When Michelle Muscat waxes melodramatic about her miserable fate, she truly asks for it. The best I could do yesterday was "insipid, solipsistic, self-indulgent, sob story whose idea of music is no better than Jason Micallef’s". Ryan Murdock writing for The Shift News this morning was far more elegantly succinct. He called her "The First [...]
Press Release REACTION BY REPUBBLIKA TO THE GRECO REPORT At the request of the GRECO committee, the Government today released the findings of the Group of States against Corruption, known as the GRECO report. Malta joined GRECO 20 years ago. During that period, it has received 4 reports. Each time it has received recommendations for [...]
The government will be told by Greco today that it has exploited conflicts of interest and the shady past of its appointees to make sure public agencies are run by cronies that serve the corrupt interests of Joseph Muscat. And there goes the government rushing to prove Greco right once again as if Greco hadn’t [...]
I confess I’m utterly perplexed at the schizophrenic way the PN is dealing with the storm of criticism coming towards the government of Malta from institutions outside it. The way they bashed Green MEP Sven Giegold in the last few days “condemning” him for calling for the European Commission to start Article 7 procedures in [...]
The Council of Europe ‘group of states against corruption’ (Greco) wanted to leave no ambiguity. “Malta has on paper an impressive arsenal of public institutions involved in check and balance” and to prevent corruption against ministers and senior government officials. BUT: “their effectiveness is being questioned as the country was confronted in recent years with [...]
Photo: Mission Lifeline There was some legal discussion about the incorrect use of the term “piracy” in the case of the El Hiblu 1 rescued passengers who got the captain of the ship to sail towards Malta. The term was wrongly used by the Maltese armed forces and by Matteo Salvini. In simple [...]
One of Zuzana Caputova's first acts as President-elect of Slovakia was to visit the street memorial for Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova and join the people's demand for truth and justice for an assassinated journalist and his fiancee. She lit a candle there. https://www.facebook.com/projektn.sk/videos/1190569297777364/ It makes sense of course. Slovakia elected a civil rights and [...]
Read this feature on Il Corriere della Sera that grasps the irony of the fuss Malta makes every time a migrant ship comes anywhere near Malta but then employs thousands of migrants that come down from Italy and employed on terms only slightly better than slavery. Migrants that land in Italy often hear they can [...]
The Magistrates Court today underlined the right of anyone to express themselves freely without fear of physical harm. Magistrate Joe Mifsud was specifically speaking of the right of protesters to lay symbols like flowers and candles at the Great Siege Memorial in protest after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. He made the remarks after [...]
Stuff Media Network podcasters 'Stuff they don't want you to know' ran an episode on the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia. They take some time before they get into the hard stuff but it's worth the wait. Here's a link to the podcast. You'll need Spotify.
https://youtu.be/aqT8q71tSyE
The government — today through Ministers Owen Bonnici, Edward Scicluna and Helena Dalli — is rolling out unopposed the strategy of twisting the Council of Europe reports into Malta, discrediting them and at the same time exploiting them as an opportunity to continue to crush democratic liberties in this country. Various institutions of the main [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "We tell the world it is our right to have a lower tax base ostensibly because we are more efficient than the lumbering French, Italian or even Scandinavian economies. But of course we are lying to them and ourselves. At 35 per cent, our corporate tax rate [...]
The Prime Minister’s children were taken out of school for several days to join their parents who visited Abu Dhabi for the Special Olympics. That is against the law and is subject to applicable fines. Anyone else taking their children out of school for a trip abroad would be facing consequences and the Education Division [...]
After the Robert Mueller inquiry “did not establish” there had been no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, the man who started the entire inquiry process, Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos is making the rounds in the press asking for a Presidential pardon. He had admitted to lying to the FBI and sentenced to [...]
You can’t fail to be reminded of the aftermath of the Egrant inquiry report when you see what’s going on in the US after the completion of the Mueller report that “did not establish” there had been collusion between the Trump Presidential campaign and Russia. In the US case the 300 page report that included [...]
As you would expect there’s a lot of venom and hatred being spewed around about the “pirates” and “hijackers” who were led to our shores this morning and in the case of some of them arrested. Neither the racist bigots nor I, were on the boat over the last 30 hours so the facts have [...]
They think they can ignore them forever but there will be a point when this will come to a head. The European Parliament passed another resolution today demanding an independent international public inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia and the stories she investigated. They demanded members of Government withdraw libel suits against her, [...]
Photo: Chris Sant Fournier for Times of Malta. Graffiti’s action outside the Planning Authority offices today is entirely justified. It also comes in the style of veteran activists who are wise enough to eat an elephant one bite at a time. They are focusing on petrol stations and the fact that year after [...]
Social and political activism has a longstanding history, the Luddites smashing up machinery in the 19th century being a famous example. Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white man is another landmark case of a grassroots action leading to wider change. In Malta, activism has become an integral part of the [...]