The Defiant One

The Theatre Scene in Malta

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 16:44:00 +0000

I watched a play this weekend at the Manoel Theatre. It was opening night and the stalls were packed. Yet again, there was an astoundingly low number of attendees under the age of 35. Maybe two dozen in total, three at most; surely less than one in ten people. I could not have felt younger in the waiting room for a prostate exam.

I got the same impression when I watched Arsenic and Old Lace a few months ago. I put that one down to it being an age-old comedy, but this time round the play was Calendar Girls - terrific, by the way. It is based on a movie that is not even ten years old. It might be about middle-aged housewives, but it raked in nearly $100 million worldwide and has a 6.8/10 rating on the imdb website from 9455 votes, 35% of which are from members who are less than 30 years old. Though younger people are more computer savvy, I do not believe these demographics are skewed to that extent.

I am aware that the crowd at St. James Cavalier tends to be somewhat younger, and that the Christmas pantomimes are a hit with all age groups. Nevertheless, in general, do people really acquire a taste for theatre when they grow old? Or is it a case of that theatre? And if so, what is wrong with the Manoel?

The Legacy of Mintoff

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 10:50:00 +0000

The Maltese people have a knack when it comes to turning everything political into a lowest-level-possible, gossipy debate. I gather this week it is the turn of the controversial documentary about Dom Mintoff. Let me chime in.

From 700BC up to 1974AD Malta was ruled by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Spanish, Knights of St John, French, and finally the British. We were slaves of one kind or another for centuries on end. Mintoff is the man who led Malta into becoming a republic. His is the name that went down in history for doing that. We did gain independence before that in 1964, but we still had a Governor General exercising executive authority for the Queen who was still our Head of State. As a geo-political achievement, becoming a republic after 27 centuries is way more important than Malta joining the European Union.

Regardless of how much of a bastard he became in his declining years, it will be Mintoff's name that will be remembered internationally. Was the legacy of George Washington tarnished because black slaves were being whipped into picking cotton during his era? The factual horror-stories of the 80s will become less and less relevant. It will not be a documentary or a book that changes this.

Nevermind Kony 2012...

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 23:02:00 +0000

March of this year will go down in history as the month in which the average Joe discovered that brutal war crimes have been committed in Africa for decades and that the atrocities continue to this very day. The old news finally became known to the masses thanks to YouTube of all things. It is well known that videos with kids or kittens have a tendency to go viral. There are no cats in the video posted on the 5th of March, but there are thousands of Ugandan children who were either killed, raped, or forced to enlist as soldiers in Joseph Kony's rebel army. The video was viewed 62 million times in the first four days.

How did the people not hear about all this sooner? Let us put things into perspective.

5 and a 1/2 million people were murdered between 1998 and 2007 in the Congo where mass public rape is used as a weapon of war to break the will of the people. This barely gets a footnote in the mainstream newspapers, if that.

While the Pol Pot regime was busy killing Cambodians in the 1970s, Indonesia invaded East Timor and murdered tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians. You have not heard about the latter because Indonesia had the USA's blessing, but you do know about the former because Pol Pot was a communist, and the mainstream media wanted to further the USA's anti-communism agenda.

15 out of the 19 terrorists of 9/11 were Saudis – that is almost 80%. None were from Iraq. None were from Afghanistan either, though Afghanistan did shelter some Al Qaeda members. Both countries were invaded. Not only did Saudi Arabia not get attacked, but the mainstream media never mentions it in the same sentence as 9/11. It does not tell us that Bin Laden’s operation was mostly bankrolled by Saudis. Why? Because that is where the US Government buys its oil from.

US Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul wants to get the US out of all wars and abolish the Federal Reserve Bank, a private institution that is practically above the law. He is given next to no media coverage.

You can see the obvious trend. The mainstream media reports only what it is told to, in the manner it is told to, in order to shape our thoughts into what the powers that be deem fit.

Never has this been clearer than now. In the last few years, while Kony was not getting any air time on TV, we have been bombarded incessantly by the propaganda machine of the USA, the EU, and Israel to brainwash us into thinking that Iran poses a military threat. Iranians have every right to invest in and develop nuclear technology, just like the countries that are now threatening it with a pre-emptive military strike did decades ago. Israel is the only country in the Middle East to have nuclear warheads and wants things to stay that way. I know this, you know this, but the Governments have not yet given up on manufacturing our consent, as the great Noam Chomsky would say.

Picking up the Kony story is one thing. Pushing it as much as newspapers and TV news networks have been this week is another, especially after virtual silence for years on end. Again, put things in perspective: News24, a South African online news resource reported that, "Olara Otunnu, a former UN diplomat who worked on children and armed conflict, has long accused the [US backed] Ugandan government of committing genocide in northern Uganda as it pursued Kony... Ugandan officials say [Kony's] LRA - with some 200 core fighters at most - is weakened and is merely trying to survive." That is 200 core fighters, a far cry from 30,000 as the famed YouTube video claims. Kony was at his most active over 10 years ago, so why is the media pushing for an invasion now? Is it to interfere with Uganda's trading with China?

In a totalitarian regime a country sends its men to war because the powers that be want to. The same exact thing happens in our representative democracies, only the propaganda of deceit brings most of the population on board. We feel we are part of the decision-making process when we are really just cheerleaders. Boy, are we happy we do not have to experience a totalitarian government and the oppressive control that comes with it. So much so that we fail to see the huge amount of control present in our representative democracies. It is simply of a different kind: thought control.

When the mainstream media is not busy indoctrinating us, it easily distracts the masses from what is really going on with sports, trash TV, popcorn movies, and so on. Panis et circenses, as Caesar would say. Bread and circuses while the rulers keep their agendas rolling.

