Tag: Joseph Muscat

Categories
Corruption Politics

Rotten to the core

rotten_akkuzaThe scandal relating to the concrete supply at Mater Dei Hospital is turning out to be a fitting metaphor to describe the fate of Maltese politics.

In the first instance we are gradually exposing an extremely deficient system that existed back in the mid-nineties that somehow or another allowed for the provision of sub-standard building materials for a hospital. Do not for one moment allow yourself to forget that it is a hospital that we are talking about. Along with schools, hospitals are probably one of the more socially sensitive infrastructures whose standard and quality mirror the heart of a nation -this is not to say that using deficient building material in order to construct any other type of building would have been a mitigation of any kind.

The formula for this horrible state of affairs is the tried and tested combination of commercial interests that work their way (either through influence or through direct involvement) into the corridors of power. The businessman and the politician will then work together to earn a quick buck on the backs of an electorate blinded by the passion for partisan flag-waving and alternation. The metaphor becomes ever more apt when one of the protagonists (shall we say suspects) turns out to be a career politician who managed to remain a sacred cow for one or other of the parties at different times in his career. No amount of irony was spared when his decade-spanning involvement in local (and now European and World) politics mean that somehow or other he was involved with the health structures of the nation under both parties in government.

But this is not about John Dalli. This is about the politics and political system of our nation. For I say that the metaphor remains apt to this day. Whether the guardians of the nation in the mid-nineties are to be found accountable for any corrupt sales of deficient construction material when building a new national hospital remains to be seen – what is sure is that someone has to pay. It will be another notch for the pro memoria of the twisted insanity of the post-Mintoffian generation of politicians.

What we have today is another government that is intent on hiding the truth or using parts of it to its gain. As of this month Muscat’s government is strongly testing the resilience of democratic sustainability and sovereignty. While the masks had fallen a long time ago, a long line of inexplicable decisions have provided clear hints that the Taghna Lkoll ideal has long been dead and buried and that Muscat has lost the plot.

It is hard to identify where it all began. Was it the full-frontal assault on the environment that did the trick? Was it the blatant lies relating to all that is Zonqor? Was it the slip relating to the Qala Yacht Marina? Muscat had tested the waters with the Hunting Referendum and wrongly gauged the slight victory obtained by those intent on preserving the status quo of wrongly appliying a European directive. Even today his appointees in the Ornis Committee defy all odds with relation to trapping. yet, Muscat’s defiant attitude on environmental issues is not a deal breaker on democratic standards. It is after all the prerogative of his party in government to espouse a suicidal destructive environmental policy.

No, the non-democratic chasm of Muscat lies away from these “minor” spites to our environmental heritage. It lies dotted within political appointments and appointees that are starting to betray their ineptness but still remain defended by the Prime Minister himself. It lies within a Cabinet Code of Ethics that has just been announced and that exposes Muscat’s money-hungry coterie for all its hypocrisy. It lies within the recent decisions relating to government property used to line the pockets of friends of friends (oh they are back but louder and clearer) from the Premier Cafe farce to the latest Gaffarena pot of gold.

It lies with the appointment of judges and magistrates in full defiance of the reforms that were being proposed by his very government. It lies with a “What’s all the fuss?” attitude combined with the “Tu Quoque” retorts that have long been dried of all significance and only serve to reinforce the strong perception of arrogance. It lies with the regular rubbing up to despots and tinpot country leaders and running around with a begging bowl while seemingly ignorant of the atrocities and democratic deficits that exist within the nations of these much adulated partners.

It lies with the belief that the national heritage and national identity is there solely for Labour’s politicians to plunder and sell to the highest bidder. With the passport scheme Muscat began to sell our mind and identity, with the lands that he has taken to expropriating, selling under cost, or plundering from their natural value he is selling our body and heritage, as for our soul, it has long been sold to the first devil to turn up at our doorstep promising Muscat a bit of money, an investment for his developer friends and a photo opportunity in which to prance around like some latter-day Mussolini on speed.

