malta-exposed

Gay 'conversions' a la Manche.

2011-06-05T20:23:00.005+02:00

Evangelical Pastor and Psychologist Mariella Manche nee Blackman

We once wrote about Gordon Manche. Because we wrote about him asking what he did with the money that he collects from his TV shows he sent us several weird emails and then set a lawyer on us. We removed the story about him because we do not have the time or money to fight a legal battle with this man. We however published two stories that were meant to be understood by him. They are about lying to your lawyer and bad psychologists

Today we will say what we know about Manche and his wife the peroxide blonde psychologist Mariella nee Blackman.

1.The psychologist Mariella Blackman sells her husband's religious books to her clients as part of their 'therapy'.

2. She was ordained a pastor by her husband and officiates with him during their evangelical religious meetings.

3. Gordon Manche is sometimes present at Mariella Blackman's clinic and talks to her clients quoting scripture constantly.

4. The couple together have performed gay 'exorcisms' in her clinic.

5. She receives payment from clients seeking psychological help. The payment is also received for the things she does to her clients when her husband is present.

6. No receipts are issued.

We are purposefully not commenting on any of the points above. Just stating things as they are. However because Gordon Manche loves to quote scripture we will quote one line from Timothy. We are quoting it in the original Latin so that no mistakes in translation can be claimed: 'Radix malorum est cupiditas'. Notice that unlike Manche, the Bible does not speak of sex or even child sexual abuse by Catholic priests (a favourite topic) but the love of money! Catholic clergy may be guilty of many things but at least the line from the gospel cannot be used to describe them.

Readers may also want to look at this: http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/pastor-s-gay-conversions-throw-spotlight-on-psychologist-wife

Children are innocent (sic)

2011-05-13T20:41:00.000+02:00

Story 1

Friday, May 13, Times of Malta

Boy, 14, pleads guilty to raping 11-year-old girl

A14-year-old Ecuadorian who lives in Spain was this afternoon jailed for two years, suspended for four, after he pleaded guilty to raping an 11-year-old Swede at a hotel in St Paul's Bay.
The boy, who leaves Malta tomorrow, was here on a school trip while the girl was on holiday with her family.
Both were staying at the same hotel.
Defence lawyer Stefano Filletti told the court that the two got to know each other and had consensual sex.
However, the girl told her father who reported the incident to the police.
Dr Filletti explained that according to law, a person under 12 could not give consent so the police were forced to charge the boy with rape.

Story 2

Friday, May 13, Times of Malta

Girl, 15, pleads not guilty to attempted murder of 14-year-old

A 15-year-old girl from Valletta this afternoon pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of a 14-year-old girl from Zebbug on Wednesday evening.
She was also charged with seriously injuring the girl and carrying a knife illegally.
The girl's 16-year-old sister and a 14-year-old cousin, both of Valletta pleaded not guilty to seriously injuring the victim. The 16-year-old is also charged with tampering of evidence and all three are charged with breaching public peace.
The victim was stabbed three times in the back in St Nicholas Street, Valletta following a fight over a boy.
The girl charged with the attempted murder, who is now pregnant with someone else's child, used to go out with the victim's boyfriend.

And yet, Prime minister Gonzi and Justice minister Carm mIfsud Bonnici refuse to lower age of consent so that if one even shares a kiss with one of the accused one is 'abusing and defiling' am innocent minor. Protect real children by lowering the age of consent from the abnormally high 18 to at least 16. Now!

Shameful priest.

2011-03-11T21:56:00.002+01:00

One usually learns useful things in school. Some more useful than others. Artist Marc Almond in his autobiography 'Tainted Life' says that the only useful thing that he learned at school was how to masturbate.

Fr. Jack. One of the Irish Catholic priests in the 1990s comedy 'Fr. Ted'

He was a misogynist, a drunkard and a homophobe.

Usually teachers do a good job but all of us remember episodes where teachers did or said wicked things. Some of the things said or done were due to prejudices or at best honest ignorance. However we were shocked to receive reports about what happened during an in-service course for Religion teachers a few days ago. The attendance for this course was compulsory for all public school teachers.

A particular youngish priest (we are omitting the name at this point) was the main speaker during an ongoing course for religious education teachers in the Department of Education. He spoke in Dar Samaritan it-Tajjeb a home for elderly members of the society of Christian doctrine. (tal-Muzew). He answered several question poised by teachers who face difficulties in teaching religious education.

He shocked the majority of teachers when he declared that mosques are definitely not sacred and not temples of God. "They are more a political club where terrorism and fanaticism is perpetrated and planned." he said. When confronted with questions about homosexuality he declared that homosexuality is a choice. (An evil one of course). A large number of teachers present were dismayed at his speech and countered his comments by mentioning various studies.

If priests are teaching this type of intolerance to educators what hope is there for our children?

Shame on you!

Count me out.

2011-03-06T12:44:00.001+01:00

If you've ever been baptized as a Catholic, the Catholic Church still considers you a member, even if you've stopped attending or switched to another religion (or no religion at all). The church claims to have over a billion followers worldwide, and they could be counting you as one of them, regardless of whether you're actually a practicing Catholic.

For many of us, this is unacceptable, and we most definitely do not want to be counted as part of the church. If you, too, would like the church to stop counting you as a Catholic, there is a way to officially renounce your membership: the formal act of defection.

All you have to do is send a letter to the bishop of the diocese in which you currently reside. The letter should include a declaration of your defection, a statement that you've stopped attending church and no longer consider yourself a Catholic, and a brief explanation of why you've chosen to defect. Perhaps you disagree with the church's doctrines, or disapprove of its political activities, or you're just outraged by the church's ongoing child abuse scandals.

After you've given your reasons for leaving, ask them to amend their records to indicate that you're no longer a member of the church, and request a written confirmation of this. Make sure to include your name, the date you were baptized, the parish where you were baptized, your signature and the signature of a witness.

Once everything is in order, mail it to your local bishop, and in a few weeks, you should receive a response. Now, they may offer to have a priest meet with you to talk about it, but this isn't necessary, and you can just tell them your decision is final.

And that's all there is to it! Once they acknowledge your defection, you will officially be one fewer member of the Catholic Church. It is just that easy. However keep in mind that defection is not the same as ex-communicating oneself.

For more information about this topic you may want to visit: http://www.countmeout.ie/international/

Naked in your kitchen is illegal.

2011-03-03T19:02:00.004+01:00

A Virginia man was arrested Monday for drinking a cup of coffee in his kitchen naked.

Fairfax county police claim that Eric Williamson, a 29 year old commercial truck driver, was standing in his kitchen at 8:30 am Monday morning drinking a cup of coffee in the nude when a female neighbor and her seven year old son were walking through his front yard and caught a peep. She then freaked out and called the cops and had the man, who again was inside of his home, arrested and charged with indecent exposure.

For drinking a cup of coffee naked in his kitchen...

Then on Wednesday, Fairfax police went back to Williamson's neighborhood and started handing out flyers and asking his neighbors if they may have ever seen Williamson naked (again, while inside of his own home), further sullying the man's name.

Police believe that Eric's little show during breakfast might have been done on purpose and ,considering that the man's house is a few yards away from(and in view of) a school bus stop, arrested the 29 year old and charged him with indecent exposure. Should any further complaints about the man come forward, then those charges may also be tacked on. As it is, Williamson faces about a year in jail, a lifetime of being called a "sex offender", and $2000 in fines.

All of this...

FOR DRINKING A FUCKING CUP OF COFFEE NAKED IN HIS FUCKING KITCHEN.

HIS KITCHEN!!!

A woman and her snot nosed son goes cutting through his yard, looks through his window and sees the man relaxing in his own home and he is to blame??? Not the bitch trespassing and peeping through his window not minding her own fucking business, but the fucking guy drinking coffee in his kitchen naked!!!

Oh, and how is this for the thickening plot... While the police have not released the name of the woman who reported Williamson's breakfast ritual, the local Fox affiliate did learn that the woman conveniently happens to be the wife of a Fairfax county police man (which I am sure made the wheels of justice turn ever so much faster...). Think this lady called the cops to complain or do you think she called her husband and bitched at him until Williamson was fitted for State jewelry.

Between you and I, this sounds like chicken shit fucking police work. Some overly protected DC yenta got a look at something that she didn't like (and for some reason I am thinking she might have also had to do some looking) and just had to make the bad man go away. Score one for the Nanny state!!!

A Virginia man was arrested Monday for drinking a cup of coffee in his kitchen naked.

For drinking a cup of coffee naked in his kitchen...

All of this...

FOR DRINKING A FUCKING CUP OF COFFEE NAKED IN HIS FUCKING KITCHEN.

HIS KITCHEN!!!

A Virginia man was arrested Monday for drinking a cup of coffee in his kitchen naked.

For drinking a cup of coffee naked in his kitchen...

All of this...

FOR DRINKING A FUCKING CUP OF COFFEE NAKED IN HIS FUCKING KITCHEN.

HIS KITCHEN!!!

A Virginia man was arrested Monday for drinking a cup of coffee in his kitchen naked.

Note to Maltese readers: When Maltese people write to the comments section of the Times on line baying for blood of ‘perverts’ they should think twice. This man could have been one them.

A Virginia man was arrested Monday for drinking a cup of coffee in his kitchen naked.

County police claim that Eric Williamson, a 29 year old commercial truck driver, was standing in his kitchen at 8:30 am Monday morning drinking a cup of coffee in the nude when a female neighbor and her seven year old son were walking through his front yard and caught a peep. She then freaked out and called the cops and had the man, who again was inside of his home, arrested and charged with indecent exposure.

For drinking a cup of coffee naked in his kitchen...

Then on Wednesday, Fairfax police went back to Williamson’s neighborhood and started handing out flyers and asking his neighbors if they may have ever seen Williamson naked (again, while inside of his own home), further sullying the man’s name.

Police believe that Eric’s little show during breakfast might have been done on purpose and ,considering that the man’s house is a few yards away from(and in view of) a school bus stop, arrested the 29 year old and charged him with indecent exposure. Should any further complaints about the man come forward, then those charges may also be tacked on. As it is, Williamson faces about a year in jail, a lifetime of being called a “sex offender”, and $2000 in fines.

All of this...

FOR DRINKING AN EFFING CUP OF COFFEE NAKED IN HIS EFFING KITCHEN.

HIS KITCHEN!

A woman and her snot nosed son goes cutting through his yard, looks through his window and sees the man relaxing in his own home and he is to blame? Not the bitch trespassing and peeping through his window not minding her own effing business, but the guy drinking coffee in his kitchen naked!

Oh, and how is this for the thickening plot... While the police have not released the name of the woman who reported Williamson’s breakfast ritual, the local Fox affiliate did learn that the woman conveniently happens to be the wife of a Fairfax county police man (which I am sure made the wheels of justice turn ever so much faster...). Think this lady called the cops to complain or do you think she called her husband and bitched at him until Williamson was fitted for State jewelry.

Between you and I, this sounds like chicken shit fucking police work. Some overly protected DC yenta got a look at something that she didn’t like (and for some reason I am thinking she might have also had to do some looking) and just had to make the bad man go away. Score one for the Nanny state!

From: http://www.theweeklyconstitutional.com/news/our-world/301

They want to shut us up, oh, and Gaddafi.

2011-02-26T22:59:00.001+01:00

Berlusconi on the left can be replaced by several European leaderes like Sarkozy. Malta's own Lawrence Gonzi was the last European head of state to be photographed with Gaddafi, 19 days ago.

This blog has had some problems because someone tried to hack it and close it down. In fact this is the second time that it was taken off line because of cyber attacks by persons unknown. The problems started even before the hacking attacks when we were reported to Google for objectionable content. We stick to the terms of service as specified by Google but we (and you, dear readers) have to put up with the little hassle of 'accepting to view content that may be objectionable' before you actually can view this blog. There is no pornography, no racism, no sexism, no swear words and definitely no hate speech on this blog... yet some people want it shut down.

We were surprised to find out that someone had gone to all this trouble for a little blog like ours.

We were also amused to see that a well known columnist plagiarised parts of this blog without referring to us. Perhaps it was done unconsciously on their part as we were (as far as we know) the first Malta based blog / column / newspaper that criticised the Maltese government for colluding with the monster Gaddafi is. Here is our original post from October 2010 - http://malta-exposed.blogspot.com/2010/10/gaddafi-is-monster-as-is-any-one-who.html

Now, everyone seems to be against Gaddafi because he is down but we were voiciferous MONTHS before the trouble started.

Is this child pornography?

2011-02-16T12:02:00.001+01:00

Is this image disturbing?

Of all the kinds of material that inspire censorship, child pornography is the one that arouses the strongest emotions. The term has unfortunately been stretched rather widely by those looking for justification for censorship - in Australia, for example, the borders have moved from "under 16" to "appears to be under 18".

Personally I find the following image somewhat disturbing: it reminds me of the vulnerability of human life and my own mortality.

So what do you think? Is this child pornography? No sexual activity is depicted, but it is a photo of a naked child, with genitalia clearly visible... I would be surprised if there wasn't someone, somewhere on the Net, who found it sexually arousing.

Does it change your opinion if I tell you that this is a picture of myself, taken from the family album? (This is one reason I find it a bit disturbing.)

original article from: http://danny.oz.au/freedom/cases/Child.html

Child porn ban?

2011-02-16T11:44:00.000+01:00

This image may be perceived as child porn by some jurisdictions. Is it?

The EU is trying to enforce an EU wide ban on child porn on the internet. They will force any sites hosting this type of porn to shut down. They can only do that if the sites are hosted within the EUs jurisdiction. They will also try and filter out any such content hosted in other countries so that it is not available to anyone in the EU.

The internet is probably the best thing to have happened for mankind in the past 50 years. It was first conceived as a way to share information in a way that would withstand even a nuclear war. Because of the way the internet functions it 'perceives' any attempt to restrict the flow of information as an attack and it finds ways to reroute the flow and mend any damage.

