Oh, sweet irony
This comment is from the board on timesofmalta.com. I am glad Dr Debono brought this up. He could also have mentioned that, rather than lying and waiting for death on a makeshift bed in a crowded and shambolic corridor at a deteriorating St. Luke’s, with only an Eastern European skarpan to see to him and no nurses to speak of, Dom Mintoff is at Mater Dei.
Should be revive enough to do it, he might find, dangling above him, one of those computers he thought so little of.
George Debono:
First of all – get well soon Dom! This is truly ironical.
Dom Mintoff possibly finds himself in the hands of some doctors/ specialists who were made refugees by him in the 70s—– or who were forced to go abroad to study because he practically destroyed the Maltese medical establishment.
DoM also destroyed the careers of so many capable older and experienced physicians doctors or surgeons (some of whom were too old to go abroad and simply retired early) – and also many promising young doctors .
Some of those who emigrated even died in far-away countries away from their family.
In fact, some of the doctors who might be looking after him might even be those who were obliged to go and study abroad – at their (or their parents’) expense.
But, things being what they are, doctors are decent, ethical people who treat every human being equally on the basis that the value of every human life is precious.
I am confident that Dom will be given every possible care and that he will live on for many more years of health and enjoyment of life on the planet.
Get well soon DOM – senza rancor!
It goes without saying that I don’t share the final sentiment. I hope he drops dead.
The final irony, of course, is not his stay in hospital at all – but that he will get a state funeral when for the sake of political consistency and because he is not a believer he should go in that mizbla on which he built a career.
But then I want him to have a state funeral because he would hate nothing more than being exposed in a coffin for gawkers and pokers and sightseers and other peasants whom he would wish to yell at and hit with his stick.
And then he will have to lie in a box in a cathedral while an archbishop and a flurry of priests fuss around him with incense. He would hate that, but it’s what he’s going to get.
State funerals are for former heads of state, but Mintoff made an exception for Borg Olivier and I imagine that Gonzi is going to make an exception for Mintoff.
He would have wanted a cardboard box in a hole in the ground at L-Gharix with a bunch of his sycophants drinking cheap whisky and a vile stew broiling on a spiritiera for the wake. Instead, he’s going to get exactly the sort of thing he hates most.
And just in case you were wondering about Joseph Muscat’s disregard for protocol and state occasions, he’s trying to imitate Mintoff, but he just can’t pull it off because it’s all an act.
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I would like to point out that someone from the timesofmalta team is editing comments which are critical of Mintoff, either leaving them out or changing the meaning. While I respect their right to do that, it has created a bias in what appears. Might I post my comment here, instead?
Mintoff destroyed my family. He left my parents destitute, without a penny, confiscating their property, their money and destroying my grandfather’s business, all of which he worked like a dog to earn. This wasn’t a case of old money. My grandfather was an orphan and he worked his way up.
My family was forced to emigrate because of Mintoff, having not a single cent or shred of dignity left.
I wish him good health as I would wish any other person. I will leave it to God to decide whether his good deeds compensate for his evil.
he’s trying to imitate Mintoff, but he just can’t pull it off because it’s all an act…..
And his personality is anything but Mintoff’s.
Personality: Joseph goes for a cruise. Dom takes a trip on teh Noneta with is-Sur Tonin tal-Marsovin.
I’ve just been reading through the comments on the timesofmalta.com board. Isn’t it amazing how the same period of time on this tiny island affected people in such a different way?
I am convinced that the grief of these people is genuine, but at the same time I wonder: did none of the deprivation we suffered touch them?
In sixteen long years did they never once lift their phone and overhear another conversation going on? Did these people never have water and electricity cuts? Wasn’t their water ever a bright rust-orange? Our grocer would occasionally smuggle half a dozen eggs or a bottle of cooking oil or a bag of sugar in the false bottom of my shopping bag and instruct me to go straight home with it.
Is it possible that these people lived in the land of plenty? Wasn’t their bread rationed? Didn’t their children ever take a bite of Deserta Semi-Sweet and wonder where Cadbury chocolate had gone?