It’s a disgusting state of affairs in which nothing is sacred – not even the institutions that should stand as a guarantee. Under a nationalist government the faulty concrete foundations were laid at Mater Dei Hospital. At the same time the rotten core of all that is wrong in our political system had begun to take root. Today we find ourselves the inheritors of a hospital that is unsafe and of a government at the helm of a political system that is ready to implode any minute.

Joseph Muscat’s Labour has its hands deeply tied and entwined with the same kind of businessmen as existed in the mid-nineties and set the path for the Mater Dei disaster. It is beyond redemption. Hope, if any, lies first of all in Simon Busuttil and his managing the re-foundation of the nationalist party before going on to re-found the Maltese State. It must be patently obvious by now that the nationalist party needs a reconstruction from the roots and not simply a renewal. A new style of politics, a new style of engagement and a new style of leadership.

Speaking at Zonqor Busuttil did say that the biggest task for his party is not to be different from Muscat but also to be different from his own party in the past.

Those words should be printed out on a concrete slab at the entrance of PN HQ. Preferably on good, sound concrete… sound enough to build the basis for a brighter future ahead.

 

 

Categories
Politics

The Road to Perdition

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One of the most repeated mantras under the last administration was that it was too arrogant. Arrogance had become the byword for Muscat’s opposition, stirring up the people’s hatred and chips until they could take no more. One would expect that after two years of Labour government we would have anything but an arrogant government.

Not. Joseph “What is all the fuss?” Muscat is on track to break all negative records even in this department. This would already be worrying were it not for another not too insignificant detail. The real problem is that Muscat’s arrogance is directly related to one of the most basic tenets of liberal democracy – the right to property and its enjoyment. In this field Muscat has run rampage like no other before him managing to begin to belittle the feats of his hero Mintoff.

Public property is anything but something that is intended for the general enjoyment of the people. In Muscat’s eyes it is there to be raped and sold to the shadiest investor. From Zonqor to Qala the alarum bells are ringing while the Prima Donna in Castille gives us the modern day version of Marie Antoinette with his “Let them eat cake” being the “What is all this fuss?” His cabinet of incompetents can only just back him up in this tyrannic saunter through the res publica – most of them have vested interests in some jaunt or other whether it is strip clubs or property to be developed.

“Qieghdin sew” is an expression that offers meagre consolation. This morning we woke up to the news that through some wheeling and dealing of government sponsored expropriation another individual managed to make quite a few euros. Arrogance? Expropriation – the word of tyranniesthat evokes the ghost of South American socialist (read fascists in disguise) manouevres. So a couple of farmers own the land where Muscat wants to make a cheap sell to place a scam university? No problem – we will move them around because their land is in the way.

The laws that are supposed to be in place to safeguard these democratic basics such as the right to enjoyment of property and the protection of the res publica are also in danger of being rendered useless. This governmenthas become the masterind of the watering down of our legal system. It creeated a momentary illusion of competence by introducing haphazard laws granting social rights. That was the equivalent of the opium for the general public. All too peased for having obtained the long awaited rights by hook or by crook (mostly by crook and false promises) they rushed to anoint the law-maker as expert. Anyone criticising these laws as patchwork that fails to fall within the lines of a general social project would quickly be branded a conservative defender of the fools who for too long ignored the signs of change.

The institutional set-up that should help with legal safeguards is long eroded. MEPA and its likes are full of upstart proto-philosophers busy licking the arses of those in power hoping to get a piece of the cake even if such piece only means a bit of verbal recognition every now and then as well as a keen following of blind minions. The courts are gradually succumbing to a nomination game that is all but neutral and threatens the pilars of separation of power. And all the while the chips on the shoulder against the old, arrogant PN (GonziPN?) are proving to be resilient.

We could blame the arrogance of the former guise of PN that brought us into this mess. We could continue to whinge about how the former government lacked ears to listen. Some among us could even bask in the short-lived sunlight of “I told you so” smugness. All the while though the nation is being dragged into undemocratic ignominy by a far worse adversary than has ever been seen before.

It is time for some people to set their pride away and invest in practical options to bring about change as quickly as is possible. Even if that means holding their noses and backing a party they believed they would never back.

It’s imperative that they realise this now. The future of the nation is in balance and they will have much to answer for if they do not realise it.