I ask our many readers: How many times have you accidentally stumbled upon child porn? The answer will be a resounding 'Never'. Even if you actively look for such material it is highly unlikely that you will find anything. (We happen to know because the nice people at Google who provide us with the space to host this blog provide us with information about what people are looking for when they come across malta-exposed. We are amused to find the occasional case of someone looking for child-porn and in the process coming across this blog because of some of the key words that are used). If child porn on the internet is something so unavailable and impossible to accidentally stumble across why do the authorities want to block it?

We are afraid that if this is done it will create an ugly precedent - once something is blocked then it becomes possible or even acceptable to block something else. None of us wants child porn to be there because if young children are used to produce it that is very wrong. However we do not agree that anything should be blocked on the internet because what may conisedered wrong by the 'censor' might not be considered wrong by a million other people. Look at the situation in countries where there are dictatorial regimes. Look at what happened to the internet service there. Look at the way the internet 'perceived' these attacks and teh ways it found to re route around the obstacles.

The solution for us is not to filter out anything on the internet but to stop child porn (we mean photos and videos of young children coerced into performing sexual acts) from being produced in the first place.

Unjust or just plain stupid laws

2011-02-04T22:41:00.000+01:00

In Maltese law, in particular Chapter 9, which is the criminal code there are hundreds upon hundreds of ways in which one can commit a criminal act or multiple criminal acts. There are too many laws and some of them make no sense. Luckily most of the stupid ones are never used against anyone but sometimes the country passes trough some phase or other and what had seemed perfectly hunky-dory a few years ago may suddenly become frowned upon. No, what I am saying, it becomes the epitome of depravity and criminality and then some person will use the laws to totally destroy the lives of perfectly decent people. We have been campaigning for some changes in certain laws which are just plain stupid and are not benefiting society as a whole. We will not repeat ourselves here. But our laws need streamlining. When is it going to be done?

Muslim woman being prepared to be stoned to death. Muslims assure us that this is a rare occurrence so that makes it OK, right?

As an example of the law being an ass we found these USA laws:

I’m Under Arrest for What? Fifty Bizarre U.S. Laws

By: Annie Tucker Morgan (View Profile)

I’ve never claimed to have extensive knowledge of U.S. legislation throughout history, but it’s safe to say that I and most people I associate with are law-abiding citizens … or not. As it turns out, every state in this country has at least one wacky legal stipulation that could land residents in hot water if they don’t comply. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Alabama
It’s illegal to wear a fake mustache that causes laughter in church.
Alaska
Whispering in someone’s ear while he’s moose hunting is prohibited.
Arizona
Cutting down a cactus may earn you a twenty-five-year prison term.
Arkansas
It’s illegal to mispronounce the name of the state of Arkansas.
California
You may not eat an orange in your bathtub.
Colorado
It’s unlawful to lend your vacuum cleaner to your next-door neighbor (Denver).
Connecticut
A pickle cannot actually be a pickle unless it bounces.
Delaware
It’s illegal to get married on a dare.
Washington, D.C.
It’s against the law to post a public notice calling someone a coward for refusing to accept a challenge to duel.
Florida
If you tie an elephant to a parking meter, you must pay the same parking fee as you would for a vehicle.
Georgia
It’s illegal to change the clothes on a storefront mannequin unless you draw the shades first.
Hawaii
All residents may be fined for not owning a boat.
Idaho
A man must not give his sweetheart a box of candy weighing fewer than fifty pounds.
Illinois
It’s illegal to take a French poodle to the opera (Chicago).
Indiana
The value of pi is 4, and not 3.1415.
Iowa
One-armed piano players must perform for free.

Kansas
It’s illegal to throw knives at men wearing striped suits (Natoma).
Kentucky
Every citizen is required to take a shower once a year.
Louisiana
Biting someone with your natural teeth constitutes simple assault, but biting someone with your false teeth classifies as aggravated assault.
Maine
If you keep your Christmas decorations on display after January 14, you’ll be fined.
Maryland
It’s against the law to wash or scrub a sink, no matter how dirty it is (Baltimore).
Massachusetts
No gorilla is allowed in the backseat of any car.
Michigan
A woman may not cut her own hair without her husband’s permission.
Minnesota
It’s illegal to paint a sparrow with the intent of selling it as a parakeet (Harper Woods).
Mississippi
Walking a dog without dressing it in diapers is forbidden (Temperance).
Missouri
Children may buy shotguns in Kansas City, but not toy cap guns.
Montana
It’s a felony for a wife to open her husband’s mail.
Nebraska
Bar owners may not sell beer unless they brew a kettle of soup simultaneously.
Nevada
It’s illegal for men with mustaches to kiss women.
New Hampshire
It’s forbidden to sell the clothes you’re wearing to pay off a gambling debt.
New Jersey
It’s against the law for a man to knit during the fishing season.
New Mexico
Females may not appear unshaven in public.
New York
While riding in an elevator, you must talk to no one, fold your hands, and look toward the door.
North Carolina
It’s against the law to sing off-key.
North Dakota
It’s illegal to lie down and fall asleep with your shoes on.
Ohio
You must honk the horn whenever you pass another car, according to the state’s driver’s education manual.
Oklahoma
It’s forbidden to take a bite out of another person’s hamburger.
Oregon
State law requires dishes to be drip-dried.
Pennsylvania
It’s illegal to sleep on top of a refrigerator outdoors.

Rhode Island
You may not bite off another person’s leg.
South Carolina
If a man promises to marry an unmarried woman, he is required by law to keep his promise.

South Dakota
It is illegal to lie down and fall asleep in a cheese factory.
Tennessee
Selling hollow logs is strictly forbidden.
Texas
You may not shoot a buffalo from the second story of a hotel.
Utah
It is illegal not to drink milk.
Vermont
Women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth.
Virginia
Tickling a woman is unlawful.
Washington
It’s illegal to pretend that one’s parents are wealthy.
West Virginia
If you make fun of someone who does not accept a challenge, you risk a six-month prison sentence.
Wisconsin
Unless a customer specifically requests it, margarine may not be substituted for butter in a restaurant.
Wyoming
Unless you have an official permit, you may not take a picture of a rabbit from January to April.
This Court Is Adjourned
Whew! With all this legislation, it’s a wonder we’re not all sharing a prison cell right now. Granted, something tells me the Los Angeles Police Department has bigger fish to fry than popping people who dare to eat oranges while bathing, and that most people who saw me catching some shut-eye on top of a fridge in Pennsylvania wouldn’t call the cops on me, but you never know when you might come across that rare whistle-blower who wants you persecuted to the fullest extent of the law, so it’s probably better to be safe than sorry. The next time I tie up my elephant at a parking meter in Florida, I’ll be sure to bring a pocket full of quarters.

First published June 2010

Find this article at:

http://www.divinecaroline.com/22323/99603-

Religion versus what is right

2011-02-04T03:36:00.004+01:00

Some years ago, I am told, an odd situation developed within the Biology Department of the Junior College of Msida. This is the place where 16 - 18 year old students learn the basis of all scientific knowledge before they embark on a full time and often very arduous life sciences university course for becoming a doctor a pharmacist or some other scientist whose primary job would then be to keep people healthy.Our information indicates that the head of that department was some kind of 'Cattolicisimo' and he made it a point to ONLY employ in his Biology department people who had strong Catholic credentials. So he employed a priest, several members 'tal-muzew,' others who were in the Charismatic movements etc. Luckily this person has retired now but who knows what damage his fundamental catholic teaching wreaked on the students? The Theory of Evolution is the cornerstone of all modern biology and all the benefits we have reaped in medicine and other branches of biology are a direct result of this theory. Many fundamentalists reject this.

But my point here has a wider scope. Malta has a prime minister ( who I am sure is a good man at heart) who was the head of Azzjoni Cattolica - one of the most conservative Catholic organisations that there are. He has surrounded himself by ministers who share his views and not necessarily the best persons for the job. The question is this: Is this good for you and me?

Gross evil in hospitals

2011-02-04T02:42:00.001+01:00

At times we write about some government department that because of red tape and sheer laziness makes innocent people suffer. However stories are beginning to surface that show that cost cutting measures are being used in a very wrong way. And we are putting it mildly.

Our first report was from one of the medical wards at Mater Dei - the supposedly state of the art care giver. But any hospital is only as good as its staff. Apparently the medical wards, unlike the surgical ones, have more serious cases. Serious as in 'we don't know if you'll make it through the night.' Our source tells us that caregivers (we are using a general term) do not see that it is worthwhile to waste resources on people who are going to die sooner rather than later. If a pill falls on the floor, why throw it away? It costs tax payers money. Wipe it off on your sleeve and pop it in the mouth of your patient. Here one might add that most serious and life threatening bacterial infections (MRSA for example) are only contracted within hospitals. But it seems that it doesn't matter when you know that a patient is, as we Maltese say, 'going downhill'.

Even more frightening are reports of amputations: We have talked to some people - some of then in their twenties who have had amputations in Maltese hospitals. One guy we talked to comes from a low social class and with little formal education. He is pre-programmed to accept 'fate' as handed out to him by 'experts'..He just knows that he entered the hospital unconscious and emerged missing two legs. He was a healthy young man in his 20s. We have no real data of any wrong doing in Malta in this respect but take a look at what is happening in a country similar to ours.

Let's move to another EU country: Greece

Even if you can't find Greece on a map and learned everything you know about it from 300, chances are you might have at least heard about the country's disastrous debt problems. So it's perfectly understandable that the Greek government would want to make a few necessary cuts here and there. Unfortunately, what it wants to cut off is your legs.

Greece, circa 2010.

In a letter issued to the Pan-Hellenic Federation of People with Diabetes, the benefits division of the Greek Social Security Institute, or IKA, informed the organization that it would no longer pay for special diabetic footwear because amputations are just cheaper. No word on what was its proposed alternative to erectile dysfunction meds.

"Saws! Saws for EVERYTHING!"

The argument goes that diabetics with foot complications don't always get to keep their legs forever, even when they get the shoes, so they may as well just skip the middleman. It seems that due to the budget crisis, the IKA also had to let go of its company shrink, because intuitively, it would be cheaper still just to push diabetics down the stairs, but that's hardly the point.
The federation, as you would imagine, disputed the logic behind this decision to replace a pair of frigging shoes with complex surgery. Then again, maybe the IKA simply failed to mention that the "amputations" would take place in the company parking lot with a bottle of ouzo, an ax and an ex-inmate named Stavros.

Labour Party Theatrics

2011-01-03T19:39:00.002+01:00

We have published stories which were never picked up by other Maltese media. One of them was our story, which we published several months ago, about the raise in MPs' salaries. We wrote about this well before anyone else did. ( http://malta-exposed.blogspot.com/2010/11/pay-rise-for-69.html ) We only got the amount wrong as when our source gave us the figure we naively assumed it would be per annum or at least per month and not per week!

We knew about this a long time ago as did the Labour Party. People like Lawrence Gonzi, Tonio Borg, Carm Mifsud Bonnici and David Agius are way beyond disgusting for secretly pushing forward or at best remaining silent on this huge salary increase. However we were never fooled by the Labour Party. They knew about this many but many months ago and were keeping it quiet hoping that nobody would notice. So please, Joseph Muscat and chums, spare us the theatrics. We at malta-exposed know that many labour MPs had been whinging about the implementation of this measure which they had known about for at least a year.

Times of Malta Vultures

2010-12-22T20:02:00.000+01:00

We have in the past likened some of the people who work at Times of Malta to carrion beetles for their incessant publishing of names of people who are arraigned in court and who are presumed innocent by our laws. What they are doing is probably legal but unheard of in most European countries. They destroy the lives of people by publishing names and sordid details for the sake of 'hits' and sales.

However this latest story takes the biscuit. The Times are reporting on another company's divulging of private information. However while doing so they go beyond that and lift photos from personal websites, name the recently dead and don't give a damn about the children of murder victims. But they get lots of hits and advertisers like that. What is interesting to note is that next to the (Shock Horror!) story about Vodafone and a murder victim they have a huge advert from Melita - one of Vodafone's competitors. It might be a coincidence but it might not.

Dongle Scan Scam

2010-12-18T20:14:00.001+01:00

We received quite a few stories about the electronics store 'ScanMalta'. Here is a typical one.

I went to their service department in Marsa with a laptop which was brand new but did not seem to have WiFi working as it should. After waiting for about 45 minutes in a queue a 'technician' took the computer and I explained the problem briefly. He tried to connect to the internet but could not. He twiddled some settings but did not seem to know what he was doing and he said that I must buy an external USB WiFi dongle. As I was going abroad the next day I accepted. A dongle was produced and I was presented a bill. I was dumbfounded to see that apart from being charged for the dongle (which I had to buy because he was incompetent at the job he was meant to be doing), I was also charged for 'servicing the computer'. He had had the computer in his hand for a couple of minutes and he had not managed to do anything except look puzzled!

But it does not stop here. On arriving home my wife told me that the dongle looked used and I should take it back but I had no inclination to waste another hour in their queue and be charged again for 'service'.

On going abroad the dongle worked for a while but then started playing up. I found that by pressing it in real hard into the USB port it would work. But it was difficult to keep holding it in while trying to type so I tied it in with a piece of wire. I must have made some minute scratches to the plastic casing of the cheap looking defective dongle.

On returning to Malta, I gritted my teeth and returned to Scan service department. Another very long wait and I presented the dongle and the guarantee card. Imagine my surprise when the technician went to his supervisor who returned to tell me that the dongle had been tampered with and the warranty was thus void.

I just left in a rage and vowed NEVER to go back to Scan and to tell everyone of their scams.

Times of Malta Shit Stirrers

2010-12-13T15:47:00.001+01:00

My God what despicable little wankers some of the people at Times of Malta are. They lift pictures of a murdered person off facebook plus comments left by her daughter and go on to to tell us about her (according to them) sordid life.

