This is why Gaddafi's regime has a 'special relationship' with Greece
George Papandreou, Greek prime minister - his father was a close personal friend of Muammar Gaddafi
When Gaddafi chose to send his envoy to Greece, Turkey and Malta (in that order), we were not in salubrious company and we should have refused the request.
Malta should have seen that request for what it was: offensive and insulting. I’m worried that our top politicians can’t work this out. If they were to receive a party invitation from a convicted cocaine dealer, a white slave trafficker or Noel Arrigo, would they see it as a compliment or a grave insult? I’m concerned that, going by what I’ve observed, they might not understand that it’s the latter.
It’s no wonder a Libyan journalist who supports the opposition to Gaddafi said on Al Jazeera that Greece is “the Achilles’ heel of Europe”. George Papandreous was on the board of Saif Al-Islam’s ‘human rights’ foundation.
And it turns out that his father was one of Gaddafi’sfriends, as this article in The Financial Times, published on 9 June last year, shows.
PAPANDREOU SEEKS TO REVIVE GADDAFI TIES
By Kerin Hope in Athens
The Financial Times: June 9 2010
The Greek prime minister will travel to Libya today for talks with Muammer Gaddafi on possible investments in Greece as Athens struggles to overcome the country’s fiscal crisis.
George Papandreou will discuss potential investments in Greece by Libya’s sovereign wealth fund and its state-owned energy groups during talks with the country’s leader, officials said.
He also hopes to revive a family friendship with Colonel Gaddafi that flourished while his father, Andreas Papandreou, was prime minister during the 1980s.
“These are exploratory talks, nothing will be signed on this visit . . . but it opens the way ahead,” one Greek official said.
The Greek delegation is counting on a warm welcome in Tripoli following an invitation extended during a visit to Athens last month by Ali Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmudi, the Libyan prime minister. Mr Mahmudi said Libya planned to spend as much as €200bn (£166bn) on “a huge leap in development . . . and our relations with Greece will also see a huge development”.
Mr Papandreou is leading the country’s drive to attract inward investment from the Gulf states and other oil and gas producers. Energy and shipbuilding projects involving Qatari and Abu Dhabi investors are under discussion.
The investment drive was stepped up after Greece failed earlier this year to persuade Gulf and other sovereign wealth funds to buy sizeable chunks of Greek debt. Greek public and private investment is projected to shrink this year, as the terms of the country’s €110bn bail-out by its eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund call for an unprecedented fiscal consolidation.
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The link:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/398352e4-735d-11df-ae73-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1IelA4Fbp
Niftakar meta kont zghir fuq fomm Mintoff: “Papandreou tiela u Papandreou niezel” … s’intendi ghax-xih. Kienu anke jgibu lil Demis Roussos ikanta fl-attivitajiet tal-Labour.
So what with “Papandreou”? if we have to start hiting at whatever comes to the ROCK then we should turn our backs to the Pope too
Tony
Fil-fatt il-Papa maghhom ghax hbilhom l-iskandli … u qatel lil principessa Diana, ecc. Qrajtha fil-Kodici Da Vinci.
Il-genituri kellhom vinyl LP ta’ Demis Roussos b’dan il-cover ezatt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3vCB3YBMUo
Ir-reazzjoni tieghi meta skoprejtu kienet konflitt bejn disowning my parents u “Hmm, 70s kitsch, interesting….”.
My friend the wind will come from the hills….
[Daphne – I enjoyed that. It was part of the soundtrack of my childhood. You heard that song blasting out of Rediffusion sets through open windows as you walked down the street. It was one of the top requests on PO Ghaxar.]
The soundtrack of my childhood was this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw
Still sends shivers down my battle-scarred spine.
Baxxter, thanks for the memories.
The Final Countdown … 1987 election fever?
You look back at the 80s and think “what the f**k was it all about?” Then you hear songs like these and you know. You just know.
We all believed in a better future back then. Then they invented the internet and killed the hopes of a whole generation.
That guitar solo. Will things ever be the same again?
I could dish out 90s memories if you like. Boy, were they ever so painful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSS0EscDlKY
Bomb diggy-diggy-diggy bomb diggy-bomb.
Think about the way we live today, Another John.
Memorji tat-tfulija …http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbhlDCqGDS0
Memorji tat-tfulija … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbhlDCqGDS0
http://www.livestation.com/channels/3?youtube_video=http%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fv%2FLTJSTvW6MQ8%26feature%3Dyoutube_gdata_player
The New York Times follows up on Iman Obeidi:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/world/africa/05tripoli.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2
Somehow and for some reason, the name ‘Andreas Papandreou’ does not hit the right chord in me.
I wonder what Turkey, Greece and Malta have in common in the Gaddafi mind. It must be something up to no good for sure.
“Our doormat friends”.
Last weekend I was in Italy and visited a fair for business reasons. When talking to reps of Italian and French companies, and while telling them that I hailed from Malta, the names Mintoff and Gaddafi starting coming up in one sentence. My protestations that Berlusconi, Blair and Sarkozy have all been pictured kissing or hand-shaking Gaddafi were to no avail. Somehow, the Mintoff-Gaddafi legacy has stuck in the European mind.
La Valletta di Gaddafi
Le menace dans le Mediterranee
I’m sure you could find a version in almost any other European language.
About the worst opening line I’ve heard recently was “Ah, you’re from Malta. You know, one of my cousins died in the Lockerbie bombing.”
How about: “Tsk, Malta! Yellow buses.” O art, iblaghni.
A Libyan rebel spokesman on Al Jazeera, with a Greek Journalist on line from Athens, defined Greece as “Europe’s Achilles tendon”. I wondered about Malta’s definition.
Achilles heel.
The tendon is in your ankle.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8425645/Libya-plight-of-those-trapped-in-warring-towns-laid-bare.html
“Libya: plight of those trapped in warring towns laid bare
The appalling plight of those trapped in the besieged rebel town of Misurata was laid bare on Sunday when a makeshift Turkish hospital ship arrived in Benghazi laden with 250 wounded.”
At least Turkey has stuck its neck out on that score. Malta hasn’t. Paying customers only – like the famous evacuees.
Pandreaou was thrilled to meet Gaddafi’s envoy. Look at his face here:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/04/201143154928842116.html
I guess he’s hamstrung by having accepted to be on the board of Saif Gaddafi’s human rights foundation. He’d received awards for his human rights work and must have seen that position as a chance to do something useful in Libya.
Baxxter, now it’s Gaddafi’s final countdown
Indeed. We live in interesting times. That is, the interesting times are right next door but we choose to avoid them.
Here’s something to ruminate over on this mid-week afternoon:
“Personne n’est assez naïf pour penser qu’un pays n’aura pas d’ennemis parce qu’il ne veut pas en avoir. ”
Julien Freund
He forgot Malta….