Yesterday I reported how an online business that appears to be dormant, www.buttardi.com, is reported on Zoominfo to generate revenues of 2.4 million US dollars. This would be suspicious for any tax authority in any case, but is especially problematic since Buttardi clearly belongs, at least in part, to Michelle Muscat, the prime minister's wife, [...]
Worldwide calls for international oversight of the investigations into the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia are coming from every direction now. The UK House of Commons is considering a motion tabled by 4 MPs from 4 different political parties that "urges the international community to ensure full oversight of the investigation". The MPs tabling the [...]
On-line and retail jeweller Buttardi, reputedly co-owned by the prime minister’s wife Michelle Muscat and her partner Michelle Buttigieg, appears unwilling to sell any of its produce. Their main means of commerce is website www.buttardi.com. The site’s own credits say it was designed in 2012 and it does look like it comes from another internet [...]
114 members of parliaments from across all of Europe and across all political groupings signed a motion for a resolution of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe demanding international monitoring of the investigations after the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Motions presented to the assembly are typically supported by 20 to 30 members. [...]
In a 2015 interview, Minister Konrad Mizzi told The Sunday Times his plans for Karin Grech were to transform it into a 320-bed geriatric public hospital. When he justified the sale of Karin Grech to VGH he said: "Doing nothing would have left our healthcare system in a pitiful state where we would constantly try to [...]
Buy yourself or your loved one something a little special. Visit now www.buttardi.com. No, really, do it. "Our Designs can be perceived in different ways, but our Mission is to make a Statement." Play that quote from their website in your head as you push 'Pay' after entering your credit card details. Do please try [...]
On 8 April 2015, Michelle Buttigieg, and her husband William, bought property Unit 1E, a single residential unit in 402 East 74th Street, New York. The purchase was registered in September 2015 showing a purchase price of 790,000 US Dollars. The purchase was secured in view of a mortgage granted to Michelle Buttigieg and her [...]
perhaps you can take a stroll to this address on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
This guest post is by Charles Schembri who dedicates this piece "to Iris Rohmann and her like". A faithful representation of the islands’ fatigue in understanding its current socio-economic and political script, where the relevance of ethics and morals wherever you look have become blared by events, is the Theatre of Happenings. This theatre [...]
It is good news that the Attorney General has decided the questions that remain open in the case of the death of 17-year old Mike Mansholt need to be looked into. The boy's body was found at the bottom of Dingli Cliffs having gone missing for a few days. The causes of his death were [...]
By George Farrugia Calleja When reading newspaper reports, especially in the post-truth world of SLAPPed media and tamed journalists, it's a good idea to deconstruct what you read. Here's how you do it, the bits in CAPS being my pointers as to how to go about this and the sort of conclusions you can draw. [...]
The government started what it called a consultation process on extending the program of selling Maltese and European citizenship to anyone that can pay a million euro. Its so-called consultation dodged the one real question that should be asked: should the scheme be extended. The government has already decided it will be. It just needs [...]
When students become functionaries of the state, the situation is truly desperate. Pulse, the Labour Party's student organisation, has this morning organised a "silent protest" at MCAST. They are not protesting for freedom of speech or for the rule of law. They are not demanding better learning conditions or improved access to education for students [...]
Our anti-money laundering agency works Sundays. As taxpayers we would welcome such zeal if it was directed at finding criminals. But today's over-time sheet has been stamped because our intrepid enforcers of propriety needed to defend their clients Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri. Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri were, according to a suppressed FIAU report [...]
Michela Spiteri writing in The Sunday Times today is explicit in her criticism of the VGH deal: the flipping of three public hospitals for the profit of unknowns. Do read the full article. But here's a choice bit: "Public funds therefore should be collected assiduously and spent well, and not be allowed to cascade lavishly [...]
This image was projected on the facade of the Auberge de Castille and introduced as a vision of the future of Malta. They meant it as something to look forward to. Someone somewhere is visualising your worst nightmare and thinking of how much money they will be making in the process of leaving your children [...]
Despite Joseph Muscat’s best efforts, Valletta is able to celebrate being a 2018 Capital of Culture. Because of Joseph Muscat’s government, what should have been a spectacular opening night turned into a spectacle of mediocrity of cringe-inducing proportions. We were spared excerpts from “Ġensna” (for the non-cognoscenti, a ‘rock’ opera lauding a Mintoffian view of [...]
You couldn't imagine these things if you tried. From his stage, all pomp and circumstance, Joseph Muscat yesterday declared "this Maltese festa will be marked by authenticity". Oh does he protest too much! The Tritoni of City Gate, not authentically Maltese in the best of time, were represented by crane-held marionettes in a "spectacle unlike [...]
The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly convenes this week. At its winter session Dutch Member of Parliament Pieter Omtzigt will be asking the governments of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe the following question: "Will you request formal explanations from the Maltese Government on its Police Force's failure to investigate evidence of [...]
From my The Sunday Times article today: "For this to be dismissed as a case of social envy is to miss the point completely. The dream of moving up social strata has to be remotely achievable. The idea of the ‘American dream’ only applies if you can get there with hard work, resourcefulness, initiative and [...]