The Italians are going to town on us, and who can blame them? Ballaro on RAI (watch it here) – “Malta: if this is Europe…”
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November 20, 2013 at 11:13am
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Let’s put it into more context: This programme (Ballaro) and this whole television station (Rai Tre) are considered as ‘very close’ to the Italian leftist parties.
Then they should be on the government’s side. However, the PL is no longer a leftist party I guess.
Well the MLP/PL has always been a unique brand of National Socialism. Both Fascism and Communism are parties of the left really.
It has definitely never been a Labour party in the true sense of being part of the Labour Movement which grew out of the desire to create work that respects the rights of the worker whilst also encouraging innovation and small family businesses.
The parties that grew out of this ideology were positively influenced by Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum which was the social teaching on creating a fair and equitable economy whilst not stymying business.
Cringe
RAI puts it so nicely. With this scheme, we will not even sell one “pastizz” to the buyers of the European citizenship. Let alone derive investment that creates jobs, incomes and prosperity.
Shame on the prime minister and his government of clowns.
I wonder if an anti-Ballaro Facebook group will be formed to demand an apology like last time.
Daphne, sorry but I have to write this in Maltese.
Ajma hej. Dan riedu l-Laburisti – Simon Busuttil jugzhom lit-Taljani fuq it-tv. Kemm ha jitqanshu jwahhlu fil-pn li waqajna ghan-nejk.
Absolutely wonderful. About 3 million people watch Ballaro’ every week. The Maltese Tourism Authority can sit back and enjoy this ‘free marketing’.
Ballaro’ definitely asked government for an interview, but going by Ramona’s Inglixx there may have been some reluctance.
‘Lo schema’.
One small error in an otherwise almost impeccable interview, not just linguistically.
I am impressed with Busuttil’s command of Italian – truly impressive especially when compared to all the other muppets who claim to speak the lingo but then sound like gorillas with a stutter.
This clip is uncharacteristically one-sided. Does anybody know if Ballaro` actually approached government for a statement?
Why, to be accused of foreign interference?
However you wish to characterise Ballaro’s description of Malta’s sale of European passports, one thing is for sure. All this was Joseph Muscat’s doing. Thanks to his pigheaded refusal to listen to others with more insight than he has, he has stirred up a hornets’ nest which is stinging Malta’s reputation magnificently.
If it is the same clip I watched, the interviewer asked ordinary people in the street, businessmen etc. about the scheme, obtaining a variety of reactions whereas a government statement would have surely been a one-sided (and probably wrong) evaluation of its own scam.
My point is that government may have refused to comment after all, and this would be interesting to know. That’s why I asked.
Ballaro is a production of RAI 3, known to have socialist views. I don’t think there was any intention to show the Labour government in a bad light.
They ONLY put Malta in a bad light.
They were stating facts. If the truth is not pleasant, then what can I do?
This programme shows that Joseph Muscat’s actions have drawn unnecessary attention and focus on Malta’s financial services business.
That’s where the Citizenship for Sale scheme can do most harm: when other governments become under domestic pressure from their public and media to scrutinise closely and to question the activities taking place in Malta. This will scare operators.
Trouble brewing in the bazaar.
The buck stops with you Dr. Muscat. The repercussions of the passport sale scheme may so outweigh the benefits, if you can call them benefits, that you may well and truly have totally destroyed what has been built in the past 25 years – in a few short weeks.
It takes a special kind of skill to do that. The clip highlights Financial services, gaming, taxes and the shipping register among others. Your latest comments in the treatment of the law regulating the passport sale shows that you lead with hindsight, a quality not required for the post of prime minister.
A prime minister has to be able to see every possible outcome of every move he makes as a leader. Foresight. You read well into this during your election campaign. You did not mention a word of this as you knew full well that it would not be a vote catcher. Quite the opposite. Then, like a bolt out of the blue, you sprung it on us. You bulldozed over us, the people.
A prime minister does not own the country, but manages it for the people. A prime minister has to not only rake in more money to build social housing, but has to take care of and nurture what is already in hand; to make it grow and attract more business. That is the way to increase revenue. All you have attracted is attention. Negative at that.
You have opened Pandora’s box. It has to be closed before it may prove to be impossible to do so. Even if the box is closed today, I fear that the damage caused and attention attracted to Malta, are now probably irreversible.
The comment under the video is infuriating:
“Che gente stupida, gente ipocrita, gente corrottissima che ha messo la loro gente la piu ignorante e non qualificata nei piu alti posti del paese, gente senza morali, gente burina, gente che nel passato aveva rovinato il paese.”
But completely correct.
Flash news.
Tweet by Chief Communication ‘Functionnaire’ of the government of clowns:
Official: #Damage being done by government of clowns to Malta’s international reputation as financial services centre: Massive. #
Le le ma’ nichdek qatt ja Art Twelidi, kull fejn immur niftahar bil-helsien, u jekk xi hadd ikasbrek isib lili, difiza nkun ghalik ghax Malti jien!
Oh, sod off Renato.
