Transparency ain’t “his ass”?

As expected, MaltaToday’s Saviour Balzan and Raphael Vassallo are now on cue on the Borg-Olivier case. At this time of the year newspapers are to be expected to be compiling something like “the year that was” and, while I’m sure that the Borg-Olivier will feature prominently, what would have been the most flagrant instance of contempt for private data would go unrecorded. I’m of course referring to Sant’s tabling in Parliament last May a list of some 2,000 people with the right to vote and resident abroad who chose to exercise their right by travelling AirMalta on a reduced air fare.

Now, the MLPN meme requires condemning the Labour and Nationalist Parties for the mutually exclusive activities of (a) bickering and (b) collusion. But, in order to show himself as truly supra partes, whoever is bringing the charge must see that charges are brought in equal measure against both parties (to avoid, inter alia, that he gets involved in the “our side may be bad but your side is badder” exchange). Condemnation must be made with a par condicio (and that’s my third Latin expression) with the obsessiveness usually exercised by the Broadcasting Authority.

So Vassallo comes up with a “lapse” from the “other side”. No, not the Sant case but a 2000 Labour strategy document (that’s two elections ago) encouraging supporters to gather information about “non-Labourite families”, particularly their political preferences.

I don’t care for information Labour gathers about me in this manner. I actually do hope my Laburist neighbour notices my preference for the GWU and Labour papers and One TV over Net TV and reports me as a “sympathiser” to be added to the Party’s eventual vote column. After all, the best thing about the 2008 election was seeing Jason Micallef, who had counted his chickens before they hatched, ending with all that egg on his face.

But I am concerned about whatever information Government (and it’s companies, corporations, authorities and entities) collects about me. Sant’s case is particularly serious not only because of the privacy of the data. It is serious because nothing in that list can ever prove Sant’s claims that the reservations on those flights were “engineered” with the result that only 23% were Labour supporters.

It is serious because it is not, as a commenter on Jacques’ blog claimed, a question of “transparency” of who benefited from a subsidy (who were, it ought to be reminded, people who were perfectly entitled to vote and, therefore, perfectly entitled to be on that flight). After all, when Labour MPs pose PQs on behalf of welfare queens in the constituency inquiring on their “cekk tar-relief” they always transmit the names to the Minister concerned confidentially.

It is serious because Sant did it just to show that he could do it. That he has access to Government information that is under lock and key even when he’s Leader of the Opposition. Borg-Olivier could be challenged, having been caught with his pants down; nothing of the sort could have been done in Sant’s case because this episode showed him to belong to another moral universe.

But the “closet Santistas“, who let the episode pass, can be challenged. Mifsud-Cremona was alive and in office in May in case they needed to check things out with someone in the know. So why didn’t the episode even register on the MaltaToday radar?

Saviour Balzan in his commentary says that in a years’ time the country would have forgotten about the Borg-Olivier case but not MaltaToday which will continue “reminding people that”personal data is never safe and could well be in the hands of Big Brother”.

All well and good, especially since, it would seem, the Nationalists are heading to the next election with their version of Jason Micallef. But as to the Sant case, I promise Thermidor will be around to remind people of this case especially those who, despite their high interest in data security matters, decided to pass over the matter in silence.

Drama in Mumbai

High drama is presently unfolding in Mumbai (Bombay). Troops have been called to deal with terrorists who have attacked a number of hotels in the city’s uptown districts where they are also holding a number of people hostages. The toll so far: 101 dead, 287 injured.

Is that it?

An “outburst” was how MaltaToday’s “Latest news” section described it some time ago, upping the ante for an interview with Tonio Fenech, in which the Finance Minister supposedly mauled Edward Scicluna.

The interview is now online and it turns out to be as heated as an exchanged you’d expect between an accountant and an economist. The “outburst” turns out to be the following (translation mine):

“Professor Scicluna is one who likes to offer many opinions. He isn’t one I’d consider objective in his opinions. I consider him as one who, considering the kind of declarations he makes, tilts towards Labour.

“Meaning that you quoted not an economist who gives an objective analysis of the economy. The reality is that, in the current global circumstances, not only our country is running a deficit.

“At the same time, Professor Edward Scicluna is saying that we’re giving a too strong a jolt with the energy tariffs and that we should run a higher deficit by postponing bills.

“I think Professor Scicluna should be more consistent. Is running a deficit right or wrong? It couldn’t be that in 2008 it’s wrong because it causes investor uncertainty and in 2009 it is right becuase Labour said we should have postponed everything,” says Fenech.

“Professor Scicluna should make up his mind and be consistent in all that he effectively says because, so far, I can see no objectivity”.

Forget the objectivity bit and which side of the political spectrum Professor Scicluna happens to tilt — someone’s political loyalties are nobody’s business — consistency is the issue here. In a recent interview on MaltaToday, it should be remembered, Scicluna criticised Government’s two decade attempt to keep the shipyards afloat, our pension scheme as “the most generous in Europe”, free health for all, over-staffing in the public service, expensive university education for free and student stipends … and then a rise in the energy tariffs taghtu f’ghajnu.

That, and his Eurozone prediction gone wrong, are what Scicluna should be confronted with. Claims about which political party he favours only serves to give the likes of Illum and MaltaToday the proverbial straw to clutch on to.

Then again, it seems that the Minister is not very far off the mark. Latest edition of MaltaToday (not yet online) reports that Labour has approached Scicluna to stand on its ticket in the EP election in June.

Update: The MaltaToday article reporting that Scicluna is “actively considering” standing as a Labour candidate in June.

Wasn’t one-size-fits-all to be avoided?

Here’s Maltastar:

The European Union said that during the current recession within the Eurozone and across Europe, billions of euros are needed to be pumped into the economies to get them moving again.

