Snippet found while looking for something else

First of all, I do not trust phone callers I do not know. They could claim to be Barack Obama or Peppi tal hobz (the baker), unless you know the caller, he could in fact be Jack the rip off artist. But I had a few minutes to spare and thought I could have a bit of fun.

I wrote this in Feb 2012, in my Malta Sunday Independent column reproduced here also. It was in the run off to the last general election when we were being inundated with calls and partisan mail. I came across the paragraph above while looking for something completely different, but it made me smile and thought that people who followed my scribblings might also like it.

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Man hit boyfriend of his former partner with a truncheon - timesofmalta.com

Man hit boyfriend of his former partner with a truncheon - timesofmalta.com

I am truly disgusted by this case. The violent man who broke another's nose with a truncheon was conditionally discharged and fined €50 for possession of the weapon. Real deterrent that.

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Traffic policemen escort pregnant woman to hospital... just in time - timesofmalta.com

Traffic policemen escort pregnant woman to hospital... just in time - timesofmalta.com

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Still raking it in

So the Maltese intrepid journo, who likes to think he is Larry what’s his name, (the American with the braces), is speechless and refusing to comment on his recent appointment on the national festivities foundation, a government committee.

How he must be loving all the attention and having his photo splashed all over the place. This is the guy who regularly and right up to just before the last election was posting all kinds of items which were pure PN propaganda to all journalists registered with the Department of Information.

His ‘best’ work was just before the election when as a last, desperate ruse to scare people from voting Labour he turned up with a film crew to cover a case of supposedly police harassment. His “What is happening here?” was lampooned widely on Facebook.

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Waiting to savour the proof of the pudding

 Weirdly, I just could not find anything to get my teeth into this week. It is not that there was not much news, it was finding something that challenged my brain cells in the sense of questioning and trying to find explanations to what is going on politically, and I am only referring to the local scene. 

 

Maybe, it was that my laptop decided to go on strike just at the weekend that gave me the kick I needed to get thinking. I had to revert to an old computer that would not respond to my usual research tools and gave up on the Internet connection very quickly, meaning that my memory was put to work with no help to retrieve information.

So what has been happening? The new Labour government is working hard to prove that it is going to be a government that listens and it has many electoral promises to live up to. Meanwhile, the Nationalist Party (PN) in Opposition is trying to get its act together after its spectacular defeat at the last election and The Times of Malta has concentrated its interviews on the PN’s endeavours. But it did interview the Prime Minister in today's (Sunday) edition.

Public consultation meetings have been and are still taking place at the Auberge de Castille (the Office of the Prime Minister) with every single minister and parliamentary secretary. People have been pouring in with their comments and complaints and the government is indeed listening. We now have to look forward to how many of the proposals, made in response by the relevant ministers and parliamentary secretaries, will come to fruition.

Make no mistake, the government has its work cut out to attend to all the things that need fixing. Ensuring our economy stays stable, judicial reform; energy, the environment and public transport are among the top priorities.

A committee has been working on judicial reform, but ironically the Chief Justice has complained that the judiciary was not consulted. Unfortunately, I missed the public meeting at the palace committee room on Friday, and due to my domestic technological problems am unable to update.

Justice is one of the areas in which the previous government lost much credibility, thanks to one of its own who, like a terrier with a rag between his teeth, would not let go and succeeded in bring his government down. However, the PN cannot blame Franco Debono for the loss of the election.

That was the result of an accumulation of PN credibility gaps. The oil corruption scandal, which is still running its course in the law courts, took its toll as well as the unbelievable arrogance that had made some ministers think they could persistently ignore public criticism on important decisions. One particular bully is apparently still at it, bulldozing his way to stop people having their say.

Then of course we had the bendy buses and other over large buses that continue to cause disruption, not only to traffic on our roads, as we are also losing mature trees (that should be part of our heritage) so essential to our environment (for health and aesthetic reasons) to accommodate the dinosaurs (London mayor Boris Johnson’s name for them not mine).

The new environment minister Leo Brincat has taken a keen interest in saving our trees. Whether he can make an impact on the immediate trees in danger remains to be seen. As discussed at two consultative meetings, the one generic at the OPM and the other dedicated to trees, legislation protecting our trees had been weakened drastically and amending that legislation is at the top of the action list.

Another problem is the fragmentation of responsibilities with Environment still forming part of the Planning and Environment Authority (Mepa) until the separation process is actuated, which I hope we shall hear more of at the public consultation meeting with Michael Farrugia on 24 June. Besides, even the Environment Landscaping Consortium falls under yet another portfolio, Joe Mizzi’s Transport and Infrastructure.

On Friday, we saw former EC commissioner and Nationalist Party minister John Dalli (who looked as though he had gone through a battering but has obviously not given up) with the Prime Minister Joseph Muscat who announced that Dalli’s offer to help with the new government was to be taken up. “I don’t only want advice from someone like Mr. Dalli but I also want his energy, I want decisions,” the Prime Minister told a short press conference.

The sacking of John Dalli from the EC is still controversial and has still to be resolved within the EC. Dalli is seeking redress at the European Court of Justice. Locally, the new police commissioner Peter Paul Zammit announced last week that there was insufficient evidence to proceed against Mr Dalli with a criminal case in relation to the alleged request for a bribe to alter legislation on snus under his EC portfolio.

So a lot of things that shall keep us guessing for a little while longer. The new government will have to convince the public that it meant what it said with “Taghna ilkol” and that the change it was elected on takes place.

Published Sunday, 16 June 2013

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Why trees?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74063UKSmXw

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Six-year Ramla Bay development saga comes to an end

 

http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-06-09/news/six-year-ramla-bay-development-saga-comes-to-an-end-1779859462/

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