Author: Jacques René Zammit

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Mediawatch Politics

God Help Us

There should only have been one verdict in today’s court case before Magistrate Farrugia and thankfully for those who have some residual faith in the system that outcome was confirmed. The Police Commissioner’s last ditch attempt to retain possession of Norman Vella’s tablet and phone was thrown out on the most basic of bases: lack of reasonable suspicion.

As we already saw in an earlier post (Persons of Interest) the whole farce that led up to Norman Vella’s detention was a transparent combination of abuse of power and prima donna reactions (yet again) from those among the Taghna Lkoll crowd who still cannot come to terms with the borderlines and ethics of being in government. As much respect as I have for Comodini Cachia and the rest of the Nationalist lawyers having a field day as though the ghost of 1984 was back, I must insist that much of this case depended on the litmus test of whether our courts still retained a modicum of sanity.

Thankfully they do. Magistrate Farrugia could not but see the obvious bumbling of a police force (or members thereof) eager to over-respond to a complaint by people “connected” in the corridors of power (Jesus Wept). As the drama unravelled we could see the tenuous allegations of crime become at worst jokes in a panto. “There was a photo” became “actually not really a photo at the airport and we are still combing cameras”. The best was the Commissioner’s excuse that he needed to keep the confiscated goods otherwise if he released them there would still be a shadow of doubt on Vella. See? The police confiscated the material TO PROVE HIM INNOCENT.

Not even the heady days of “moralment konvint” beat this. If I recall well Manwel Mallia recently mentioned an upgrading of the police academy to some sort of college where the police would learn the finer art of the law and how to apply it. That seems to be one hell of an uphill task given how the police manage to make a basic application of the most basic laws by a defence lawyer sound like the greatest twist in a John Grisham movie.

In normal democracies heads would roll. In the UK the head of the (insert region here) Constabulary would be constantly grilled on the media while an Independent Police Enquiry would be set up to see why so many police resources and hours were wasted simply because a couple of communications coordinators with delusions of grandeur called in to report their distaste at being photographed.

That’s a normal democracy. But this is not a normal democracy. In this democracy of ours the police are told that they were “doing their duty”, some people will point to the arrogant Norman Vella and say that he had no business (doing what exactly? no business not taking photos?). For heaven’s sake some self-appointed investigators will point to this mess and blame AD voters for the reason things have come to this, quickly forgetting that much of the blame lies at the feet of an unelectable incumbent last time round.

Whoever is to blame is not the point. The point is that our custodians have been hung up to dry and shown to be unable to think for their own and apply the law as the guardians that they should be. It should not have taken a Magistrate to confirm that there were no grounds for a crime.

Their motto is Domine Dirige Nos… God guides us. I guess God must be taking a break. Let’s hope he’s there to help us next time they go on some sort of renegade mission.

Categories
Mediawatch Politics

Muscat’s Going Medieval

It just occurred to me that we now have full confirmation that all the TaghnaLkoll talk of roadmaps and costings was nothing but an elaborate bluff. The information that we now have in hand regarding Henley’s role in the Passports for Sale scheme shows us that far from projecting Malta into the age of modern business as Muscat was so eager to highlight, we are witnessing a regression to Medieval business. Yep, that’s the Middle Ages – definitely before your grandpapa was alive.

You see, ever eager to make a quick buck, the current Maltese government has hatched a scheme that makes a mockery of the prized possession of Maltese and EU citizenship and all this simply to create a very-medieval scheme of exclusive monopoly. What was done by medieval towns is now being practiced by the dinosaurs in charge of our economy with more than a little connivance by those supposedly in charge of our safety and security. In the past Medieval towns would grant traders exclusivity over a particular merchandise and then take a cut on all the trade that occurs. Simples. No sweat, just a seal and a little tax.

Muscat could not exactly come up with some form of government approved monopoly in, say, colour televisions. Of course not. This is not 1984 (meh). He took one thing that could not really be commercialised (and this for obvious reasons such as national security and integrity) and changed it into a cheap trick available to someone who could relatively afford a mezzanine in Luxembourg’s outskirts. Nobody in his entourage could be trusted in selling this kind of merchandise so he found an outside company that will get a huge cut on every transaction. No time for niceties so the same company getting the cut will be trusted (please, stop laughing in the back) to vet applicants and possibly refuse a potential killing simply because it might develop a conscience and believe that Malta’s territorial integrity is at stake.