Contrasting with these EU statements, the Gonzi administration is pushing for an increase in taxes with huge increases in the water & electricity bills soon to be unveiled. Other increases which the Maltese are facing are the new car license scheme, in which motorists are facing hefty increases in their licenses.

It’s significant that the Labour site can only mention two measures one of which, the rise in electricity bill, is not even a tax but a reduction in subsidy. More importantly, in a joint article appearing in Le Figaro and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung the French President and the German Chancellor welcome the proposals and, while seeing them as providing necessary elbow-space, appreciate that they offer some restraint on member states who might opportunistically think of spashing around too much cash.

And there is also an important caveat: “there is no single model for recovery that can be applied to the 27 member states with very different budgetary and economic situations”.

Let’s talk MLPN, shall we?

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

– Sherlock Holmes, A Scandal in Bohemia

When the Greens came up with the MLPN slogan soon after being founded they can across something that was powerful as much as it was brief. Here, in just four letters, was expressed, first, the dangers of collusion between our political parties and, second, the often childish bickering between the same two parties that often passes off as political debate in our country.

That those two points, collusion and bickering, expressed two very opposite political attitudes should have indicated the limitations of “MLPN” as a tool offering some insight into how the Maltese political world ticks. As long as it was an electoral slogan all was fine and fair (although, it has to be said, approaching something like the 2003 election with the MLPN attitude was dishonesty and duplicity on the part of the Greens).

Jacques is definitely someone who buys big time in the MLPN explanation of the world. Here’s from his article yesterday:

The battle spilled into the ether and apologists on both sides rose to the occasion and unearthed Alfred Sant’s violation of corporate secrecy the day he tabled a list of passengers who flew to Malta to vote courtesy of a subsidy from the Republic’s coffers.

[...]

We are busy discussing over a pastizz and tea whether it is more acceptable for Paul to have his very own list of complainants to government (customer care PN style) than for Alfred to poke his nose around lists of voters flying in from abroad to exercise their right (some voters are worth more than others MLP style). We ignore the main point of it all. It’s not their bloody business.

Jacques also claims that Karin Grech and Raymond Caruana were “thrown in for good measure”. Where and by whom he doesn’t say. Which only goes on to prove that, when the MLPN theory is sacred, some freedom of the facts is to be expected.

Now, I’m the only person, on the ether and outside of it, to have taken any interest both in Sant’s tabling of that list when it happened in May and in Borg-Olivier’s request for information he had no right to. I have condemned the two incidents without reservation without any interest whatsoever in comparing the two. The Sant case I only brought up at J’Accuse (not on this blog) reminding, following a not a very smart comment from a commenter, that the blog owner had nothing to say then, even though his name was probably on the list, even though he had taken a strong interest on freedom of movement and how departure tax impinged negatively on it.

As I’ve said I wouldn’t hold against a blogger for failing to comment about something of interest: bloggers are not full time into reporting and commenting. (That same defence cannot apply, of course, to MaltaToday whose reporters usually take strong interest in data protection matters. They made no mention of the Sant case and now that the offender is Borg-Olivier they’s out in full force with comments — or lack thereof — from the Data Protection Office and a cartoon showing Borg-Olivier as a fez monkey.)

But, as on the similar matter concerning freedom of movement, Jacques saw it fit to infer that I see nothing wrong with the departure tax (oh, do not get me started on things I see wrong with taxes) I thought I’m allowed the same liberty. So, here’s the question which I only again because now everyone else is interested in personal data protection: why did Jacques did not see it fit to make even a passing mention of Sant’s list being tabled?

Jewish Nazis

Recently the membership list of the British National Party (BNP) was leaked to the press and our Times discovered that a British resident in Malta, Graeme Robinson, is on that list. Here’s a question he was asked:

So how does he feel about the BNP’s connections with the extreme right, even with Nazi sentiments?

“There is an association but there are no actual links. We have Jewish members in the BNP.

It’s very doubtful how Jews can be pro-Nazi,” Mr Robinson said.

They can. It’s just that Robinson’s seem to be one of those ready-made stock answers supporters of parties of the far-right keep in store for an occasion like this. Politics makes strange bedfellows.

History of a name

Considering that Labour intends to change its official appellation it might be worthwhile to record the many, albeit unofficial, name changes of the Party.

It all started off as Camera del Lavoro, then “Labour Party Club” and, finally, “Partit tal-Haddiema” in time for the 1921 election. The emblem was a surprisingly dark-skinned, bare-chested worker wielding an industrial hammer.

Changes were to occur in the split of 1949. Mintoff reorgaised the Party as “Malta Labour Party” (occasionally inaccurately translated as “Partit tax-Xoghol”), separate from the “Malta Workers Party” founded by former leader Paul Boffa. The monicker “Mintoffjani” to distinguish MLP supporters from MWP (the “Boffisti”) dates from this time and survived well into the 1980s. The previous homoerotic emblem of the party was ditched in favour of the torch for Mintoff’s Party (ironically, also the symbol of the British Conservatives, an irony which was certainly not lost on Mintoff) while Boffa’s chose a handshake.

The disappearance of Boffa’s Party in the mid-1950s meant that Mintoff’s again became unequivocally Malta’s “Partit tal-Haddiema”. In the 1970s and 1980s, unschackled by the ideological scruples of the 1950s and 1960s, the Party often referred itself as “Partit Socjalista” and to what it was doing as “socjalizmu”. And between 1977 and 1992, when the Party and the GWU were in statutory union, it was common to refer to the union as “Moviment tal-Haddiema”, a particular favourite of Mifsud-Bonnici.

