UPDATED: Green again
The Gaddafi green flag is back up on the Libyan embassy. Well, I suppose it would have to be given the fact that the ambassador, appointed by Gaddafi, has not resigned and so must continue to fly his flag.
UPDATED: So now the ambassador has had a note in Arabic stuck to the embassy gate, explaining that the green flag has been hoisted again because it is the one recognised by the government of Malta.
He seeks to give the impression that he received orders from Malta’s foreign minister to take down the flag of independence and raise the flag of Gaddafi, because the two met yesterday afternoon.
But Tonio Borg has reacted immediately, saying that the Maltese government does not interefere in the choice of flag at embassies. It’s up to them.
Bit of a creepy customer, this Libyan ambassador.
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That ambassador guy certainly is a slippery customer.
Power supply may be affected by GWU actions – Enemalta
http://www.timesofmalta.com/…/enemalta-files-second-judicial-protest-against-gwu
Is this what co-operation means?
Advice to the world on how to conduct international relations from -timesofmalta.com
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110228/local/libya-we-will-not-be-idle-if-faced-by-genocide-gonzi-request-for-jet-fighters-was-made-by-libyan-pm
Marlene F-Hills
We need to understand the system of government in Arab countries such as in Saudi Arabia (and as it was in Iraq) which do not run on a democratic system as we, in the West, know it before we start making war noises.Malta had 200 years under the British so we understand democracy even though we speak an offshoot of the Arabic language. PM Gonzi is out of order to mention “genocide” The pilots who defected had to tell lies to save their skins and the fact that the guns on the Migs were unused is no proof that they were going to be used against civilians. Malta should not allow Israeli or American or British planes to land on the island with war intentions.There are more immigrants there for work than actual Lybians in Lybia and they are the ones causing evacuation crisis. They don’t want to be caught in the civil strife as they don’t belong. Gaddafi was generous to Malta and he is our neighbour . The Libyans should get together and sort out their problems on their own withoout outside interference.Once outsiders get their hands on the oil wells that will be the end.
Marlene, if you are reading this:
Obviously you are not following news coming out of Libya with regular frequency, too closely.
How else would you describe Gaddafi’s bombing and strafing his own countrymen, women and children en masse, other than genocide?
The fighter-bomber planes which landed in Malta, by the way, are not Migs and the fact that the guns had not been fired is proof that the pilots had refused to use them on civilians as they had been instructed to do. Coming to Malta, besides ‘saving their skin’ prevented the same planes from being used by mercenaries to carry out the dirty work. I am pretty sure that having refused to carry out orders, the pilots would not have received a heroes welcome by Gaddafi.
By your measure, the USA, Britain and Malta should relax and watch while Gaddafi continues to murder his own people. It is a good thing that some people have a conscience, an obligation towards those who thirst for basic human rights and whose governments have principles which run parallel to common decency.
The cherry on the cake is your statement that, “There are more immigrants there for work than actual Lybians in Libya and they are the ones causing evacuation crisis”. Funny how these foreign workers who are paid premium wages are urgently fleeing Libya, forfeiting their ample wages while the fewer Libyans earning some $2.00 a day are stuck fighting for their rights while forfeiting the measly $2.00 a day, and worse for many, their lives.
You have a point, a minor one at that, that the USA is concerned about the oil Libya has. tell me, which country is not? Tell me with some sincerety, how would your life be affected if access to Libyan oil is cut off permanently? Would your energy bills double, treble? Would you not be one of the first ones to complain about it? Have you not noticed that Saudi have pledged to increase their oil output in order to compensate for Libyan oil loss?
Your solution is a masterpiece in itself – let the Libyans sort their mess out by themselves – one side having bombers, fighters, tanks and vast ammunition supplies, while the other side fights with knives, shotguns, rocks and some obsolete rifles. Guess who will be decimated.
Another spectacular display of ignorance on timesofmalta.com
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110228/local/former-minister-critical-of-gonzi-remarks-on-inevitability-of-gaddafi-fall
C Barbara
Malta is a micro-state with NIL military weight. Make no mistake that Gaddafi is still around – and there is a very serious possibility that 3 days from now, he might retake control of the country. Malta is a non-aligned country and our survival lies in not getting involved in regional wars and be friends to everyone – because we have no other option whatsoever. I would start by handing back those two damned fighterplanes to their legitimate owner.
