Why does Malta's Brussels embassy need a full-time photographer assigned to it? Normally you'd think it wouldn't. But you would make an exception for the 6-month rotating Presidency when the calendar of photo-ops is busier than usual and hiring in freelancers might prove more expensive than giving someone a 6-month contract. That is what Dar [...]
https://youtu.be/FMYd9v1ksfA
Some months ago I discussed at some length that chilling phrase ‘Pulizija Laburist’. With time it’s acquiring an even more ominous meaning. Toni Abela, then Deputy Leader of the Partit Laburista, knew of drug trafficking from a property of the party. To avoid embarrassment he sought a “pulizija Laburist” to cover the matter up. That [...]
The story of billionnaire Christopher Chandler and the news from the UK Parliament yesterday that Chandler was allegedly connected to Russian espionage might seem like a cold war spy story the Maltese can watch from their safe neutral distance. But it is not. Christopher Chandler is Maltese. So rephrase that headline in your head now. [...]
Around a fifth of this website's readership is from outside Malta. Most of those readers are Maltese people who made a home elsewhere. Their affection for the home country is tied to the memories of when they left it and they read of what is happening here now with a mix of fascination, horror, guilt, [...]
By Andrew Borg-Cardona (I M Beck as was): Of late, I have been tending to ignore Martin Scicluna, octogenarian columnist with the Times. His pieces spew forth an opinion that is so self-serving that annoyance sets in quickly, which is not conducive to my well-being. The man has a right to his opinion and to [...]
When the rest of the world thinks of Malta it thinks of how corruption and crime have infiltrated politics in a country they thought was a model European democracy. They think of how freedom of speech has been slashed in a country where they thought rights would be irreducible. They think of how we sell [...]
https://youtu.be/7nOiYN4h-Kw
By Patricia Mifsud A short message addressed to those among us who are planning to attend the rally this afternoon Please, follow your conscience. Do you really believe that the way Joseph Muscat is leading the country is ethical? Do you really believe that Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi are justified in not resigning at [...]
Jason Azzopardi this evening in Parliament revealed the name of the police officer who is suspected by senior police staff to have tipped off the Degiorgios ahead of their arrest presumably to give them sufficient notice to dispose of evidence prior to their arrest. Alfred and George Degiorgio together with Vince Cassar are alleged to [...]
This is what Matthew Caruana Galizia wrote on Facebook a few minutes ago: Delia’s presence at protests is an attempt at reputation laundering. Your fight as citizens is for your own dignity. It’s not to get rid of one gang—that of Joseph Muscat—and replace it with another—that of Adrian Delia. Look at the people surrounding [...]
By an anonymous author known to me: One gets the impression that the indifference of the opponents of this regime's iron-fist rule and non-observance of the rule of law, is not only by the official Opposition but by and large, by the general public as well. There was a time when what later turned out [...]
While the protest to demand truth was ongoing in upper Republic Street a few paused to reflect on truth's great champion. We owe her so much and yet we cannot repay her.
"Malta rallies against state corruption". That headline on The Guardian does not only make civil society activists who called yesterday's march proud, though I can testify to the fact that it does do that. That headline makes everyone in Malta except those personally profiting from corruption proud. This is how we save face from the [...]
The following message was sent yesterday to the civil society Action for Justice and Truth called by #occupyjustice and Awturi. A transcript follows: https://youtu.be/h2mzG1beBNs Transcript: Dear #occupyjustice, Awturi and all of you who have joined them today, It is a great honour for me to address you. I would sincerely wish to be present personally. [...]
Several thousand people gathered yesterday in Valletta called there by #occupyjustice and Awturi to demand truth and justice. It would be inconsistent with the principle that it does not matter how large the crowd is for truth to be true to say one is glad at the turnout. As Rachel Williams put it in her [...]
This is how today's Leader on The Sunday Times starts: "Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s first reaction to the Daphne Project revelations – urging Labour supporters to attend the party’s May Day celebrations in large numbers – was outrageous. It is the sort of thing one would expect from an authoritarian leader who only pays lip [...]
From my piece in The Sunday Times today: "Will your presence in Valletta add up to a crowd that compares favourably with Labour’s sea of angry zealots? No. Do you need it to? No. Should you rather stay at home? No. Because this country belongs to you too and even as they ride roughshod over [...]
From Kristina Chetcuti's piece in The Sunday Times today: "The reality is that the government that drowns protest is betraying its fundamental commitments to the constitutional governance. This is exactly how democracies die. And this is what is happening." Read the full piece here.
