Don’t ask me why

It has been a most eventful week, most especially if you happen to have been abroad for five days, away from home. Culminating, I suppose, with the latest news from hunters, the Maltese hunters, of course, who announced that they are doing missionary work in Ethiopia.

Good for them. I would hope they have not taken their shotguns with them. Ethiopia has little or no restrictions on what or who to shoot. And from the experience I have, a Maltese hunter abroad is like Bruce Willis on a murderous mission.

Hunters of course know that missionary and voluntary work is one helpful marketing ploy which, shrewdly used, would improve the bloodthirsty image of their ‘sport’. So they took to it.

They must be really getting calculating advice.

Hunters, as those who know them must know, have been on their best behaviour. But not from a change of heart – it is only a temporary subterfuge aimed to avoid giving free points to the NO movement. Who knows, maybe they have taken their worst offenders to the arid wastes of Ethiopia, to mete our their dreadful vengefulness against nature far from the eyes of the Maltese voter.

They have been well advised.

It is important to remind those who need reminding, of how violent and intolerant hunters are – the graffiti on prehistoric temples, the damage to property, the aggression against birders and the offences against and abuse of politicians who do not sing their song are proof of their intolerance. And what more clear proof
is needed of their sadism than their joy of blasting graceful, dwindling wildlife out of the sky, just to prove their skill with their modern weaponry.

The NO campaign has until now been a serene one, marked by the message that this is all about reclaiming the countryside for the people.

***

Corrupt oil trader George Farrugia claims he is not a virgin. That is very good news, which comes as one great surprise to all
of us. We would have thought that he pondered at great length before coming out publicly with this predilection.

I have little words of compassion for someone who presents himself together with his wife Cathy and the likes of Frank Sammut as Jesus freaks, and then scavenges in a business world dominated by kickbacks and favours.

But what is incredibly amazing is that the police continue to treat George Farrugia with kid gloves.

In 2010, 2011 and 2012, the same corrupt oil trader gave very expensive gifts to William Spiteri Bailey, Antoine Galea and others.

They were by the way, energy corporation Enemalta’s CEO and CFO respectively.

Gifts of around €1,000 each time were involved, including cufflinks, pens, paintings and watches.

Some of these officials were also directly involved in the oil procurement committee. Thank God, Olaf boss Giovanni Kessler is not running the Maltese police, because all of these people would be behind bars on circumstantial evidence. And we would be paying taxes out of our noses for their upkeep.

Comparing these lavish gifts to the tidbit given to EneMalta employee Ray Ferris by the same George Farrugia, I can only say that the world is a cruel, merciless place.

Ferris is facing the wrath of the law and was paraded before the courts before March 2013, but the others who tasted luxury
have not even been remotely considered
as recipients of material goods for favours. When interrogated by the police their account that these gifts had no bearing on their decisions was taken as gospel truth.

***

PN leader Simon Busuttil was quick, perhaps too quick, to wash his hands of former PN minister Michael Falzon, even though Michael Falzon issued a statement saying that he had repatriated all his funds.

Busuttil seems to be very much influenced by what the blogs have to say. No matter how hard he tries to say that he is detached from all that, I do not believe him.

It is a pity that he did not have the same kind of knee jerk reaction when Austin Gatt was shown to have had a Swiss account before the elections.

But then consistency is what the world is not all about.

In this great foreign bank account saga, the true story is that the chances are very high that the accounts will belong to Nationalists.

And yet, there is a bizarre belief in Pieta that the revelations will hit the ‘government’.

I would say the opposite is the truth.

Tancred Tabone and Michael Falzon, two people strongly associated with the PN, are not exactly the best examples if that is the name of game.

And Michael Falzon is by far a liberal mind, who could have done much good to the party. Simon, it seems, thinks otherwise.

I think no one should have any problems releasing the names, especially when the names are public names. But then there
is nothing wrong thinking that there is a game here.

Still, this episode also revealed the unethical behaviour of a junior journalist at The Malta Independent. The journalist recorded Falzon as he was speaking to him on the phone, without informing him, as should have been done, that he was being recorded. The recording was then put online.

Abroad, recording without consent is a criminal offence, here it seems to be okay. Just imagine for a second if a journalist from MaltaToday had recorded a person without authorisation.

My head as editor in chief would be on a plate. In this case, I have no doubt that the directors at Standard Publications will look the other way and defend the indefensible, as they have done in the past.

There is also another aspect to all this issue of holding a foreign bank account. Most people are simply forgetting that Malta’s financial services system serves as a Mecca for tax avoidance.

And guess what – banks like HSBC use Malta to play around with the rules, to avoid unnecessary taxation.