There speak the real Europeans and the true democratic spirit
The Danish government has plans to sell part of the state-owned energy company to Goldman Sachs, and the Danes are up in arms, protesting, petitioning and kicking up an almighty fuss.
And the sale is to Goldman Sachs.
Meanwhile, back home on the ranch in Malta, the government sells 35% of the state-owned energy company TO ANOTHER STATE RULED BY A COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIP, and the Maltese roll over and purr, or say, ‘Shhh, ahjar ma tghid xejn‘.
Or worse, “At least we’re getting some money and they’re taking up the debts.”
Democracy is alien to Malta. It was imposed by the British in the form of a free press and a parliament based on the Westminster model, but those things evolved in Britain from long socio-cultural development which we never experienced in Malta, and so we have the form but not the substance.
Real democracy never took root here. And what worries me is that I don’t think it ever will. The culture is all wrong. We have exactly the same problems as southern Italy and North Africa. We are an oxymoron: a society in which basic democratic freedoms must be almost forced upon us and even then we either don’t know what to do with them, we subvert them, or we reject them.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25978060
Still I can see our very own Joe 90 looking for an opportunity to snap a selfie with the Danish PM just for posterity’s sake, one for the kids and grand kids.
It looks so bleak , but it is so true.
Erm yes, so would I if it’s Goldman Sachs.
Heqq, that’s what you get when you loose power to 36,000 majority. Party is over get over it.
[Daphne – ‘Lose’ has only one O, Vladimir. ‘Loose’ is an adjective, not a verb. It generally precedes nouns like ‘woman’, ‘waistband’ and ‘stools’.]
I think Vladmir has a loose brain. In fact, he’s lost it.
On the contrary, the party is just starting. Or shall we say the carnival is, especially now that we are coming into February and prinjolata is already on display in the vetrini at Cafe Cordina.
Unless you’re part of their inner clique you lost as well, Vlad.
Vladimir,
No, I won’t get over it. I love my country and I will do my utmost to stop this bunch of corrupt cowboys from destroying Malta and its reputation, even if the majority of the Maltese are okay with it.
This is not about partisan politics. This is about the unscrupulous few who are jeopardizing the very principles of democracy – all in the name of unbridled greed.
What do you expect from a rock that lies half way between Sicily and Libya.
This rock between Sicily and Libya, under wise management, managed to beat the odds when the economy of the world hit rock bottom.
We’re not denying economic success here; we’re discussing democratic values, and frankly if you want to go there, they are so unrelated that it seems that if the latter is absent, the former will flourish, take China as an example.
Now under new management.
There is simply nothing to add to the above.
Let me guess. Will Anglu Farrugia be reporting the Labour Party to the Police Commissioner and accusing them of buying votes, come next election?
Democracy in the European and Western sense can only improve in Malta when the political parties occupy less space and the individuals, private sector and institutions can occupy more space.
Although I have some reservations, I believe that during the term of the last Gonzi government the PN had sought to occupy less and less territory. However, and unfortunately, the Labour party moved in and quickly filled the space liberated by the PN, and consequently no net progress was made by the citizens.
With this Malta Tana Lkoll government, the situation has reverted to the Golden Years. The Labour party has filled up every government post with its lackeys. And there is a Labour majority everywhere: in the government, in the local councils, in the European Parliament.
Even the NGOs are Labour: the developers, the hunters, the environmentalists.
And the Speaker. The President. The Office of the Law Commissioner. The Chairman, and his Personal Assistant, at the MCST.
The MCESD. The Chamber of Commerce and the MHRA.
No wonder real democracy in Malta is once again under threat.
I call that the saturation point Ciccio, albeit used to define our islander predicament to occupy physical space, consuming it like there’s no tomorrow.
Labour have a serious perspective problem, both abstract and physical, they demand their limo as much as a public with its head lowered.
Labour’s promise to provide parking for our cars everywhere, anywhere anytime is no different to the misuse of government. An appointment becomes the consumption of a promise, not an objective will to service.
As is their obsession with energy prices, instead of anything virtuous or lightweight to reduce consumption and dependability.
Materialism in its most primitive of states, has truly contaminated their lust for power to change people’s will. It hasn’t just ebcome the instrument, it’s excess is the end in itself.
As Daphne once said, they’re the ones who invade a bar because it’s ‘cool’, forcing all regulars to flee elsewhere.
Times have changed and so have values. Materialism rules. The corporate world rewards the ruthless and opportunistic. The media glorify monetary wealth etc.
Consumerism is not a Maltese invention but a global disease. Today’s social outcasts are those who seek to live by a moral code. Instead of being respected for their principles they are derided as naive. It’s the whole gentlemen vs scum game where the end justifies the means.
Baxxter’s post brings to mind the book “Affluenza”. Quite a sad read, and I mean both the book and Baxxter’s contribution.
If the economy functioned well, we wouldn’t even need to invoke values or denounce materialism, because the monetary value of things would be an accurate representation of their true value.
Get this. Two days ago, Mark Zuckerberg made 3 billion dollars – that’s 3 followed by nine zeros – in a single day.
That’s three times what Joseph Muscat will make by selling his passports, to put things in perspective.
Now I ask you: did Facebook create 3 billion dollars’ worth of wealth on Thursday? Zuckerberg does nothing but sell advertising space. He owns a network of billboards. So did the global retail industry make those 3 billion because of HIM?
I don’t know. But should the richest man on earth be an advertising salesman? Think on that.
Once upon a time, the richest men on earth would found the Smithsonian, or the Morgan Library.
One thing I’ll say though. The rich and successful used to be models we could look up to and seek to emulate. Now there’s a new breed of super-rich so far out of our league that it becomes impossible to follow them up the economic ladder.
Malta’s democracy is thin and definitely not yet spread across the entirety of society.
http://armstrongwilliam.wordpress.com/tag/selin-girit/
“In late June, Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek launched a spurious and inflammatory campaign on Twitter against local BBC reporter Selin Girit, labeling her a traitor and a spy in apparent disagreement with the BBC’s coverage of the protests.”
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan referred to the BBC journalist by name in a speech to Parliament in his criticism of international media. Some Turkish MPs called out ‘traitor’.
The word ‘traitor’ was also used by the PL in government with reference to the PN MEPs because they voted against Government’s sale of passports.
Intimidation has no place in a democracy.
Parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster model definitely does not suit Malta.
We do not need 65 MPs and 70 local councils to run two tiny islands of 400,000 inhabitants.
Moreover, the British tradition of appointing the executive completely from parliament severely restricts an already limited talent pool.
[Daphne – Please. Would you honestly rather this government were able to choose from OUTSIDE parliament and, for example, appoint Sandro Chetcuti to the cabinet instead of just giving him an office at Labour HQ?]