Topsy-turvy
Godfrey Vella has been appointed the government’s ‘digital champion’. Yes, of course it’s another iced bun, but that’s not the point here.
I just don’t understand this government’s reasoning. Where a 27-year-old is required, they appoint a 60-year-old, and where a 60-year-old is probably best, they appoint a 27-year-old.
So we have Ian Borg as parliamentary secretary in charge of EU funds and Silvio Schembri as head of parliament’s House Committee on Economic and Financial Affairs, to whom the governor of the Central Bank must report. Both of them are 27 years old and in parliament for the first time.
Then, as Digital Champion, we have Godfrey Vella, who is around 60.
True, Silvio Schembri would make a hopeless Digital Champion and Godfrey Vella couldn’t possibly be put in charge of EU funds or a parliamentary house committee of whatever nature, because he isn’t in parliament.
But the world of the Digital Champion (silly name, really) is a world dominated completely by people in their 20s and early 30s. It is not the world of people in their 40s, 50s and certainly not 60s. On the basis of age alone, it will be very difficult for Godfrey to be taken seriously.
Similarly, the governor of the Central Bank should not be reporting to somebody who can barely write, despite having two degrees from the University of Malta, and who is just 27. Nobody aged 27 can possibly hope to have the experience – which is different from research knowledge – required to head the parliamentary House Committee that deals with the Maltese economy.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130530/local/digital-champion.471904
Shouldn’t that be “someone who has two degrees, despite being unable to write…”?
So much for the internationalisation of the University of Malta.
Sadly, very true!
You obviously never went to a party at a friend of a friend’s house where you helped yourself to whatever was on offer and then trashed the place before you left.
If you had then you’d know how Labour feels being in power.
Ijs. Imma x’ala zo**u, Joseph Muscat, l-aqwa li huwa, il-familja tieghu, u kollha ta’ madwarhom ghandhom minn fejn jerdaw.
Please go easy on the age discrimination Daphne! I myself am over 50 and about to start on my fifth University degree. Although I am unlikely to be put on a board in this lifetime because I am a completely non-political animal, I am far from being past it, thank you very much.
As for Godfrey, I know him to be a very competent fellow who has continued to update himself – he is also a very creative thinker. So – whilst I agree about the too young taking on high responsibility posts – I would certainly disagree with your comment on Godfrey (who by the way was also trusted in high office under the other party).
[Daphne – This is not about age in and of itself, but about age in a particular field or position, Joe. The world in which Godfrey (I know him too) will have to operate is not ‘ICT’ but digital media. It is COMPLETELY dominated by (white, male) 20/30-somethings. All you have to do is look at the lists of speakers at conferences, meetings and conventions on the subject and the average age of people working for companies in the field. There is a reason for this: they are the ones who were there when it all began. People our age are late to the party and we are forever at a disadvantage. Not only is it not our world in terms of competence and understanding, but it is not even our world in terms of engagement. It is a world, put simply, that does not belong to us and never will. We are mere spectators climbing on from another era. Working in digital media, getting creative in digital media, is not about technical expertise but about understanding how the minds of that generation work. And they don’t work the same as ours. Of course, I generalise and obviously do not include people like Silvio Schembri and Ian Borg, who are mental clones of their parents’ generation.]
While the rest of the world appoints top economists to head these kinds of committees, Muscat chooses a metrosexual milksop who hasn’t the faintest.
That makes it three freys, two Gods and one Jeff.
He looks like Solzeninzhen or his brother.
Do you mean the Solzhenitsyn who said ‘For a country to have a great writer is like having a second Government. That is why no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones’. hmmmmm…
Most remarkable. That man is the spitting image of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Is there something we’re not being told?