Vladimir,

No, I won’t get over it. I love my country and I will do my utmost to stop this bunch of corrupt cowboys from destroying Malta and its reputation, even if the majority of the Maltese are okay with it.

This is not about partisan politics. This is about the unscrupulous few who are jeopardizing the very principles of democracy – all in the name of unbridled greed.

We do not need 65 MPs and 70 local councils to run two tiny islands of 400,000 inhabitants.

Moreover, the British tradition of appointing the executive completely from parliament severely restricts an already limited talent pool.

[Daphne – Please. Would you honestly rather this government were able to choose from OUTSIDE parliament and, for example, appoint Sandro Chetcuti to the cabinet instead of just giving him an office at Labour HQ?]

If the economy functioned well, we wouldn’t even need to invoke values or denounce materialism, because the monetary value of things would be an accurate representation of their true value.

Get this. Two days ago, Mark Zuckerberg made 3 billion dollars – that’s 3 followed by nine zeros – in a single day.

That’s three times what Joseph Muscat will make by selling his passports, to put things in perspective.

Now I ask you: did Facebook create 3 billion dollars’ worth of wealth on Thursday? Zuckerberg does nothing but sell advertising space. He owns a network of billboards. So did the global retail industry make those 3 billion because of HIM?

I don’t know. But should the richest man on earth be an advertising salesman? Think on that.

Once upon a time, the richest men on earth would found the Smithsonian, or the Morgan Library.

One thing I’ll say though. The rich and successful used to be models we could look up to and seek to emulate. Now there’s a new breed of super-rich so far out of our league that it becomes impossible to follow them up the economic ladder.

I call that the saturation point Ciccio, albeit used to define our islander predicament to occupy physical space, consuming it like there’s no tomorrow.

Labour have a serious perspective problem, both abstract and physical, they demand their limo as much as a public with its head lowered.

Labour’s promise to provide parking for our cars everywhere, anywhere anytime is no different to the misuse of government. An appointment becomes the consumption of a promise, not an objective will to service.

As is their obsession with energy prices, instead of anything virtuous or lightweight to reduce consumption and dependability.

Materialism in its most primitive of states, has truly contaminated their lust for power to change people’s will. It hasn’t just ebcome the instrument, it’s excess is the end in itself.

As Daphne once said, they’re the ones who invade a bar because it’s ‘cool’, forcing all regulars to flee elsewhere.

“In late June, Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek launched a spurious and inflammatory campaign on Twitter against local BBC reporter Selin Girit, labeling her a traitor and a spy in apparent disagreement with the BBC’s coverage of the protests.”

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan referred to the BBC journalist by name in a speech to Parliament in his criticism of international media. Some Turkish MPs called out ‘traitor’.

The word ‘traitor’ was also used by the PL in government with reference to the PN MEPs because they voted against Government’s sale of passports.

Intimidation has no place in a democracy.

Consumerism is not a Maltese invention but a global disease. Today’s social outcasts are those who seek to live by a moral code. Instead of being respected for their principles they are derided as naive. It’s the whole gentlemen vs scum game where the end justifies the means.

Baxxter’s post brings to mind the book “Affluenza”. Quite a sad read, and I mean both the book and Baxxter’s contribution.

Unless you’re part of their inner clique you lost as well, Vlad.

Although I have some reservations, I believe that during the term of the last Gonzi government the PN had sought to occupy less and less territory. However, and unfortunately, the Labour party moved in and quickly filled the space liberated by the PN, and consequently no net progress was made by the citizens.

With this Malta Tana Lkoll government, the situation has reverted to the Golden Years. The Labour party has filled up every government post with its lackeys. And there is a Labour majority everywhere: in the government, in the local councils, in the European Parliament.

Even the NGOs are Labour: the developers, the hunters, the environmentalists.

And the Speaker. The President. The Office of the Law Commissioner. The Chairman, and his Personal Assistant, at the MCST.

The MCESD. The Chamber of Commerce and the MHRA.

No wonder real democracy in Malta is once again under threat.

On the contrary, the party is just starting. Or shall we say the carnival is, especially now that we are coming into February and prinjolata is already on display in the vetrini at Cafe Cordina.