Inevitably…
Published:
October 19, 2012 at 4:04pm
Patrik Hildingsson, vice president of Swedish Match, speaking to leading Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, refers to the Mediterranean origins of the Maltese EU Commissioner:
“You have to very careful when you suspect that legislation is on sale. What is clear, is that there should be absolute zero tolerance. I don’t know how widespread this is. Could it be that we in the Nordic countries are less susceptible to this type of business? This is just unpleasant.”
I’m actually beginning to regret mocking the Italians for their Silvio Berlusconi.
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That’s Brand Malta gone up in smoke.
Way to go, eh, Harry?
Yep. Only Havanas from now on. A much more Nordic mentality.
Someone tell this twat that Malta is a big village where everybody knows everybody.
What he would call ‘unpleasant’ actually becomes quite nice when doing it with a friend, relative or friend of a friend.
Try coming to Malta with your ‘Nordic rules’ and see how far it gets you.
[Daphne – And vice versa, which is the point. Try going to Sweden with your Mediterranean habits and see where it gets you.]
Do you habitually bribe your friends, relatives and friends of friends?
I really cannot understand why it feels that some Maltese who are discussing this very unsavoury event are shifting the blame by saying it is entrapment?
This is clearly the suspects’ wrongdoings, otherwise how was Dalli in possession of the email?
Why would Swedish Match go through finding out about Zammit, manage to instigate him too contact them himself (do they use mind control in Sweden?) and then immediately alert OLAF about the request for money to set a meeting with the Commissioner?
Also if Dalli knew about this dealing why didn’t he contact OLAF in the first place and alert them?
I mean, at least one would expect such a conduct from a law abiding citizen let alone an EU Commissioner in charge of a branch of EU policy. What about the hacking episode a couple of months ago? What was that about? Could it be that it was some kind of decoy by Dalli to fall back upon if things ended up badly?
What is the definition of entrapment? Someone is encouraged by an official (government or otherwise) to commit a crime. Who made the first approach and who made the offer?
What bugs me the most is that there are many more questions that one could ask by which the hypothesis of entrapment could be eliminated however some people will believe anything in order to deviate from the real problem.
By trying to shift the blame or by trying to find excuses or invent scenarios that aren’t true what one does is accepting such conduct.
Oh well, Sweden remains the major polluter in the EU, Norway slaughters little cuddly seals and Denmark’s contribution to culture was filming a donkey being sexually harassed.
And the first Volvo had its gearbox installed the wrong way round, four reverse and one forward gear.
Tsk.
And Sargas?
It seems that Mr. Patrik Hildingsson has never heard about Sargas.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100713/local/france-opposes-dallis-gmo-proposals.317643
Alarm bells should be ringing.
Creative initiatives indeed.
You should see what happened when he started tampering with Nutella. He managed to unify Italy.
Sometimes, I really feel sorry for Gonzi.
It seems he can never get one right.
Choosing Dalli, for such a prestigious position, proved to be the cherry on the cake.
Let’s hope he makes the right choice this time round.
Maaaaaaa, x’misthija!
Snus translates into flus in Maltese is seems. Ta’ l-mqaret qamel qassata u kilnija ahna ilkoll.
I’m starting to get a funny feeling about Patrik Hildingsson pontificating about the virtues in Nordic countries regarding corruption.
He is just driving this point too far.
I am sure he is aware that Sweden had a Eugenistic Programme from 1934 till 1976 and was only exposed in 1997.
During that period 21,000 people were estimated to have been forcibly sterilized to prevent the reproduction of people considered to have defective genetic traits.
So much for Nordic or rather Swedish morals.
Kull Malti mcappas bir-reputazzjoni ta’ John Dalli.
Patrick Hildingsson has another Malta connection
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/patrik-hildingsson/6/b9a/671
Where’s Kev when you need him?
Looks like OLAF has become the modern Spanish Inquisition.
The Swedes took over the Holy Roman Empire, and all the rest are sinners.
When one looks at the historically proven Swedish corruption cases, they never went for peanuts, and 60M Eur is peanuts for them, seeing they were up to loose 400M Eur per year from their tobacco business profits.
And good thing too. Let Gustavus Adolphus march on us Southerners hanging on to the Holy Roman Empire’s coat-tails, I say. I, for one, would welcome our Scandinavian Protestant overlords.
Plausus Noricus, what. Feel the power.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d4vesbIEPU
Daphne, one needs to see how involved this Swedish company was in this case. If I understood well, the company was willing to bribe, it was just not willing to pay so much.
This makes the Swedish company not only corrupt but also cheap probably thinking that a Maltese person should be easily bribed maybe for a few euros. All those who think that corruption is only a Mediterranean trait are wrong. Corruption is everywhere.
[Daphne – How does that change the position of Silvio Zammit and John Dalli?]
It does not change the position but I think that the Swedish company is being made out to be the pure virgin or even the hero in this saga when I think they are as guilty as the other party if there were any dealings going on.
If I understood Kessler correctly he seems to acknowledge that the Swedish company had initially started offering a bribe and then felt it was being asked for too much.
He put it very diplomatically but even the journalists understood what he was saying and in fact asked him how they could be sure that the swedish company was not trying to entrap the commissioner.
The fact that the Swedish company reported the case does not completely absolve them. For the Vice-President of Swedish Match to start speaking about zero-tolerance and how the Nordics are less susceptible is a bit out of place. I do not know all the facts but I’m basing what I say on what has been said so far.
I hate it when someone uses race, region etc to make a point its not true that we Maltese or us Mediterranean are more corruptible or more tolerant to corruption that is a blanket statement which is like saying all Muslims are terrorists. It’s racism in disguise.
In the seventies and eighties,when we mentioned Malta abroad the response was ” Ahh, Dom Mintoff”.
Now the response is “Ahh, John Dalli”.