It-terremot ta' Muscat
I’m kind of sitting around waiting for that earthquake to happen. So far, nothing has registered on the Richter scale. This is the earthquake so far:
Jason Micallef is re-elected as secretary-general
Anglu Farrugia and Toni Abela are elected deputy leaders
Anglu Farrugia is acting leader when Muscat goes to Libya
Alex Sceberras Trigona is international secretary
rules are made for the severe castigation of Labour MEPs who don’t parrot the party line
somebody called Piscopo has been handed a poisoned chalice
Michelle wears a silver dress to parliament while her husband removes his tie
one of the deputy leaders thinks this blog called him an ox and tells everyone about it, then sues
It looks like I’m going to be waiting a long time.
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actually earthquakes have been happening all around us ( oil prices, financial meltdown…) so we should be grateful for the little mercies.
Mario P: Or we can just get things into perspective and be grateful that we’re not normally hit by real earthquakes that devastate lives, leaving millions destitute. It usually takes not more than a little tweak to our usual level of comfort and we rush around fussing and fretting that the sky is about to fall on our heads. Sometimes I think we’d do well to introduce an alternative form of national service – spending a few months in a country where people actually have to earn what they eat and make do with what they find would put most of our petty concerns into perspective.
[Daphne – I know. I laughed when Gejtu Vella announced in shock-horror tones that the new electricity rates – and for God’s sake, why is everyone calling them tariffs, literally translated from Maltese? – would mean additional annual expenditure of EUR260 for a family of four. That’s Lm112, for crying out loud. It’s not exactly going to break the bank, when you consider what the average family of four spends on eating out at the weekend, buying clothes, mum’s hairdresser and manicure bill, and so on.Those who really can’t afford to pay will continue to have heavily subsidised electricity. The rest can grow up and start living in the real world, where one man working nine to five at a salaried job can no longer expect to keep a wife and kids while repaying a mortgage. It’s not because life has become more expensive, but because the expectations of that wife and kids are now a lot different to what they were. If people lived like they did when I was growing up, then sure, you could keep a wife and kids on a salary even now, but for women to continue expecting not to work while expecting more and more every year, well, I really don’t know about that.]
That’s the typical Maltese housewife mentality for you, stay at home ‘b idejk fuq zaqqek’ while the hubby provides for everything. What a waste of life and space.
[Daphne – And some of those poor men have two or three jobs so that il-mara can sit about all day doing nothing. Unbelievable.]
…Eur 260,(Eur 5 per week), the family of four could perhaps cut on their usage of 3 mobile phones per family (average), super 5 tickets, and the occasional pack of cigarettes?
[Daphne – My feelings exactly. I know a woman who cleans houses every day for Lm200 a month, while her husband spends Lm150 a month on cigarettes and scratch cards. When I explained to her that, effectively, she is washing floors to pay for her husband’s bad habits, she stopped and thought: ‘I never thought of it like that. But he needs his cigarettes ghax l-isfog tieghu.’ She does get mad about the scratch cards, though.]
These are the same families whose 10 year old kids are incessantly texting their friends and buying junk food,………… Imma sorry ta, hee, kollox tort ta GOOOOOOOOOOOONZI. u halluna
Yet again Daphne, not every family has spending habits like you imply here. You’re out of touch with the rest of the country. Several families are going to be hard pressed with the new rates and you very well know it. Add the LM 112 to the massive increase in the price of essential food items and you have quite a substantial increase year on year which probably runs to close to EUR 1000.
Incidentally your post reads like a straight translation of a PN advert which was recently emailed around.