“Partit Laburista” well and truly came to prominence in the early 1990s. It was a safe bet in a time when socialism, of both the communist and of the democratic variety, was suffering setbacks both in Malta and abroad. “Partit tal-Haddiema” too started to sound like something from yesteryear.

The Party’s detractors, of course, continued to refer to the party as “Partit Socjalista” to the point that the then Party Secretary-General Jimmy Magro issued a reminder to the press that the Party’s name was “Partit Laburista”. Needless to say, the detractors gleefully ignored Magro’s reminder and it took some years until they too started to refer to the Party as “Partit Laburista”.

The official change name comes at the right time. Both supporters and detractors are comfortable with the new appellation which, incidentally, finds a way around translating the untranslatable English word “Labour”.

Is it an earthquake?

I’m not really into the “foot soldier” aspect of Maltese politics and I’m unable to judge Labour’s blueprint for internal reform except for in a very tentative way. Some important posts, such as Party leader, will be elected by the General Conference and Party members in good standing. Other not particularly important posts get phased out or get their means of selection changed from election to appointment. Structures from the silly Labour Brigade to the ludicrous Discipline and Vigilance Board get the deserved axe.

This might look like centralisation and a loss of profile for the General Conference but, considering that the latter Party institution has not show itself particularly apt at choosing Party officials in the last years, I’d say it was inevitable that proposals for change take this direction. Think of the Party leadership put in place since last election. With the exeption of Joseph Muscat things have gotten worse: Anglu Farrugia succeeded Charles Mangion and Toni Abela succeeded Michael Falzon. And Jason Micallef stayed.

But there were other choices which turned out to be historic blunders, the decision to go to the polls in 1998 and replacing George Abela with Joe Brincat soon after, to mention but two. True, these decisions look they way they look with the wisdom of hindsight. But — and here’s the General Conference main shortcoming — it seems unable to benefit from the wisdom of hindsight.

The profile of the Conference, mostly retirees and middle aged housewives, must have something to do with it. So I suppose some more young people in party structures would do not harm especially considering that in a TV programme soon after the last election it became painfully obvious that the Party Secretary-General did not know the number of new voters, almost all young people who had turned 18 since the last election.

Having said all this there is one overall danger in all this. It is to think that the man in the street may care much about the way Labour conducts its internal business. Process is only important in so far as it effects outcome. How that will change is still to be seen.

On a more historical note the official name of the party is to change from “Partit tal-Haddiema — Malta Labour Party” is to change to “Partit Laburista” and the initials changed from “MLP” to “PL”. What will MLPNmongers like Jacques do now?

A dog speaks

In case you thought Toni Abela’s “Ghaziz Joseph” letter from Barack Obama was seriously off the rocker, think again: Saviour Balzan has had a conversation with his dog Oskar. Here’s the exchange:

Worse still, Oskar, my kelb tal-fenek, is an anarchist by nature and was earnestly waiting for the ‘unjins’ directive. Well, he lost his cool and started accusing the ‘unjin’ leaders of being a bunch of FIDOS.

No amount of sweet talk would stop him from barking.

“Stop it,” I said. “How can you call Tony Zarb or Gejtu Vella a chicken?”

But Oskar replied (translated): “I did not call them chickens. I just think that they should call it a day and let some fresh blood take over. I am sick and tired of hearing empty words. My Italian and French cousins know what I am talking about!”

“Italian and French cousins” of a kelb tal-fenek, a breed that’s indigenous to Malta? They must be very, very distant cousins, the kind you’d only meet at christenings, weddings and funerals and whose opinion of union leaders you wouldn’t care much about.

Putting “social” back in “social housing”

The Times reports on a visit of Minister Dalli to a “social” housing estate in Pembroke:

Social Policy Minister John Dalli was visibly annoyed at the launch of a new housing scheme yesterday and called for a reform of social housing that would be more sustainable and ethical.

He was speaking at a news conference held at the Pembroke housing estate, which boasts spacious apartments with spectacular sea views. As he arrived on site, Mr Dalli seemed astonished, and toured the area with Paul Debattista, CEO of the Housing Authority.

“Social housing should not mean building luxury apartments and giving them away for free. We must provide decent affordable housing but we should encourage people to do better for themselves. This should not be the ultimate step for them,” he said in comments to the media.

When asked whether he was specifically referring to the apartments around him, he said: “Let’s be honest, this is not social housing.”

At which point the Times report drifted off to recall that Minister Dalli had already made other comments, this time about hospital waiting lists, which were critical of his predecessor. As if that were the main point, not the squandering of so many Government resources of which money is only one. And this at a time when housing prices in the private sector are going down.

Oh, but there’s good intentions:

Housing Authority chairman Charles Borg said the aim of the authority was to help young couples and families with children find affordable and decent housing. The first 10 per cent will be given to families with disabilities, both physical and mental.

Very decent, I’d say. And what’s this about disability? I can understand consideration given for people whose housing difficulties are intensified by their disability. Think of the old couple with mobility problems who live in the fifth floor of a building without a lift. But families with mental problems? Such things are reminiscent of Tista’ tkun int where you’d get you kitchen re-done to make up for the fact that life’s been such a bitch.

With a little help from our friends

It seems I can never say it often enough that, no, more money for renewable energy sources will not lower your electricity bills. There are inefficiencies and avoidable losses at Enemalta which, again, require investment which requires money. But as if things were not bad enough here’s the GWU giving a helping hand:

In reply to GWU’s statement with regards to Enemalta not abiding by an agreement reached with the union and which was released on Friday afternoon Enemalta said that the GWU’s comments are premature and that this type of negative attitude is definitely not going to lead to a serious discussion and hence a solution.

