like everyone else….and another thing, what exactly does Mr Perici Calascione mean in his poster near Luxol, ibsin ma l immigranti llegali, or something like that, are they losing the plot because they’re under pressure or what?
Anna, I think we must have got the ‘pixxis’ mixed up somewhere along the line, its pixxiplamtu that should be used right?
[Daphne – Both are used. The one you mention is a fish. The one Anna mentioned is a sexually transmitted disease.]
This is a pixxiplantu.
http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=88974
[Daphne – I don’t think that’s correct. I must ask.]
A pixxiplamtu is a basking shark, huge but inoffensive since it feeds on plankton.
http://www.waterfordwildlife.com/Basking%20Shark.jpeg
I suppose you should also know that ‘pixxikalda’ comes from Italian… meaning ‘hot piss’ – an effect of gonnorhea (or so I have been told)…
What has this got to do with Saturday’s election, anyway?
I thought it was an effect of syphilis and used in the context when a person doesn’t want to let go or won’t go away.
It’s not hot piss. An infection of the genito-urinary tract gives rise to a burning sensation in the penis when urinating.
Absolutely nothing, Michael. Imma l-kliem bhac-cirasa, and after all, this post did start off with an erection, didn’t it?
I admire Dr Josie Muscat a lot. My vote will go to him. He talks a lot of sense and also what people are saying and not only about immigration. We are really fed up now with the two parties……they are not on the same wavelength as the people…just hear everybody and one will know ..Josie has put his finger on it.
Electing AN is a waste of time. Their Macchiavellian the-end-justifies-the-means proposals aren’t actually achievable outside of their own heads, which is were things really matter.
Voting for AN is worse than useless; it reinforces the impression that it’s ok to be xenophobic. AN is a party born out of fear. It was set up by people who are afraid of immigrants, afraid of Islam, afraid that “our way of life” (whatever this might mean) is in danger. They are not white supremacists like Lowell but feel nonetheless uneasy in the presence of black people. Someone who votes for AN is basically insecure and feels threatened by those who are different.
Antoine: People who plan to vote for AN already think it is OK to be xenophobic, only they’d construe it as something completely different – pragmatism, for example. Their vote is useless because they cannot possibly achieve what they expect to achieve by electing an AN representative to the EP. Even if they were to carry out their threat to hold the entire EP to ransom, how would that stop immigrants trying to get into Europe and landing here?