On HuffPost Live: ‘Should the US sell green cards?’
Published:
January 2, 2014 at 11:51pm
There’s a discussion on HuffPost Live:
Should the US sell green cards?
Malta plans to sell immigrants citizenship for €650,000. The idea is to bring in revenue and “high net-worth” individuals. Given the high demand of work and residence permits it receives each year, should the U.S. consider a similar scheme?
Find it on the link below.
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http://live.huffingtonpost.com/#r/segment/should-the-us-sell-green-cards/528531fa2b8c2a327f0004a7
“My worry is that a rich person’s allegiance is to their wealth, not the Republic.”
Muscat will go down in history as the new Mussolini whose links with business and the rich are known despite his preachings about empowering workers.
I’m not sure if people have yet appreciated the horridness of this matter.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140103/local/valletta-new-paceville-aimed-at-attracting-the-young-micallef.501205#.UsZuZ83QQXw
Valletta is slowly reviving its night life. Only last Saturday I attended a gig in one of the recently opened venues down Merchants Street.
Young people, mostly university students, were having fun listening to good original music while enjoying a glass or two of good wine.
There were three “pubs” open, which were all well patronised by young, well behaved and well dressed people.
The previous administration gave Valletta a ‘cool’ look with the Barrakka lift, the Renzo piano project, restoration of the palace, Castille , the bastions and Saint George’s Square with its dancing fountain.
Does Jason Micallef want to transfer everything to his pet Strada Stretta project now or get recognition of the previous administration’s hard work?
To top it up there was the pantomime at the Mediterranean Conference Centre. The only problem was finding a decent place to park my car.
Welcome to Paceville, European Capital of Culture 2018.
Valletta: a city built by gentlemen for gentlemen’s clubs.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2531995/Hundreds-thousands-outside-EU-head-UK-passport-loophole.html
Cheers, mate. I just wasted an hour in the black hole known as the Mail’s webpages. My soul needs cleansing now.
By coincidence I read this article this morning:
http://world.time.com/2013/12/20/swiss-banks-tell-american-expats-to-empty-their-accounts/
Notice this:
‘This year, nearly 2,400 expatriates have given up their U.S. citizenship or turned in their green cards. While this number may seem miniscule, it represents a 33% increase over 2011; experts say the real numbers are much higher because thousands of applications are still waiting to be processed.’
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140103/local/interconnector-crucial-for-malta-to-meet-emissions-targets.501244#.UsaX_c3QQXw
“Only 25 per cent of the electricity capacity of the expensive interconnector commissioned by the previous administration will be used.”
Is someone at Times of Malta eyeing a government job?
It was 20% of the interconnector.
http://m.maltatoday.com.mt/newsdetails/news/elections2013/KPMG-report-on-PL-rates-drawn-up-in-one-day-20130114
So instead of a 10-year LNG contract we have a 5-year one, and instead of the 20% we’re told we will be using 25%. How would we know whether 90% of the interconnector will be used?
Let them to it Gahan, they’ve reduced newspapers to notice boards as and when government deems fit.
Land reclamation, Marsaxlokk, public transport, Mepa, citizenship, everything strictly off limits.
We’ll have Times of Malta featuring the crossword as headlines and Maltatoday restricted to Saviour’s video rants.
Remember when the press called for participation and how GonziPN had isolated itself?
Good.
Hilarious,
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Gas-plant-will-improve-air-quality-if-energy-demand-stays-the-same-20140102
They still haven’t understood the bloody unit cost of generation if they’re yet to understand what extent to use the interconnector.
Suddenly the restriction on the interconnector results in poor air quality, duh, to be attenuated by resticting demand.
Or better, buy a hypercar, shod it with motorcycle tires and pray that by driving it ever so slowly, the tires won’t rip apart under all that torque. Gingerly on that pedal now.
The EIA is a ridiculous, albeit valiant attempt to justify the plant. Still it remains one worthy of Quixote.
Is ours the only country that chooses the solution and then does an EIA?
One thing’s for sure, the interconnector does not produce any fumes, fly ash or smoke and still the party in government wants to use a fraction of its load-carrying capacity.
Just imagine having an invisible power station the size of the one at Marsa (200Mw?) supplying electricity during the night for a very cheap price, without producing a cigarette puff.