Information on what is truly going on all over the world is available from alternative media and public reports, but one has to go looking for it. The gross majority of people lack the time, the energy, and the commitment to do so. This is precisely why the government propaganda model has proven to be so successful.

People are very slowly but surely getting smarter and wising up to this. Unfortunately, after they do so their anger quickly turns into a feeling of helplessness and nothing is done about it. The Governments are still not taking any chances though, instituting laws like the NDAA and the Patriot Act in the US to be able to legally use force on the people should they ever decide to take action.

Instead of Kony 2012, I suggest a Wake-Up 2012 movement.

The beginning of the end

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:57:00 +0000

In 1950 the world population was less than 3 billion. Now it exceeds 7 billion. The human race continues to grow exponentially because of economic and scientific progress. Resource-wise this is a problem in itself; that we are intent on raping the planet to make a buck does not help one bit.

Every few years top scientists from all over the world reconvene to discuss the usage of resources and evaluate the sustainability of future demand. This is always followed by the introduction of new regulations and taxes as deterrents for over-usage. Let me rephrase that, individuals and small companies get taxed to become more efficient, while massive companies like Halliburton and oil corporations are allowed to pillage the Earth undisturbed. Scientists met in the late 1990s, in the early 2000s, in the early 2010s. Rules and taxes were introduced, but according to them the expiry date of the human race remained 2050. Hence, this method is not having the desired effect with regards to self-preservation, but it works wonders to fill the governments' pockets.

The system is way too corrupt to be fixed in time. 'Too many' people are born and it takes them 'too long' to croak. I am afraid the powers that be would be willing to change that. I would rather not think of why governments have authorized sodium fluoride in toothpaste, aspartame in diet sodas, ammonia in meat, and so on given that they weaken the immune system and give cancer - which by the way went up 3000% in the last few decades.

Life as we know it will change drastically. We will wake up to this when the world runs out of crude oil, which cannot be more than a few years from now since we are well past peak oil extraction. But will it happen before we can completely rely on other forms of energy, preferably clean and renewable? Vehicles will not run on oil, but how will they be produced if it currently takes 1000+ gallons of oil to build one car and 8 gallons to produce a single tyre out of natural rubber? And have we forgotten that plastic is an oil extract? When was the last time you were in a car, or a room for that matter, totally devoid of plastic or plastic paint? No more crude oil, no more plastic - back to wood, metal, and glass.

Next on the list will be water. Oil barons like T. Boone Pickens have already turned to buying up land encompassing fresh water lakes to make a pretty penny off thy fellow man once the shortage worsens.

There are solutions, but they will not be implemented until every dollar is milked out of the cash cows owned by the puppet-masters. If we were a better race, it would not be the beginning of the end but, alas.

Your job sucks

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:35:00 +0000

Back in the 1970s, when it was clear that computers would soon help almost everyone in their life at work, most people wrongly assumed employers and corporations were happy with the profit they were making at the time, and that the end of the five-day-work-week was nigh. It was their rude awakening into the capitalist world.

This is where you would expect me to discuss capitalism. Instead, I am going to embark on a rant and point out that 35 years ago people wanted a way out of work. People might have been naive and optimistic as hell, but society had not made them swallow the employment pill with a smile. They did not suffer from today's politically correct bullshit about needing a job that fulfills your life purpose and yadda-yadda-yadda. Naturally, one tries to milk every drop of satisfaction out of work, but it is still and will remain work. Make no mistake: you are a robot. We all are, but let us not be happy about it! The most common deathbed confession is still: I wish I had not worked so hard.

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, bores me quicker than someone who goes into great length to explain what a great job he has doing something which sounds totally pedestrian. Chances are that you are not a firefighter who runs into buildings when everyone else is running out. If you are, kudos. If you are not: it is a JOB, do you not get it? They call it wage slavery - you rent yourself out in order to survive. You are a couple of steps up from a street-whore, congrats. Still, if you are doing it for money, it is not fun, honey.

Recently both of my parents retired almost simultaneously - that way they can enjoy being pensioners together. Not a single person I told sounded enthusiastic. No, you see, society's fangs are sunk in waaay too deep. What I get, ad nauseum, is "Have they gotten bored yet without work to do?" Lemme see, doing as you please as opposed to working 8 hours a day, whiling your life away? Oooh, that is a tough one.

I will take boredom every time. The boredom that comes with travelling, reading new books, going out in the countryside, listening to music, meeting people, snapping photos, watching movies you have not seen before, etc. That is the boredom that comes with freedom.

Make way for the Thought Police

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:59:00 +0000

Those who pull society's strings do not care about white people, asian people, black people, and what not. The only colour they care about is dollar-green. As Tony Montana said, "You gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power."

The puppet-masters want to keep the people stupid. It is not people they need, but robots who can keep their money machines rolling. Unfortunately, people are more than happy to be told what to do and what to think. To form an opinion one must gather information, process it, to then make up his own mind. This takes time and people tend to be too busy or too lazy to bother – they find it much easier to repeat someone else's opinion. Thus, due to human nature, society's mediatic power starts with a favourable handicap. When we are too young to know better we are told what society thinks is right and what society thinks is wrong and we follow suit. We are told that cursing is not etiquette, that religion is necessary to become a decent person, that being gay is a mental illness, that sunbathing topless is shockingly rude; the list is endless. By the time our formative years are over we have already formed opinions by forgoing any thought process whatsoever. This can only mean that society has a Thought Police that is alive and well; it is simply better camouflaged than you would expect it to be. You will not get Nineteen Eighty-Four's O'Brien raise his hand and ask, "If the Party says that it is not four but five, then how many?" No, they will indoctrinate you when you are young and watch you turn into a sheep as you grow older.

