Alarmphone explains what happened at sea over the Easter weekend

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2020-05-04T10:41:17+02:00Mon, 4th May '20, 10:41|

Alarmphone published a detailed report which shows in detail in what ways, and how often, Alarm Phone sought to mobilise rescue by alerting the Maltese authorities. "In total, Alarm Phone reached out to RCC Malta 42 times: 34 times via the phone, though getting through only 11 times (mostly without receiving any information), and eight [...]

Mediterranea demands to know what Malta is doing with 90 migrants at sea; warns against illegal pushback.

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2020-05-03T11:13:15+02:00Sun, 3rd May '20, 11:13|

Italian NGO Mediterranea this morning wrote to Malta’s government saying it has been carefully following the case of a wooden boat in distress with approximately 90 people on board, reported to all concerned authorities by the organization Alarm Phone - Watch The Med in position 34° 37' N - 12° 27' E at 22:35 CEST [...]

Jumping ship

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2020-05-03T09:16:51+02:00Sun, 3rd May '20, 09:16|

The government will never admit it but we’re in a bind of their making. Malta has squandered its diplomatic credentials and we are now kicking migrants as if they are to blame for Joseph Muscat and Robert Abela. Another 90 migrants are presently taking in water from the sea in our search and rescue area. [...]

Prison on the high seas

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2020-05-02T17:38:26+02:00Sat, 2nd May '20, 17:38|

Prime Minister Robert Abela spoke fully expecting anyone to be surprised by insisting Malta is only obliged to coordinate a rescue in its waters, not necessarily to use state-owned assets to do so. Of course, that’s true. Anything that is available and nearest at hand should be turned around to save lives at sea. But [...]

Ministers’ mummies

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2020-05-01T17:14:47+02:00Fri, 1st May '20, 17:14|

There’s talk of Covid-19 accelerating trends and making them the new normal. Pre-Covid we already had ministers shifting their engagement with the public away from meetings with the press favouring instead unmediated propaganda on social media. Konrad Mizzi made it his blatant policy of only inviting to his press events “journalists” on the government’s payroll. [...]

Dinosaur

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2020-05-01T08:45:47+02:00Fri, 1st May '20, 08:45|

Charles Caruana Carabez is the ombudsman responsible to rule on issues arising out of educational institutions, including the university. He is paid to be the defender of citizens against faceless and unfeeling bureaucracy, of rules that aren’t thought through, of undesired consequences of policy. He rights wrongs. He is a caped hero for our times. [...]

Discarded options?

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2020-05-01T08:07:55+02:00Fri, 1st May '20, 08:05|

However problematic this penning on the high seas is bound to prove, it is an alternative to Option One the government went for over the Easter weekend. Presumably inspired by Christ’s sacrifice, Option One was ‘let them drown’. The government blamed the crossing on the migrants who should have changed their travel plans like everyone [...]

A third way

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2020-05-01T07:54:09+02:00Fri, 1st May '20, 07:54|

Last night a Captain Morgan tourist boat was equipped with mattresses that can be carried by one person four at a time and sent out to meet the now notorious Mae Yemenja, the Maltese-owned Libyan-flagged fishing trawler that was the scene of the crime for an illegal push-back to Libya of some 50 migrants and [...]

Now we know

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2020-04-30T08:54:06+02:00Thu, 30th Apr '20, 08:54|

Neville Gafà is about as smart as he looks. And as honest. I very much doubt that his sudden attack of acute sincerity was the result of some damascene illumination. His decision to out the prime minister and charge him with ordering an illegal push-back of migrants to Libya (read Newsbook’s report from last night, [...]

Not Betty Davis eyes

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2020-04-29T11:38:08+02:00Wed, 29th Apr '20, 11:38|

I thought I should perhaps write something about Mario Philip Azzopardi. He’s the guy with the Herr Doktor Mengele eyes who trawls the net for women to insult with sexually offensive terms and to inflict verbal violence that would cause a melee in the mud to pause in gaunt embarrassment. It would be legitimate for [...]

Can our government brief us on its meetings with Libya?

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2020-04-29T10:32:52+02:00Wed, 29th Apr '20, 10:32|

We've been here before. We get information about meetings held by the Maltese government from sources in the country our government is having meetings in. Usually that's when the government does not even want us to know what the meeting is about. Evarist Bartolo appears to have had meetings with the Libyan equivalent of a [...]

Cause of death

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2020-04-29T10:12:29+02:00Wed, 29th Apr '20, 09:56|

“The facts and the evidence that has emerged so far points to grave legal responsibility of the Maltese authorities. For at least 5 days they refused to assist 63 people at sea. They coordinated their illegal push-back out of Malta’s search and rescue area of responsibility. They caused the death of 5 people who needed [...]

Remember their names

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2020-04-29T09:58:55+02:00Wed, 29th Apr '20, 09:45|

Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire has identified the names of 12 people who died on a boat allowed to drift in Malta’s search and rescue area in spite of the fact that the Maltese armed forces spotted them when they were still alive. Omar, Mogos, Hzqiel, Hdru, Huruy, Teklay, Nohom, Kidus, Debesay, and three men named [...]

The lawyer who keeps good company

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2020-04-29T09:29:49+02:00Wed, 29th Apr '20, 09:29|

Rather pathetic, isn’t it? Jean Philippe Chetcuti was caught by a hidden camera promising a journalist pretending to be a client that he can get his buddies in the government to bend the rules to allow a person with a criminal record to buy a Maltese passport. He has now been certified as a champion [...]

Silence

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2020-04-29T08:29:17+02:00Wed, 29th Apr '20, 08:29|

Nothing has been heard since before 4.30 this morning from 62 migrants who made a distress call to NGO Alarm Phone as their vessel started taking in water. Alarm Phone says the boat has been likely spotted yesterday afternoon by a Frontex surveillance flight. The agency says they're trying to get through to Malta's armed [...]

GUEST POST: Pilatus Bank and the Competent Person

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2020-04-28T14:49:29+02:00Tue, 28th Apr '20, 14:49|

Timeline of Events On 21 March 2018 the MFSA issued directives: removing Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad from the position of director of the Bank and any executive roles that he holds within the bank;o ordering that Ali Sadr suspends the exercise of his voting rights as shareholder of the Bank and refrains from exercising the [...]

Loading dice

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2020-04-27T10:33:49+02:00Mon, 27th Apr '20, 10:33|

There is no doubt the odds are stacked in favour of Robert Abela. In spite of a Venice Commission intervention demanding reform, he will be choosing the next police chief and will keep them for a year on probation with the power to kick them out without needing to give anyone an explanation. It feels [...]

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