Karl Stagno Navarra: put on the permanent, full-time payroll at Malta Enterprise to handle media relations for the ME stand at the Milan Expo next year
Former Malta Today journalist Karl Stagno Navarra has been put on the pay-roll at Malta Enterprise two weeks ago, with a full-time job in which his sole responsibility is to handle media relations for Malta Enterprise’s stand at the Milan Expo between 1 May and 31 October next year.
When I rang to ask what his job entails, he responded: “Simple, just taking care of media relations for Milan Expo 2015.” To my question as to why media relations for Milan Expo 2015 are being handled by Malta Enterprise, Stagno Navarra replied: “No, no – I’m handling media affairs for the Malta Enterprise stand at Milan Expo next year.”
When I asked whether he is doing anything else besides this, as media relations for a fair exhibitor only come into play in the period immediately around the fair, Stagno Navarra replied that this is his sole brief.
To my comment that it is extraordinary to put somebody on the full-time, permanent payroll to handle media relations for one exhibitor at a single fair, Karl Stagno Navarra said nothing.
In response to my question about what he will be doing at Malta Enterprise once the fair has come and gone, Stagno Navarra replied: “We’ll see when we get there.”
He said that he was recruited through a public call which was made last December, and that he sat for “four or five interviews”. I remarked that Aleks Farrugia, who was editor of It-Torca at the time, was also recruited through a public call made via the Employment and Training Corporation, for the post of communications officer at Malta Enterprise. I asked whether Aleks Farrugia is his boss, and Stagno Navarra replied: “Technically, yes.”
Karl Stagno Navarra started out with Bay Radio’s newsroom in the 1990s and later moved to the Nationalist Party’s media arm. He left 10 years ago after his request to stand for Malta’s first European Parliament elections on the PN ticket was refused. He then worked at various jobs, including a reporting capacity for Al Jazeera for a while, before moving to Malta Today, leaving that newspaper some months ago. “My days in journalism are over,” he said. “I’ve done my bit after almost 25 years.”
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Follow the talcum powder trail…all the way from the bathroom.
Wikileaks has on its website cables that were exchanged between the US Ambassador and the US president during the times of Mintoff.
From those cables we can see clearly that, although Malta is small and technically insignificant in the grand scheme of things, the ambassador still kept his president up to date on everything Mintoff was up to.
It is strange, therefore, that the current members of the Labour party don’t realize that anything that gets reported in Malta in the press, and even this and other blogs, is read by these ambassadors and a cable sent to their prime ministers, presidents and chancellors (How many embassies are there in Malta?)
So therefore they should all keep in mind that everything they do is being watched in some capacity or another by their foreign counterparts- or at least if a foreign head of state wanted to be briefed quickly regarding an issue here, these things will be mentioned.
They may be able to manipulate and brainwash their followers, but more powerful people are still watching and probably know a bit more than our dear PM might want them to know.
They hold the electorate in contempt, but they do the same to the international community too. Thanks to the internet, anyone can read about Muscat and Cyrus, they can watch the videos themselves on youtube and they can look through comments too.
The PL and the PM might do well to bare that in mind.
Ah that should keep the wolves (or sharks) from the door then, at least for a while….
His request was refused because of allegations that he was asking for money to procure appointments.
He backed John Dalli for the leadership. Stagno Navarra was married to Catherine Gonzi’s niece, who also dumped him for very valid reasons.
Should one reflect on why so many prominent PN members have abandoned the party? Could they all possibly be wrong?
[Daphne – You have the wrong adjective. Trying replacing ‘prominent’ with more pertinent adjectives, like good, bad, decent, indecent….On the whole, you’ll find there’s a unifying factor, and it’s political ideals.]
To me they are prominent because they were publicly associated with the PN. I am no insider, so I wouldn’t know otherwise. I do not know them personally so as to be able to classify them as you suggest – but is it possible they are all bad and indecent?
[Daphne – Is it possible they are all bad and/or indecent? Yes. You’re right, they are prominent. That’s not why ‘prominent’ was the wrong adjective. Whether somebody is prominent or not is irrelevant to the issue – it’s his or her personal qualities that count. It’s those personal qualities that define their choices and those of the people around them. You don’t have to know people like Franco Debono and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando personally to work out what sort of person they are. You are a sentient adult and should be able to gauge their qualities from their public behaviour.]
I think that a better word would be notorious rather than prominent then one could include Cyrus Engerer too.
For the record (Yes it was intentional)
Anyone wanting to contact Cyrus should write to:-
[email protected]
Can you not possibly see the reasons why they left or why they were kicked out from the party? The irony of all is that they were all given a very warm welcome by the PL, even those who were on the receiving end of many attacks by the PL just a couple of years before.
Each have their own story but there is a common theme: many thought there wasn’t enough “taghna llkollismu” heading their way.
Matthew, the common trend with all turncoats is their undying love for position, status and money. To them, ideals are best left to others.
It’s not only “undying love for position, status and money”, but also the way they embrace the amoral to achieve them; the ends justifying the means.
