Dedicated to that hideous excuse for a national coach that is Domenech. Here’s to hoping that the Irish manage to overturn the 1-0 deficit by outmanoeuvering Domenech’s side. We’re still in full Scorpio swing and as everybody who has followed the hopeless coach’s antics knows, he has a particular antipathy for that sign. All the more reason to cheer Traps XI! Go Ireland.
Jack the chaperone leaves for BXL this afternoon and will stay there till tomorrow night. I’m essentially chaperoning the missus as she sits for the last of her fonctionnaire exams (fingers crossed) so I won’t have much to do in the city I love to hate. Which explains this post. Anybody out in BXL willing to share a tea (coffee is horrible in BXL) somewhere around the Rond Pont Schumann just give me a ring – I’ll just be reading books in cafes all morning while the lady sweats it away.
my number (add Lux prefix) is six six one one one one nine seven five
(that should have screwed the spammers)
This article and accompanying Bertoon (click to enlarge in Flickr) appear in today’s Malta Independent on Sunday.
This week’s news highlight tells us that not many Maltese are really in favour of having a lesbian Prime Minister. Also, they’d rather have a Roman Catholic head honcho than one of any other particular faith (I wonder what they would make of a Blairite conversion at the end of the mandate). Once we are talking preferences, it also transpires that we’d rather go for the paler sort of grey when it comes to skin colour – and yes, we do constantly labour under the illusion that we are a Catholic, Latin bunch so much so that we’d rather be led by a leader in our own image (or in that of our mind’s eye) than any other deviant.
That’s just “brill” isn’t it? Just as you were despairing at the incapacity of the Maltese electorate to develop the sort of selective taste that moves beyond partisan parochialism, you are bitch-slapped in the face by a Eurobarometer survey condemning the nation of troglodytes to eternal damnation in the circle of the hypocritically conservative, where there is constant gnashing of teeth and people are bombarded with repeat recordings of tasteless jokes about “fags, faggots and other sorts of homophobia”. (In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve decided to up the ante on the vocab in my articles in order to hitch a ride on the sensational success that rudewordery has around these parts. And yes, I invented “rudewordery”, but if Carroll can have a “jabberwocky” then I can have a “rudewordery”.)
So it is little consolation to know that the majority of the population would be OK with a person of the weaker sex (see that not so subtle deliberate provocation there? Quick write a letter to the Indy) were she to take up office in Castile. The results of the survey should come as no surprise really. When it comes to views on ethnic origin and religious persuasion, all you need to do is to take a quick look at the lyrics of the official hymn of that tolerant party in power and you will find the lovely phrase “ta’ Kattolci, ta’ Latini, Maltin veri nahilfuh” (as Catholics and as Latins, we do swear this as true Maltese). The implication is clear: the true Maltese is Catholic and Latin (Latin? stop laughing at the back) and that’s why Lawrence Gonzi is not gay, black or a Mormon (and Paula Mifsud Bonnici is not a lesbian).
It’s a cruel, cruel world. At midnight of the 10th of November 2009, just as the clocks of the world ticked on into Armistice Day, a very sly marketing ploy by computer game company Activision meant that the latest version of the first-person shooter series “Call of Duty” (Modern Warfare 2) was released to the trigger hungry public. The camapaign was complete with a launching event at the VUE cinema in Leicester Square in a very Hollywood style. Armoured tanks and fully armoured soldiers hung around London’s busy square announcing the arrival of the 18-rated shoot them-up thriller.
Sales promised to be massive, and they were, notwithstanding controversy regarding some scenes in the game in which the player joins a group of terrorists raiding an airport and killing civilians. A spokesperson for Activision was eager to point out that the player can “stand by and watch” rather than participate actively in the massacre by pulling the trigger. Big Brother mentality sells. Especially since this time you are placed at the heart of the gory and gruesome action of violence and shooting.
The game sold over 1.3 million copies worldwide on its first day of sales which happened to be Armistice Day (Remembrance Day). True, it may be virtual reality but it does fly in the face of the very concept of respect and Remembrance. The game might be wicked, technically avant-garde and set for a number of awards but the marketing campaign deserves a two thumbs down for insensitivity and crass disrespect.
Nuntio vobis magnum gaudium. Iifirhu il muntanii u igawdu l-iprem seraphini filuacht illi icapcpu ghaleniia l’allat tal-Olimpu Sportiv. Nannunciaulchom minn haunhecc illi ilbierah filghaxiia, geuua Casal Micabiba, l-scuadra mai doma tad-Deportivo Estudiantes ilbierah rebhu l-loghba taghhom chontra l-avversariu osticu ta’ Marsasclocc FC (u dan minghair l’ebda incentiv pecuniraiu offert). Uaslilna dlonc u hesrem il-missiv mill-corrispondent tal-bollettin sportiv tad-Deportivo – A. Von Tufen illi ghadu hiereg frisch frisch minn operattioni li tteiieb il-vista u minn haunhecc nauguraulu veduti mill-ohloc. Hawn hi l-ahhar edittioni tal-FVRIA NERA ghal godiment tal-fidili tal-iscuadra Olimpica tad-Deportivo Estudiantes.
Ngharrfu ucholl minn hawn ‘il-qarreiia li minhabba li inbeda officialment l-Inter Amateur 5-a-side Football LEague for Maltese Exiles in Luxembourg se tibda tintebah ucholl gurnal sportiv iehor sabiesc ihabbar risultati u eventi salienti f’dana il-ligg. Ghalissa inhallichom fl-idein capaci ta’ A. Von Tufen detto anche Eagle Eye Cherry (u anchi minn sci ilsna hziena Bet. E. Davis).
Dan l-articolu jidher ucholl fil-Bollettino della Sfi*a.
Aghfsu fuch READ MORE u ticcuntentau ruiehhchom (u b’scein).
The Maltese national collective is not exactly avant-garde when it comes to talking about sex. To say that sex is still a taboo in many ways is an understatement. Probe even further and you will find an outmoded application of laws and frequent crusades on “immoral” activities related to anything sexual. Add to the minestra a good dose of censorship and prudish control coupled with an overdose of mistaken Catholic identity (or should that be hypocritical) and you begin to understand where we are coming from (and I am not talking about the stork story).