This is the newspaper that is supposed to represent the righteous right in Malta,

These are the people who are ready to make money (Times of Malta is a business) off the sad happenings of others. We have known this and pointed it out countless times but do these people know no shame? Who is this Juan Ameen and his or her editor? We have no idea whether they have children or family (my bastard dog has no family) but how would they like it to see photos and details of their mother on their rag?

Scan for Scams?

2010-12-12T13:24:00.003+01:00

We have received quite a few complaints about Scan Malta computers situated in Marsa and Iklin.

Before buying a computer from Scan Malta, no what are we saying, before buying anything from them look at what other companies are offering.

The first picture above shows the average price for an Asus netbook in the UK - the second picture shows the DISCOUNTED SPECIAL STUDENT OFFER price from Scan Malta. Both offers are available today 12th December. UK price 199 pounds (=238 Euros), Scan Malta Price: 337.50 Euros. Scan Malta charges you 100 Euros more, plain and simple.

Today we will just stick to the incredible price differences between what Scan Malta try to sell and the prices in other shops. Some other time we will tell you how they treat you when you have a problem with a product.

Shopper beware!

Consumer watch-dog

2010-12-09T14:24:00.000+01:00

Readers sometimes send in emails about bad experiences with government departments and private establishments. We have a few stories, which we have verified and that really paint a shameful picture of the way customers are treated in Malta. We have decided to focus more energy on this seeing that the courts of law are not a solution because of their gross ineffieciency. As from now malta-exposed will be accepting reader letters about bad customer experiences. We will publish the names of the establishments at fault in a bid to warn other consumers and also to warn the get rich quick cow boys out there that we are fed up with their attitude. We have a backlog of cases in fact, so watch this space!

Pay Rise ...for 69

2010-11-04T17:19:00.000+01:00

We will never begrudge anyone a pay rise especially if they deserve it. The more money there is around the merrier. Or so we are told.

But here is a malta-exposed EXCLUSIVE:

While poker faced Ministers and Prime Minister were all telling us that people on a salary should make do with a one euro and a few cents cost of living increase in their salary, they silently upgraded their own salaries by 900 Euros! The salary increase was awarded very recently to all MPs on both sides of the house and it is being kept a secret. Other benefits to MPs have recently been awarded. Some of them are incredible! Bear with us and we will tell you more.

We repeat we do not begrudge any worker his salary and some MPs really work hard for their people but it is immoral to create a pay system with benefits and rules for a select few that are undreamed of by other salaried workers.

Gaddafi is a Monster, as is any one who colludes with him.

2010-10-01T18:31:00.001+02:00

The Libyan dictator Muammar al Gaddafi is one of the most horrible persons on Earth. He was courted by Domnic Mintoff when the latter was Malta's prime minister in the 1970s and 1980s. That was to be expected as it was one despot tangoing with another. However we find it deeply disturbing that the super Catholic Lawrence Gonzi, prime minister of Malta Cattolicissima and his government can collaborate or even talk to this despicable man who is guilty of some of the worst human rights abuses in recent history.

We cannot accept that the Christian Democratic Maltese Government (which will not even accept divorce because it is un-Christian) can agree to send to Libya, sub-Saharan illegal immigrants, when it knows full well what Gaddafi's police do to black people.

We at malta-exposed have had exclusive contact with a senior police officer in Gaddafi's regime who has showed us video footage of what happens to the illegal immigrants in detention camps. We are not a squeamish lot but we can state that watching even a few seconds of such a video made us physically sick.

We do not want to go into a lot of detail - it is enough to say that the lives of black Africans are left at the mercy of ferocious police dogs. We do not wish this kind of fate on any one even if they are the worst criminals on Earth let alone black Africans escaping from their rotten countries.

Shame on our government ministers - including Lawrence Gonzi, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, Tonio Borg et al., for even accepting to talk to the monster that Gaddafi is.

The Age of Consent... again

2010-09-24T18:18:00.001+02:00

We are publishing here two articles by two Maltese Members of Parliament about the age of Consent in Malta and how it being set at 18 is sending decent people to prison. What is a crime in Malta is not a crime ANHYWHERE else in Europe.

The outdated age of consent

Josè A. Herrera

While participating in the recent parliamentary debate regarding various amendments to the Criminal Code, my colleague from the government's side, Franco Debono, brought up the issue of the age of consent. In fact, the MP mentioned appealing statistics regarding this matter.

Curiously, it transpires that the average age of consent in European countries is 15 and that the only country which stipulates the same age as ours is Turkey.

In revising the penal code, lately, Parliament rightly introduced harsher penalties for offences against minors. Furthermore, Maltese law in relation to the protection of minors has been made more comprehensive and we have even introduced new offences such as child labour.

This notwithstanding, I feel Dr Debono brought up a very valid point. He argued, and, I dare say, correctly so, that we should strive to strike a balance between affording all the necessary safeguards in order to best protect minors while avoiding unnecessary witch-hunts. It was therefore suggested in Parliament that we should consider reviewing the age of consent in Malta.

The law, as it stands today, gives rise to a number of anomalies. There's no doubt that it has always been the case that, like it or not, youngsters do become sexually active as soon as they reach puberty, and Malta is no exception. Furthermore, nowadays more than ever before, youths are enjoying a far more active social life and this, it has to be accepted, is conducive to more sexual activity. Technically, therefore, a large percentage of our youngsters are breaking the law, even though, as a rule, the powers-that-be are more often than not having to close an eye in this respect, and this is bigotry.

Civil law, on the other hand, is in stark contrast with criminal law in this respect. There is no civil impediment and, thus, people under 18 are allowed to marry. Statistics will show that, over the last few years, the number of under-aged people getting married has been substantial. Thus, though the penal law makes it a grievous offence for an adult to engage in intimacy with a person under 18, such provisions of the law do not apply if the person involved is married. To my mind this no longer makes sense because a considerable percentage of youths today are opting for alternative lifestyles, such as cohabitation, and for various reasons refrain from marriage. The law as it stands is indirectly penalising such alternative lifestyles. Though, ideally, the institution of marriage should be promoted and encouraged, as a lay state it is no longer politically correct to discriminate against other ways of life.

On the other hand, the courts have been taking even more rigorous measures in this regard than what they used to do in the past. Previously, the courts used to uphold the principle of corrupta non corrompitur, that is, a person could not be held criminally liable for defiling a minor if it were proved that the said minor would have already had sexual experiences. The courts have lately overruled this principle. Thus, ironically, a young person can be found guilty of having defiled a 17-year-old even if she would prove to be a prostitute. I fail to concur with this restrictive interpretation being given by the courts.

There also exists another lacuna in the law, which I had occasion to indicate during the said debate. There is no provision in the law to regulate instances of sexual activity when both parties happen to be minors. I myself have had occasion to defend a 17-year-old accused of defiling his 16-year-old girlfriend, and this is ridiculous because, in the strict sense of the law, in fact, both minors would have defiled each other.

More often than not, such instances happen when the parents of one of the parties would oppose the relationship and thus find it effortless to refer the matter to the police or threaten to do so in order to force a break-up of the relationship. This usually boils down to a form of blackmail.

It must also be pointed out that, over the last few years, the number of teenage pregnancies has exploded. On account of the aforementioned criminal implications, many of these minors will opt to register the child as being of an unknown father. If the father is mentioned, he could end up being prosecuted. This phenomenon is worrying indeed because it is clearly leading to social disruption and confusion. Therefore, cautiously but with responsibility, I will surely affirm that it is now necessary for the country to reconsider the age of consent and, perhaps, reduce it prudently to the age of 16.

Dr Herrera is a Labour member of Parliament.

Nationalist MP on age of consent

Nationalist MP Franco Debono has raised the point of calibrating the age of consent, noting that it was only in Malta and Turkey that the age of consent was that of 18 years.
He was speaking during the second reading of the Various Laws (Criminal Matters) Amendment Bill which protected minors from sexual abuse through soliciting via the internet.
Dr Debono said that the amendments was a very important tool to strengthen hands of the police and the courts against those committing such heinous crimes. He was all for closing any loopholes and praised the proposed amendments affording protection.
The Bill provided for punishments that fit the crime and the government was committed to make these amendments work.
While strongly stressing the need to protect vulnerable persons, especially children, Dr Debono made references to the age of consent in more than 20 countries. He said it would be wise were the House to reflect on the defilement of 17-year-olds, who in this day and age were quite well informed. He mentioned cases where girls of such an age brought charges of defilement against former boyfriends when jilted and the relation came to an end.
Defilement, he said, must also be seen in the context of the present legal provisions and the age of consent as defined in the Criminal Code.
Noting that the Bill provided for several amendments relating to extradition, he asked whether the Extradition Act should be incorporated in the Criminal Code.
Dr Debono explained in great detail the difference between theft aggravated by grievous bodily harm and theft aggravated by homicide - that already form part of our law - and the new crime being introduced, that of theft aggravated by grievous bodily harm followed by death.

Both articles were first published in the Times of Malta.

Blind Injustice

2010-09-23T18:35:00.001+02:00

As we write this, news are coming in about the resignation of Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said. He is being accused of criminal charges which we will not go into here.

Let's leave the tears that he shed for the cameras and his pleas about his mother aside and talk only about one thing that shocked us at malta-exposed. The prime minister of Malta, Chris Said's lawyers and even the GRTU head have all said that the courts should deal with this case with urgency so that 'his name is cleared.'

We find such statements disgusting when the prime minister and the minister of justice, AND Chris Said know full well that for mere mortals being accused of anything in the criminal courts is in itself a sentence that destroys one's life.

There are thousands of people who have lost their jobs, had their life destroyed and hundreds of them are in prison while presumed innocent and awaiting justice. That is the 'justice' system in Malta. But because Chris Said is a government boy and a lawyer he gets special treatment. Shame on you Prime Minister!

This is also very relevant: http://malta-exposed.blogspot.com/2010/03/lawyer-who-cannot-be-named.html

Bad Psychologists

2010-09-11T19:14:00.001+02:00

This article by an expert in the field is very good but he is overly cautious in what he says. Readers of malta-exposed have told us of things that go way beyond what is described here.

Therapists, alas, are just as human as the clients they see and come with the same human foibles. They have bad habits, as we all do, but some of those habits have the very real potential of interfering with the psychotherapy process and the unique psychotherapy relationship.

So without further ado, here are twelve things you wish your therapist didn’t do — some of which may actually harm the psychotherapeutic relationship.

1. Showing up late for the appointment.

Therapists will usually charge a client for an appointment if they fail to cancel it with less than 24 hours notice. Yet some therapists seem perfectly oblivious to the clock when it comes to showing up on time for appointments. While the occasional lateness may be excused, some therapists seem to be living in another time zone altogether and consistently show up late for their appointments with their clients — anywhere from 5 minutes to even two hours! Chronic lateness is often symptomatic of poor time management skills.

2. Eating in front of the client.

Unless you have enough for everyone, eating and drinking during a psychotherapy appointment is considered ill-mannered. Some therapists offer clients the same access to coffee or water that they themselves enjoy. (If you’re going to drink something in front of a client, make sure you offer your client the same.) Eating while in session — by client or therapist — is never appropriate (it’s therapy, not mealtime). And asking, “Do you mind if I finish my lunch while we get started?” is inappropriate — clients don’t always feel comfortable enough with expressing their true feelings.

3. Yawning or sleeping during session.

Yes, believe it or not, there are therapists who fall asleep during session. And while an occasional yawn is a normal component of our daily functioning, non-stop yawning is usually only interpreted one way by a client — they are boring the therapist. Therapists need to get a good night’s sleep every night, or else they cannot be effective in their job (which requires constant and consistent attention and concentration).

4. Inappropriate disclosures.

Inappropriate disclosures refer to the therapist sharing a bit too much about their own personal difficulties or life. Most therapists are warned about doing too much disclosure in session with their clients, because it’s the client’s therapy, not the therapist’s. Therapists shouldn’t plan their vacations while in session, go on endlessly about their graduate school training or research topics (especially if they were focused on rats), or share how much they enjoy their summer house on the Cape. Therapists should keep personal disclosures limited (even when the client asks).

5. Being impossible to reach by phone or email.

In our ever-more connected world, a therapist who doesn’t return phone calls or an email about an upcoming appointment or insurance question stands out like a sore thumb. While no client expects 24/7 connectivity to their therapist (although some might like it), they do expect timely return calls (or emails if the therapist allows that modality of contact). Waiting a week for a return phone call is simply unprofessional and unacceptable in virtually any profession, including psychotherapy.

6. Distracted by a phone, cell phone, computer or pet.

Therapists will often ask their clients to silence their cell phone before entering session. The policy has to go both ways, or it shows disrespect to the client and their time in session. Therapists should virtually never accept any phone calls while in session (except for true emergencies), and they should turn away from any other distractions, such as a computer screen. In a world that increasingly values inattention and multi-tasking, clients seek refuge from such distractions in the psychotherapist’s office.

7. Expressing racial, sexual, musical, lifestyle and religious preferences.

Although an extension of the “too much disclosure” bad habit, this one deserves its own special mention. Clients generally don’t want to hear about a therapist’s personal preferences when it comes to their sexuality, race, religion or lifestyle. Unless the psychotherapy is specifically targeting one of these areas, these types of disclosures are usually best left alone. While it might be fine to mention something in passing (as long as it’s not offensive), a therapist who spends an entire session discussing favorite musicians or love of a particular religious passage is not likely helping their client.

8. Bringing your pet to the psychotherapy session.

Unless cleared and okayed ahead of time, therapists should not bring their pets to the office. While sometimes therapists see clients in a home office, pets should stay out of the office while they are in session. To the client, a psychotherapy session is a refuge and a place of peace and healing — pets can disturb that peacefulness and calm. Pets are generally not an appropriate part of psychotherapy.

9. Hugging and physical contact.

Physical contact between client and therapist must always be expressly spelled out and okayed by both parties ahead of time. Yes, that includes hugging. Some clients are disturbed by such touching or hugging, and want no part of it (even if it’s something a therapist might typically do). Both therapists and clients should always check ahead of time with the other before attempting any type of physical contact, and respect the other person’s wishes. At no time is a sexual relationship or sexual touching appropriate in the psychotherapy relationship.

