Daphne Caruana Galizia, Ta' Xbiex.
A vote for my sons' future
Vincent Piccinino clearly does not read the newspapers, but only writes to them. That would be why he made the risible comment in his letter (February 9) that this government has "reduced public finances to the sorry state they are in today".
You can criticise this government about any number of issues, from bird-hunting to divorce, and I do all the time in my job as a newspaper columnist, but you certainly can't fault it on public finances and the economy. The deficit has been slashed right down to its present 1.6 per cent - a phenomenal achievement that leaves Alfred Sant with no ħofra to shout about, though Mr Piccinino is still repeating the battle cry of 1996.
Malta has been permitted to join the eurozone ahead of other countries that have been member states for years longer than we have. Perhaps Mr Piccinino labours under the delusion that it was simply a matter of deciding to switch currencies?
Malta is nearing full employment, which means that there are now more jobs than people to fill them. Foreign direct investment is pouring into the country in the hundreds of millions. New growth areas are booming. Anybody who wants to carry on training or studying can do so, with the result that the children of labourers, who would themselves have been labourers a generation ago, are now working in highly specialised sectors and earning the kind of money their parents could never aspire to.
Young people have amazing prospects (and so do the not-so-young). They have a whole world of opportunity before them. That is why I will vote for the Nationalist Party again and hope that Lawrence Gonzi is returned as prime minister. He and his predecessor have given my sons and their generation the opportunities for a life that I and my ill-served contemporaries could only dream of in vain.
Issues like divorce, bird-hunting and the car park in the backyard pale into insignificance next to my desire to safeguard the future of my sons and all those like them, who are just starting out in life. When I hold that ballot-paper in my hand, you can rest assured that I won't be thinking of bird-shooting, or divorce, or a car park, or any one of a number of nuisance-problems that are part of everyday life for people everywhere. I'll be thinking of young people, and how very much I want them to surge ahead unhindered by chaos, uncertainty or weird policies for once - the first generation of young Maltese people to do so.
I want to shout out to them: Go ahead, spread your wings and fly. You're so very, very lucky. I never thought I'd be sitting here and writing this, but thank you, Eddie Fenech Adami and Dr Gonzi, for working so hard to make sure that this generation of young people is blessed in a way that no other generation in Maltese history has ever been. Thank you for making sure that my sons got the kind of start in life that I, my sisters and my friends never had. Thank you for coming forward to fight those tough battles against the politics of Dom Mintoff, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and Alfred Sant. Thank you for persisting in the hard road to EU membership. Thank you for having the vision that pulled Malta out of the wreckage of the 1980s into what it is today. Thank you for continuing to withstand the unreformed Labour Party, and for standing between us and the danger that party presents to the Maltese economy.
As the very grateful mother of three young men, if for no other reason, Dr Gonzi's party has my vote, just as Dr Fenech Adami's had before, when they were children. There is no chance that I will vote in any way that will prejudice the current momentum of economic growth, because to do so would be to work against the interests of those closest to my heart. I will not vote AD because a damaged and weakened Nationalist Party leaves Labour unopposed.
I will never vote Labour because it continues to shelter and put forward the very people who damaged my youth, including Dr Sant, who was president of the party in the early 1980s when most of the damage was being done. I will vote for the Nationalist Party because with Dr Gonzi as Prime Minister, my sons are safe for another five years, and I like what he has done in the areas that count for most.
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Bernard Glanville
Feb 14th 2008, 07:32
Sorry Daphne, you haven t convinced me. Your opinion pieces, and comments on this site on other related articles/letters really just convinced me that you 'd love it for PN to be in power indefinitely. Although this is all for the best in your mind for this country, it is not to myself and many others. This is not a one party state, PN have no divine right to power. If they want to keep people s votes, they should address their electorate's issues i.e. the environment, rampant over-development and abuse. I'm afraid however that as PN has had 20 years to do this and hasn't. There is no way anyone is going to believe their sincerity on improving these issues now that an election is around the corner.
Fleur Hili
Feb 13th 2008, 12:18
What else can be said ? Nothing! You hit the nail on the head every time. You rule girl!!
Graham Crocker
Feb 13th 2008, 11:53
Spot on, Daphne. I can't find anything in your letter that I do not agree with.
