OK. Then I wish he’d drop a few hints wherever he can, in public, boldly. A bit of criticism never hurt anyone, especially engineers, who we look up to as the nation’s boffins.

I think it is quite significant that today we are talking about one of Mintoff’s biggest hang ups; the power station.

Mintoff had insisted that his beloved government had planned everything for a new power station, and secured the unquestioned loyalty of his supports by saying, “Look how much I do for you. I’ve given you electricity”.

However it was not actually the case. They never had any plans for a power station in Benghajsa. They hardly even had any recommendations. When the Nationalists got into power in 87, it was a quick dash to build something that would give the country the much needed electricity supply. They had till 1991 to build something or the country would descend into darkness, and chaos would ensue.

The PN government, lead by Eddie Fenech Adami, had to make very tough choices very quickly, while dealing with so many other problems like restoring democracy, chose Delimara.

Mintoff was livid, and dragged the whole issue out as much as he could.

I believe that the power station remained very much imprinted in the minds of the Labour core, and the perfect button to push in order to aggravate and stir the people up.

Claiming that the power station was placed in the south of Malta because the PN views the inhabitants of the south as second class citizens is not only false, but also a sagacious way of inciting class hatred and creating yet another schism in Malta. By nurturing the idea that the power station is a “cancer factory” despite the EU reports showing otherwise, means that the building of a new power station feels like a life or death situation for many PL supporters.

They will fight for their lives for this, because they will honestly believe that they will die either way. So anyone voting PN is seen as a threat to their lives, and this will just create yet another division in our country.

For 25 years the country has moved forward, albeit at a slow pace at first, taking everyone with it. Now Muscat seems to want to bring back the old wedges that were driven between us, just to make all of Malta think that the people in the south are somehow oppressed and neglected, and that voting with the PN is a death sentence to other.

Thanks a lot Muscat. Just when we were moving forward you just had to take us all back to this againhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCsnbNUC3_A

I wish you businessmen would say these things in public, and put them down on paper. Read any of Malta’s newspapers or “executive” mags, and all you is gushing praise for China.

[Daphne – Mr Schembri is a consultant engineer, not a businessman.]

Well he wasn’t straight before that either.

He is made to take it off when he is in Tienanmen Square, at the Great Hall of the People.

He cannot lie there. Nor stamp his feet. No British humour. And they serve only Chinese tea – no coffee.

I have visited China on work related matters. I have been to several industrial areas, and the place is an environmental nightmare.

I agree with Kavallier: Shanghai is not as bad as the other places, where the smoke in the air was brown.

The first time I asked, in my ignorance, about the very thick fog, I was told that this was the pollution originating from a nearby coal-fired power station.

The least afflicted city, I would say, is Shanghai.

People in China are really considered to be expendable, in the literal sense of the word.

If we were not part of the EU club, I think we wouldn’t be far from being in similar circumstances.

[Daphne – They are expendable because there is no democracy, because they don’t have a vote. And they don’t have a vote because they are expendable. As long as we have elections every five years, we will not be in that situation.]

First they sell you luxurious living, then they plonk an unfiltered coal furnace a few feet from your windows.

This one’s better, China actually managed to poison 80% of its groundwater, meaning it formally cannot feed itself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1pbNTvkYSA