10. Inappropriate displays of wealth or dress.

Psychotherapists are first and foremost professionals, and any displays of wealth and style should be discarded in exchange for dressing in an appropriate and modest style. A therapist slathered in expensive jewelry is a put-off to most clients, as are blouses or dresses that show too much skin or cleavage. Too casual of dress can also be a problem. Jeans may suggest too casual an approach to a professional service that the client is paying for.

11. Clock watching.

Nobody likes to feel they are boring to another person. Unfortunately the therapist who hasn’t learned how to tell the time without checking the clock every five minutes is going to be noticed by the client. Most experienced therapists have a good sense of how long a session has gone without having to look at a clock until late in the session. But some therapists seem obsessively compulsive about making note of the time, and the client notices (and internally, they may tell themselves what they’re saying isn’t really important to the therapist).

12. Excessive note-taking.

Progress notes are a standard part of psychotherapy. Many therapists do not take notes during a session because it can be distracting to the process of psychotherapy. They instead rely on their memory to cover the highlights of the session after the session has ended. Some therapists, however, believe they must capture every detail of every session in their notes, and obsessively note-take during sessions. Such constant note-taking is a distraction for most clients, and some may find that the therapist uses the behavior to keep an emotional distance from the client. If note-taking is done during session, it should be done sparingly and discreetly.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues, and the intersection of technology and psychology since 1992.

Blowing up children is fine

2010-09-08T17:28:00.002+02:00

Fire works burns on a child of eight. He is one of he lucky few.

She recalled how her husband always had a passion for fireworks and this was inherited by her sons who started accompanying him to the factory when they were about 10 years old. “I was always a bit scared. I knew it was dangerous... I used to ask him not to take our sons there but they loved going with their father... He adored our children and, now, he took them away with him,” she said through tears.

The quote above from the Times of Malta is of a woman who lost her husband and her sons, plus other members of her family last Sunday during yet another fireworks factory explosion.

At malta-exposed we have written before about the madness that fireworks are but the statement above takes what is happening to new depths. So let's get this clear. If you share a drink with a 16 year old you may go to prison. If you share a kiss with a 16 year old you may go to prison. If you write a fictional story and mention a 16 year old you may go to prison If you take a photo, look at a photo or share a photo of a 16 year old you may go to prison. But taking ten year olds to what are now being called 'death factories' is all hunky dory.

What a mad world.

Child abuse madness.

2010-09-01T15:53:00.002+02:00

SCHOOL - 1957 vs. 2010

Scenario:
Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2010 - Police called, arrests Johnny and Mark.. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it. Both children go to anger management programs for 3 months. School board hold meeting to impliment bullying prevention programs

Scenario:
Robbie won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957 - Robbie sent to office and given 6 of the best by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2010 - Robbie given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. Robbie's parents get fortnightly disability payments and School gets extra funding from state because Robbie has a disability.

Scenario :
Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2010 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison.

Scenario :
Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark gets glass of water from Principal to take aspirin with.
2010 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario :
Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the village festa, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up an ant nest.
1957 - Ants die.
2010- State Police, Star Force, Federal Police & domestic terrorism, Feds investigate parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated. Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario :
Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary . Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2010 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

Liars and Libel

2010-08-18T13:27:00.003+02:00

Oscar Wilde was a brilliant wit and writer but that doesn't mean that he wasn't also an arschloch and a liar. We don't agree with the way he was imprisoned for his homosexuality of course. Britain should bow down its head in shame and the French have much to be proud of seeing that this man is buried in Paris.

But why did he really end up in prison? It is because of a libel suit gone wrong. You see he LIED to his lawyer. Somebody called him a 'sodomite' (actually the famous mis-spelinng was 'somdomite'). Common sense tells you that if someone insults you in private and nobody else hears about it, you should shut your mouth and forget about it. Especially if what they tell you is TRUE.

However Oscar Wilde lied to his lawyer, a big mistake, and his lawyer proceeded to file for libel against the person who had insulted Oscar Wilde. The person who had insulted him had good reason for doing so and could not have wanted better than being sued for slander by Oscar Wilde. The insulter then proceeded to bring a barrage of evidence demonstrating that what he said about Oscar Wilde was very true. In fact the truth turned out to be much, much worse than the original insult.

That is why when one files for libel one has to be very careful that one has no skeletons in his cupboard that would give him and especially his family a nasty surprise in court.

Unlike an insult exchanged in a private email for example, what is said in court will become public domain. We wish no harm on anyone and our policy is that we never publish names of non public figures. In Maltese courts of law the same policy does not hold.

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A knife, a Somali and an old Maltese man.

2010-08-14T11:10:00.005+02:00

This prostitute looks kinda young...

From times of Malta today:

"Somali allegedly threatens Maltese 62-year-old with a knife

A Somali was this morning remanded in custody after he pleaded that he was only partly guilty to charges of threatening a 62-year-old man with a knife shortly after he gave him a lift.

The man, Sxxxxxxx Bxxxxxxxx (we remove names unlike the Times) had bought a round of drinks for everyone at a bar in Marsa.

The Somali, Jxxxxxx Hxxxxxxx Axxxxxxxx, 22, asked Mr Bxxxxxxxxx for a lift and while in the car, he allegedly threatened him with a knife and stole his mobile phone.

Magistrate Gabriella Vella took the Somali’s plea as a not guilty one."

We note with interest that the Somali pleaded only partly guilty to the accusation. We ask you readers to look at the facts as reported by the Times

(1) Elderly man buys drinks at Marsa bar for Somali youth

(2) Elderly Man gives youth a lift

(3) Somali youth threatens elderly man

Is it just us who see here something that nobody else seems to sees? Why would an old man be buying drinks for a Moslem (probably) youth and taking him in his car?

On another note - sexual abuse does not happen to minors only. Minors of 16 years can be quite willing to experience sex with an older person and as long as they want it we really see nothing wrong in it. But what about a 22 year old from a backward, Moslem country who is faced with the prospect of homosexual acts with a man? We repeat that we are not implying anything and that we do not justify violence under any circumstances but we think the magistrate should delve into the why amd wherefores of the accused pleading only 'partial guilt.' There is such a thing as self defence, you know.

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Disobey unjust laws!

2010-08-09T21:48:00.002+02:00

We hate to say it but we were right. The state in Malta is becoming more suffocating. Freedom is being eroded inch by inch as censorship and theocratic laws invade our lives and even thoughts.

We will not repeat ourselves, please take a look at our archives to see what the justice minister, Carm Mifsud Bonnici is doing to freedom of expression and to the 'justice system'.

If you think we are being paranoid see what the foreign free press is saying about Malta: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/aug/05/an-obscene-crackdown-on-maltese-culture

We are just a blog but we have purposefully broken Maltese censorship law (as it is being interpreted and re-interpreted now) by publishing this short piece of fiction and we have the approval of the original publisher (who is facing criminal proceedings in Malta) to do so:

http://malta-exposed.blogspot.com/2010/01/story-warning-adult-content-please.html

As news about the shameful and scary prosecution of artists and other people continues to come in we ask anyone with balls to stand up to this theocarcy and break censorhip laws. We did this in the 80s when the Nationalist Party transmitted political news from Sicily. We can do this again through the power of the internet.

As this story has made it to international news fora we are asking anyone who can translate it to English to please do so and send it to us - whereupon we will publish it here. That way the free world will be able to read why people in Malta are facing prison sentences. The Guardian (UK) already has a link to malta-exposed. Help us give them an English translation. Email us a translation at malta-exposed@live.com

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Hot girl in bed on a stormy night is immoral for Jacky.

2010-07-30T20:45:00.002+02:00

Today from the Times of Malta online:

"In handing down judgement, Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani Grima said “this punishment is being accorded after the court took in consideration the fact that this case involves two minor girls and a young female adult and the fact that in the realms of lewd acts, all things being considered, the acts committed on these three females where of a more minor nature”.

So for a lewd act of a 'minor nature' with a person who is a minor (under 18 in Malta) you get three and a half years in prison from this particular magistrate.

Some more details about the case: (1) the complaint was filed by an ex partner of the man (woman spurned anyone?); (2) the lewd acts consisted of grabbing the minor around the waist; (3) another lewd act involved this minor asking to sleep in the man's bed on a 'stormy night'.

Magistrate Jacky Padovani Grima - do not confuse your sense of 'morality' with criminal justice. We have much more to say and will keep you posted.Girl Guides' Pinky Promise.

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Girls and boys are having sex.

2010-07-24T13:51:00.001+02:00

Almost one in five girls say they have been pregnant at least once by the age of 18, according to a British government survey published yesteday.
Just under half (46 per cent) decided to keep their baby, while more than a third (36 per cent), had an abortion, the figures show.
The statistics are part of wider research on the experiences of 18-year-olds in England, published by the Department for Education today.
The responses of thousands of 18-year-olds questioned for the Youth Cohort Study and the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England were analysed.

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Damaged children

2010-07-16T23:43:00.004+02:00

Abuse of children is a terrible thing. More so when carried out by adults who should be caring for said children. The abuse may be physical (one contributor was beaten black and blue by other children and also by an adult); Psychological (many people we know recount horror stories of what teachers and parents have said and done to them) and finally sexual.

The thing is that all the people we mentioned above (OK, we admit it, ours is not a scientific study) have come out as perfectly good people with no hang ups about society and 'abuse' whether it was physical, psychological or sexual. If anything, always according to the people we know, they have turned out to be better for it. (Something along the old adage of sparing the rod....).

We hate to be saying this but we feel we have to say it. The men - especially that Lawrence - who claim to have been sexually abused by priests for years while at St. Joseph Institute in St. Venera, Malta, are not the average child in a normal (yes we loathe the word too) family (this one too). Some of the ex 'inmates' of the institute are really nasty bits of work. (Please don't send facetious comments, we know what we are saying)

These were children who entered the institute with a tremendous amount of psychological baggage. That is why they were sent there in the first place. They had been 'damaged' in one way or an other before they were placed in St. Joseph Institute in St. Venera. If anyone took advantage of that 'damage' to further damage them then that is horrendous act. However from our experience of the world we know that 'damaged' people often hold a grudge against society. They harbour a bitterness that most of us cannot understand.

Malta-exposed is certainly not a blog that is ever apologetic for the Catholic Church (take a look at some of our scathing posts) but we feel that Pope Benedict made a mistake when he met the men who alleged that they had been abused by priests. Many, but many people, have been abused in some way or another and they get over it. (Remind us to write a post about some ways people in Malta have been abused). But the men who claim to have been sexually abused for years by priests were very probably 'damaged people' before they were offered a home by these priests.

It may not be politically correct to say so nowadays, but it is an observable fact that people who for some reason or another think that life has been unjust with them sometimes turn bitter and take it out on other innocent people.

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Four wise men and religion

2010-07-16T20:40:00.000+02:00

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."
- Buddha

"Faith, noun. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel."
- Ambrose Bierce

"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
- Albert Einstein

"If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow the teachings of the New, he would be insane."
- Robert G. Ingersoll

New religion

2010-07-16T02:19:00.001+02:00

What do you think is the number one most popular religion in Malta?
I’ll give you a hint: it's not Christianity. It's also not Islam, Judiasm, Buddhism, Taoism, or One Television. According to Christiana Zammit, a sociology student at the University of Malta, the primary expression of faith in our day–at least for young adults–is what she calls “Moral Therapeutic Deism.”

This religion is characterized by five beliefs:
–There is a God who created earth and watches over it
–God wants people to be nice, fair and good (as it taught in the Bible and most other religions)
–The central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about yourself
–God doesn’t need to be involved in your life except when there’s a problem that needs Celestial Performance Enhancement
–Good people go to heaven when they die.

This is a religion that is far more about comfort, individualism and conformity than it is about meaning, calling, and sacrifice.

No comments! Sorry it's not our fault. UPDATE

2010-07-15T12:36:00.003+02:00

We are having some technical issues with the blog where comments left on the blog are not reaching us. We are trying to resolve the issue. Meanwhile please email any comments to malta-exposed@live.com and we'll put them in manually. Thanks for your patience!

Many other bloggers using the system we are using at malta-exposed are having similar difficulties so we know that it is nothing to do with malta-exposed in particular but it is just a technical issue at Google.

The issue seems to lie partly with the use of browsers other than Internet Explorer. If you are using Mozilla Firefox for example there are issues with the form. So one way round this is to read malta-exposed and post comments using Microsoft Internet Explorer

ISSUE RESOLVED - YOU CAN POST COMMENTS FROM ANY BROWSER NOW.

Of thieves and THIEVES

2010-07-15T12:21:00.000+02:00

Today the Times of Malta reported that a woman was jailed for two years after she stole around 1000 Euros worth of mobile phones from a handbag on the beach. No violence was involved and the money went to fuel her drug habit.

An older news item which did not make it to the top news of the Times but yet managed to leak out was that the secretary of the Safi Local council - the man entrusted with PUBLIC funds had been siphoning off money, tens of thousands of Euros into his personal accounts for a number of years. We do not know exactly how much money he actually stole because very strangely the auditors who were called in only looked back a couple of years and not more. Stranger still is that this man was never charged by the police for stealing thousands of money from citizens. We wonder why he was forgiven. OK he was dismissed from work but that is not a bad punishment, is it, compared to two years in prison for stealing a couple of mobile phones?

The PN Safi Mayor, The Police and the Minister of Justice owe us an explanation. You know minister it is not curiosity on our part, only that justice must be seen to be done is something that you like to say. So instead of creating laws that benefit no one except a few members of a certain profession who are set to make oodles of money, why don't you take a look around you?

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Young people in trade unions

2010-07-14T12:01:00.002+02:00

Young Scottish trade union members.

From Times of Malta Wednesday, 14th July 2010:

"The General Workers’ Union’s youth section is looking to expand its base with 14- to 15-year-olds through school programmes before they enter the workplace."