This medieval scheme is now having the not so welcome result that international agreements with states such as the US of A might be imperiled insofar as VISA waiver schemes are concerned. Would you blame them? They can tell a trojan horse when they see one – not that Muscat would know. He’s busy going medieval on our citizenship and transforming our nation into a peddler of the cheapest kind.


 

Categories
Mediawatch

Persons of Interest

NormanGate ‘exploded’ in the late part of this weekend giving us something to chew on on what would otherwise be a dreary (and very windy) Monday morning. We heard that the extremely irritating (that is admittedly a subjective judgement) ex-anchor on Where’s Everybody shows was held and questioned by the police. After a series of confusing reports we finally got an official reason for his detention : “investigations are under way into the alleged breach of airport security regulations by an immigration officer who photographed a passenger in a restricted area for which the police are responsible. Also, Norman Vella was first told that he would be suspended from his job as an immigration officer but he was later  told that he could report for work this morning.

As with all stories of this kind that unravel over the internet it is hard to pick a set of facts that are certain. It would help to list the facts and quasi-facts as a sort of aide-memoire:

1. Facts 

  • Norman Vella was held and questioned by the police for four hours.
  • Norman Vella’s mobile phone and tablet were confiscated.
  • A group of ex-One TV/Radio employees were passing through customs at the time of the events.
  • Running Commentary had uploaded posts mentioning the abovementioned trip WITHOUT posting any photos.
  • Norman Vella is employed as an Immigration Officer at MIA.

2. Statements made by involved parties

  • The detention was made following a report filed by two persons (NV mentions this in interview).
  • No photos were sent to Daphne Caruana Galizia (DCG expressly states this and challenged TOM reporter Kurt Sansone).
  • No photos were found on the confiscated equipment (NV mentions this).
  • Kurt Farrugia and Ramona Attard claim not to have known of the events (interviewed upon their arrival in the UK).

So we may be dealing with a situation of an Immigration Officer who has violated the rules of his workplace and insofar as that point is concerned there would be no problem if his superiors take the necessary precautions that are proportional to the violation he committed. In truth if there indeed was a report that an Immigration officer has broken any rules of the workplace you would expect an internal investigation, a report and a proportionate punishment should the allegation be proven right.

Once you remove the shackles of partisan subjectivity from before your eyes though it would not be such a tough logical process to notice that there is much that is amiss in the treatment of the obnoxious (anything but erstwhile) ex-TVHEMM presenter. To begin with the frenzy of activity was worked up at the same time (or shortly after) Daphne Caruana Galizia posted two or three posts about the large government delegation of communication officers (or whatever Taghna Lkoll jargon is trendy nowadays) en route to some BBC training in London. The subject matter was and remains very pertinent. Here are ex-party propaganda machine employees now on a government payroll on their way to a conference in London – all expenses paid.

Is it relevant to the public? It’s as relevant as anything related to government or party salaries. This blog has often dealt with the issue of party financing and very recently dealt with the issue of how Labour’s finances were “saved” by the large exodus of employees towards the government payroll. Kurt Farrugia and Ramona Attard do not pass through passport control as private citizens but rather as government employees. Whether their presence was sighted and reported while having their luggage checked or while they were shopping at the duty free section is irrelevant.

Now my gut tells me never to trust Norman Vella. His demeanor when interviewed speaks volumes and his “innocent victim face” ensconced in a short-sleeved shirt two sizes too large was not exactly convincing. Still, there is not much where to get lost this time round. He mentions having nodded (sellem) in the direction of Kurt and Ramona (they are after all ex-colleagues of sorts). It is important since Kurt and Ramona would have been aware of his presence and I am sure that if shortly after they were catching up on the activity on the net – particularly on what they probably refer to as “il-blogg tas-sahhara” they must have made the wrong sort of one plus one.

It is an assumption I know but Occam’s razor, Dr House and Sherlock Holmes would probably agree to this version of events. The “report”, the fact that one of the communication officers works for the Minister under whose remit the police work and the sudden concatenation of news that included the red herring of “photos taken in the immigration area” can only point in one direction.

And this is the dirty part. We have developed what in the US of A is called a “person of interest“. The cool thing that you learn about a “person of interest” in Hollywood criminal series is that law enforcement agencies can opt to classify a person as such rather than as a “suspect” because it gives them more leeway in dealing with him. Less habeas corpus and the like. In our case we still have not got a hard and fast definition or use of “persons of interest” but Norman Vella just got that treatment.