When simple brainwashing methods do not suffice, individuals can be tweaked into being more obedient. LSD was prescribed by doctors who spoke highly of it until it was made illegal. Zero people are killed each year by marijuana, while prescription drugs (including Xanax, Oxycontin, and Vicodin) kill 150,000 each year in the US alone - yet guess which one of them was deemed dangerous and made illegal? The obvious pattern shows that drugs that open your mind = ILLEGAL, whereas drugs that numb you down and dumb you down and make you easier to control = LEGAL. If the powers that be interfere with how we think and what we do about trivial matters, how far would they go for issues that are much closer to their pockets?

The whole nine yards is the correct answer. Josef Goebbels used to say, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” The USA had to get into WWI to protect J.P. Morgan's investments, but its people were not having any of it, so the RMS Lusitania was sent on a suicide voyage. When the USA wanted to join WWII, it did its best to piss off Japan, then left Pearl Harbor unguarded. When the USA wanted to take over a bunch of oil, lithium, and opium rich middle-eastern countries and also wanted its citizens to swallow the Patriot Act, it made NORAD stand down when half a dozen passenger jets were hijacked. After every single one of these events, the population was quick to flip-flop and join the Government's bandwagon, just like the German citizens were quick to support the Nazi Party when the Nazis themselves torched their own Reichstag building.

It is plain to see that the fragility of the human mind was studied in depth to be later abused of. What we are now left with is a society that is closer to a robot factory than anything else. At this point one has to ask: why care about society anymore?

One need not be particularly bright to understand that people all over the world are lied to by their Governments on a daily basis. If the USA’s Secretary of State lets herself be broadcast on television showing how upset she is that people got sick of hearing the mainstream media's lies, it must truly mean that more and more people are becoming immune to thought control. Just recently SOPA was mostly nipped in the bud and it looks like ACTA is heading that way too. We have to break free from these chains before it is too late. We are still in time.

Of Pasta and Horsepower in Malta

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:01:00 +0000

Years ago, a Maltese man opened a pasta factory. Given the country pasta is usually associated with, he chose an Italian name for this company: phonetically pronounced "leh roz-eh" which translates to "the roses." I bet he felt smug about it. That is, until the first idiot pronounced it "leh rows" and it stuck. For decades ALL Maltese people called it so.

Centuries ago, the world felt the need to create a unit to define engine power. Since everyone knows what a horse is, they calculated that a horse develops 735 watts of power. A unit, horsepower (HP), was born. Fast-forward to the 20th Century Malta. Cars became all the rage and people who knew how to fix them found they could make a living out of it calling themselves mechanics. These mechanics wanted to use the cool-sounding "horsepower" unit, but didn't have a clue as to what 735 watts were. Not a problem - the first idiot told his cronies that a 1000cc (1.0 litre) engine developed the same power as 10 horses. No physics, no science behind it - NOTHING. But it stuck. "Is your car a 20 horsepower petrol? It must cost you a fortune in fuel!" Boy, would I love to see 20 horses pulling a 2 ton car up a hill at 120 km/h! As we can see, 200 hundred years after a unit was created, the Maltese people had to start using it and made a mess of it all. I therefore dub this unit "Maltese horsepower."

It's common knowledge that once word gets around in a village, it sticks. This blog post isn't about pasta or horsepower. This post is about small-town mentality and small-town behaviour taking over an island of 450,000 people. We can call Malta a country all we want, but we know that really and truly it's an over-populated town.

Just look at the Prime Minister. He's a glorified mayor at best. It's not like he's got a finger on the nuclear button. Elections are won over some power station, or some bridge, that kind of trivial stuff. We have extremely high voting turnouts, but few people understand what politics is about. Few understand what the left-wing and right-wing really are. They understand red and blue: the colours of the party they vote for. The party one belongs to depends on brainwashing, indoctrination, and 30-year-old experiences. Thankfully, which party is in power nowadays makes relatively little difference.

It doesn't take a genius to know that small-town mentality coupled with tribal behaviour can lead to no good.

More often than not it will turn out the person you're speaking to is uninformed. Don't take anyone's word for anything. Stop. And think. Use your own brain to figure things out. Information is much, much, much more accessible nowadays, but you have to be smart. Want to know what the USA and Europe are doing? Watch RussiaToday. Want to know what Russia and China are doing? Watch CNN. This is the age of the internet - you don't need to take a bus to the library. Double-checking the facts from various trustworthy sources doesn't take much time. Don't be lazy. Nobody has the right to be ignorant anymore.

Franco Debono and the Free Vote

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 19:43:00 +0000

What, with the impending Eurozone collapse and the Yellowstone caldera cracking the planet in half, don’t we have enough to fret about this year? Enter Franco Debono.

The current administration has been a train crash from the get-go, but Debono’s antics have stood out. He seems intent on going down in the history books one way or another, and from the looks of it bringing down the government is fair game. Though the anarchist in me is grinning, I’ve kind of grown tired of this whole scorpion-and-the-frog scenario by now. Just because one has the nuclear codes doesn’t mean he has to constantly threaten to press the button. I can understand those who criticise him and his actions - he has indeed been behaving like a honey badger on acid.

My main peeve though is with the Nationalist MPs who are also lambasting the free vote concept per se. They would have us believe that all those who don’t toe the party line are evil. Nonsense. The free vote itself can be very beneficial for a country. If it brings instability it's either because the government:

1) can't agree on issues - in which case it’s pathetic and has it coming, or

2) doesn't have a big enough parliamentary seat advantage - and for that nobody but the party in power is to blame for not winning enough people over at the last elections.

Having said that, I’m afraid the free vote has no place in Malta at the moment.

