The circus of mads, fads and bads forcing their version of life on us. An abundance of grotesquely subverted revelry.

Exactly, we’ll be the packing centre, couple of stickers to give them the CE mark and job done.

Ruffjani daqs il-Labour ghad irid johloq. U harja f’wicc dawk kollha li investew flushom f’xi R&D.

1. As had been predicted during the electoral campaign, Joseph Muscat has just bailed-out Enemalta and Malta from definitive bankruptcy which only he and his roadmap (which we were told had been “kostid”) would have led them into. He himself made this bailout clear when he spoke to the Maltese media in China, referring to what he described as financial doom at Enemalta. And on “Iswed fuq l-Abjad” on Net TV in the same week, Leo Brincat could not think of any strategic reasons for the MOU other than Enemalta’s debt and loss-making situation.
Enemalta’s situation would get better if Enemalta does not burden itself with further unnecessary investments or commitments and/or with unsustainable reductions in its tariffs.
But Joseph Muscat wants to commit Enemalta to a contract with an estimated cost of around Euro 600 million with private third parties under which the private sector will deliver the infrastructure within 2 years and Enemalta will, for the long term (20-25 years), buy electricity at prices which, we are now told, can only be committed at a fixed level for 5 years. Since no commitment will be sought for the price of power in the remaining years of the contract, Enemalta would expose itself to price increases and indeed, it is very likely that the contractors will start with a low price but then recover all losses of the first five years in the subsequent years.
Based on pre-elections information, the project is likely to cost somewhere in the region of Euro 600 million. On its part, the private sector provider can only enter into this contract if it commits to deliver the infrastructure in the very short term – the government wants this project operational in 2 years (“doable,” they said). Therefore, the private operator would have to find finance of up to Euro 600 million for the next 2 years. It is clear that this would require some syndication of international banks, but that no bank would commit to fund such project when the return is over 20-25 years and when a deal is being made with a corporation that would be bankrupted by the same project.
Hence I can imagine the pressure that the bidders must have made with Enemalta (and the government) about this point during the negotiations to-date. “Enemalta’s financial position needs to be strengthened before it can commit to this crazy project that would only lead it to its bankruptcy.”
Which is why I am not surprised that the final 3 bids have only been received after the signing of the MOU in China. There would have been no final bids if such agreement with China was not signed, trust me. (But that does not mean that I am excluding that it was all part of a plan, to cover the bankers behind the bids).

2. If Joseph Muscat has valued 35% (roughly one third – based on information revealed by Edward Zammit Lewis) of Enemalta’s share capital at Euro 200 million, then according to Muscat, 100% of Enemalta’s share capital is worth Euro 600 million. Deduct from that figure Enemalta’s debt, which according to Muscat amounts to Euro 800 million, and you are left with a hole of Euro 200 million. In simple terms this means that if I were to ask Joseph Muscat to sell me Enemalta today, he would give me Enemalta plus Euro 200 million in cash in return for nothing on my part. I could then sell 100% of Enemalta’s share capital to China for Euro 600 million, and use the total cash in my pockets of Euro 800 million to pay off its debt, and voila, it’s all settled.
Joseph Muscat has just sold the strategic monopoly lifeblood of our economy on the cheap. Very cheap. Scandaliciously cheap.

3. Joseph Muscat has just sold a significant stake in a monopolistic lifeblood provider of our economy to a foreign non-EU sovereign communist and non-democratic state whose seat of government is on the other side of the world, in a different time-zone, and whose language is completely different from ours. One can imagine the political, cultural and communications problems this is going to create to the Enemalta management and to government and local regulators.

4. Joseph Muscat is playing an old Mintoffian game – that of seeking to annoy the western democratic EU bloc by associating himself with undemocratic dictator states. Mintoff did this with Libya’s Gaddafi, North Korea’s Kim Il Sung, China’s Mao Tse Tung, and Romania’s Caucescu among others. Muscat is clearly not aware of one of Macchiavelli’s teachings that if one brings in a foreign power, this will eventually take him over.

5. The involvement of the Chinese government in Enemalta means that in future, no Maltese government will be able to make any commitments or controls on electricity prices for the Maltese public without the consent of the communist and dictatorial government of China. China will henceforth regulate the price of electricity in Malta. The Maltese electorate will be loosing the (political) sovereignty not only over the production of electricity, but also on its price.
And since Muscat is handing over control over the monopolistic operator, it will be very difficult for the sector to be liberalised, because it will be very hard for any private operator to start up afresh here.

Gass down ghal-gol hajt indeed.

Joseph Muscat will be addressing the UN later on this week.

Hope he makes a clear appeal to China to join the rest of western style democratic countries and respect human rights and dignity and to embrace democracy. This is how one stands up to be counted.

He should also take the opportunity to express an apology towards the UN for the way he threatened African immigrants with push-backs to Libya in violation of UNHCR rules. This is how one wakes up and smells the coffee.

And while on the subject, he should demand that Libya respects human rights too. I would personally rather buy oil at normal prices from Libya knowing that they respect human rights.

But I am not holding my breath.

Baxxter, thought you would start with a critique of their dress style.

Just look at the second picture, and the shoes them two are wearing.

The Chinese representative of China Power Investments Corporation is wearing slip ons. It shows how he treated his meeting with Muscat as a casual meeting with that guy from Malta. It is not a good starting sign: it shows how they will be treating the Maltese in general.

And is Joseph Muscat wearing those black Chelsea boots he sported at the Eden Arena when he launched the Tana Lkoll electoral programme?

http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/02/elasticated-ankle-boots-with-a-suit-sorry-ankilbwiez-with-a-sjut/

And why is the signature not done between persons of equivalent rank? Why is the Minister of the ‘Republic of Malta’ made to sign with an officer of an entity owned by the Chinese government? Should it not be the Chairman of Enemalta signing on the Maltese side, or the Chinese Minister in charge of China Power on the other side?

He may have to rethink his strategy in December, the industry’s determined not to let this one pass, even because jobs have been lost consistently to underhand tactics eating away at Europe’s inner fabric.

Given that China seems to adopt this method to make inroads in the Caucasus with its oil supplies and North Africa literally colonised, it’s doubtful whether Muscat can manage to get Europe to ‘smell the coffee’ this time round.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-28/eu-says-probe-finds-chinese-solar-panel-makers-got-subsidies.html

HOPE?

How about raising hell about what’s being done in your name?

Hammer down the door of your MP and get him/her to ask questions in parliament.

Write to Muscat to demand an explanation and register your objections.

Don’t hope for things to go your way if you do nothing about it yourself.

In effect we are being forced to buy our electricity from the government of a country that uses arbitrary detention and torture, throws dissenters into prison, and applies the death penalty for non-violent crimes. Shame on you (part 1).

The grand scheme to turn Malta into an “energy exporter” is clearly just a tacky deal that was struck in order to by-pass EU dumping restrictions on Chinese solar panel manufacturers.

It will certainly be too expensive to manufacture the PV cells here, so all Malta will have is an assembly line for people on minimum wages to cobble together crates of manufactured components shipped from China. Shame on you (part 2)!