[Daphne – Really, it reads like that does it? No wonder I voted for that party then – we see things the same way. Read what I wrote, carefully this time: I pointed out that those who really can’t pay are still going to receive a heavily discounted bill, as they do now. But there is no reason on earth why you, for example, should have your electricity subsidised. My house is perched above the road to Burmarrad. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in winter, and every blinking evening without fail in summer, I look out to see cars snaking down the hill to Bugibba, bumper to bumper, all of them coming from the south of the island, because if they were coming from Sliema they would be using the coast road, and if they were coming from the north, they wouldn’t be passing beneath my windows. The cars are the sort that C2 people like – the very ones that are claiming they will be destitute if they have to pay another EUR265 for electricity. Do you honestly believe they spend the evening drinking tap-water from a flask and eating a ‘pekt lanc’ on a bench on the promenade?]
Well, if my husband were smoking away my monthly earnings, I would think twice about washing other people’s houses every day for LM200.
Yes, sometimes women are unreasonable, and expect their husbands to keep three jobs whilst they do nothing except think up way and means of spending the dosh he earns – but on the other hand, there are men who are prepared to send their wives out cleaning other people’s houses to support their filthy habits, amongst them smoking, drinking and betting, when they can ill afford the luxury of having such habits in the first place.
[Daphne – He doesn’t ‘send her out to work’, and in any case, that’s a very old-fashioned way of looking at things. It’s very difficult to send a woman out to work – what do you do, use a whip and threats of murder? On the contrary, she works against his will, and defied him to do it. She uses the money to buy food and the things her children need, because doing that is easier and more fruitful than fighting with him every day for more money.]
Cut down on the use of mobile phones, stop making useless phone-calls during live radio phone-ins, cut down on internet bandwidth, cigarettes, soft drinks, take-aways, sweets, do your own manicure, and take better care of car and clothes, stop taking part any activiies to do with gambling and stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. You will find that there will be plenty to go round with a bit left over for the proverbial rainy day as well as something extra to help others in more need then yourself.
[Daphne – I agree with all that except cutting out the internet. It’s a relatively small expenditure but its benefits are exponential.]
imma b min irrid jitnejjek TONY ZARB ? Could Tont Zarb be good enough to tell us poor citizens what was his reaction to the astronomical increases imposed by Dr Sant when the oil was just 12$ a barrel ?When even DoM Mintoff told him TLIFT IL BOXXLA In case Tony Zarb forgot let me remind him that he appointed a prominent labour member to file a report and this took months to complete . Now compare this with the Tony Zarb we saw on BONDI PLUS.
[Daphne – He’s not short of food, is he? Oh by the way, my son – not the famous one, who’s in Canada – told me that he walked past the GWU building last Saturday during the Notte Bianca festivities and saw……a belly-dancing performance taking place in the union’s courtyard. He was most impressed by the fact that one of them had false bosoms, so while her belly gyrated, they stayed static. Hilarious. Meanwhile, union officials were traipsing in and out of the building while the unsexy chicks twirled their veils.]
Daphne, I agree with you that the impact of the increases on families is not the end of the world.
However, let us not underestimate the impact of the cost of water and electricity on those organisations which benefited from capping, especially those in the tourism industry.
I know for a fact that some players in this industry will see their costs increase by around 120,000 Euro per annum in a situation where their profit margin is of 10%. Bigger players will have to cut down on the number of employees (their highest cost) which will in turn negatively impact on their standards. Smaller hotels will have no option but to close down.
I hope I am wrong…
[Daphne – The fundamental problem is that they were given subsidies in the first place. A viable business doesn’t need government hand-outs to stay afloat. And there’s something intrinsically wrong about using taxpayers’ money to help the sort of private businesses which don’t play a pivotal role in the economy, as banks do. My attitude is, before you set up or develop your business, make sure you can do it without government hand-outs, because one day, those government hand-outs might stop. And now they have. If the directors of these companies are worried about paying out EUR120,000 a year more, which amounts to Lm51,000, then they have a solution: take a personal pay-cut. Demanding that the tax-payer carries on paying for your electricity so that you can carry on paying yourself large dividends and a chunky salary is really outrageous.]