From STUC (Scotland's Trade Union Centre), June 2009

Grahame Smith, General Secretary STUC, said “We are delighted that these young people will be joining us at our Annual Congress in Perth. ‘Unions into Schools’ is a vital part of our work. Young people should have knowledge their employment rights before they enter the workforce – and trade unions must reach out to the next generation”

Malta-exposed, agrees with the stance taken by the General Worker's Union (Malta) but this approach should be taken by all Maltese unions. We at malta-exposed have always stressed that there is no magical age when people become adults and that responsibilising young people is one of the keys to a better society.

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Anti homosexual homosexuals

2010-07-12T18:56:00.001+02:00

Ted Haggard anti-gay activist being condescending with Prof. Richard Dawkins.

There are lots of men out there campaigning against, voting against and generally being repugnant when it comes to gay rights. We have our own few in Malta. What is funny is when some of them are caught with their pants down, with another man.

Let's be kind today and talk about someone foreign who has already been outed. He should be familiar to anyone who has watched a famous Richard Dawkins documentary. Known as Pastor Ted to his congregation at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Ted Haggard was outed by prostitute, and professional masseur, Mike Jones in November 2006 for paying him to engage in sex with him for three years.

He was also purchasing, then using, crystal methamphetamine ("Crystal Meth", for all the kids out there) with his pay-for-play partner.

Haggard had supported Colorado Amendment 43, which bans same-sex marriage in the state.

In his own words, he's not a homosexual, he's just a "heterosexual with issues."

This is where Adrian Vassallo PL MP wants to live.

2010-07-09T11:48:00.001+02:00

A few weeks ago, the Islamic Parliament in Iran approved a draft law which shocked the country and is at the center of current debate.

The draft law is called: “Increasing sentence against who violates psychological security of society” and includes crimes as: Rape, running prostitution houses, depravity, kidnapping, and publishing atheistic and pornographic materials and articles.

According to this draft, which was approved for faster review by the majority of Majlis [Iranian members of Parliament], the death sentence could be used against bloggers, journalists, artists, and intellectuals who can be easily falsely accused and convicted by intelligence services or the judiciary branch for publishing “articles against Islam.”

Beside China, Iran is the most dangerous country for the bloggers and maintains one of the tightest controls over the Internet. Yet, more than 1.5 million bloggers write daily about their life, publishing about local news or criticizing government and mandatory Islamic rules. Based on Alexa, Iranian internet users are eager to read blogs as a source of news, semi-news, gossips, or entertainment.

Blog providers inside Iran are very sensitive to the content of blogs they host. If they find an anti-Islamic or pornography focused blog, they immediately delete it. If they ignore the blog, the filtering center in the Communication Ministry will delete it. My Persian language blog, like many blogs and websites criticizing the regime, is banned and filtered inside Iran by either the service providers or the government.

This new law, which brought waves of criticism against new conservative Majlis, including from major EU and human rights organizations, brings the prospect of harsh suppression of intellectuals and bloggers. The death penalty is an option.

To underscore the point, there are many political prisoners in the notorious jails inside Iran who are there because they have been accused of atheism or have been targeted by fatwas issued by top mullahs. Under Islamic law in Iran, the sentences these people face include crucifixion, beheading, whipping, executing, and the cutting hands and feet.

Bloggers inside Iran believe the draft law is created to threaten youth and intellectuals, as well as suppressing freedom of speech and expression.

Omid Habibinia is Iranian media researcher and journalist living in exile in

Switzerland

. He was political prisoner and founder of a website for supporting political prisoners and journalists. He has worked with most of banned newspapers and also with the IRIB, BBC Persian and many Persian and international media both inside and outside

Iran

. He studied research in mass communication, film directing and clinical psychology and presented many research papers in international conferences including IAMCR and ICP.

Pontius Pilate and Divorce

2010-07-08T12:09:00.002+02:00

In the history of Christianity there is one man who is universally despised and pointed out as a coward. Instead of taking the right decision he famously washed his hands and 'let the mob' decide.

It took one man with balls (see elsewhere in malta-exposed the article about Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando) to propose divorce legislation. It is a pity that his leader is as conservative as one can get. Gonzi, one must remember, was head of Malta'a Azzjoni Kattolika - a society of ultra conservative Catholics who want to impose their morality on the rest of us.

We at malta-exposed have always said that the laws of a country should never be based on so called 'moral values' because almost always these arise out of some religion or other. Morality is a private matter for the individual and the role of any government should be to make sure that people have the necessary space to excercise their choices....even if they are perceived as bad choices by some.

Humanists

2010-06-27T12:01:00.001+02:00

We are thrilled to see that a Malta Humanist Association has been formed. We read about this in the Richard Dawkins Foundation website and from here we wish this group of people all the best and will support them in any way we can.

What is Humanism? This philosophy has very old roots but it was again revitalised by such great men as Bertrand Russel and more recently Richard Dawkins. Basically Humanists believe that we all should be decent to one another without the need to do so because some religion tells us to do so. Many Humanists also accept the fact that religions create more problems than they solve by being agents of conflict, psychological troubles and slowing down progress and development.

It is usual for people to cite Islam as the religion that is creating most problems for people but there are fundamentalist Christians who are doing the same. Take Creationists for example: these are people who believe the Bible word for word and also believe that the world was created in six days about five thousand years ago. They refute the Theory of Evolution which is one of the cornerstones of Biology and all the wonderful advances that it has brought us. They refuse to allow science teachers to do their job and teach Evolutionary theory. That is just plain wrong.

We believe that the state should not teach children in its schools 'religion'. Instead children should be taught ethics and a value system based on respect for human dignity. However it seems that the forces of un enlightenment want it otherwise and terrorise children with visions of hell and hatred towards anyone who is 'different'. This is fascist manipulation of minds during their formative years is despicable and we welcome anyone who works against it.

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Abolish the Death Penalty

2010-06-27T11:21:00.001+02:00

We at malta-exposed are very concerned that there are several Maltese individuals leaving comments in sites such as timesofmalta.com asking for the death penalty for certain crimes. Their appeals usually pander to populist sentiments by citing crimes against children or as Barrack Obaba said before his election 'crimes like terrorism'. We at malta-exposed believe that violence in its most absolute form - the taking of a human life by the state is despicable at the basest levels of human dignity. Look at the information below from Amnesty International and you will see that the only states that still willfully kill people are dictatorial regimes, with the worrying exceptions of the USA and Japan.

The death penalty in 2009

More than two-thirds of the countries of the world have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. While 58 countries retained the death penalty in 2009, most did not use it. Eighteen countries were known to have carried out executions, killing a total of at least 714 people; however, this figure does not include the thousands of executions that were likely to have taken place in China, which again refused to divulge figures on its use of the death penalty.

Americas Europe & Central Asia Middle East & North Africa Sub Saharan Africa Asia

Methods of execution in 2009 included hanging, shooting, beheading, stoning, electrocution and lethal injection.
Death sentences and executions 2009
Where "+" is indicated after a country and it is preceded by a number, it means that the figure Amnesty International has calculated is a minimum figure. Where "+" is indicated after a country and is not preceded by a number, it indicates that there were executions or death sentences (at least more than one) in that country but it was not possible to calculate a figure.

from Amnesty International.

Whale Whore

2010-06-23T10:41:00.004+02:00

Paul Watson

This is a screenshot from a very popular American cartoons called Southpark. This particular episode, called Whale Whores speaks about Captain Paul Watson and his ship the 'sea shepherd'. Rings a bell? Yes, it is the same ship that allegedly attacked Maltese fishermen. We don't have enough information either way but here are some quotations from the episode: "Paul Watson was an incompetent vegan pussy doing absolutely nothing and trying to turn it into drama." Here is more: "The captain, Paul Watson was an unorganised media whore who thought lying to everyone was OK as long as it served his cause." If you are wondering on the use of the past tense it is because during the episode Paul Watson gets killed by a harpoon through the head, fired by a Japanese fisherman.

Here is a link to the episode: www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/251888

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Thought crime

2010-06-21T20:45:00.000+02:00

George Orwell, the author of several books including '1984' originated the term 'thoughtcrime.' Orwell, also accurately commented, "anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing." Few realize that this great English author continually questioned all "official" or "accepted" versions of history. At the conclusion of the war in Europe, Orwell even expressed doubt about the Allied account of events and posed the following question in his lesser known book Notes on Nationalism, "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear... Is it true about the gas ovens in Poland?" Ironically, those words from Orwell's pen could have resulted in a prison term for him in many European countries today -- for 'thoughtcrimes.'

Oldest industry: Sex.

2010-06-19T11:39:00.000+02:00

This is a scan of a 'menu' from a brothel in the very early part of the 20th century, in Victorian England. At the time, prudish society considered it unseemly to hang out to dry male and female underwear on the same line. So keep in mind that no matter how many Adrian Vassallos, Edwin Vassallos and Carm Mifsud Bonnici there are.... Man's appetite for sex will always be there. And while that is still there there will always be people ready to satisfy that appetite... sometimes at a price.

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Effing Fireworks!

2010-06-14T15:43:00.000+02:00

Hardly a year goes by without some horrific explosion that kills and maims fire works enthusiasts. This week we are told by the Times of Malta ( http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100612/local/mqabba-society-in-attempt-to-break-world-record) how Tal-Gilju club of Mqabba is going to break some world record or other for the biggest explosive display. They have had two (unwanted) explosions in so many years. Why do these things happen?

One of the reasons, we were told by an expert in the field (a real expert), is that the people who handle these materials have no knowledge of chemistry. Pyrotechnics is a science that requires more than a basic understanding of chemistry yet some (what an understatement ) of the people who are allowed to handle and work with these explosives do not have a degree in Chemistry. Actually they don't even have an 'A' level in chemistry. Let's be honest most of them do not have an 'O' level in chemistry and have no idea why the damn things explode. OK somebody will tell us that they have licenses to handle the stuff but from the track record of explosions and deaths these licenses don't seem to be doing any good.

We are not a blog that would decry the want of anybody to kill himself and destroy his family but what bothers us is that these people insist on putting people who are not the least bit interested in their hobby at risk. Even if there were no immediate physical risk to third parties (which there is as many accidents have proved) they are making life very uncomfortable for most people.

These enthusiasts are only a handful of people but still they are allowed to wreak havoc with normal life for all other people on the island. Because they are loud,vociferous and ill behaved, they are allowed to have their way.

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Bible warning

2010-06-12T20:53:00.002+02:00

Dr. Laura Schlesinger is a US radio personality who dispenses advice
to people who call in to her radio show. Recently, she said that, as
an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according
to Leviticus 18:22, and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The
following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by a US resident,
which was posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as
informative.........

Dear Dr. Laura

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I
have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that
knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend
the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that
Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other
specific laws and how to follow them.

1. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a
pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors.
They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in
Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair
price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in
her period of menstrual cleanliness - Lev.15:19-24. The problem is,
how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offence.

4. Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and
female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend
of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can
you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus
35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated
to kill him myself?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an
abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than
homosexuality. I don.t agree. Can you settle this?

7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I
have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading
glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room
here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair
around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.
19:27. How should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes
me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two
different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing
garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester
blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really
necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town
together to stone them? - Lev.24:10-16. Couldn.t we just burn them to
death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with
their in-laws? (Lev.20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident
you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is
eternal and unchanging.

Your devoted disciple and adoring fan,
Jack

What a Wanker!

2010-06-10T19:14:00.000+02:00

Johnny Walker award winner donates E 500 prize to charity. WOW!

My God do these people have no shame? This man made news in Malta some years ago because he was one of an odd three thousand or so scientists working at CERN. He donated the grand sum of 500 Euros that he had won for promoting a Whiskey in Malta. His salary in Malta is around 50,000 Euros a year and that does not include perks. It is paid from tax payers' money.

We were never told what his job was at CERN but that is not really the issue here is it?

From the M. Demayo Group website:

News & Events

Johnnie Walker Man of the Year, Dr. Nicholas Sammut donates prize to Puttinu Cares Foundation

«Back to Overview

As winner of the 2009 edition of the Johnnie Walker Man of the Year Award, Dr. Ing. Nicholas J. Sammut Ph.D was entitled to donate the sum of euro 500, put up by M.Demajo (W&S) Ltd., local distributors for Johnnie Walker Scotch Whisky, to a charity of his choice. The charity selected by Dr. Sammut, currently Vice Chairman and CEO of the Malta Council for Science and Technology, was The Puttinu Cares Foundation, an organization that offers a holistic approach to care for families who have children suffering from cancer. The Support Group was set up in 2002 and began from an idea of its founders Dr. Victor Calvagna and Mr.Rennie Zerafa. Puttinu relies on sponsors and the public's help to obtain funds for its activities, offering guidance for parents, and helping them deal with the ordeal ahead whilst giving them hope for the future. On a more tangible level, the Foundation has purchased a number of flats, very close to the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton UK, where young Maltese cancer sufferers are often referred for treatment. These flats are offered to the patients' families who accompany them during their treatment and who would otherwise be unable to afford to do so. Mr. Matthew Miceli Demajo, General Manager and Director of M.Demajo (W&S) Ltd. presented the cheque to Dr. Calvagna, representing Puttinu Cares Foundation in the presence of the 2009 Johnnie Walker Man of the Year, Dr. Nicholas Sammut. Dr. Calvagna thanked the winner of the Award as well as the sponsoring company for their donation and expressed his wish that more similar donations reach the Foundation in order to help it finance its ever growing requirements.

Porn you watch is his business

2010-06-08T16:48:00.004+02:00

He wants to know what films you watch in your hotel room

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100608/local/mp-seeks-police-investigations-on-porn-films-in-hotels

Why, but why, does it have to be Dr. Adrian Vassallo MP to always ask these sort of parliamentary questions? We will not go into the mentality of this man today. For those of you who do not know him here is some basic information. He is a labour party MP who gets elected by the votes he gets from Gzira.

These are the questions we ask:

· Is it true that he charges ridicuouly small amounts of money to patients who are his constituents?

