“It is difficult to believe that none of this was arranged before the election”
Note:The voice shouting out the introductions and praise at the beginning of this video belongs to Ray Azzopardi, who has wrapped up a career as a hospital maintenance man and Labour TV show-host (first Xandir Malta then Super One) by having himself made Malta’s ambassador to Belgium.
This is a reader’s comment, posted by Edward:
It is difficult to believe that none of this was arranged before the election. With the speed and slickness of everything that has gone on over the past few months, it is clear, to me at least, that this was all waiting to happen.
The stone wall we are up against, and will be up against for the next five years at least, is packaging.
We all, perhaps foolishly, believe that policies will work out the way we imagine them to because most of us think inside the box, our box of moral parameters and values.
The reason why the PN never came up with all these things the PL has in this very short time is not because they didn’t want the people to benefit. It is because they knew it was wrong, flat out wrong.
It was so wrong that they couldn’t even pin Muscat down during the campaign, because they just couldn’t fathom how he planned on achieving all these great and wonderful things he was promising. The PN was thinking within its moral parameters. It was not making allowances for the lack of them on the other side.
Sure they told the people “These are empty promises. They cannot be fulfilled” because they were still thinking inside their box of doing the right thing. Those promises could be fulfilled by doing the wrong thing, yes.
But Muscat’s confidence scarred the PN. No matter how many times they said “It can’t be done. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about”, Muscat bulldozed on boldly and defiantly, framing the PN as greedy bastards who don’t want to make the choices he wants to because they want to keep everyone below them and everything for themselves.
This framing, and these statements, fooled even the most ardent PN supporters, who felt that they must be missing something, and that there might be an element of truth in what the PL was saying.
Some were even worried that they might actually be brainwashed into believing that the PL is dangerous since the PN didn’t actually pin down the methods the PL planned on using. “If they can’t explicitly pin their objections down, then maybe they aren’t that convinced themselves”, they thought.
This combination of Labour’s secrecy and amorality and the PN’s inability to think like rats, resulted in the PN calling out to everyone not to trust the PL without giving the type of evidence that actually put Muscat on the spot, which in turn was very useful for the PL because it helped them with their “Negative” pigeon-holing.
The PN became the equivalent of a woman warning her sister or her friend not to get involved with ‘that man’ because she knows there’s something deeply wrong with him only she can’t pinpoint what or explain why, and meanwhile the sister/friend, in her excitement, accuses her of jealousy, fearmongering, negativity and wanting to spoil her fun. And then it all blows up, years down the line.
But of course, Muscat was deceiving the people. He got rotten ideas, like pimping out our country, selling 30% of our power monopoly to China and making us dependent on a privately-owned power station, then “packaged” it all into what looked like a delightful deal.
Much like the food dressers on fast food adverts who use steak not burgers, toothpicks and PVA glue gloss to make the disgusting food look mouthwatering, so did Muscat stage his performances and presented his packages to the people giving them what they want. Once people felt that delightful feeling of getting what they want, they then became blind to the means of how that will be granted.
Mintoff used Gaddafi’s blood money to give people a children’s allowance. Who cares about the people suffering in Libya when you’re getting (their) money. Now Muscat has gone behind the people’s backs, struck deals that make this country China’s little pimp-cum-prostitute, and everyone is blind to any consequences because they are “getting what they want”.
Or so they think. It will all come crashing down on them like a ton of bricks. Perhaps only then will we learn the true value of holding people to account. Perhaps only then will we understand how we as a people are so easily manipulated and tempted by money and driven by an inferiority complex.
Packaging is always designed to be appealing. But people didn’t insist on being told what will be inside. People bought the product without even watching the commercial. They were all fooled.
So here is something we must get used to: never believe what Muscat says he will give you. It will never be what you think it is. The best way to guard yourself from this is to always have in mind a solid idea of what it is you expect, and then compare it to what you are given.
Like with gay marriage (now changed to civil union), electricity, and now this, it will never resemble what you thought it would be. And remember that you have the right to say so. Don’t think you just need to think positive, because no amount of positive thinking is going to shape-shift physical matter, fill your bank account with money or turn a fake into an authentic.