There are certain facts that cannot be recounted in public on most of those that “left” the party (actually were made to leave). Most of these were actually opportunists who wanted personal gain from their positions within the PN, and stamped their feet when this was refused.
So they found the right party for them, one that has institutionalised the iced bun mentality i.e. the PL. This will actually be the downfall of this government.
Matthew if you read what labour used to say about many of them, you’ll realize why they have abandoned (?) the PN. And I know that there is a very good reason why Karl ‘abandoned’ the PN.
As things will shortly be turning out, if one wanted to enroll in the PN, one has to produce a signed copy of beatification duly witnessed by St. Peter, the pope and counter-signed by Edwin Vassallo.
I predict 20/25 years of opposition for the PN, by which time, nobody’d want to be in government of a bankrupt banana republic – oh wait, not even then because Zaten tal-Ajkla might be interested.
Most were kicked out, and that’s because they were all bad apples.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140515/local/manhanding-of-photographer-allied-newspapers-denies-that-police-complaint-has-been-withdrawn.519137
“We are also sad to note that G4S’s statement was circulated to the media by the chairman of the Malta Institute of Journalists, who described it as a clarification.
Is the chairman of the MIJ your famous friend from the past Malcolm Naudi
Enjoy your aperitivo, Stagno Navarra, Corso Como’s waiting.
I agree re Debono and Pullicino Orlando – and you could also be right about all the others.
However, the impression is that there has been an exodus from the PN, and I am asking whether it is always the fault of those who leave, or whether the people running the party should also shoulder some blame.
A name which comes to mind is Ian Castaldi Paris, surely not of Franco or JPO’s ilk. If things continue this way, it will be another 20 years before the PN is back in government!
[Daphne – And when it is, you can rest assured that it won’t bring back Franco Debono as special envoy to the World Tourism Organisation, or make JPO Malta’s delegate to the World Trade Organisation, as this government has done with two of its formerly exiled dinosaurs from the 1980s.]
“I could not work within the party. I was consistently put out of track. When Edwin Vassallo became director of the college, I could not stay because we had two different agendas.
I was not being invited for meetings or press conferences and Paul Borg Olivier did not understand that the new structure would not work. He would not show up for meetings, and press conferences would be called off at short notice. I had had enough. I realised that it was not my place to work under this administration.” – Ian Castaldi Paris
It was not just Edwin Vassallo and Paul Borg Olivier though there were others and some are still around.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/interview/25606/call-of-duty-build-new-pn-ian-castaldi-paris-20130325#.U3TupCgXI74
In the meantime, in the South China Sea. This is how Joe’s Communist friends treat others: their arrogance has no limits and Joey Taghna seems to have been trained by them in his own arrogant stance.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/what-is-china-building-on-this-tiny-island-philippines-government-releases-image-of-reclamation-in-the-south-china-sea-9376289.html
Mario De Marco cited various “jobs for the boys” given by Malta Enterprise in the past year, with the government resisting calls to give details how these people from the inner circle were recruited and how much they were being paid.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140515/local/pn-appeals-for-government-action-on-the-economy-before-it-is-too-late.519153
That would include engaging World Bank blacklisted Shiv Nair as consultant.
I wonder, will he have a rented car?
No wonder Stagno Navarra has been a regular ‘independent’ observer on the Labour Party’s Sunday TV talk show.
He was also a reporter on Joe Grima’s (the fat controller) radio station Live FM.
Karl fresh from Radio 101 reporting the triple murder from Żejtun: “Dan huwa Karl Stagno Navarra għal-Radio 101 miż-Żejtun.”
Joe Grima shouting from the studio: “Għajn zitek One-O-One!”
I cannot fathom how a person that changes his political views can be trusted. I accept that one changes his position on some issue or another, but never on ideals. The person who does it is a moral failure.
My understanding is that Karl Stagno Navarra was kicked out of the PN for something more serious than a bruised ego resulting from the MEP candidature.
As one character in the Watergate film used to say, “follow the money”
Exactly
Karl Stagno Navarra was asked to leave the Nationalist Party media because of something more serious than a dispute about the EP election. On this I give 100% to the PN for taking action. He was warned once, twice and more but he kept doing the wrong thing.
Muscat’s judgement is dangerously impaired. His usual cynicism isn’t the reason for this appointment. What’s behind it is far more worrying than his embrace of Cyrus Engerer after his criminal conviction.
The reasons for Stagno Navarra’s departure from the PN haven’t been made public but Muscat must have known about them, just as he knew that Shiv Nair had been blacklisted by the World Bank when he engaged him as a consultant.
All Muscat’s appointments to Malta Enterprise have been questionable, but engaging someone pushed out of the PN because of serious offences is beyond insane. Who’s twisting his arm this time?
If one were to have a look at the Court’s website one would have an inkling why Karl Stagno Navarra was kicked out of Media Link, as well as out of his home by his former wife. Addio l-arblu tal-festa li sewa l-mijiet tal-liri u baqa’ ma hallsu qatt!