· Is it true that many of his patients are persons living on the fringe of ‘legality’?

· Is it true that he prescribes medicines that can be obtained from the Gzira Health Centre for free?

· Is it true that these medicines may be unneccessary but placate the ‘patients’ who may be happy to be getting something for ‘nothing’ even if it is a ridiculous and potentially harmful prescription for an antibiotic for a whole month?

· Can this medical practitioner tell us why an otherwise healthy patient may require a prescription for a free supply of Amoxicillin for a whole month?

· Does he ask parliamentary questions criticising the government for not stocking enough free medicines?

· Is he really a hunter?

This is the kind of person we do not need in parliament. If it is true that people get the represenattives that they deserve then we are a sorry mess.

Meanwhile we are also worried that Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici takes this sort of parliamentary question seriously. He should be concentrating on the mess that the ‘justice system’ is in.

Christian bigotry?

2010-05-25T20:17:00.000+02:00

Which image do you find offensive, if any?

If you are Amish and accustomed to seeing women only in long-sleeve, floor-length dresses with bonnets covering their hair, it must be uncomfortable to visit a non-Amish town and confront women in miniskirts, girls in tank tops, and females of every size and shape in form-fitting garments cut down to here and up to there.

But that's life in a free society. Any Amish who object to provocatively dressed females have the option of staying away or averting their gaze. Any non-Amish who are annoyed by the sight of "Little House on the Prairie" fashions can do likewise.

The mutual tolerance approach works well in this country. But some nations that require ultra-conservative Muslims to accept constant exposure to immodest attire think modern Westerners should not have to put up with the clothing choices of ultra-conservative Muslims.

These governments want to forbid women to venture into public wearing the niqab, the black dress that covers everything but the eyes, and the burqa, which covers the eyes as well. Belgium has banned them, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to do the same.

Never mind that faceless women are not exactly rampant in the West. The Belgium Muslim Council says that of the country's 500,000 Muslims, only two dozen or so keep their faces covered. Among France's 5 million Muslims, those in veils number just 2,000.

So why are some people so riled? Muslims suspect the motive is religious bigotry, but the opponents insist they are safeguarding the values of a democratic society as well as the rights of women.

The veil, we are told, is a symbol of oppression imposed on women by husbands and other male relatives. Could be. But how do the critics know? The same thing can be said about surgically enhanced breasts in Europe and the United States.

Just because a few adults may be coerced into doing something doesn't mean others should not be allowed to do it of their own free will. If men are employing violence to control wives and daughters, the reasonable response is to punish them sternly while encouraging women to report the crimes.

But outlawing the burqa merely trades one form of compulsion (you must wear this) for another (you may not wear this). Besides, it is bound to backfire: If brutal men can no longer prevent women from wearing veils when they leave the house, they can prevent them from leaving the house at all.

It may be difficult to interact with someone whose face you can't see. But lots of things that are difficult when unfamiliar soon become tolerable or irrelevant.

When I first met someone I knew was gay, many years ago, I was very ill at ease. The first time I conversed with someone wearing a safety pin through her eyebrow, likewise. In both cases, I got over it. I suspect that if they had no choice, the anti-burqa crowd would adapt as well.

A more imaginative argument is that covering the face is an attack on civilized norms. "The niqab and the burqa represent a refusal to exist as a person in the eyes of others," says French parliamentary leader Jean-Francois Cope. Journalist Christopher Hitchens calls them "the most aggressive sign of a refusal to integrate or accommodate."

But in a free society, none of us is obligated to integrate. The Amish don't. Neither do the Hare Krishnas. Or Trappist monks. Wearing a suicide bomb around your waist is aggressive. Concealing your face is peaceable.

Veiled women are not refusing to exist in the eyes of others. They, like all the rest of us, are merely deciding on what terms to make their existence visible.

It's also claimed that covered faces are a security threat, since criminals have donned burqas in a handful of instances. Veils can be put to sinister uses—just as scarves, ski masks and sunglasses are often worn by camera-shy bank robbers. We don't ban those, and absent compelling evidence of an epidemic of burqa-enabled felonies, we shouldn't ban veils.

Contrary to the prohibitionists, being deprived of an option is not liberation, and choosing your own clothing is not aggression. The few Muslims who take cover behind the burqa should be tolerated as long as they observe the first axiom of a free society: Live and let live. Maybe someday their opponents will learn to do the same.

It is nobody's business but mine.

2010-03-27T00:28:00.002+01:00

The minister of Justice has just approved new amendments that give the courts of law the ability to hand out much harsher punishments for various crimes. Many of these are victimless crimes such as let's say drug possession and so called abuse of minors. What is frightening is that in the new legislation it has now become a crime to possess certain forms of cartoons (drawings) that may be seen as pornographic. Drawings are a product of the imagination. So the Minister is now making it a crime to THINK about certain things.

Roughly half of the arrests and court cases in the United States each year involve consensual crimes—actions that are against the law, but directly harm no one's person or property except, possibly, the "criminal's."

More than 750,000 people are in jail right now because of something they did, something that did not physically harm the person or property of another. In addition, more than 3,000,000 people are on parole or probation for consensual crimes. Further, more than 4,000,000 people are arrested each year for doing something that hurts no one but, potentially, themselves.

The injustice doesn't end there, of course. Throwing people in jail is the extreme. If you can throw people in jail for something, you can fire them for the same reason. You can evict them from their apartments. You can deny them credit. You can expel them from schools. You can strip away their civil rights, confiscate their property, and destroy their lives—just because they're different.

At what point does behavior become so unacceptable that we should tell our government to lock people up? The answer: We should lock people up only when they physically harm the person or property of a nonconsenting other.

Contained in this answer is an important assumption: after a certain age, our persons and property belong to us. Yes, if we harm ourselves it may emotionally harm others. That's unfortunate, but not grounds for putting us in jail. If it were, every time we stopped dating person A in order to date person B, we would run the risk of going to jail for hurting person A. If person B were hurt by our being put in jail, person A could be put in jail for hurting person B. This would, of course, hurt person A's mother, who would see to it that person B would go to jail. Eventually, we'd all be in jail.

As silly as that situation sounds, it is precisely the logic used by some to protect the idea of consensual crimes.

Arguments in favor of laws against any consensual activity are usually variations of "It's not moral!" And where does the objector's sense of morality come from? For the most part, his or her religion. Some claim "cultural values" as the basis of morality, but where does this set of cultural values come from? The sharing of a similar religion.

To a large degree, we have created a legal system that is, to quote Alan Watts, "clergymen with billy clubs." Says Watts:

The police have enough work to keep them busy regulating automobile traffic, preventing robberies and crimes of violence and helping lost children and little old ladies find their way home. As long as the police confine themselves to such activities they are respected friends of the public. But as soon as they begin inquiring into people's private morals, they become nothing more than armed clergymen.

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The blogger who is above the law?

2010-03-26T14:05:00.001+01:00

Consensual sex with anyone should never be a crime but rape is a different kettle of fish.

One particular blog run by a Maltese woman takes a sickeningly morbid pleasure into dissecting the private lives of people. One of the most commented upon posts in her blog is about a man who was accused of defiling a minor. What did this man do? Did he perhaps rape then murder a little girl, or perhpas did he just rape her? No, what he is guilty of is that he sent a salacious SMS to a minor. A minor in Malta is anyone under 18 years of age. The court punished this man and he also lost his job. He was given a suspended jail term, which some members of the police tell us is sometimes worse than an actual jail term. Thanking God for small mercies, the court ordered a ban on the publication of the name of this man. He is a private individual and just to remind you once again his crime was that of sending naughty sms s to someone under 18 years of age. The woman blogger published the name of this man and his photo and started a terrible hate campaign against him so that he was depicted as a monster out of hell. We do not know this man personally and have never had any communication with him so we have no personal interest in his case. However we believe in normal human decency. The particular blogger who started the hate mongering against this man does not seem to share these human traits. Also she believes that the laws that she wants applied on others should not apply to her or her family members.

Some information has just come our way from very reliable sources about a VERY close relative of this woman. We are only going to ask questions here.

1. Is it true that a VERY close relative of the blogger attempted to rape an under age girl?

2. Is it true that this was all covered up so that it would not be leaked out to the press?

3. Is it true that the girl's silence was bought?

4. Is it true that the police can in such cases act 'ex-ufficcio' (i.e. without the victim's consent) against the alleged perpetrator but in this case they did not?

5. Is it true that this woman blogger has very powerful friends in the government?

We repeat that we are only asking questions and no names have been mentioned. We do this because we do not believe in character assassination but that woman blogger must understand that what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander.

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The lawyer who cannot be named

2010-03-24T20:42:00.000+01:00

A case in court today involves a man of Arab origin who testified in his trial about drug trafficking that his lawyer told him not to mention the name of a third party 'because he was a powerful man in government'.

The court ordered the media, not to publish the name of the lawyer who wanted this man to obfuscate the truth so as to protect another alleged criminal. The lawyer, we are told is a parliamentary secretary.

So let's get this straight. If an 18 year old man has sex with his 16 year old girlfriend and for some reason she later decides to ruin his life all that she needs do is talk to the police and soon his name will be in all papers, radio, TV and internet. He will also be put on a sex offenders register for life. If another young man is caught with a joint the same will happen. What interest does the public have in the name of the young man? Nothing. But the public should be very interested in knowing who of their representatives breaks serious laws.

We will do what is permissible to us by law to expose this alleged criminal.

Ok here goes. There are three Parliamentary secretaries who are lawyers:

1. Dr. Mario Demarco (His practice before he became a parliamentary secretary involved cases of a commercial nature.)

2. Dr. Chris Said ( A lawyer from Nadur, Gozo.)

3. Dr. Jason Azzopardi. (A lawyer who often worked in the criminal courts before he became parliamentary secretary.)

These are the facts as available to everyone.

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Expensive Pope

2010-03-24T11:32:00.000+01:00

He is going to cost us 750,000 euros for just over a day. How the Church uses its money is its business but the state is involved too and that is MY money.

It is official. Pope Benedict's visit to Malta will cost Malta almost a million Euros. I will not go into the merits of how moral it is to spend that amount of money for a one day visit. But serious questions arise in every free thinking mind.

This man is implicated in a child sex abuse scandal (he'll come out clean unlike the unfortunate sods in Malta who were caught doing a little more than holding hands with their 16 year old girlfriends), was in the Nazi youths and moves and talks like an old lady.

If people want to go see him, the mass should be held in St. John's cathedral in Valletta against payment of 25 Euros. Last time I tried to go inside St. John's cathedral to pray I was asked to pay around 5 euros. So nothing new here.

St. James Cathedral can take at least 600 people so that gives the church an income of Euro 150,000 for a 90 minute Mass / event. How the church uses that money is its own business though I do have a few suggestions (for example that Kevin Pagiurcopulo, the Curia's PR man at least answers emails sent to him, some of them sent by devout Catholics asking for a job with the Church after a call for applications was issued many months ago).

A couple of giant screens can be put outside the cathedral and the square and adjoining street can easily take several thousand people who can watch for free. Heck, the local churches can chip in and provide seats for free.

But no - we have one of the most beautiful Baroque churches in the world and we welcome the Pope on a cardboard stage as long as some architects and contractors, chosen by the curia no doubt, are paid for it. I hope it rains on the day so that we can see it all melting down.

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LGBT clergy

2010-03-23T09:38:00.000+01:00

Last week, in a question and answers jam session with TIME Magazine, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning spiritual leader from South Africa, said that (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) LGBT clergy offer the Church a vast array of gifts. Tutu said it was his duty as a person of faith to support them.

"If I don't support them, why support the appointment of any other person? Their sexuality is as much a part of who they are as my race is. They don't choose it. I don't choose it," Tutu said.

What a teachable moment. While the leader of the worldwide Anglican Church greets the news of a lesbian bishop by issuing a statement of regret, Tutu takes sexual orientation off the table, and boils us all down to our common basic humanity. And when you view everyone through that lens, what does it matter whether they are gay, straight, black, white, male or female?

There's simply nothing regrettable about seeing LGBT clergy become more prominent in houses of faith throughout the globe. The only thing regrettable is that in some corners of the world, including Malta, religious folks would rather focus on who a person loves rather than who a person is. That is why according to new regulations by the bishops in Malta gays are being prohibited from being ordained. Because of this it is the Catholic Church and society in general that are losing out.

Do you spank your wife?

2010-03-23T09:04:00.001+01:00

Just when I think I have seen it all, I stumble upon something called Christian Domestic Discipline (CDD) marriage, a rising trend in conservative Christian households. A CDD marriage, for the uninitiated, is “marriage is one in which one partner is given authority over the other, and has the means to back up that authority, usually by spanking.” And, of course, that one partner with authority is always the man and always in reference to a heterosexual relationship. I guess the LGBT community has to miss out on all the domestic violence fun.

You see, according to this popular CDD website, modern culture with its “radically selfish feminism” and its “wholesale bias against true manhood” is undermining good old fashioned Christian heterosexual marriage. Clearly, this can all be fixed with spanking.

Husbands, don’t worry if you don’t already know how to best smack your wife around. CDD websites are full of helpful tips! For example, you should “take caution not to deliver the lashes anywhere but the buttocks,” remind your wife that “she is not in control of this discipline,” and while you “may find it difficult to cause your wife pain,” you need to remember that “as a woman she needs the release of guilt that this form of punishment brings.” If your wife sinned in front of your children, she should be spanked in front of them, too. Oh, and don’t feel confused if this seems like mixing business with pleasure: “a woman’s bottom,” one site claims, “was created not only as an enticement to men but as a target for his hand when she disobeys.”

With descriptions such as those, who could resist the pull of a Christian Domestic Discipline marriage? It has it all: domestic violence, homophobia, and the humiliation of women. I had thought my marriage, based on equality, mutual respect, and openness was solid. I see now that I have let my selfish feminism cloud my view.

