This morning at 0926 I received an anonymous phone call that began by asking for my identity although I always answer the phone with my name.
Andreas? Is that you?
I confirmed that it’s me and said a very friendly “good morning”. The caller broke into the following tirade:
Now listen: You get off our island, you fucking Zionist, you fucking Nazi swine. You go back to Germany.
Stop writing about Malta and leave us the fuck alone.
And go to Germany, don’t even go to Palestine, because you are not welcome there.
Do you understand me?
Unfortunately, I was too busy laughing – mainly about the fact that somebody calls me a Zionist and a Nazi in the same rant – to respond.
I wonder which of my articles about Malta incensed this person so much, although based on the comments on my blog I have a hunch it must have been this one.
Other than this call, I have been made to feel very welcome in Malta. But now I am waiting for some Molotov cocktails or some poison in my pastizzi.
it seems you have annoyed a lot of ppl from Malta :))))
Well, at least it was not a death threat.
Good goddamn, you’ve really ruffled feathers here! I mean, I push the envelope here, but it’s never gone beyond moronic hate mail.
And my blog isn’t even tackling thorny issues as yours does. Let me recommend http://markbiwwa.com to all my readers interested in Maltese issues.
hmmm, pathetic caller.
Although as a precaution, if I were you I’d ask timesofmalta.com to remove all my comments, you never know. Also, try not to use your real name ;), cos once it’s out there, it’s terribly hard to delete.
I have opted for self-defence instead.
hehehehee, great post! :D
P.S. Time to monetize your blog? given the popularity…
If only I knew how to do that. I already tried to: https://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/paywall/ – but it hasn’t yielded too many results yet. I still get more insults than books.
Try CPM advertising, http://www.blogthority.com/53/improve-blog-monetization-with-cpm-advertising/
But I can say that you have done a very good advert of your blog :)) Well done!
I hope I will live to reap the benefits of it. If there will be any.
Times of Malta commenters do not understand sarcasm. Off the blog it may help to be more obvious. It you’re talking about a bird issue, no big deal, but the big ones attract the xenophobes.
Keep up the funny comments :-)
You bet!
Hi there, i’m not here to criticize, the above behaviour is certainly not nice, but you and your comments are certainly not helping. I know some of your comments are sarcastic, but you need to take it down a notch. I am Maltese and proud of it. My job consists of travelling, I’m never in one place, and I can guarantee you that Malta is the safest country ever. I’ve been to Nigeria and Luanda where I was accompanied by armed people to my hotel. I’ve been to SA (Cape town, Durban and Johannes burg), where I was told that I should not go out on my own. I was in Germany, (where I can speak your language as well), and the concierge also told me that I should not go out on my own after 1am. I ain’t mentioning everywhere I’ve been cause trust me I won’t end this, but what I’m trying to let you realize is that Malta is safe! Yes, we do have our crimes, but hey how many do you have in your country?! When we have something like this we make a fuss of it cause it’s a rare thing…..but you have it on daily bases, thus its not a novelty for you guys. just live life and take it easy on your language…you might actually start to enjoy yourself!
Viel Glueck!
we are also very intolerant to criticism and to jokes of this nature .. mehh
do not generalize please, i take criticism, I understand your point of view….some people, are not born with a sense of humor, this does not imply that everyone is the same. I can joke, but I will NEVER say anything bad about the country I’m living with the locals. At the end of the day, they are the people who give me my daily income. If I’m unhappy in a foreign country I go back home.
Oh for heaven’s sake, listen to yourselves. NOOOO sense of humour at all and sensitive to any criticism (real or perceived). It was a JOKE, get it?
It’s not that some people ‘are not born with a sense of humour’, they just cannot grasp the idea of humour, especially when it’s British. It’s percieved as an affront. more so when it comes from a foreigner.
Even though you say you have one, you seem to be struggling.
well if you say that I ain’t born with a sense of humor I would totally understand it…coming from a guy/girl that calls him/herself bombastic :)
Pingback: Prepared for Self-Defence | The Happy Hermit
Andreas, I would laugh off that phone threat. You should treat it like water off a goose’s back.