I'm fortunate enough not to have gone through those horrible times, but I have heard stories from both sides.
There should be a book, with all these stories.
So our generation would know what Malta passed through when they asked for "change".
John Schembri
Feb 12th 2008, 23:49
If I were Mr.Buttigieg I would go help Jason out of the PR mess he has created.I smell that Labour already has a scapegoat.
Daphne's contribution is exactly what we parents feel about our kids. We do not want them to experience Labour.We do not want them to lose the EU opportunities for which we struggled against Sant to have.
Aidan Zammit Lupi
Feb 12th 2008, 20:04
Well said, Daphne! With an MLP government the late 70s and early 80s were absolute hell for families like my own. So many people like myself had to leave the country to seek their fortune elsewhere. There was shameless discrimination against students from private schools at Malta University, and we all know who the chairman of the selection board was at that time...
Antonella Bugelli
Feb 12th 2008, 18:56
I'm also a mother of three young men, aged eleven, thirteen and fifteen, and can echo the sentiments expressed by Daphne 100%. I could not have expressed it as well as her, that's for sure, but my feelings are exactly the same.
Anthony Paris
Feb 12th 2008, 15:51
Daphne has a first class command of the English language, and her ability to get across a message is impressive. She however has been fooled by the propaganda as far as finances go. If she takes the trouble to check the Government finances through the Central Bank she will find that government debt has continued to increase albeit at a slower pace. Therefore unfortunately if Dr Sant is elected he will find a bigger financial hole than he found in 1966, approximately 3,500,000,000.00 euros.
Jennifer Cosaitis
Feb 12th 2008, 14:07
This woman deserves a standing ovation - I could have never have managed to put all those thoughts into word. Ms Caruana Galizia has unfortunately witnessed the effect of the Labour administration in the 70s and 80s which most of the younger generation do not remember. I'm sure if they did, very few would still consider shooting themselves in the foot and vote Labour.
Charles J Buttigieg
Feb 12th 2008, 13:44
My my, how angry we sound today,it certainly does not look like a very good morning for our star contributer. She ought to focus her vision on the not too distant future.Winter is almost over,look at the horizon where you can already see the spring sunshine. Forecasters are unanimous in their opinion that spring will come early this year. More accurately they tell us that it will start its bloom on the 9 th March and from then the only way will be up.
But what is Daphne really scared off with a Labour government? She says it's the future of her siblings.Maybe she really is because there is a tendency of falling victims to our own unreal perception of our political opponents.
Who is she really trying to impress with comparisons of the past with the future? Other people can write volumes about the bad old days but where will we start from? For Daphne the focal era of the past is restricted to the period between 1971 and 1987 with a spell of bad weather between 1996 and1998.
I am a few years senior to Daphne and can tell some horrific stories that the readers will have serious difficulties to believe.
In my teens I once participated in a peaceful demonstration and found myself arrested with others and kept at the cops shop for 24 hours without being charged of any criminal act. At that time Mintoff was not in power nor was Pullicino Commissioner of the Police or Anglu Farrugia the investigating officer.
Nothing really eventful happened to me and a sizeable group of fellow executives at Air Malta during the different periods of PN administration.We were all enjoying a carefree period with the reasonably good salaries of Senior Managers, Heads of departments and General Managers all of us housed in empty air-conditioned corridors doing nothing. It is true that is was a trifle humiliating ,frustrating and felt marginalized however there is never any gain without pain.For the little discomforts our court of laws gracefully awarded me with financial compensation.
But these are not the reasons why I shall once again vote Labour.It is because I trust Alfred Sant who, although he doesn't smile a great deal, he is honest,sincere and face value.Mind you,as a marketer and a PR person I do see the Labour weakness in their propaganda machine. If it were only for that I would vote PN .
To further dramatise her appeal to sell fridges to the Eskimos,Daphne chose the title of Dido's June 2001 hit song ' Thank you' unaware of Dido's second album ' Life for rent' and that ' Thank you' was featured in the film ' If these walls could talk 2'
mario zammit
Feb 12th 2008, 12:17
Daphne is as sharp and direct as ever. Nobody is capable of painting a situation with such verve and clarity as she does.