For years I’ve wanted a third party with a seat in parliament; someone who could steal a bit of the Big Two’s thunder. We now have someone within a big party acting as if he were a third party. That makes it sound like a parasite, and parasitic it is because nobody voted for this third party.

Surely if Debono got elected it means people voted for him, didn’t they? Maltese people don’t vote for people, they vote for a colour. They get the ballot sheet, scroll down to the colour they want, and vote for the doctor who cured them when they had gonorrhoea. Those who ticked Debono’s box didn’t do so for his ideologies. They voted because they liked PN’s electoral program. Scratch that, they voted for PN and that’s it, because that’s what they’re programmed to do. Different kind of program, you see.

Just look at the USA. While their system is different, they only have two big parties, like Malta. But they aren’t tribal about it. Legislators are free to vote as they wish. I don't even want to think of what their congress would be like without outspoken people such as Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul. Here’s the difference: the voters want them in congress regardless of which party they belong to.

I’m all for the free vote when we learn to vote for the individuals we want.

Older, but not necessarily wiser

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:50:00 +0000

They used to say "older, but wiser". Nowadays, this is only the case if one chooses to. Almost everyone is now plugged into the net. Information is much more readily accessible than it was back in the day. Saying "I'm not into current affairs" or "politics is not my thing" won’t win you any sympathy. As I’ve said before, no-one has the right to be ignorant anymore. Thankfully, fewer people are.

The previous generations have to accept the fact that they can’t speak condescendingly to us solely on account of age difference. I use the word “us” as it still happens to me even though I am 30 years old. Not everyone chooses to rot his brain keeping up with the Kardashians. It is infuriating when someone assumes you don’t know something simply because you're younger or because it happened years ago. Was it documented? Then everyone is only a mouse-click away from learning about it.

Older people perceive us as a rebellious generation that behaves that way just for kicks. The truth is that with more information at our disposal it is far easier to discern when someone is feeding us bullshit. There’s only so much of that one can take before starting to despise its source. This explains my generation’s general lack of trust and respect towards authorities and governments. Therefore, something older people think is based on stupidity actually stems from intelligence.

Back in the day getting somewhere thanks to friendships and masonry was considered something to be proud of. It was a time when that was the only way to achieve certain goals or get certain things done. Times have changed - with a level playing field, we know we can get there on our own. We can’t be impressed when you choose to get preferential treatment when it isn't absolutely necessary. How can we respect that you’re rigging the game, searching for the easy way out? Don’t mistake it for envy... it's disgust we feel.

So, dear older people, it might seem like we "act like rebels” because we think “we know it all” but here's the thing: we know a hell of a lot more than you did when you were our age. You're wiser than you were, but not necessarily wiser than we are. So, pretty-please-with-sugar-on-top stop talking down to us as if we were retarded kids.

The Pussification of the World

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:07:00 +0000

I keep meeting people who do not know what being "liberal" is all about. Personally, I want women, homosexuals, people from all races and creeds, divorcees, and so on to have equal rights. In certain circles that makes me somewhat liberal.

But that does not mean I have to absolutely love everyone like Barney the fucking Dinosaur with his politically correct, ethnically diverse friends. Being liberal also includes letting people be at liberty to think and say whatever they want (within reason). If a grumpy old man believes in equality of the sexes yet dislikes women in general, that does not make him conservative. Since when does “liking” have anything to do with it? I find no problem with people attending hedonistic bunga-bunga parties, but this does not mean I have to partake, or even like the people who do.

Like a ship without sails, we continue to drift towards exaggerated political correctness because society tells us to. Where is the freedom, the liberty in that? So much so that a liberal is already being confused with a “bleeding-heart liberal” who takes hobos into his house to show that he cares about their plight. They are not one and the same - the line between the two is not blurry. You can stay liberal without following blindly all this political correctness bullshit. All you need is a brain of your own.

At this rate, I will soon be considered conservative by society’s sheeple. That just means I did not keep up with the pussification of the world.

Malta, I brand thee!

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:56:00 +0000

For the last 3 years I have been working mostly with foreigners. Suffice to say that for the longest time I was the only Maltese person working on my floor at the office. The general consensus amongst foreigners living in Malta, given that they RARELY venture outside the Sliema area, is that Malta is a block of concrete in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea with a couple of nice beaches in the North. Period. Some Maltese people - the younger crowd mostly - seem to agree with them.

I'm sure quite a few people out there (like me) are tired of countless debates on the subject. So here's my 2c on the matter: I made a video to shut these people up. I stuck a photo camera to my car's windshield, set it to take a photo every second, left from Wied iz-Zurrieq at dawn and got to Armier a couple of hours later passing from as little civilisation as possible. i.e. Wied iz-Zurrieq - Ghar Lapsi - Fawwara - Dingli Cliffs - Mtahleb - Migra Ferha - Bahrija - Fomm ir-Rih Bay - Gnejna Bay - Mgarr - Manikata - Mellieha Bay - Armier Bay.

Watch on YouTube in HD quality
During the trip I saw quite a few rent-a-cars driven by tourists. Those people saw more of Malta in a couple of days than a lot of people who have lived in Malta for decades ever will. Food for thought.

VIDEO INFO:

7,772 photos taken at 1fps played at 24fps

Trip duration: 2hours 10minutes (6.00am to 8.10am) of non-stop driving
Distance covered: 40miles / 64kilometers
Average speed: 18mph / 30kmh

More of my work here.