Whoever made it is a coward, he is too busy doing nothing, except annoying people.
As a rule of thumb I try to be friendly to everyone so here it goes. Its not the sarcasm that offends Maltese people, its the sense of being patronised, especially from people coming from larger nations. Its difficult to understand unless you come from a small country. Toning it down a bit wiould be a good idea, as you’re not the only one doing it. Freedom of speech is worth a lot, freedom of speech at all costs is worth nothing.
By the way, technically yes you can be both a Nazi and a Zionist. For a brief period of time the Third Reich approved of Zionist policy in order to enable the emigration of German Jews to Palestine and as a way of destabilsing the British Empire in the Middle East. I am not saying you are but it’s a point of historical reality.
Sieg H… erm A good evening to you.
It looks like Europe will need someone like Hitler again soon with the invasion of Muslims in Europe who are destabilising European culture and imposing their religion on others.
I lived in Germany, I cannot imagine some one like Hitler coming to power again in Germany. I like Germans a lot and I get on very well with them, much better than with the British.
Nobody imposes his or her religion on me.
Or wait: the Catholic Church tries to. For example when they try to tell everyone to stop working on Sundays: https://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/church-sunday/
Hitler loved Muslims – it was the Jews that he hated. And the EU has taken this same approach – in case no body has noticed. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem during the war was a great friend of Hitler and Nazis, Islamo-fascism and the hatred of Jews as spelled out in the Koran and Nazism were kindred spirits. Research this fact in history for yourself.
A summary of the relationship between Nazis and Palestinians can be found here: https://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2010/11/11/pogromnacht-palaestinenser/ (in German, though)
P Bonnici, this is now the third time since my arrival in Malta hat somebody has the audacity of publicly stating that “It looks like Europe will need someone like Hitler again”. You can count on this being the subject of one of my next blogs, and that one ain’t gonna be nice no more. If Malta is the island of Holocaust apologetics, then I won’t keep silent about this disgrace.
I hope you haven’t misconstrued my tongue-in-cheek comment to Helmut Meir yesterday in that light.
Having lived (and worked) in Wiesbaden for three years in the late 90s, I was amazed by the number of young locals I got to know who still seemed to be suffering from the shame of your country’s history (as if they were to blame). Two females who were planning a visit to an Israeli kibbutz – jeezus ( as if that was going to undo everything) come to mind.
I asked them why Americans don’t feel the same remorse for black Americans, Vietnam, and every other shit storm the yanks seem to constantly create (and half of Europe’s colonial holocausts in Africa), only to be met with blank stares and silence.
As much as I loved it there, got on really well with everyone I met, I couldn’t help but think that on the whole, most German people are not really educated for critical thought and just find it much easier to fall in line, do as one is expected to, and not rock the boat.
Having said that, I think if I had lived in Berlin, things may have been different.
Don’t worry, I did not misunderstand that at all. The irony and sarcasm were clear.
I think for my generation, it’s not personal shame, but we know that it was only our grandparents’ generation who ransacked all of Europe and murdered millions. This is not too long ago. It was the same grandparents with whom we grew up, who bought us toys and chocolate and who told us stories at night.
We young Germans therefore strive to (1) understand how the Holocaust could happen and to (2) ensure that racism and anti-Semitism will never flourish again. It’s not a personal or individual burden, but a sort of national responsibility.
Great, this might make you feel better….
I think what Mr. Moser did and said was very tame. Taking it down a notch is not commenting at all – no freedom of speech in Malta then. Hope you do not take offense for this one too.
Hitler loved only Nordics. Himmler admired Islamic religion. Anyway most Muslims that volunteered for service in the SS were from the Caucasus or European Muslims not from the Middle East. They were used as cannon fodder and besides they were worthless as soldiers and soon disbanded. Chandra Bose and othe Nationalists within the British Empire found an ally in Hitler and he used them to his own ends.
Helping German Jews to emigrate had nothing to do with loving them it was all about getting rid of them! But either way it was endorsing the Zionist policy of emigration to Palestine. Both Zionism and Nazism are basically nationalistic in both outlook and essence.