The PN must stand as firmer than they ever have, and make sure they put a stop to everything they can, defiantly ignoring the (increasingly desperate and ineffective) cat-calls of ‘negative’. This is the only way to expose the PL for the fakes that they truly are.
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“No one can ever give you more then I can promise to give you” – this was, is and will always be Muscat’s approach. Shame on you, Mr Prime Minister.
I don’t know about you, but all I’m hearing from the PN are whispers. When Joseph Muscat was in Opposition, we heard his voice and his opinions more than we heard that of the government. Gonzi would have been more than a match for him, had he not been plagued by Franco, Jeffrey and Mugliett.
Simon Busuttil is not making as much noise as he should. I hear more from Jason Azzopardi and De Marco than from the Opposition leader.
If the PN want to make themselves heard they should keep on harping about one subject ad infinitum until everyone gets to know about it and starts repeating its contents – the same method employed by Muscat before the election.
There is no use being meek and honest and good-natured and polite, when what you are dealing with are morally corrupt people, or the sheer amoral, and the PN needs to keep that in mind. People like those will stop at nothing. They have stopped at nothing.
I think this website is the only place where those who want to know what is really happening can come to get the information.
The PN media are worse than the performance of the Opposition in Parliament – last time I was shuffling through the channels and came upon a TV programme on NET, called “Mhux Bondi”. I thought I was going to see some political debate like that of Bondi+, especially as the guest was Jason Micallef.
But I couldn’t believe my ears when all they talked about was Micallef’s bloody love life. Who the Hell is interested in that?
I couldn’t watch it until the end, it was so disgusting and poorly produced. If the PN want to attract viewers to their TV station, they should do serious debate programmes similar to Bondi+ and TVHemm. That is the whole POINT of a political party owning a television station.
Our national TV station is another Super One so it’s usless trying to see a serious political debate there.
Well said, Yanika.
I totally agree that the Opposition, and everyone else for that matter, should keep on harping on a subject ad infinitum, until everyone is completely aware of what is going on.
Unless this is done, people will forget about it in a short time.
I suspect Simon Busuttil is trying to fix the party’s finances before anything else. The PN is so bankrupt it’s stopping anyone from thinking about politics.
The timing of the Shiv Nair affair could not have been more apt. Dr Muscat chose to demonstrate, and in effect admit, that his government is incapable of carrying out a proper due diligence check on one person.
How are we expected to trust that due diligence checks will be carried out properly on the floods of applicants, who we are led to believe, are ready to rush in as soon as the gates are opened?
[Daphne – That’s because you start off from the premiss that the government wants those due diligence checks. It doesn’t. That’s why the names are not going to be published and that part of the Citizenship Act requiring publication has been abrogated. It has made its promises for passports already. Too late for background checks now, even if they were bothered, which they are not.]
You’re assuming that any due diligence checks were carried out on Shiv Nair. Perhaps Muscat looked him over when he accepted his invitation to the Manoel Theatre and shared his box? Or perhaps he watched the way Nair holds his cutlery when the Muscats and the Nairs met for one of their dinners together?
The involvement of Henley and Partners is crucial to Muscat’s purpose. It gives him the option of saying he didn’t know X is a dubious character, as he did in Shiv Nair’s case.
They aren’t bothered to conduct background checks, a certain person very high up abrogated the requirement of the police conduct certificate within a public institution, which is always a requirement. So why should he bother elsewhere.
What a sad state of mind. Not just decrepit, but totally lost in a changing world where partisan politics is meaningless because it can only change what is trivial and ineffectual in the long term, but which of course is not trivial at all to anyone failing to understand that the seat of real cause-and-effect power lies elsewhere.
In other words, there is only so much good or bad a Maltese government can do. On a regular ruler that spectrum would lie somewhere between the 14 and 16-cm marks.
[Daphne – This from somebody who actually believes that the Americans blew up their own twin towers to have a reason to start a war on terror.]