Are you implying that anyone who owns a C2 is a ‘hamallu’ who craves subsidies for everything or a housing estate type from Santa Lucija? Does a C4 also qualify for such a socio impact assessment as in case, I’ll drive it down the cliff?!
[Daphne – C2 is a socio-economic group, not a car. In your line of work, you should know that.]
[Daphne – I agree with all that except cutting out the internet. It’s a relatively small expenditure but its benefits are exponential.]
There are different types of internet connections, and one can always opt for a cheaper connection if a belt or two in the family needs to be tightened up. What some doom and gloom soothsayers forget to mention though are the millions of euros that are spent every week in the gaming hells sprouting up strategically in almost every block of every town and village. The people who can least afford it and who are the first ones to complain about paying the most basic of utility bills are those gambling away their pensions, social security cheques, childrens’ allowances, wages and housekeeping money and end up penniless by the end of the first week of the month. Maybe , when you have some time , you should write an article on the subject. Gambling has become the number one scourge of this island.
[Daphne – If the directors of these companies are worried about paying out EUR120,000 a year more, which amounts to Lm51,000, then they have a solution: take a personal pay-cut. Demanding that the tax-payer carries on paying for your electricity so that you can carry on paying yourself large dividends and a chunky salary is really outrageous.]
How true! There are directors who treat the company assets like their own personal piggy banks. Then ,when trouble looms, they expect the tax payer to cough up the lolly or else.
[Daphne – He doesn’t ‘send her out to work’, and in any case, that’s a very old-fashioned way of looking at things. It’s very difficult to send a woman out to work – what do you do, use a whip and threats of murder? On the contrary, she works against his will, and defied him to do it. She uses the money to buy food and the things her children need, because doing that is easier and more fruitful than fighting with him every day for more money.]
I’m glad to see that the help you mention has a lot more sense than I gave her credit for. However, don’t be too sure that women aren’t forced to work to support lazy husbands, and husbands who spend everything they earn only on their selfish selves. How many times have I heard women telling me that “ikollhom johorgu jahdmu” whilst hubby stays at home all day twiddling his thumbs. To “send a woman out to work” may be a old-fashioned way of looking at things in this emancipated World, but who says that people don’t do it, as in force the woman to work for them and the famly, much as your typical housewife obliges her husband to hold down three jobs to sustain her frivolous llife-style? I can think of many ways a man can do it – such as leaving the family in dire need, which means that the wife has to do something if is she is to survive. Indirectly, that man is forcing his wife to work. Oh, I would rush out to work in such circumstances (don’t get me wrong), but I wouldn’t stick around in the marriage and with the man who is basically abusing the situation (and his wife).
Men interfere with women’s working-lives in two basic ways (when women give them the chance to do it): they either forbid them a job or oblige them to take one (many ways to do this one, apart from whips and threats of murder). Both are wrong. The woman, and the woman alone should decide whether she wants to work or not….and if she does, it shouldn’t be to support a lazy, abusive spouse, only allowing him to become lazier and more abusive.
[Daphne – I’m sorry, but I can’t agree with your last statement. Why should a married woman be considered to have a free choice as to whether to work or not, while a man is considered to have no such choice, and to be regarded as a bum if he refuses to work? I think all people who refuse to work are bums, whether they’re men or women. And I hasten to add that this is if they’re not raising young children or belong to that generation of women who started married life in a very different era. Anyone who expects another person to pay all the bills is, by definition, a bum, even if it’s dressed up more nicely.]
Let us not be generic.
It is wrong to assume that all of the shareholders or directors of the hotels in this country take fat, chunky pay cheques or ‘shareholder loans’. This is especially so for those properties that are considered as small / medium sized.
On the other hand, I know of people who have invested their own monies to keep their business going when the tourism industry in Malta was passing through a very dark period just 3 years ago.
The capping has not been there since forever. This occurred just 2 years ago when the surcharge was introduced. Back then, the government to reduce the impact on these organisations and to limit possible redundancies, decided to introduce a capping on this surcharge for players in certain industries.
