The recent fireworks factory blast in Gharb, Gozo, has left a bitter taste in many people's mouths not only with regard to the lack of safety procedures involved which, in all probability, led to the explosion of the factory, but also to the amount of lives that this incident has taken. Unfortunately, in Malta, we seem to have the mentality that something tragic is needed in order for the authorities (if any!) to take due action; and even when this happens, what due action is taken is something that is generally beyond the general public, i.e. it is never reported. We just have to face the reality that we're living in a state where practically everyone covers up for one another at whatever cost, even if it means that the lives of other people are at stake.
Of course, first, second and third come the protection of our personal interests, and then only after that - and there should indeed be a big IF inserted into that equation - come the interests of the public at large and the state in general. Crazy and mentally demented as he might be, perhaps Norman Lowell was right when he recently called the public at large a bunch of sheep - for they generally religiously follow and accept anything that someone with the remotest hint of power says. It's pathetic, to say the least.
That aside, however, I found it blatantly ridiculous - even more so than certain things that occur on these islands - that the Xaghra feast scheduled for today was not cancelled in light of this recent tragedy, the official reason being that those who died did not form part of the Xaghra locality and therefore the village should not be affected by it. The link between the two instances, that being the feast in question and the fireworks factory as mentioned above, was that this factory was actually producing fireworks for the Xaghra feast. I beg to imagine what the hell might have been going through the mind of the parish priest in question when he uttered these comments, and where his Christian roots have gone. The least that the community could have done, as a sign of respect for those people who perished in this blast and their surviving families - and just for the record, this was not the first explosion at this factory, for another such explosion occurred in 2005(!!) - was cancel the feast. But no, and I quote Daphne Caruana Galizia here because I agree with her viewpoint 100% in this instance, the community has just lost thousands of euros worth of fireworks; it would be a shame if the amount of money spent on the village feast had to suffer the same fate!
Honestly, sometimes I wonder how certain people were educated. It's a trait that's becoming all too familiar with time, placing our personal agendas before that which makes sense in the context of things. The shocking thing is that the Xaghra feast continues to be backed by its parish, and that there are also some people who are willing to celebrate the night away, drunk on cheap ass beer and lying down in the middle of Xaghra's main square, while five people who were working on their fireworks are dead. Obviously, thinking that what happened is not tragic and that the show must nonetheless go on. It's one of the biggest paradoxes I could ever imagine - but at the end of the day, the most important thing is that we boast about being a Christian country, isn't it?
God Bless You all,
Matti
Showing posts with label Malta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Malta. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Electric Shock
Well, I was going to write a blog about something else today, or sometime in the future, as my next blog, but I think I'll put that on hold as I don't really feel like thinking at the moment and I also don't exactly have the time to do so. So I think I'll talk electricals instead.
Yesterday was a bit of a pants day to say the least as the uber-competent staff at Enemalta ensured that there was not just one fault, but two major faults that occurred within the same day, hence rendering the island completely devoid of electricity, unless one was the owner of a generator (which would have definitely come in useful). I'm generally not one to complain about Malta, unless it comes to the pitiful state of our roads, but I felt that yesterday was a bit way over the top. Thank goodness I was driving around with the Air Conditioning on 90% of the time, as otherwise I would have boiled myself to death.
Blackouts do occur from time to time but you do expect workers to be able to fix any potential faults within the next hour, and not take a total of four or five hours per fault to restore electricity to the island, as like what happened yesterday. At my house, for instance, the lights didn't come on before midnight, which is downright shameful. The overall result of this is that there is a loss of commerce, a loss of patience and plenty more hot-heads than we already have roaming the island.