C Barbara, you fail to notice that the ‘owner’ of those fighters is not legitimate. He is a cheap tyrant who has suppressed his own people while making himself a multi-billionaire. You call that legitimate?
The future of the world, according to Carmel Cilia – from timesofmalta.com
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110228/local/steep-increase-in-fuel-prices-announced
Carmel Cilia
Instead of all that publicity with our Grand harbour being full of activity in other people’s interest it would have been better for us if Government had got two or three tankers of fuel at the beginning of this crises( two or three weeks ago). But no we are a nation ready to help others but unfortunately when we are in need nobody raises a hand to help us without wanting something in return. By the way for all those who are thinking that America has been doing us a great favour in taking selected illegal immigrants may I remind them that quite recently our dedicated and loyal government has given a huge(when taking in consideration of our small size) piece of land in the best part of the island for them to build an embassy.
Shame on you all politicians. We need change, total change, because here the poor is getting poorer and the rich richer. Halli min ghandu ghajnejn biex jara , jara, u widnejn biex jisma, jisma. Zieda ta 1.16 euros fil gimgha messu jaf fejn kellu jdahhala il-gvern.
I read somewhere that the Ambassador agreed to remove the Jamahiriya flag but the Consul didn’t. I had always thought that in any one place there could only be either an ambassador (if it’s an embassy) or a consul (if it’s a consulate). It’s never too late to learn.
You are right – an ambassador outranks a consul and therefore what the ambassador decides is binding. However in this case, the ambassador agreeing with the protesters and letting them haul the old flag, was wrong and done only to appease the protesters.
The ambassador, a guest of the Maltese government, forgot that the government recognizes the flag of his country used by the Libyan government which is the familiar green flag. So, an embassy cannot seem to use a flag which the local government does not recognize.
[Daphne – Tonio Borg has issued a statement saying that the Maltese government does not interfere in the choice of flag.]
Like it or not, until such time that international recognition to any other flag by any emergent authority in Libya is in place, the green flag remains the official flag of Libya.
All of us are in the gutter, but some of us are looking at our navel – from timesofmalta.com
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110302/local/hotels-enjoy-mini-boom-but-nervous-about-near-future
reno borg
Lets hope this trouble end soon ,the sooner it ends the better for our tourism industry.
Mel Vella
I don’t think so, with the price of oil i heared on Sky News that Thomson and other travel agents have just put up the prices for British families holidaying abroad, which now makes it even harder for the British in Malta.
http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/
Gaddafi live!
I just cannot understand the selfishness of some people in thinking of tourism, pleasure and the like while completely ignoring the plight of the suffering people in Libya.
As the world turns on Gaddafi and denounces his regime, Victor Vella doubts Gaddafi is a despot – from timesofmalta.com
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110301/local/old-libyan-flag-taken-into-libyan-embassy
Victor Vella
I wish to say something to our neighbours- the libyans. From what I am seeing I doubt whether Gaddafi was despotic or not. Why? The world is experiencing the world globilised in Libya. Millions of foreignors worked in Libya and today we are seeing their flight out of Libya. Russia was under communist rule, but no one not even one person was accepted to live in Russia. Gaddafi`s regime for sure was democratic when compared to communist China and Russia. Gaddafi gave the world`s employees and suppliers the opportunity to work in Libya and earn good salaries that theydid not find in their homeland. I urge the Libyan ambassador in Malta to go to Libya and talk to Gaddafi to change direction and give the opportunity to his people to gather around a table and find solutions and to train his people in every sector of the economy and get rid of the parasites that now are plannig to find the opportunity to displace him. Now is the time for Gaddafi to change his attitudes as now is the time of the apparent reality to make of Libya a peacefulstate devoid of any foreign parasites. MakeLibyaofArabpeople.
Victor Vella has posted similar gems in the past.
According to him it is perfectly OK to oppress your people for 42 years while enriching yourself and your family by unbelievable wealth as long as you ‘gather round a table’ at the first sight of serious dissent.
Grow up, Victor.
