Comments on: PANAMA PAPERS: This is the third (mysterious) company associated with Schembri’s and Mizzi’s

By: L Farrugia

L Farrugia — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 12:29:00 +0000

In reply to Daphne Caruana Galizia. Sorry just catching up now, yes that is why HSBC got rid of them, but the Bank of Valletta still has safe deposit boxes.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 13:11:00 +0000

These are not blogs; these are comments-boards.

Wary, not weary – weary means tired.

Idiomatic English does not ask questions about possibilities with ‘could it be’. It makes statements using ‘may’. Both speak of possibility rather than certainty, but the latter is idiomatic and the former is not.

Only Maltese people say ‘could it be’ instead of constructing a sentence with the word ‘may’ or even ‘might’, which appear to be alien here in Malta except for ‘might as well’.

‘Could it be’ comes straight from the Maltese ‘Jista jkun li..?’

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 21:22:00 +0000

In idiomatic English, you do not say ‘Could it be that he went with X to buy Y?’

You say, ‘He may have gone with X to buy Y.’

By: Holiday99

Holiday99 — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 12:20:00 +0000

This affair will soon explode!

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 18:44:00 +0000

In reply to L Farrugia. Isn't that the main reason the banks got rid of safe deposit boxes.

By: L Farrugia

L Farrugia — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 18:43:00 +0000

In reply to Daphne Caruana Galizia. In my previous life as a banker, I did experience a substantial amount of hard cash (from a safe deposit) and a notorious person trying to deposit this by clearing it from one bank to another.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 12:49:00 +0000

We’re not talking cash here, for heaven’s sake. We’re talking transfers from one offshore account to another.

By: La Redoute

La Redoute — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 12:45:00 +0000

They’re bored of listening to yet another pointless speech.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 12:40:00 +0000

Feeling a bit tetchy today, but after reading and deleting reams of COULD IT BEs I shall use this as an example.

Nobody, but nobody, uses the phrase COULD IT BE like Maltese people do. It is 1. a literal translation of the idiomatic ‘jista jkun li’ to unidiomatic English, and 2. it is a reflection of Maltese people’s TOTAL INABILITY to give a straight opinion.

If you think X, just say X. Why in God’s name qualify it with COULD IT BE.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 12:31:00 +0000

Any newspaper editor or member of parliament can request the Speaker for the income tax returns of any member of parliament past and present for the years they were in the House, the year before they took up their seat, the year after they left their seat and, if there is a hiatus between terms in parliament, for the years of the hiatus.