Yesterday's events and their subsequent consequences got me thinking that it's high time that Enemalta were rid of the monopoly that they have over the water and electricity supply on the island(s) and some competition was introduced. First and foremost, we would be seeing the end of the sky high bills that come once bimonthly, as prices would be reduced drastically due to the fact that Enemalta would be competing against another company, or other companies. Secondly, this would also ensure that the arrogance within the corporation itself - starting from their Chairman, Ing. Alexander Tranter - is eliminated. During a recent speech, for instance, Ing. Tranter claimed at how dedicated Enemalta are to giving the best service to all Maltese by focusing on various projects; something which, if you had to ask me, is a bunch of bull because seeing that they're the only provider on the island, they can continue doing that that they are currently doing, i.e. charging exorbitant rates for an inadequate (and that's putting it mildly!) service. Thirdly, this would also provide the Maltese with another electricity grid to fall back upon if such another power fault crops up. Such a power company does not have to be based in Malta; indeed, it can be based in Sicily and be linked to Malta via an underwater cable. The only snag is that Enemalta are also embarking on this project to connect the islands to the European grid.
Oh well, how you wish things could sometimes change.
God Bless You all!
Matti
Yesterday was a bit of a pants day to say the least as the uber-competent staff at Enemalta ensured that there was not just one fault, but two major faults that occurred within the same day, hence rendering the island completely devoid of electricity, unless one was the owner of a generator (which would have definitely come in useful). I'm generally not one to complain about Malta, unless it comes to the pitiful state of our roads, but I felt that yesterday was a bit way over the top. Thank goodness I was driving around with the Air Conditioning on 90% of the time, as otherwise I would have boiled myself to death.
Blackouts do occur from time to time but you do expect workers to be able to fix any potential faults within the next hour, and not take a total of four or five hours per fault to restore electricity to the island, as like what happened yesterday. At my house, for instance, the lights didn't come on before midnight, which is downright shameful. The overall result of this is that there is a loss of commerce, a loss of patience and plenty more hot-heads than we already have roaming the island.
Yesterday's events and their subsequent consequences got me thinking that it's high time that Enemalta were rid of the monopoly that they have over the water and electricity supply on the island(s) and some competition was introduced. First and foremost, we would be seeing the end of the sky high bills that come once bimonthly, as prices would be reduced drastically due to the fact that Enemalta would be competing against another company, or other companies. Secondly, this would also ensure that the arrogance within the corporation itself - starting from their Chairman, Ing. Alexander Tranter - is eliminated. During a recent speech, for instance, Ing. Tranter claimed at how dedicated Enemalta are to giving the best service to all Maltese by focusing on various projects; something which, if you had to ask me, is a bunch of bull because seeing that they're the only provider on the island, they can continue doing that that they are currently doing, i.e. charging exorbitant rates for an inadequate (and that's putting it mildly!) service. Thirdly, this would also provide the Maltese with another electricity grid to fall back upon if such another power fault crops up. Such a power company does not have to be based in Malta; indeed, it can be based in Sicily and be linked to Malta via an underwater cable. The only snag is that Enemalta are also embarking on this project to connect the islands to the European grid.
Oh well, how you wish things could sometimes change.
God Bless You all!
Matti
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Take Three vs. Three, Two and Twenty-Two
Something other than Sexual Offences in Criminal Law must be really stimulating me to write, as I can't believe that I'm blogging for the third time this week. And this time, it's an attempt at a reduced amount of words because everyone seems to like reading my blogs but then can't get past the halfway mark because they're simply too long! And I know that this little statement isn't exactly helping my cause, but anyway...
Well, this is kind of going to be a continuation of my previous blog. Because I'm simply too smug to let sleeping dogs lie.
I told you so. (And yes, that did need to be bolded and italicised.)
In my last entry, I mentioned - in a nutshell - that Chiara's third participation in the Eurovision was likely to be her downfall. And I was right. Despite giving what was, in my opinion, an extremely strong rendition of What if We, she only managed to garner a massively disappointing 31 points and finish 4th from last. In other words, in 22nd place. And this was something that Valerie, commenting uselessly on TVM, managed to describe as an 'achievement' for us because we actually reached the final. As soon as she said that, I was about to bang my head on the closest thing that was near me. Thank goodness I didn't, because poor Jeremy or Paul wouldn't have been feeling too great this morning.
