Oh for crying out loud (literally). WHO ARE these people?
On Monday the Police, Justice, Army and Broadcasting Minister left a high-level delegation from an international organisation, the army’s top brass and the press waiting for an hour in his hallway because the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing.
And today the health minister burst into tears at a press conference because bwahahahaboohooohoooo he really doesn’t know how he can break off being a GP and stick to being a cabinet minister for the next five years.
Bwahahahhoooohooobooohooooo, mummy, ma nistax inkampa! Se naghmel madoffi b’dawn il-problemi, il-lajks kif kien jaghmel Joe Cassar – forsi dak ghax psikjatra u jaf jghin lilu nnifsu?
They spent years barracking the previous incumbents and telling them how to do their job and mocking them every last step of the way, then they get in, ready to ‘hit the ground running’, and it’s a bloody circus.
I mean, for heaven’s sake – any fool with a bit of life experience can see that it’s not because he doesn’t know how to give up being a GP that the health minister broke down at his press conference. It’s because he’s under pressure from all quarters, doesn’t know where to begin, has set up shop in the general hospital A & E department, and can’t cope.
You’re looking at the beginnings of some kind of breakdown there, and he’s only five weeks into the job. Before he heads into really serious psychological problems, like depression or total burn-out, the prime minister should do the decent thing and relieve him of his responsibilities.
The man is clearly not cut out for it, and that was obvious from day one, when he tried to pull his woman on board as a prop to keep his head above water. He didn’t want Marlene there for practical help – he could have got that from a proper assistant or paid staff. He wanted her there for emotional support and because he clearly can’t function without her.
And I don’t think it is at all a coincidence that the health minister made this embarrassing scene the day the prime minister told the press that he is making an exception about private practice only for Franco Mercieca.
Farrugia the health minister is correct on that score – if an exception is made for Mercieca the PS for the elderly, then it should also be made for him. The problem is that neither of them can cope with both tremendous workloads without their cabinet responsibilities suffering, which is one of the reasons for the rule saying ‘no private practice’.
By bursting into ‘I’m cracking up here’ tears, Farrugia has illustrated that point graphically. He’s trying to cope with both and is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
37 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
In life, you’ve got choices Dr Farrugia. And now you’ve got one of them. You’ll either pursue your profession or pursue your political career.
The important thing is that you DECIDE. If you’re not capable of taking this simple decision, then you’re certainly no minister material.
Marlene kella lill-bikkej #1, issa ghandha bikkej #2.
Xeba nies bi problemi mentali dawn.
Meta ha ssib ragel bil-b**d din?
You made my day
Jista’ jkun li jew Marlene issibhom bil-qanpiena jew inkella il-kawza tal-biki hi Marlene li ma tidhirx mghaxxa.
Prosit Whoami !
Marlene ghandha bajd bizzejjed ghal hamest irgiel, allura taghha ssibhom dejjem minghajrhom
This is a top comment.
Tajba Marlene, wiehed wara l-iehor issibhom hej. Kollha bikkejja.
M’hemx dubbju li int ir-ragel.
People voted for change, and here we have it: from brilliantly competent bargaining to get a great EU financial package to ministers breaking down within a month in office. Hope the switchers are happy now.
I always thought Godfrey Farrugia’s appointment was rather strange. According to Marlene Farrugia, the Prime Minister made it clear that only one of them would get a cabinet post.
Why give him the cabinet role rather than her, when she had been given a shadow cabinet post in the previous legislature? Would Marlene Farrugia’s appointment to a cabinet position have, perhaps, irked her ex husband?
The siting of the cabinet minister’s office at the Emergency and Admission department of Mater Dei Hospital would appear to have been a very wise precaution.
You just gotta say it – with a woman like that bossing you around, you’re bound to get a nervous breakdown.
Daphne are you sure that HE picked HER rather than the other way round?
Come now, Minister, steady on, and wipe your nose. Five weeks is a jolly good record. There are marriages that haven’t lasted as long…
The stress must be unbearable, miskin.