Enemalta PRO, Ian Vella said that this year the corporation reached an agreement with union officials that an incentive was to be paid in addition to the wages of employees within the credit control section if the latter met the targets in collecting arrears on electricity bills.

“One should note that this agreement is beyond any obligations that Enemalta Corporation agreed upon in the collective agreement and is being given out of good will by the management with the scope of improving productivity and the efficiency of the company. It is unacceptable that the GWU grabs any opportunity to convert initiatives intended to improve the corporation’s efficiency into new inefficiencies and excuses for work not being done as is rightly expected by the corporation’s clients.” declared the statement.

Here’s a management who thought of giving some incentive to staff to collect arrears and improve the corporation’s financial situation. Along comes the GWU and insists that this incentive was meant to be another automatic salary increment. There’s no need for Muscat’s “key performance indicators” to tell us that an increase like this, unconnected to productivity, does not help.

Sure, unions united

It was said to be historic. Which it was. But it will not have a long history. Union unity, that is. Here’s the CMTU after one of its members, the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT), took the initiative to set up a trade union council:

The Malta Union of Teachers did not turn up for a meeting called by the Confederation of Malta Trade Unions to discuss the MUT’s proposal for the creation of a Trades Union Council.

The CMTU said in a statement that the council unanimously decided that the proposal had to first be presented and discussed within the CMTU before members could accept the MUT’s invitation for a meeting on December 5.

It expressed its disappointment at the MUT’s failure to attend the meeting.

Turf wars, personality clashes, petty piques … that has been the order of the day for quite some time and it is not limited to the unions’ leadership but goes down through their respective committees, their shop stewards and right down to the rank-and-file. Different party political loyalty plays a part too of course but it should never be thought as the only thing that will set unions apart for many years to come.

Di-ve dixit

From the di-ve.com editorial:

There were a staggering 98 new complaints between October 2007 and September 2008, pretty much around the average for a year. But am I alone in thinking that these should be going down, not up?

Oh yes, an average can be truly staggering at times.

Either-or not both-and

Along with the belief that investment in renewable energy sources will reduce consumers’ energy bills, the belief that private investment in these sources can thrive, even with Government help, in an environment where conventional fuels are heavily subsidised is another article of a very mistaken faith.

Here’s Arnold Cassola:

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, economic turmoil is a prime cause of concern for European tourism, which was given little hope for growth in the coming months.

The Maltese authorities must keep all this in mind and promote actions that will encourage sustainable, cultural and eco-tourism in our country.

The sharp and backdated rise in electricity tariffs does not help at all in this respect.

Cassola is all good intentions and totally clueless. The price of energy from a renewable souce does not exist in a vacuum. The huge surge of interest in renewables worldwide, even on the part of the most business-minded, was, very simply that the rising price of oil started to make the price of energy from renewables more attractive.

We’re at a time where there is a general agreement on policy objectives. After all, who could be against growth in tourism and sustainable developement? We can also be in agreement on the policy means to get there. What we often fail to notice is that the means very often pull in different, if not opposing, directions.

Energy affordability and energy sustainability may be laudable policy objectives we can agree on. But the policies that get us there push things in different, if not opposite directions. It’s that stark choice that has to be made not whether to promote whatever actions Cassola has in mind.

Wasn’t me (or, for that matter, Doktor Faustus)

MaltaStar reports on the outcome of a libel case instituted by Labour MP Silvio Parnis. Here’s what was said in the sentence:

“If a person wears a journalist’s mask and focuses all his actions to push forward the hidden agenda of those who are financially pampering him, then this person will be nothing but a Dr Faustus, and will deserve to share his same fate.”

Uh? MaltaStar tries its hand at some explanation:

Dr Faustus is the protagonist of a German legend which tells the story of a doctor who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and wisdom.

Not very helpful. To me it still looks like a bungled English Literature essay written by a Junior College student. So the journalist sold his soul and got knowledge and wisdom? Or didn’t he?

It’s Tuesday so it must be Paris

… and if it’s 2009 it must be Malta. Arnold Cassola’s website is currently “under construction”, I suppose until the Green Party Chairman takes this down:

As a direct representative in the Chamber of Deputies of Italians abroad, I too have lived a good part of my life abroad. Because of this I feel I’m very close to your reality. I have lived in the first person many of the problems which we face and I have come to know of others through my continuous contacts with Italians in Europe.

That was April 2008 and if it’s 2008 it must be Italy. In that month Cassola was defending the seat in the Italian Chamber he was elected to in 2006 (Italy seems to get the years with an even number) by Italian expatriates in Europe. This time standing with the extreme left Sinistra-Arcobaleno, Cassola lost his seat, having lasted just over two years in the Italian legislature.

A different electorate, a different marketing approach. Cassola is unlikely to offer “having lived a good part of my life abroad” and “continuous contacts with Italians in Europe” as compelling reasons to vote for him for the 2009 Maltese elections to the EP. Indeed, his biography on his blog seems to have been sanitised aleady and while it mentions being made Cavaliere della Repubblica in 2003, incredibly it makes absolutely no reference to his tenure as an Italian MP.

He has messed up big time

Living up to Joe Saliba’s record would have been hard for anyone who stepped into his shoes; from the onset, it looked even more difficult from Paul Borg-Olivier with his image (which, incidentally, he shares with Joseph Muscat) of a “principjant” who was prematurely thrust upon a national stage.

Sceptics were not to be disappointed:

The matter was first raised during the Opposition Leader’s parliamentary speech on the budget last Monday. Dr Muscat had asked if the PN had received personal information about people who visited government ministries, departments and secretariats.

