PERSPECTIVE

Last week, my dad organised a trip to London for the family. I must say it was quite a pleasant holiday, I really enjoyed it. That's why I didn't post anything this week.

While I was in London though, I started to realize what's around me. London has pretty much the same problems as Malta, busy roads, loads of traffic, heavy urban areas, and a high amount of tourists. The weather, as we had expected, was different. It rains for a few time almost everyday there, and the temperature isn't as hot as Malta's.

I was quite surprised how London was full of Mercedes, Audi and BMW luxury cars, all of which cars have no more than 5 years, and were no bigger than an average super mini. Loads of their plates were not marked with the EU tag, making it seem they just don't care about EU regulations at all. Anyway, for average families to buy these cars some incentives may had been given. I was taking a look at their scrappage scheme and found out it was quite similar to ours, however it makes much more sense. I remember exactly what the budget magazine said about Malta's government scheme. It was something like this - "Up to € 2000 to buy a smaller, more fuel efficient and economically friendly car." The problem is - When I tried to buy a new car, and went for the smaller, more efficient and economically friendly car, the scrappage bonus was only about €1,100, which is always a helping amount of cash. However, if you go to buy a large SUV or some bigger car, you tend to get more as the price of a big car is higher than that of a small one. I just don't get the sense in it, why get more when buying a bigger, less economically friendly car.

London's Arriva - Well I have tried their service, it was very reliable and very well explained. Buses kept their time indicated, and there were screens telling the exact time the bus arrives. When I asked about bendy buses - they told me that they had get rid of them because of their "busy traffic and sharp turns." Wow, I didn't notice how London's turns are sharper than ours - that's why we got their old ones ourselves - we got their "unwanted goods." 

Oh Yes - PM for a day was won. Honestly I don't care who won the contest. I just believe that this event is a great waste of time and money. It's a clear example of PN using the power and opportunities in government for their sole party propaganda.

I just hope that this won't be streamed on National television, on some "Where's everybody?" programme. Probably we'll all hear about it on National news, obviously giving PN an immense boost of propaganda and publicity.

Not to mention their live blog - which I'm confused if it's going to be in Maltese or in English, or maybe even bi lingual. For heaven's sake, establish a language to your so called live updated blog before Tuesday, as I'm getting confused just  by reading some of your posts.

Cheap propaganda as its best, well done to the person who came up with this "PM for a day" idea. I would give it all the credit if the selected "PM for a day" would give back the secret 500 Euro increase which was being taken in the middle of a recession. I don't blame the selected 'PM,' she is probably a die hard nationalist fan who thinks  that the 500 euro increase was for a good cause.

Please - Stop wasting time and money on useless items and decorations. Give us some substance!

Michael Fenech Adami - The kin of one of the PN's ex best leaders, as viewed by some PN fans obviously.

Now - elected as Mayor of the Birkirkara Local Council, obviously because of the name given automatically by his father's reputation.

Anyway, I hope he didn't get his reasoning from his father though, as if everyone thinks like this, we really have problems:-

"When I read Franco Debono is still getting paid to be a parliamentary assistant, I don’t see why I should pay back (the money)"

By that reasoning no one should see the reason to pay taxes, no one should ever pay back anything in this country as there is always some kind of lame excuse like this.



What an immature argument. Is this the substance behind the PN's so called legendary ex- leader? That's a shame. I think he hadn't had enough time to show him what's adequate.

And for heaven's sake - w'ere talking about the argumnet of a mayor. Not just any mayor, the mayor of Birkirkara, one of the largest cities in Malta.

Shame. I can't think of how one can vote for such people. It's better to vote for a chicken.

There we have it. We're officially in the so called Tsunami.

Strange. According to some people, we had passed the tsunami and the so called 'maltemp ta' pajjiżna.' I wonder what's this we're facing now. According to them, we have been suffering from the recession for about four years now. However, we got our facts now. It looks like we just got ourselves into something much worse than that tsunami they had been mentioning.

But what's worse than a tsunami anyway? The 'maltemp' issue was the excuse of the PN in government these days. How about now, when according to some of these people, Malta is going for the better. Well, yes Malta's stats could go for the better if you count jobs created in a +1-1=2 system. I wish I knew the person who thought them these counting rules anyway.