 

Categories
Environment Politics

Rape, Lies and a Jordanian Constructor’s University

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Did I say gullible? More extraordinary news today as the Sadeen University (I’m not falling for the American crap) saga continues to unfold.  The story in the Times under the headline “University plan viable only with the use of ODZ land” is particularly intriguing (read the text of the story below). We are told that a government source has confirmed that the American University project is only viable if ODZ land is used because the land there is cheaper “and that is the price government is prepared to pay”. Government? Pay? Really?  Here’s just a few of our observations:

1. The mask has fallen quickly on this one. Much quicker than it ever did on the Citizenship Scheme and Henley and Partners. The words “American” and “University” failed to constitute sufficient snake oil to lubricate the painful reality of the truth: Public land that is not designated for development would be raped and the little private owners involved will make a killing thanks to Labour’s sale. Education has nothing to do with this. This is pure and simple speculation of the ugliest kind. Muscat is the construction industry’s messiah and it does not cost his pocket one thing. It’s the public and its land that will pay the price.

2. Investment? What investment? Since when does attracting foreign investment involve “the price government is prepared to pay”? Not only are we allowing foreign constructors to rape our nation’s limited surface resources but we are paying for it. Isn’t that brilliant? Taghna Lkoll my backside.

3. “The land will be given to the investors, Sadeen Group, through a concession on temporary emphyteusis authorised by a parliamentary resolution. It is not yet known how long the period will be. The contract for the land will stipulate that it can only be used for educational purposes.” Sweet. For an undefined period  we are giving away yet another chunk (90k square metres) of our land. The inclusion of a derisory clause limiting the use to educational purposes can only be seen in the light of the recent arse-minded decisions in the domain of planning including Michael Falzon’s “this is not an amnesty”. So much for a guarantee.

4. The university and american bit might be too complicated for mere mortals to be able to assess the extent of the travesty. Let’s imagine a parallel scenario. Muscat announces that the Sejfeddin Group is willing to invest a billion euros to build a leisure resort on Comino. Present at the launching are two senior managers from Disney World Paris who, it turns out, were paid a handsome fee by Sejfeddin Group to provide designs for the new resort based on their experience. Announcing the Disneyish Resort of Malta, Muscat informs the general public that an area amounting to three quarters of Comino including the Blue Lagoon and St. Mary’s Bay will be handed over to the Sejfeddin Group under temporary emphyteusis. There are no real alternatives to this since Comino was the only plan that would make the Disney Resort viable. All that is missing from this fictitious example is the sale of a few patches of land owned by persons linked to Labour. Spiffing isn’t it? Then we could truly say that this is a pajjiz tal-Mickey Mouse.

from University plan viable only with use of ODZ land (The Times of Malta):

The new American university in the south has to be built on land in an outside development zone or the project will not be financially viable, a government source has confirmed. Any ODZ land being used for agriculture has a much lower value than land allocated for development, and that is the price government is prepared to pay. The land required is 90,000 square metres – the site identified is mostly public land, which also brings down the cost.

But 10,000 square metres of the total consists of seven areas of privately owned land, which lies at the centre. The owners include people renowned during the era of controversial former public works Labour minister Lorry Sant: Michael Axisa (il-Lay Lay), Piju Camilleri, Joe Chetcuti, Norman Clews, Joe Formosa, Joe Camilleri, Paul Abela and Manuel Farrugia.

The land will be given to the investors, Sadeen Group, through a concession on temporary emphyteusis authorised by a parliamentary resolution. It is not yet known how long the period will be. The contract for the land will stipulate that it can only be used for educational purposes. It is understood the government has made an offer to each landowner within the assigned area and is awaiting an answer from the individuals involved. The negotiations are not easy, but the government always has the option to expropriate land.

Categories
Immigration

The Statesman of the Dead

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They’re not gone. The boats full of hopefuls attempting the dangerous crossing are still there. We might have shifted our media attention to the new parliament but wave upon wave is still being intercepted – only yesterday a couple of hundred persons were to be distributed between Sicily and Puglia.

