Maltastar joins Anglu Farrugia in going Off Message
In its brave attempts at convincing us that it is the political party which drove Malta into the European Union through its effort and vision, the Partit Laburista has set up a little ‘European Corner’ (yes, that’s what it’s called) on its news website, Maltastar.
The trouble is that it’s taking the news off the wire – in this case Bloomberg – and unfortunately for the Partit Laburista, the news isn’t always On Message.
While Tony Zarb tells us, from the comfort of a EUR200 seat at an Elton John concert, that we are suffering austerity measures, and while Joseph Muscat goes on cruises and tells us that we have to eat pizza if we’re going to pay for the electricity we use, Maltastar in its ‘European Corner’ has inadvertently reminded us just how very fortunate we are.
Maltastar – European Corner
European Unemployment Remains at Highest in More Than 12 Years
(Bloomberg)
European unemployment held at the highest in more than 12 years in August as a cooling recovery prompted companies to keep their hiring plans on hold.
The jobless rate remained at 10.1 percent after the July figure was revised from 10 percent, the European Union statistics office in Luxembourg said in an e-mailed statement today. That’s the highest since June 1998.
Europe’s export-led recovery is faltering as governments from Portugal to Ireland step up efforts to push down their budget deficits just as the global economy cools. Growth in Europe’s manufacturing industry weakened in September and European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said yesterday in Brussels that there’s a need for “caution.”
Some 15.9 million people within the 16-nation euro region were unemployed in August, down 20,000 from the previous month.
In the 27-nation EU, unemployment held at 9.6 percent in August. At 20.5 percent, Spain had the highest jobless rate in the EU and Austria the lowest at 4.3 percent.
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The current and relatively florid economic situation in Malta is due, in no uncertain measure, to the superhuman effort at building a solid economy of the KMB administration in the glorious eighties. (Paul Heywood, my erstwhile and incomparable English teacher would have dismissed this sentence outright as being long-winded).
This is another reason why that nightmarish era should never be forgotten.
Anthony, that era of the 80s will never be forgotten. In fact, if the Partit Laburista is elected in 2013, we will go through it all over again (“meta nitilghu ahna nurukom”).
@ Anthony
Yes Dr. Paul Heywood would have done that. I thank you for bringing back to me the memory of a gentleman and a real professional. God bless him.
Unfortunately, Maltastar readers are convinced that unemployment is the highest it’s ever been in Malta. They will reaffirm their belief that Malta should never have joined because we’ve gone from bad to worse – whatever they might experience to the contrary, their doom-and-gloom outlook will remain as bleak as ever. Most of them still think that a partnership would have been more beneficial, even though they haven’t the foggiest idea how. The ease with which their media is able to brainwash these people is uncanny.
And many still think the Mintoff era was just and fair ………. because the Perit made sure that those corrupt employers, managers, businessmen, professionals etc were made to toe the line and all their “arja” finished.
I do not think there is anything uncanny about this phenomenon.
It all boils down to the simple fact that there is very little brain to wash.
Anybody read Dr Daniel Micallef’s interview in today’s The Sunday Times? Selective memory, amnesia or what?