This might make for an engaging discussion
An interesting comment has just come in from Carlos Bonavia. I’ve uploaded it here with my reply beneath.
CARLOS’S COMMENT:
Should our ex EU Commissioner’s working holiday to the Caribbean not that long ago be seen in a new light, now that the passport scam marketeers, Henley & Partners, have been revealed? They were very active in the Caribbean region.
The sheer indecency of this bunch of thieves and con-men is staggering.
Who ever thought that while we were being diverted by Jeffrey Pullicino’s divorce bill, Franco Debono’s shenanigans, Dalli’s tantrums on Super One and Mugliett’s moods, the forces of Evil were so busy planning and even executing our collective downfall so they could all become mega-rich?
Konrad Mizzi’s fresh-faced seeming naivety, Joseph Muscat’s lies, delivered with a panache that rivals Berlusconi’s, and Edward Scicluna’s apparent financial acumen really put one big one on Gonzi et al – well, on all of us really.
While this evil scheming was going on, poor Gonzi and Edwin Vassallo were wracked by pangs of righteous conscience over whether they should vote yes or no for divorce and we, the people, were still confounded and nearly convinced that the evil ones were those self-same lambs being covertly led to the slaughter by Dalli, Mallia and some well-known businessmen, backed and funded by powerful China and corrupt Azerbaijan.
With hindsight, how naive and blind were we?
In the Maltese predominant way of thinking, Muscat managed to engineer the greatest political coup ever done, and no question about it, much as I hate admitting it. It’s not right, it’s not fair, it’s not ethical but, it’s done and the final results are mega-rich “tal-klikka” supporters, nice cushy well-paid jobs for the lower Labour supporters, guaranteed future financing of the Labour Party machine (through government funds and passport-selling schemes).
Add to that virtually-guaranteed second term in office, richly-rewarded switchers and developers, tongue-tied journalists and hostages like Bondi, Azzopardi & all the rest. A president who has managed to reduce the presidential palace to a whore’s boudoir and to top it all off, darling Michelle gets to organize her “High Teas” and children’s parties in Malta’s premiere palaces – what more does your average Labourite want?
I tell you again – what a coup, what a master-mind, what sheer gall, what ruthlessness. You know what’s missing? Well, it’s already there starting to germinate – it’s the undeniable fact that the Nationalist Party needs to re-generate itself BUT, it will be a debilitating battle within the party itself as the real conservatives and dinosaurs within the party start opposing and resisting change in their vociferous and militant way. Sorry, did I say a guaranteed second term in office for Joseph Muscat? Make that three will you.
MY REPLY:
Unlike you, I do not admire evil. It did not take a mastermind to plan all this. All it took was bad people operating in a context of complete amorality, with money as the only motivator, in a non-evolved society akin ton Venezuela, where democracy is weak, the press is easily controlled, and the electorate is a mix of unsophisticated, superstitious and stupid, which makes it ripe for manipulation.
Similarly, it does not take a criminal mastermind to negotiate large quantities of heroin and cocaine across continents, and the reason most of us don’t do it is not that we lack a criminal mind but simply that we lack criminal inclinations and a criminal conscience.
It is not true that nobody noticed what was happening. I saw it quite clearly and wrote about it routinely. Many others read it all accurately too, but did not have a newspaper column or a blog to say so. When you have a perspective on the whole picture and know the connections between people, the dots can be joined up. Given my social circles, I was bound to find out exactly who was campaigning for Labour and courting Muscat, and then it was just a matter of working out why given that it certainly was not political beliefs.
It is not Muscat’s ‘criminal planning’ that I find remarkable. He is that kind of person, and patently so. It is the amazing stupidity of people in general, which is offensive and depressing. And this is not a reference to the crooks in business, the corrupt Azeris and the Chinese communist officials who cooperated in this blatant corruption.
Perhaps I am unfair in using the descriptor ‘stupid’ when naive and uninformed might be more appropriate. Good people often fail to understand, because it is beyond their comprehension and their experience, how bad people operate, and the lengths to which they will go. They take others on trust and when they discover they have been gulled, their shock is so profound that the mind works in a way to protect itself, through disbelief and justification.