Uploaded at 11.19am.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Not-so-cash-strapped-golden-passport-scheme-featured-in-Italian-state-TV-Video-20131120
That’s a full five minutes after the story was on this blog. Who reads Daphne then?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131120/local/EC-begins-infringement-procedures-over-Mepa.495447#.Uoylt9K8GuQ
Il-parti l-kbira tal-affarijiet li semma kien jiftaħar bihom Tonio Fenech qabel l-elezzjoni.
Tonio kien jaf kemm u kif ghandu jnittef tigiega minghajr ma tghajjat, issa Zeppi mar ikompli jnittef f’daqqa lit-tigieg kollha li kienu diga imnittfa xi ftit u gibdilhom hafna rix f’daqqa u bdew jghajtu u sfratta gallinar tiggieg u sriedaq.
Mur ipprova waqqaf it-tiggieg milli jghajtu Zepp?
A very apt name Ballaro’.
It suits our country fine.
You can buy “most” things at that market in Palermo as I have seen with my own eyes in broad daylight.
They even sell fake stolen passports for a couple of thousand euro.
Maybe they will soon start selling the real McCoy.
The only point that the Italians want to make is how well Malta is doing. They simply expect Malta to do as bad as their south or Sicily or even worse.
To their astonishment Malta is doing so well, or was doing well up till now. However those reasons did not deserve this sort of attention but thanks to this government now they have their story and it is one that makes laughing stock of this rock.
I think it’s quite safe to suppose they asked Joey Muscat for his comments and he declined.
Meanwhile … http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-11-14/news/jason-azzopardis-russian-email-claim-vindicated-3183509509/
I think Ballaro took the passport issue to give Malta a bad name.
As a matter of fact, the passport scheme is on a completely different level from the financial and gaming schemes referred to in the programme.
With the financial and gaming schemes the government created an environment where international players could home to with peace of mind and without being ripped off with taxes etc. On the other hand the citizenship is simply a passport sale scheme – similar to the sale of pastizzi referred to in the programme.
I don’t feel comfortable with RAI painting such a picture of Malta.
Well, one of the reasons why I, and many others, are against this scheme is precisely because it exposes Malta to these sort of reports and mischaracterizations.
The current scheme is a huge cheat, and people abroad will see it that way because they neither love nor hate political parties in Malta.
Therefore, they will then focus on other, dare I say, negative aspects of life in Malta and home in on other things they find unfair, so as to present them along side each other- they do this, and now they are doing this.
Before the gaming industry and everything else the video mentioned were not seen suspiciously by anyone abroad because Malta always behaved fairly towards other countries. But this act suddenly prompts other countries to see everything in a different light, as though this scheme has suddenly belied the real intentions of the Maltese government.
Basically, you say that the gaming industry in Malta was set up with good and honest intentions, but they can turn round and say ” Really? And what about the scheme? You expect me to believe that they aren’t related, if not in practice then in principle? “
I actually took it as a negative review of the citizenship swindle and jealous admiration for our ability to make the most out of the gaming and shipping sectors whilst also creating a pro-business low corporate tax environment.
Yes, ‘you are stealing our taxes’ vibe is there too; that can’t be denied. The same is often said of Ireland, but yet don’t forget that it used to be known as the Celtic Tiger.
Anyone who follows the Italian media (newspapers especially) will know of the continuous lamenting of journalists and subscribers alike with their own country’s inability to foster a business sector free of unnecessary red-tape and prohibitive taxation.
To me the gist was absolutely clear. The citizenship issue was obviously the talking-point as was the other subject touched on by Busuttil, i.e. the ‘pushbacks’ – which as you all know, most Italians are aware of. The rest of it was an advertisement on Malta’s success.
‘Hanno fatto qui quello che altrove non si può o non si riesce a fare’, i.e. yes there is a gist of supposed immorality but also of admiration because elsewhere they were not ‘capable/able’ of doing it.
I reiterate, it would be hard for anyone to gauge the gist unless they followed the Italian media on a daily basis and have done for years. Conclusion: it was a mixture of disdain, envy and admiration. I may be wrong. Comments please.
Albona, I agree with your assessment.
They’re bloody Italians. Don’t try to decipher their words. They probably don’t know what they mean by this themselves. The only clear thing here is that Italy is and always will be a shambles because most of its people share with the Maltese one fatal flaw: admiration for rogues.
Italy will always keep an eye on the odd tax evader coming down here to spend 50,000 euros on a bracelet in cash.
As for the ‘non si riesce a fare’ bit, our tax rate of 32% on gaming companies results higher and more effective given that slot machine operators in Italy were allowed to get away with 90 billion in arrears.
The idea that a government manages to exercise its role to apply laws, morality doesn’t come into it, is what the report was about.
Baxxter, you have a problem with the future of this country.
Jozef, I think the Italians have a huge problem with the future of their own country.
I agree. You have to interpret all that from an anti Berlusconi journalist mindset: anything/anyone who is making money must be corrupt.
So PN politicians with their casinos must be corrupt, and PL politicians with their citizenship scheme must be corrupt.