Malta thought that the tried and tested formula for Eurovision success would once again work, even though the competition was at its strongest for the last few years. Europe thought otherwise. Truth be told, Malta did not deserve to finish 22nd and, based on her semi-final performance, Chiara should have actually been placing somewhere between 12th and 15th spot. Her song was definitely better than some of the trash that was placed on display last night. Alas, it was not to be. Furthermore, the introduction of national juries ended up by having little or no impact whatsoever on the 'neighbourly voting' scheme, as we saw the douze points go to Spain from Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina from Montenegro and, the surprise of the night, Greece from Cyprus.
So yes, the Eurovision was once again a great show, it provided us with laughter aplenty, and was dubbed an entertainment contest for all. And, in the true Eastern European spirit of the contest, it also had an Asian country, in Azerbaijan, placing 3rd overall. Though the song wasn't all too bad.
And to conclude a slimmed-down, shorter post (yay, I managed!), I also feel that Norway fully deserved their victory. A catchy song that really did capture Europe and Western Asia's imagination, the indication of this being not only the various amount of 12 point votes that they got from participating countries; but also the massive gap between its entry and that of the 2nd-placed nation, Iceland.
God Bless You all!
Matti
Well, this is kind of going to be a continuation of my previous blog. Because I'm simply too smug to let sleeping dogs lie.
I told you so. (And yes, that did need to be bolded and italicised.)
In my last entry, I mentioned - in a nutshell - that Chiara's third participation in the Eurovision was likely to be her downfall. And I was right. Despite giving what was, in my opinion, an extremely strong rendition of What if We, she only managed to garner a massively disappointing 31 points and finish 4th from last. In other words, in 22nd place. And this was something that Valerie, commenting uselessly on TVM, managed to describe as an 'achievement' for us because we actually reached the final. As soon as she said that, I was about to bang my head on the closest thing that was near me. Thank goodness I didn't, because poor Jeremy or Paul wouldn't have been feeling too great this morning.
Malta thought that the tried and tested formula for Eurovision success would once again work, even though the competition was at its strongest for the last few years. Europe thought otherwise. Truth be told, Malta did not deserve to finish 22nd and, based on her semi-final performance, Chiara should have actually been placing somewhere between 12th and 15th spot. Her song was definitely better than some of the trash that was placed on display last night. Alas, it was not to be. Furthermore, the introduction of national juries ended up by having little or no impact whatsoever on the 'neighbourly voting' scheme, as we saw the douze points go to Spain from Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina from Montenegro and, the surprise of the night, Greece from Cyprus.
So yes, the Eurovision was once again a great show, it provided us with laughter aplenty, and was dubbed an entertainment contest for all. And, in the true Eastern European spirit of the contest, it also had an Asian country, in Azerbaijan, placing 3rd overall. Though the song wasn't all too bad.
And to conclude a slimmed-down, shorter post (yay, I managed!), I also feel that Norway fully deserved their victory. A catchy song that really did capture Europe and Western Asia's imagination, the indication of this being not only the various amount of 12 point votes that they got from participating countries; but also the massive gap between its entry and that of the 2nd-placed nation, Iceland.
God Bless You all!
Matti
Friday, May 15, 2009
Eurovision Fever(?)
Ah, it's 5 minutes to midnight on a Friday evening as I start writing this, and I'm actually surprised that I have something to write about after a rather barren spell of late and a blog earlier on in the week. It's a bit like a striker who doesn't score goals for a while in football actually: once he hits the back of the net, most times, he continues scoring freely as that goal has given him the required necessary confidence to do what he does best. So this means that I should be flowing with ideas shortly, if you had to apply the same logic to my blogs, I guess.
Well, tomorrow (read: tonight) is Eurovision night. And for the first time in the last three attempts, Malta has actually made it to the final 25 entries. And, to put the record straight, it isn't down to televoting and all the Eastern bloc hullabaloo that normally surrounds the Eurovision Song Contest. It's down to Malta's star on the stage, Chiara, who I really wish the best of luck to from here. I sincerely hope that she will do well once again, and also make Malta, as a nation, even prouder of her. But while Chiara's entry draws plenty of positives and strikes the neutral as potentially being among a very select bunch of true songs where the singer and his/her voice is the focal point of the whole performance, it also brings about a couple of negative points.