Dr Gonzi replied to his questioning with “absolute silence”, Joseph Muscat said yesterday, as an article in Malta Today reported that PN general secretary Paul Borg Olivier sent an e-mail requesting government ministries to send the party confidential information about people who approached ministries with complaints.

The MaltaToday report (not yet online) has more. It would seem that the email came to light because Borg-Olivier mistakenly also sent the email to third parties.

Apart from the data protection implications (and the contempt the whole country has for personal data protection — in the private and the public sector — does not engender much trust in the reassurances given) can you imagine Joe Saliba making a blunder of this proportions? And why has the centre stage been taken by the PM and his PA? It’s all so reminiscent to Borg-Olivier’s counterpart in the Labour Party who, after announcing Labour’s victory two years before the election, left it up to others to clean up the muck when the news of the result was out.

Borg-Olivier may not be a public official and what he’s done may legally not amount to wrongdoing. But when a Secretary-General sends an email, with dubious motives, in his name, to the wrong people and, in conseqience, putting the Leader of his Party in an extremely tight position it’s time for him to consider stepping down.

On the dottiness of our foreign policy

Our man in Copenhagen has discussed with the Swedish authorities (who’ll be handling the EU Presidency next year) an important subject:

The irregular migration issue has again been raised by Malta, this time with Sweden by Paul Radmilli, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the Maltese Embassy in Copenhagen, who sought Swedish assistance.

[...]

While recalling the text of the EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum, with particular reference to the point on solidarity to be expressed through a reallocation mechanism, as well as the mention in the Pact of the roles and responsibilities of Member States to enable Frontex to fulfill its mission, Mr Radmilli appealed for Swedish assistance and for the issue to form part of the Swedish EU Presidency agenda which will take place in the second half of 2009.

Pity that, by the time the Swedes take on the Presidency, the Maltese embassy in Copenhagen, which covers all of the Scandinavian countries, would have probably closed down. It’s all part of Demarco-Frendo legacy at work where, in a “rationalisation and prioritisation” exercise, Malta’s only Scandinavian embassy gets closed down (the region will now be covered by Warsaw, a non-Scandinavian country), while embassies will be opened … in Tel Aviv and Ramallah.

What will our representatives do there? I don’t know, apart from running the equivalent of lost and found offices, marital counselling centres and adoption agencies and contributing to our politicians’ and diplomats’ sense of grandiosity. There’s not much assistance on immigration matters you can ask the Palestinian Authority can you?

Here come the lobbyists

With the energy tariffs heading north, it’s inevitable that Government is getting all sort of unsolicited advice about renewable energy sources. A letter in the Times:

I am a German editor (retired) who lives in Buġibba after visiting Malta since 1978 as a tourist and I am suffering from the enormous costs of electricity as much as all the Maltese do. When I visited Germany in February I got into contact with the Schiller group, which is constructing underwater turbines that produce very cheap electricity using the currents. I was convinced at once that this technology could solve the power problems of Malta for very reasonable prices and I started working for the Schiller group as a lobbyist.

Aside from the fact that a lobbyist can hardly be said to have no interest in the matter when will people start to understand that renewable energy sources does not equal cheaper energy bills? It requires investment and the returns can only be some time in the future especially when the price of oil is falling. So we’ll all keep “suffering from the enormous costs of electricity” if these turbines were installed and the only one financially better off would be probably be this lobbyist when he collects his likely commission.

There is another matter deserving mention. It seems that one source of considerable losses for Enemalta is not in the generation but in the distribution of electricity. Again investment is needed here. As I pointed out in the discussion with the Greens’ Carmel Cacopardo on investment choices in water resources (before he seemingly felt the heat and headed off to talk about domestic wells), with Government resources being limited the opportunity cost of one investment choice is often that you end up not investing in another laudable choice.

So the Government has money to invest in power infrastructure? If it has I’d rather it went to strengthening the distribution system rather than an underwater turbine system because if we invested in the latter we’d still be experiencing losses throughout the distribution system.

Also in the news

Maltastar reports on the answer to a parliamentary question on the religious faith of illegal immigrants. Most of them are Muslim and Catholic. But not only:

Other religions held by minorities of irregular immigrants include Orthodox, Protestant, Full Gospel, Jehovah Witness, Pentecostal, Bahai, Banbanna, Hindu, Sikh, Abengro, Agnostic, Bandair, Cerstew, Ctah, Jewish, Seven Adventist Church, Tigrai, Wakefata, Amiana, Bouake, D’Aliwa, Kayes, Mele, Oromo, Shega, Masihi and Tsamba.

Hmm. Familiar denominations and religions aside, this is Government data on alien cultures and, from the looks of it, the list has not been checked. If they weren’t bothered at least they could have had an “Unknown” category to which all the references to esoteric-sounding faiths (and the obviously wrong replies) could have been included.

So Thermidor feels bound to report that there’s nothing in Wikipedia on Abengro, Bandair, Cerstew, Ctah, Wakefata, D’Aliwa or Shega. “Masihi” is Arab for a believer in Jesus Christ, “Nasrani” referring more to Christian culture. The Tigrai and the Oromo are ethnic groups hailing from Ethiopia (and Eritrea in the case of the Tigrai) while Bouake and Kayes are cities, the former in the Côte d’Ivoire, the latter in Mali.

Mele could be many things, the most interesting of which is “a villain in the 2007 Japanese tokusatsu television series Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger“. And Tsamba? It’s Tibetian food.

Ghaziz Joseph …

God exists and answers my prayers. After the report on Labour’s “manifestation” said that Toni Abela’s speech was an imaginary letter from Barack Obama to Joseph Muscat (stating off with “Għażiż Joseph“) I was hoping the text in all its glorious integrity would be published somewhere. It has … on Abela’s website no less. It is a reminder that, while the literary technique of an imaginary interlocutor has history going back at least to Plato, it works when in the right hands. And Abela’s are not exactly “par idejn sodi” in this regard. Unless, that is, he intended to write comedy all along.