He broke down so that Muscat can give him a waiver too. Veru vavi.
We knew they were – let’s be kind, and say ‘politically’ -immature when they were in opposition. Now we have the proof of it.
If Farrugia and Mercieca are so sought-after for their medical services and cannot leave their practices, then they shouldn’t have gone into politics.
Their calling is elsewhere and the two should have not let their greedy egos get in the way of some clear thinking.
Nevertheless, I agree with this blog, that Farrugia’s histrionics seem to suggest that this is really an “I can’t cope” meltdown.
On a different note, seeing Manuel Mallia’s micro-management approach to politics, I wonder about the eerie silence now from the switchers who couldn’t contain their themselves, ranting every minute on FB about the incompetence of Lawrence Gonzi and about how Malta is going to be so professionally run once Labour come to power.
The sound of silence can be cut with a knife.
ps. beka nahseb x’hin ftakar li ha jkollu jiddikjara l-income kollu f’dawn il-hames snin li gejjin. heqq, ghax issa dara jiddikjara minimum wage mhux hekk?
Of course, the plan was to have his girlfriend do his job as Minister while he sits in the clinic…till that plan went bust.What a farce.
Tal-biki…literally, this time.
By the same token that Franco Mercieca should be allowed to skip the queue to take the ferry, then he should also be allowed to keep his private practice.
How can a GP (who never worked in the state hospitals except as a minor doctor) expect to be able to manage this huge and delicate ministry? The Maltese idiom comes to mind: L-injurant b’rixa f’sormu jtir.
You don’t need to be a doctor at all to run the health ministry. You need to be a good manager – this one clearly isn’t.
You need to be a good minister. Managers don’t always understand policy making.
It’s that bloody Gonzi’s fault.
If he hadn’t lost the election, none of this would have happened.
And they haven’t learned their lesson, but not in the way that Koolaid Labour sees it.
The former health minister has expressed “empathy” with the current twit, saying “he understands how difficult it is to leave your patients.”
Then WHAT THE FUCK are any of them doing in politics?
agreed 100%
I do not think that he burst into tears for the private patients he cannot attend to BUT for the money that he is now not in a position to take off them.
My thoughts exactly. Tilef 500 euro (rings a bell?) fil-gimgha easy!
more like €5,000 per month
Issa spiccalhom il-honeymoon u jridu jsolvu l-problemi. Ghalhekk tellghahom hemm il-poplu.
Minn fuq is-siggu tal-kritiku, tista’ tghid hafna affarijiet x’ghandu jsir u x’ma jsirx.
Issa m’hemmx biki. Dr. Farrugia, xammar il-kmiem u urina x’taf taghmel. Fittex ehlisna min dawk il-queues sew fl-emergenza kif ukoll ghall-operazzjonijiet.
First he takes off with JPO’s wife, and then he cries in front of the cameras like JPO did too?
Godfrey Farrugia – the man who’s doing what JPO did, in more ways than one.
Well well. Cry some, get some – the second Republic.
Marlene’s considerable business interest lies in getting Franco Mercieca on her side, or out of the way.
Make that Joseph spending his gratitude when she dumped George Abela.
Iss hej.
How embarrassing. Come on boy, pull yourself together, for heaven’s sake, or go back to your old life – whatever keeps you from crying in public. Tal-misthija.
Feel so sorry for him, as if. Who does he think he is kidding.
Godfrey wavers to match Franco’s waiver.
The truth is that the Nationalist ministers made running a ministry seem relatively easy. No hysterics, or talking about missing one’s profession.
From the outside, where Labour and its switchers sat, it looked like they went to the ministry, ordered the secretary and other staff to this and that, and had a great time meeting ministers from other countries, travelling about, taking limo rides and going to cocktail parties. And the great results produced themselves by default.
So this lot thought they could do even better while keeping their day job and even teaching the former lot how it’s done.But much to their chagrin they’re finding out the harsh truth. So we’ve had tears from one and tantrums from the other.
http://zekzik.com/2013/04/17/marlene-farrugia-tbikki-l-irgiel/