“Dr Muscat’s hiring of an individual who is blacklisted by the World Bank, and using companies that are also blacklisted by the World Bank, is proof that Muscat is not at all interested in fighting any sort of corruption.”

The message from this lot to the Chinese was that the fault and eventual disappearance of the Mandarins lay in their adhering to certainties rather than possibilities.

“This is so, and this is so.”

Democracies tend to worked with established and accepted certainties and treat possibilities within that framework.

The relationship between China and Malta was founded on funded possibilities.

The platform of electoral certainty was paid for.

The terms of possibility relationships established by Labour in waiting were not democratically approved, nor were they democratically accepted.

Shiv Nair’s value to Labour is that he is the futures’ broker for such possibilities.

How very interesting, and warped, that the leading and globally influential UK financial daily has direct established links to this Chinese development perspective.

Baxxter, what you mention is the total absence of any significant quality of work and its design.

Boundary walls were an excuse to employ people, those fortified restaurants ditto.

The first Mintoff’s, the latter the PN’s.

He did what he could, they left it standing. The result is an utter absence of interface between our activity and our surroundings. Everything has to delineate, emphasize our terms. That’s how fragile we are.

Organic reduced to expensive health food at Arkadia’s.

And the faculty of the ‘built environment’ (how sad is that, acknowledging our failure at architecture) beckons,

@Baxxter
Think of all the beauty still left around you, and be happy :)

@fautdemieux

I am posting this separately because it is very point you seem to miss – deliberately.

Malta was not sold under the terms of Muscat’s recent MOU with China.

Malta was sold when Muscat signed an MOU with China in 2010.

China is now calling in its favours, and Muscat is making Malta pay.

The agreement Muscat signd in opposition in 2010 was an agreement between two leaders in waiting. Its significance is not its legal enforceability but that it was signed at all.

Muscat called his MOU an agreement between two countries. Given that there is only nominal separation between party and state in China, that is literally true on their side and in their view.

Muscat, on the other hand, was leader of the opposition in a democratic country, or was supposed to have been. It was incumbent on him to behave accordingly.

When Muscat called his 2010 MOU an agreement between two countries, he really meant that. He signed it knowing he had China’s backing to become Malta’s next prime minister.

That 2010 MOU did not bind Malta. It bound Muscat to serve China’s interests once China helped him become PM.

As someone who has lived in Beijing and worked in Malta’s diplomatic service, you must be acutely aware of the country’s cynical regard for democratic systems as weaknesses to be exploited, a view Muscat himself shares, by no small coincidence.

You must also be acutely aware that what a democratic system views as corrupt and anti-democratic, China views as the legtimate means to its own ends.

When Xi Xinping signed his MOU with Muscat in 2010, he did so knowing that three years later, he would call in his favours from Muscat as PM.

Muscst owes his position to China and you know it, so dump your facetiousness on the matter.

Incidentally, isn’t there some rule in the diplomatic service at obliges diplomats to keep their politicsl opinions to themselves?

fautdemieux, if you are Mario Vella please change your nickname, because the correct phrase is “faute de mieux” and you should know better.

Perhaps he’s joined the choirs invisible.

Again, you misread me. I’m talking about beauty. Living well requires beauty.

@fautdemieux

I am not the type to be fed information – I normally process information. I was merely pointing out that your reference to the UK was unsubstantiated.

In fact, your argument remains unsubstantiated even now that you have provided your link. Let’s see, it says that China signed £14bn of trade deals with the UK, and in the detail, it says that this includes a deal signed between BP and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation worth £11.8bn – that’s almost 90% of the total value of deals. There is not enough detail about the other £2bn but it seems that it consists of private deals as well.

Now the last time I checked, BP was a privately held multinational corporation, regulated by several governments around the world, not least by the US government which has fined BP on several occasions. The oil giant is publicly listed – and therefore is subject to shareholders’, media and public scrutiny – and although it is of British origin (hence the name), its current Chairman and CEO are not even British.

If the Chinese counterpart is state-owned, it is not BP’s problem – it is China’s problem, although, having said this, it is not uncommon for national oil corporations to be state-owned even in the democratic west. Besides, it is BP which is selling to China, not the other way round.

Is this the type of deal that Joseph Muscat signed with China?

When I make my arguments on this topic, I am not only seeking to keep Joseph Muscat and China accountable to their publics, but I am also defending the Maltese business entrepreneurship (please note that the term is slightly different from ‘businessmen’).

This one time I beg to differ, Baxxter. Most families in Malta can live well on an average wage if only our ideals and standard of living haven’t been blown out of proportion.

Couples who are preparing to get married spend thousands of euros for their wedding, nothing but the best suffices. Their house must be furnished and equipped with all the luxuries and modern technology.

They want it all, hairdressing, nail art, beauticians, dining out, branded clothes, luxury cars and whatever else one feels is his due.

If there is poverty in Malta, most of it is due to financial mismanagement within the family unit. Just talk with people in other European countries and see how astounded they’ll be when they see our way of life.