Raphael Vassallo recently reminded that Obama has his own advisers and he’s not likely to need the Nationalist Party’s advice proferred in its ridiculous atempt at lecturing the president-elect. Now it is evident that, not only does Obama has advisers, they seem to have a lot of time on their hands to the point that they brief Obama on Malta’s economic situation (which, incidentally, tallies with Labour’s assessment) and they even have views on the raising of Enemalta’s tariffs!

Rouge? Grise? That’s not the question

Saviour Balzan tries to draw paralells between, ahem, Richard Cachia-Caruana and Cardinal Richelieu, plagiarising from Wikipedia in the process (even then, the plagiarism is a hodgepodge: in Balzan’s comparison Cardinal Richelieu is an “éminence grise“). For a right and royal fisking of the opinion piece head off to Vlad’s.

But this is what I found really interesting in Balzan’s article:

The Cardinal [Cachia-Caruana] may think that this column is the beginning of a personal crusade against him. It is not. However, it is the beginning of something else.

It marks the opening of a new chapter… of the awareness that nothing occurs by chance, that many things happen with the blessing of the Cardinal.

Nothing occurs by chance and many things, but not everything, happen with the blessing of the Cardinal. As this paragraph comes right after Balzan gives a list of reasons why Cachia-Caruana should not be the next European Commissioner, one would be forgiven for thinking that the Malta Today editor has another candidate for the post in mind. Watch out for the hints being dropped in the coming year.

At least, somebody gets it

Finally, there seems to be someone who realises that efficiency, like inefficiency, bears a cost:

Malta Employers’ Association president Pierre Fava was one of those who asked Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt for an explanation of Enemalta’s losses during an MCESD meeting.

“He was his usual abrupt self and told me that the details were in the report.

But they weren’t,” he said.

Mr Fava described the 13 per cent registered losses as excessive and said that one of the obvious issues which could be tackled at once was Enemalta’s excessive workforce.

One of Muscat’s proposals to reduce energy bills was to have key performance indicators “to identify and drastically decrease inefficiencies of this state monopoly”. I had said that indicators can be hoped to fulfill the former not the latter. Decreasing inefficiencies is a managerial and, ultimately, a political problem.

Here is the political problem formulated for Muscat: if his key performance indicators show that Enemalta’s inefficiencies are due, in considerable part, to the size of its workforce, what would he do as PM?

Water, water everywhere

Arnold Cassola, the Chairperson of the Green Party, visited SmartCity Malta and from all the environmental design of the complex singled out the possibility to re-using treated wastewater from the nearby plant of Xghajra instead of dumping it out at sea as will happen with all our wastewater plants. This is fast becoming the Green’s fav environmental topic, seemingly less for its environmental merits than for the potential to serve as a stick to beat Government with for what the Greens perceive to be mismanagement of resources.

The subject was also one of Joseph Muscat’s proposals to reduce water and electricity bills about which I commented. A reply was forthcoming from Carmel Cacopardo, Green Party spokesman on sustainable development. Had Cacopardo concentrated less on being patronising by claiming that I’m not well-informed and more on the point I was trying to make, the exchange would have been more enlightening.

Political prices of economic problems

Malta Today interviews Professor Edward Scicluna. The interviewer did ask about Scicluna’s prediction, made only months before the formal decision was taken, that Malta would not join the Eurozone. Here’s the reaction the interviewer got:

Scicluna was sceptical on whether Malta could pass the euro test, not because of the inflation rate which he expected to go down (as it indeed did), but because he was concerned of the ever increasing ratio of public debt to GDP (how much of our wealth is taken up by debt), which was being paid off by one-off privatisations.

“It appeared clearly to me, at the time, that our economy could not potentially face an external economic shock successfully.”

One would expect that to be followed with “Thankfully, I was wrong and the Maltese economy showed itself capable in handling the new currency”. It wasn’t.

The devil in the detail

A piece in Malta Today is a reminder that misleading factoids tend to have a long life:

According to an investigation by The Times in 2004, the choice of Dar Malta was “by far the most expensive among the purchases made by the 10 new member states”, almost three times as much as Poland’s representation office – the largest of the 2003 enlargement states.

The 2004 Times article made little mention of the fact that Poland’s purchases had been made ten years earlier. When confronted about this the Times editor replied that this comparison was made for indicative purposes, as if a distance of a decade (during which property prices were hiked in anticipation of the wave of expats expected with the 2004 enlargment) allowed one to make a comparison of any sort.

It’s historic … it comes and goes

Today’s the great day, with someone on the Times comment sections even drawing comparisons with the happenings of 1919 and 1958. In the Maltese blogosphere, the Greens’ Cassola says he’s ready to follow and Labour’s Keith Grech sees it as “historic”. I’m referring to the demonstration (not to be confused with “manifestation”) being organised by the GWU and for which all other unions are participating. Which, yes, is historic, if by historic you mean something that comes by every few years (and then, only when there is a Nationalist government.

Expenditure not revenue

Sounds incredible but sometimes even the Times carries an opinion piece that, at least, can claim to make some interesting points. The conclusion:

On a general note, I feel that too much emphasis is placed on revenue streams (taxes, tariffs etc) while not enough focus is made on a concerted effort to curb expenditure. Had overall expenditure been reduced by 2.5 per cent, there would have been a saving of €50 million and possibly no need to increase energy tariffs.