Within minutes of a report that alleged that he snapped some shots at his workplace he was detained and interrogated for four hours. Really? Four? How many times can you ask the question – “did you take a photo ?”. What kind of phone and tablet does Vella have anyway? Is his photo gallery encrypted? Are his email attachments rerouted through Ed Snowden’s servers? And somehow I get the feeling that Daphne Caruana Galizia cannot afford to lie on this one – she did not receive any photos from Vella.

So what are we left with? We are left with intimidation tactics and abuse of police power all of which are intended to protect “inner circle” employees of the Taghna Lkoll generation. Beautiful. Kurt Farrugia and Ramona (use me as you will) Attard. If Vella took no photos then the only hope that some kind of excuse for disciplinary action could be taken fizzles up in smoke.

You’d have to have swallowed a huge amount of Taghna Lkoll pills in order to justify this charade.

In un paese pieno di coglioni ci mancano le palle.

 

Categories
Politics

The Unbearable Schizophrenia of Being the PN

It’s a tough time for the opposition. That it is so is surprising since the Labour government is generously providing all sorts of opportunities for an alert opposition to be critical. Having said that, it is also true that the long-term effects of the Taghna Lkoll wave will continue to be sustained so long as the party in government acts and thinks as a party in opposition. Bad as it may be for governance (and harmful) it still seems to do the works in the perception polls.

Back to the PN. Their nominations for the MEP elections are shaky to say the least. It is hard not to look at the list of candidates announced up until now and not to think of them as a motley result of the push and pull of different inner strands of the party. Some are totally new to the field of politics (Jonathan Shaw or Helga Ellul) and still ride on the obsession of one part of the PN that still confuses corporate and political guile/power if and where it exists.

Bar the tried and tested Metsola who should hopefully make it back to Brussels to build on what turned out to be a positively surprising performance there is not much hope that shines out of the PN list. The list though is just made of people. It is the policies and politics that are still rather unfathomable – what kind of party will people be voting for?

Unfortunately for the men and women from Pietà there is no easy answer to that one. The PN still betrays signs of inner tensions. To begin with the party whose internal politics depends very much on the formation of factions has not managed to shed the inner fault lines that turn out to be debilitating in the long run. Add to that the fact that the party has still not managed to have a long hard think about its value base and what it wants to represent. Not a good place to be in when we are in the times of Civil Union Bills.

It is just such a bill that exposes the frailties of the PN as a party. On the positive side the political differences as to what position to take on various aspects of the bill are commendable. They are signs of a party that still has some vestiges of political thinking or ticking going on. Whether you agree or disagree with any of the factions is not the point – what is clear is that the PN has clear symptoms of multiple personality disorder verging on schizophrenia.

Without going into much detail as to the different sections themselves we can still see how the PN’s outside front can turn out to be shallow and non-committal.  A telling moment was when the PN managed to confirm that it would back the Civil Union Bill but then went on to say that it would propose amendments that would differentiate the Unions from marriage. The cake and eat it. It’s why it is easy for Joseph to go on riding the opportunist bulldozer and claim that the PN is being equivocal on this point.

The danger for the PN is that having so many different political backgrounds really means that the PN is constantly in the position of being more parties than one. There is a conservative strand and a social democrat style of Christian-Democracy that often swings to the left side of the spectrum. Unlike the PL that has reneged completely on any kind of association with value-driven politics, the PN is simply at a point of having to define its priorities and possibly decide whether the different strands can be accommodated in one monolithic structure.

Another aspect of PN’s schizophrenia is related to its having to deal with the past. The corollary to Muscat’s constant jibes at the PN’s history is that any new position by the PN has to take into consideration its very recent track record. A case in point is the Passports for Sale saga. The PN might have unearthed a Fenech Adami refusal to one such proposal in its early days of government but a simple search as to who the main protagonists in the new scheme are clearly indicates that Gonzi’s government might have had similar plans on the backburner itself.

These are tough times for an opposition still trying to get on its feet and one that is in search of a clear identity. I’ve written this before and don’t mind repeating it again now – before venturing to sell its message to the people the PN must first be sure that it knows what that message is.

Know thyself. Then go out and fight the behemoth that is threatening to run riot with this country.

