Alfred Sant dixit

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2021-05-31T09:46:07+02:00Mon, 31st May '21, 09:46|

The following is an extract from a speech Alfred Sant gave in Parliament during his last days as Leader of the Labour Party. The speech is from 12 May 2008. Alfred Sant had just lost his third election in a row after 1998 and 2003 and he would be replaced a few weeks after delivering [...]

The PN shows the way on prison reform

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2021-05-31T08:44:18+02:00Mon, 31st May '21, 08:44|

The reforms being proposed by the Opposition for the prisons restate the traditional contrast between the PL and the PN. The PL is the right-wing disciplinarian with fascist tendencies best represented in Alex Dalli’s mediocre imitation of a director of a gulag and Byron Camilleri’s chilling silence. The PN is the left-of-center humanitarian party promoting [...]

Masons

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2021-05-29T08:09:31+02:00Sat, 29th May '21, 06:50|

Simon Mercieca posted an anonymous post questioning my reasons for not running around all hysterical about “Freemasons involved in Daphne’s murder”. Someone is annoyed their plan didn’t work. The freemasonry thing came up in court this week. Melvyn Theuma was testifying in the case against Yorgen Fenech and speaking about conversations he had had with [...]

The political gains from delayed justice

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2021-05-29T07:16:41+02:00Fri, 28th May '21, 10:49|

You can hardly have forgotten that in 2010, 11 years ago, a gang tried to rob the vault at the HSBC’s headquarters in Ħal Qormi. Sixty gunshots were fired that day. It wasn’t one you could easily forget. Within the same year, Vincent Muscat il-Koħħu and Darren Debono it-Tôpo (not the football-coaching, fish-restaurant-owning, fuel-smuggling, money-laundering [...]

WATCH: The financial system at the back of organised crime

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2021-05-27T09:06:11+02:00Thu, 27th May '21, 09:06|

Rai broadcast a 1 hour feature a couple of days ago on the internationalisation of Italian organised crime and its infiltration in the financial system. There's a Malta segment (in English) that starts at 54' where I speak about the work and the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. View the film here. You'll need to [...]

They exercise their right to remain silent. I exercise my right to infer they have something to hide.

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2021-05-26T17:13:22+02:00Wed, 26th May '21, 17:13|

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee could be a useful tool in fighting corruption and administrative wrong-doing. If reality wasn’t such a poor reflection of what Lawrence Gonzi must have imagined the PAC could be when he helped design it in the 1990s. Watching sessions of the PAC is ever so slightly less agonising than watching plenary [...]

Jemecassegate: The implicit consequences of secrecy

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2021-05-26T14:37:37+02:00Wed, 26th May '21, 14:34|

I enter the fray on matters Eurovision with less enthusiasm than if I was slouching on my dentist’s couch. It’s not whether I liked the song or I didn’t. Ugh. It’s not whether the voting is fair or it isn’t. Shudder. It’s not whether the dress was too short or the short was too dress. [...]

Alex Agius Saliba on a good day

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2021-05-26T11:57:53+02:00Wed, 26th May '21, 11:57|

This is your MEP Alex Agius Saliba who, to be kind, I imagine walked into the wrong committee at the European Parliament building and read from the wrong script. The man cannot trust himself to speak English without reading it because he's plain hilarious when he's stuck in a situation where he's forced to try. [...]

Book launch: The Third Siege of Malta

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2021-06-08T07:42:06+02:00Wed, 26th May '21, 09:05|

announces the launch of 9 June 2021 At Margo’s Palazzo Santa Rosa Mistra Bay 19:00 Includes Panel Discussion with Christian Peregin, Ġorġ Mallia, Louiselle Vassallo, and George Vital Zammit This is a seated and socially-distanced event in conformity with the Superintendence of Public Health guidelines. Seats will be allocated on pre-registration only. Please click on this [...]

Even for this you got the bill

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2021-05-26T08:50:36+02:00Wed, 26th May '21, 08:50|

The family of Miriam Pace have settled their claim against the developers who destroyed their property killing their wife and mother when their house collapsed over her head. The amount of the settlement is, understandably, undisclosed. The compensation, whatever the amount, is nothing like justice. We can only hope our institutions give Miriam Pace the [...]

But half the herd

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2021-05-26T08:20:29+02:00Wed, 26th May '21, 08:20|

I fully realise I’m expected to apologise these days before criticising the administration on matters it considers as its key successes. I was eviscerated mercilessly in the days after they opened for something like the fifth time the spaghetti junction in Marsa. I can only begin to imagine what they would do if they decide [...]

PODCAST: The tragedy of the commons

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2021-05-25T09:36:46+02:00Tue, 25th May '21, 09:36|

Manuel Delia · The Tragedy Of The Commons My podcast yesterday criticised the CEO of the Planning Authority for appearing to suggest that he is powerless in the face of land owners’ determination to do with their property as they please. I called this sort of attitude Whiggish, after the liberals of Victorian England. The [...]

PODCAST: Planning for Modernity

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2021-05-24T12:17:19+02:00Mon, 24th May '21, 12:17|

Manuel Delia · Planners For Modernity The chief planner’s interview with the Times of Malta yesterday makes for depressing reading. Martin Saliba dismisses as ‘sentimental’ and ‘nostalgic’ the effort of isolated and ignored campaigners to push back against the wilful destruction of our urban and rural landscape. His arguments are replete with contradictions. He has [...]

GUEST POST: Amnesia

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2021-05-24T09:50:02+02:00Mon, 24th May '21, 09:50|

An amnesia is a form of memory loss. Some people with amnesia have difficulty forming new memories. Others cannot recall facts or past experiences. People with amnesia usually retain the knowledge of their own identity, as well as motor skills. Mild memory loss is a normal part of ageing. Amnesia refers to the loss of [...]

GUEST POST: Herd Immunity

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2021-05-24T08:05:01+02:00Mon, 24th May '21, 08:05|

When a large majority of a community becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely, we use the expression “herd immunity”. The meaning I would like to give to this expression in this post is quite different. I feel that in our society, we have reached this level of herd [...]

THE SUNDAY TIMES: At cross purposes

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2021-05-23T07:43:10+02:00Sun, 23rd May '21, 07:43|

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "Recently, I put a few euros in some ads on Facebook carrying a picture of the cover of my new book that is coming out shortly. I put in the money hoping awareness of the book could break out of the bubble of like-minded people that Facebook [...]

GUEST POST: Our terribly sad destiny

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2021-05-22T23:48:34+02:00Sun, 23rd May '21, 06:00|

Here I sit a day before the big event. The event that fully symbolises us:  the trashy, idiotic Eurovision Song Festival. This festival is so dumb that our singer’s destiny depends on various factors which are absolutely unconnected to talent. I do not possess a crystal ball. And I have no clue what position our [...]

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