Divorce movement wins

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Sun, 29 May 2011 13:24:00 +0000

The Maltese sheeple have proved me wrong. Malta has now entered the 1960s.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

China in the mediterranean

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 16:53:00 +0000

as appeared in The Times of Malta 20/01/2011

Promotion of civil rights and popular dissent

Two years ago Unifaun was forbidden by the authorities to perform a controversial theatre play. Last year, a couple of students were put on trial for writing and publishing a short story about a sexist individual. Last week, some classics by D.H. Lawrence and Voltaire were banned from secondary school libraries and TV programme VIP Xow (by comedy troupe Zoo) was axed from TVM for its satirical nature. Artists are not allowed to exhibit paintings that contain nudity and wearing carnival costumes that make fun of politicians will land you in jail.

One has to ask: What’s next?

Telling us what to think has now evolved into telling us what to say and do. This catastrophe can only stop when ultra-conservatives will cease to be afraid of people who are different from themselves. These bigots perceive such people as unpredictable and fight their fears by imposing their beliefs and rules upon everyone.

Force this equality to take away freedom from thy fellow neighbour and you have weaker antagonists for generations to come. Hence, the reason why we are an object of ridicule all around the world for not having introduced divorce yet. We should be in the streets shouting “I’m mad as hell and I won’t take this anymore!” but, instead, we allow anyone and everyone to stomp on our civil rights as the country falls deeper into disgrace. What will it take?

Salary Raises in Malta

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:22:00 +0000

A lot of people in this country don't realize how important a job interview is vis-a-vis future salary. Can you believe I worked for a company where often a new employee would say he/she took the job without knowing what the salary was?

Salaries in Malta aren't only about what you're getting paid to do the job now, but also about what you're EVER going to get paid, period. Unless you get a promotion, your salary will stay the same. So when you're being interviewed, you better negotiate and get the best deal possible, because you're gonna be stuck with it forever.

To beat the system you have to work for one of the handful of foreign companies based here. They treat their employees right. Their employees enjoy working there. Their employees are motivated, more effective and efficient. As a result they make the company earn more money. But you cannot expect Maltese employers to know that, can you?

Pornography in Malta

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:40:00 +0000

Four months after a woman got arrested for having (artistic?) nude photos of herself taken in the land of Jesus-freaks...

Sex film lands man in court

A woman was browsing a CD (which probably wasn't hers), supposedly containing photographs, when she suddenly came across a video clip of her former boyfriend performing sexual acts with a 17-year-old girl (is that even underage?), a magistrate heard.

She reported him to the police (hell hath no fury like a woman scorned) and Christopher Buttigieg (so they're publishing their names now?), 25, from Żabbar, was charged with shooting or permitting the shooting of the video recording (though shalt not shoot porn in Malta), defiling the girl (who by the age of 17 was probably as loose as a hippo's yawn), performing sexual acts with the girl, and offending public morals (by shooting a private video).

He was also charged with threatening his former girlfriend following the discovery of the video clip (find me a man who'd want a video of his naked ass in his ex-girlfriend's hands).

Mr Buttigieg pleaded not guilty (but guilty of being a horny guy). He was granted bail by Magistrate Silvio Meli against a personal guarantee of €10,000 (amateur porn filmmakers are well known to flee the country).

Victim describes himself in Hi5 as having nocturnal sadistic tendencies

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:24:00 +0000

A guy got stabbed a gazillion times by a jealous husband and survived. Lo and behold the latest development in the court case: the victim's Hi5 profile quotes a heavy metal song!

CRUCIFY HIM!
CRUCIFY HIM!
CRUCIFY HIM!

The title of this blog post appeared in (VERDANA FONT SIZE 72) today's Times of Malta newspaper.

The article also states there's a photo of a heavy metal album cover depicting a satanic symbol in the vitim's Hi5 photo gallery.

CRUCIFY HIM!
CRUCIFY HIM!
CRUCIFY HIM!

Tell you what, here are a few quotes from songs I like which you can use against me in court if somebody ever goes medieval on my ass:

"And my dick runs deep,
so deep, so deep - put her ass to sleep."
Ice-Cube (It was a good day)

"I’ve got something to say,
I raped your mother today."
Metallica (Last caress)

"I got blood on my hands,
but there's no remorse.
And got blood on my dick,
'cause I fucked the corpse."
DMX (Bring your whole crew)

I'd love to hear defense lawyer Gianella Caruana Curran quote the above in a courtroom.

Read about the West Memphis 3.

Wages vis-a-vis Productivity

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:20:00 +0000

Yesterday on Bondiplus, Joseph Farrugia of the Malta Employers Association said you cannot expect wages to rise just because the prices of food and oil are rising at rates never seen before; employees have to be paid solely according to their productivity.

He's absolutely right of course.

However, employees are NOT paid according to their productivity in Malta. As a result every minute increase in prices is felt twofold or threefold by the employee. Therefore, whereas employers obviously cannot be blamed for the rising costs, they have to shoulder some of the blame for Malta having such a high cost of living, which makes it so goddamn hard for employees to make ends meet now, let alone next year when oil will cost $250 per barrel.

Read also Chaaarge!

Something in return for nothing

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Fri, 16 May 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Why do some people expect something in return for nothing? You know who I'm talking about: egoistic folks who never do shit for you but expect you to do shit for them. Not 'would like' you to, expect you to.

It may be a politician who expects people to vote for him even though he didn't do jackshit in the 5 years he had a seat in parliament.

It could be an employer who expects underpaid employees to work after hours regularly free of charge, and/or expects them to work there forever.

Or an ex-friend who backstabbed you and demands forgiveness from you so that he/she can stop feeling guilty.

And so on.

I've met a bunch of people like that throughout the years. I never managed to figure out why they are suprised when you turn them down. What?! You're not going to bend over backwards for me? Why the hell not? I can accept them being self-centered, nobody's perfect, but why do they get pissed off when you don't give in to their demands? Nobody wants to be a slave, a flunky, or a doormat. Don't they know this?