Another deficit to address

Here is one area where Malta is not doing too well:

Malta has been ranked 83rd from 130 countries, from 76 last year when 128 countries were surveyed. Malta is last among EU countries, with Greece and Cyprus at 75 and 76. It is even behind countries such as Armenia, Suriname, Bolivia and Malawi.

The benefit of party machinery

Rennie Scicluna, a man who rescued stray dogs and kept them in abandoned premises (much to the chagrin of neighbours), was handed a 26-day prison sentence for failing to pay a €320 fine which he couldn’t afford. He was released on Monday, his story generating enough sympathy and funds to secure his release but still risks time over another fine of €600.

Remember the last story from the electoral campaign from last March? It was about Harry Vassallo, then Chairman of the Green Party, being delivered with papers to serve a jail sentence over failure to pay a €6,000 fine.

Prosy point

In 1997 the GWU decided to embark on an academic “scientific study” on the impact of the electricity price hikes announced that year, leaving the UHM to protest the measure alone. In 2008 the UHM will join the demonstration being organised by the GWU over the same issue.

Factoids given for the sake of gauging unions’ relative credibility.

Muscat replies

To the Ministers involved, of course, not Thermidor, calling their criticism of his “energy proposals” “not credible and irresponsible” (I can get the “not credible” bit but “irresponsible”? they knocked over his little sand castle or what?).

Sadly, there is not much in the reply only details such as that RO plants are operated to 50% of their capacity, that night rates are unavailable to domestic consumers (they are available to industry it seems) and something on electricity theft. There, that’s my bit of “irresponsibility” for the day.

Muscat’s proposals to reduce your bills

In his speech in reply to the Financial Estimates yesterday, Joseph Muscat came up with his proposals on the water and energy tariffs. It’s important to keep in mind that this was not meant as some blueprint of an energy policy but proposals on how to reduce water and electricity bills. Which makes a difference Muscat (and the Greens and GRTU before him) do not seem to understand: making use of renewables and increasing energy efficiency might reduce your bill (although probably not in the short- and medium-term) but it will not reduce the unit price at which electricity and water are sold to the consumer.

Armistice Day

Today’s the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day. Daphne quotes from the testimony of Harry Patch, one of the few surviving veterans. I’ve stood at the Menin Gate in Ieper (Ypres) for the ceremony held daily at sunset when the gate is closed to traffic and the last post is played. I’ve never lived through any wars in my life but I’ve never been through anything so sobering as that little ceremony.

Here we go again …

Our electoral system may not be the smoothest on earth and there is a possibility — a very, very remote mathematical possibility — of giving a “perverse result”. So far and in most cases, it has not and the results it has given have been fair and proportionate. I have been for electoral reform for one main reason: so that the critics (which include Labour and the Greens) would realise that the current system, regardless of the inefficiency, works as well as they or anyone would hope for.

Until then we’ll have to put up with the groundless complaints. Such as Keith Grech’s (the typos are his):

Housing Labour

The reaction to the White Paper on Rent Reform was quite what I expected, clearly indicating why so little progress was made in half a century. What should have been done for the sake of justice and fairness should have been obvious; it was ambivalence to the likely consequences of whatever measure was introduced which kept anything from happening. After all, nobody would want to see old grannies with their furniture on the streets as a result of a change in housing policy.

A reminder

After Labour “manifestation” it’s now time for the GWU’s “demonstration“. The Malta Union of Teachers (MUT), another union who will be attending, gave as a reason “the threat to democratic processes in the country through a complete disregard of all the Social Partners’ views”.

I find that this is one point unions often tend to forget. The “democratic process in the country” involves the electorate electing the Government. Unions have no such mandate and Governments are under no obligation to take on board the social partners’ views.

No, we can’t

The Indy today publishes an unusual article about predictions, made over the past few year, by economist Edward Scicluna. Now I do not know much about the subject but if you check out what Scicluna was saying a few years ago about the prospects of Malta joining the Eurozone you’d see a reason why his discipline has been traditionally described as “the dismal science”.

Minding our own business

Yesterday I mentioned the Demarco-Frendo legacy in Malta’s foreign affairs policy namely putting on shoes that a far larger than your size and strutting on a stage where you shouldn’t be. The stage I’m referring to is the Middle East, a part of the world which should be none of Malta’s business for two reasons: first, we have no interests there, second, if the Israeli-Palestinian question will ever be solved it will not be Maltese diplomacy to solve it.

Demarco made an argument in his autobiographical Politics of Persuasion for Malta’s involvement there. In 1990 when Malta took the Presidency of the UN General Assembly and applied for EU membership it was in its interest to show that it was a significant and knowledgeable diplomatic player. That was a cogent argument … until 1999 when Malta ceased being an EU applicant country and became an EU candidate country.

But we still continued like we had some business in involving ourselves there. The heights of ludicrousness were reached during Michael Frendo’s tenure. At Arafat’s funeral Malta was represented by the highest level delegation from outside the Arab world (reason given: the Maltese people feel very strongly about the suffering of the Palestinian people).

Then when the Danish papers published the Mohammed cartoons the Minister called the Arab ambassadors accredited to Malta and apologised … presumably on behalf of the Danes. Incidentally, Frendo’s last act, consummated after he had left office, involved Denmark. The Maltese embassy in Copenhagen, which also served the Scandinavian countries, was closed. At the same time Malta opened an embassy in Tel Aviv and an office in Ramallah so that our diplomats could follow the action up close.

Why do I bring up all this? Because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently held an open day and this is what Minister Tonio Borg told a group of students who paid his Ministry a visit about the role of Maltese embassies:

Some 700 men and women on holiday sought assistance from Malta’s 24 embassies all over the world in the first nine months of the year, Foreign Minister Tonio Borg said today.

Most, he said, had lost their passports, had their wallets stolen or suffered an accident, but others also needed assistance over problems related to marriages and adoptions.

