They say it takes a thief to catch a thief. I guess it also takes a con to scam one. The Shift reported earlier this year how an Indian fraudster and his lawyer friends incorporated a Delaware company online and showed up in Malta with a “plan” to invest €75 million in the country — […] More
As the news broke of the freezing of assets of Keith Schembri, Brian Tonna and others, we need to take a step back and realise that the information that led to this action has been in the public domain for at least three years. On 24 April 2017, Daphne Caruana Galizia had published a post […] More
The phrase ‘underlying conditions’ will soon join the likes of ‘friendly fire’ and ‘collateral damage’ in the annals of historic euphemisms that are employed by the powers that be to conceal the negative effect of their wrong decisions. The unrelenting second wave of the COVID pandemic that we can confidently attribute to decisions by Robert […] More
We now know how the public broadcaster, PBS, colluded in shaping the narrative of the arrival of the first Electrogas tanker. The newsroom acted all grateful for a story handed to it by government spinners, and made itself available for any suggestions on how the narrative should be presented. Some of the democratic implications are […] More
The public broadcaster is taking orders from the Labour Party’s propaganda department. At least, that’s what the latest leaked Electrogas emails revealed. Government communication aides — ‘persons of trust’, naturally — were desperate to make the arrival of the FSU tanker into Marsaxlokk harbour look like the second coming of the Santa Maria Convoy. After […] More
I am told that the first September storms visited the island with much thunder, lightning and wind. Rivers and lakes seem to have formed where previously there were none. This government of massive “infrastructural projects” seems to have made no progress in the field of historic failures where mother nature laughs in the face of […] More
Late last month, our justice minister announced the government’s right to suspend basic human rights if the situation warranted it. Edward Zammit Lewis, writing in The Times of Malta, said of the challenges of irregular immigration from Libya: “The Labour government has also tried to strike the difficult balance between respecting basic human rights and […] More
What an incredibly generous thing you did, paying Electrogas’ excise tax bill so Yorgen Fenech, the Gasan family and the Apap Bolognas could make more money. After all, €46.5 million is no small sacrifice. I know you could have done a lot with that. Funded public health, for example, or built social housing. But squeezing […] More
The Ancient Greeks would resort to an Oracle whenever a decision needed to be taken. Before facing the enormous Persian army, the Greek States consulted the Oracle at Delphi. The first reply from the Oracle was not to the States’ liking since it told them to give up. They asked a second time hoping for […] More
The public inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia has entered a phase where many are both exhausted and fascinated by the testimonies, unsurprised and yet still shocked at what’s being revealed, in no doubt about the inquiry’s importance and yet wondering if it’s receiving too much importance. In short, ambivalence is setting in. […] More
The General Workers’ Union found a lucrative way to turn other people’s lemons into their lemonade. They did it by squeezing profits out of those who are temporarily down on their luck. Okay, yes, unions are supposed to help the worker rather than screw them over. But don’t worry, the taxpayer is footing the bill. […] More
I watched the non-face off that was the Xarabank stream on Facebook. It was a light Q&A session with the two contestants for the PN leadership post. It seems we will never get a direct confrontation between Adrian Delia and Bernard Grech, because apparently “it could damage the Party”. That’s a bit like ordering the […] More
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