Mark Anthony Sammut

So we had to have it from the CIA itself, since Kurt, Joseph and the present administration didn't bother to ask Sciberras Trigona, Anglu Farrugia and Karmenu Vella about it before issuing a statement that the 'present administration is not informed of any donations by the Gaddafi regime'. Gaddafi's regime, apart from financing Labour's pride: the children's allowance and social services in the so called "Golden Years", financed the Labour Party's activities and election campaigns at least up to 1987. And Muscat's visit last year, while still Leader of the Opposition, on Gaddafi's private jet (something which in any other country would have led to his resignation, as with the case of the French Finance Minister travelling on Ben Ali's private jet), leads me to think that this funding probably didn't stop there. So it wasn't really a bilateral country-to-country relationship as they would like us to think when comparing it with

I can't remember when I decided to attend for my first World Youth Day this year in Madrid. Part of it was due to the adventure thrill of the pilgrimage aspect and the night beneath the stars with more than a million youngsters, part were the promotional videos on the internet. But I guess it was primarily due to the enthusiasm shown by my friend, Elaine, in recounting how much they had enjoyed the experience in Cologne six years before. As for similar trips, I went without any expectations, ready to accept whatever would be provided and to do whatever was necessary. No complaints for eating the same 'bezzun bis-salami', salad and gazpacho for five consecutive days. Or for the long queues in the crowds. Or for having people trample on my sleeping-mat and belongings. Actually I think that these minor discomforts spice up the experience and in the end won't kill anyone. The first five days in Barcelona were quite relaxing. Time to get to know better the other membe

This is my article published in the Times of Malta on Wednesday 10th August 2011: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110810/opinion/The-true-caring-spirit-of-the-MSSP.379593 Much has been said and written in these past weeks about the recent clerical child-abuse cases. While fully empathizing with the life-altering trauma the victims were subjected to and condemning the disgusting acts committed by these individuals, I feel aggrieved at the way the Society of which they were part of and the Home in which they worked have been constantly highlighted in the media reports. St. Joseph Home suffered a lot of bad publicity while journalists were busy spicing up their articles with front-page photos of the Home and its sleeping quarters, conveniently forgetting that a number of uncared-for and abandoned boys still live there, boys who consider it as their only Home, and who in that Home never experienced anything except love, support and affection. Boys who are now the stigmatiz