They’re so desperate for ‘important world leaders’ that they even included John Prescott
The Malta Government Department of Information has released this photograph, which it has captioned:
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat during the family photo with Heads of State and Heads of Government.
Aside from the fact that ‘family photo’ is not something you actually put in an official caption, because it is just a casually mocking description of the formal line-up of leaders, I see no heads of state or heads of government there that I can recognise, except for Muscat.
And the only reason I spotted Muscat is because of his now legendary stance, like an overweight toddler with a full nappy.
The Chinese were so desperate for Important World Leaders that they even included John Prescott, who was Britain’s DEPUTY prime minister between 1997 and 2007. He has been off the scene for the last seven years and it isn’t even his party that is now governing Britain.
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That does look ‘global’ with two-Jags pseudo-socialist Prescott.
The Chinese are scraping the credibility barrel.
Firing squad?
Your article in the Malta Independent about the reasons for the Chinese Interest in Malta is spot on. You said that Malta will be China’s ‘goon’ in Europe. If by ‘goon’ you meant bully I see your point.
[Daphne – Goon: as in the human tools used by organised crime and violent dictatorships; big, stupid toughs who execute orders unquestioningly for their bosses.]
At the same time I can’t help thinking that notwithstanding China’s atrocities it is hard to refuse an offer that will help Malta’s economy (and probably line some pockets).
I remember that around 1995, with Tiananmen fresh in our memories, the Maltese government had welcomed in Castille the Chinese premier (if it was not he premier it was some other top brass).
It is not an offer to help Malta’s economy. The same company – and the same shadowy figure – is doing the same thing in Kenya:
http://mobile.nation.co.ke/news/Shadowy-figures-pushing-rail-deal-says-Keter/-/1950946/2156652/-/format/xhtml/-/oi2cqdz/-/index.html
The “free” feasibility study is just the way into public affection (it’s already worked in your case).
Muscat doesn’t know what he’s getting into – only what he’s going to get out of it.
@it-Tezi ta’ Mario: Just because I understand why someone does something does not mean I agree with what they do.
I certainly don’t have any affection for a dictatorial regime with the world’s largest number of human rights abuses.
Moreover (and this might come across as being racist but it isn’t) I don’t trust products developed and made in China.
I am saying this because they just don’t have the checks and balances that we are used to in Europe. Take Chinese medicine for example – anyone stupid enough to put into their body anything like that is asking for trouble.
The picture requires some commentary.
The guy to the right of Muscat (the one with a red tie and unbottoned jacket) is Sergei Ivanov, Vladimir Putin’s Chief of Staff. Earlier this year, the US imposed sanctions against Ivanov for his involvement in the Ukraine/Crimea crisis.
So where is Keith tal-Kasco? Or better still, why is Keith not there in Muscat’s place?
The man two places to the left of Muscat is Teshome Mulatu, the President of Ethiopia. He is a head of state. He was educated in the University of Peking, so he lived for some time in China, developing connections there. He is known in his country for serving Chinese interests. Recently China announced several deals worth billions with the government of Adis Ababa.
And the man 4 places to the left of Muscat is the Deputy Prime Minister of Vanuatu, a country with hardly any independent media and which receives secretive Chinese aid.
The government of Vanuatu engaged Shiv Nair as foreign policy and trade consultant since around the beginning of 2013.
Vanuatu has been selling passports since around February 2014, and the Chinese were the main applicants. According to Radio New Zealand, since China does not have dual citizenship, it has asked the government of Vanuatu to provide the names of Chinese citizens who obtain a Vanuatu passport so that China will cancel their Chinese citizenship. One wonders if the Chinese government has asked Joseph Muscat to do the same, or if the Chinese citizens applying for Malta/EU passports have some privilege with the Chinese government to maintain dual citizenship.
Government favourites get to keep their Chinese passport even when they buy a Maltese one.
This is a very interesting point.