In any case, you have got it all upside down, and your admiration of evil is misplaced. It is not Muscat who planned and executed this. It is others, with Muscat being but a pawn in their hands and the means to their end.
The suggestion that a 35-year-old man from the Burmarrad sticks manipulated China (for crying out loud), Azerbaijan, their agent Shiv Nair who has been doing deals on their behalf with the corrupt dictators of undemocratic states for years and generating billions in revenue at the expense of the populations of those states, and a group of Maltese businessmen a generation Muscat’s senior who between them control and own much of Malta and its infrastructure, is risible.
Muscat is their tool; they are not his. They are the ones who ‘masterminded’ this and he, precisely because he was at the time a 35-year-old from the Burmarrad sticks impressed by their power, their influence, their names and above all, the money they gave him to propel him to power, is their pawn and now, their hostage.
Incidentally, the fact that I am able to understand the minds of criminals, the amoral, rabidly greedy and sociopathic schemers does not make me that way myself. When you have observed human behaviour acutely over a lifetime, it becomes second nature. And what I have observed is that people who are that way literally know and understand no other way of being, and so regard all those who are not as they are as fools, tools or both.
The fundamental problem with the Nationalist Party is that for years it was run by basically good people who believed in the fairytale that good triumphs over ill, that righteousness will prevail and that the bad will meet their Armageddon. But history and reality prove the contrary, from individual experience to global politics to everything else: that it is not good or morality which triumph, but force of numbers and resources. Hitler didn’t lose the war because he fought in the cause of evil. He lost because he was hugely outnumbered.
In any environment/context where resources are roughly equal, the bad will invariably win because they stop at nothing and do not have the morality brakes or conscience that hold others back.
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Excellent.
Very sad but true. But we must try otherwise they win easily without a fight. And that applies to many aspects of one’s life.
Post of the year
Very eloquent expose’ of the current state of affairs. Prosit tassew.
Yes, but force of numbers and resources are the result of prevalent goodwill and evil’s irrational tendency to overdo it.
The numbers are automatic.
[Daphne – They are not, as Pol Pot’s victims know to their cost. Or to keep it more pertinent, China’s victims in the past and present. China has been an evil force for generations, killing its own people and reducing them to misery, but up against numbers and resources like that, nobody has the will or ability (or perhaps insanity) to even try and put an end to it.]
Muscat’s scheme, which is nothing but the core of his economic policy, the power station being just a spin off, has definitely hit a nerve.
Just consider this scheme to be the outline of the shape of things to come, permanently.
Everything Labour hopes to do revolves around this. And 75% of the population hates it.
The idea that we live in a democratic framework belonging to the west is being undermined. A government which casually puts us out of office is what he’s trying hard to do.
To do that successfully, Muscat has to preferably work ever so slowly, and he can’t.
Reaction natural. At least I hope.
Simon Busuttil gives his reply this evening at 6.00pm on Net. His will be a timely reminder of what we took for granted until 8 months ago.
The dynamics of this place are actually measurable. The greatest risk is if we continue to make comparisons to pre-1987 Labour. This one’s a different animal.
Perhaps the young ones will understand why Labour had to resort to violence to quell us in the 80’s. They had no choice.
Agreed, I was referring to Hitler’s deranged plans for the west, turning onto Stalin in the process.
Muscat cannot openly force Malta into China’s clutches. Claudette Buttigieg challenged Muscat to publish both agreements last week.
No answer. Newspapers ignoring this ‘minor’ story. Talk about complicity in letting this country go to the dogs.
Very depressing, the future does not bode well.
Cannot agree more, Daphne. What a sad reality.
What a terrible situation – agree with Lorry – very, very sad.
“Hitler didn’t lose the war because he fought in the cause of evil. He lost because he was hugely outnumbered.”
If outnumbered by fighters in the cause of righteousness, then there must be some truth in ‘that righteousness will prevail’.
[Daphne – They were not fighting so much in the cause of righteousness as in the cause of entirely justified self-protection from a murderous neighbour, Lino. If righteousness were what this is all about, the entire world would have long ago ganged up on China.]
Given what we know now, we can see in a totally different light Tonio Fenech’s (Finance Minister then) trip four years ago on George Fenech’s private plane, the other passengers being Fenech himself and Joe Gasan, and also work out how the Labour Party got to know about it immediately.
