More arrogant behaviour by those who purported to be the scourge of it
Queue-barging on the Gozo ferry
I have just received the following email:
For what it’s worth, the health minister (as per the unofficial protocol) skipped a large queue this evening to ride the Gozo ferry along with a female passenger who I presume is Marlene Farrugia.
Three young adults in another car (a type of SUV) also skipped the queue. They must have been either his children or hers, or a mix of both – in fact, they were parked bumper to bumper to the Minister’s car in a separate queue.
The reason I’m writing is because I would like to ask if this is normal behaviour? Am I exaggerating when I think this is shameful by the minister, a minor but still relevant abuse of power?
I apologize because I don’t have any photos but I was scared of taking them in case of getting caught.
My answers are here.
1. Of course, it’s an abuse of power, whether it is unofficial practice or not. There has to be a reason for barging to the head of the queue: a woman giving birth in your car, for example, or somebody feeling violently ill. Being a cabinet minister does not make you incapable of sitting in a queue or above doing so.
2. It is especially dispiriting that the health minister and the former Mrs Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando allowed his/her children to follow suit (but then they were following the parents’ bad example) and that those grown-up children do not have the instinctive horror of such showing-off and arrogance, that comes from good breeding.
3. It is perfectly legal to take photographs of a cabinet minister in public, especially when he is doing something like this. Being scared and getting caught do not come into it.
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Nahseb li mar Ghawdex biex inizzel mieghu il-medicini li hawn out of stock Malta u qabez il-queue biex jilhaq iqassamhom fl-ispizeriji illum qabel ghada.
Urgent medicine delivery
They were delivering the first batch of door to door medicines to Gozitan homes. That’s reason enough for me.
When is this bald guy with the goatee going to join the other two musketeers ?
… you mean Toni Abela and Joseph Cuschieri li tah is-siggu?
Or is it Mario Vella and Michael Falzon ta’ l-iljuni
Or maybe Jose Herrera and Silvio Parnis tal-pilloli
I know that the big news at the moment is the peddling of Maltese passports by our government but the Arriva issue really needs to be looked into.
Arriva have threatened to pull out of Malta. I’m not surprised. They’ve probably had it up to here with the Maltese and their putrid ways. Despite running operations successfully in several larger European countries, Arriva have faced all kinds of obstacles in Malta. Their drivers, encouraged by Labour and the General Workers’ Union, bizarrely failed to turn up for their first day of work
Labour have never viewed Arriva as an investment or an opportunity but as a way to score cheap political points. In their twisted minds, if they successfully manage to sabotage the public transport system, they can then claim that the PN public transport project failed.
Transport Minister Joe Mizzi (whose office employees have recently been caught watching pornographic videos at work) very smugly took articulated (bendy) buses off the road earlier this year. Instead of trying to help Arriva get back on their feet, he is now dragging the issue out as long as possible and running Arriva into the ground in the process. Make no mistake about it. This is not about safety. This is Mizzi’s vendetta over the evil Austin Gatt, which everybody at Labour seems to be so fixated about.
In the meantime, commuters are suffering. The 68 articulated buses were replaced by 61 coaches. Every coach is about half the size of an articulated bus. That’s less than half the previous capacity, and it shows. Buses running busy routes at busy times are jam-packed with people crammed like sardines. Finding a seat is hard unless one gets onto the bus at its departing point. Many people don’t get onto the bus at all because of lack of space.
Moreover, the replacement coaches are totally inadequate. Their steps are very high and their aisles are very narrow. They’re either very hard or impossible for the infirm and the disabled to manoeuvre. One would think that a progressive, liberal party elected on a Malta Tagħna Lkoll ticket would be overwrought about such a situation.
In the meantime, Arriva keeps haemorrhaging money because of virtually everyone’s lack of cooperation and severe political intransigence.
If Arriva pull the plug, the prospects don’t look good. Arriva is a private company which employs hundreds of employees. To avoid the panic of hundreds of people rushing to the Employment and Training Corporation to register as unemployed, the government will probably put them on its own pay-roll. This will push up government expenditure at a time when it should be being reduced.
If Arriva pack up and leave, god knows what will replace them. We will probably have a ramshackle, ad hoc system of assorted vehicles at various stages of disrepair set up. Maybe the current generation will finally get to experience the joy of going to work or school sitting in the back of an army lorry.
Congestion, already bad, will double.The number of euros and man-hours lost will be incalculable. Malta will virtually come to a halt.