For a start, from Malta's perspective, this is the third time that she will represent us at the contest, having managed third place in 1998 with The One that I Love and second place in 2005 with Angel. Both times she has been very unfortunate not to win those contests, so one might argue that this could be third time lucky for her. I think it's a bit different though. Chiara's participation does not augur well for the Maltese Islands in general, which is probably being perceived by its fellow European countries as not having talent other than Chiara herself. And while this is not true because there are plenty of capable people on our shores, they might have a point. Chiara obviously sets a massively high standard when it comes to the contest which practically nobody - barring Ira Losco, when she performed admirably in 2002 (having yet another potential victory from Malta robbed from her grasp) - can match. Truth be told, Morena was a flop last year, Olivia Lewis should have never competed in the first place and Fabrizio is simply... Fabrizio; the less said about him the better. Malta needs to develop its talent better for the big occasion if it is indeed to successfully continue competing in the Eurovision Song Contest, because otherwise it is just a waste of people's time, money and resources.
Secondly, while this entry obviously does not do the following, Malta has tried and failed at sending attempted copies of the previous year's winning entry to the contest. Unfortunately in this regard, Malta lacks creativity and originality except in the field of ballads, which is a restricted field anyway. A quick analysis of things would show that last year, Malta tried appealing to Eastern Europe with a song entitled Vodka, even though Maltese delegates were at pains to stress that this was not the case. The 2007 entry Vertigo was also, in its own weird way, a poor attempt at imitating Ruslana's 2004 winning entry, what with the gong songs being played at sporadic intervals and Lewis trying to sing like the famed Ukrainian. Malta has to come to the reality that unless a ballad is entered by the public into the contest, they have to find ways to be original in this sense. The Eurovision Song Contest, in this regard, has actually become the Eurovision Entertainment Contest, and it is true to say that rarely do we see performances that do not include some kind of dance, or a load of performing males or females in the background, winning in this day and age.
Truth be told though, I did not mention one condition that I think is going to be a bit of a wildcard come the finals. This is the fact that Chiara is actually known around Europe, having taken part - successfully - twice in the past. European viewers have heard of her before, recognise her voice and actually appreciate her, as stated even by her fellow peers. Apart from the flops that Holland produced this year, who actually ridiculed her for being fat. Apparently, she has also been very popular during her stay in Russia. This popularity could obviously backfire into overconfidence and one of the worst performances of her life, God forbid, but I believe it will have a positive outcome on the votes. Furthermore, Chiara's voice is one that actually sticks in the memory of people, due to it being so powerful and even potentially overwhelming, so the voters aren't going to forget about her like they would for an ordinary performer.
To conclude, while the effect of neighbourly voting - a factor that needs no mentioning or introduction - is finally going to be minimised this year with the re-introduction of the jury to the contest, actually giving some countries an outside chance of doing well, Malta has to be aware of the facts that it faces as well. Second best may indeed be as good as it gets. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to predicting which neighbours will be giving our dear friends Greece 12 points this year. [sarcasm]I'm placing my money on the Turks.[/sarcasm]
Best of luck, however, Chiara. If you're to win, you're downright going to need it.
God Bless You all!
Matti
Well, tomorrow (read: tonight) is Eurovision night. And for the first time in the last three attempts, Malta has actually made it to the final 25 entries. And, to put the record straight, it isn't down to televoting and all the Eastern bloc hullabaloo that normally surrounds the Eurovision Song Contest. It's down to Malta's star on the stage, Chiara, who I really wish the best of luck to from here. I sincerely hope that she will do well once again, and also make Malta, as a nation, even prouder of her. But while Chiara's entry draws plenty of positives and strikes the neutral as potentially being among a very select bunch of true songs where the singer and his/her voice is the focal point of the whole performance, it also brings about a couple of negative points.
