Labour's Business Forum gets off to a flying – errm – start
The alternative prime minister believes in equal rights. And to prove it, he'll now force his lips onto Toni Abela.
On timesofmalta.com’s comments board, one man ventures an opinion about Labour’s Business Forum.
Anthony Gatt
How strange that the PL did not appoint one economist on this forum. John Cassar White has an ACIB and a BA, Joe Vella Bonnici has a BA general in economics and Maltese (I hope they do not consider this to make one an economist) and an MA in Public Policy; Marlene Mizzi has also a BA general in economics and an MBA and Manuel Mallia is a lawyer. True this is a business forum but business is very important for the economy and the expertise of an economist would have come in useful.
Marlene Mizzi flies in to sort him out. Apparently, unlike the parrots at Super One and the ‘social’ climbers at Labour, he’s not au courant with university degrees and academic qualifications. Oh dear.
Marlene Mizzi
@Mr Anthony Gatt- You do not seem very au courant with university degrees and academic qualifications. So, for the record my degree in economics is an Honours degree not a general one- as are those of Mr Cassar White and Mr Vella Bonnici– ie we are all B.A(Hons.) Econ.
My second degree is an M.Phil (Maastricht ) not an MBA – which I assure you is very different in academic terms. I am currently reading for a Ph.D…that’s a doctorate!!
Both John Cassar White and Joe Vella Bonnici are respected economists backed by sound experience in the fields of banking and industry. Dr Manwel Mallia needs no introduction either: Mr Stephen Muscat is past CEO of a Plc, and Mr Paul Vella is an experienced and successful business man.
If you wish to find fault with the capabilities of this team, I suggest you steer clear of things you do not understand . We intend utilising our joint expertise – together with that of others- in the interest of the business community.
Just as the editorial correctly said, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. You seem to be trying to choke on what you cannot digest.
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A PhD in what?
Winning erections.
Touchy touchy, Marlene.
L-importanti c-certifikati – kemm tfal ta’ sitt snin u kemm ‘adulti’ ta’ hamsin sena.
It is worth noting that in life those who achieved something or made it never quote any degrees or diplomas. Just look at most of the top CEOs in the US. Likewise for business owners: they just show tangible results.
I am curious to know whether Stephen Muscat formed part of the ‘Union tal-Gradwati” when he was a state employee at Telemalta/Maltacom.
Neither does having an undergraduate degree in philosophy make one a philosopher.
No seriously, a Ph.D. in what? It’s not the academic level that counts, but the subject of research.
Rubbish. At that stage, it’s not the academic degree alone that counts.
“You seem to be trying to choke on what you cannot digest.” Coming from a PL stalwart like herself, that’s really saying something.
Yes, I can see us business people climbing the walls in effing ecstasy at the idea of being “advised” by this forum. A woman who runs a clothes shop, someone who ran the dry docks into the ground, a strange man and a former Maltacom CEO who left under, shall we say, a bit of a cloud. And who the hell is Paul Vella?
First thing Mallia should do is ask Marlene how to lose weight and keep in shape as judging by the photos put up on this blog he desperately needs it. Also, can someone tell him to stop going to the same optician as Musumeci? What’s this with these specs?
Methinks the lady doth protest too much.
An undergraduate degree, is by nature, a general one. It may be focused on a particular area in the chosen profession, in this case, it seems, economics, but it is still considered a general degree.
[Daphne – Mrs Mizzi is speaking here about the distinction (an actual one) between a BA (general) and a BA (Hons). Until just a few years ago, after the second year of study, during which two years students would read in two fields – for example, English and art, they would have to decide whether they were going to move into the honours programme (just one field of study for another two years) or stay in general (two fields of study for one more year). To move into the honours programme, you would need at least a ‘B’ average. Most of those who stayed in the general programme did so because they hadn’t achieved that average, so a general degree came to be perceived as a lesser qualification to an honours degree. Also, to proceed to a master’s degree, you needed an honours degree, not a general. If you had a general degree, you would have to read the subject for another yet in an ‘MA Qualifying’ programme. I don’t know what the system is now, but that is what it was when I was at university in the early 1990s.]
That is the whole point why people go on to do M.Phils and PhDs, that is, to become more learned in their chosen stream. So she’s either confused on the significance of her undergraduate degree, or thinks that M.Phils and PhDs are only carried out in economics.
Where I come from (don’t know about the rock), an M.Phil is a consolation prize for not completing the PhD programme, usually bombing out on the thesis. Looked upon with disdain by most economists in the real world.
She is very confused. She says that Cassar White and Vella Bonnici are respected economists. I beg to differ: with only a first degree in economics (as Mizzi herself admits), only in Malta one can expect to get away with calling himself an economist.
[Daphne – Yes, like Alfred Sant. And now they’re doing the same with Joseph Muscat.]