And then what? Then we will have a hastily issued call for expression of interest in running a public transport service. After due diligence & c & c. are concluded (a couple of months later), we will, surprise, surprise, find out that we have been saddled with yet another damned Chinese government company running yet another of our essential services.
Remember, you read it here first.
How I totally agree with you, Matthew S, about your arguments on Joe Mizzi versus Arriva. If you want to rub salt into the wound, go and see the ditch at the Park & Ride at Floriana…you’ll see tens of bendy buses lying there as if it were a scrap yard. This is another pique similar to the Marsascala Family Park by Minister Brincat.
It is painfully apparent that ousting Arriva was an informal electoral promise (not quite sure they thought that one through though). Pretty much sums up the Labour voter and government, selfish, destructive and with the strategic vision of a clam.
Ditto…
And of course there will be the usual local minority shareholders – Joe Gasan and George Fenech
Your forgot to mention the completely negative campaign on Times of Malta from the day the running of public transport was awarded to Arriva. I sometimes wonder if the Times was somehow involved in a consortium which did not make it in the tender process,
Excellent post. I would like to add a few comments.
Many of the issues faced by Arriva were totally outside of their control with so many problems and chopping and changing, that the system was never given time to bed down properly. Plus it all went wrong on day one and they never fully recovered from it. They were the lowest cost bidder and it shows in their modus operandi. But having said that, it’s a massive improvement on the previous system.
One of the biggest mistakes they made was to introduce the bendy buses without insisting on major improvements in infrastructure in order to cope with them. This is what happened in London when they were first introduced. You can ignore the musings of Boris Johnson as the buses were withdrawn for political reasons (as in Malta) and rampant fare evasion. Having said all this, I personally believe the bendies should only be used on routes 12 & 13 (Sliema) as that is where the major passenger loadings are.
To me it appears as if the Labour government are trying to use the precarious situation of Arriva to force them out to get one up on the PN and to give whoever else a slice of the cake. If or when Arriva pull the plug (I can’t see how they can stay with the losses they have incurred and with them spending nearly a million a month to cover the withdrawal of bendy buses) what will happen?
I believe Arriva will withdraw the new 12 & 9 metre buses (they have 175 vehicles), but leave the bendy buses behind. Ironically, I can then see them being used within the ramshackle, ad hoc system of assorted vehicles that you describe as suddenly they will be deemed safe and, anyway, the minister will decree we need the buses. And because Labour are doing it, it must be right.
Long-term I am not sure. I posted on the Sunday TOM (link below) that the government wanted Arriva out and will then give the bus system to the local coach operators. I posted this twice but my comments never appeared even though others did. Why? Do they know something that they did not want to report in the news article?
Sure the government will issue an Expression of Interest or Tender, but the process will be so prolonged that it will get to the point where it just doesn’t get done. This will allow the favoured people to continue running the bus system on an indefinite basis. All the current advantages of the present system will vanish and it will basically fall back to to what is was before July 2011 because we can’t have progress can we.
Then we will have ‘but it was much better under Arriva”, “we had air-conditioned buses, etc”.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131020/local/arriva-warns-it-could-quit.491044
You are so dead right. The typical ‘hdura’ of the Socialists is at its worst.
Commuters are suffering but who cares as long as the Minister has a car and driver at his disposal day and night. Another thing that makes me see red is how the people are reacting or rather not reacting.
The hateful comments on the new bus system have almost stopped, no more whining about the so-called ‘fiasco’ of the new bus system. It is amazing how people can be so blind that they will not even complain.
Great analysis and I agree with you.
I use Arriva in the UK regularly and never really have had any problems give and take a delay or two.
I did however have another nasty feeling when I read the article in the papers. What if one of the many projects that Muscat has promised his financial backers was the “revamp” of the Arriva “fiasco”?
They probably already have an agreement with the old bus drivers and it might also include returning the buses that the government bought off.
Very well said. Is there anything positive that these people can do!? This island is getting in such a desperate state by the minute.
So – are we now going to have our public transport system operated by the Chinese, too?
Exactly my thoughts. Mizzi says he already has a contingency plan. I guess his plan B is waiting in the pipeline to be implemented.
Excellent analysis in all comments above. I also suspect that foreign investors would be asking serious questions about why Arriva would have pulled out of Malta.
Very well said.
What will happen if Arriva pull out? Let me spell it in large letters: DISASTER. It will be a disaster for the first few months which could easily extend to a year or two or even three.
For the sake of those who see only to the tip of their noses, allow me to define DISASTER.