For a start, from Malta's perspective, this is the third time that she will represent us at the contest, having managed third place in 1998 with The One that I Love and second place in 2005 with Angel. Both times she has been very unfortunate not to win those contests, so one might argue that this could be third time lucky for her. I think it's a bit different though. Chiara's participation does not augur well for the Maltese Islands in general, which is probably being perceived by its fellow European countries as not having talent other than Chiara herself. And while this is not true because there are plenty of capable people on our shores, they might have a point. Chiara obviously sets a massively high standard when it comes to the contest which practically nobody - barring Ira Losco, when she performed admirably in 2002 (having yet another potential victory from Malta robbed from her grasp) - can match. Truth be told, Morena was a flop last year, Olivia Lewis should have never competed in the first place and Fabrizio is simply... Fabrizio; the less said about him the better. Malta needs to develop its talent better for the big occasion if it is indeed to successfully continue competing in the Eurovision Song Contest, because otherwise it is just a waste of people's time, money and resources.
Secondly, while this entry obviously does not do the following, Malta has tried and failed at sending attempted copies of the previous year's winning entry to the contest. Unfortunately in this regard, Malta lacks creativity and originality except in the field of ballads, which is a restricted field anyway. A quick analysis of things would show that last year, Malta tried appealing to Eastern Europe with a song entitled Vodka, even though Maltese delegates were at pains to stress that this was not the case. The 2007 entry Vertigo was also, in its own weird way, a poor attempt at imitating Ruslana's 2004 winning entry, what with the gong songs being played at sporadic intervals and Lewis trying to sing like the famed Ukrainian. Malta has to come to the reality that unless a ballad is entered by the public into the contest, they have to find ways to be original in this sense. The Eurovision Song Contest, in this regard, has actually become the Eurovision Entertainment Contest, and it is true to say that rarely do we see performances that do not include some kind of dance, or a load of performing males or females in the background, winning in this day and age.
Truth be told though, I did not mention one condition that I think is going to be a bit of a wildcard come the finals. This is the fact that Chiara is actually known around Europe, having taken part - successfully - twice in the past. European viewers have heard of her before, recognise her voice and actually appreciate her, as stated even by her fellow peers. Apart from the flops that Holland produced this year, who actually ridiculed her for being fat. Apparently, she has also been very popular during her stay in Russia. This popularity could obviously backfire into overconfidence and one of the worst performances of her life, God forbid, but I believe it will have a positive outcome on the votes. Furthermore, Chiara's voice is one that actually sticks in the memory of people, due to it being so powerful and even potentially overwhelming, so the voters aren't going to forget about her like they would for an ordinary performer.
To conclude, while the effect of neighbourly voting - a factor that needs no mentioning or introduction - is finally going to be minimised this year with the re-introduction of the jury to the contest, actually giving some countries an outside chance of doing well, Malta has to be aware of the facts that it faces as well. Second best may indeed be as good as it gets. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to predicting which neighbours will be giving our dear friends Greece 12 points this year. [sarcasm]I'm placing my money on the Turks.[/sarcasm]
Best of luck, however, Chiara. If you're to win, you're downright going to need it.
God Bless You all!
Matti
Friday, January 30, 2009
Rattling a Nation
Many times, I thank God for how lucky I am. I’ve lived a comfortable life to date, have visited a substantial number of foreign countries, and have been privileged enough to live my life on two different continents. Each time I visit a foreign country, I am amazed at how advanced the infrastructure and road systems of such a country are. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about our islands, which seem to be moving rapidly from bad to worse in this regard.
If the much-famed public transport strike last July was farcical enough, then the state of our roads almost certainly is up there with it. With the recent rain showers, Malta has degenerated from a network of roads full of potholes to a network of roads filled with craters that could rival those on the moon. And I’m not saying this to jump on the recent press bandwagon about the roads’ appalling state, but I’m saying this from first hand experience as a driver with nearly two years under his belt.
Take a trip to Sliema Road, San Gwann, for instance. This road is used by thousands of vehicles on a daily basis and is one of the most important junctions in Malta as it links the Regional Road roundabout to San Gwann, and also Mater Dei Hospital. Recently, The Times reported that this stretch of road has over 124 potholes in 500 metres. Going up or down this road resembles one taking part in a slalom ski race; such is the nature of cars swerving from left to right on a frequent basis in order to avoid these deadly craters. Pass over one deep hole and you’ve simply had it – you’ll be footing the bill for a tow truck, a new tyre and possibly even a new rim. And it’s not even your fault. With such roads to navigate, it’s no surprise that I hear a new rattle on my poor car every day of the week.
