More Buttardi oddities

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2018-01-24T23:08:51+01:00Wed, 24th Jan '18, 22:39|

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, [...]

UK Commons motion marks 100 days since Daphne Caruana Galizia killing: calls for international oversight

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2018-01-24T20:02:14+01:00Wed, 24th Jan '18, 10:21|

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 [...]

Is Buttardi still in business?

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2018-01-24T00:15:45+01:00Wed, 24th Jan '18, 00:15|

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 European MPs call for monitoring of investigations into Daphne Caruana Galizia killing

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2018-01-23T23:14:21+01:00Tue, 23rd Jan '18, 23:14|

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. [...]

Elegance and Uniqueness

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2018-01-23T13:48:54+01:00Tue, 23rd Jan '18, 13:48|

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 [...]

A New York apartment

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2018-01-22T21:15:45+01:00Mon, 22nd Jan '18, 21:15|

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 [...]

GUEST POST: The Theatre of Happenings

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2018-01-22T15:52:22+01:00Mon, 22nd Jan '18, 15:52|

  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 [...]

Mansholt death inquiry reopened

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2018-01-22T13:52:31+01:00Mon, 22nd Jan '18, 13:49|

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 [...]

G Farrugia Calleja: And in the cold light of dawn

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2018-01-22T13:40:50+01:00Mon, 22nd Jan '18, 13:40|

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. [...]

Passport Scheme: let the government know what you think

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2018-01-22T13:27:53+01:00Mon, 22nd Jan '18, 13:27|

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 [...]

Mao’s stomping students at MCAST

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2018-01-22T13:14:23+01:00Mon, 22nd Jan '18, 13:14|

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 [...]

How is it the FIAU’s job to defend Mizzi and Schembri?

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2018-01-21T18:44:09+01:00Sun, 21st Jan '18, 18:44|

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 [...]

Asking for transparency

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2018-01-21T18:19:43+01:00Sun, 21st Jan '18, 18:19|

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 [...]

Dystopia

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2018-01-21T17:59:31+01:00Sun, 21st Jan '18, 17:59|

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 [...]

G Farrugia Calleja: Culture Shock

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2018-01-21T17:37:26+01:00Sun, 21st Jan '18, 17:37|

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 [...]

Maltese culture festival invents the wheel

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2018-01-21T22:28:29+01:00Sun, 21st Jan '18, 16:39|

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 [...]

Tomorrow at the Council of Europe

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2018-01-21T10:46:00+01:00Sun, 21st Jan '18, 10:43|

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 [...]

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Reverse decolonisation

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2018-01-21T10:03:04+01:00Sun, 21st Jan '18, 10:03|

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 [...]

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