No wonder those Laburisti don’t like Bishop Scicluna – he believes in democracy and the rule of law
Published:
December 22, 2013 at 1:46am
Here’s what Charles Scicluna has tweeted:
Magistrate holds party in court hall – journalist arrested while reporting event. Support TOM!
And if I may stick in my two cents worth, it is not Times of Malta we are supporting so much as our basic rights and freedoms.
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To hell with Times of Malta. It is partly their fault we are in this situation. Let them wake up and snell the coffee, I say.
Hudu go fikhom S-nejk u Beaver although in your case this comment is considered complimentary not derogatory.
That having been said, today’s editorial in The Sunday Times is spot-on.
Support Times of Malta?
We largely have them to thank for the present government we have been lumped with.
Mons. Scicluna is like the Pope, he speaks out for what is right.
Yes indeed. He’s just like the Pope. He chides you all so lightly in public but then comes over all chummy in private.
Just wait for the annual New Year’s greetings to the Archbishop. Everyone’ll be be wreathed in smiles, old scores forgotten, all moral rectitude suspended for festivities. That’s the trouble with this goddamn country. Everyone is so damn convivial.
H.P. But that is the same in every country; it’s called diplomacy. I don’t see any different in Malta than any other other country, except in Malta, it is more blatant.
Merry Christmas to the architects mentioned and the young ones raring to leave their mark, don’t ever give up on this place.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-12-22/news/din-l-art-helwa-awards-for-architectural-heritage-3515678723/
Well said, Eccellenza! Karmni.
Your article nailed it, as if Muscat will dare take any decision.
His allergy to decide was the common factor in all that happened this year. To think he has the strongest government ever in the history of this republic, still he just hasn’t managed to overcome the reluctance to choose.
In a couple of month’s time it will be a year in office, nothing to show for it. In his first year, Lawrence Gonzi took on the bus drivers, Drydocks and Malta Shipbuilding and kicked off the plan for Enemalta, effectively clearing this country’s deficit.
Choice, in Muscat’s book, is sacrifice. Yesterday’s scene on those steps depicted a man who can’t wait to go home, ignoring and betraying his colleagues and partners. Whichever choice he makes.
Perhaps Muscat himself needs to look within and see what, or who, is the driving force.
Muscat isn’t reluctant to take difficult decisions. He just doesn’t think it is his job to do so.
He was elected to play kings and queens, so he thinks.
The magistrate was morally wrong on at least two counts.
He was morally wrong by breaking the law (smoking and drinking) in a courtroom in front of some 60 guests.
He was morally wrong by arresting a journalist while executing his duties thus denying him what is rightfully his.
And Bishop Scicluna is an expert in moral issues and has every right to communicate what he believes in.
The man is affable, with an intellect to match anyone’s, but above all he has balls.
On another subject:
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-12-22/news/government-to-take-over-bus-services-until-new-operator-is-found-3517448195/
This is the peak of irresponsibility. PL is playing around with people’s lives, for no reason other than to accommodate another company or group of individuals.
Arriva was being sabotaged from day one, with the complicity of TOM which sought to undermine confidence in the new service. PL government was intent on finishing the job and pushing Arriva out.
The service, they say, will be run by government throughout next year. But a government-run service can never match that run by a private company. Irrespective what they may claim, the service WILL deteriorate sharply in 2014.
This will impact all of us.
People dependent on public transport will have to spend more time to get from A to B and may even choose not to travel. The elderly and people with mobility difficulties will be having a difficult 2014.
Malta is already subject to severe traffic congestion and this will get worse because more and more people will stay away from public transport. Car users will have to spend more time in congested traffic and more money on petrol. It will become even more difficult to find parking.
Commercial centres, especially Valletta, will suffer a loss in business because less people will be willing to travel by public transport.
The quality of air will deteriorate with more cars and more congestion, to the detriment mainly of people living close to main roads.
More fuel consumption in congested roads means that it will be more difficult for Malta to reduce energy consumption and meet its 2020 target. Efforts to reduce Malta’s carbon footprint will be rendered futile with increased traffic congestion.
An efficient transport system, including public transport, is the very lifeblood of an efficient economy. More working hours will be lost in 2014 because of congestion. Cost of deliveries will increase. Investing in Malta will become less attractive if travel costs are considered excessive. Economic activity will suffer.
To minimise problems and to save its face, Government might throw money at public transport but it is precious taxpayer money that they will be using.
