When you sup with the devil, you need a long spoon – it’s incredible how many people don’t understand that
Only three weeks ago, Malta’s leading estate agents told The Malta Independent that they are not worried about Henley & Partners having set up a real-estate agency or that they will take “the lion’s share” of the real estate business through the citizenship scheme, “because they don’t have the required experience in the market”.
I remember thinking when I read that, my God, how naive and gullible. You’d think that estate agents would be the last people to be naive and gullible in any context, but it looks like they didn’t bother to assess the patterns of behaviour or check out the full spectrum of information that would have told them how they would end up eaten for supper by Henley and the government.
Nobody likes to feel used or to think they might have been used, so they probably thought that lending their support to the government on the citizenship scheme once the property required was introduced automatically meant they would get their proper share of the action.
As if. Did it take an Einstein to work out that the property requirement was introduced only to silence the European Commission and the Nationalist Party, and Henley – which has massive leverage over the Labour Party/government – would have had no intention of giving up any of its financial privileges?
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http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-02-10/news/estate-agents-confident-henley-estates-wont-take-lions-share-of-high-end-property-market-3910467585/
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-03-04/news/spaniard-punched-and-kicked-for-playing-harmonica-at-gozo-terminal-4141711360/
And the chairman doesn’t intend to do anything about it.
Oh yes, Malta taghna, naghmlu li rridu.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140304/local/conspiracy-theories-gone-with-the-wind.509207
What can one make of this? Is Joseph’s float the only one that needed these alterations after suffering damage? It all seems to be a bit too convenient.
What is interesting is that :
“Nevertheless both items were still retained, but were put on the float, in a safer place”.
Yes of course hidden away from the public.
So obvious that they could not ‘digest’ the criticism, as usual.
Isn’t it too much of a coincidence that the strong winds happened to hit just the ONE float, and BOTH the passport and the gas tank on either side of the same float?
They are treating us all like ignorant sheep, expecting us to believe whatever they tell us.
It serves them right. I hope they don’t even get a thin slither of the pie.
Guess which float will win the prize in that category?
And yet the wording is still very, very cautious.
Walking on eggshells?
They thought they were in too. What they did not perceive was that they were going to be in for a big surprise. Deceived by the Great Leader himself and by his cronies.
The PL in government thrives on deception and on the naivety and gullibility of those who see only their immediate needs rather than the whole picture. They failed, like many still do, to read between the lines when Football-Fan-Joey “assured” them that Henley and Something will not affect their commercial activity.
The estate agents’ association was one of the first to congratulate and endorse Joey’s scheme. Seems that what goes around comes around. Cwiec.
Not even fifty-fifty partners.
What surprises me is that business people, who are supposed to be shrewd, were so easily taken in by being identified as “stakeholders” in this scheme to sell Maltese citizenship and Maltese/EU passports, commodities according to the prime minister, to foreigners.
The saying “Everyone has his/her price” applies. These stakeholders are paying the price for supporting a scheme that will hurt Malta’s international reputation once a “bribe” was offered to them.
When dealing with a conman snake-oil artist, there is a different picture presented to each group to guarantee commitment from their end. What ensues is that they are made to believe that they have the “in” or the exclusive.
The barrier of incredulity is not strong because due to this “close relationship” with the snake-oil artist, they are told what they need to be told so that i) their resistance is kept at a low ebb and ii) there is the semblance of protection which, if they speak up against, will be blown.
What they don’t seem to realise is that the exclusivity is all Henley’s and they have been royally screwed. Typical.
An understanding of this would first need to counter that they have been deceived and that is the hardest part to swallow and bounce back from.
They should keep emotion and dithering to a minimum and adopt a hard-line approach that genuinely protects their interests.
Twist and turns. People will get smart when their toes are stepped on.
Why do estate agents have to see Rome burn to cry out that Nero burnt it ?