So many pounds of flesh that it’s like a charnel house
A fresh, new, modern and progressive way of doing government: please queue here for favours
The Malta Independent reports on cabinet ministers and parliamentary secretaries now under siege by people calling for their pounds of flesh.
Great story – link below.
Scenes from 30 years ago (the difference being that back then mobile telephony did not exist):
The Malta Independent online is informed that in some cases ministers are no longer answering their mobile phone since nine times out of 10, the call is related to issues concerning their constituency. Instead the calls are being handled by members of their secretariat, who are requesting the personal details of the callers, promising them to refer the case to the respective minister of parliamentary secretary.
However some of the constituents felt that they stood a greater chance of conveying their message in person at the minister’s office.
On Monday morning, as the country came back to normality after months of intensive campaigning, the Ministry for Social Policy in Valletta was flooded with requests by members of the public to speak to Marie Louise Coleiro Preca.
At one point there was a long queue outside her office on the first floor, with the secretarial staff taking care of the situation and trying to keep the situation under control.
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http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-03-18/news/cabinet-members-inundated-by-phone-calls-and-visits-1194360832/
Now that you approached the subject… ghandi favur x’nitolbok.
Can you please make any external links posted by you or others open in a blank/new window? That way it would be easier to continue browsing your site.
Right click and select ‘Open link in new tab’.
Time to teach the old songs to the new generation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QLzjLBabWQ
“Fil-kju, fil-kju, ħalli ninqdew,
L-onorevoli nistennew.
Fil-kju, fil-kju, biex ninqdew biħ,
Fil-Parlament siġġu tajnieh.
Fil-kju!”
The picture is very telling. How can it be that those present have different reactions to what is being said?
Manuel Mallia and Joseph Muscat have a smirk on their faces while most of the others seem to be hearing their death sentence. Herrera is apathy personified.
Jigifieri, people want answers.
I would rather say ‘they want undeserved favours which were rightfully and justifiably denied them under a proper administration’. Period.
There was something like this in 1987 but, at the time, it was fully justified.
Because of their political allegiance, thousands had been deprived of basic necessities like a telephone line or even proper housing. It wasn’t just chocolate and colour televisions.
Thousands had been employed with labour corps (and then the PL dares speak of precarious work) and thousands of young people had been deprived of tertiary – sometimes even secondary – education.
Moreover, after sixteen long years of Mintoffian socialism, people had become used to a system where ministers and MPs controlled absolutely everything. It was considered perfectly normal to beg an MP for a telephone or an import license.
It seems that Labour voters are eager to go back to the system that charactersied the Golden Years.
That is why the Nationalist administration set up the Commission for the Investigation of Injustices almost immediately on coming to power.
As a matter of fact it was set up under the second law enacted by that Government in June/July 1987.
The Commission had a task of Herculean proportions which occupied it for more than five years to deal with.
Pjaciri, mhux drittijiet. Fuq dan ser tkun mibnija il-Kostituzzjoni tat-Tieni Repubblika Muscatjana.
That’s socialism for you, especially in Malta. All the people who feel they are worse off than everyone else feel their only hope is to go visit a minister.
And yes… I believe people missed that!
This is the way you solve hospital queues: queue up at the ministers’ offices and enjoy the change.
I am informed that the corridors of Mater Dei are now free of unallocated patients. Can someone please confirm?
Simply not true – my sister had to spend 24 hours in hospital this weekend and the corridors were still packed with people.
Also a very disturbing thing happened while my sister was there: a nursing assistant put her mobile loudly playing the Labour Party theme and when the nursing officer, I repeat the nursing officer, told her politely to switch it off, she told her ‘Malta Taghna Lkoll’ and left it on to the detriment of the patients.
Typical tragic- comic Socialist campaign bravura. Thousands on the precipice of financial collapse, thousands of ‘wounded’ claiming their just rewards in cash or kind.
A massive ‘movement’ on the march.
Ahleb Dward
dear daphne,i’m sorry,to say this,but the pn should have done the same things that joseph muscat is doing.like a big
cabinet,like putting his own people in important places,and so on.i should know,all ministries,had people in them,that they were doing so much harm to the pn,is it possible they did not know about this?.of course they knew.and they done
nothing about it.at the end of the day,we suffer,the workers,
as they have there post in parlament,and we have to count our days before getting transferred,from one place to the other.really I blame this on the people,that were advising dr.gonzi,i feel sorry for him,and people like me,that gave our lives following the pn.regards.frank
The PN administrations were not cut out from that kind of stuff. That kind of government runs on favouritism – not on justice and merit. I know. I lived a whole 16 years plus another two of my adult life under such a ‘Government’.
It was useless to ask for what was rightfully yours and get it – unless you had ‘friends in the appropriate ministry’ I was told that bluntly in my face by one of Labour’s champions.
A tsunami hit the PN at the polls just a week ago, but another even bigger tsunami will have a knock on the country’s finances for the coming 5 years.
Socialist people have only one thing in mind, get as much as we can from the government because now it is our turn. How I despise all those for petty reasons voted PL.
Too f—–g late now.
Who says TIME TRAVEL does not exist?
If Dom Mintoff hadn’t popped his clogs last August, they’d have found a role for him too.
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose:
http://www.scribd.com/collections/4183716/Distribution-of-favours
Daphne you were right. The Malta Independent is becoming the only newspaper who brings to light such stories.
Qed nara iktar comments!
Yes, The Malta Independent has been the ‘correct’ paper these last months through the electoral campaign.
The Times has been hijacked, and has had some underground ‘coup d’etat’ by some powers that be, who might not necessarily be only the PL – there might also have been parallel obscure intents. Let us disregard until it gets back to normal.
Don’t rush! Dont forget Yana Mintoff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QLzjLBabWQ
U dak kemm hu zmattat? Ara l-qmis barra l-qalziet qieghda.
Another thing, mela tal-Bortex ma qalulux li dress shirt mhux suppost ikollha breast pocket? Jien inqalleb hanut partikolari ghal qomos bla breast pocket. U dan il-bicca prim, ilibbsuh u min ilibbsu anqas clue.
X’riklam qed jaghmillu lil tal-gym !
You reap what you sow…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QLzjLBabWQ
I just favourited The Malta Independent and removed The Times – something I should have probably done a few months ago.
“Scenes from 30 years ago (the difference being that back then mobile telephony did not exist)”
Actually mobile telephones did exist 30 years ago. But Joseph Muscat’s Labour predecessors prohibited its use in Malta back then. Mobile telephones were considered a threat to Labour’s brand of democracy because they allow people to talk.
I have gone for The Malta Independent myself too. Hope it will not be infiltrated also.
Thanks very much, Daphne.
Your insight is timely.
Get a life Defffniii!! will you??
[Daphne – Thank you, but I have one already. In fact, I might even have some over if you’re bored and would like some of my spare.]
This morning, the shake-up at MEPA was reported by The Times. The dwindling readership of this paper expected some editorial comment on this; but we get a leading article on diet instead.
This week I shall shift to The Malta Independent.
Chickens have come home to roost.