Taking money off the gullible
Any loose change? Astrid can't afford to pay her own EUR150
This comment was posted on timesofmalta.com, beneath the welcome news that Robert Musumeci is suing Astrid Vella, who appears unable to distinguish between what she thinks and what she knows to be a fact, for libel. It’s just a damned shame that others didn’t do the same.
Paul Borg (20 hours, 14 minutes ago)
FAA has responded to calls on yesterday’s Times online to set up a fund to help cover Astrid’s legal fees in order to fight for Malta’s freedom of speech. Donations for the Astrid Vella Libel Fund may be posted to 143/5 Tower Road Sliema or sent by Direct bank transfer to:
BoV A/c 400-1564-7670 or
HSBC A/c 006-145437-001.
Receipts will be sent to all who include their contact details
Now here’s the interesting bit. Her organisation, the FAA, has seized the opportunity to make the most of people’s heightened emotions and scrounge money off them – ostensibly for legal fees.
Either they haven’t a clue how a libel suit is defended and paid for, or they are trying to hoodwink the gullible and the uninformed into giving them money which they will use for other purposes. Even if those purposes are for the noble cause of buying petrol for the drive to Bahrija, or bankrolling Miss Prissy’s persistent telephone calls, benefactors should be told. They shouldn’t be talked into handing over money for legal fees, when that money isn’t going to be used for legal fees.
It doesn’t cost more than EUR150 to file a response to a libel suit, and Astrid Vella is faced with just one: Musumeci’s. Please don’t tell me that times are so straitened that she can’t afford to pay this amount herself, or that the FAA’s directors can’t each put a EUR20 note into the kitty.
After this initial sum, the only monies that Astrid will have to shell out are if and when she loses – let’s say three years hence. And even if she loses, she can appeal, then she’ll only have to pay if and when she loses the appeal. Her lawyer will not be paid at interim stages but when the case is concluded, and fees are fixed according to a tariff – unless she has found herself a scamming lawyer.
So if you’re thinking of responding to the FAA’s heartrending appeal for money to finance poor, set-upon Astrid’s libel suits, don’t. Wait until if and when Robert Musumeci wins on appeal, and you have a few years to go before that happens. If you send money now, you can rest assured that it won’t be used for legal fees, bar that initial EUR150 or so.
The FAA promises to send a receipt for all monies received, as though that’s going to set your mind at rest. What you need to know is not that it’s been received, but how it’s going to be used. What you should be looking for are receipts for court expenses and lawyers’ fees. And there are not going to be more than a dinner-for-two’s worth.
Send the FAA money by all means. Lobby groups need funding. But don’t let yourselves be persuaded that it’s going to be used for X purpose when that can’t possibly be the case – at least, not unless Astrid Vella is predicting a slew of 50 libel suits within the next couple of months.
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I think it’s a very good idea. I have already made a donation.
John II .Let us hope that your donation does not end up in Astrid’s electoral campaign as a candidate for the PL
‘Plucky little Astrid’ tries to win our sympathy for her selfless and public-spirited devotion by relentlessly reminding us that she doesn’t get paid for what she does.
The impression she leaves ‘the gullible’ with is that she has no income and has sacrificed an income so as fo fight for ‘our children’s rural heritage’.
Astrid has an income, because under Maltese law, whatever her spouse earns is half hers. So unless Astrid and her husband Sergio Vella have contractually dissolved their marital ‘economic community’, her income is 50% of the salary of Actavis Malta’s managing director, which gives you some idea of why she doesn’t work and can afford, financially, to spend her time demonstrating against those who might even be worse off than she is.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090222/business/actavis-malta-md-for-italy-plant
If Mrs Sergio Vella can’t afford a hundred and fifty euros for her court case, then maybe she should ask Mr Sergio Vella for them. I don’t think there’s any need though, because he doesn’t strike me as one of those men who doesn’t allow his wife access to what is rightfully hers.
Most people in Malta earn far, far less than Astrid’s husband, and I think it is disgraceful that she has failed to disclose the real nature of her household income, so as to be able to seek funds from people who have less money than she does.
Stop this shameless begging for money you don’t need, Astrid, and pay your own court fees.
Let’s hope the money isn’t used to finance a few cosy weekends for the FAA committee at Astrid’s Xewkija ‘farmhouse’.
[Daphne – Le, dawk ‘team-building exercises’ nghidulhom.]
I am sure the FAA will manage to hoodwink quite a number of suckers.
Do you know that you guys are teaming up with the supporters of AN and IM (Lowell’s lot) and the rest of the weirdos who are firmly convinced that all NGOs (especially those who work in favour of decent treatment for immigrants) are ony doing it for the money? Nice going.
[Daphne – I don’t think Astrid’s doing it for the money. She would earn more if she got herself a job. But it doesn’t follow that just because she and others are not doing it for the money then they are selfless.]
Nobody is selfless. Everybody – from the basest drug-trafficker to Mother Theresa – expects some kind of reward for what he or she does. It is the currency of that reward that varies. And sometimes it is very hard to say what particular reward a person is seeking.
[Daphne – In Mrs Vella’s case, I would say that it is kudos, recognition and power rather than rescuing ‘our children’s rural heritage’ from the clutches of evil presidents of the Nationalist Party. Let’s put it this way, I would do nothing that involves having Jason Micallef cavorting by my side. I would rather drink ink in the company of Salvino Busuttil.]
The irony is that Astrid Vella and a large proportion of the people who support her are PN – by upbringing, by inclination, by socal mileau and on principle.
[Daphne – Not at all. it doesn’t follow that just because somebody is from Stella Maris parish in Sliema then they are ‘Nationalist’. In fact, I can think of few people from my neighbourhood who were Nationalist. Most of them were Stricklandjani or 1950s Labour. The Nationalists were the political and cultural enemy until Dom Mintoff became the bogeyman. It was only a matter of time before they and their children all migrated away again – though I can tell you that no one in my family is going to do that.]
But the PN has gone so far off the rails that it is driving away even part of its core support. And yet you remain in denial.
[Daphne – I have never been in denial. I don’t know who you are, but I can tell that this is not your ‘world’ you are talking about. Well, it is mine, so I am better placed to know.]
Ah – so Astrid has a farmhouse in Xewkija – hope that she transforms it into a garigue for the the sake of the ramblers. As I believe that she reads whatever is written in this blog, can I ask her why she was not present for the protest at the Attard quarry site?
Or why she has not ‘investigated’ the “sheep farm” being built on the Haz-Zebbug side of Wied-is-Sewda – this started off with an application for a relocation of a sheep farm in 2001 (PA/05050/01) then a number of other alterations between 2001 and 2005 (01891/2001, 02854/2005, PA/04725/07) – all initially refused and then approved by DCC. The last time a took a walk in those areas, I wished that I would become a sheep maybe the owner would buy me and rear me in this fantastic sheep farm.
Just saw your ‘drinking ink in the company of Salvinu Busuttil’ bit just now…you are not blonde my dear…
[Daphne – Nor were a couple of women I can think of.]
Lawyers’ tariffs – now there’s a joke. Hands up anyone who’s seen ‘the’ lawyers’ tariff anyone.