Is-swat bil-ktajjen u l-pajpijiet, it-trakkijiet mimlijin bl-aristokrazija tal-haddiema, il-glied, il-biza, l-attakki u t-tifrik dawn ma rawhomx?
Imma possibbli dawn in-nies emmnu verament li ahna, Maltin bhalhom, li l-unika htija taghna kienet li konna Nazzjonalisti, kien jisthoqqilna dan kollu?
Ara jigix xi cuc issa u jghidli li ghandi l-lanzit.
[Daphne – No, Pat. You have to understand that these are people who came from generations of deprivation. They did not see the standard of living that Mintoff imposed on Malta as deprivation because it is what they had already. And in some cases, they might have felt better off, ghax hadu xi plot ta’ xi bicca art mahtufa mis-sinjuri. They didn’t read, they didn’t travel, they had absolutely no exposure to the outside world. They were in a box. If Mintoff told him he was their saviour, they believed him. They wanted a better life but, because they were completely ignorant, they didn’t understand the workings of capitalism and a free market and improved education, and couldn’t see that this was the way to the better life they wanted. The only better life they could conceive of was the better life they knew for generations: hand-outs, but better ones and more of them. Thousands of people in Malta lived like savages, and I mean savages. I was never sheltered from any of this because of particular aspects of my upbringing, but I remember being astonished that many of my friends were completely unaware that they did not represent the whole of the Maltese experience. The situation was ripe for somebody like Mintoff, but when that happens it is usually a curse on the country and the curse comes painted as a saviour.]
I think the answer to your questions lie in the struggle we had to go through to become members of the European Union. And this was quite recent. Imagine, or remember, in your case, what the situation was forty years ago.
I agree with the comments of Pat and Daphne but what astonishes me in Malta is that the lifestyle of certain people hasn’t changed at all even though there was a change in government and of course for the better.
I know that it sounds strange but even people who are PN supporters, it seemed that they fitted well in Mintoff’s politics because they were born ignorant and they remained so.
I was born and brought up in a village and I know what I’m speaking about. Unfortunately these people “kienu mqammlin u mqammlin ghadhom”.
Their way of looking at things was that it was pointless having everything available on the Maltese market if they themselves couldn’t afford to buy it or didn’t want to.
I still remember when people refused to buy a better-quality product, imported or otherwise, if it was a few cents more expensive than some local rubbish.
Mintoff said “L-ikbar bicca xoghol hi meta trid taghlem lill-injurant”. I think he was right.
Jekk mhux lil -injurant , lill min trid taghlem?
But Daphne, with all due respect.
Why did “thousands in people in Malta [live] like savages”?
What is the reason for that?
After more than a century of British presence here?
[Daphne – Poverty and ignorance and too many children.]
And what was the cause of poverty, ignorance and too many children?
“Too many children” is probably a corollary of “ignorance” and “poverty” a by-product of “too many children”. So I would reduce it to “poverty and ignorance.”
Possibly, too, “poverty” is the fruit of “ignorance.”
So we could further reduce it to “ignorance.”
But ignorance of what?
And why was there ignorance?
[Daphne Lack of exposure to knowledge and ideas beyond compulsory schooling and then there was the hegemony of Roman Catholicism which, coupled with ignorance, is a nightmare that leads, among other things, to 20 children.]
In other words, Mintoff’s arch enemies were the causes of Mintoff.
(Not really) sweet irony.
Archbishop Gonzi and the British colonial government, who together worked to keep the uneducated classes uneducated, are the culprits for Mintoff’s rise to power.
Had the Church and the British exposed the underclasses to knowledge and ideas beyond compulsory schooling, there would have been no void for Mintoff to fill.
I must out of logical necessity therefore concede that the underclasses are right to claim him as their Saviour.
[Daphne – Saved from what? And how did their life improve? incidentally, what you say about the situation applies here too: without Mintoff there would have been no Daphne for the Labour Party to contend with for 20 years and counting.]
You are 100% right. Without Mintoff there would not have been the anti-Mintoff camp.
You are also 100% right on the other point. In fact, I wanted to write that he succeeded only partially in his intents (those Labourites who took advantage of whatever he did became Nationalists – another irony), but couldn’t find the inspiration to express it coherently.
