While Rome burns …

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2017-11-12T19:39:17+01:00Sun, 12th Nov '17, 19:39|

Here's Konrad Mizzi in London on the Instagram account of Charlotte Crosby. I had to google her name because I'm not entirely au fait with English reality TV. While the European Parliament squeals it does not understand how this man is still in office, for him these are truly l-aqwa żmien. Minister Konrad [...]

THE SUNDAY TIMES: The change within

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2017-11-12T09:51:17+01:00Sun, 12th Nov '17, 09:51|

From my article in The Sunday Times today: The call for national unity after her death is the ultimate insult. It is another characteristic attempt to plaster over the wounds she worked so hard to reveal, and for which she ended up giving her life. This is not the time to think like bees, circling [...]

L’Espresso: Parola d’ordine. Dimenticare Daphne (with English translation)

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2017-11-12T09:44:34+01:00Sun, 12th Nov '17, 09:44|

My piece in today's L'Espresso. English translation below. The assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta sent shockwaves throughout the world. But not in most of Malta. After a few hours of inane platitudes from the political leaders the country mobilised again along its traditional bipolar lines. In her writings Daphne used to call them [...]

Whitewash

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2017-11-12T09:05:31+01:00Sun, 12th Nov '17, 09:05|

Today’s illum publishes a ‘story’ by Saviour Balzan that is presented as exclusive and ground breaking but instead repeats a whitewash that has been known for months. The FIAU ‘found nothing’ when it concluded its investigations into Pilatus Bank. We knew that. Saviour Balzan reports with excitement that he is aware that in September 2016 [...]

Junior College: The Cultural Revolution

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2017-11-12T00:06:19+01:00Sat, 11th Nov '17, 23:52|

So sixth-formers have elected their new students council committee. Most of them have only left secondary school some five months ago. Around half of them have been in high school for a year. They are organised as Labour and Nationalist parties, coded as Pulse and SDM. I’d be a hypocrite if I said I thought [...]

Labour on the wrong damage-limitation mission

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2017-11-11T22:20:20+01:00Sat, 11th Nov '17, 22:20|

Alfred Sant and Miriam Dalli are leading the charge to limit the undoubted damage expected from Tuesday's European Parliament debate in Strasbourg. The European Parliament is expected to find what we've known for years and Labour kept denying: that rule of law in Malta is ignored by its government and democracy is failing. You can [...]

Draft European Parliament resolution “seriously concerned about democracy in Malta”. Calls for Commission “to ensure European values”.

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2017-11-10T22:49:19+01:00Fri, 10th Nov '17, 22:49|

An advanced copy of the draft resolution that will be debated next week by the European Parliament during a debate on rule of law in Malta shows MEPs are expected to express regret that developments in Malta in recent years have led to serious concerns about the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights including [...]

Applied psychology

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2017-11-10T17:02:19+01:00Fri, 10th Nov '17, 15:53|

In 1941 Charles Chaplin parodied Adolph Hitler at the peak of his power in The Great Dictator. There's a scene where his Hynkel (Hitler) receives advice from his henchman Garbitsch (Goebells) about how to deal with someone who was coming to see him at a meeting. That someone Napoloni (Mussolini) made Hynkel nervous and Garbitsch [...]

High Russian interest in Konrad Mizzi’s Panama company months after he said he was winding it down

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2017-11-10T11:59:59+01:00Fri, 10th Nov '17, 11:59|

In a guest post published earlier today, Godfrey Leone Ganado, said he found that between June and September 2016 at least 81 downloads were made in Russia of Dato Capital's file on Konrad Mizzi's secret Panama company Hearnville Inc. Data Capital is  an international company information service provider. This high interest in Russia persisted through [...]

GUEST POST: Godfrey Leone Ganado on the ‘draft’ FIAU report on Konrad Mizzi

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2017-11-10T11:58:51+01:00Fri, 10th Nov '17, 11:58|

By Godfrey Leone Ganado So far, I have reviewed the leaked Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) reports on ‘allegations of corruption by Keith Schembri on the sale of passports’, on ‘alleged payments made by Keith Schembri to Adrian Hillman’ and on ‘Pilatus Bank’. Konrad Mizzi may have been perceived to have escaped the FIAU net, [...]

When they were still innocent

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2017-11-09T21:39:24+01:00Thu, 9th Nov '17, 21:39|

Manwel Mallia and Owen Bonnici piloted the Whistleblower Act in July 2013 when the Labour government was still in its honeymoon and no one outside the walls of the prime minister’s studio knew about the Panama conspiracy. Back then Manwel Mallia and Owen Bonnici had not yet left the frame of mind of an opposition [...]

REPLY: Dr Alex Scerri Herrera

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2017-11-09T21:02:55+01:00Thu, 9th Nov '17, 21:02|

The following reply was sent in by Dr Alex Scerri Herrera in response to an earlier post of mine. In the interest of fairness responses are not open to comments unless on points of fact. From Dr Alex Scerri Herrera I am writing to you with reference to the article you wrote referring to my appointment [...]

Translating Alfred Sant

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2017-11-09T19:27:52+01:00Thu, 9th Nov '17, 19:27|

I feel it is my burdensome duty to attempt to translate Alfred Sant, first from the original Maltese to English and then from the what he says to what he means and in a round-about way to get to what it is that what he means, means. Timid translation from the original, penned by a [...]

If the state is hiding something, it probably means we should know what it is

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2017-11-09T18:32:39+01:00Thu, 9th Nov '17, 18:32|

Here's David Casa reacting to Manwel Mallia's remarks earlier about hounding people who revealed information covered up by the government. No one thinks the agenda of a police investigation or people's medical records should be opened for public consumption. So let's not be childish and start confusing issues here. But the principle ought always to [...]

GUEST POST: Letter to the police chief

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2017-11-09T17:51:45+01:00Thu, 9th Nov '17, 17:51|

I suppose it helps to periodically remind that 'guest post' means someone else (I know) wrote this: Letter to the Commissioner of Police Over the past days I was struck by the thought of the immense amount of pressure you must be experiencing. Having been brought up in a strong military environment, and having risen [...]

Pana Committee report: damning criticism of Malta

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2017-11-08T17:15:55+01:00Wed, 8th Nov '17, 17:12|

The Pana Committee setup by the European Parliament in the wake of the Panama Paper leak, has published its final report and it makes chilling reading from Malta’s point of view. There is nothing we did not know before but it is now a clear and present indictment by a specialist committee of the European [...]

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