There will not be enough buses or drivers to run the routes meaning that many people will switch from public to private transport. That means increased traffic congestion, loss of time, waste of fuel, more pollution etc. etc.
And I will not even start to speculate what the impact on tourism will be.
Exactly Matthew S. You hit the nail on the head. And on reading this on timesofmalta this morning, I just had to smile and think: of course he has a Plan B. Mizzi is probably committed/under pressure to implement it.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/mobile/view/20131022/local/minister-has-plan-b-if-arriva-leave.491416
The ‘arrogant’ Austin Gatt , a frequent visitor to Gozo, never skipped the queue whilst on a private visit, not even when Gozo Channel fell under his responsibility as transport minister.
Ah, but his underlings did!
Quite true, but the telling fact is that Jesmond Mugliett did do so, armed with wife, kids and their bikes. Small wonder Jesmond feels cosy on that side of the fence.
There is a shared mentality, an insecurity, a need to feel and look important – something that one cannot associate with Austin Gatt.
The Health Minister was trying to see that all passengers patiently queuing to board the ferry were being well served without discrimination in favour of inflated egos and that the workers of the Gozo Ferry were doing their duty towards all the passengers (especially towards “pigs” that are more equal than others) impartially, or else.
Ghax Malta Taghna Lkoll. And let no one forget it.
The motto of the Labour Party or “Moviment” should now be ” MAKE HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES
If they say “Viva l-lejber, hay hay” then it would be “make hey while the sun shines.”
And more, by Stefan Buontempo
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131020/local/Pool-parking-chaos-after-junior-minister-bans-cars.491049#.UmTDdcsaySM
For a list of those allowed Priority Boarding, go to gozochannel.com under Timetable.
Rules have no meaning under lejber. PN brought law and order , but lejber is dismantling this idea.
Even more abuse of power worthy of mention:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131020/local/Pool-parking-chaos-after-junior-minister-bans-cars.491049#.UmT8RNIweCR
Health MINISTER and Marlene were at Ramla from 13.00 onwards, casually dressed for the beach. Official GMT17 car parked at reserved taxi stand. Can a public officer use his Ministerial car for private use, including chafeur being paid double it being a Sunday and sitting idle for at least an entire afternoon?
Il-Ministru Godfrey Farrugia immur Ghawdex biex jara fejn jista inaqqas mis-servizzi tas-sahha f’Ghawdex.
http://www.newsbook.com.mt/artikli/2013/10/21/ic-cinizi-ma-jistghux-inaqqru-mnehirhom-meta-jsiefru.11199?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-10-21/news/pm-misses-32-of-parliaments-plenary-sessions-2947153923/
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131021/local/journalists-fined-for-libel-and-for-delaying-court-proceedings.491288#.UmUmVXBmjTo
For those who still believe what Labour and its papers said/say.
Alfred Sant ghadu jahsibha l-istess? U meta jghid ‘ahna’ ghal min qed jirreferi ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9FpaHrBFqY&feature=c4-overview&list=UUc8YLsNPONwQdPvgnUG1Yfw
Arrogance reigns in this country! The closure of the national pool car park is another abuse of power! It’s causing chaos with every drop off and pick up so the minister finds an empty car park every time he decides to visit.
Arrogance reigns supreme among those who were out of power for decades and when power was thrust upon them by a combination of bored voters and credulous shifters suffered the humiliation of soiling their new trousers as soon as they put them on.
And this OVER THERE, if you please.
http://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/covers/full/1351_big.jpg
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/budget2014/Finance-minister-hits-out-at-economic-misinformation-20131021
This is the same economist who found the same information convenient to chastise the bad GonziPN administration with.
Thanks to the EU , he can’t change much in the methodology by which statistics are gathered.
If it’s hot in the kitchen, Scicluna knows what he should do.
And the panic sets in.
Unemployment’s up, imports and exports down, trade gap widened.
No sign of any capital expenditure, except that ruddy Terminator set in Marsaxlokk. FDI figures missing for months.
He can hit out until he’s blue in the face.
«Non sono su Facebook, non sono Linkedin, non sono su nulla. La cosa non mi interessa, non mi lascio distrarre».
Umberto Eco in an interview in today’s La Stampa.
Good advice for some of our politicians, indeed any one using social networks.
http://www.lastampa.it/2013/10/22/cultura/umberto-eco-aiuto-perdiamo-la-memoria-fmRoggCRoK4tAzpR1o7VRN/pagina.html