The young man died, buried under the rubble of collapsed shoddy works on public land. He is not the first nor the last to be killed by the negligence and greed of others. But his mother’s dogged determination not to let the killing of her son to be forgotten by everyone else without consequence has [...]
There’s simply no excuse for the Maltese state to fund, endorse, enable, and publicise an anti-semitic, Holocaust-excusing, Hitler-worshipping book. The author of “Mein Führer Adolf Hitler, L-Istorja u l-Bijografija” acknowledges and thanks the National Book Council. This does not prove in and of itself that the National Book Council funded this book. But did it? [...]
Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia has secured a job for a close associate of the Milan magnate and scandal-ridden former prime minister in a marathon horse trading session between Italy’s coalition partners. Paolo Scaroni will chair the governing board of Enel, the Italian energy conglomarate in which the Italian state owns 23.6% of the shares. Scaroni [...]
Earlier today I walked past a branch of the Agenda bookshops and there on the Melitensia shelves I saw glare back at me a photo of Adolf Hitler. A new book with Adolf Hitler on its cover is not remarkable, though it will be a very good book that exceeds Ian Kershaw’s two-volume biography from [...]
Under a post yesterday, I got this question from a reader. I thought I’d attempt a reply. Q: I understand you lived in Africa for a while, perhaps you could shed light upon this recent surge north? A: That’s like asking someone who has eaten carbonara a few times how to breed pigs for the [...]
A boat purchased by Maltese people after retiring from rescue operations in the Mediterranean has been towed by the Italian coast guard towards Catania carrying migrants that attempted the crossing from Libya. The boat, which is about 60 years old, was for some years operated by Sea Watch and Lifeline until 2020 when it was [...]
Not that I've read it. But I know the author. I'm looking forward to this. Order here.
The Maltese authorities have not bothered to deny it. NGOs have accused Malta of ordering merchant ships not to rescue migrants in distress, tossed by rough seas for several days, begging to be saved, and abandoned to their fate. It is a new level of callousness when not only do we fail to go out [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "And, then, they cried together before they spoke defiantly again. They saw nothing illegal in the children, women, and men they fed and healed and hugged. If laws were just, hunger, pain, fear and human need would never be unlawful. It cannot be wrong merely to be [...]
...or so he thinks. There is one former minister , who was a member of the Muscat Cabinet, which was found to be jointly and severally guilty of the state of affairs in Malta that led to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, and who was a good friend and close collaborator of Joseph Muscat [...]
It’s not that we can call anyone who doesn’t like us a mafioso. It’s not a general term that can fit any hostile circumstance. If it is used like that, we’d dilute the meaning. We’d end up crying wolf once too often. That big poster outside Christian Borg’s second-hand car sales showroom with a photo-montage [...]
So now, rubbish bags carry the national emblem. This truly is a country with a strange sense of decorum. Understand that at law the use of the national emblem requires the written consent of the prime minister. “It shall not be lawful for any person to use for any purpose whatsoever, without the written authority [...]
Imagine for a moment that Rosianne Cutajar had been a PN, not Labour, politician. It’s not that hard. The PN has had its share of flamboyant characters caught with their hand in the till. Like her they ended up isolated from their party though unlike her it didn’t take so long, and it hadn’t gone [...]
What a strange decision the debut oeuvre of the new Commissioner for Standards in Public Life was. Arnold Cassola, he the indefatigable conscience of our shady public affairs, complained that Clayton Bartolo ignored a request put to him in a Parliamentary question to provide details of the employment terms of a public official. The official [...]
A public call is out to turn Evans Building in Valletta into a hotel. It’s a fine location for a hotel right next to the conference facilities (bereft of bedrooms) at the old knights’ hospital next door. Location doesn’t get more prime than that. The entity the government is using to administer the concession process [...]
Repubblika had argued to the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry that to fight the sort of organised crime which has infiltrated the Maltese state, the Maltese state needed a law that could combat racketeering on the model of the US RICO law or the Italian 416 bis. The inquiry agreed and adopted the suggestion as [...]
Montage: Lovin Malta ‘What changed?’ she asked rhetorically as she hurled herself on the pyre. Rosianne Cutajar pretended to believe the bullshit of Robert Abela when he presented her as a fully legitimate candidate for the 2022 general elections. At the time Robert Abela had said Rosianne Cutajar had expiated her sins, exposed [...]
For decades, under Alfred Sant and Joseph Muscat, semi-literate and easily articulate in a soap box loony venom-spreading sort of way, Manwel Cuschieri had a slot on the Labour Party’s radio station spewing hate against the “enemies of the people”. After Goebbels and before Trumpian propagandists, there was our very own Manwel Cuschieri. Along with [...]
“Thirty years ago, there were politicians people looked up to. Nowadays, we struggle to look at them in that way,” the outgoing Chamber of Commerce president told Times of Malta. I doubt anyone (except perhaps Rosianne Cutajar) would disagree with her. The statement should be put in some context. Let’s not go home with the [...]