 

Categories
Mediawatch

The Plagiarists

We’ve been there before. This will be a useless post – a hopeless one really. In this post I’ll be pointing out that yet another aspiring politician has put his signature to an article that is full of excerpts that are not his own. You might read it if it tickles your fancy, or you might not. Most probably it will draw a few guffaws and some would go through the motions of tut-tutting for a while. The newspaper in question will probably not bother with the fact that its political contributor is a plagiarist. So why bother?

Well, notwithstanding the miasma of indifference that seems to have become the norm and standard for your average citizen I’ve decided to soldier on – go on the record so to speak. These are the men and women that your political parties will be suggesting that you send to Brussels and Strasbourg to represent you. When these men and women sign their articles in the paper and end it with “is an MEP election candidate on the PL ticket” they are basically looking for the Maltese reaction of: “bravu dan”, “ara kemm kiteb dwar l-Ewropa”, “nahseb jifhem”.

The Malta Independent has quite a history in particular of entertaining this kind of “articles” roughly shod together from bits and pieces over the internet. You can spot them a mile away. They normally carry the kind of title that would have been taken straight from an EU poster for some project and then segue into a series of very tenuously related paragraphs. It’s what you get when your “research” is any old Eu-related document that provides you with chunky “technical-sounding” phrases.

So here is il-Perit Clint Camilleri or rather – an article collated together from a document entitled “Dilemmas in Globalization – Exploring Global Trends and Progressive Solutions”. To be fair it’s a collection of essays for the Socialist Group in the European Parliament and Camilleri lifts extensively from Martin Schultz’s intervention. But he does not tell you does he? He just makes the material his own and that is fraudulent. Why is it fraudulent? Because it makes Camilleri appear to be someone who he is not – someone capable of writing an article about Social Europe in a technical manner.

Should that be important to you? Hell, I’ve given up – you decide. It would not surprise me one bit that this kind of “passing off as one’s own” is accepted as normal and ok behaviour. We’ve been rushing headlong down this path of indifference for quite some time now. Our parties have gotten us used to candidates that amount to nothing much more than hot air and pompous parading hiding behind some University degree or other. All the more fools are we when we persist in voting for them.

The text of Camilleri’s article below can be compared to the text in this pdf.

 

Social Europe

Today we are not only living a financial crisis but a crisis in globalization. The crises started in the financial system but have spread to every aspect of the economy, creating socio-economic disequilibrium. In order to save the financial system governments have invested millions of Euros but the problem is not to save only the financial system by restoring credit, but to sort out the huge structural economic problems which are at the origin of the problem. [J’accuse note – Lifted from introduction to document]

The growing inequality worldwide is at the heart of the problem. This is the most important dilemma we must face. We must decide whether we should restore a system that recompenses those that created the financial crises in the first place or transforming the system which will eventually address those at the bottom of the pyramid. [J’accuse note – also lifted from Introduction]

Some statistics of shame: According to the Eurostat, 59,000 Maltese were at risk of poverty – 14.6 % of the population, according to 2008 figures. ‘At risk of poverty’ is defined as meaning those living in a household with a disposable income that is below the risk-of-poverty threshold, which is set at 60% of the national median disposable income.

Eurostat said that in Malta, 16,000 were ‘severely materially deprived’. Such people could not pay rent/mortgage or utility bills, keep their home adequately warm or face unexpected expenses. They also could not afford to eat meat, fish or protein equivalent every second day an cannot afford a car, washing machine, colour TV or telephone.

If national income had been distributed more equal, with lower profits and higher salaries the overall European economy would have been more stable. If the wealth that was speculated had been fairly distributed in the form of lower prices and higher salaries we would have been able to minimise the effects from the crises.