PL government could have built on what was already achieved and work with Arriva to address shortcomings. Instead, the PL government chose to get rid of a company with the knowhow and experience of running a public transport service. The PL replaces it with empty promises of an improved service. (As an aside was it not the same Joseph Muscat who promised a government run on meritocracy? And look what we got instead.)
The objectives of other ministries are being undermined by this irresponsible decision (improving mobility for elderly, reducing household expenditure on energy and travel, increasing economic activity, reducing costs for businesses, reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality). PL is very good at shooting itself in the foot.
The PL government foolishly chooses to take the risk. This level of irresponsibility is beyond belief.
Well, they voted them in, let them now benefit.
I have my car, so frankly speaking I could not give two hoots. Isn’t that what Muscat and co are thinking?
Ergajna koppi. Id-drittijiet taghna u l-liberta tal-espressjoni qed jigu mzebilha kuljum.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131222/local/arriva-to-leave-malta-early-next-year.499979#.Urb7nFvUHME
Great. First they make it difficult for them to operate, then they get into power and make it impossible. Now they’ll give it to their friend Paramount Garage. And we’ll have paid for it all. AGAIN.
Just great. And Paramount Garage, of all people, is going to fix it. Kumpanija tal-privates tax-xalata tal-festi tar-rahal. Last word says it all really. That’s in whose hands we are.
http://www.maltarightnow.com/?module=news&at=Arriva+mistennija+t%26%23295%3Balli+Malta+kmieni+s%2Dsena+d%2Ddie%26%23295%3Bla&t=a&aid=99853087&cid=19
Instead of ensuring a future for the operator, who it has to be said, took all financial risks onto themselves, this government prefers lumping the taxpayer with ‘a subtantial fraction of the losses incurred’.
And don’t give me Transport Malta is an autonomous authority.
Arriva as the operator was, it has to be repeated, working to a contract but who everyone blamed for everything under the sun including responsibilities beyond contract terms and conditions.
It remains to be seen how much of the ca. 50 million Euros accumulated losses we’ll be made to make up for, and how exactly Labour intends to guarantee Paramount workable conditions.
It will be either a major increase in subsidies, reducing the service to a formality, or, they’ll have to remove half, yes 50%, of the country’s cars from its roads to leave a lane available.
Knowing Labour, they won’t allow an price increase. Mizzi’s being extremely secretive about that other plan, ‘traffic management’, I suspect tolls extended to Marsa, Tal-Qroqq and Mriehel, Boris style.
The worst solution possible, an excuse for ‘parking’, and fragmentation of routes, possibly to pave the way for ‘regional’ contracts.
We do not have a capillary underground network, Johnson did. Efficiency in transport and mobility depends primarily on independence and priority of the service,
What’s disgusting is how Labour’s secrecy has become established protocol. They’re intend to literally pass a monopoly, ok make it a cartel, without any details under scrutiny.
I can’t imagine what they’re planning for Enemalta. The PN needs to induce the electorate’s curiosity how this government can ever be viable.
I wonder what liberals and progressives Randolph and Cyrus have to say about this last incident involving a Labour magistrate and the “illegal and abusive” arrest of a journalist. Rather than spending their time becoming a “gisem wiehed,” shouldn’t they be defending the freedom of the press?
Monsignor Charles Scicluna is an expert in both civil and also and particularly in Canon Law, an area of expertise which has probably influenced considerably Pope Benedict XVI to trust him with the great mission of combatting child abuse all over the world when the Monsignor worked at the Vatican.
His appointment as the Auxiliary Bishop of our country must definitely be considered as a serious threat for those who are fondly in love of behaving in a manner that excludes the truth of the gospel from their conclusions about how man should live if one if following the gospel.
People afraid of truth prefer the silence of intelligent and truthful persons. Arrogant critics of people of great worth seek to mock them. Fools remain fools, but intelligent and spiritual people like Bishop Scicluna remain the lamp on the mountain in this valley of ignorance run by PL and all those who support them.
I encourage Bishop Scicluna to continue being a voice in our desert. God will surely assist him in teaching and enlightening us about God’s word and truth.
Amen.
People afraid of truth prefer the silence of intelligent and truthful persons.
I couldn’t agree with this more and would like to add that this has been the trouble in Malta for a very long time. These people have been reluctant to voice their opinion because they are afraid to rock the boat, through misguided political correctness or simple fear of repercussions.
It is such a relief that this remarkable man calls a spade a spade and does not resort to ambiguous hints to try to get a message through to those who need to understand it most.
He leaves no space for misinterpritation and is really our guiding light. We really need the voices of truth, reason and logic in this cacophony of sophistry, equivocations and loud, banal, rude argumentation foisted on us by the media.