There’s this guy, Joe Camilleri from Siġġiewi known as tal-putri. Every day, without fail, he photoshops posters full of hate featuring a short list of people he particularly despises. Look at this post from a few days ago which should give you the idea.
Near permanent features of nearly all his posts are Repubblika’s president Robert Aquilina, and his brother, former PN MP and presumably casual election candidate Karol. They are often featured alongside their father, Nenu, who died 9 years ago though you would not guess that from tal-putri’s Facebook feed.
Many years ago, Joe Camilleri was an independent councillor in Siġġiewi back when the Labour Party declined to nominate candidates for Local Councils. Nenu Aquilina was the mayor of the town.
At the time, mayors were elected by and from among councillors (not automatically as they are today) and Nenu Aquilina could not rely on the votes of all the councillors in spite of being the most popular candidate on the ballot result. Two of the Labour-leaning independent councillors supported him. Tal-putri couldn’t take it. Eventually he would conspire against Nenu Aquilina’s campaign against a cement plant in the Siġġiewi countryside with a Nationalist councillor who now has a more famous name: Robert Musumeci. You can trace the history of a snake from the tar stains on the egg shell.
In any case, this Joe Camilleri, has held a grudge for the Aquilinas ever since, investing what must be most of his life into harassing and harming them.
When you’re in this life you develop a thick skin but some things still pierce through. Consider this post today by this venomous piece of shit.
The questions are not rhetorical. Joe Camilleri wants to give Robert Aquilina’s clients and potential clients the idea that Robert Aquilina is no longer working as a notary and they should therefore no longer take their business to his office.
Repubblika has no way of paying Robert Aquilina a salary and in any case Repubblika’s rules do not allow it to compensate its members at all for their work, not a cent.
Robert Aquilina gives up time and money to lead Repubblika’s effort to make a contribution to national discourse, enriching it with his strongly held views against corruption and in support of the rule of law. Tal-putri cannot stand that. Dissatisfied with the obvious economic sacrifice that any volunteer activist must make, he’s now working to hurt Robert Aquilina’s family by suffocating their income.
You could dismiss him as sick, envious, an unredeemable fanatic who deserves to be ignored. And most of the time, by us, he is. But this sort of thing has a following. Hate someone enough and you become famous in this place no matter that you have nothing to contribute in substance.
There are so many ironies in this. Someone like tal-putri calls us negative, when it is he who is the incarnation of negation. Someone like tal-putri calls us Nazzjonalisti that are disdainful of Laburisti when the Aquilinas inherited the dubious privilege of tal-putri’s hostility because their father cooperated with unofficially-Labour councillors.
Joe Camilleri’s daily posts make their way to the secret groups the Labour Party organises on Facebook and defines just how Laburisti are supposed to see us. As figures of hate. Now it’s not just our basic right to speak out that is this guy’s target. Even bringing food on our family’s table offends him.