Oh please, can we have a Maurice Williamson in our Parliament. For those who have not seen the video, I shall explain why. The man makes a political broadcast fun to watch. I had begun to think of what I could present you with on this Sunday, yearning for a humorous angle. But nothing with a touch of wit came to mind.
The over large bendy buses that keep clogging up our roads have been done to death, so no inspiration there. Although we will certainly have more stories to come on the road hoggers later. I just wish one of our new Cabinet ministers, Joe Mizzi responsible for Transport and Infrastructure, would follow London mayor Boris Johnson’s lead and send them back where they came from.
And if karrozzini (horse dawn cabs) are in his portfolio, which I guess as a form of transport they are, he could get their drivers to put nappies on their horses (which the previous administration failed to do) and not park them on busy corners. As I had mentioned in July last year, one of our great streets leading in to Valletta Misrah l-Assedju l- Kbir(Great Siege Street) that has a panoramic view of Manoel Island and Marsamxetto Harbour should be renamed “Horse Shit Street”, it is disgusting. Please, “New Cool Labour” can you fix it?
Also, could Mr Mizzi get the Environment Landscaping Consortium to stop hacking our trees to bits? There seems to be a bit of a dichotomy (splitting the branches), with landscaping falling under his portfolio rather than Leo Brincat’s Ministry for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change.
So, you get my drift, I have not really got you smiling have I. But then Mr Williamson fell into my lap, well not exactly but on my laptop. He is a New Zealand Member of Parliament who was about to vote in favour of the Marriage Equality bill, i.e. gay marriage, and was saying why. Even if one does not agree with what the bill is proposing, his witty delivery of why he thinks the bill should pass was worth watching.
His opening, self-deprecatory line to the speaker, “I too will be taking a split call, as a sort of the young and the vibrant as opposed to the old and the boring”, had already got the House laughing, demonstrating that he was going to be anything but boring. He referred to the way one learns to deflect the fire and brimstone brigade and quoted a “reverend” in his locality who said, “The gay onslaught will start the day after this bill is passed.”
To which he responded, “We are really struggling to know what this onslaught will look like. We don’t know whether they will come down the highway as a series of troops, or whether it will be a gas that flows in overhead and block us all in.” His gestures of course enhanced the effect.
This reminded me of the scare tactics that were put about when divorce was about to be introduced here. “Marriage with divorce will stay valid until the woman’s size grows beyond 10”, was a classic line promoted by a female doctor who formed part of the anti-divorce brigade.
The Bishop of Gozo had linked divorce with abortion, telling a pro-life activity that research showed that there was a link between ‘unstable families’ and abortion. “Where the family is united, pregnancy is likely to be accepted and celebrated, but where the family is broken, such as in the case of divorced parents, there is a higher probability that life is refused and threatened,” was his astounding outpouring. This utter codswallop had not persuaded the Maltese not to vote in favour of divorce.
Mr Williamson was also told, by a Catholic priest, that he was supporting an unnatural act. “I found that quite interesting coming from someone who took an oath of celibacy for his whole life,” he said, provoking more hilarity. He could have put the boot in and added that we all have seen what that can lead to, but he didn’t.
He said that he “found some of the bullying tactics really evil”, and haven’t we seen some of that here, but he also spoke of the genuine unease of “the moderates, who were really concerned what this (the bill) would do to the fabric of our society, I respect their concern,” he said.
He sought to put their mind at rest, “All we are doing with this bill is allowing two people who love each other to have that love recognised by way of marriage, that is all we are doing. We are not declaring nuclear war on a foreign state. We are not bringing a virus in that could wipe out our agricultural sector forever.
“The sun will still rise tomorrow... you will not have skin diseases or rashes... So don’t make this into a big deal.” As he came to the end of his speech, he read out one of the overboard messages he received, “This bill was the cause of our drought.” This again reminded me of our very own, “Divorce – God doesn’t want it” and gave Mr Williamson a colourful closure, “ Anyone following my Twitter account will know that this morning, it was pouring with rain. We had this enormous big gay rainbow right across my electorate. It has to be a sign,” he concluded, adding a quote from the Bible, “Be ye not afraid.”
