Whatever happened to Maltese wit?

Our forefathers used wit as the salt of their conversations. Their thinking wit helped save them from being swallowed whole by the life around them. In this respect I confess I do not make any broad distinction between the illiterate, who could not read at all, and those who had learned to read only what is for feeble intellects at the hands of the manipulated media.

Over the last 20 years the Maltese wit that was often concise and sparkling by being compressed into an original pun or metaphor, has lost its brevity from its soul.

It continues to baffle the wit and wisdom of those that subscribe to reading the opinions of Daphne Caruana Galizia and, what’s even more disturbing, is why this independent newspaper continues to allow her trash and hollow thoughts of Sunday 27 January 2008 (“Settle down and read this, please”) to be passed on to its readers as meaningful journalism.

In a desperate attempt to start the election campaign early, Daphne turned her focus last week on professional Maltese citizens. Sadly, Ms Caruana Galizia has not yet matured enough as a journalist to understand what commonly journalistic knowledge is. That ridicule is the best test of truth; because it will not stick where it is not just.

Professor Anthony Zammit

Immature journalistic thinking makes it difficult to process professional dedication, especially when the intended aim is to impede recognition. Someone as melodramatic as Daphne and her ilk, in their absolute judgments tend to see things only in their own terms and have trouble putting events into life’s perspective.

My question to Daphne, while she continues to reminisce about the 1980s, is whether Professor Zammit ought to be another sacrificial lamb like Professor Grech was for his professional dedication in the 1980s.

Dr Claire Bonello

Claire Bonello was once assaulted and slapped for one of her crude comments and contributed weekly to MaltaToday. Now she has begun to enjoy recognition, from a journalistic point of view, at Allied Newspapers. My memory also tells me that she started her legal career with Daphne’s husband firm BCGL Advocates. She is smart, a spirited young mother and nobody’s fool.

When comments are without substance, the word jealousy is quite often used as if it were synonymous with envy; but I think the distinction is worth preserving. Jealousy is predominantly concerned with the fear of losing something one possesses, envy with the wish to own something another has earned.

Not to long ago, according to Daphne’s warped sense of diction, the beautiful women of One Station News were nothing but amateurs and unprofessional. Today, thanks to these same dedicated men and women, One media has established itself as truly the number one station in Malta. Pity Daphne for not keeping her biased consultations to herself.

Dr Harry Vassallo

I read Harry’s contributions because I find them balanced and more often than not intelligent. Harry is a decent man who wears his heart on his sleeve and quite often attracts comments because it’s taken for granted that AD will always support any PN administration.

We learn immediately from any speaker how much he has already experienced from the poverty or the splendour of his speeches. To learn virtue takes years; yet to learn evil it only takes a special day and for the AD, including Harry, that special learning day came after the EU referendum result.

The idea that Harry would consider a coalition with the PN to form another government is a pathetic choice for the Maltese electorate considering that those who will vote AD are doing so to get rid of this discriminating administration.

Political desperation

Neither the Prime Minister nor all the right wing media assets at his disposal, including Ms Caruana Galizia, can stop the voter’s apathy that has rediscovered its Maltese wit and sees a need to stop corruption for better wealth distribution and social equality.

The need for accountability regarding Malta’s assets and the citizen’s contributions to the nation’s coffers has never been more urgent.

A few years ago Daphne had engaged in an amazing brutal campaign against Joseph Muscat during the MEP elections. The response was outstanding. Joseph Muscat became the first MEP elected to the European Parliament and, along with Louis Grech and John Attard Montalto, has qualified as one of three outstanding representatives in Brussels for the Maltese people in the socialists group.

Poor Daphne! She cannot distinguish that what is good for her country is far more important than what’s best for personal acquisitions through political rewards.

Whether it’s Dr Sant or Dr Vella from the MLP, Dr Bonello and Dr Vassallo from AD or Dr Muscat from the AN, this island has awakened to the fact that this election is a bet on the future, not a fabricated popularity test of the past.

These are but a few who dared to hope for immediate change in Malta; their beliefs and hard work has laid the foundation for the building blocks that are starting to materialize and process a new beginning to reverse the damage done through intimidation and manipulation.

The Maltese electorate has finally understood that they must consider first the nature of the election business a; and then whether together they have the strength to undertake it more diligently.

In this election, the incoherent Cabinet of Dr Gonzi will discover that it is futile to ask the Maltese electorate to keep putting up with arrogance and incompetence, as futile almost as keeping water from running downhill.

The dawn of a new era in Maltese politics waits in 2008. Malta, for the first time as an EU State, will hold its parliamentary elections according to its Maltese character, defined by its strength in its moral reserves.

Further campaign declarations by this incumbent administration assisted as usual by Daphne and her ilk, will prove a failure and their hollow promises that these foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry is a greater strain that no soul can long endure.

No longer is it feasible for the Maltese people to fall victim to printed senile propaganda recently published by Guido de Marco and Evarist Saliba. The way these two gentlemen portray Maltese history is more or less bunk. From this day forward Malta wants to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s curse is the history that Malta will make from this day forward as an EU State.

When you have truth pulling one way and deceit the other, to say nothing of conscience sawing away transversely, almost any kind of embedded corruption and insolence will give way.

According to the Catholic teachings on the EU Mediterranean State of Malta, Heaven is the work of the best and kindest men and women. Hell on the other hand is the work of a succubus and political manipulation that cause physiological fatigue by their needless repetition.

In this kind of upbringing, this miniscule island must attempt to make the best of its wit and wisdom especially in the next election by voting for a new beginning.