I guess they don't.

The relative cost of living

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:00:00 +0000

The following is a simplified example. It doesn't take into consideration the resale value of the motor vehicle. Neither does it consider costs of other items/bills eg. property/renting property.

A car in Malta costs Lm8000.
The same car in the UK costs Lm6000.

In Malta, the car costs 33.33% more. Or does it?

If, in Malta, a buyer saves up Lm200 a month, it would take him 40 months to buy the car.
If in the UK, another buyer (same job, higher wage) saves up Lm350 a month, it would take him 17 months to buy the car.

The car costs the Maltese person 135% more time saving up.

After 40 months, the Maltese buyer will have finished saving up and will finally have a car.

When the Maltese buyer will finally have the car, the UK buyer will have had the car for 23 months and apart from buying the car Lm2000 cheaper, he will also have saved up a further Lm8050. That opportunity cost adds up to WAY more than 33.33%.

Read also Standard of Living in Malta

Driving in Malta

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:39:00 +0000

I am sick and tired of foreigners complaining about how Maltese people drive.

"The Maltese are the worst drivers in the whole wide world."
"It's every man unto himself on Maltese roads."
"They all oughta be fookin' nicked, I'll tell you that!"

...to which some feeble-minded Maltesers reply:
"In Malta, we don't drive on the right or on the left, we drive in the shade."

First of all, fuck the lot of you. Especially my compatriots who relish being looked down upon by foreigners: "Yes massah, me no drive good. Me stupid Maltese of Mintoff time."

Second, travel the damn world. If we're the worst you've seen, you ain't seen shit. Check out India where on the road, might is right. But you don't need to go so far to find worse drivers than us. Go to Palermo where drivers see pedestrians on zebra crossings as prey, where motorcyclists do the slalom with pedestrians on pavements. Then tell me how you like them apples.

According to Drive Safe, in Malta:
Speed Limit in Towns 50kmh (30mph)
Speed Limit on Open Roads 80kmh (50mph)

The average Malteser drives at 50-60kmh in urban areas and at 70-80kmh on long straights. Therefore, it's not a matter of us exceeding speed limits.

"You drive recklessly"

How a person drives depends on many factors, one of which is the number of cars on the road. Population density-wise, Malta is comparable to a busy city, not to a country. The same goes for traffic. Hence, driving here is just as chaotic as it is in London, Rome or New York. A lot of Brits have no problems driving on British motorways and country roads but would rather take the tube in London. New Yorkers take taxicabs. If you avoid driving in London, Rome or New York... why do you drive in Malta, to nag, nag, nag?

UPDATE: Clarkson on driving in Italy

Sexual / Physical Abuse by Clergy

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 07:53:00 +0000

A week after our Gozitan bishop apologized to the men and women who were physically abused by Dominican Sisters in Lourdes home when they were kids, the Pope called sexual and physical abuse by members of the clergy "a deep shame". All well and good...

Well, that's if you've forgotten that:

Pope 'obstructed' sex abuse inquiry: Confidential letter reveals Ratzinger ordered bishops to keep allegations secret.

Does the Pope think we forgot about that letter he sent to all bishops when he was still a Cardinal in May 2001? In the letter he referred to a 1962 Church law which describes a mandatory condition of secrecy for both the perpetrators and victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The Pope had reminded bishops that, according to that law, clergymen who speak out will be excommunicated, and victims who make a complaint to Church officials must take an oath of secrecy.

Pope Benedict's letter clearly shows the 46-year-old instruction was in force in 2001. It might still be in full force today while the Pope is busy apologizing to victims of sexual abuse by clergymen in the US.

UPDATE: those infamous Maltese nuns seem to be following the 1962 instructions alla lettera.

AIDS amongst irregular immigrants

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:40:00 +0000

AIDS fost prostituti suwed
minn Victor Vella u Kurt Farrugia

...Ghal zewg mistoqsijiet diretti lill-Ministeru tas-Sahha dwar jekk hemmx persuni fost l-immigranti irregolari f’Hal Far li ghandhom l-AIDS jew l-HIV, il-Ministeru naqas milli jkun specifiku u qal li “l-informazzjoni mitluba fil-mistoqsija t’hawn fuq tista’ twassal biex jigu identifikati persuni individwali.”

Din ir-risposta prattikament tikkonferma li hemm persuni li qed isofru l-marda trasmessa sesswalment ta’ l-AIDS jew l-HIV.

...Fatt interessanti li hareg mir-risposti tal-Ministeru tas-Sahha ghall-mistoqsijiet li ghamlet it-TORCA kien li id-Divizjoni tas-Sahha ma taghmel ebda screening ghal mard infettiv, hlief ghat-Tubercolosis, fuq bazi regolari lil ebda persuna li tidhol kemm legalment kif ukoll illegalment.

Intant, it-TORCA ghamlet mistoqsijiet diretti lill-Ministeru tal-Familja u Solidarjetà Socjali dwar il-prostituzzjoni f’Hal Far u dwar rapporti li hemm uhud minnhom igorru l-marda ta’ l-AIDS/HIV. Ir-risposti tal-Ministeru kienu evasivi ferm minghajr risposti konkreti.
___________________________________________________

Why were the irregular immigrants screened for Tubercolosis but not HIV/AIDS?

Has the screening process changed since 2005?

This is what has certainly changed... "in 2007 Sub-Saharan Africa contained an estimated 68% of all people living with AIDS and 76% of all AIDS deaths, with 1.7 million new infections bringing the number of people living with HIV to 22.5 million, and with 11.4 million AIDS orphans living in the region. Unlike other regions, most people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa in 2007 (61%) were women. AIDS continued to be the single largest cause of mortality in this region. Life expectancy has fallen dramatically; for example, in 2006 it was estimated that it had dropped from 65 to 35 years in Botswana", from wikipedia.