Regarding the Maltese why should you be bothered that we don’t have any sense of humor? In fact we do, it just dosen’t involve our flag. After all we aren’t the ones who coined the phrase: “My fatherland right or wrong!”
Not so at all. Hitler and the Nazis sent Nazis officials to the Middle East to train the local Muslim Arabs in fighting and high ranking Nazis after the war escaped to the Middle East, took up Arabic names and helpe foment anti-Jewish sentiments with the Arabs (as if they needed encouragement).
The Nazis loved Islam because like Fascism, it is a totallitarian belief-sytem that sought to subdue people and control every aspect of their lives and did not tolerate any form of dessent. This is accomplished by violence and murder.
Humour is a type of intelligence and unfortunately not everyone is equipped to with this gene. And what has your flag got to do with anything? The US and Britain have whole shows making fun of their country and politicians (and religion too) and rightly so, for nothing should be sacred that it cannot be criticised. If a country(and by this I mean its people) cannot even learn to laugh at itself, then it must be a sad place indeed.
I am not sure the Nazis “loved Islam”. But in their anti-Semitism, they were eager to cooperate with anybody who was willing to murder Jews. The Arabs were.
I doubt if the Nazi plan for world domination would have left the Arabs/Muslims untouched.
Andreas the Nazis loved Islam in the sense that it was a kindred political ideology. The Catholic Church also loves Islam, as Islam is now what the Church was before the Englightenment and Reformation. and longs to be again. And of course, Hitler and his henchmen were Roman Catholic (the vast majority). These three organizations share an awful lot of common ground between them.
As for loving Arabs, I do not think he would have gone out of the way to exterminate them as he did with the Jews, but all in all I do not think that Hitler was a lover of mankind, for he even executed Germans that were opposed to his plans.
A drowning man will clutch at a straw.
Chutzpah. They are called Holocaust deniers/revisionists and are mostly based in the US, France and Germany. Don’t get emroiled in things you don’t undestand.
To Holocaust denial, there is a proven response: https://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/a-very-short-response-to-holocaust-denial/
A very intelligent attitude that proves nothing. Are you prone to oubursts of violence? Very Germanic I might add. Facts not bravado Mr. Moser.
Best regards.
Lots of violence, if necessary, as you can see: https://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/prepared-for-self-defence/
You ARE welcome. I just wish there were more like you coming :o) שלום
(Sigh.) Boy, I leave you to your own devices for a few days, and you go and piss off an entire island. What AM I going to do with you, Andreas? ;) :D
it was probably that banner pic that pissed him off.
reminds me of this
Pingback: Saint Paul in Malta | The Happy Hermit
Mr whichever is your name… Having such a holistic sense of humor yourself… Why did such a sarcastic phone call irritate you so much? Oh okay perhaps you would call it threatening. I’m sure you have a better definition for threats.
I don’t know what you said about Malta and I don’t really care… But what i can see is that your sarcasm seemed to have treathened our islands’ reputation.
As you seem to have such a loving interest towards our island let me tell you this Maltese saying; kullhadd ghandu xi jxomm taht idenh!! I’m sure you can get it translated…
Thats it fellows ive had it with the maltese people. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH AND ITS TIME FOR A CHANGE. I try to be a nice guy. I try to help the maltese but they are arrogant as horses ass shit. If i help people in need i get a slap in the face and two middle fingers in the face. Thats not all. I get swearing words that includes my family. I make it clear and clearer that never deal with these idiots of malta. they are all arrogant and dont have sense of humour. If you deal with them have a baseball bat as a backup and if there temper turns beat them up as hell.
” If you deal with them have a baseball bat as a backup and if there temper turns beat them up as hell.”
You don’t really seem to be making much of an effort to be nice anymore. Just ignore those who piss you off.
Pingback: Malta says “Thank You” | The Happy Hermit
Pingback: Mal wieder ein Drohanruf | Der reisende Reporter
Pingback: For my readers in Yugoslavia | The Happy Hermit