In all seriousness, though, this trend is incredibly disturbing. No matter how you dress up domestic violence, no matter what higher calling you attribute it to, hitting your partner is wrong. Hitting them once is unacceptable; establishing a system of violence that governs your marriage is twisted and horrifying and must be stopped.

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Don't drop the soap!

2010-03-23T08:50:00.002+01:00

Not all inmates at Corradino Prison (it is NOT a correctional facility) are violent criminals. Many are jailed for nonviolent crimes. Many made one stupid decision, a poor choice. Many were in the wrong place and the wrong time. And some prisoners are actually innocent. Many more are there awaiting trial so they are presumed innocent even by the Maltese legal system.

Certainly, no man, woman or child behind bars should be abused, debased and terrorized as part of his or her punishment. But this is not the case. Take a look at these facts from America. We have no studies or statistics about the situation in Malta but ex prisoners we have spoken to report sexual abuse as a common experience.

"Roughly 4.5% of the more than 2 million men, women and children behind bars are victims of rape and sexual assault. The USA's correctional facilities are failing miserably at protecting the prison population confined within their walls, particularly when you consider that more inmates report sexual abuse at the hands of prison staff than from fellow inmates, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics."

from: http://criminaljustice.change.org

Men's best kept secret.

2010-03-17T09:40:00.000+01:00

Lee Jeans advert. Who is the target audience here?

The earth’s best kept secret, which I plan to share with you, is that men, throughout their adult life, are most physically attracted to nymphets around the Age of Consent. For all those myths about True Love and fidelity in marriage, and gaining in wisdom and maturity, the fact is that adult men have always secretly hungered for sweet 16-year-old girls, or, if they are gay, for sweet 16-year-old boys. The age does not have to be exact, of course, and there are always the exceptions – the aesthete (the liar), the perverse (the selfish), the neutered (the confused) and the dead (the dead). But your average healthy adult male of the human species still wants his Eve, or his Adam.

This news is not received well by adult women who, quite naturally, are skeptical that such a thing could be true. From their TV and tabloid viewing they know that married men divorce them for younger women and that men seem to be genetically more predisposed to have affairs, whether it is true or not. But adult women also cannot bring themselves to be so cynical about their men that they could even entertain the idea that men’s sexual desires are constantly and biologically fixed upon 16-year-olds, give or take a year or two or three. They will never get a straight answer out of their men on this subject. Only the brave ones – or the fools -- would ever confess.

Or they could put it into literature. This is the ironic truth of that fine book, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita.

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Sexual Genesis and the age of consent.

2010-03-17T09:09:00.001+01:00

Above is Rubens' The Abduction of Ganymede (1611). Does it get any more phallic than this? Zeus is doing the abducting here, as an eagle carrying Ganymede away to Olympus.

Once upon a time gods came down from heaven to the earth in search of sex with young women. We have no reason to disbelieve this since the Greek myths confirm that Eden after the Fall was a place of impatient gods and voluptuous young women. It was Mark Twain who wrote: “The sweeter sex, the dearer sex, the lovelier sex was manifestly at its best, then, for it was even able to attract gods. Real gods. They came down out of heaven and had wonderful times with those hot young blossoms. The Bible tells about it.” It does indeed, in Genesis 6.

But as we know, God had second thoughts. While Zeus cavorted with Europa (and let’s not forget Ganymede) and Poseidon had dozens of consorts (including Pelops), and the goddesses were not left out (Aphrodite especially), God decided, “I will wipe out from the earth the men whom I have created…for I am sorry that I made them.”

The Fall, it turns out, was all a big disappointment, not only because Eve gave Adam the apple but also because of what their descendents got up to afterwards in Eden.

They were only following God’s instructions to “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1), which they did of course, but they brought the Flood down upon themselves (Genesis 6-8), followed in short order by the destruction of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) and Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19). As Twain put it, “Adam and Eve now knew what evil was, and how to do it” and God was angry.

Genesis, in other words, is a sexual fable about the Age of Consent – God’s consent allowing humans to have sex – a consent that evidently was withdrawn before being reinstated with Abraham. So saucy questions push themselves forward: were Adam and Eve supposed to know what they were doing? Before the snake arrived, clearly they didn’t. Were they supposed to see sex simply as a duty and not enjoy it? We know they did. Did God simply abandon humans after giving his blessing to Abraham and leave them to sort it all out? We have been dealing with this mess ever since.

For traditionalists, the Bible says that sex should wait for marriage, but the textual evidence says otherwise. As Twain well knows, Genesis is wildly provocative, full of tales of drunken nakedness, incest and polygamy, which is why it has been debauched enthusiastically by many other books ever since, a measure of its stature perhaps, from the Book of Enoch to Paradise Lost to Twain’s Letters from the Earth and so on. We long have been told that sex is all about Sin and humans have had to make the best of it, arguing over the appropriate age to indulge in it. But if the age of sexual activity keeps getting younger and the legal Age of Consent keeps going up, isn’t there a new fissure here, a new Abyss, where more and more people are “falling” into Sin?

On Porn and Fantasy

2010-03-07T19:38:00.002+01:00

Fantasy is a normal, healthy part of sex for men and women. In fact, many specialists claim that a rich fantasy life leads to better sex. Pornography can help us in fantasising. Pornography has been around as long as Man has been able to draw or sculpt and there are no indications that it is going to go away. I find no problems at all with photo / film pornography if the persons involved are willing participants.

One of the attractions of fantasy lovers - even when your fantasy lover is actually your current partner - is that they're right beside you, and they know just what to do to make you feel good. Another benefit is that you can enjoy fantasy sex with someone other than your partner without repercussions, because it occurs solely in your mind.

Fantasy gives you an outlet for all of the wild, lustful things that you've always wanted to do. You might be really turned on, for example, by the thought of doing it with your spouse in a convertible in the Luqa Lidl parking lot on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Chances are you're not going to try this one out for real, but you can go full speed ahead in your fantasies.

So go ahead use your fantasy and if need be porn, if your imagination is not that imaginative!

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False prophets in Malta

2010-03-01T17:59:00.000+01:00

Christianity has been around for two thousand years and, for the most part, it has preached a good message by which to live. But unfortunately, as with all organised bodies, many people claiming to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ have shown themselves to behave quite opposite to the message it espouses.

This especially applies to some 'sects' or let's just call them 'small churches'. In Malta there about a handful. One of the leaders of a particular 'group' knows that we are watching him. We don't care what people believe or do as long as they do not hurt others. Once that line is crossed ....

Watch this space.

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The nightmare is real

2010-02-27T11:09:00.000+01:00

What if the nightmare imagined by George Orwell in 1984 were real?

What if you had to live in a country where radio dials were fixed to a single government station? Where the surroundings were entirely black-and-white except for the red lettering of the propaganda signs? Where you were required to keep a large portrait of the president on your living room wall and bow to it on national holidays? Where sexuality was repressed except for purposes of reproduction? Where spies like Orwell’s Thought Police studied your facial expressions during political rallies to make sure you were sincere not only in your speech but your thoughts?
This is a real place – the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea or

North Korea

. The Communist regime that has controlled the northern half of the Korean peninsula since 1945 might be the most totalitarian of modern world history.

In Malta there are clear attempts to wean us off many freedoms that we have got used to. The problem is that the state is using subtle psychological tactics to make the unthinking masses actually ask for less freedoms. Bigger prisons, sex crimes registers, censorship, cameras watching and recording our every action and stopping people from leaving the country are things that are happening in Malta NOW! Erosion of freedoms starts slowly so that people can get used to it. Resist!

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Google is not responsible for the content of this blog. We are.

2010-02-24T18:26:00.000+01:00

In late 2006, students at a school in Turin, Italy filmed and then uploaded a video to Google Video that showed them bullying an autistic schoolmate. The video was totally reprehensible and we took it down within hours of being notified by the Italian police. We also worked with the local police to help identify the person responsible for uploading it and she was subsequently sentenced to 10 months community service by a court in Turin, as were several other classmates who were also involved. In these rare but unpleasant cases, that's where our involvement would normally end.

But in this instance, a public prosecutor in Milan decided to indict four Google employees —David Drummond, Arvind Desikan, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes (who left the company in 2008). The charges brought against them were criminal defamation and a failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. To be clear, none of the four Googlers charged had anything to do with this video. They did not appear in it, film it, upload it or review it. None of them know the people involved or were even aware of the video's existence until after it was removed.

Nevertheless, a judge in Milan today convicted 3 of the 4 defendants — David Drummond, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes — for failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. All 4 were found not guilty of criminal defamation. In essence this ruling means that employees of hosting platforms like Google Video are criminally responsible for content that users upload. We will appeal this astonishing decision because the Google employees on trial had nothing to do with the video in question. Throughout this long process, they have displayed admirable grace and fortitude. It is outrageous that they have been subjected to a trial at all.

But we are deeply troubled by this conviction for another equally important reason. It attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built. Common sense dictates that only the person who films and uploads a video to a hosting platform could take the steps necessary to protect the privacy and obtain the consent of the people they are filming. European Union law was drafted specifically to give hosting providers a safe harbor from liability so long as they remove illegal content once they are notified of its existence. The belief, rightly in our opinion, was that a notice and take down regime of this kind would help creativity flourish and support free speech while protecting personal privacy. If that principle is swept aside and sites like Blogger, YouTube and indeed every social network and any community bulletin board, are held responsible for vetting every single piece of content that is uploaded to them — every piece of text, every photo, every file, every video — then the Web as we know it will cease to exist, and many of the economic, social, political and technological benefits it brings could disappear.

These are important points of principle, which is why we and our employees will vigorously appeal this decision.

Posted by Matt Sucherman, VP and Deputy General Counsel - Europe, Middle East and Africa

On Eurovision

2010-02-23T18:50:00.000+01:00

Listen to this short song and watch the video by a singer I had never heard of. Why can't we have something like this for Eurovision instead of the boring or pseudo-original songs we are always faced with?

Her voice is not out of this world and neither is the music - but it is beautiful. I hope that you agree with me and enjoy listening to this.

There are people like her in Malta - but I suppose the crap that surrounds Eurovision (Malta pre-amble) including idiotic lyrics, boring music and Grace Borg frighten them away.

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Want a job in Malta servicing the porn industry?

2010-02-22T11:26:00.001+01:00

There is this new job opening - as posted to us on the 19th of February 2010 by a Company operating in Malta called CCBill.

"CCBill was created to serve the needs of consumers looking for a fast, safe and convenient way to purchase access to online venues. As a trusted online merchant since 1998, processing millions of online transactions each year, it has earned its reputation as a leader in the industry. CCBill EU, the sister company of CCBill, was created in 2002 to service clients based in European Countries. CCBill EU provides the same great online processing services as CCBill, but only to countries that are part of the EU region.Who we'd like to meet. Forming part of the Client Support Team, the key responsibilities of this position are maintaining excellent communications between CCBill clients and the Client Support department in order to answer questions and queries about CCBill technologies for both existing and potential clients. The ideal applicant will have excellent communication, interpersonal, organisational and problem solving skills..."

Here is who CCBill really are:

The company works as a middleman between thousands of professional porn sites and the banks by processing credit card transactions for access to the websites in what is the biggest industry on the internet together with online gambling. The company has just announced its expansion into Eastern Europe through its base in Malta, from where it will be employing software and IT specialists.
According to CCBill’s ‘acceptable use policy’, its online clients cannot market their sites using language including “Lolita”, “Pedo”, “pre-teen” or “any other descriptions that would lead someone to believe that the models are less than 18 years of age”. The company also forbids “the posting or display of any image or wording depicting or related to extreme violence, incest, snuff, scat, mutilation, or rape anywhere on the site”.
In 2002, CCBill’s founder and CEO Ron Cadwell said he regretted he could no longer process bestiality sites after VISA pulled out of the bizarre sex industry. (MaltaToday 19th March 2006)

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Gay men holding hands

2010-02-20T17:43:00.001+01:00

This morning I was having a cup of coffee and a couple of 'pastizzi' in a Valletta coffee shop when two gay men walked in holding hands. As you can expect heads started turning. A little girl at the table next to mine asked her mother quite loudly why the two men where holding hands. Her mother replied. "It is because they love each other."

It kind of made my day.

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Teleshopping

2010-02-14T20:03:00.001+01:00

Smash TV, the ITV shopping channel and all the other Maltese channels have programmes that urge you to buy 'white goods'. Some are overpriced rubbish. Take a look at what we found on an American site dedicated to consumer rights and then think twice when someone on TV urges you to 'trade in' your old appliance for their great new gizmo.

Great old appliances, long lives

Circa 1926 Stewart stove and 1930 Westinghouse refrigerator

Marshall Goodwin and Sue Hughes, landlord and graphic artist, Pittsburgh

A house built in 1893, a tight budget, and an artist's sensibility had Hughes hunting for old-fashioned appliances 25 years ago. She found the gas stove in an antiques shop and the fridge through an ad. "They're charming, and my electric bill is as cheap as anybody's," she says. The oven turns out holiday pies; the fridge's freezer holds ice. Hughes has never repaired what she calls her "pieces of art."

1936 Toastmaster toaster

Joan Ogden, actuary consultant, Salt Lake City

Ogden describes her ancient toaster, a wedding gift to her parents, as a workhorse that looks good to boot. "It makes better toast than any of the modern things," she says, adding that she threw out a newer model. She uses this one to toast homemade bread. "This toaster had to be made superbly," she says. "It hasn't been repaired. If all appliances lasted 75 years, manufacturers wouldn't have any business."

1938 KitchenAid stand mixer

Barbara Ciechacki, retiree, Linden, N.J.

As a child, Ciechacki enjoyed her mom's lemon meringue pies. Beating by hand was work, her dad thought, so they bought the mixer, which she now uses to whip up egg whites for her pies. "It's a sentimental use," she says, attributing the mixer's long life, with no repairs, to its heavy metal and great motor. "Plastic can't take as much as metal, and people once took pride in how they made a product."

1939 Westinghouse waffle iron

Nelson and Barbara Sprague, retirees, Matthews, N.C.