Like many others, Carlos must get a boner from evil deeds.
I saw it coming, play by play. Beyond writing here, and sending letters to the papers, which of course were never published, there was nothing I could do that wasn’t illegal.
I wonder, could we ask for political asylum at foreign embassies? It would be a largely symbolic gesture, because the requests would be refused. But if a large number of us do it, it would make the headlines.
I thought about that angle too. I think it’s realistic, not far fetched. Malta is not the safe country it was.
What is your take on the thought: are there some embassies that will be less effective than others?
I think European embassies are more likely to consider the application seriously. They will not approve it, but they will send reports back their home country. If we get the critical mass, the story will sooner or later hit the headlines.
It’s either that or protests.
What does seeing criminals feted do to an honest man?
Criminals given positions of power and people with private interests given positions of power.
What does using two weights and two measures do to a man if not erode his being?
It drives a man to existentialist introspection. Without a woman to support him, it’s either drink or carbon monoxide.
This reminds me of Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus. I used to think that he is the omnipotent and evil dictator, until I went there.
He is evil, no doubt about that. However, as I was informed once there, he is not the powerful man that he seems to be. He is just a pawn to the ‘invisible’ circles around him behind the scenes.
Lukashenko also happens to be a person from a remote village. He builds stadiums and monuments in his native village, while the oligarchs behind the scenes reap the rest.
Your last bit about China implicates the epic ‘I’m all right…………you Jack’ attitude taken by Governments who are in comfortable political situation. Such a selfish animal man can be.
Truly, an insightful post, prosit.
Elena Bagollu, you are perfectly right and the stupid people at Net TV invited Joe Gasan to promote the sale of his bonds to fund the power station project.
Not knowing your enemy, or even who your enemy is, is reckless.
Everybody knew that it was going to be Joe/Mark Gasan, George/Ray/Jorgen Fenech, Paul Apap Bologna who was going to win the tender, so why not NET TV.
Edgar, in politics, and everything else, one learns never to burn bridges. In the same way you are perceiving that Gasan changed loyalties, he will change again. Businessmen will always change to what suits their pocket best.
In the past, the PN did, currently Labour do. The art will be bringing them back to the PN being more useful for them.
Excluding them from Net does not do that.
Which tender?
Is it possible that perhaps the Maltese diet is critically deficient in Omega 3&6 oils? I estimate the ratio of dimwits vs. clear thinkers is 3:1.
Facebook and other social networks have become veritable showcases of what a bunch of twits this country has fostered.
Tisma dan il-video u tinduna kemm Muscat hu bniedem qarrieq, giddieb, pruzuntus u ta’ bla kuxjenza.
One aspect that people seem to not see at the moment, is the fact that the bona fida Chinese or Arab does not need Maltese citizenship. Their monely already buys them bona fida investments in the EU and the States.
Most of you for example will be unaware of the fact that the Lloyds Building in the UK does not belong to Lloyds or to a UK company for that matter, but actually belongs to a Chinese company.
You will also now know that substantial developments being built on the South bank in London are not being built for your average Londoner to move into, but are being built to cater for the hundreds of Chinese families whose children attend UK Universities.
The honest (or above board) Chinese entrepreneur therefore already has his gateway open to Europe. They do not need our passport in order for their children to be educated in the UK or elsewhere as they are already getting their education there.
It is the dishonest Chinese/Arab/South American businessman on the other hand that needs our passport. And it is these people who will be willing to pay the money to buy it, and it is this reason why they are demanding that their identity remains secret. And this is why Labour are wrong in what they are doing and in how they are introducing this scheme.
To answer Manuel Mallia’s comment in Parliament last Saturday when he expressed the hope that Mario Demarco was not comparing him to a common prostitute with the sale of our citizenship, all one can answer is YES Manuel you and your government are common prostitutes.In fact you are worse than whores, because you have the means not to prostitute yourselves but you choose to for that short term gain just to feed your habit of greed
In the video clip, Muscat says he wants to unite the country.
It’s amazing, but he has just done that.
The country is united against him in his bid to sell the national identity to complete strangers for a cheap price in total secrecy.
Are we the hostage of China? That to me is the most worrying.
A simple answer – Yes.