21 October 2011

RSVP - Hmieg

Yesterday's Bondi+ on Gaddafi's demise was a truly on the fly affair. It was put together in hours and as the credits rolled up everyone collapsed in a heap.

I know it sounds perverse but we love it. Doing journalism when history is being made makes all the hard work you put in and nastiness you have to put up with worthwhile.
One of the guests we wanted to invite was Alex Sceberras Trigona, the International Secretary of the Partit Laburista. I called, he didn't pick up, and so I smsed. Above is how he responded. By calling me 'hmieg'.

Let us put aside the abysmal manners, particularly of a man with aristocratic blood running through his veins. The real point is political.

What sense does it make for the international secretary of a government in waiting to call someone, anyone, 'hmieg', let alone a TV journalist? What sort of political kudos did he think he was bestowing to his party? 

History was being made in front of our eyes last night. All of us were Libyans. Yet all that Alex Sceberras Trigona, one of the PL's highest officials, had to say about this moment was to call me 'hmieg', not Gaddafi

Talk about rising to the occasion.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

AST is known for his manners, wasn't it him who tried to hit Alfred Sant in Parliament in 1998?

JV said...

Careful lou,

They'll accuse you of hacking your own phone.

Such a wild bunch.

Anonymous said...

"Hmieg", is when you have MLP inciting hatred at people who don't support them that reached the level that caused the dead of Raymond Caruana.

Tikka said...

Manners? Rising to the occasion? This is a man who can't even spell his own surname on his own phone.

BondiBlog said...

@ Tikka - that mistake is actually mine.

Best Of Labour said...

Paniku kbir kien hemm fic-Centru Nazzjonali!

Mhux ta' b'xejn li tal-Maltastar tellghu ritratt 'imbaghbas' tal-'Blood Brother' mejjet!

Araw hawn!

Anonymous said...

OMG fix ha nigu jekk jitilghu huma!!

Anonymous said...

Can you just imagine what he teaches his students in Diplomacy inside the Department of International Relations...

Pn u kbiri said...

Lou jien insegwi l-programmi tieghek, u jiena nazzjonalist ferventi. Hossok komdu u jekk ma tridx tirrispondini kun liberu. Ma jidhirlekx li l-glieda kontra JPO min naha tieghek, u l-ghadab u l-mibeghda tieghu kontrik qed thalli zewg telliefa? Intom it-tnejn pn, forsi b'valuri differenti, izda x'hemm bejnietkom li ahna nistghu nkunu nafu minghajr ma nkunu personali wisq? Grazzi u prosit tal-programmi nteressanti li taghmel!

BondiBlog said...

@ Anonymous - it is a turn of phrase for such historic moments. Remember this: "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a Berliner") is a quotation from a June 26, 1963, speech by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin. He was underlining the support of the United States for West Germany 22 months after the Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall as a barrier to prevent movement between East and West. The message was aimed as much at the Soviets as it was at Berliners, and was a clear statement of U.S. policy in the wake of the construction of the Berlin Wall. Another notable (and defiant) phrase in the speech was also spoken in German, "Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen" ("Let them come to Berlin")--addressed at those who claimed "we can work with the Communists", a remark which Nikita Khrushchev scoffed at only days later.

Anonymous said...

Mhux fhix ha niegu fix qedghin trid tejd taht dawmn il-Mafjuzi Nzzjonalisti epppppps sorry Faxisti