Try sending yourself a parcel bomb so you can die a horrible death and then have someone lay claim to compensation for a life lost. Be sure to confess to your crime before you go so that your sin will be forgiven but look under your confessor’s cassock first to be sure no one will blab after you’re gone as that would undermine any claim to compensation.

Uhmmm

A death bed confession is not necessarily the Catholic sacrament of penance – it simply means confessing to whoever, normally the authorities.

The aim is for all to know and not to keep it secret.

What about the families of Raymond Caruana, Nardu Debono, Lino the accountant, and so many others who died directly or indirectly for political reasons?

And why stop there? Who can tell how many died of heart attacks as a result of the injustice and vindictive actions of the government between 1971 and 1987?

I perfectly agree, and I’m not even thinking objectively or dispassionately. The Grech family were awarded compensation only because of Edwin Grech’s status as a famous and, after his terrible ordeal, respected politician. Yes, I am saying that the law has two weights and two measures in this country.

However, I do disagree with the principle upon which the compensation was awarded. I do not think that there was enough evidence to show that the tragedy occured because Edwin Grech was a strike breaker at the time of industrial action. That was the theory put forward by the plaintiffs, a theory which I respect – certainly – but which (a) I do not believe is true and (b) which remains a theory all the same, not backed up by evidence.

Here’s another theory. Edwin Grech had just been given a position at the time. Another individual jockeying and vying for the position could have used the strike break to disguise the real reason for placing a bomb.

Lastly, how does the government compensate an individual’s loss for the wrong doing perpetrated by a private individual. As long as the loss borne by the plaintiff is one that is caused or occaisoned by the Government then one can understand. But when an indivual is the victim of crime comitted by a private individual, the state never provides compensations.

What is the difference in the loss suffered by Prof. Grech and his wife and the loss suffered by, say, the young girl who just had her mother murdered over the week-end. Ah! in that case, I hear you cry, the perpetrator was known!

All the more reason for the Government to provide compensation and recover it from the perpetrator later on, rather than providing compensation for the misdeeds of an unknown miscreant on the basis of a theory not supported by any evidence whatsoever!…methinks

I expect that my comments will raise the ire of many readers…but think objectively and dispassionately about it, and you might find that you’ll have to agree with me.