"Par idejn sodi

Finanzi fis-sod."

- So much statements.. what about them now?

So what should we expect? What's the next excuse for the PN? What are the projects in the remaining years in order to tackle these projects, besides the investments in 'state of the art' structures which will give us absolutely nothing in return? What about the Smart City project, which was supposed to have created thousands of jobs till now, oh sorry, how could I forget, it's still a lonely office in the middle of a field. What a pity.

Let's wait for another excuse from our brilliant financial expert, Tonio Fenech.

References: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120608/local/gdp.423344

Yes chapter closed - Granted. But which chapter is it?

Books consist of loads of chapters, some of which being the purpose of the problem, where the author tries to give you the impression that all is going well while in the following chapters more severe problems are about to come. Let me give you an example, take Lord of the Rings. At first, they thought the problem was solved when defeating the enemy but not destroying the ring. Turned out that it resulted in another and worse war to finally solve the real problem.


Let's take a look at the gonziPN clique - and it's style of leadership. Take chess as an example to describe the style of how gonziPN are 'playing.'

Franco Debono - The Pawn, a piece which is often underestimated by amateurs. It is the most common piece on the board and the one worth the less, however it can be as effective as any other chess piece if used wisely. Franco Debono could be an electoral tactic to the PN. Without any doubts, if anyone respected his opinion and believed what he said, now has a different kind of view. Now Debono suddenly feels comfortable with the 'clique' party governing. He did not abstain the vote, but chose to vote in favour of the government. Did he suddenly achieve a good bond with the PM himself? A few weeks ago he was pleading for him to step down, what happened since then?

Carm Mifsud Bonnici - Ah, the 'poor guy' who did his job so well. The guy benefiting from his father's respect. The one who probably has his inbox flooded with e-cards from all those PN fans who signed PBO's newsletter. On a chess board Carm would probably qualify to be a Knight - The one who's seen as a hero in the nationalist's eyes. The one who's now moaning that he is not treated the same after his resignation.









Lawrence Gonzi - The King. Seen as most important piece in the game of chess - yet not the most powerful and not the most effective. The king seems so important that every piece in the game defends it - without it, the whole team falls. Lawrence Gonzi is seen as the PN's king, as seen also when competing by himself for the 're-assurance' of the PN's leadership. Lawrence Gonzi is now shouldering his minister's failures one after each other.













Austin Gatt - The most effective and powerful piece present in the game. The Queen. Austin Gatt is proved that he is one of the major and important members of the clique. GonziPN's system would probably crumble if Austin Gatt is out.



Next? Well who knows - The bishop or the rook might still need to enter in the scene. God knows who will be the chosen ones.

So I suppose everyone knows what happened last Wednesday. For a change, the government lost its majority.
How could a party in government possibly tackle the country's problems wisely and properly, when they couldn't even solve their internal parliamentary problems? Is this the way the government is offering the best for the country? Is this really for the best of the country or could it be for personal gain?

Not to mention their sad faces after the vote was cast. I was utterly disgusted by the comments the ministers and the nationalist members of parliament's comment to One TV. Comments like:-"Zgur mhux lilek." (Pullicino) in an arrogant sort of way. Why all this arrogance anyway? Where has this arrogance came from? Or is it because it's likely that the nationalist attitude these days is crossing the line too much?

"Nahseb ma fadalx dicenza fl-oppozizzjoni jiena hux."- Clyde Puli

Oh really - is that what you think? Are you the one talking about decency? So according to you, ministers taking a 500 Euro Pay rise during the so called 'Bahar Imqalleb' is a decent act by the governing party isn't it? Wow- if so, you really need to consider getting to a better frame of mind.

So, another vote for confidence next. Should we expect another PN leader election shortly after were we see another one man race? Now that would make a nice parody.

We may have the most luxurious Mercedes on the market, it doesn't really count if it's on an unsolvable puncture. I see it as a stationary, or shall we say 'useless' object - which you can go nowhere with. Now this is a real problem, but instead of tackling it, we choose to grin to the cameras and our cheering (as if they're in a football match) crowd.

Sweet Dreams Carm!

But anyway - "Sahha Sinjuri, Goodnight!"