Opinion
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Pathetic petty politics
Nowadays, as I drive along the Coast Road, I witness many trucks and shovels moving up and down the slopes of the disused Magħtab dump. Their action is almost gentle compared to the monstrosity of the site they work upon. They caress the sides of...
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Planning at the crossroads
Some months back, The Sunday Times of Malta (October 28) published an article which I wrote to mark the 20th anniversary of the Maltese planning system. In the article, I had noted that planning in Malta has reached an important crossroads. The...
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The spirit of festa, and its rightful owners
So there you have it. The Curia has decided to ignore all the petitions and popular feeling and to go ahead and cancel this year’s feast at Żejtun. Nothing to do with flying bottles or displays of paganism this time round; rather, the given reason...
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‘What is most important is invisible’
I have always been struck by an expression of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in his wonderful little book The Little Prince: “what is essential is invisible to the eye”. When I think about the Eucharist, this phrase often comes to mind. At Mass, as a...
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Spin flavour of the month
Spinning has become an integral part of the political game. At the moment, a monumental spin is taking place. Those peddling it are not quite the new team in the Nationalist Opposition. Rather, they are the old team, led by former finance minister...
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The prison inside the prison
Itook a trip to the prisons the other day. There were a couple of inmates I needed to talk to, so I took the afternoon off and paid them a visit. I’ve always been fascinated by prisons, the world over, and the Maltese prison is no exception. I’m...
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Valletta the bland capital
Last week, fellow columnist Mark Anthony Falzon urged us to rally around the banner of leopard-print panties and to resist the transformation of Valletta into the Capital City of Bland. I couldn’t agree more. Falzon’s call to arms was brought about...
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Is blue necessarily the warmest colour?
What is the relationship between La Vie d’Adele and Manif pour tous? La Vie d’Adele (Blue is the Warmest Colour) is Abdellatif Kechiche’s latest oeuvre. It was described by The Guardian as “a devastatingly emotional film about a love affair between...
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Out of the box
In the world of a television series geek, living in Malta brings with it many disadvantages. Suffice it to say that to (legally) watch the latest episodes of whatever series happens to creating the hype, you need to be something of a web...
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What do women want from men?
My grandmother must be Simon Busuttil’s number one fan. I don’t mean now that he’s been elected party leader – although obviously she’s extremely delighted – but she’s been his keen follower since his very first appearance on TV sometime at the turn...
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A backbencher’s blog: A Labour of love... Part three...
Dear friends, Once again it’s me, your friendly, neighbourhood backbench MP, to bring you tidings of the deeds, both honourable and far-seeing, of our charismatic and lovable leader and his loyal disciples in the Government. And just to prove what...
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The honeymoon is over
Since the success of his josephmuscat.con electoral campaign, relatively speaking we haven’t seen much of Joseph Muscat. Being a firm believer in the maxim “the less we see of the Government, the better” (and here I don’t mean the Labour government...
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Projects to implement in Gozo
The announcement that, in the coming days, the Government will be issuing a call for expressions of interest for the Mġarr cruise terminal and yacht marina project is more than welcome. In my humble opinion, it will take years to harvest the fruits...
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Civil unions are a first step
I was surprised at Iain Sims’ letter (May 21) on equal rights, in which he implied that the Today Public Policy Institute’s report, Same Sex: Same Civil Entitlements, of which I was the lead author, advocated discrimination against homosexuals.
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Weevil invades eco-Gozo
The red palm weevil first set foot in the Maltese Islands in 2007. Despite the expanse of the natural adequate sea barrier preventing this weevil from crossing over to these islands – it can only fly a distance of one kilometre – it did manage to...
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Towards a healthy future
Since any nation is made up of a group of people sharing the same government in a given jurisdiction it follows that its very performance is determined to a large extent by the state of health of its citizens. In an individual’s life all else pales...
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The enemy beside us
Earlier this week, the French Interior Minister, Manuel Valls, addressed journalists about the man who has been detained on suspicion of his involvement in the attack on a French soldier last Saturday. The soldier was stabbed in the neck while...
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Nursing mental health
Mental health refers to our cognitive and emotional well-being. It is about how we think, feel and behave. Having mental health implies also absence of a mental disorder. Statistics show that Western countries have high prevalence of mental health...
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Defending the defenceless
“The whole truth is generally the ally of virtue; a half truth is always the ally of some vice.” The second part of this sentence by J. K. Chesterton fits to the heel the Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations’ press release (May 17) in...
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Voices of the Arab Spring
Just a few days before Zein El Abidine Ben Ali fled Tunisia, his secret police were torturing a student union leader, Malek Sghiri. After repeated beatings he was brought in front of ‘an old man with sparks flying from his eyes. This was a political...
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