There's a lot you can do with a pair of chopsticks

Published: March 9, 2010 at 1:34am
Cons u pulizija imorru Singapore minn fuq dahar il-poplu.

Cons u pulizija imorru Singapore minn fuq dahar il-poplu.

There’s so much to say I’m going to end up getting four hours’ sleep, but this really is goodnight now.

Magistrate Herrera was really upset that I wrote about her trip to Singapore last month with a policeman.

It doesn’t seem to have been the content of what I said that upset her so much as the fact that I wrote about it at all, or that I knew about it in the first place.

Unable to object to the content (verita tal-fatti) she fixated instead on the photo caption: ‘There’s a lot you can do with a pair of chopsticks’.

There’s nothing defamatory about that, unless the chopsticks are suing. But even then, there really IS a lot you can do with a pair of chopsticks, so I’m using it as a title this time, rather than as a caption.

Meanwhile, the caption here points out that Magistrate Herrera and the policeman went to Singapore at the taxpayer’s expense, which means that the public has not only the right to know what they were doing there, but also the duty to ask.

Magistrate Herrera seems to have felt that some explanation was due, so in court she said that she and the policeman, who she didn’t name, were there for an ‘inkjesta’ into the death of somebody – also unnamed – on a Malta-flagged vessel, the MV Navarine.

This is a genuine question: when a Filipino dies in Malta on a Chilean-flagged vessel, does Chile send a Chilean magistrate and a Chilean policeman all the way to Malta to carry out an ‘inkjesta’?

The Commissioner of Police, the Home Affairs Ministry and the Malta Maritime Authority need to give us more information about this.

The information I have is that the policeman isn’t even a policeman at all. He used to be one, but he isn’t any longer. His name is John Ellul.

And to think that when an acquaintance who Consuelo and I have in common texted me five weeks ago to tell me that she was currently in Singapore on an ‘inkjesta’ with a policeman, I texted him back and said ‘hahaha’.

It sounded like the kind of joke we usually crack about her. And then it turned out to be true.




18 Comments Comment

  1. erskinemay says:

    Ahhh…you’re getting warm Daph….

  2. Pina says:

    Glad to know I’m not the only one still up! But I must say your posts are 658 times more interesting than my Excel models.

  3. GEL says:

    Now guys, do not go all the way and think that there was anything going on with John Ellul while in Singapore. She was already living with our Robert and would not dare cheat on him too. After all, he’s 10 years younger than she is.

  4. Francis Saliba says:

    Oh! for a modern Oliver Cromwell to declaim successfully:
    “You have been sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say and let us have done with you. IN THE NAME OF GOD, GO!”

  5. Mario says:

    John Ellul no longer is a member of the Police Force. He resigned in July 2009 and was struck off the Force in January 2010. In the Police Force you have six months termination leave where in that time you’re officially still a police officer but on leave.

    He’s the brother of Dr.Andy Ellul and takes part on One TV with John Bundy on Bongu Bundy. Daphne, notice the connections. We have a chain here and as I told you before “One for all and all for one”.

  6. Mario says:

    Daphne,meta dalghodu tkun id-Depot ftakar li l-Magistrat trid iggieb il-prova li int lilha ghajjart giddieba u mhux lil Avukat jew lil ohthok u mhux the other way round igifieri li int trid tipprova li int innocenti. Probabli ga tafu dan.

    [Daphne – Daqzgur li nafu dak. But that happens in court. Before the police take me to court, they must have a case. Prosecuting me without a case is a vexatious waste of court time and public money. But I suspect the magistrate will put pressure on them to prosecute me even without a case. Look how quickly they called me in after she got on their backs – twice.]

  7. JC says:

    Mag. Scerri Herrera has lost face.

    This situation goes far beyond friends-of-friends, wheels within wheels and a frantic desire to be somebody.

    The seriousness and impartiality of the judicial system is in question.

    Dear Magistrate, enough damage has been done.

    Be sensible and resign as you no longer deserve and cannot continue to carry such a responsibility.

  8. Drinu says:

    Did she actually say in court that she was with a policeman in Singapore? If the policeman is not a policeman then wouldn’t that be lying in court?

  9. apg says:

    It’s now time for the Prime Minister, the Minister for Justice, the Attorney General and the President to sort this all out and take appropriate action in the name of democracy and justice. Away with consultations and sub-committees.Thanks to D.C.G. they’ve got it all out on a plate. A clean one.

    • Hmmm says:

      It’s the Commission for the Administration of Justice which can set this particular ball rolling. The magistrate will not do so herself by resigning.

  10. apg says:

    Adding yesterday’s internet-viewer numbers to today’s ‘Times of Malta’ headline & front-story readers, will up the number to 200k-plus. People are now talking of daphne-caruana-galizia-it, as well as google-it and bing-it. Probably in Malta and Gozo today it’s more of the former. Prosit.

  11. mark v. says:

    The Commissioner of Police should refrain from assisting Magistrate Herrera and wasting more public funds on this case. She should have the decency to resign, then we can all carry on with our lives.

  12. Banquo says:

    This inquiry thing is very serious, and the authorities are in duty bound to issue an official explanation.

    As far as I know, it is Consuls, or other diplomatic officials, who are entrusted with inquiries on vessels in the ports of their districts.

    There is a Maltese Consulate in Singapore:

    Consulate of the Republic of Malta
    10 Anson Road
    #15-02 International Plaza
    Singapore 079903
    Telephone : 63242060
    Fax : 62276707
    E-mail : [email protected] e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
    Office Hours : Mon – Fri
    9.00 am – 5.00 pm

    Why didn’t the Consul conduct the inquiry?

    Is it true that the Matlese exchequer had to foot the bill for a Magistrate to go to Singapore to conduct an inquiry? Why then does Malta have a consular network?

    Was Mr Ellul accompanying the Magistrate as a perit tal-qorti?

  13. Hmmm says:

    It’s interesting that she thinks being called a liar is a threat to the integrity of the judiciary, but that her own behaviour is not.

  14. pippo says:

    Qieghdin nghidu dan kollu, imma forsi qieghdin nghiduh ghalxejn? Dan il blog huwa pubbliku – possibli li l-ebda ras kbira mhu qed jarah?

    Possibli li ma hemm hadd inkarigat mill-president ta’ Malta biex jimmoneterja x’hinu jinghad (biex ma nghidx li il-president computer ghandu u qieghed jarah dan li hu ghaddej)?

    Allura nghid jien ser nibqaw inpacipu ghalxejn? Jista xi hadd li ghandu awtorita jibda jiehu xi decizjoni? Jew tant huma tal-qalba li ma jaqbilx li niehdu decizjoni halli tieqaf darba ghal dejjem din il farsa?

    Tistaw intkom tal-kummissjoni tal-gustizzja tibdew tiehdu il-passi mehtiega, jew hemm xi skop ghaliex qed tkaxxkru saqajkom u ma thaffux biex forsi il gudikatura ma taqax ghaz-zufjett bhal ma kellna fil-kaz taz-zewg imhallfin?

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