It seems that now this capping is to be removed. Well, the profit margins have not changed much since 2 years ago and this is likely to be a recipe for disaster. Let us keep in mind that the hospitality industry is responsible for around 33% of total GDP in Malta so the multiplier effect of this decision are likely to be bigger than we think.
Again, I hope that I am wrong.
[Daphne – The market has an uncanny ability to right itself when left alone. It’s when there’s interference, as with subsidised electricity, that things are skewed and business grow that are unsustainable, perhaps at the expense of others that might be more sustainable. No business has a divine right to state subsidies in the form of cheap electricity, no matter how many people it employs.]
[Daphne – I’m sorry, but I can’t agree with your last statement. Why should a married woman be considered to have a free choice as to whether to work or not, while a man is considered to have no such choice, and to be regarded as a bum if he refuses to work?}
You have a point there.
[I think all people who refuse to work are bums, whether they’re men or women. And I hasten to add that this is if they’re not raising young children or belong to that generation of women who started married life in a very different era. Anyone who expects another person to pay all the bills is, by definition, a bum, even if it’s dressed up more nicely.]
OK, granted. I see where you’re coming from. But (and a big but) do not forget the work women do in the home like cooking two meals, washing all clothes, ironing, doing the shopping, taking the children to and fetching them from school, cleaning, scouring, washing floor and generally being the family servant. A woman who does all this does not sound like a bum to me – she may not be paying the bills, but she sure as hell is earning her keep.
Just because you and I can afford a home help more than once a week to do the dirty jobs, thus allowing us to participate in very much more interesting and rewarding work, does not mean that every woman in Malta is in a position to do so. Some are basically stuck at home whether they like it or not. And some are obliged to keep down a full-time job with another full-time job waiting for them at home (no home-help because they can’t afford it unfortunately, and we all know how much most men help in the home!).
It sometimes pays to think of people who find themselves in different circumstances to ours.
Now a question: Is it possible for us to post quotes originating from other posters in bold, or it italics? It would be so much easier to see where the quote one is refering to finishes and the actual post begins, if you get my drift?
[Daphne – Italics and bold are not possible. I’m tired of this argument that women who don’t work have enough to do at home to fill their day. They don’t. Women who have nothing to do but housework grow the housework to fill the day….cleaning the tops of cupboards, anyone? As for not affording a home help, it’s simple economics. You can choose to save EUR100 a month (which is what it costs to have a cleaner once a week for five hours) and stay at home to do the work yourself. Or you can work, earn EUR1000, pay a cleaner and still have EUR900 to add to the household kitty. To be honest, one of the reasons I began working was so that I wouldn’t have to do any cleaning or ironing. I can’t imagine that anyone would choose to do that over anything else; even working the till at a supermarket would be more interesting.And please introduce me to the person who cooks two meals a day, because I don’t know any.]
oops – realized my mistake as I was driving home. Thought C2 people couldn’t really afford to go eating out every weekend though.
David S – Super 5 tickets? You really must be out of touch! The last time I went to buy one – from a lotto office in “lazy corner” – there were two women (who clearly did not have much money to spare) sitting down, looking up at the monitor.
When I pointed out that it was their turn, not mine (to buy a ticket), they told me “Le, hi!”, pointing up towards the monitor. Apparently, they sit there for the greater part of the morning playing something called “Quick Keno” or whatever it’s called. (That’s apart from the Super 5 tickets of which the same type of people usually buy several.)
Daphne – Regarding the belly dancers, look at the bright side: At least they didn’t rope Tony Zarb in to dance with them, too.
Does this Gerald really write for an economic journal, when it is pretty clear that basic finance concepts and understanding is not there? It says a lot about the journal he works for!
He switched from music to amateursih TV to business reporting!! What does that say about the journalistic profession in Malta? Is it regulated?
