Comments on: The four pillars of corruption

By: Olaf Bartolo

Olaf Bartolo — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 06:43:00 +0000

I’m afraid your argument doesn’t hold water.

Luxembourg and Malta have similar population sizes yet the former scored 82 and placed 9th on the 2014 corruption perception index whereas Malta scored 55 and placed 43rd.

Other interesting scores:

Iceland, (pop. 333,000 in 2014) scored 79 and placed 12th.

China, (pop. 1.4 BILLION in 2014) scored 36 and placed 100th.

Need I go on?

https://www.transparency.org/cpi2014/results

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Sat, 04 Jul 2015 21:05:00 +0000

Products in Malta are not three times the price they are elsewhere. That is impossible nowadays, what with internet shopping and with preprinted labels on the products sold by chains, which give the prices in different EU member states.

When prices were much higher in Malta than anywhere else, it was not because of cheating by shops and importers. Profit margins were regulated at law and the reason for the higher prices was sky-high customs duty and other tariffs. Customs duty on cosmetics, for instance, was 75% at one time.

By: Janie

Janie — Sat, 04 Jul 2015 16:59:00 +0000

Daphne,

This was a very good post and so are a lot of the posts that you have been writing about this subject.

When I first started reading your posts and the papers in Malta, I though the Upstate 8 were the only ones that are concerned with the corruption in Malta because of the scam we were involved in.

But I find out from your blog and the papers that there is a lot of corruption over there.

Personally, I think you are doing a wonderful job of getting out the word on all the different directions the corruption is taking. You need to be careful with all your digging. But I do notice it is actually in several of the papers now. I guess they have to write about it now that you have dug it up.

I am still having problems understanding why the police would turn Marie Corbin back on the streets if she is there on a fake ID. Is that not reason to hold her?

She may have time to escape yet again from there like she has done in the past.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Fri, 03 Jul 2015 23:51:00 +0000

When did Monaco become an EU member state with all the institutions of one? I hadn’t noticed.

Your closest comparison is Luxembourg.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Fri, 03 Jul 2015 23:48:00 +0000

People like you really irritate me. You don’t even have the guts to write an innocuous comment on a comments-board in your own name. You don’t even provide your real email address even though I am the only one who will see it. And then you say that by writing this website 24/7 and saying the things cowards like you don’t have the balls to say, I am not doing enough but have the responsibility to do more. My answer to you comes in the form of two words, the first beginning with F and the second with O. Honestly, what crap.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Fri, 03 Jul 2015 21:45:00 +0000

Believe me, I know what I’m talking about. I’ve had conversations with people from all walks of life, including my own, who are completely unable to make a realistic assessment of lifestyle and spending in the context of business income.

The spending style itself is a give-away. If you’re splurging on a Maserati that means the price of the Maserati has come out of your spare change, which in turn means that the volume of your income is way beyond what can reasonably be earned from any amount of legal Paceville operations.

It also means that the income is largely unearned because it isn’t valued.

Of course, you can also be extremely rich and spend nothing at all, like Manuel Mallia, but that is a pathology.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Fri, 03 Jul 2015 18:05:00 +0000

https://agenda.weforum.org/2015/06/the-4-pillars-of-corruption-and-how-to-topple-them/