Mark Anthony Sammut

Minister Helena Dalli has repeatedly assured the Maltese public that in processing adoption applications, it will be experts who'll decide whether the prospective parents are fit for adoption and whether the adoption will be in the best interests of the child. One would have assumed this board of experts to be made up of social workers, family and social researchers, psychologists...people qualified to assess children and prospective parents. But if we have a look at the Taghna Lkoll photo album , look who we've got deciding whether a person is fit to adopt or no: A 22-year old law students who's only qualification is being the daughter of Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera and the niece of Parliamentary Secretary Jose Herrera. Guess that is enough to merit you the title of adoption expert in the new meritocratic, taghna-lkoll Malta. Now Hon Helena Dalli, say it again with a straight face: "It ... will ... be ... experts ... who ... will ... decide ...

I have to share this post from Daphne Caruana Galizia's blog as I am tired as well of listening to people claim that what Labour is doing in terms of appointments and meritocracy is just as bad as what the previous PN administration did. It is not. And here's an explanation why. "I really have to comment here because I am so tired of hearing the inevitable rejoinder that ‘the other lot were just as bad’. When it comes to engagement in private secretariats, a process I was closely involved in from the start in 1998, there was a centrally monitored system for ensuring that these engagements were appropriate. 1. In 1998 the Cabinet approved a STANDARD organisation structure for each and every secretariat with fixed positions. Posts could not be created on a whim. These positions were pegged to the appropriate Public Service salary scales and the total package for each one, including any allowances, were also standard. 2. This organisation structure was geared to ensure

"Labour deputy leader Anglu Farrugia stepped down as deputy leader for party affairs, following his comments that Magistrate Audrey Demicoli acted with political bias." ( The Malta Independent - 20 December 2012 ) That was the headline all over the country when Joseph Muscat forced Anglu Farrugia to resign just before the last general election. Here's a video clip of that press conference: "Fid-dawl ta' dikjarazzjonijiet li għamel Dr Farrugia rigward membru tal-ġudikatura...hija l-fehma tiegħi li dikjarazzjonijiet simili mhumiex flokhom għax jimminaw kolonna importanti tad-demokrazija ta' pajjiżna. Fit-tmiem tad-diskussjoni tlabt lil Dr Farrugia jerfa' r-responsabbilita' ta' dik id-dikjarazzjoni u jissottometti r-riżenja tiegħu minn Deputat Mexxej għall-Affarijiet tal-Parlament." ("In the light of declarations made by Dr Farrugia with regards to a member of the Judiciary...it is my opinion that such declarations are not in place

According to the Deputy Prime Minister's Deputy Chief of Staff, who is also the former Labour Deputy Chief of Communications, the Judiciary who passed sentence, the Attorney General who filed the appeal, and the Police officers who pressed charges, are the government's political rivals. It keeps getting worse and worse.

Just when you think our country cannot go any lower, up comes another story that makes you believe there is another kind of lower which you hadn't yet conceived. This evening, Cyrus Engerer, a criminal found guilty by the Court of Appeal of having stolen his former boyfriend's photos from his personal computer after stealing his way into his residence, of sending them to his employer and colleagues to try to tarnish his reputation because of his sexuality, of conceiving a "deceitful plan" of vindictiveness, of blackmailing and threatining the victim to withdraw proceedings under threat of revealing more stolen material, addressed a Labour Party activity. In case you haven't understood it well, Cyrus Engerer has been found guilty of performing one of the worst homophobic acts we have ever witnessed on our island in recent years. (Yes, a homophobic act can be performed by a gay person. Especially a gay person for whom his sexual orientation is only a trait he exploi

I managed to see some clips from Muscat's speech at Bormla yesterday. Far from the "united Malta" and "let's forget the past" of his pre-election speeches, he's now back to calling the "suldati tal-azzar" (soldiers of steel) to prove their mettle. Emotions are the only thing he can bank on as a year of gaffes and rising unemployment has done little to show where his supposed "positive energy" is being used, except in finding ways to fill-up the inner circle's and the Labour Party's pockets. I amaze myself at how Muscat has the gall to accuse others of being "stuck in the past" when he has been doing all his best to take us back to it. Thank God that membership of the European Union holds him back from further excesses. The European Union membership. Yesterday, the same Muscat who 10 years ago was urging us to vote against it, who warned us it would doom our country, ruin our economy and lead to - horro