[Daphne – I hope you are aware of the dangers of dictating who can and who can’t work in journalism.]
@Daphne
I agree with most of what you say. Personally it wouldn’t break my back to pay the extra utility rates, but I do know people who would have to struggle harder to meet that extra Lm112 on top of everything else.
P Shaw – “What does that say about the journalistic profession in Malta? Is it regulated?”
Mela trid li nergghu nigu bhal ma’ konna taht Mintoff (biex ma’ nsemmix il-Lorry Sant ukoll)?
The electricity surcharge capping introduced some 3 years ago was justified on the grounds (or rather, excuse) that hotels would have already fixed their rates with tour operators. They’ve had ample time to adjust and adapt since then. As to the loss of competitivity argument, they should remember that the price of oil impacted on their foreign competitors just as much as it did locally.
By regulating journalism, I do not mean censorship – far away from that. ACtually, I wish that jounalism in Malta was stronger, completely independent of the political parties, and completely loyal to the readers. I prefer a journalist who grills his interviewee rather than towing the party line and throwing a few softballs. Having said that, there must be a few rules on competency(or rather ethics). But if one writes about finance / econimcal issues, the reporter needs to have some basic knowledge in order to 1) ask the right questions, and 2) know what he is writing about, and 3) analyze the replies and pose further challenging questions.
It’s not because life has become more expensive, but because the expectations of that wife and kids are now a lot different to what they were.
Daphne, I couldn`t agree with you more.
Have you ever heard people (with jobs obviously paying the minimum wage) discussing their bathrooms and kitchens ?
The idea of going to a corner carpenter for their kitchen made of injam ta l-abjad and a formica top or going to a bathroom showroom that sells a whole suite plus tiles for eur 700 wouldn`t even cross their minds.
Only the best is good enough for them, however, they are the first to complain at any increase in cost of living.
Another pet hate is hearing them saying `contra taghna ghax ahna zaghar`.
[Daphne – This kitchen/bathroom business has always fascinated me. It’s a real social marker: the grander the family, the less likely that enormous amounts are going to be spent on these rooms. It would be considered a waste of money. The further down the social scale you go, except of course for the under-class which really lives on the edge, the more important these rooms become.]
Marika:
The Maltese devotion to their bathrooms have fascinated me many times. My in-laws former villa had 7 bathrooms/toilets. I can’t understand why you would need more than two. Also, as you mentioned, the money they spend on bathrooms are ridiculous and in many cases they buy products for the simple reason that they are considered expensive, rather than for their quality. Now I admittedly do spend a fair amount of time in the bathroom, due to my reading habits (something the list of books on my bathroom shelf can bear witness to), but even in a family of five or six, three bathrooms should be more than enough.
I can understand people spending money on. It is after all a very central room of most houses. In fact, no matter how nice a living room one have, the good conversations tends to always arise in the kitchen, so why not make it comfortable and pretty. I have a pet theory that people like being close to the fridge and refreshments, which might suggest I’m a bad host I presume.
[Daphne – Yes, but the thing is that lots of these kitchens are not comfortable and welcoming at all. They are too ‘kitcheny’ and sterile.]
P Shaw: In a regulated environment, who would set the rules that define competence and ethics? And who would appoint those people?
I much prefer a system which allows anyone to say what they think, even if poor quality writing is the result. At least it’s amusing.
Pat: Many of those stylish kitchens are not used at all. They’re kept in show room condition because that’s what they are – show rooms. The real kitchens, the ones that are used everyday for the purpose for which they are meant, are usually much smaller and more economically furnished. They tend to be tucked away in a part of the home that is not usually on view to visitors, unlike the show room kitchen.
The other fascinating thing about many households is the show car – the one that is never used but which is stored in a garage at street level so that it can be seen by passers by when the garage door is opened on Sundays. I wonder how that sector is coping now that most garages have been relegated to basement level?