Today, the folks at the Health Department were kind enough to tell us HIV home test kits should not be used. Now how about they tell us how many of the thousands of irregular immigrants in Malta do have AIDS or HIV, and how this problem is being dealt with?

Don't we deserve to know?

Don't we deserve to know if the Health Department is incompetent?

UPDATE 1

My last post was deemed by some to be controversial. In it I quoted a Torca article called "AIDS fost prostituti suwed" where it was made clear that irregular immigrants are not screened for HIV and AIDS. The result? Some insinuated that I am a racist, others insinuated that I go whoring. Seems those are the only two kinds of people who could be concerned about infectious diseases in Malta.

All irregular African immigrants are already being tested for tubercolosis. Since 68% of people with HIV/AIDS in the world live in Sub-Saharan Africa alone, why shouldn’t they be tested for HIV/AIDS as well while they're at it? I can conclude that if Birdflu were to explode in Russia, the Malta Health Department wouldn’t be testing/treating inbound Russians.

Not only is the Health Department's way of dealing with this problem incompetent for the well-being of the country, but it is also inhuman towards the irregular immigrants. I’d hazard a guess that they aren’t tested for HIV/AIDS because CZT pills are very expensive and the government doesn’t want to spend money on treating them. So they let them go sick and untreated: to die quicker, I guess. In between, the disease spreads of course.

Am I the only who thinks they should be screened for HIV/AIDS? No, a huge humanitarian aid organisation called Medecins du Monde agrees:

"French medical organisation “Medecins du Monde” (MdM) has slammed the living conditions in Malta’s closed detention centres as “detrimental” and “incompatible with a minimum of respect of human rights”, while at the same time expressing concern regarding the lack of any screening policy for infectious diseases such as HIV and AIDS", from MaltaToday.

UPDATE 2

Like Michael Corleone, just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in.

I was going to post about another topic but this article appeared on the Times today:

World TB Day today

Today Malta will join countries around the globe to mark World TB Day through a forum that will discuss the way forward for further improvement of tuberculosis control in Malta.

The main aim of the day - under the slogan I Am Stopping TB - is to increase awareness of the disease, by informing the public on how it is transmitted and how it can be controlled.

Last year 38 cases of tuberculosis were notified in Malta, 24 of which were among foreigners. Nineteen of these cases were among irregular immigrants.

Charmaine Gauci, the head of the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Department, said that since irregular immigrants come from countries where TB is highly endemic, they are screened for the infectious type of the bacteria when they arrive in Malta.

"Any active cases are admitted to a special ward in hospital for treatment until they are no longer infectious."

Moreover, she continued, those working with irregular immigrants are regularly screened, adding that no active cases of TB have been found among staff working with irregular immigrants.
___________________________________________________

So the Health Department screens immigrants for TB, because TB is highly endemic in Africa. But not for AIDS, no. After all, Africa is only the AIDS capital of the world.

Spiridione Sant, Tal-Farfett, Abacus Operandi

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:30:00 +0000

Some blasts from the past...

ABACUS OPERANDI

Electoral proposal: To see if the parliament is working correctly

Memorable quotes:
It-tieni darba [li hrigt ghall-elezjoni tal-kunsill] kienet daqxejn ahjar. Hadt il-vantagg mill-Abacus Operandi li issuggerejtu minn-dizzjunarju, sibt id-dizzjunarju, sibt il-kelma ta fuq, u sibt li hemm xihaga teknika li fil-vot li meta tohrog bhala individwu, taht l-isem bhala partit ikollok it-top place fil-vot u hadt il-vantagg totali minnu. U sibt li kelli hafna repercussions biha din, ghax sibt li kelli tfixkil hafna iktar minn ghajnuna mill-kontestanti l-ohra. M'ghogbithomx l-idea. Ovvjament tiehu vantagg bhal-dak kienet kwazi daqqa ta' harta ghall-kontestanti l-ohra...

...Dan jirraprezenta il-karta principali li huwa il-joker. Jekk jigilek dan waqt rummy ifisser li inti ghandek karta hafna iktar qawwija minn haddiehor u ghalhekk huwa il-favorit tieghi...

TAL-FARFETT

Electoral proposals: Read below.

Memorable quotes:
Ser nitkellem fuq ir-racecourse tal-Marsa. Jien inweghedkom, in-nies tal-Marsa, li jiena naghmililkom dritta u filfatt jekk nitla fil-Gvern jiena naghmililkom dritta u nghollilkom ir-railing. U anke it-tinda jekk tixxarbu nirrangahilkom ukoll. Infaqtu Lm150,000. Taqtghux qalbkom nies tal-Marsa! Hawn Richard Sultana jaqbez ghalikom! Naghmel tinda ghall-monti gol-Belt biex ma jixxarbux ukoll...

...Naghmel tinda kollha Ta' Qali u naghmillhom ic-central heating kollha biex meta jkun il-ksieh ma jhossux ksieh...

...L-amerikani jidhlu u johorgu. Bazi ma hadd u rbit ma hadd. Jekk tivvutaw, tivvutaw hekk: Richard Sultana Partit Demokratiku Indipendenti tal-Farfett. Ghamlu in-number 1 fin-nofs tal-kaxxa, tmissux mal-line ta' fuq u lanqas ma ta' taht. Wara il-vot ikun ittimbrat. Jekk ma jkunx ittimbrat dak ma jiswa xejn. U ghidlu, jekk tiehdu zball, ghidlu hadt zball u jtik iehor. Naghtu ic-children's allowance lit-tfal kollha...

