I'm being interviewed on TVM tonight by Brian Hansford who asked me some questions about 'hate speech'. I try to distinguish between 'hate speech' and 'speaking out of hate'. It might seem nuanced but the difference is important. Saying 'all Jews must burn' is hate speech. It is addressed at a group and by the [...]
President Donald Trump is undergoing one of his many controversies today for staying away this weekend from a ceremony at the Aisne-Marne American cemetery in Belleau, France, marking the 100th anniversary of the armistice at the end of the First World War. Donald Trump’s official explanation for staying away was “poor weather” which was not [...]
Joseph Muscat yesterday said the 17 Black revelations were the "latest version in a series of allegations". He's right. Here's the first version. This post by Daphne Caruana Galizia from 2013, seven months into Labour's government, shows she had already figured it all out within hours of the very first announcements on this project when [...]
The PN is showing no signs of life. Its fortunes have been in decline for many years but the stroke it suffered in October of last year has proven irreversible. Its numbers flatlined and any signs of momentary flutter have turned out to be the unconscious jerks of a comatose patient. It gives me no [...]
Konrad Mizzi complained of a “coordinated attack” against him. 'Attack' is not the word I would use but you bet it is coordinated. And a good thing that it is too. These last couple of days I was away for a conference in London where I discussed with other journalists the impact of trans-national journalism. ‘Foreign [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi/ Reuters "The issue here is not that this is even being considered. It’s that there is no space in which to talk about it. The government designs its path to the future that suits it and everyone else finds themselves fearing [...]
The Nationalist Party has not responded to a two-month-old request from the President to nominate participants in a consultation on constitutional reform. Well informed sources told this website that this outstanding matter has not yet been discussed in the senior organs of the party: the executive committee or the parliamentary group. The government is intent [...]
A reader sent me this extract from the introduction of a book I had read several years ago. By sharing this quotation I do not endorse the author. His book is an apology and glosses over facts painting the black one white. And as the reader himself told me, the reference to the Nazis is [...]
The point is often made that the ‘attacks’ on Adrian Delia have the consequence of weakening the opposition’s ability to stand in the way of Joseph Muscat. There’s something to be said for that argument. After all, it is clear that Joseph Muscat is getting away with a lot. Let’s just throw a few things [...]
The protest for truth and justice in Great Siege Square has not yet achieved what it set out for. But it has had an unintended bonus. We’re going to get a new Great Siege Square. Well, at least new paving, new lights and perhaps a fountain, a mediaeval clock tower, space for ponies for kiddie [...]
Between February 2013 and June 2014 Maria Efimova worked in a Russian-owned perfumery in Cyprus. On 28 November 2017 the Cyprus police authorities issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Efimova on allegations made by her former employer she had done something wrong while in his employment four years earlier. During those four years, [...]
This is my article in this month's Money Magazine. There’s a saying in Maltese which like all the interesting ones is for the ears of adults only. It is perhaps a reflection of the local psyche that the Maltese word for cheating is also the word for having sexual intercourse. Loosely translated the saying goes that [...]
Patrick Dalli is Helena Dalli’s husband. He is a businessman in his own right. And, apparently he’s also an artist. As I never tire of reminding everyone I am no art critic so I would not be able to appraise his work even if I had ever seen it. I have never seen it. Times [...]
They’re busy being amused by Matteo Salvini’s picture of his oblivion as his girlfriend plotted the end of their relationship. I argued last week that Adrian Delia’s separation is a matter of public interest. I shouldn’t have had to, but a bunch of ‘holier than thou’ — to coin a phrase — marched out to [...]
A week ago the court “expressed dismay” at Evarist Bartolo’s handling of corruption in his Ministry. He covered it up, ignoring information that was presented to him. Instead, he stood by as the police persecuted the whistleblower, now acquitted at last. Evarist Bartolo’s name is now being mentioned as a possible nominee for the presidency, [...]
Over a hundred individuals have signed an online petition demanding immediate government intervention at Satabank to ensure that people who have broken no laws are no longer penalised by having their bank accounts frozen. The freeze on everyone’s accounts at Satabank has now been going on for 16 days with some individuals saying they are [...]
Twenty-five years ago, Alternattiva Demokratika used to publish a bi-weekly newspaper that ran a story about a Member of Parliament who dodged taxes on money he stashed in the UK. The guy was called Lino Gauci Borda and the gossip at the time — this never made it anywhere near print of course — was [...]
Herman Schiavone in a Facebook post denies a Malta Today story that he, Schiavone, was “mulling dignified exit” for Adrian Delia. He branded Malta Today’s report as “deceiving” and that “Adrian Delia is not resigning and is becoming stronger day by day”. Herman Schiavone will have to deny this post as well then. In a [...]
The Observer columnist Nick Cohen wrote this piece on The Guardian about how Donald Trump’s authoritarianism, isolationism and American exceptionalism is giving license to tyrants of the world to go down roads the civilised world of 1945-2016 would have stopped them from pursuing. Brazil, Turkey, Slovakia and — you’ve guessed it — Malta makes the [...]