P. Shaw. You are invited to read my articles anytime in The Economic Update – particularly a new one on the US Elections and make your own conclusions.
As regards your comment on amateurish TV reporting, politicians from ALL sides of the House (even ministers) readily attended my programmes as they found it to be an excellent and mature way of expressing their platforms without the shouting matches endured on other supposedly ‘professional’ programmes.
To correct another misconception about me (which seem to be rife on this blog)I have been working in business journalism since 2004 with a short break between 2007 and 08 when I worked in TV.
Why don’t you reveal your identity after all?
Daphne:
Calling a kitchen too “kitcheny” made me smile :)
It’s like Baldricks definition of irony:
– It’s like goldey, or bronzey, but made of iron
(I’m paraphrasing)
Corinne:
I agree wholeheartedly. Our basic human rights to say crap on air is sacred (I’m actually not joking). Quality is normally evolved through screening of viewers, not by a bunch of moral knobs setting rules and guidelines to be followed. There obviously have to be limits in regards to lies and slander, but no rules should be set to limit journalists ability to question objectively. I do agree with P Shaw that journalism in Malta needs to be more agressive and more questioning. In a way I think Corinne and P Shaw are on the same track, without realising.
And if you want an informed opinion on my writing/skills as a journalist you can always confidentially ask Daphne or Corinne. I’m confident of their professional judgment.
Gerald: Conclusions are drawn, not made.
Re: this kitchen business I think I’ve heard something like this before … apparently some people buy a kitchen that costs an arm and a leg which they never use and they have a small crappy one which they use everyday.
I’ve heard that his happens with sofas too. One they keep covered in plastic and the other they use.
A friend of mine tells me that a neighbour of his extends this distinction to doors. Family – including extended family – have tyo go in through the garage door, while VIP are allowed to pass through the “main door”)
I thought that they were trying to pull my leg when I first heard it, but evidently it’s true.
To my credit, I knew the one about the “display” car.
Re: the €260 being too steep, I am under the impression that, increasingly, many are playing at “keeping up with the Joneses”.
Obviously, you won’t have anything to show for paying a utility bill, so you’re going to see it as an extra burden. But that won’t stop you from installing 2 satellite dishes, 3 bathrooms and an air conditioning unit in every room. Or send your children to private lessons. Or keep the same car for more than 5 years…
[Daphne – Last Saturday, buying a present in an expensive boutique, I overheard one woman whine about the new electricity rates while trying on a EUR700 dress. You have to laugh.]
.. i meant NOT keep the same car for more than 5 years *sorry*
@ Gerald
Why should we ask Daphne or Corinne ‘confidentially’. I think you mean ‘confidently’. Is it ‘in confidence’ or ‘with confidence’ that you mean?
d gill: Why should anyone ask either of us at all, you mean, rather than making up their own minds.
“[Daphne, you wrote – This kitchen/bathroom business has always fascinated me. It’s a real social marker: the grander the family, the less likely that enormous amounts are going to be spent on these rooms. It would be considered a waste of money. The further down the social scale you go, except of course for the under-class which really lives on the edge, the more important these rooms become.]”
What is hilarious is that when the man of the house gets home after a hard day’s work at the quarry covered in plaster, grime and dust, the wife will ot allow him to use the bathroom so as not to dirty it. Instead, he will have to make do with a good old hosing in the yard after having used the bucket in the corner of the yard as a make shift toilet.
[Daphne – These men are nuts to put up with it. There’s a lot of misogyny in Malta, and abuse of wives, but the flip-side is these women who ‘work’ their husbands and don’t let them use the things their wages have paid for.]
I don’t know who Gerald is but from his comments he sounds like the kind of guy who’s not afraid to swim against the stream and on the whole, a good sport. Recently at least, he also seems to be the underdog so while I believe he needs to consider his comments a bit more before pressing that unforgiving ‘Add your comment’ button, if there was an ‘I think Gerald is generally okay’ club – I’d be in it.
