Have Enemalta employees been told this bit of news buried in the last line of long newspaper story?
I missed it, too – it is literally the last line of a longish news story on Times of Malta last Wednesday:
The Government said the Chinese were planning* to use Enemalta employees to service other power stations that China has in the Mediterranean.
*They mean ‘are planning’, not ‘were planning’ because they’re still planning on doing it. Lots of Maltese people think that the past tense in English has to be followed by more past tense, giving the sentence a different meaning which changes the facts.
That sentence should read: The government said that the Chinese are planning to use Enemalta employees to service other power stations which China owns and operates in the Mediterranean.
And now we need to know – have Enemalta employees been told that they face a future of being shunted around Chinese power stations?
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130925/local/Energy-investment-was-initiative-from-Chinese.487570
The reference could have been to pre-election agreements.
Slave labour, what?
The End Of The World is coming sooner than we thought.
It never ceases to amaze me how my fellow countrymen will go into paroxysms of nationalistic indignation at the supposed takeover by the evil, masonic, novus ordo EU, but are quite happy to applaud the takeover by benevolent, democratic, transparent China.
Given that desperate times call for desperate measures, and to crib a line from elsewhere, we should lower the Maltese flag from its pole and shove it so hard up Joseph Muscat’s arse he’ll be shitting George Crosses for a week.
Why not tie the flag to a rocket? I’m sure they come with homing devices for assholes.
Which is why it is not a good idea to replace the George Cross with the Maltese Cross on the flag.
Can you imagine Joseph Muscat shitting Eight-Pointed Crosses for a week?
I heard that Evarist Bartolo is opening up a new English language school for children with special needs in Mizieb. i will be the first to nominate you, since you seem to have excellent English grammar, but very little idea of good journalism.
Get a life Daphne. They’re selling them on Ebay for just £9.99
What is it with these people missing the point completely? Kris Vella, the grammar is not the point here. The point is that Enemalta employees could find themselves working elsewhere. There, it is spelt out. Are you more elucidated now?
The point is that it’s a reporter’s text and not specific reported speech. This is a pure example of political spinning, where you can just twist one harmless word in a sentence to imply other than the real intention of the project.
In other words ‘were’ planning could mean that they started the planning in the past, but it does not necessarily mean that it’s not still present in this moment.
And I am almost sure that this will create more jobb opportunities. isn’t that one of the main reasons why we all voted ‘IVA’ for EU? So our best under-rated fellow workers could find new opportunities to work overseas? (I am assuming that you voted Yes for EU too).
[Daphne – I can assure you, Kris, that nobody voted for EU membership so that job opportunities for young Maltese in 2015 would be defined as assembling PV panels for a Chinese company, with parts imported from China, for the minimum wage.]
I honestly do not know whether certain people are really stupid, or act so in order to run away from the truth.
Good of you to explain the obvious to one such being.
You should know well enough that Enemalta workers belong in Malta, not being shipped around the Mediterranean, and possibly later sub-Saharan Africa, servicing China’s power stations.
This IS a good idea of journalism, as such acts will fall under, as H.P said, slave labour.
Daphne doesn’t need any nomination from you.
Actually it is you Kris Vella who has no idea of good journalism. That’s a top story screaming out and The Times which carried it missed it.
Like they missed the importance this morning of what Gozo Minister Refalo said over the Ferry u-turn incident.
He said he will suspend the employee concerned.
The reporter didn’t even bat an eyelid. The minister has no power to suspend a company employee. That should have been the sub-head if not the main story itself. But the reporter didn’t even realise what he was saying.
Seek help before it’s too late, Kris Vella, dear – you sound delirious.
Nominate Daphne for what? Seems you need a good grammar lesson, mate.
I nominate you for a scholarship at Evarist’s new school at Mizieb.
Why do the Chinese need Enemalta employees to service their power stations when manpower is not a problem for them, and at a cost of a fraction of a Maltese employee. If I were an Enemalta employee I would be worried at this proposal.
