Avvenire, 21 December: ‘Lo scandalo del passaporto a 650mila euro – I ricchi cinesi e russi? Europei a Malta’
There seems to be a fresh wave of international coverage about Malta’s sale-of-passports scheme. The Evil Opposition Traitors must have been hard at work.
Avvenire’s piece begins:
THE SCANDAL OF THE 650,000 EURO PASSPORT: RICH CHINESE AND RUSSIANS? THEY’RE EUROPEANS IN MALTA.
Nothing is simpler than becoming an EU citizen for the magnates and super-rich of the demi-monde. All they have to do is go to Malta and throw 650,000 euros into the state’s vaults. And they’ll get their passport without having to live there or make any productive investment.
Russians and Chinese are first in line: they have had their eyes on the island, as their passport into Europe, for some time. The Maltese parliament, with its socialist majority, has in the last few weeks legislated to open the borders of the island – against payment.
Prime minister Joseph Muscat’s government predicts that the sale of citizenship could bring into the balance almost 30 million euros a year from an estimated 200 to 300 new ‘citizens’ at every change of the calendar year.
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http://www.avvenire.it/Economia/Pagine/I%20ricchi%20cinesi%20e%20russi%20%20%20Europei%20a%20Malta.aspx
Easy arithmetic: 650,000 x 200 = 130,000,000 and not 30,000,000. Correct me if I’m wrong.
This will make good for the running of the big cabinet and the electricity discount.
A nice roadmap. By the way, Land reclamation will create hundreds of jobs.
L’Avvenire is the Italian Catholic Bishops Conference’s daily newspaper. They must be in the PN’s pay as well.
THE SCANDAL OF THE 650 MILLION EURO PASSPORT
Now that would be big business.
Far from being influenced by the Opposition, this story, like many others in the international media, is actually influenced – deceived would be a better word – by Joseph Muscat.
They keep mentioning 30 million euros a year expected by government – a figure fed to them by Muscat – but then also say that between 200 – 300 passports are expected to be sold yearly. This means 130 – 195 million euros rather than just 30.
To confuse the issue further, when addressing MEPs, Minister Scicluna mentioned 8-15 million euros and about 20-30 passports issued. The Government is obviously hoping that the other EU countries will accept the passports-for-cash scheme because it is so small and insignificant.
In actual fact, the scheme has been capped at 1800 passports, plus an undefined number of dependants’ ones. This means that, throughout the remained of the legislature, they are expecting to sell an average of 450 passports a year and net about 300 million. Ten times what they claimed at first.
Ah, the truth is coming out. Perfect timing. First take over the business, and then reveal the facts.
Based on the conclusions of this report, there was nothing wrong with the bendy buses. There was a problem with the batteries. But can arson be excluded in any case?
So what now? Is this part of a “cunning plan” so that the government will bring back the bendy buses on the roads, now that they have managed to bankrupt the business of Arriva and made them pull out?
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Inquiry-suggests-Marsa-bendy-bus-fire-caused-by-electrical-fault-in-battery-20140106
“While the fire was reported at around 12:45am, the bus broke down in front of the Maltapost HQ 45 minutes before. According to the inquiry, this difference in time meant that engine oil and hydraulic oil had cooled down while diesel was not circulating under the pressure of the pump. The good condition in which these parts of the bus were found confirmed that such a technical fault had not been the cause.
The second possibility investigated was that an electrical shortage in the batteries caused the fire, although it is very rare that evidence of shortage of wires is found due to the extreme damage such a fire causes. Evidence is “obliterated” in such a fierce fire.
However, the inquiry did observe damage on one of the batteries’ terminals, damage which indicated that there had been an electrical shortage. It was also noted that the mechanics, before the fire broke out, could not restart the bus suggesting a serious breakdown in the electronic system of the vehicle.”
Reminds me of the batteries trouble on the Boeing Dreamliner. Was Boeing asked to withdraw the Dreamliner, or did they check and resolve the batteries problem?
Now I get it. They suddenly realised that it will cost them a bomb to keep the bendy buses off the road.
They are now paving the way for their return.
Hypocrites.
This is what happens for those who depend much on a telepromter
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jan/07/michael-bay-walks-out-ces-samsung-presentation?CMP=fb_gu
http://euobserver.com/justice/122627
Maltese PM Joseph Muscat has said the scheme will close once the 1,800 cap is reached. But when asked by EUobserver, his spokesman, Kurt Farrugia, declined to rule out extra quotas in future.
And in the meantime the obligation to publish names has not been reintroduced so Muscat and family can sneak in as many Russians as Chinese as they like.
Shiv Nair must be happy.
On another subject, this article from Lino Spiteri is an admission that pushing Arriva out was a mistake of colossal proportions.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140106/opinion/The-post-Arriva-challenges.501551
He writes “A new operator will surely demand a higher, possibly open-ended running subsidy by government. Which is where the 2014 Budget will be shifted off course. That said, the government had no alternative to try out.”
Wrong. The best alternative for government would have been to negotiate improvements with Arriva, even if it meant slightly higher subsidies (or slightly higher fares). The subsidies that government would have paid Arriva are far less than “the open-ended running subsidy” to which Lino Spiteri refers.
The PL is now realizing pushing out Arriva was a massive mistake. It is too late to fix it.
Lino Spiteri votes Labour. Enough said.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/blogsdetails/blogs/The-taghna-lkoll-buses-20140106
James Debono writes in Maltatoday: “For although the service was seriously deficient on various grounds, it was not as bad as many made it to be. It seems that for a variety of partisan, commercial and cultural factors, some were determined to see the system fail.”
Well said, Mr. Debono. It is now the taxpayer who will foot the bill.
James Debono also notes that “the government will have to fund the new company at a rate, which is well above what was allocated for public transport in the budget.”
A much cheaper option would have been to resolve the deficiencies through negotiations with Arriva, even if it would have involved an increased, albeit minor, cost.
I can see a very long queue of foreign operators waiting to express their interest to invest in Malta’s public transport after Arriva.
Just kidding, of course.
Updated: Government spokesman denies citizenship quota claim by EUobserver ….. so more to come after 1,800
http://www.di-ve.com/news/updated-government-spokesman-denies-citizenship-quota-claim-euobserver
We’d better get used to the idea that we are now official hostages to the rich Chinese and Russians because our economy, for the foreseeable future, is going to depend on them.
We are no longer masters of our own country and have now opened our borders to blackmail and manipulation from forces we can only begin to understand.
It will only be a matter of time before our civil liberties and freedom of speech will be curtailed to suit the demands of our ‘patrons’.
And all this from the Party that opposed joining the EU on the national ‘freedom’ bandwagon. What unbelievable, brass-necked, po-faced hypocrites and liars. SHAME ON YOU.
http://www.boursorama.com/actualites/grande-braderie-en-europe-939f582d68b51b6ab55e8716cdc4a8d0
Here’s France 24’s press review on 2nd January. The article on “the great European fire sale” is discussed from 03:40.
I have yet to see one journalist awed by “jealousy” at our Labour government’s magnificent plan. Facial expressions range from anger, to incredulity, to derision, to a Gallic raised eyebrow, to downright mockery.
None of which are understood by our political leaders, of course, who are completely devoid of emotional intelligence.
Back to the times when the driver smokes and eats pastizzi while driving and cheering all other drivers on the way. What have we done to deserve all this? Why go back to ignorance once we have tasted education?