If you can, spare a thought for the people stuck on the Captain Morgan boats the other side of the horizon. You can say they’re better off there than in the bottom of the ocean. But then again, aren’t we all? Some of them have been on board since 30 April, two weeks now. They're [...]

Every minister wants to be remembered for having made a difference. In most sectors however ministers appreciate there are limits to their revolutions. Consider the health sector for example. Ministers will want to be remembered for extending national coverage say, or opening a new hospital wing. They will fight for the funding, hound the administrators, [...]

Last week after the inauguration of the new prime minister, the Malta Chamber of Commerce presented its list of complaints and a list of changes required for Malta to regain its lost reputation. This list is most welcome, coming from the widest section of the productive Maltese economy. It must be a telling message to [...]

Continues from part 1 in this series, linked here. I would like to begin this article by highlighting once again that court appointed experts Harbinson Forensics state that: "The emails of Pilatus Bank are stored on the cloud and are not available to us; “We found only one Egrant related item not found elsewhere. This [...]

The government was surprised by the world’s reaction to Charles Mercieca quitting the attorney general’s office and showing up the next day on Yorgen Fenech’s defence team. They were surprised because they’re stupid. They should know exactly what reaction to expect when yet another mess crops up. But they keep hoping that the world loses [...]

Subtitle: How national political philosophy affected responses to, and preparations for, pandemics. Follows on from yesterday’s article, linked here. The UK, the USA and Sweden started off by pretending that the virus was not serious, then they opted to attempt to solve the issue with herd immunity. First propounded by an English University study that [...]

The Council of Europe’s platform for media freedom NGOs have listed the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia as a case of impunity as justice continues to be delayed two and half years after her killing. Cases of impunity “highlight deficiencies in investigations, including the failure to identify the perpetrators, sponsors, organisers or masterminds of these [...]

The Council of Europe’s rapporteur following up the government’s actions after the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia had hard words for Attorney General Peter Grech in a letter sent today. Pieter Omtzigt was reacting to the defection of lawyer Charles Mercieca who switched overnight from the prosecutor’s office to Yorgen Fenech’s defence team. Pieter Omtzigt [...]

The trial judge in the case against the alleged assassins hired to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia remarked that “it is evident that the criminal network involved (in the journalist’s murder) has not been completely restrained and there are still people involved in commissioning the crime that have not yet been called to give account of [...]

Having had the benefit of spending years in various European countries, worked there, paid taxes there and experienced their healthcare systems, I can understand the different results of the approaches to the Covid-19. Since January, when the virus reached Europe and the USA, countries reacted differently exposing the investments made or the lack of preparation [...]

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Robert Abela, published today, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights urges the Maltese government to fully meet its human rights obligations towards migrants, including asylum seekers and refugees, who cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic, in an apparent reference to the government’s remarks [...]

A statement by Repubblika We, Repubblika, consider that certain decisions and actions of the Maltese government during these last weeks amount to real and present threats and, in some cases, a veritable outrage of fundamental human rights. It is our considered opinion that the right to life, the right to live free from torture, the [...]

‘Serene’ was the de rigueur buzzword that would be deployed every time some PR catastrophe would torpedo Joseph Muscat’s forced projection of infallibility. Famously, Michelle Muscat was ‘serene’ with the allegation that a million-dollar bung owed to her husband by the tyrant of Azerbaijan was paid into an account in her name. Chris Cardona expressed [...]

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "I will not buy the excuse that Robert Abela is new and inexperienced. He sat in cabinet for years as his predecessor’s guest. And his ministerial team is composed of veterans of seven years of public administration. And he’s not running a band club. He has a [...]

Yesterday was my daughter’s 10th birthday. She crossed the first round landmark, the first decade of her life. Your 10th, your 20th, your 30th and so on are special. You want them to be. They’re the great landmarks of a lifetime. With every new decade we clock we feel luckier to have come so far. [...]

A spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (the UNHCR) made a statement in Geneva today on the situation in the Mediterranean Sea. The statement was made in the aftermath of the illegal pushback of 57 migrants to Libya after the Easter weekend following an incident where 12 people were left to die [...]

The author, John Vassallo, wanted this preamble to appear with this new series of articles: "As a regular contributor to The Times of Malta, I have realised that a series of recent articles since February 2020 have been shelved. Whist respecting editorial independence I have a feeling that they have been refused either because my [...]

I am starting a series of articles based on extracts from the Egrant Inquiry report, as I am sure most will not bother to read through 1501 pages, leading, in my opinion, to only one credible fact – a pandemic of a deadly corruption virus, injected into the fabric of society by the crony state [...]

Edward Zammit Lewis said he thought Charles Mercieca was “insensitive” when the young lawyer switched from working at the prosecutor’s office to the defence team of Yorgen Fenech. Overnight. Without working his notice. It was that, but it does feel like an understatement. The PN Opposition spokesman Jason Azzopardi yesterday said the episode smacked of [...]