J'accuse

03/12/2024

Testing Buffer posting in our fast-paced digital world! Are you juggling multiple social media platforms too? Like this if a social media manager is your go-to tool!

19/10/2024

While Malta is eager to back the controversial 'return hubs' in the EU such as the one Italy has set up in Albania, a recent ECJ judgment seems to have slowed down these plans. The problem lies with the designation of safe countries - is the country an asylum seeker is coming from considered to be safe or not by the receiving state?

The ECJ has clearly stated that a Member State cannot partially designate a third country as safe. It is either totally safe or it is not. You cannot have an exception with particular regions of that country. Italian Magistrates have clashed with the government over the safe country designation of Egypt and Bangladesh.

16/10/2024

7.

16/10/2024

The Birth of a Blog. A post written 3 days and 6 hours after the assassination.

[3 days 6 hours] The 2008 election campaign was the first one to feature blogs heavily. The Maltese blogosphere had only just really kicked off and most times it was a case of blogs being ...

15/10/2024

Joseph Muscat’s government had been in power for 1682 days on the day Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated. That’s 4 years, 7 months and 7 days. On the last of those 4 years, 7 months and 7 days Daphne Caruana Galizia would write those fatal words that are now part of the history of this nation. “The crooks are everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate.”

J'accuse

Joseph Muscat's government had been in power for 1682 days on the day Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated. That's 4 years, 7 months and 7 days. On the last of those 4 years, 7 months and ...

09/08/2024

Notes from a forgotten blog, many many years ago (11 to be exact). Abulafia had predicted the “kullhadd jithanzer” long before Rosiane hit the scene.

In an op article on the International Herald Tribune Salman Rushdie recently lamented that there no longer are any politicians who have the courage to take important decisions. More importantly Rus…

07/08/2024

All this talk about Identity Card Fraud reminded me of my case almost ten years back.

  I am the owner of a flat in Saint Julian’s - Paceville to be exact. For some time now I have known that I share the address of this flat with over fifty individuals who I have never met ...

11/06/2024

Part one of my take on the EP elections.

All eyes on Sunday were fixed on ‘the Gap’. As the day wore on, the size of ‘the gap’ between the votes garnered by representatives of Malta’s major parties shrunk from 23,000 at the start of the day to around 8,000. Early analysis of the numbers was predictably simplistic and opportunisti...

21/05/2024

And like all Aesop’s fables there’s a moral to the story. In this one it’s pretty straightforward… you can run but you cannot hide.

Repubblika’s allegations are like 'Aesop’s fables'

11/05/2024

Waqt il-process ta’ beatifikazzjoni ta’ Chris Fearne (li tant bata ghal dnubiethom) tajjeb niftakru li, lil hinn mir-responsabilità diretta li tista tigi stabilita fil-kamp penali, is-Sur Fearne Ministru u politiku, kien responsabbli dirett td-dekasteru li fih saru tabt hnizrijiet u tahwid. Ghamel parti minn, u ddefenda, ezekuttiv li mill-inqas l-inqas mexq b’mod korrott fil-bejgh tal-isptarijiet u ikkomprometta s-sistema ts-sahha.

Forsi, forsi Fearne ma hux hati ta’ dak li biegh qed jittella l-qorti (dak tarah il-qorti) pero fuq livell politiku dan il-kliem kollu ta’ qdusija hu barra min loku.

F’pajjiz demokratiku normali il-karriera politika ta’ Chris Fearne - u ta kull min mess ma dak il-kabinett- tispicca hawn.

08/05/2024

Again: Giovanna Debono resigned from PN parliamentary group for as long as her HUSBAND faced charges of misappropriation and fraud. (Anthony Debono was eventually cleared of all charges).

Edward Scicluna please note.

08/05/2024

Just a reminder of how real politicians act when facing charges. Resignation is not an option, unless of course you are in a cabinet where the PM is the prime defender of those charged.
Chris Said

Accuser rapped for ‘abusing judicial system’

06/05/2024

A reminder: it's not just Vitals. Tip-of-the-iceberg territory...

Back in April, when parliament gave a confidence vote in Konrad Mizzi, the Prime Minister stood up and said: “By the end of this year, we will publish those major contracts which we have signed, to show that we have nothing to fear from transparency.” On Labour Day a few days later, he said the ...

06/05/2024

No, Deputy Prime Minister, you remind us why you’re prepared to be Health Minister in the government of Malta while failing to ask why that government signed a shady deal for public hospital management with an untested new outfit called, pretentiously, Vitals GLOBAL Healthcare, when you haven’t even bothered to find out who the actual shareholders are behind that secret company registered in the British Virgin Islands, or why your government colleagues signed that deal in the first place.

In your case, the answer is raw, unbridled power and ambition.

No, Deputy Prime Minister, you remind us why you’re prepared to be Health Minister in the government of Malta while failing to ask why that government signed a shady deal for public hospital management with an untested new outfit called, pretentiously, Vitals GLOBAL Healthcare, when you haven’t ...

02/05/2024

While reinforcing his fantastical description of judicial independence under Labour, Robert Abela referred to "ex-PN candidates who today occupy the position of judges in international courts" (3'55'' in the video on the times article).

Does anybody know who he might be referring to? To my knowledge there are no such cases either in the ECJ or the ECHR.

Time for a Times of Malta fact check?

Robert Abela refuses to say who he is referring to when he criticises 'the establishment'

01/05/2024

It is the responsibility of our Chief Justice to protect the judiciary and reassert its place in our constitutional set-up. Justice cannot remain silent in the face of this affront. It should be the first to stand up to this potential regression.

J'accuse TheShiftNews

When Robert Abela speaks of his duty as prime minister to enforce checks and balances on the judiciary, he conjures phantoms out of thin air. Our system of checks and balances enshrined in the principle of separation of powers really requires the opposite. A cornerstone of our constitutional set-up,...

19/04/2024

Fusses made in the wrong places. With a nod to Montserrat.
TheShiftNews J'accuse

I found Father Marc Andre Camilleri’s impassionate apologia for the cafeteria plans on Christ the King Basilica more than convincing. To be honest, I did not need any convincing, and I found the whole ruckus to be quite an annoying waste of time. The Times journalist interviewing the Kappillan see...

11/04/2024

While you were worried about the morning traffic, the gridlocks, the too many foreigners, the inconvenience of tables and chairs in Valletta. While you were worried about that a little girl drowned in our seas. 2.5m waves, hypothermia.