Back in February, the “fastest and easiest” purchase of passports was from St Kitts. Now, it’s Malta.
You really must read the Associated Press report in the link below. It puts things into their sorry perspective.
David McFadden , The Associated Press
Feb 12, 2013
Hadi Mezawi has never set foot on the Caribbean island of Dominica, has never seen its rainforests or black-sand beaches. But he’s one of its newest citizens.
Without leaving his home in the United Arab Emirates, the Palestinian man recently received a brand new Dominican passport after sending a roughly $100,000 contribution to the tropical nation half a world away.
“At the start I was a little worried that it might be a fraud, but the process turned out to be quite smooth and simple. Now, I am a Dominican,” said Mezawi, who like many Palestinians had not been recognized as a citizen of any country. That passport will help with travel for his job with a Brazilian food processing company, he said by telephone from Dubai.
Turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa has led to a surge of interest in programs that let investors buy citizenship or residence in countries around the world in return for a healthy contribution or investment. Most are seeking a second passport for hassle-free travel or a ready escape hatch in case things get worse at home.
Nowhere is it easier or faster than in the minuscule Eastern Caribbean nations of Dominica and St. Kitts & Nevis.
(…)
Read the rest in the link below.
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http://skift.com/2013/02/12/caribbean-islands-trading-passports-for-investments/
‘Buying citizenship is a scheme that could lead to security lapses and corruption. Some of these small and gorgeous Caribbean islands are desperate to encourage development, and these fast-track citizenship-purchase programs are a testament to their economic woes.’
— Dennis Schaal
The most worrying bit…
Next up, change the George Cross to a bunch of bananas.
Next up, sell the George Cross. We’re the only country with a military decoration on its flag. That’ll sell faster than passports.
The George Cross is really a civilian decoration – the highest available to honour bravery for civilians – the equivalent of the Victoria Cross for the military if you like.
*Cringe *cringe
Ah! So that’s how they intend to help solve the problems of the Middle East! By “converting” Palestinians into Maltese… All this thinking outside the box that they’ve been doing lately can’t help but make me think that Edward de Bono has a part in all this.
“Why not give them a passport and let them get/go on their way…” Edward de Bono.
“Why not” politics.
The politics of possibility, poetry, provocation.
Joseph Muscat :
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/elections2013/Campaigning-in-poetry-governing-in-poetry-Joseph-Muscat-20130304
” Everything is possible, Muscat promises, and he wants us to believe that all the problems the Opposition has been picking away at will melt away.”
In the same just-days-before-the-election interview, he also said:
“I’d like to think that I will be campaigning in poetry and governing in poetry. If right now we are saying people will be chosen to public posts based on what they know and not who they know, this will be the case. If today I am pledging meritocracy, then meritocracy it will be. Doing otherwise would only mean returning to the old way of doing politics.”
Just words. Dangerous, because they mean nothing.
Just a reminder:
The Happiness Purpose, author Edward de Bono, dating from 1977, defines a Proto-Truth on these lines:
A Proto-Truth is any new truth that is put forward as the new truth and upheld as dogma until a further new truth manages to secure the position.
In the positive application: it is meant to refer to new ideas and discoveries, understanding that a new discovery will overtake the old. That a hypothesis may one day assert itself over old beliefs.
In the negative application: This allows you to say whatever you want to, believing: “what is the use of having a mind if you don’t change it from time to time.”
Use of Proto-Truthing in a negative application permits you to proceed to do whatever you want without the hang-ups attached to what you might have previously said, committed to or put in motion. Often the stand is to “shrug” off knowledge or awareness of prior arrangements or statements.