By issuing a Maltese passport to citizens of countries which do not allow dual citizenship, Malta is helping, or allowing, the new Maltese citizen to break the law of the other country of which the citizen already holds a passport. Presumably, breaking citizenship law for the purpose of acquiring a new passport is fraudulent: the new citizen must not hold dual citizenship if the country of which he is a citizen does not allow it.
And correct me if I am wrong, but Malta can permit dual citizenship with countries with which it has signed a dual citizenship agreement.
Ergo, this should make the acquisition of Maltese citizenship under this circumstance fraudulent, and therefore the Maltese passport can be withdrawn.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/245250/vanuatu-citizenship-sales-continue
“The Chinese embassy in Vanuatu has asked the government in Port Vila to provide the names and passport numbers of Chinese citizens once they have been granted citizenship.
China doesn’t recognise dual citizenship and Chinese people who have obtained Vanuatu citizenship will automatically lose their Chinese citizenship.”
The whole thing looks like a police identity parade.
Prescott, incidentally, is the one who came to blows with a heckler on one of his electioneering tours when the British Labour Party was in government. That’s what some people still remember him for – his quick temper.
Whatever they do, there is deceit.
What do you call the marriage of jodphurs and bell bottoms?
The chosen journalists who are accompanying Joseph Muscat should do a little bit of investigative journalism and give us the true picture!
China does not allow investigative journalism. Only friendly media were invited.
It looks more like a line up waiting to be executed.
Why are they all standing so far apart from each other? It’s like one of those police identification parades you see on television.
Muscat qisu l-imxawwat. Ghandu bzonn daqsxejn 123 powder.
The only time he wasn’t off the scene the last 7 years didn’t go very well for Mr. Prescott.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH2YrHTyHsQ
The overweight toddler is the only one whose stance is in the shape of an X.
John Prescott was known as Two Jags (he had two Jaguars at his disposal unlike other Labour ministers) and Two Jabs (2001: Prescott punches protester).
When one sees the Maltese prime minister at the centre of a photograph like this, it usually means he is the most importance person there, which in turns means that…
I listen mainly to Campus FM, which broadcasts excellent commentaries on current affairs. This morning the topic was the effectiveness of world leaders.
One of the guests on the show remarked: ‘Of course you cannot be an internationally respected leader if you are either bald, fat or short.’ Some people are just plain unlucky they are all three.
‘You cannot be an internationally respected leader if you are either bald, fat or short.’
Unless your name is Winston Churchill.
John Prescott was an embarrassment to his party: foot in mouth and roving hands.He only made it that far because Tony Blair needed to offer a sop to the unions in exchange for the removal of the notorious clause 4 .
China’s own prime minister didn’t go to the forum. He sent a letter and Muscat instead.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/n/2014/0711/c90883-8754534.html
There’s a lot to be said for going to the best when you want something done:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2688832/Is-THIS-road-building-China-collapses-Five-year-old-boy-filmed-working-digger-driver-construction-site.html
So Ms. Mizzi is being paid to help China do business in Malta. Should it not be the Chinese dictatorship who pays her, in that case?
This is an ongoing theme at Malta Enterprise. Its primary role is not helping Maltese business but foreign business to set up in Malta. What a cretinous way to run a country.
Can Sai Mizzi Laing and Malta Enterprise provide us with a report on the opportunities for Maltese businesses in China? What are we going to export back to China exactly?
Interesting information about Muscat’s friend and most recent members of the EU (by proxy)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/10958661/The-New-Emperors-Power-and-the-Princelings-in-China-by-Kerry-Brown-review-scrupulous-and-valuable.html
Joseph fits in this photograph to a T.
This is exactly where he belongs.
In a politicians’ international skip.
With Prescott nonetheless. The most discredited British politician of the past two decades. Domenic Lawson in a headline on the front page of the Daily Mail described him as ‘this dreadful, incompetent philanderer’ .
Pitiful and pathetic.
Can someone please tell him that he is debasing himself and his country?