The problem remains notwithstanding the incredible show of caring and compassion that was put up by Europe’s leadership in the wake of  the 800 dead. I use my words carefully. It is Europe’s leadership and not the EU that is guilty of the dragging of feet and of an overall reluctance to deal head-on with the issue. Juncker tried hard to push the leaders into doing more but in the end the EU remains the sum of many parts and without the real determination of those parts to look the issue of immigration in the face we will not move on.

They’re not gone. We have managed simply to focus on one part of the problem that had hitherto not got the attention it deserved. European leaders chose to focus on the people smugglers. They are base beings who profit on other people’s misery. It is the 21st century form of slavery in many ways. The only difference is that the price paid is by the very people who are being trafficked and not by a European buyer. The Europeans stand aloof disgusted at the large numbers and threats to their integrity – rushing to the latest wagon prepared to brandish populist ideals.

Smuggling is part of the problem.  One German scientist observed that a flight to Europe from central and Saharan Africa costs less than the trips of death. Why don’t more immigrants use that route then? Simple really. Through legislation the European states have made sure that airlines are burdened with the “processing” of individuals before they even set foot on the departure gate. No visa, no flight – so forget processing for refugee status unless you are prepared to submit to the ordeal of trial by Mediterranean Crossing. In other words we (the Europeans States) force the immigrants into that route.

Processing centres in Africa? Just look at Spain’s underhand collaboration with Morocco in the case of Ceuta and Melilla.  Seriously? Meanwhile much of Europe mourns Italy’s abandoning of it’s earlier programs. They had begun to serve as a buffer zone. Renzi managed to make some noise thanks to the 800 dead and Joseph Muscat was quick to join the dance.

You had to be stupid not to realise that there is some sort of arrangement going on between the two. Muscat has arranged to “deal” with the dead while Renzi would transform Italy’s south into a showcase of the impossible nature of dealing with such a huge wave of arrivals. Muscat put up a show with the ignoble grandstanding surrounding the burying of the souls of the unidentified. Ah yes, unidentified. It really turned out that the bodies were only useful for the show for the media. When relatives turned up in the hope of identifying the dead they were refused access to the body. Human? Who are you kidding Joseph Muscat?

Some corners of the press were quick to hail Muscat’s roundabout turn in policy – from pushback to statesman they said. I don’t see how this latest cynical move qualifies as statesmanship. A hundred years from the Gallipoli campaign when Malta proudly stood up as the Nurse of the Mediterranean all Muscat has managed to do is transform our island into a supersized Charon, the ferryman of Hades.

One can only wonder what coin was placed in the mouths of the dead in order to appease our modern day Charon.

Categories
Hunting

Gone Cuckoo, in flagrante

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In his first interventions following the referendum result, Prime Minister Muscat embarked on a wonderful exercise in tautology. “Illegal acts will not go unpunished”, he thundered. or something to that effect. The audience was supposed to stand back in admiration (never be condescending to local politicians) and applaud this strong willed PM who was prepared to punish illegalities. Really? Why? Would they have gone unpunished had he not uttered those words?

Then there was the ultimate threat of cutting short the hunting season that had miraculously been declared open without so much as a by-your-leave (so long as the hunter-leaning ORNIS committee says so… backed by Labour of course…then hunt,  hunt, hunt). However Muscat did say that he would stop the hunting season should it turn out that there are “flagrant illegalities”. Flagrant eh. We smelt a rat in this blog. The key was obviously in the control Muscat had over what would be termed flagrant and what would not.

Muscat had slipped however. He had tried once again to set the goalposts but in his shocked post-referendum rush (it may be true that he did not expect such a small margin) he failed to choose his words carefully so when first a cuckoo then a lapwing were shot the trend on twitter was rightly #zommkelmtekjoseph and #closetheseason. No amount of pharisee stances on immigrant deaths would change that.

Why had he slipped? Well. He had chosen the word “flagrant” – and, no matter how many stooges he can send to provide a warped definition of the term in the hope that by the time Lilliput settles on the matter the hunting season will have come and gone, the terms meaning is blatantly evident to all. Flagrant does mean blatant, obvious, in your face. There is no implication of gravity or duration over time other than that the violation is so obvious and immediately so.

