Here I sit a day before the big event. The event that fully symbolises us: the trashy, idiotic Eurovision Song Festival. This festival is so dumb that our singer’s destiny depends on various factors which are absolutely unconnected to talent. I do not possess a crystal ball. And I have no clue what position our [...]
During the Easter weekend of last year, the Maltese army ignored pleas to rescue a boat stranded in Malta’s search and rescue area. After enough time for twelve people to die of thirst while waiting passed, a fishing boat that hid its name and flag picked the remaining survivors up and took them to Libya. [...]
Read this Facebook post by Clyde Caruana, a slightly more explicit version of his Ministry's earlier statement about the Ċaqnu tax discount story. Clyde Caruana's statement shows that he appreciates he'll find it difficult to convince anyone to pay tax on time if he's giving sweet deals to spectacular tax dodgers. If that's true, "categorical" [...]
The full details are here. Times of Malta this morning reported, Charles Polidano got a huge chunk of the €40 million tax bill he's been accumulating since the 1990s shaved off. They reported he made a down-payment and entered into an agreement to pay the rest over time. But some of it was also taken [...]
UPDATED: 15:07. The Government has denied in a statement this afternoon Times of Malta's report of this morning saying iċ-Ċaqnu's €40 million tax bill has been slashed to €10 million. Read the denial here. Read the facts in the Times of Malta’s report. Iċ-Ċaqnu owed the taxman €40 million accumulated over 25 years. The news [...]
Corruption in the form of bribery and misuse of public funds is a major obstacle to democracy and economic development in many of the world’s poor countries. - Ulla Tørnæs, Denmark’s Minister for Development Cooperation. If you take a look at social media, you would think that on this sun-kissed rock, the Almighty has sent [...]
Pre-order your copy of The Third Siege of Malta by following this link. The Third Siege of Malta also features artwork by Marisa Attard, Steve Bonello, Celia Borg Cardona, Miriam Galea, Gattaldo, Ġorġ Mallia, Pepito, Sebastian Tanti Burlò and Rebecca Zammit Lupi.
Put your mind for a minute from flushing box cocaine and jilted wives chasing government ministers. Around 88 people are on a wooden vessel in Malta's search and rescue area. They escaped from Libya and are now rudderless but within reach of rescue. Their boat, such as it is, is taking water. The sea is [...]
Justyne Caruana, brought back from political limbo having resigned because of her toxic marriage with disgraced Deputy Police Chief Silvio Valletta, is back in the wrong sort of news. Soon after she was re-instated, the prime minister ordered her to cancel a contract she gave to Daniel Bogdanovic, retired footballer, and described in the press [...]
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Updated: 22 May 2021 Lizzie Eldridge wrote a long series of articles called Tales from the Land of Serenity. She had some of them published on this website. The necessarily incomplete works meandered through the most recent list of superficially unconnected minor catastrophes that make for life on these Islands, peppered with comforting expletives to [...]
That will be the fourth anniversary of this blog.
Carmelo Abela, staggeringly, called yesterday for Jason Azzopardi to resign. Jason Azzopardi was not an HSBC employee when the 2010 botched heist happened. He did not have access to the machine that printed access cards used in the robbery. He did not give evidence in the investigation and then told the press he never had. [...]
How endearing of the prime minister yesterday to complain the Nationalist Party did not file comments on the cannabis liberalisation proposal. I don’t speak for the Nationalist Party. But neither does Robert Abela, or he shouldn’t be in any case. The government’s consultation initiatives are a bit of a rare joke. Rare because they almost [...]
Read this detailed retrospective by French national radio on the aftermath of the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia and the November/December 2019 protests that brought down Joseph Muscat. Click here for the story by Sylvain Tronchet.
The edifice Charles Polidano, iċ-Ċaqnu, built opposite the Lufthansa hangar has been empty for years. It is the most visible of a whole range of buildings he constructed in Ħal Farruġ without permits and in breach of planning rules. Some estimates say that in Ħal Farruġ there are some 64,000 square metres of land underneath [...]
Marlene Farrugia yesterday tabled a private members’ bill to remove “the procurement of a miscarriage” – that’s abortion – from the list of crimes in our laws. These are the last few weeks and months of Marlene Farrugia’s colourful Parliamentary career and she must have wanted to leave with a bang. She is probably looking [...]