This poem was shared with me by a regular reader. It was written by an Irish-French Catholic writer, Kathleen O’Meara (Dublin 1839 - Paris 1888), who also wrote under the pen name of Grace Ramsay, and is to be found in her novel Iza’s Story, set against the background of the Polish struggle against the [...]
Earlier today I wrote a post about areas of information that are remarkably lacking in the briefings the government is giving about the ongoing crisis. Here’s some more information I think we should be hearing. What’s happening to people who sleep rough? We know there are cases of people reduced to sleeping on cardboard in [...]
The government is being reasonably transparent on its management of the coronavirus. At least it is reasonable to believe it is. Every day we are updated on the number of tests conducted, how many of them test positive, a brief background on every new case and a record of recoveries and deaths. None of the [...]
My article in this month's Money Magazine, written well before the coronavirus outbreak: Let’s be clear: democracy is receding worldwide. When red stars were pulled down from the spires of the Kremlin someone could write with confidence that we had reached ‘the end of history’. Everyone wanted the free market and liberal democracy and those [...]
A song by self-described anarchist Mario Vella starts out with a prayer, of all things: “Alla lliberani minn dil-pjaga kiefra neoliberali”. The song complains about the hegemonic view that markets can solve everything, that inefficient businesses deserve to fail and the pain of their dismantling is beneficial to the greater good. And the song complains [...]
The 19th of March, for many of us Maltese, brings to mind the feast of St Joseph, even though unfortunately this year many are going to miss deeply the celebrations that we usually have in various parts of our island. The date itself shows that the episode I am referring to, happened barely a week [...]
When you “set the record straight”, it’s because the record is crooked. So, when Silvio Schembri set out to set the record straight and then proceeded to apologise for saying “charity begins at home” and “foreigners who lose their job must go back to their country” he confirmed the record was perfectly fine. It’s just [...]
Someone made what I thought was a great point this morning. Just 15 months ago Silvio Schembri wanted to give robots citizenship. Now he wants to push what he considers surplus mouths outside the gates. If Silvio Schembri were to be proposed as a villain for The Walking Dead, he'd be thrown out of the [...]
That Silvio Schembri is an over-promoted, unfit for purpose, serial repeating bugler of the Brigata Laburista, utterly bereft of compassion and with the experience of real life of a dynastic monarch crowned in his mother’s womb, is not something we have discovered today. The detail that he is a bigoted, racist shit may be new [...]
A notice to airmen issued by the Maltese government says that all commercial passenger flights coming into Malta after midnight of the night between Friday and Saturday coming are "suspended". The order is for a month up to 20 April 2020. The notice is "based on a decision taken by the Malta health authorities". Flights [...]
The realisation is dawning on more and more people that the coronavirus crisis is not going to be a drawn-out weekend with a critical stock of toilet paper. Nor it is just an early summer break for the kids. We are looking at something that is going to stretch for months and that is going [...]
Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad was a pillar in Joseph Muscat’s and Keith Schembri’s corrupt game plan that they rolled out in 2013 when they first came to power. Ali Sadr filed an application to open a Maltese bank a few months after Labour came to power. He was granted the license a short number of [...]
A United States jury four Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad orchestrated a multi-year scheme to funnel more than US$115 million in payments related to a construction project in Venezuela through the US financial system to his Iranian family business, in violation of US. sanctions against Iran. In a two-week trial the US government established that these [...]
A United States jury has found Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad guilty of 5 counts of bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, defrauding the United States and busting sanctions against Iran. He was not convicted on the 6th count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The verdict concerns charges related to a US$115 million scheme [...]
A juror in the US trial of Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad is participating in deliberations on line while he’s confined to his home. Coronavirus caused havoc in the trial of Ali Sadr in its very final stage today as he awaits the jury’s verdict in the case against him for bank fraud and busting sanctions [...]
The only way I know of fighting writer’s block is writing. Don’t worry. I only really ramble when I have something to say and I’m looking for the right words to say it. But on a Monday morning that feels like a fourth Sunday in a row a blank white digital sheet on my computer [...]
Orders issued by the superintendent of public health to suspend time limits in the law on current and future court proceedings may be beyond her power and as such therefore illegal, experts on court procedures told this website. This could mean that allowing timelines established in the law to expire because of the ongoing coronavirus [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "Coronavirus will do more than infect the exposed and kill the vulnerable. It will test us for pliancy and it will cripple us where it finds us wanting. "It will find the limits of our resources to handle a medical crisis. It will push on the limits [...]
