The Maltese line-up at the negotiating table in China
Do note that there isn’t a single member of the civil service with them, as there should be and as there would have been have been ordinarily.
Starting at the foreground of the photograph and moving up the table:
1. Mrs Konrad Mizzi, wife of Maltese government minister doing unspecified work in China without an office address or contact numbers
2. Labour backbencher Deo Debattista, a family doctor/general practitioner
3. Louis Grech, deputy prime minister and Minister for Europe
4. Joseph Muscat, prime minister
5. Clifford Borg-Marks, naturalised in China for the last few decades and with a family and business there, but for some reason appointed Malta’s ambassador to China rather than the Maltese consul in China
6. Keith Schembri, owner of multi[-million turnover machinery and consumables supplier KASCO Ltd, the prime minister’s chief of staff and personal assistant
7. Bernard Hamilton, deputy head of mission at the Maltese embassy in Beijing
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Where and who are the “others”, as reported by the Times?
Ambassador Borg Marks is still in business, but it’s not Malta’s: http://www.china-iprhelpdesk.eu/en/helpdesk-experts
I love how the Chinese talk about a special relationship with Malta. Yes, special when it was a full blown communist dictatorship and Malta had Mintoff, and the Maltese were being bullied by the government, to put it mildly.
My, what a special relationship.
I guess that’s what makes all of this stink, makes so many people uncomfortable and why Muscat never mentioned a word about this during the election campaign two years ago.
He knew that such an agreement was going to remind people of Mintoff, and basically prove the PN right: that it would be back to those days.
In fact, everything Muscat has done reminds everyone of the 70s and 80s, so again the PN would have had more proof that voting Labour would be a big mistake.
The dumbest thing is, people are perfectly alright with having this information kept from them before an election, only to find out about it all later. How strange.
What on earth was Deo Debattista doing there? His savoir- faire where Chinese affairs are concerned do not go further then giobbling up a plate of Peking Duck with pancakes and a few balls of sweet and sour pork.
Stupid question maybe, but what’s the difference between an ambassador and a consul? Thanks.
[Daphne – http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Ambassadors+and+Consuls A consul is not a member of the diplomatic/foreign service and need not even be a citizen of the country he or she represents. Consuls are generally people who live permanently in the country where they are a consul. This is generally an honorary post. Ambassadors should never be people who live permanently in the country where they are an ambassador and which is their naturalised home, because they have an inbuilt conflict of interest and also because the receiving country cannot, should there be the need to do so, expel them as it is their home. This government has appointed at least two such ambassadors: our high commissioner in Australia has lived there all his life and is also an Australian citizen with business interests in Australia; and then there is Clifford Borg-Marks who has lived in China for decades, has a family there, and extensive business interests. It is his home. He should be a consul not an ambassador.]
Thanks :-)
Deo Debattista s a doctor. Labour had already announced that they will be introducing a Chinese health clinic or something at Mater Dei Hospital, so perhaps Debattista has already been earmarked to run it.
Oh no. I had missed that announcement. Are the respective unions of the various healthcare professional not going to make a statement? (How surprising.)
I’m assuming that this clinic is going to be peddling remedies that do not hold up to scientific scrutiny, funded by Maltese taxes.
Ridiculous, when money could be spent on actual therapies with a foundation in evidence based medicine or even to pay for a few more nurses and doctors, who are chronically understaffed and underpaid.
I understand that Kurt Farrugia was also there. He was shown being introduced by Muscat. Where is he?
What worries me is the absolute silence of Keith tal-Kasco. Always present but never to be heard.
They’re a team. Kurt Farrugia cannot be seen and Keith Schembri can never be heard.
He is at the far end of the table, opening a packet of cookies.
Why didn’t they take that other fossil, Reno Calleja, with them?
His vast knowledge on anything Chinese would have been indispensable to our delegation. He could have, for example, got the best possible deals for lodging and dining, saving us a pretty penny.