While collecting in abstentia the praise for her philanthropy in Malta, she collected in praesentia a similar recognition from an NGO in the Bahamas. They heard about the good work of the Marigold Foundation the other end of the world. And Michelle Muscat flew there to get her well deserved thanks.
The government of Malta issued an official statement about three women, none of whom have anything to do with government, about a trip that had no official function whatsoever, to speak of a reward granted to a non-governmental organisation, which as the name rather dimly suggests has nothing to do with government.
From the original statement: “Mart il-Prim Ministru kienet akkumpanjata mis-Sinjura Phyllis Muscat, li kienet tmexxi ic-CHOGM Task Force, kif ukoll mis-Segretarja Eżekuttiva ta’ The Marigold Foundation, is-Sinjura Jennifer Xuereb.” “The prime minister’s wife was accompanied by Mrs Phyllis Muscat who headed the CHOGM Task Force, and the Executive Secretary of the Marigold Foundation, Mrs Jennifer Xuereb”.
How do these three feature on an official statement of the government of Malta? You’d have to ask the nasty question. How did they pay for this trip? Did the government pay for it, in which case this is blatant misuse of public funds? Did the NGO pay for it, in which case this is blatant misuse of charity money? Did they themselves pay for it, in which case would this money not have been better spent in the declared objectives of the foundation?
Three years ago Grace Mugabe was declared philanthropist of the year by an NGO grouping in Zimbabwe. It was an orchestrated sham, part of her unseemly mission to acquire enough titles to compensate for the fact that she was the clerk typist who got the President to ditch his wife because she made him feel all frisky again in his 80s.
I know the Zimbabwean people because I had the privilege to live among them for some time. They are a patient, quiet people who would rather respect authority than defy it.
Grace Mugabe thought she could award herself enough adulation to inherit her husband’s then apparent immortality. Even for the placid Zimbabweans Grace Mugabe was too much. And she brought her old man down with her.