“there is only so much good or bad a Maltese government can do”
It is exactly that reasoning that allows a Maltese government to get away with things.
I would go so far as to say that it is the reason why so many Labour voters have such low standards and think that anything the PN says is an exaggeration.
Mhux xorta, it’s only passports. Mhux xorta, they got a fraudster to broker a deal, it is not going to be that bad, my goodness what an overreaction.
But of course these are the thoughts of a person who knows little about consequences, cares even less about what might happen to our reputation and since their lives are full of trivial and stupid issues, still don’t quite grasp the fact that bad things, really bad things, happen and have little or no respect for the seats of power that exist in this country.
If you really feel that way, Kev, that there is little or no good or bad that a Maltese government can do, they you have no pride in the he democratic tradition that exists in Malta, and we might as well go back to being a colony since we can t even take ourselves seriously because of our size.
You’re right, Edward. In fact, I’d agree with you completely had I inhabited your box.
Yet they were so scandalized by a handmade clock and a 500 euro pay rise to a few cabinet ministers.
Does he really?
I came across these two video clips since posting my comment. Take an adventurous leap outside your box and wrap your minds around this one. It IS for dummies, but builds up nicely half way through:
The Biggest Scam In The History Of Mankind – Hidden Secrets of
Money http://youtu.be/iFDe5kUUyT0
And if you still have the mental energy, see what John Perkins has to say of late (you might have heard of him as ‘the economic hitman’):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL_OZxzfUCQ
Despite your condescension, your recommendations on finance are as valid as Pat Robertson’s views (vide his 1991 book “The New World Order”) on ‘a worldwide Jewish conspiracy’. I only point this out as you are probably a salvageable Kool-Aid drinker, and not (an insignificant instance of) a snake-oil merchant like Pat Robertson.
Do speak to people who work in finance. I’m afraid your apparent disillusionment with politics (or, rather, politicians) should extend to all fields of human activity. There are no übermensch in finance; its practitioners are just as likely to be incompetent, selfish, distrustful and untrustworthy as in any other field.
Hey, and Lady Deafley… about those towers, you’re in the minority.
Mainstream journalists expose 9/11 hoax – http://www.presstv.ir/detail/330112.html
Yes it’s PressTV. So I’ll put this in too.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2013/sep/27/seymour-hersh-obama-nsa-american-media
[Daphne – Where does Seymour Hersh say that the US blew up its own twin towers, Kevin? He doesn’t. For the rest, you may have failed to notice that I subscribe to his way of thinking about journalism and that proper investigative reporting is best done by outsiders, so those who don’t have the stomach for that kind of isolation should find another job. You’re the one who takes a pay cheque from a political party, sir, not me.]
Honestly Kev, do you think being in the majority can change the laws of physics?
Personally, I was initially quite intrigued by the sequence of ‘explosions’ at the corners of the towers five floors down from the advancing catastrophic failure.
Until I realised what was actually happening, this, after having studied the floor plans and services layouts. Pressure build up due the air being expelled down the lift shafts perhaps?
Then there’s the ‘mystery’ of the molten metal dripping down the facade, sulphur charges they said.
The infinite variety of copper, tins and aluminium around the building in its ducting, computers and wiring ignored.
Then there’s the ‘missing’ plane at the Pentagon and the minute opening in the building. Not big enough they said.
It’s not as if a plane’s designed to crash into armoured buildings. Ever seen a plane up close?
Really.
You’re way too useless to spoonfeed, Daphne. Take my advice and don’t comment on subjects you haven’t researched, especially if they are way above your parochial level. You make an utter fool of yourself when you do, and what’s worse, you’re not aware of it.
[Daphne – Kevin, there are times when I am sorely tempted to ask you to b**ger off. You test my hospitality to the limits.]
Thank you for your gracious hospitality.
I will take my leave, as you put it, but first, look what the Corbett Report has concocted for brilliant minds like yours: it’s a funny, 5-minute video with over 2 million views, and it’s about the 9/11 conspiracy theory that YOU swallowed hook, line and sinker (rod, boat and angler).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuC_4mGTs98
Watch it when you’re highly depressed. The more you know about the subject the more you’ll laugh.