The crises we are suffering is to a great extent the crises of a model based on the growth of inequality. Salaries which are too low and poverty amongst the middle class has driven credit consumption to the exploding point of debt. Thus credit is no longer a socially and extended and economically solvent request used for investment into new fields of real production. [J’accuse note – slightly paraphrased from intro on page 1]

Increased competitive pressures on the social systems threaten to damage the social cohesion of European societies. In face of the highly mobile global economy nation states have lost their capacity to act alone and to adequately protect social rights. While capital has swept away borders through the single market mechanism, the welfare state has remained trapped with national boundaries. For decades the EU success model was the combination of economic progress with social progress. Then the governing conservative majority in Europe decided to focus on the removal of trade barriers while sometimes neglecting the social dimension. [J’accuse note – page 16 of document]

Thinking in a global dimension has become a pre-requisite for finding solutions. Re-thinking governance and including new levels of governance expands the room for manoeuvre. Growing interdependence between societies and nation states does not only create new categories of problems, it offers the solution too. Nation states alone might not be the best vehicle for mitigating huge changes. The EU is much better equipped for finding solutions and implementing concrete measures in cooperation with other major players. [J’accuse note – page 14 of document]

Now is the time to correct this imbalance. It is time for a new social Europe that places people not the market at the centre of economic activity. Social progress clauses need to be included in every piece of EU legislation and social and environmental impact assessments needs to be taken into account. If Europe again shows its social face it will surely regain the trust and the support of its citizens. [J’accuse note – page 16 of document].

Perit Clint Camilleri is an MEP election candidate on the PL ticket

 

 

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Politics Uncategorized

He’s in Miami, bitch

Taghna Lkoll. Used to be we’d say “they think they can get away with it”, now we’ve upped the ante and we say “they know they can get away with it”. What’s “it”? Anything. Abso-effin-lutely anything. No use getting all het up under the collar, no use pointing fingers at this or that. It’s official. Joseph Muscat’s Taghna Lkoll Labour Party cum Movement (sic(k)) is not only expert at scraping the bottom of the political barrel but it also excels in packaging the detritus thus obtained and selling it as pure gold.

We have already dealt with the assault on democratic respectability that has been perpetrated in the first few months of Labour’s government. Ministers acting as mini-despots, brazen nepotistic (uxoric?) appointments and schemes that are very transparently hatched solely to repay electoral debts and please those who naively formed a “movement for change”. The very foundation of Taghna Lkoll’s “cheaper energy” scheme is built on associations and dealings with entities of the most dubious international standing coupled with a sell-out to anything ringing of Remninbi investment (no questions asked).

Which brings us to the Passports for Sale saga. As I type, our Prime Minister – that is the Prime Minister of a democratic republic that proudly participates on the world stage – is a main speaker at a conference in Miami where he will be flogging Maltese passports on the cheap in much the same way as Nidal Binni (forgive me Nidal) flogs his Blue Pain Relief. “Passaport Malti… int taf x’ifisser”.  So our PM’s in Miami, bitch…

When I step on the scene
Y’all know me, ’cause I walk with a limp
Like a old school pimp a real O G
I’m rocking vans
I’m in the sand
I’ve a got a red bull and vodka up in my hand

– LMFAO (I’m in Miami)

And pimpin’ he is. Because let’s face it. You only have to have swallowed so many of the Taghna Lkoll pills so as not to be able to differentiate between what the going rate for privileged citizenship investor schemes is and the Taghna Lkoll version of “Pimp my Nationality”. The organisation chosen to wheel and deal with the passports is about as legit as it can be – exploiting loopholes and opportunities offered by Banana Republics in desperate need for some extra cash. The clientele in such a market are not exactly the creme de la creme of high society and you can bet your last passport cover that the attendees at the Miami and London parties are the kind whose names appear in the Interpol kind of Who’s Who … not so VIP then.

It doesn’t stop there does it? Our Prime Minister is setting up his international street hawker stand just off the Florida Keys and be sure that he will be promising absolute anonymity to anybody prepared to fork out the piles of Jeffersons. In an astute move, the new scheme does not oblige the government to publish the names of successful applicants in the Government Gazzette.

Seriously. Our jet setting Prime Minister currently in Miami dealing in republican passports on the cheap had tried to convince us that he is an international diplomat of the highest quality – from the UN to Washington to Israel to Palestine, we are supposed to believe that with the advent of Muscat on the international scene we will soon be seeing a solution to the Palestinian Problem, Syrian Troubles, the African Immigrant Exodus and probably soon enough he’ll have a cure for cancer. The Taghna Lkoll mouthpieces have not hesitated one bit in promulgating the message of The Great Communicator cum Part Time Passport Salesman in the local news. It’s beginning to look and sound more and more like Cuba’s Granma in the eighties.

Meanwhile let’s hope Muscat took some dollars with him to the conference. I’d hate to see him fumbling through his pockets at the cocktail bar only to notice he has no cash on his person… “Do you have change for Maltese passports?”