We know that selling European passports is an immoral practice but that is not what the Ballaro journalist was telling the Italian audience. Il messaggio era : “il governo di Malta fa soldi a palate mentre il nostro no”.
[Daphne – It’s incredible how some people have missed the point here (and you are one of them). Who gives a sh*t what the journalist’s/producer’s motivation was, what RAI’s motivation was? The point is that the show was made and aired, that people watched it. THAT is what counts. THAT is the problem. And THAT is the sort of situation governments should avoid creating for their countries. Rubbishing the programme by talking about the journalist’s motivation is not going to help anything or anyone. It just looks and sounds paranoid – and Labour.]
I did not miss your point on this blog. I agree that governments should never allow themselves into such media nightmares/checkmates.
I just took for granted that everyone had understood and agreed with that obvious fact by now. (Everyone except Corto Maltese)
Shame we don’t get to see what the people on that show thought of it.
Actually they did not comment at all.
You can see the whole episode here:
http://www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/programmi/media/ContentItem-c55a1bc0-5fd8-4508-b31f-26145a3936bd.html#p=
The Malta part starts from 1:58:38.
On a different note. I am a bit curious. How many average hits does your site have daily, because I am of the opinion that you are the best in journalism.
Keep it up and thanks.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/daphnecaruanagalizia.com
Currently 20th in Malta (and the top 20 include the Googles/Amazons/eBays etc of this world).
Enjoy. I hope that at some point in this saga he does lose his footing…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95pkGJxPW0s#t=31
Malta is now in the limelight. We are being attacked on legitimate tax incentive schemes (shipping, i-gaming, etc) to non-residents. Unlike the so called ‘Individual Investor Programme’, these schemes actually bring foreign investment to the country.
And ignorant comments from Maltese interviewees don’t help either.
We have killed the goose that laid the golden egg. We got rid of GonziPN. I am only proud that I was not a part of it and in this hour of shame that is my only consolation.
Ballaro have done their homework and it seems that they got a few of us to help them along.
I cringed to see one of the so called financial services professionals speak about the Maltese tax regime whilst all the time seeming so smug about it. Whereas there is nothing untoward about our tax regime, which had the blessing of all the European fiscal giants, or at least it did in the pre-austerity days when tax leakage was less of an issue, there is now a general feeling of unease with tax regimes such as those of Luxembourg, Cyprus, Ireland and Malta, which may come under fire from the very same countries that previously endorsed them. Emphasizing our tax savings when other countries are combatting tax avoidance structures is a very rookie mistake.
On the subject of betting, I have never come to terms with how the Nationalist government could align itself with the betting sector, which, lets face it, makes money off other people’s misery. Neither can I ever forgive them for allowing so many gambling outlets to set up shop in our streets. In some places you can find up to three such outlets within a couple of hundred metres of each other. It needs to be said that notwithstanding the lucrative aspect of this industry, gambling is something which remains intrinsically bad.
As for the shipping register, we have earned our reputation and have succeeded not only in growing the number of ships registered in Malta, but more importantly, shirking off our reputation as a flag of convenience. This has been a success story all the way through.
And finally for the infamous IIP, which is the straw that seems to have broken the camel’s back. We do seem to have been getting away with a lot, whether one agrees with it or not, but only because we have operated smoothly and within the rules.
Not this time though, where we decided to change the rules by which all our peers play. In doing so we have lowered the bar, and caught everyone’s attention. Now that we have been caught just like a deer in headlights, we should not be surprised when other countries hold us to account for some of the other things we previously thought that we had got away with.
Il-vilta’ hija li jigu l-Laburisti jghidulek li l-PN qed jaghmel il-hsara mad-dinja kollha, inkluz il-Ministru Mallia.
Tal-misthija kien l-istess Ministru llum fuq Kalamita. Ma waqafx jghid hmerijiet fuq din il-kwisstjoni. Ma tistennijiex min bniedem li SUPPOST intelletwali.
Hi Daphne
This is exactly what the Italians had been waiting for. They have half the country living beneath the poverty line, are so jealous of Malta’s success and will waste no time to be able to hit at our core industries and depict us as pirates of sorts.
What an amateurish and irresponsible government we have, to give them such a golden opportunity with this passport scandal.
There goes a quarter of a century of hard work and intelligent positioning of Malta on the global and regional economic maps.
What a shame.
Keep up the good work, Daphne.
To fight this problem:
(1) the country MUST hold a referendum on this;
(2) if this fails, the names of those who had bought their citizenship must be published SEPARATELY from those who had been naturalized under the normal way AND under BIG HEADING “Citizenship By Investment”;
(3) should tie in the requirements of language proficiency and residence requirement BEFORE citizenship can be granted.
There are some things in life that you should not put a price on, citizenship being one of them.
I’m Italian, and didn’t see Ballarò – I don’t watch TV at all, for that matter. But it’s not a hard guess that they intended to put Malta in a bad light – not because of Malta itself, but because the only way that regime-TV has to keep people quiet while the govs play their agenda is to depict any other country in the world as less desirable. Especially when so many Italians are looking at moving abroad to make a new living. Mmmhh… did I guess right?