“Wednesday, 2nd March 2011 – 12:38CET
Update 7: ‘We do not need food and medicines from outside’ – Gaddafi
Says he does not have personal assets abroad” http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110302/local/gaddafi-appears-on-libyan-state-tv-says-power-is-in-the-hands-of-the-people
Who the f*ck said they were for him anyway? As for the “no personal assets abroad” bit, are we to assume that the alleged luxurious life enjoyed by his family abroad is OFFICIALLY funded by the public Libyan coffers?
Gaddafi has now said that any Libyan saying the country needs foreign aid will be guilty of “high treason”, and “considered to have opened the door to colonialism”.
And presumably will be executed on the spot.
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/r1/ms10dart.asp?a=14456
What a shameful report – Labour Party website making Gaddafi sound like a victim
Mhux hemm qeghda z-zejza.
Malta is dangerously getting involved in the Libyan uprising.
Can anyone tell me in which other Country Libyan protesters were joined by local nationals, or the ‘green flag’ replaced by the ‘3-coloured flag’ as happened in Malta?
Let us help Libyans on humanitarian grounds , and let them solve their political internal problems by their own.
What if Colonel Gaddhafi remains in power, will he treat Malta differently?
[Daphne – Trying watching something other than Super One. Even the links on this website will help you.]
The results of a 2-minute search:
Geneva
Washington
Ottawa
Minnesota
London
Manchester
Cairo – Tahrir square
Cairo – Zamalek
Paris
AND
Amsterdam
Tunis
Connecticut
Seattle
Toronto
Winnipeg
Vancouver
Windsor (Canada)
Edmonton
San Franciso
Victoria (Australia)
Sfax (Tunisia)
Los Angeles
Sacramento
Orlando
Birmingham
Texas
New York
Nova Scotia
Algiers
Minneapolis
Alexandria
Berlin
Bonn
Athens
Beirut
Rabat (Morocco)
Melbourne
Montreal
Brussels
Amman
Rome
Atlanta
Denver
Chicago
Boston
ReDoute, Min hu ‘Paris’?
In my humble opinion, Tonio Borg was wrong making such a statement. The ambassador is the representative of the Libyan government and even the ambassador himself is not authorized to alter his own country’s flag.
Imagine if a Maltese ambassador serving abroad, decides to replace the Maltese flag because of a throng of protesters who demonstrate against say, the use of our port by foreign powers in order to evacuate workers from Libya.
The green flag is Libya’s identification world-wide until such a time as a new legitimate and internationally recognized government decides to replace the current one.
Malta’s ambassadors represent a democracy, not a dictatorship.
daphne please answer my questions. What the hell Super One has to do with my questions.
Remember that irrispective of the fact that the Talibans and Sadam Hussein were removed from power there is still no peace in Afganistan and Iraq and innocent people are still being butchered in those regions.
Let’s hope that the same will not happen to our Libyan friends.
[Daphne – The situation is not comparable.]
Does anybody know whether the Libyan ambassador ever attends the usual circuit of parties given by other embassies? I have never seen his face in any of the society pages.
[Daphne – You never see mine either, dery, or those of the hundreds and sometimes thousands of people who are there. As a fond peruser of the society pages, you will notice that it’s always the same 20 or so people who are featured. This does not mean that only 20 people go to parties. Not only does he go to parties, but he throws a big one every year to celebrate the anniversary of the glorious revolution in September – no alcohol, and still people go. I am invited every year, but went just once, in 2001 – I remember the year because the party was held a day after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre and the atmosphere at the party was weird because you could tell people were thinking Gaddafi did it – and I never went again. I like Libya, always had a good relationship at a ‘people level’ and even at an embassy level with this man’s predecessors but felt awkward celebrating the revolution and decided it was against my principles and conscience.]
Daphne, you are not an ambassador. I like to know who is ambassador to which country and his face from the photo we saw now did not seem familiar.
[Daphne – How many ambassadors do you see in the society pages, compared to the number accredited to Malta? And what’s with the society pages/ambassadors fascination, anyway? Are you a woman, or are you one type of gay man?]
“As a fond peruser of the society pages” I don’t mind the digs at my masculinity or whatever this was meant to be :-)
[Daphne – See above. We’ll be discussing the royal wedding next, I assume (I don’t mind at all).]
Thank you. I’m refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view but that is enough about society pages :-)