Just as long as I wouldn’t be subjected to any business journalism. I think even Bill Bryson would have a hard time making it sound anything other than completely snore-worthy.
[Daphne – Get your copy of Town magazine, out with The Malta Independent this Sunday.]
It used to be the sitting room and main bedroom which were
kept for show and used only for the festa, births and
deaths. Both the sofa and the bed had one of those big
dolls wearing a lace dress and hat sitting in the middle of them propped up by fancy cushions. There’s a family
in Mosta whose whole house is a showhouse. They use the
garage as living room and kitchen.
It’s not just the kitchens and bathrooms. What about the “front doors” which are never used, since the occupants of the house go in and out through the garage door instead?
I know of one particular case where the wooden front door is shielded from the weather by a glass/aluminium door – a reversal of the ‘antiporta’ system – complete with lace curtains, statues, etc behind the glass. It has never, to my knowledge, been opened – except of course to be cleaned until it shines. The householders and their guests invariably use the garage-door. I have never understood the reasoning behind it; the garage door and the front door are only two feet apart.
@ Corinne. Well that too of course, which is kind of why I didn’t ask, in confidence or otherwise.
@Gerald
Writing skills and ability to write a clear and objective article are two different matters.
Can you post the link of the article on US election? I am keen to read it, even though I can already perceive your mindset (old conservative, backward republicans vs modern, trendy, and moral democrats). The difference between both sides is much more blurred than that, and I find both candidates boring – Honourable but weak McCain vs mysterious, inexperienced, and effective orator Obama. There is no doubt that Obama will become the next president. The economy is in such a turmoil, that voters will flock to the opposition party
[Daphne – These men are nuts to put up with it. There’s a lot of misogyny in Malta, and abuse of wives, but the flip-side is these women who ‘work’ their husbands and don’t let them use the things their wages have paid for.]
Your average aristokratiku tal-haddiema troglodyte working in the quarry or driving a forklifter or truck or digging up the roads would never dare say boo to goose, let alone argue with his average waspish wife adorned in full glory with a bright pink pin-up and arms-full of gold bracelets and earrings the size of hubcaps.He would meekly settle for a quick pee in the rusty barmil in the bitha and a hosedown rather then risk having his dixx tat-timpana thrown at his head for daring to leave finger prints on teh sink of the brand new Satariano bathroom.
I will say something about the electricity rates that will shock, coming from me. I am a business owner and I represent other business owners that the Government likes thrashing with state curtailed profit margins, ta’ zmien Mintoff, and with Price Monitoring Committees and investigations. We have had to abide by new rules whereby we have to leave A/C’s on all day and all night, in order to keep our products below 25 Deg Celsius. All well and good, although the order came to do so with the threat of closure if we didn’t. Standards have to be kept. But when we insisted on having our rates cut, because we cannot up our profit margins and selling prices to take on the extra expenses, all hell broke loose, with some government officials of the “I Have a driver” variety screaming away that we want to profiteer. A minister even called us “hallelin”, and yes, he was and is a nationalist minister. Yes this happens in Malta, a proud member of the EU. But our name is not Decesare, or Zahra, or Fenech, Or SGS Thompson. The capping was unjust because the fattest benefited, whilst the leanest businesses did not. On this, Austin should hang his head in bloody shame.Capping is illegal and unjust. Everyone should pay his due. Or else, cap it for everybody.
The link isn’t online I’m afraid but the Econ update comes out with The Times so you may find a copy running around from yesterday. It’s more or less along those lines. Don’t tell me you support Sarah Palin
Thanks for the kudos Malcolm – and Town is very good I must admit although The Economic Update is better :)
I am only interested in the US election campaigns rather than the elction itself.
Sarah Palin can be defined as a cyncial or strategic choice, depending on your point of view. She was selected to mobilize the conservative base (with whom McCain is not that popular)and attracting Clinton voters. he suceeded on the former but not the latter.