A campaign intended to discredit Repubblika has started and its likely to get worse. The source of the campaign is not obvious and that’s not just because the hand throwing poison in the pot is cloaked. It’s also because many possible sources have motive and opportunity and it’s hard to figure out which one is [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "We know Abela told Reynders that Malta “learnt its lessons” and the reforms it is introducing are “game-changing”. But has it? Are they? "I can’t presume to know what the European Commission will say when its report is out. But last year’s report is public and I’m [...]
You need to speak either French or German for this one. It's an ARTE documentary about online gaming which you may find interesting.
It’s bad enough to have to listen to the military rhetoric about sieges and invasions poured like hemlock in our ears by right wing populist politicians from the UK, France, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Greece, and Malta to poison us with hatred for migrants desperately trying to reach Europe. It’s horrible. It normalises prejudice and dehumanises [...]
The dysfunctional critical infrastructure of our islands It is all about Democracy Rules. It is all about acquiring an “understanding” of politics enabling an individual to become a better citizen. Citizens who intelligently can elect parliamentary representatives who are knowledgeable, fit, and capable. Citizens who can evaluate and be proactive dealing with this present crisis. [...]
I don’t want to make World Press Freedom Day about myself. I’m just doing this to give a bit of near-home context to RSF’s findings that it is easier to be a journalist in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, in Orban-smothered Hungary, in conflict-torn Burkina Faso, and in corruption-riddled North Macedonia, than it is to be a [...]
Malta’s failure to adopt the recommendations of the Daphne Caruana Galizia has forced the country’s press freedom ranking further down. The Reporters Without Borders’ world rankings published today on World Press Freedom Day rank Malta an abysmal 84th in the world. Greece is the only EU country with a ranking lower than Malta’s. Ireland and [...]
I get the notion of social justice through the redistribution of wealth. That’s what the welfare state is about. Tax those who have, to give to those who don’t. I also get the objection that you can overdo that policy. A government can raise so much tax as to suffocate the smooth chugging of an [...]
The European Commissioner responsible for justice, Didier Reynders, is in Malta for a couple of days. He’s mostly seeing ministers who are, judging by reports of the parts of his meetings that were held in public, telling him how Malta ‘learnt its lessons’ about good governance and now everything is working fine. He’s holding a [...]
The State Advocate Chris Soler complained to the Chamber of Advocates of having been humiliated by public statements uttered by Repubblika’s President Robert Aquilina. Aquilina was writing about his expectations of the behaviour of the state attorney and his client, attorney general Victoria Buttigieg, when the court was yesterday due to hear Repubblika’s arguments why [...]
Angelo Gafà denies covering up pre-emptive pardons to Pilatus Bank officials identified for prosecution by a magistrate. That’s despite the explicit evidence to the contrary published in Robert Aquilina’s new book. In internal email exchanges police officials debate what reasons they need to conjure to justify their decision to let the suspects walk. The only [...]
A man yesterday unfurled a banner at a safe distance from Parliament that asked for ‘Justice for Jean Paul Sofia’. He was held by the police and taken away for interrogation. He was later allowed to leave. The facts are those. He was not beaten by the cops. His body wasn’t thrown off a plane [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "They’re not worried. They’re serene. Just like Rosianne Cutajar. While they raped the national airline to exhaustion, they gave up half of our national health service to outside control. An American conglomerate is now using its patients as human shields, hostages, while it negotiates the most favourable [...]
Many voters today never knew a time when Maltese politics was enriched by the front-line participation of Alfred Sant. And the rest forget to be grateful that they no longer remember. His allegedly last hurrah yesterday on Andrew Azzopardi’s radio show was as pleasant as a premature exhumation. I’ll go through some of the more [...]
Look at that headline. The medical equivalent would be “Cigarettes add 5 years to your life expectancy, says health minister”. It’s not like we haven’t had an independent inquiry before. The Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry went well beyond criminal responsibility. Indeed, it stayed out of criminal responsibility because criminal responsibility is the competence of the [...]
The Russian Embassy in Malta issued a statement expressing outrage at TVM for giving a Nazi a platform to justify and glorify Adolf Hitler. No doubt I share the sentiment. “The interview mentioned is an example of the dissemination of pseudo-historical theories,” says the Russian Embassy statement. “The very fact of its appearance desecrates and [...]
Updated 21 April 2023, 10:37, with comments by Director of Tipster. Cologne police this morning raided the offices of Malta registered and licensed gaming company Tipster. The Cologne building was stormed as part of a number of raids in several German offices. German media reports almost 1,000 officers were involved in searches in locations through Bremen, [...]
The maladies of our country originate from its same citizens. Understanding politics For long centuries, Maltese citizens have been looking through a glass darkly, only to at long last be led to realise that this present government is nothing but a reflection of themselves. In a democracy, the government cannot be judged guilty for administering [...]
Isn’t the sight of Victoria Buttigieg hiding behind hired hands and making a run for it when journalists wanted to ask her questions she had every reason to expect, the most representative picture of how utterly mediocre the government of this country is? Truly it must be asked, is there no one better than this? [...]
Unlike Keith Schembri I wasn’t born a businessman. I never lived like one. And I’m not going to die like one. I respect the fact that he has talents I don’t. So do Roger Federer, Stephen Fry, and Rocco Siffredi. And yet with all of them I share basic human faculties. If they’re tickled, they laugh. [...]