Pajjiz tal-valuri: whoring ourselves to Gaddafi
Published:
February 23, 2011 at 2:07pm
Sir Anthony Mamo, president of the freshly minted Republic of Malta, decorates the oppressor of the Libyan people in all our names
From BBC World
An update on the two Libyan air force pilots who defected to Malta in their jets. Police are still interrogating them, local journalist Keith Demicoli tells the BBC World Service. They have asked for political asylum but it is far from clear they will be given it, in view of Malta’s strong political and commercial ties with Libya, he says.
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Do you all, as I do, feel ashamed – terribly ashamed of our stinking past history?
yes I do.
Those who did, have done and continue to do their best to ensure that Malta has a serious government need not feel any shame.
There is one school of political thought which argues that one should not feel ashamed, or apologise, for the mistakes made by one’s ancestors/predecessors.
We are responsible only for our mistakes.
I subscribe to that school.
[Daphne – That school of thought deals with people, not states or organisations. That’s why, for example, popes apologise for the wrongs wrought by their predecessors several centuries before, because they stand in representation of an institution. It is the same with the government of Malta. If we reach the stage where we have to apologise to the Libyan people for our collusion with their oppressor, then George Abela will have to do it, and apologise all the way back to 1970.]
Let me clarify. Mine is a personal opinion. There are others who may disagree with the school of thought that I describe.
But there is, I believe, one important international case where a State has refused to make a formal apology for the acts of predecessors.
This was the case with John Howard’s Liberal government of Australia. John Howard always insisted that his government will not make an apology to the indigenous people of Australia for the hardships caused to them by successive governments. Eventually, when Kevin Rudd succeeded John Howard, he made a formal apology on behalf of the government.
Yes Ciccio, if the “ancestors” were deceased. But the guilty party in our Gaddafi buttlicking is made up of the following, all alive and most still in politics:
Dominic Mintoff, KMB, Sceberras Trigona, Karmenu Vella, Joe Grima, George Vella, Lino Spiteri… need I go on?
Gaddafi’s Gieh ir-Repubblika still stands, and George Abela will have some explaining to do. I suppose we’ll just sweep it under the carpet, as we did with Ceaucescu’s medal. Heqq ghax issa anzjan/ghax jiehu ghalih/ghax Malta zghira/ghax ghandna bzonn iz-zejt/ ghax hbieb ma’ kullhadd……
And some IMBECILE suggested setting up a committee to look into the possibility of discussing that Gieh ir-Repubblika. By the time the committee, obviously made up of the usual fat jowled Dottor Bladiblas and Justice Tiddlidees, makes up its mind and takes a vote on the matter, it’ll be 2050 and (hopefully) Malta would have disappeared by then.
There’s a part of me that’s praying Gaddafi has one last nuclear warhead stashed away somewhere and that he’ll use it to erase Malta from the maps in one final gesture. It would serve us right.
It looks like he’s the first on the Ġieħ ir-Repubblika Honorary Members’ List:
https://opm.gov.mt/imsehbin?l=1
They have to be given asylum. Otherwise the Maltese government will be party to murder, because that is what will happen to these pilots if sent back.
[Daphne – They can sit on the fence as they so enjoy doing, give them a visa and keep extending it and extending it….and extending it.]
Been there, done that.
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2008/12/28/looks-like-tonio-borg-is-going-out-of-his-way-to-make-me-say-nice-things-about-him/
If they have requested asylum (which they have) the question will have to be determined.
1310: Spain’s Foreign Minister, Trinidad Jimenez, has added his voice, saying a leader like Col Gadaffi who has “decided to bomb his own citizens” has already lost “all legitimacy” to continue to lead Libya.
1306: Further international condemnation of the violence in Libya, with Israeli President Shimon Peres saying Libyans “will not forgive” Col Gadaffi’s actions. “The fact that he used arms and brutally killed hundreds of people, people will not forgive him because the right to demonstrate is a human right,” he told a news conference in Madrid.
What strong political and commercial ties? And with whom, with Gaddafi? Even if such ties were still in place, is Malta actually foreseeing a scenario where two persons seeking political asylum here would be returned to Libya to certain execution, with the added probability of a bit of torture thrown in, so as to preserve ‘political and commercial ties’?
Should that be so, then indeed our nation has gone to the dogs.
Has not Malta whored around long enough with Gaddafi, does it now have to sink even further into degeneracy?
My thoughts exactly. Actually, the article says “…in view of Malta’s strong political and commercial ties with Libya, he says.”
Did he mean “strong political and commercial ties with Gaddafi” instead?
Why, exactly, is it that we should have strong political ties with Libya? Is that supposed to mean that we will subject Libyan persons to political retaliation in their country?
I despair when I see basic fundamental principles turned upside down in my Malta.
Gaddafi Gardens in Paola should be renamed immediately: “Gnien Mohammed Bouazizi”, the 26-year-old impoverished Tunisian street vendor, who doused himself in paint-thinner and set himself on fire in Sidi Bou Said, changing the face of North Africa and the Middle East forever.
Don’t forget that Ceaucescu of Romania and Kim il Sung were decorated by Malta as well.
Kollu frott tal-Golden Years of Labour.
Can he be stripped of this Gieh ir-Repubblika?
[Daphne – Yes, of course.]
OK, I would expect that if he is not stripped off that decoration, then, all those holding a similar decoration should put it in an envelope, address it to the Palace, and have it posted with registered mail and return receipt (pink card).
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110208/local/pm-to-meet-gaddafi
Now, seriously, it is Hobson’s choice for the government.
These two servicemen have to be accorded political asylum unless we, the Maltese nation, opt to become the world’s laughing stock.
Why do so many people find it hard to distinguish between fact and opinion? Keith should have stuck to the facts, his comment, albeit probably correct, was utterly superfluous.
But doesn’t Keith know that the granting of political asylum is unrelated to political and commercial ties, but that it is regulated by international conventions?
No, he doesn’t. Apparently, neither does the BBC.
Sporting Malta’s medal beneath his green band.
http://blogs.thisismoney.co.uk/.a/6a00d8341c565553ef0120a5a3147e970c-800wi
http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/22/abrahams.libya.gadhafi/index.html
bus driver
u kieku jien lanqas l-ajruplani ma ntieh lura jekk jirnexxilu jibqa fil-poter
Mur ara x’jitqalleb go qabru l-Eccelenza Tieghu Sir Anthony Mamo meta jisma’ b’dawn il-buzullotti.
Few days left for Malta being the best within the EU member states. The people voted and it is the will of the people of Malta who trusted themselves into the unknown.
What is next? No more waiting list in Mater Dei. No more crying over free medicines. No more big bills to pay for electricity.
No more waiting for the bus to reach the final exams at tal-Qroqq.
There is something wrong. The Maltese people are not clever enough to preserve what they really achieved. But it’s a fever when evil dominates the human brain.