Perhaps the best way to say it is that they are right in harbouring the PERCEPTION that he was their saviour.
He was the only one to try and do something about their predicament. Even if he only paid lip-service, he was the only one to address their needs.
As a matter of fact, I think he did more than pay lip-service. But I do not want to go into that.
What I would like to learn your opinion about is the fact that had the Church and the British catered for the underclasses (as Albert, husband of Victoria, tried to do in England), perhaps there would have been no need for Mintoff.
I mean Mintoff did no Marcia su Roma like Mussolini. He burnt no Reichstag like Hitler. Mintoff was democratically elected in ’71 and in ’76.
His elections were the people’s response to their misery. In him they thought they had found a saviour.
By ’81 it was clear he was not.
Still the perception lingers on.
Is it just lanzit?
I think you have to clarify this point.
[Daphne – Definitely just lanzit. The hatred and envy are unbelievable. And the oddest thing is that they hate and envy somebody like me – who works for her living – far more than they envy somebody with stacks of money who comes from a working-class background. It’s because what they really hate and envy is not the money – I haven’t any – but the perception of privilege, of which, yes, I do have a bit still.]
If, as you say, these people were like pigs rolling in the mud of ignorance, then their attitude is not due to lanzit (because lanzit implies having occasions and, out of laziness or whatever, not rising to them) but due to a lack of skills. The lack of skills was due, as we are saying, to the Church and the British.
Could you clarify your thoughts on this?
[Daphne – I’ve already said what I think about this. People are divided, by nature, nurture or a mix of the two, into two broad types: the can-dos, and the I-would-rather-not-dos. The first are more inclined towards the PN and the second towards Labour. That’s all.]
Ok. I begin to understand better. In organizational psychology there is a similar distinction, between those who perceive reality as being determined by external factors, and those who perceive it being determined by internal factors – the former factors are those which the individual perceives as being without his control, the latter factors are those which the individual perceives as being in himself and within his control.
Ok, I think I can agree with this subdivision. (Very acute observation – have you ever studied for an MBA or something?)
Next step: that the former category would gather round Labour, the latter category round the PN.
This I have to chew over.
Unless he opts out of a state funeral (like Cossiga)!
Please somebody make a video – and post it on youtube or on this site – about what Mintoff did for Malta…the good , the bad and the ugly
I cannot but agree with George Debono’s comment.
I also noted your comment “… he might find, dangling above him, one of those computers he thought so little of.”
Not only did he think so little of computers, I understand he imposed restrictions on their introduction into the country, the workplace and the education system.
And if he turns on his television, he is likely to get a fatal cardiac arrest, considering the wide choice of cable channels, and he is likely to search in vain for Xandir Malta.
He was so much against the liberalisation of broadcasting (or anything else for that matter).
Now there he lies, with one of them hanging over his head.
If he’s lying in state, they’ll have to cover him with plastic.
Kienu zminijiet tal-biza u kont tibza tghid li int Nazzjonalist. Tant hu hekk li biex inmur nixtri il-gazzetta “In Nazzjon”, ommi kienet ittini basket tal-plastik biex nitfaghha fih ghax zgur sakemm kont nasal id-dar jew kienu jqattaghuwieli jew inkella naqla xebgha.
Tal-gazzetti kien itini In-Nazzjon minn taht il-bank tal-hanut ghax anke hu kien jibza.
Iz-zaghzagh tal-lum ma jafux minn x’hiex ghaddew in-nies ghax illum ghal-grazzja t’Alla u ta’ Eddie Fenech Adami din il-hdura spiccat.
Kienu snin ta’ terrur li ma nawgurahom lil HADD.
[Daphne – Il-hdura ma spiccat xejn. I am currently on the receiving end of a great deal of it, so I would know. It’s right there waiting, simmering below the surface. The hatred is cultural, spans generations, and is due to class envy and not to politics. I use the term class envy loosely, because many of the people who seethe with hatred towards me today are a good deal better off than I am. It’s not about money. It’s about the intangibles. For somebody like me to become acceptable to people like that, I would have to pretend to be something I’m not, keep my head well below the parapet as most of my kind do, or else turn myself into a trophy and a scalp, like all those chatterers who thought it was SO thrilling to vote Labour in the EP election last year. None of those options appeal to me. I like to pretend I’m living in a developed democracy, even if it is plain that I’m not.]