My guess is that they have Europe on their mind somehow.
We’ll only get to know what is really behind all this once it is implemented and not before.
Again my guess is that if there are some who are thinking that this is a straightforward deal, they are in for a very big surprise.
Btw, you will certainly won’t publish my post again… Obviously because you hate Labourites criticizing your ability of a sit-down comedy on this blog. You’re hilarious :)
Sit-down comedy? Ehm… did you mean ‘situation comedy’.
On a different note, my eyebrows were raised when I saw our PM on Fox News. What, I wondered, was a supposedly left-wing politician doing on a rabid far-right news channel, one that makes Atilla thee Hun look like a Marxist convert?
Then I realised: both have their support base in the south, both are aimed at people who read very little and believe everything they hear from their politicians and both are in the pockets of big business. A perfect fit. Now that’s ‘situation’ comedy.
And you’re a twat. Now hurry back to timesofmalta’s comments-board or whatever other rock-pool you usually inhabit.
Oh dude.
I’m glad you managed to find a hilarious corner. Malta has become such a stale place lately.
Kris Vella, you’re quite pathetic really, so I don’t think anyone will miss you.
Qahbec x’injoranza t’boss! Fhmitni hekk ruhi?
The correct term is stand-up, Kris.
He’s thinking of sit-com.
So they won’t have a controlling stake eh? At least that’s what Zammit Lewis thinks.
What exactly did Konrad sign?
Enemalta employees can always organize a ‘majjalata’ and invite the minister. I am sure he will explain things clearly after a couple of glasses of wine.
Way back in the 80s I used to work at SGS like many others.
We received shipments constantly from China for re-testing because their quality of labour was very poor and ours was of a very high standard.
Anyone who was at SGS at that time can confirm this.
Well, Kris, if you think Daphne would be scared to upload your post you really don’t understand her.
We find pea-brains with terrible English like you pathetic.
Why don’t you try and follow more closely what our PM is doing to our country and its reputation instead of reading Daphne’s blog and trying to understand the point she is so clearly making.
How do you say ‘Baħħar u Sewwi’ in Chinese?
“The Government said the Chinese were planning* to use Enemalta employees to service other power stations that China has in the Mediterranean.”
I say:
“Why not?”
“We are blessed with a very good, very important strategic position. We are in Europe, but we are in the centre of the Mediterranean.
“Companies that want to penetrate … the North African market have a safe haven where to invest…You are 30 just minutes away from Libya, 1 hour away from Egypt, 1 hour away from Tunisia and all the other places.
“So it is the best place where to position your Head Quarters, where to service all these countries just in one place.”
Of course, I have to acknowledge the source of my wisdom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2r7x180gKs
And I say even more than this. If the deficit is used to “throw money at the docks”, one can even re-open the Malta Drydocks and the Enemalta workers will do some ship repair there at huge losses to be subsidised …from the deficit.
And “we will stand up to be counted.” We will make “Europe wake up and smell ze coffee.”
I think it is becoming very evident that Muscat is thinking like his de facto bosses, the Chinese. In fact, he is thinking more in terms of China’s strategies than Malta’s. Therefore, it is no wonder that he sees strategic value in the China-Enemalta deal.
The way he is talking is showing what’s on his mind. And it’s essentially a Chinese vision for the Mediterranean, North Africa, and Africa.
The man has become a puppet of China.
And he is acting as though he was a Chairman of China’s Mediterranean subsidiary. Responsible for the Mediterranean and African regions.
Muscat is thinking if China’s strategies more than Malta’s because China has strategies and Muscat doesn’t.
Kris, it’s your decision to read this blog…easy, don’t do it of you don’t like Daphne’s ‘sit-down comedy’.
Plus it has got nothing to do with the poor Enemalta employees that we’re discussing here.
What about their pay and conditions of work?