Another class act of a road is Ganu Street, Birkirkara (the road going down towards Birkirkara from the Vodafone roundabout). This road also resembles a fully-fledged slalom and is more disastrous than the days America was under the Bush Administration. On a recent venture to this street, I had the pleasure of braking around 3 times in order to swerve my car and avoid this series of potholes, and, when I thought that I had evaded all of them, I ended up crashing into one nonetheless. Honestly, sometimes I wonder whether its best to crash one’s car into another while avoiding the pothole or simply driving through the potholes themselves, hoping for the best while at it.
Of course, these are only two examples taken from routes that I use frequently, as there are many other roads that are in such dire need of repair that I could simply name from memory. The shocking thing about it all is that while there are groups of people out there performing maintenance on these roads, the work is of a shoddy nature to say the least, to the extent that by the next rainfall, all the potholes would be uncovered once again and hence, we’re back to square one!
I may not be the Minister for Infrastructure, Technology and Communications but I believe that action has to be taken to rectify these ridiculous problems with immediate effect. If the local contractors being assigned such jobs to fix our roads are performing work that even a bunch of chimpanzees could do better, then why don’t we employ people from abroad in this regard? I’m sure that there are workers out there, in the EU, who would do the job at double the standards but for half the price that we’re currently paying. Maybe then we’d have a road system to brag about.
This situation has reached the extent where the nation should be declared in a state of emergency, with the only difference being that the emergency is to repair the terrible stuff that we drivers face day after day. After all, we’re paying hundreds of Euros per year in road tax – with hundreds of thousands of cars on the roads, where is all the money going? I can’t answer that one myself, but I can definitely affirm that it isn’t going towards the quality, EU-standard road system that we sorely need.
If the much-famed public transport strike last July was farcical enough, then the state of our roads almost certainly is up there with it. With the recent rain showers, Malta has degenerated from a network of roads full of potholes to a network of roads filled with craters that could rival those on the moon. And I’m not saying this to jump on the recent press bandwagon about the roads’ appalling state, but I’m saying this from first hand experience as a driver with nearly two years under his belt.
Take a trip to Sliema Road, San Gwann, for instance. This road is used by thousands of vehicles on a daily basis and is one of the most important junctions in Malta as it links the Regional Road roundabout to San Gwann, and also Mater Dei Hospital. Recently, The Times reported that this stretch of road has over 124 potholes in 500 metres. Going up or down this road resembles one taking part in a slalom ski race; such is the nature of cars swerving from left to right on a frequent basis in order to avoid these deadly craters. Pass over one deep hole and you’ve simply had it – you’ll be footing the bill for a tow truck, a new tyre and possibly even a new rim. And it’s not even your fault. With such roads to navigate, it’s no surprise that I hear a new rattle on my poor car every day of the week.
Another class act of a road is Ganu Street, Birkirkara (the road going down towards Birkirkara from the Vodafone roundabout). This road also resembles a fully-fledged slalom and is more disastrous than the days America was under the Bush Administration. On a recent venture to this street, I had the pleasure of braking around 3 times in order to swerve my car and avoid this series of potholes, and, when I thought that I had evaded all of them, I ended up crashing into one nonetheless. Honestly, sometimes I wonder whether its best to crash one’s car into another while avoiding the pothole or simply driving through the potholes themselves, hoping for the best while at it.
Of course, these are only two examples taken from routes that I use frequently, as there are many other roads that are in such dire need of repair that I could simply name from memory. The shocking thing about it all is that while there are groups of people out there performing maintenance on these roads, the work is of a shoddy nature to say the least, to the extent that by the next rainfall, all the potholes would be uncovered once again and hence, we’re back to square one!
I may not be the Minister for Infrastructure, Technology and Communications but I believe that action has to be taken to rectify these ridiculous problems with immediate effect. If the local contractors being assigned such jobs to fix our roads are performing work that even a bunch of chimpanzees could do better, then why don’t we employ people from abroad in this regard? I’m sure that there are workers out there, in the EU, who would do the job at double the standards but for half the price that we’re currently paying. Maybe then we’d have a road system to brag about.