One would ask, how could we utilise this electricity? We can produce water from our reverse osmosis plants during the night, blast-freezing would be viable, factories and hotels would welcome the night tariff and if we were offered the opportunity to use it we could afford to keep our air-conditioners on at home during the night.
But we ridiculed what the rest of the industrialised world has been practising for ages. That was thanks to Joseph Muscat and his (IT) engineer Minister Konrad Mizzi.
Now he has to stick to his 20% use of the interconnector as promised before the last election and by March we should start paying cheaper rates while EneMalta flounders.
You know, Jozef and Gahan, the things that’s been niggling me these last two years, and more so after Labour’s victory and the complete reversal of Malta’s energy policy, is the complete silence from the Demajo Group. I’d be mightily pissed off if the government spat all over my company’s achievement. Add to that the way the PN almost tried to hide away the project as if it wasn’t happening at all, and it’s no wonder this country is thick with conspiracy theories.
Expensive interconnector eh? I suppose the lack of contracts onshore results in a dearth of votes, that’s very expensive.
It is a disgrace that the so-called chairman responsible for the V18 celebrations has these plans for Valletta.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140101/local/v-18-sees-strait-street-as-becoming-vallettas-paceville.501037#.UsZijPtomrg
All of these stories and trying to keep in mind that the Labour Party is meant to be a socialist government, when the biggest socialist drive was done by the Nationalist Party, is totally confusing.
Where in the manifesto does it say socialist? Labour are in no way socialist.
http://election.josephmuscat.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/MTL-MANIFEST-ENG-2013.pdf
Try and find any mention of socialism.
For the attention of the Foriegn Minister
http://news.yahoo.com/us-ship-equipped-destroy-syria-39-chemical-weapons-233657115.html
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140103/local/cnn-highlights-migrants-plight-in-malta-minister-says-malta-cannot-give-them-the-opportunities-they-seek.501255
“Dr Vella continued: “We cannot offer these people the opportunities for which they left their countries and risked their lives to get a better life, many of them don’t want to come to Malta, they come by chance as the boat drifts.”
But isn’t his government offering Maltese citizenship to non-EU nationals as an opportunity to grow and develop their talent in Malta?
Wasn’t his government inviting non-EU nationals to become Maltese citizens precisely because they could bring opportunities which do not exist in “prehistoric” Malta and because there are no “persons of calibre” in Malta?
Wasn’t his government offering residence in Malta to non-EU nationals because they can lead a better life here than in their countries where they are subject to oppression and persecution?
“”We sincerely believe that given our size and our density of population, if you compare, we are taking a bigger strain proportionally than all the other countries in the European Union,” Dr Vella said.”
Who exactly is going to believe Minister Vella about our size and population density when his prime minister is selling passports to non-EU nationals which give holders the right to reside and live in Malta?
Isn’t Dr. ‘Eyebrows’ Vella aware of the contradiction his government is caught in?
Having said this, the Minister’s comments are already fanning subtle xenophobia on the comments board of The Times under the article linked before.
See this comment by John Azzopardi:
“I totally agree with the minister……..Malta is way too small to allow one more migrant to stay on our shores. If other EU nations want them they can have them. WE are way to small for any more illegals. We must always place our national interest and cutlure ahead of what other foreigners and the EU dictate to us. Viva Malta u Ghawdex”
And this one by Malcolm Azzopardi:
“Prosit Ministru I agree with you 200%….. Had we taken this stand from years ago instead of the stupid burden sharing we wouldn’t have been invaded as we are today”
And by Jay Oatmon:
“I agree with the Foreign Minister .
Charity is a fine thing, but being swamped by people who cannot be identified, with totally different lifestyles, and religions, with virtually no education or skills is not acceptable to any society.”
Doesn’t this remind you of someone back home?
http://www.businessinsider.com/dutch-newspaper-hollande-handshakes-2014-1
In order to shake Hollande’s hands, one needs to squeeze past him in a narrow corridor, maybe just outside the toilets.
http://www.maltastar.com/userfiles/tn/t_460x0_Hollande.jpg
Was in Valletta on Saturday night, saw the diversity of new venues that have popped up, but to my dismay neighbouring the bar was a pile of blackbags filling a doorway.(Did not have my mobile with me as Iwould have taken some pics) Do we want to go to a city full of garbage bags or enjoy the beauty of the architecture and diverse scene that we so long for, as for being the Capital of Culture…. Unfortunately we are still miles off!