Shared delusions

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2023-01-25T09:54:10+01:00Wed, 25th Jan '23, 09:54|

A Central Bank of Malta statement announced that one “Dr Sir Narcy Calamatta KM” has been appointed chairman of the bank’s advisory board for its charity initiatives. I don’t know much about Narcy Calamatta. I remember him vaguely on TV in the days of the state monopoly in the 1980s particularly because at age 8 [...]

LONG READ: Failure to protect

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2023-01-23T11:24:42+01:00Mon, 23rd Jan '23, 11:24|

Let us accept, for the sake of argument, that the two men accused of killing Sion Grech 18 years ago are innocent of the crime. Due process demands from us to presume even the most obviously guilty as innocent until proven otherwise. Which logically means that if they are never proven otherwise, beyond reasonable doubt, [...]

No lex to stand on

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2023-01-20T14:12:54+01:00Fri, 20th Jan '23, 14:12|

You may have seen Robert Aquilina’s reaction to a decision by the constitutional court rejecting Repubblika’s claim that our right to a fair hearing was breached by Nadine Lia’s repeated refusal to recuse herself from hearing Repubblika’s case against the police for not acting on a magistrate’s findings about crimes at Pilatus Bank. Half-hearted apologies [...]

When will Joe Mifsud act his part?

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2023-01-20T11:41:02+01:00Fri, 20th Jan '23, 09:32|

I am as angry, as shocked, as saddened as the next woman or man about the horrible killing of a woman by a car driver fuelled by cocaine and by some inexplicable pathological evil. I think that man has earned the status of most hated person in this country. And yet this wasn’t the opportunity [...]

Is it Dress Down Thursday in Castile?

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2023-01-19T14:28:18+01:00Thu, 19th Jan '23, 14:28|

Quite apart from the morbid gift delivered by a delegation of well-dressed bird-killers, why is the prime minister in his casuals at his office? If anyone visited the prime minister in the office of the country's chief executive wearing those clothes, you'd have to call them rude. If the prime minister is the one that [...]

Wizened old Labourites

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2023-01-20T08:21:23+01:00Thu, 19th Jan '23, 12:56|

Increasingly, there’s a generational moral disassociation happening within the Labour front. It’s not new. Dom Mintoff repudiated his predecessor vehemently, even violently. Alfred Sant took a platform to call Dom Mintoff a traitor of the Labour movement and that's after presenting himself as the polar opposite of Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici. Joseph Muscat accused Alfred Sant [...]

A good day

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2023-01-16T14:57:46+01:00Mon, 16th Jan '23, 14:57|

It’s a good day when a mafia boss in hiding for 30 years starts his first day of the rest of his life in prison. Matteo Messina Denaro, boss of bosses, has already been convicted for some of the many murders he is personally responsible for. He managed to live in hiding for 3 decades. [...]

Dilute to taste justice

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2023-01-16T10:02:13+01:00Mon, 16th Jan '23, 10:02|

Last year alone 8 people died on construction sites. During the preceding 3 years, 17 people died on construction sites. There were only two other deaths at work in that period that did not occur on a construction site. Each one of those deaths was followed by a magisterial inquiry to gather the evidence which [...]

THE SUNDAY TIMES: The rules of the game

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2023-01-16T07:58:53+01:00Mon, 16th Jan '23, 07:58|

From my article in The Sunday Times: "Is it difficult in this polity of two, and only two, sides for both sides to agree on a referee? Yes, I suppose, it is harder than the power the prime minister enjoys to appoint any unqualified idiot to most posts in his government. But it is not [...]

If our children could see us

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2023-01-13T08:59:48+01:00Fri, 13th Jan '23, 08:59|

If we are to remain in touch with our humanity, we cannot let exhaustion and the intuitive need to soothe our frustration, numb us to the cruelties of the government that works for us. This is especially so when our government’s victims are children. To say that it is inherently human to take care of [...]

Can someone tell the government they’re the government?

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2023-01-12T17:31:03+01:00Thu, 12th Jan '23, 17:31|

Junior minister Rebecca Buttigieg criticised the rabid fanatics of “River of Love” for filing a criminal complaint against Matthew Bonanno for writing on Facebook that the neighbourhood of the sect’s offices should be “carpet bombed”. He was writing after news emerged of their proximity to the killer of Paulina Dembska. From Times of Malta’s report [...]

I’m not too keen on that headline

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2023-01-10T11:11:36+01:00Tue, 10th Jan '23, 11:11|

“Trial starts for 2005 murder of prostitute found in Marsa” was the headline on this morning’s Times of Malta’s front page reporting on the start of the trial of two men accused of killing Sion Grech nearly 20 years ago. One of the men had been her lover. As a matter of fact, their victim [...]

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