Well said, Edward.
One thing to note: everybody has a different reaction reflex. For some the mere sense is enough, for others confirmation upon confirmation is required before they realise that either their loyalty is misplaced, or that there is enough evidence to take a lead further.
You are right about the moral parameters. Within ethical parameters, such business would never have happened.
People are simply out of their moral depth and the amoral government has them gaping and gawping.
How does one beat an amoral government? An inert media? A blind or willing electorate majority, by default also amoral?
By taking each and every claim to Europe. This must be somewhat of a first for them too, and though their large wheels will be slow to turn, turn they must. Turn they will, would be our salvation.
You can’t use common sense, logic and good practice to work out what Joseph was doing or promising to do.
Being positive means do not oppose HIM.
Reducing bureaucracy means taking short cuts, cutting corners and to hell with diligence.
Meritocracy means all for the family and friends.
A power station within 24 months meant he had already had a deal done with party donors.
This, is one of the first procurement procedures that should be taken before Europe.
If one reads the “exhaustive list” of PQs that Joseph Muscat put to the European Parliament during his time there, they are very indicative of his Roadmap:
Re procurement:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?reference=E-2006-3736&language=EN#def1
“the Commission does not consider looking into the procurement procedure for the award of the contract in question, unless the Honourable Member is aware of a potential breach of European Community rules on public procurement in the award of the contract in question.”
Should the NP not be taking the Power Station tender procurement procedure to EU level when there are so many factors that point to improper procurement and award procedure?
So many electoral promises were broken or twisted, so many decisions that were obviously pre-arranged but kept secret and/or misrepresented before the election.
I wonder why we bother with electoral programmes in this country. When electoral promises are a sham, everybody knows they are a sham and indeed everybody expects them to be a sham; when the opposition leader boasts about how much he lies on live TV during the election campaign and everybody claps and cheers, why make electoral promises at all?
We should change elections into a fun game show. Turn the wheel to choose your next supreme leader.
The adjective to all this is “macabre.”
Now that the “Moviment” charade has served its purpose, we’re stuck with the same old Labour.
Why should we believe that this was not all pre-arranged. For better or for worse, this is the PL’s road map. I find just a little comfort in these affairs being pre-arranged as the alternative to this is that Muscat is making it up as he goes along which would indeed be so much more dangerous.
What really worries me is the fact that this road map may not necesarily take us in the right direction, or that, even worse it may compromise our principles, values or sovereignity somewhere along the way.
If the intentions are good, the quality of the thinking is good and with positive filters, then the results are well on track and everyone’s happy, except the envious.
If the intentions are good and the quality of the thinking is bad albeit with good filters then the outcome is not likely to be successful or as successful. Don’t expect the envious to point out the pitfalls.
If the intentions are bad and the quality of the thinking is good albeit with negative filters, then the result is going to be very bad, in line with the intentions. “Success” for those who initiated that action. The envious are likely to have found their place, there where the good never would have dreamed of going.
If the intentions are bad and the quality of the thinking is bad with negative filters, then the result will trip up somewhere and take everyone else down whilst that lasts. The envious, not clever enough to apply good thinking to bad intentions, or to cover their tracks completely, will create disaster and confusion.
The only thing that looked “good” about the last elections, was the number of votes that the Labour Party won with. Even that large margin was an objective designed to destabilize the mindsets of the rest of the electorate into self-doubt and lack of confidence. If the NP had got going from the start and approached a target of 50 people a day – remember that LP’s target was 30 people a day – it would have been counter-productive to Labour’s need for the populace to feel beaten and downtrodden.
In other words, if your starting point is wrong and you apply perfect logic, your end result – however shiny – will still be wrong.
“May” is not a kindness that can be afforded, a leeway that can be permitted, a courtesy necessary out of sheer politeness. Gently put, it would be best to snap out of thinking that these people in Government have any honour whatsoever.
How can you expect principles, values or a sense of sovereignty from those who never knew what these meant in the first pace?