The latin term “in flagrante delicto” (caught red handed committing a crime) is where we all have got this expression. When you refer to an illegality and you tag the word flagrant you cannot be meaning anything else. Unless, of course, Muscat is prone to amnesia or short-sightedness – the dreaded curse of illegal hunters.

There is no way around this mess other than to admit that flagrant is what flagrant does. And close the damn season.

Addendum: Notes on a hunting season (The Hunter’s Runs)

  • Law: We still fail to understand the derogation and how it works. Nobody is asking what justification was given for this hunting season to open. What proof was given that the derogation criteria were fulfilled?
  • Work and Play: A postman and a bus driver. Gone are the gentlemen in tweed and their hounds. Classes aside, how far does hunting affect the employment industry? I happened to be in Gozo on the day of the referendum result. A young boy, not more than 12, approached a teacher of his who was dining at table with me. “Don’t expect me in school on Tuesday and Wednesday. I’ll be in the dura with dad.” That’s two schooldays and two workdays out of the economy. How many more of these stories?
  • High ground: It is stomach churning enough to see the bodies of the dead washed ashore following the migrant tragedy. It is even more disgusting to see the sudden moral stances being taken by many who had barely bothered with the issue before but who took to the ether to scold those speaking about the shot cuckoo and lapwing. It seems we must become a one-issue nation – for the convenience of a few.
  • Education: It strikes me that I learn what a lapwing looks like only after one is shot. If only all this energy were geared into bird spotting, bird watching and a greater national pride in caring and conserving for the birds that pass through this land. If only the hunter and his son who get up early to enjoy nature did so with a good camera, a thermos and a diary for spotting. Would it be so damn difficult not to have to pull the flipping trigger?

 We must plant the sea and herd its animals using the sea as farmers instead of hunters. That is what civilization is all about – farming replacing hunting. – Jacques-Yves Cousteau

 

Categories
Mediawatch

Or words to that effect

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Was it Michael Falzon who insisted that we do not call an amnesty an amnesty? You know that measure being touted by the Taghna Lkoll government whereby any environmental and planning injustices can be righted by the payment of a proportionally small fine? Well he wants us to call it a fine or something like that – but not an amnesty. Because words have effects – and Labour bloody well knows that.

Which is why Prime Minister Muscat, a master of obfuscation, has thrown this pile of peppered bull about hospitals, investments and Queens Mary (sic) into our face in a brilliant mish-mash that would make Lewis Carroll proud. It did not take an investigative genius to see through the intentional misdirections this time round. The moment I heard the news I googled Barts (and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry). There, on their web pages I came across the information that the school was moving to a magnificent new hospital after 40 years.

Located in London, the school had cost a stunning 100 million pounds sterling – and it had taken them forty years to raise that amount of cash and make that move. Why then would Barts (or QMUL) be suddenly spending close to 200 million euros to open a school in Gozo?

Well it isn’t. The two pieces of news are separate. The first, an agreement to set up a medical school in Malta, had been signed a year ago by Godfrey Farrugia before he was hounded out of his ministry to be replaced by Konrad of the Many Promises and of the Wife On Public Payroll. Yesterday was the moment that agreement came to fruition.

The second is an attempt to get the private sector to invest 200 million euros to upgrade the Gozo (Craig) Hospital and Saint Luke’s Hospital. Muscat’s government once again shows a non-socialist approach to the management of public assets. Nothing wrong there – attracting private investment while still guaranteeing free public services is laudable. Of course the private sector will want their moneys’ worth so expect the use of such extensions for private purposes (two-tier public/private services). Also expect possible abuses if left to their own devices.

Another suprising element about this move is that Labour is replicating a move suggested by the PN government a good while back – when Mater Dei was still in the pipeline as San Raffaele and there was a public-private proposal that was gunned down by heavy Labour opposition.

Back to the word games though. Muscat deliberately plays on confusion – and is hoping this stunt about “investment in Gozo” will return the right dividends come the local elections on April 11th. You can bet your last dollar that any criticism such as this one regarding the deliberate confusion will be shot down with “mhux xorta investiment?” which is definitely not the point.

Our Prime Minister continues to prove himself to be a master of deceit and manipulation. Will the public go along once again?

#maltaottimista #maltamazzuna