He even persuaded his 90-year old-mother that supporting the bill was the right thing to do. His speech was picked up by news outlets from Australia, America and beyond. He has even had calls from news sites in Germany, Sweden and France asking for the transcript so they can translate it for their readers. The video can be seen on http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10878731
Published in the Malta Independent on Sunday 21/04/13
The over large bendy buses that keep clogging up our roads have been done to death, so no inspiration there. Although we will certainly have more stories to come on the road hoggers later. I just wish one of our new Cabinet ministers, Joe Mizzi responsible for Transport and Infrastructure, would follow London mayor Boris Johnson’s lead and send them back where they came from.
And if karrozzini (horse dawn cabs) are in his portfolio, which I guess as a form of transport they are, he could get their drivers to put nappies on their horses (which the previous administration failed to do) and not park them on busy corners. As I had mentioned in July last year, one of our great streets leading in to Valletta Misrah l-Assedju l- Kbir(Great Siege Street) that has a panoramic view of Manoel Island and Marsamxetto Harbour should be renamed “Horse Shit Street”, it is disgusting. Please, “New Cool Labour” can you fix it?
Also, could Mr Mizzi get the Environment Landscaping Consortium to stop hacking our trees to bits? There seems to be a bit of a dichotomy (splitting the branches), with landscaping falling under his portfolio rather than Leo Brincat’s Ministry for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change.
So, you get my drift, I have not really got you smiling have I. But then Mr Williamson fell into my lap, well not exactly but on my laptop. He is a New Zealand Member of Parliament who was about to vote in favour of the Marriage Equality bill, i.e. gay marriage, and was saying why. Even if one does not agree with what the bill is proposing, his witty delivery of why he thinks the bill should pass was worth watching.
His opening, self-deprecatory line to the speaker, “I too will be taking a split call, as a sort of the young and the vibrant as opposed to the old and the boring”, had already got the House laughing, demonstrating that he was going to be anything but boring. He referred to the way one learns to deflect the fire and brimstone brigade and quoted a “reverend” in his locality who said, “The gay onslaught will start the day after this bill is passed.”
To which he responded, “We are really struggling to know what this onslaught will look like. We don’t know whether they will come down the highway as a series of troops, or whether it will be a gas that flows in overhead and block us all in.” His gestures of course enhanced the effect.
This reminded me of the scare tactics that were put about when divorce was about to be introduced here. “Marriage with divorce will stay valid until the woman’s size grows beyond 10”, was a classic line promoted by a female doctor who formed part of the anti-divorce brigade.
The Bishop of Gozo had linked divorce with abortion, telling a pro-life activity that research showed that there was a link between ‘unstable families’ and abortion. “Where the family is united, pregnancy is likely to be accepted and celebrated, but where the family is broken, such as in the case of divorced parents, there is a higher probability that life is refused and threatened,” was his astounding outpouring. This utter codswallop had not persuaded the Maltese not to vote in favour of divorce.
Mr Williamson was also told, by a Catholic priest, that he was supporting an unnatural act. “I found that quite interesting coming from someone who took an oath of celibacy for his whole life,” he said, provoking more hilarity. He could have put the boot in and added that we all have seen what that can lead to, but he didn’t.
He said that he “found some of the bullying tactics really evil”, and haven’t we seen some of that here, but he also spoke of the genuine unease of “the moderates, who were really concerned what this (the bill) would do to the fabric of our society, I respect their concern,” he said.
He sought to put their mind at rest, “All we are doing with this bill is allowing two people who love each other to have that love recognised by way of marriage, that is all we are doing. We are not declaring nuclear war on a foreign state. We are not bringing a virus in that could wipe out our agricultural sector forever.
“The sun will still rise tomorrow... you will not have skin diseases or rashes... So don’t make this into a big deal.” As he came to the end of his speech, he read out one of the overboard messages he received, “This bill was the cause of our drought.” This again reminded me of our very own, “Divorce – God doesn’t want it” and gave Mr Williamson a colourful closure, “ Anyone following my Twitter account will know that this morning, it was pouring with rain. We had this enormous big gay rainbow right across my electorate. It has to be a sign,” he concluded, adding a quote from the Bible, “Be ye not afraid.”
He even persuaded his 90-year old-mother that supporting the bill was the right thing to do. His speech was picked up by news outlets from Australia, America and beyond. He has even had calls from news sites in Germany, Sweden and France asking for the transcript so they can translate it for their readers. The video can be seen on http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10878731
Published in the Malta Independent on Sunday 21/04/13
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