Saved the very best for last. The man who said in 1987 that the Maltese people were as united as they were under La Vallette...

SPIRU SANT

Electoral proposals:

improve the rights for gamblers ("laghbha li jilghabu")

increase the size of the army/airforce to 36,000 people

introduce the death penalty to avoid receiving letters of complaint regarding criminality

Memorable quote:
L-edukazzjoni hemm bzonn hafna x'isir fiha. L-edukazzjoni hija haga infinita. U jiena ser insemmi wiehed mis-surmastijiet li kien jghallimni u meta dan kien jghid, kien jghidli, jghallimni l-iskola, "Yonni, jew Spiridione, il-ktieb titilqux minn idek ghaliex ghada tinsa dak li ahna ghallimnik." Servizzi civili. L-isports in generali. U li permezz tal-isports ghandna IL-FOOTBALL! U HADNA PJACIR ILLUM LI IT-TIM TAL-HAMRUN BIL-KOOPERAZJONI MAT-TIMIJIET L-OHRAJN TA EZEMPJU GHALL-INKORAGGIMENT BHAL MA KIENU JAGHTU IL-FLORIANA FIL-PASSAT TA' ZMIEN BOND U VICKERS, HARRY EDWARDS TAS-SLIEMA U IL-??? KOLLU. U GHALDAQSTANT JIENA PERMEZZ TAL-FOOTBALL, IT-TLIELAQ, U IS-SWIMMING POOL ET CETERA DAWN LI AHNA NIZVILUPPAW GHALL-EKONOMIJA BIEX AHNA INHADDMU LIL KULHADD GHALL-GID NAZZJONALI BIEX MAGHNA JAQSAM IL-POPLU U KULHADD!

Standard of Living in Malta

noreply@blogger.com (KEITH CHIRCOP) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:17:00 +0000

Couple low wages with a high cost of living, add the Mediterranean sea and you get sunny Malta.

A three bedroom flat costs more than the average Joe earns in twelve years. How much does a small vehicle like the Mini One cost? About 10,000 euros more than it does in the UK. The average Joe does not afford these necessities, but he buys them nevertheless. "I can always take out a loan", he says. Finished paying your house loan and car loan, why not take out a loan for a boat or that holiday you have been promising yourself? The banks have a field day every day in this country. The queue to a loan processor must be longer than the queue to a cashier.

Is the average Joe complaining? Nowhere as much as he should be. Blame it on the relaxed Mediterranean lifestyle, I say. Hold on a minute, how can the average Joe relax if he is barely earning his keep by the sweat of his brow? There is more to life than sun and sea, you know. If the average Joe is not that bothered, wealthy politicians will be even less bothered. They win elections over ways to make us save 10 euros a week, like that is going to make a difference. Wages are still fundamentally the same as they were five years ago. The same cannot be said about the cost of housing. How do people on minimum wage survive? Do they eat? Seriously.

Regardless of how much revenue a local company makes, the wages are still more or less the same. Is this ethical? This brings me to the conclusion that Maltese employers think that if they pay their employees well, they will never afford a huge yacht complete with crane to gently lower a 15 foot speedboat into the sea. I am grossly generalizing but, last I heard, Malta was still the country with the biggest number of Ferraris per capita. That is food for thought. Scratch that, make it a five-course meal for thought.

Make no mistake, the problem is not the employers. No, Siree, it is the employees. If qualified people cease to accept low wages, employers will have to increase them. Similarly, if nobody buys houses and cars, the prices will have to go down. But we keep taking low-paying jobs, and we keep buying ridiculously overpriced housing and vehicles. I know we have kids to feed and shelter, but you cannot expect prices to drop if you keep buying, can you? Dear economics students, throw your textbooks out the window because theories of supply and demand, prices and quantities do not apply to Malta.

It is not so simple though. Why are qualified people willing to work for so little? Here is my take on the subject. University is free in Malta. This results in hundreds graduating every year, more than required locally. This, in turn, results in recent graduates accepting local jobs for wages so hilariously low they almost equal those of inexperienced non-graduates. Which, in turn, results in graduates with years of experience not being offered the wages they deserve. Would you hire one experienced, expensive graduate for the price of two or three young, inexperienced non-graduates? The answer has to be yes. Otherwise it will lead to a scenario where, pay-wise, degrees will be as close as makes no difference to worthless. In that statement, I am excluding jobs which actually require a degree like architecture, medical, and what not. This fact remains: the smarter we get as a whole, the less we are being paid individually.

I am sounding bleak I know, but making employees financially happy does not seem to be on the priority list of Maltese employers. Happy? Employees should be thankful they even have a job, right? Not so much. Hiring someone does not a benefactor make. Employees were not out in the street begging for food and clothing before they got hired. A job offer is not a gift. An employment contract is an agreement between employer and employee to help each other out. The sooner we realize this, the better for everyone. You see, hiring a person is easy, retaining that person is another story. Which is why Maltese employers are now complaining about foreign firms opening in Malta and poaching their employees. What nerve! How dare these foreigners offer good wages? The answer is simple: the feudal system has long been gone.

Local employers should take this as a wake up call, instead of laughing at how much these companies are willing to spend to keep employees happy. Some will point out that these foreign firms make more revenue than local ones, but I have already mentioned that wages given by Maltese companies do not vary according to revenue. More foreign companies are opening in Malta and even more will open with SmartCity. Guess where they will get their employees from. Eventually Maltese employers will be forced to face the music and realize what must be done to retain good employees. Eventually the average Joe will be able to afford necessities. Eventually.

Read also Relative Cost of Living and Chaaarge!