The secret of humour is surprise. – Aristotle Prime Minister Robert Abela, interviewed on One Radio, said that the environment is one of the government’s top priorities. He said that the proof is in his government’s decision to commission a new interconnector – which according to Aaron Farrugia, our environment minister, will use hydrogen. So [...]
Issued by #occupyjustice last night: #occupyjustice activists ‘planted’ placards in the Republic Street planters in front of the Parliament buildings. The slogans included: Fil-Parlament ma jikbrux fjuri, imma ħdura hawn kemm trid Ħaxix biex jaħbu l-ħaxi Grazzi Sur Jason Micallef, ħloqtilna spazju biex inwaslu leħinna Ministru Ian Borg, ħalli siġra mġiddma! and It-tieni interconnector? Mela l-Electrogas x’nambuha? Mr [...]
George Vella has been reacting a bit touchily to what he clearly perceives as lèse-majesté. Yesterday he issued a petulant statement reacting to a response by 2% of a random sample in a survey that said they perceived corruption in the President’s office. George Vella went all “fejn huma l-provi?” and told the anonymous responders [...]
Civil rights NGO Repubblika today published a document with a raft of recommendations to fight corruption in elections, particularly the abuse of the power of incumbency by candidates who serve as ministers and the ruling party. The NGO underlined in its report existing legislation that is mostly ignored. These include rules against the use of [...]
The Transparency International survey asking a sample of 500 Maltese respondents questions about how they perceive corruption, turns up some perplexing results. Well, let me feign perplexity. It looks better than embarrassment. More than half of the respondents of the survey said they thought that it is not possible to expose corruption one is aware [...]
Edward Mallia sent the following as a comment under my post on Robert Abela's statement about wanting the environment to be his most important pillar to make Malta "the best in the world". I commented in my post that just as the prime minister was speaking about Malta's environment being made world-best within 10 years, [...]
Watch this video on Owen Bonnici’s Facebook page. This fuss fest would have made Leni Riefenstahl proud. And it likely cost a pretty penny. It obviously also made TVM headlines. The national broadcaster reported this “news” breathlessly pushing up the bar to a point where it will be very hard for them to emphasise enough [...]
As elections approach anything becomes news, as long as Ministers get their time on TV and their face in the papers. The set up for Aaron Farrugia’s press conference in Ħaż-Żebbuġ suggested he was going to announce a space mission (more on that in a separate post). The big announcement? The Local Council is going [...]
Times of Malta reported that Ian Borg stood idly by as anti-covid rules were flouted grotesquely at the St Philip Band Club during the Żebbuġ Festa yesterday. In his defence, such as it is, Ian Borg said Bernard Grech was there as well. Ah, that's alright then. I'll just leave this here. The man on [...]
Size, history, ethnic makeup, relative religious homogeneity, peripherality, maritime and front-line geographical location: all these are possible causes, ingredients in the mirky soup of our particular brand of nationalism. If the causes are debatable, the manifestation of nationalism in this country should be beyond doubt. The fact that we don’t think about it too much, [...]
In 2018, former premier Joseph Muscat predicted that Malta would be the best in Europe and the envy of the world. A little more than a year later the man crowned as the most corrupt politician of 2019 resigned in disgrace under pressure from civil society. He is now a nobody living in Burmarrad with [...]
Norma Saliba and Quinton Scerri defended, poorly, TVM coverage of conditions inside the prisons after a complaint filed with the Broadcasting Authority. The Broadcasting Authority ordered PBS to carry a feature which depicts the “real situation” and which “respects people’s intelligence”. Which means TVM’s reporting did not report on the real situation and was disrespectful [...]
Please find me someone in the country, even the most adulating and fawning Laburist sal-mewt, the most indebted crony, the discarded but vaguely sentient attempts at cloning Jason Micallef, the lazier spermatozoa dozing in the recesses of Glen Bedingfield’s wrinkly scrota, who is taken in by hyperbole like “we’ll be the best in the world”. [...]
I wish I could be constructive about the prime minister’s announcement of his "vision" for the next ten years. I wish there were things we could take home from yesterday’s press conference. I wish we could hope for some return from the money the government is spending on this tax-payer-funded pre-election publicity exercise for the [...]
My closing remarks at yesterday's launch of The Third Siege of Malta. You’re walking away with 135,000 words I wrote so the last thing you need is a speech. So just a few words of thanks from me. First, thanks for everyone helping out tonight and for the panellists who took time out and managed [...]
Calling Alessandra Dee Crespo the "editor" of The Third Siege of Malta is reductive. It suggests a purely revisory role, a censor who is perhaps kind, but a censor nonetheless. Alessandra's role in this book is of co-creator. Choosing themes, joining disparate writings written over four years and sewing them into a coherent narrative is [...]
Some images from yesterday's book launch at Margo's in Mistra. Thank you for being there. If you weren't, do buy the book.
The Justice Minister’s article in today’s Times of Malta is a national embarrassment. People at the Venice Commission must be reading it and rolling on the floor with laughter. What a proper buffoon. I’ve already written why I think Edward Zammit Lewis lost the argument here. I feel no inclination to repeat myself just because [...]
Edward Zammit Lewis is reported to be objecting to Police Superintendent George Cremona being made head of the asset recovery bureau. That’s an office that largely exists as a legal fiction rather than in reality. It is meant to seize objects owned by criminals acquired from the proceeds from their crimes. Typically, this would be [...]