This situation has reached the extent where the nation should be declared in a state of emergency, with the only difference being that the emergency is to repair the terrible stuff that we drivers face day after day. After all, we’re paying hundreds of Euros per year in road tax – with hundreds of thousands of cars on the roads, where is all the money going? I can’t answer that one myself, but I can definitely affirm that it isn’t going towards the quality, EU-standard road system that we sorely need.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Is the World at a Standstill?
Not a very long post tonight, folks. I only have 15-20 minutes free time on my hands (as of now) and just need something to do, and this is it.
Well, I've been noticing of late that there really hasn't been anything worth noting on the international scene. Strange beyond belief to be honest, but I feel as if the same old stories have been circulating round and round all the time. The Zimbabwe crisis - and what a crisis it is, with inflation standing at a reported 14 million percent (yes, you're reading correctly!) - has been making headlines since the country had their rather farcical set of elections. The race for the White House in America is slowly gathering momentum but is still in its early stages. The war in Georgia has now stopped completely as Russian troops have been withdrawn from the region. There's just absolutely nothing of substance to speak about in terms of current affairs worldwide, unless you consider the headline Italian consumers stage 'bread strike' (Reuters) to be the biggest thing since the invention of the toaster.
And Malta is just as bad, to be honest. All the political fanfare that surrounded the country in the early stages of the year has obviously died down, and now we are yet again stuck with the same old statements coming out from various Ministers' mouths - "We can't guarantee that such and such an electoral promise will be fulfilled this year or indeed even in 2009". The highlights of the last week have been a murder in Hal-Qormi, where the accused gave himself up to the police at the Law Courts but then pleaded not guilty at his trial; a Proton (not the particle that forms part of an atom) car blowing up and killing a man as he was trapped inside, also at Hal-Qormi; and finally, a motorcycle accident on the road linking Rabat to Zebbug which has left the two motorcyclists involved in a critical condition. Things just couldn't be any brighter... Hell, even Jenny leaving the island could have made front page news this week!
It seems as if everyone, everything and everywhere is in the process of a post-summer hangover. And that truly is the case, I believe, as the rain starts to fall on the Northern Hemisphere of the globe and autumn settles in.
God Bless and Take Care,
Matti
Well, I've been noticing of late that there really hasn't been anything worth noting on the international scene. Strange beyond belief to be honest, but I feel as if the same old stories have been circulating round and round all the time. The Zimbabwe crisis - and what a crisis it is, with inflation standing at a reported 14 million percent (yes, you're reading correctly!) - has been making headlines since the country had their rather farcical set of elections. The race for the White House in America is slowly gathering momentum but is still in its early stages. The war in Georgia has now stopped completely as Russian troops have been withdrawn from the region. There's just absolutely nothing of substance to speak about in terms of current affairs worldwide, unless you consider the headline Italian consumers stage 'bread strike' (Reuters) to be the biggest thing since the invention of the toaster.
And Malta is just as bad, to be honest. All the political fanfare that surrounded the country in the early stages of the year has obviously died down, and now we are yet again stuck with the same old statements coming out from various Ministers' mouths - "We can't guarantee that such and such an electoral promise will be fulfilled this year or indeed even in 2009". The highlights of the last week have been a murder in Hal-Qormi, where the accused gave himself up to the police at the Law Courts but then pleaded not guilty at his trial; a Proton (not the particle that forms part of an atom) car blowing up and killing a man as he was trapped inside, also at Hal-Qormi; and finally, a motorcycle accident on the road linking Rabat to Zebbug which has left the two motorcyclists involved in a critical condition. Things just couldn't be any brighter... Hell, even Jenny leaving the island could have made front page news this week!
It seems as if everyone, everything and everywhere is in the process of a post-summer hangover. And that truly is the case, I believe, as the rain starts to fall on the Northern Hemisphere of the globe and autumn settles in.
God Bless and Take Care,
Matti
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