Pat Zahra.
I used to have the same thoughts as yours until I encountered the so-called Mintoffjani. They envy successful people and prefer that everyone is in shit, even themselves as they can never be any better.T
Then came the Salvatur who took your hard-earned assets to share them with the lazy bastards, while they honour and bless him as if he gave them his own money.
If I am correct even George Debono was made to leave the country, but he did not mention it.
.
@:Daphne
Il-lupu jbiddel sufu izda mhux ghemilu.
Vincent Borg(6 hours, 34 minutes ago)
“May the LORD always watch over you Perit,
I Quote,
ALLA halaqna
San Pawl taghna il-FIDI
MINTOFF ghamilna NIES”
*face palm*
Mintoff peddles shit and Vincent Borg? He eats it.
When’s the funeral!
err…he’s not dead yet. He seems to be out of the woods.
Quick, let’s plant some more trees.
He ain’t dead yet, he just smells that way.
Mintoff took advantage of ignorance, poverty and general backwardness to rise to power and subsequently to feather his and his regime’s nests.
He was not original in this. It is a time-hallowed formula adopted by dozens of politicians in underdeveloped countries both before and after Mintoff.
His legacy must be that he used and controlled violence for political ends and eventually almost lost his grip on it.
That we did not end up with a bloodbath is certainly not due to him but to the steadfastness and level – headedness of his political adversaries.
Many families, including mine, suffered disruption and heartbreak during what must have been the darkest period in Malta’s history. The details are so sad that they are best avoided.
I am a firm believer in Divine Justice, though, and I am praying for him to repent.
I trust in God that he has already done so.
During the Labour administration it was not only Nationalist supporters who suffered a lot but even honest Labour families. As a matter fact the true Labour Party lost lot of votes because this party never contested the elections ever since.
[Daphne – Let’s put it this way: all decent people of good will fared badly, whatever they voted. It was impossible to be decent and take no notice of the obscenities being perpetrated daily.]
Mintoff is not new to ironies: his last notable political act was bringing down an MLP government. Incidentally his first political act has also been bringing down another MLP government.
Reference to Dom Mintoff as “Salvatur”, and by analogy to God, reminded me of an article by a contemporary philosopher that I’ve read recently.
In a nutshell, the author said that man is not intrinsically good or intrinsically bad but a combination of both. But when man claims to speak in the name of God or to be God, then he becomes the personification of evil. So true.
Most probably we will NOT have a funeral that soon. When we do have it will the organisers respect Mintoff’s wishes. If yes, the last thing he ever wanted was entering a church. If he is given a church service he will haunt us all.
“Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy.” (Winston Churchill, 1948)
Suits Mintoff to a tee.
And still, his “team” is still alive and kicking – just read the list of people who flocked to Joseph Muscat when he called back the lost “sheep”.
The word “sheep” of course makes me laugh when I recall Alex Sceberras Trigona, Joe Grima, Joe Debono Grech and the rest of them.
Those who are thinking of voting Labour come 2013, to spite the Nationalist Party (I just do not know why), had better think that they will be voting to have these “sheep” promoted to “wolves” in case of a PL victory.
I hope I won’t find myself living in Triq Dom Mintoff …
It’s entirely up to you and all those who do not wish to have a “Triq Mintoff”!
Some comments I think do not make sense.
Mintoff just wanted to emulate his cronies of the eastern communist block and only stopped at declaring himself dictator because he was afraid of taking the final plunge. Not so most of his ministers and Labour MPs – but this will come out long after we are dead and buried – who are now painting themselves whiter than white and more democratic than I don’t know what.
There were enthusiastic followers of eastern tyrants – and perhaps there still are – so Malta was/is no exception. Some are just ignorant and do not see further than their noses, or their pockets.
To blame the Catholic Church does not make any sense. If anything one has to thank the church and especially Archbishop Gonzi for not going down the road of Romania and Albania. Does anyone still remember the programmes on Xandir Malta just before the 8 o’clock news featuring Albanian students on trucks going to work in the fields?