It’s a pity Ms Mizzi wasn’t around when Mintoff stopped us getting degrees by wrecking Uni, but nothing distinguishes Socialists more than their pathological ability to switch belief in something: democracy, free trade, VAT, EU membership, water desalination, liberalised broadcasting are cases in point.
Times change. Mintoffjans used to chant that the PN was a ‘partit tal-avukati u t-tobba’. And now they are all rushing to become lawyers and boast of their degrees.
She’d left university (or was in her final year) when Tal-Qroqq was being vandalised by the Labour thugs – not that she was exactly prominent in student circles in that context.
Ma, kemm hi touchy! U ftahier! I wish to remind Ms Mizzi li aktar ma toghla, aktar tiehu tisbita kbira.
@ripard
dont generalise because there is much to say in the negative about individuals within the current PN( musumeci, debono, JPO etc) as well as the immense good one can say about the sorely missed EFA era.
I believe Ms Mizzi was around and probably her bro was one of the people affected by the madness of the period.
Gonzi is no EFA, and JM is no Mintoff.
This thing about degrees, xi dwejjaq ta nies! So petty coming from a woman her age boasting that she is reading for a Ph D.
At her age, her achievements are what count, and that’s little more than a clothes shop.
Some of the most successful entrepreneurs have no tertiary education whatsoever, and quite a few Maltese come to mind in this regard. And here you have Marlene going on about “dikris”.
Indeed most foreign executives I meet never put any of their degrees on their business cards, but some Maltese even put down LRSM or Dip (Sacred Theology).
Hear, hear David – business acumen is not the result of degrees. It’s all hard work, guts and brains. Maybe these guys can learn a thing or two?
[Daphne – It’s not just hard work, guts and brains. It’s also about having a nose for business. Like all the other natural gifts, you can teach the method but you can’t impart the talent.]
Well, that goes without saying. I tend to forget because I was born in a family that was always in business. One tends to take those early lessons for granted. Thank you for reminding me.
[Daphne – Me too.]
I have a degree with honours as most of my friends do. It isn’t a qualification to play a part in government. Malta needs people with tangible evidence of success.
We all know that there’s a gulf between theory and an actual job. I don’t see how these people think that their qualifications automatically make them eligible to govern.
Why do the Labour faithful hold people with qualifications with such regard?
[Daphne – Because of their socio-economic profile.]
You went to uni, wow! It’s expected in other countries that everyone should go to university. It’s just another case of Maltese people not thinking for themselves and failing to QUESTION anyone who they deem to be above them. I wish Malta had more people like you around, Daphne.
I suspect that you and most of your friends do not, as you allege, have a degree with honours. That would be unusual. It is more usual and commonplace to have an honours degree. In fact, it is more commonplace in the B.A. degrees that I know of at the Malta University, for the students to graduate with an honours degree than with a general degree.
In her haste to answer, Mrs Mizzi got it wrong. In fact it is NOT even BA Hons, but a general BA.
Taken from the university website:
ASSISTANT LECTURERS
Mr. Carl Camilleri,B.A.(Hons.)(Econ.),M.Sc.(Econometrics)
Mr. Joseph Vella Bonnici,B.A.,M.P.P.
Economists look something like this:
Dr. Nicholas Bonanno,B.A.(Hons.)(Econ.),M.A.(Econ.),Ph.D.(Fribourg)
Dr. Philip von Brockdorff,B.A.(Hons.), (M.Sc.(Econ.)(Wales),
M.Phil.(York),D.Phil.(York)
or this:
Professor Edward Scicluna,B.A.(Hons.)(Econ.),M.A.(Econ.)(Tor.), Ph.D.(Tor.),D.S.S.(Oxon.)
I cannot abide the ghastly habit, as evidenced above, of quoting ALL degrees ever taken. For example: B.A.,M.A. or M.Phil.,D.Phil. It is sufficient to refer only to the highest grade achieved in that particular line i.e. M.A. and D.Phil. in these instances.
“It is sufficient to refer only to the highest grade achieved ”
… and only where and when it’s essential.
And you baby dephne have a degree in venim ,I hope you are understanding ugly venim.
Is that an ugly venim?
http://www.barbiefleurdelys.com/s2mlk.jpg
Here he goes again with his venim and poor syntax.
Lots of people understand ugly venim. You’re a perfect example of it. Learn this much, if nothing more: wilful ignorance is not an admirable quality.
Please please halluh lil Tony. Hammut bid-dahq! Jibqa ta bil “venim”, x’ jitmejjel. Aggettiv wisq ghal qalbu. Veru hasra ma jafx jispelli. And you, Daphne, you are the ugliest of “venims”, OK? Tony, “ugly venim” xi jkun, please?
@ John,
I didn’t go to University in Malta. You’re missing the point of the article. We are talking about a set of people who think that having a degree makes them suitable candidates for a role in government.
I know very few people who didn’t go to university so qualifications to us are not a big deal. We saw going to university as a stepping stone into further education or prosperous careers. We didn’t see it as a ticket to government.
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