Dr Borg was speaking about the role of the Foreign Ministry when he welcomed a group of students from St Aloysius College at Palazzo Pariso, the home of the ministry in Valletta.

So, lost and found offices, marital counselling centres, adoption agencies … that’s what embassies are for. Recently, someone made a fuss on the Times because of some issue he had had with a French service provider. The matter should have been taken to a French consumer affairs office but the complainant decided to send an email to the Maltese embassy in Paris.

Our ambassador in Paris then replied, explaining rather too politely that the email in question mistakenly ended in the spam folder — that being its right place, incidentally — when the honest albeit undiplomatic reply should have been that, with France holding the EU Presidency, at the embassy they are busy with matters of greater consequence.

Stating the obvious but not to a country where we close an embassy in an EU member state as a “cost-cutting measure” while spending the money to open representations where Malta has absolutely no interest. Unless, that is, many Maltese are losing their passports in the vicinity of Ramallah or adopting Israeli babies.

Whoa!

The Nationalist Party has just issued a press release on the US Presidential election that’s just hilarious. Nothing captures the presumptuousness better than the Indy report as it accompanies the text of the release through the Iraqi invasion and troop withdrawal, the ethics of military intervention, the inviolability of human life, penal reform, capital punishment, Guantanamo, US and European markets and what “all world powers” (“il-qawwiet kollha tad-dinja“) should be doing about oppression and dictatorship. Within the limits of international law, of course.

In a nutshell (Part II)

The Times rightly places women as the budget’s biggest winners. The tax arrangements should make combining family and career easier … for employees and employers. And if baby-making is a “Nationalist fixation” as Jacques recently described it, all well and good. It should be because, first of all, typical of all European countries, Malta’s aging demographic profile is something to be concerned about. But it’s a measure that equally addresses the other important issue that Malta has the lowest rate of women’s participation in the workforce, atypical of European countries.

In a nutshell (Part I)

Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins. And to open the “discussion” on the 2009 Financial Estimates I’ll have to refer to the Times which helpfully published a list of “winners” and “losers” in the 2009 Financial Estimates. Here it is.

Also in the news

The US will have a new President, Bhutan has a new king. For those of you who are wondering what’s “the royal philosophy of Gross National Happiness – or GNH” here’s the Wikipedia article:

Gross National Happiness (GNH) is an attempt to define quality of life in more holistic and psychological terms than Gross National Product.

And now, to yesterday’s defeat

The presidential was not the only election in the US held yesterday. Apart from Senate, House and Gubernatorial races a number of “ballot initiatives” (that’s “referenda” to Europeans) were held at state level. One of these was held in California. The Californian Supreme Court had declared that not allowing gay people to marry was discriminatory. In reponse to this, a ballot initiative on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage was launched and, yesterday, approved. Sadly.

I fully subscribe to the conservative argument in favour of gay marriage. I was always amused, and somewhat irked, that the issue has been taken up by people belonging to a political tradition (leftish and liberal) that wants to allow gay couples to partake of an institution which, for a century and a half, they described as paternalistic, bourgeois institution. One suspects that they care none for marriage and more about spiting traditionalists.

Marriage has a civilising influence, an important form of social ordering. Augustine would have said that it’s a concession to our promiscuous tendencies. Crude. But allowing for gay marriage would be offering merited legal recognition for gay couples who are already or who would be ready to live an exclusive monogamous relationship.

I’m under no illusion: possibility of marriage would eradicate completely gay infidelities as much as it has for straights. But it offers the possibility of a lifestyle that’s an alternative to the in-your-face lewdness and libertine culture that has had the opportunity to thrive within the gay community. It would set those gay people who are able to find fulfillment in the ordinary daily humdrum of married life from the rest.

The vote in California yesterday was a defeat. Thankfully, activists are not discouraged and see it more as a setback.

It’s Obama

I’m happy at the Obama win. From the outset success in the campaign would have been highly symbolic. A black man in the White House is remarkable. But it would have been symbolic without the hangups: Obama is not into racial identity politics as, for example, Jackson and Sharpton. Compared to them he’s less menacing and his rhetoric more poetic than inflammatory (could anyone feel unmoved by his New Hampshire “Yes, we can” speech? “It was a creed, written in the founding documents of this nation …”).

Interlude

Waiting for the first real election results from the US, hoping that most states turn blue. Blogging about the Maltese government’s Financial Estimates resumes tomorrow.

Financial Estimates 2009

I still have to go through the text of the speech and, from the looks of it, it will not happen tonight. As to the reactions, so far no surprises. The GWU says it will be “harsh on the workers”. The Nationalist Party, according to di-ve.com, was “full of praise”. Meanwhile, Labour leader Joseph Muscat is again on the “government didn’t put money in people’s pocket’s; people are putting money in government’s pockets” act. Should go down well with those who are still to realise that government has no money of its own.

Energy Politics and Energy Expertise

Thankfully, energy policy is finally attracting the attention it deserves. Yes, there are still surprises to be had at the pig-headedness (which is different from simply being misguided on the matter).

Recently at Stupidity Central, the comments section under the Times’s articles, a foreigner innocently asked why the Maltese expect not to pay the full price for fuels as their European counterparts do. The answer was that salaries in Malta are lower than in the rest of Europe … like Enemalta gets a discount when purchasing fuels on the international markets because it sells on a market where salaries are low.

Thermidor’s back

I’m still busy. But the world doesn’t come to a halt when works in Casa Majistral are in full swing. And with Budget night in Malta and an important US Presidential election tomorrow (and a number of important “ballot initiatives”) it was too tempting to spend my evenings thinking of electricity and plumbing.