No fancy buttons here: The waffles' aroma tells Nelson Sprague when they're done. For Barbara Sprague, the scent brings back fond memories because her parents received the waffle iron as a wedding gift. "My parents were products of the Depression and took care of things," she says. "They became well-to-do, but they didn't have to have the latest thing if something worked." The cord has been replaced, and waffles and memories keep coming.

Circa 1946 O'Keefe & Merritt stove

Janice and Rod Bedayn, retirees, Grass Valley, Calif.

When the Bedayns were dating, years ago, they visited his mother, and Janice noticed her red range. "I thought, ‘This is the man for me,' " she told us with a laugh. "The stove's color is magnificent." She caters school fundraisers and each Christmas bakes 800 to 1,200 cookies for friends; her husband bakes bread. Over the years, they've given their stove a tune-up and replaced one small piece.

Circa 1950 Chambers stove

Amanda Waters, project manager, Montclair, N.J.

When she was house-hunting eight years ago, Waters spotted this stove and ended up buying the Colonial house where it lived. "I love this stove," she says. "It has character, and it's quirky." It has three burners and an oven just big enough to fit a turkey. Waters cleans the oven once a year and hasn't made any repairs. Her son has urged her to buy a state-of-the-art range. That won't happen, she says.

1954 Kenmore dryer

Betty Tumlin, teacher, Eugene, Ore.

"The dryer was a gift from my dad to mom when she found out she was pregnant with me," Tumlin says. After her mother died, 15 years ago, Tumlin donated the dryer to the school where she teaches. Although there's occasional talk about a new dryer, this one keeps going. She thinks it has lasted because it's well made and has been properly maintained, with a new belt every few years. "The downside," Tumlin points out, "is that when other teachers hear the dryer story, everybody knows my age."

1955 Electrolux vacuum cleaner

Karen Poret, homemaker, Santa Cruz, Calif.

Fastidious about cleaning, Poret prefers this gray steel canister vacuum, which belonged to her mother-in-law, to the newer plastic behemoths. The hose and the handle are original. As for upkeep, Poret has had the brushes cleaned for $5. "When my husband and I were dating," she says, "I had a ‘68 Bug, and we joked if we ever divorced, he'd get the Bug, I'd get the vacuum."

1957 Singer sewing machine

Mary Jane Makely, homemaker, Farmingdale, N.Y.

Makely bought this sewing machine to make clothes, uses it now to hem her granddaughter's jeans, and has never put a penny into it. Years ago, her 10-year-old son wanted a fringed vest like one he'd seen on TV. She sewed all night and surprised him with a new vest in the morning. Her son refused to take it off for days. "I would never trade in this machine," Makely says.

1959 Osterizer blender

Mary-Ellen and Frank Schmidt, retirees, York, Penn.

"When we had our first boy, we bought the blender thinking we'd make baby food," Frank Schmidt says. "But it was easier to buy the bottle stuff." The Schmidts keep the blender on a counter, where it purees soups and mixes batter. "No need to replace it," he says. "It does what we want it to do." He credits the metal base and good craftsmanship for its years of service.

1960 KitchenAid dishwasher

Florence Pick, homemaker, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Pick has no luck with refrigerators; she has owned three so far. But her dishwasher has worked, without fail, for nearly five decades. "Mine's old faithful," she says. "My daughter's on her third one." Pick thinks her dishwasher endures because she rinses very dirty dishes before loading them. (With newer models, that's not necessary.) It has had no repairs, just a face-lift: It used to be turquoise and was painted beige.

1974 Maytag washer

Allison Priddy, social worker, Westminster, Colo.

Priddy bought this washer soon after she got married. It has withstood six moves and the countless baskets of laundry that come with two daughters. They're grown up now, but the laundry pile remains—two Newfoundland dogs, known for slobbering, keep the washer busy. "We've had it repaired off and on," Priddy says. "The repairmen say: ‘Hang onto it. They don't build them like this anymore.' "

1975 Amana Radar-range

Anthony Pisciotta, teacher, Nutley, N.J.

This built-in microwave was a wedding present that intrigued visitors in the early days. "People would come over and want a demonstration," Pisciotta says. "We'd put cheese on a cracker and watch the cheese melt. Amazing." He figures the microwave is still working, without repairs, because it's simple, with one timer and no power settings. "Someone gave us a new microwave a couple years ago," he says. "It's in a box in the basement."

1980 Sylvania TV

Janet and Marv Lake, retirees, Kellogg, Idaho

The Lakes depend on their TV set for a look at history in the making. (In 1980, it brought them the Mount St. Helens eruption.) It replaced a black-and-white set and has had one minor repair. Janet Lake says the set has lasted because it's well made and has never been on a moving van. The tank atop the TV houses another long-term inhabitant, an 11-year-old goldfish.

Posted: February 2009 — Consumer Reports Magazine issue: March 2009

Democracy in Danger

2010-02-13T16:17:00.000+01:00

There can be no disguising the symptoms anymore: Malta is now regressing at an alarming rate, and the results are now visible for all to see.

Evidently Malta has been gripped by an unhealthy and unsound obsession with public morality, and this in turn can lead in only one direction: backwards, to a time of excessive interference of the State in matters which should ultimately remain private.
Who would have ever guessed, that the pro-EU movement would have resulted directly in a wholesale regression to the 1960s?

The prime Minister is an ex-Azzjoni Cattolica man and the Justice Minister's declared first loyalty is to his religion. I am not sure what would be worse - to have this man who is responsible for the police and who is therefore responsible for their atrocities in gagging freedom of expression over the past year or to have Anglu Farrugia as minister of justice when Labour come to power.

Lower the Age of Consent in Malta!

2010-02-12T11:12:00.000+01:00

In Malta we are in a very strange situation. A unique situation in all Europe. Our age of consent for sex is 18 years. There is no other country in Europe with such a high age. That means that in Malta, anyone having any sort of intimate contact with anyone else who is even a few weeks below the age of 18 may be charged with various offences - most of which carry a prison term.

At the age of 16 one can have a job in Malta, one can have a bank account, one can even work in a bank and handle hundreds of thousands of Euros. One can even get married at 16. But having sex with anyone who is 16... or even 17 and 11 months will send the other party to prison. Hell, it doesn't even have to be sex. It can also be an intimate kiss. There was even a case where a person sent raunchy SMSs and ended up with a prison term.

Let me say this again to make sure that everybody understands how stupid our law is. If I am a 60 year old man I can very legally marry and proceed to make babies with a 16 year old young woman. Everything is super cool with the law. BUT if I am 19 years old and have consensual sex with my 17 year old girlfriend or boyfriend then I am breaking several laws.

Then how come that most of the population of Malta is not in prison? It is because someone usually has to lodge a report with the police that the act actually happened. And who would lodge such complaints? People with an axe to grind or with a chip on their shoulder. Lawyers will tell you that most of the reports filed against these so called 'paedophiles' are just cases of vendetta. I start going out with a girlfriend when she is 17 and we stay together for 10 years. After 10 years for some reason the relationship breaks down. That girlfriend may, if she wants, report me to the police and see my name in the paper for corruption of a minor, defilement of minor, and even statuary rape. She may even see me in prison.

Is this justice?

Members of parliament when are you going to reduce the age of consent in Malta to at least what is the average in Europe? In nearby Italy it is 14. In Spain it is 13 and in the UK it is 16. Note that reducing the age of consent has no relationship to abuse because if real abuse happens - i.e. rape or some forced form of sex there are laws that protect society against this. But the age of consent laws in Malta make it a crime under every circumstance to do much more than just hold hands with anyone under 18.

Some time ago a conservative Maltese newspaper carried an online poll about lowering the age of consent. The vast majority of the thousands of people who voted were in favour of lowering the age. And the Times of Malta readers certainly can't be described as the epitome of liberalism. We know that there are several MPs on both sides of the house of parliament who are in favour of lowering the age of consent. What are they going to do about it? What are they waiting for?

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Taking a leak

2010-02-10T18:57:00.001+01:00

His Royal Highness Prince Willy taking a leak.

This is from an online chat I was having with a friend in the USA. Form your own conclusions about the central message in this little chat. i.e. the sex offenders register.

"Yeah, so, I'm checking out my county in Florida and not only do I find pages and pages of offenders, I know the guy at the top of the list. So, one of the last times I went down to visit my parents, I asked one of my friends about this guy. He said, 'You are not going to believe this sh*t! He's driving along, minding his own business, when he has to take a leak. So he pulls his car over to the side of the road and start pissing away. While he's taking a leak, another car passes by with a kid in the car. The kid sees his willy and the guy gets arrested as a sex offender.'"

"I'm hoping he fought it."

"It doesn't matter. Once you get on that list, you're screwed! I mean no one will hire you. No matter where you go you'll be tracked. Hell! If it were me, I'd go for the 'life of crime'. But I'm not sure how'd I'd make a living."

"What about E-Bay?"

"Sure! Rob a house, bludgeon whoever is in the house, steal the stuff and sell it on E-Bay. Of course, I'd have to burn down the house to make sure that there was no evidence left from the crime."

"Of course."

"Or better yet, blackmail some other guy to do it for me and then kill the blackmailer after you get the stuff... THEN sell it on E-Bay."

"I'm not sure which is scarier. The fact that you were able to think of two probable perfect crimes involving murder, robbery, and arson OR the speed you came up with the ideas. Have you been planning this a while?"

"Well, you never know."

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Biting the hand that feeds them

2010-02-06T20:20:00.002+01:00

One of our readers sent us an email with comments about his experience in Gozo. Here it is, almost exactly as received:

"Gozo at this time of year can be beautiful. I googled Gozo Apartments and one of the places that came up was called Ta' XXXXX (name deleted as per malta-exposed policy not to publish names of private individuals) apartments in Zebbug. It promised to be a gorgeous place to stay in but for me it was the location that clinched it. It is located right at the edge of a cliff. I contacted the owner and told him that I would be alone as I needed to work in peace and quiet for a few days. He quoted 35 euros a night and I asked if he could do any better (Other apartments usually ask for 25 euros). We settled for 33 Euros per night. I was not in the mood to bother about a few extra Euros. He complained about the high running costs and that it is not worth it to rent out an apartment (WTF is he doing on the internet advertising his rental flat then?)

The apartment is very basic. Some cane furniture, a plastic sofa, a table and that's it. And oh yes, a few faded prints stuck on the walls in tacky frames. But the view from the balcony is magnificent. I suspect that the flat was built before MEPA because its location does ruin the view of Zebbug hills from other locations.

On the night before arriving I phoned the owner and 'en passant' mentioned the fact that my parents might join me for a day. He phoned a while later and asked for an extra 66 Euros because the two extra people would waste water and electricity even though it was just one day. He said that a gas cylinder costs 13 euros and again repeated that it is not worth it for him to rent out flats. I was having enough of this skin flint and started to tell him to forget about the whole thing when he suddenly decided that his Missus made a mistake and it was not an extra 66 Euros per night that he wanted but 'only' 20 euros - for the princely sum of 53 Euros (a night at the Ta Cence hotel including full buffet breakfast plus use of spa and all amenities costs around 48 Euros at this time of year). I was tired and just wanted to be away for a few days in a place a bit more private than a hotel and I stupidly accepted.

I arrived on a weekday night and he met me to give me the key. He showed me where the flat was and I paid him there and then for the full 3 night stay (120 Euros).

Problems were apparent immediately - the gas heater that he had provided worked erratically. The bedroom was unbearably cold and he had even taken out the batteries from the TV remote control so I had to rush out and try and buy some. Just one roll of toilet paper, one box of matches and one bag for garbage. No towels of course.

As there was no night light I left the back veranda light on at night - also as a form of security.

Next morning my parents arrived to stay the day. Imagine my surprise when he turned up to tell me not to leave lights on at night "because they bother the neigbours". He had a good peek round trying to see if there were more people other than my two elderly parents. I wanted to get rid of him and just said that I would not leave any lights on at night.

My parents left and I spent a peaceful day reading and writing. The following day I sent him an sms and asked him where to leave the key. He sent a message back asking when I would be leaving. I replied that it would be sometime in the late afternoon as I wanted to have a siesta before taking the ferry back. His immediate reply was that "checking out" was at 2pm (implying that if I stayed longer I would have to pay an extra 33 Euros).

I just packed and left in disgust."

malta-exposed: This is not an isolated case - people keep getting ripped off in Gozo but they keep returning. It is stupid to contribute to the rape and destruction of this island by people like the man mentioned above who see nothing but money. Do the maths - a Ryan-Air flight to Venice or Pisa costs less than the ticket to board the Gozo ferry. You can stay in an Italian hotel at the same prices this 'qammiel' asked for and eat the best food in the world. Add it all up and you will see that it costs less than Gozo and is immeasurably better. Stop funding people like the man described above - he is the type who killed the goose that laid the golden egg.

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Bad Cops

2010-02-01T14:45:00.000+01:00

The article is taken from the Maltese Newspaper Kullhadd. What one has to keep in mind is that these are people who know well how to cover their tracks because they are trained in 'crime fighting'. That is why we need a Minister of Justice who is not seen as if he is taking sides.

Another point is that the percentage of police officers under investigation for criminal activity is higher that thht of ordinary citizens.

Note also that this newspaper unlike most other despicable rags does not mention names of the accused. Like us at malta-exposed they might be using the concept that we argue using ideas not names of non public persons.

33 puliziija akkuzati b’reati kriminali

Saturday, 30 January 2010 20:59 Kullhadd Team

pulizija_croppedFil-prezent hemm 33 membru tal-Korp tal-Pulizija li huma mixlija b’reati kriminali quddiem il-Qorti tal-Magistrati. Fost il-membri tal-Korp li ghandhom proceduri kriminali pendenti kontra taghhom, hemm 25 minnhom kuntistabbli, hemm 5 surgenti, zewg spetturi u supretendent. Uhud minn dawn il-pulizija, 10 b’kollox huma sospizi, imma 23 l-ohra, ghalkemm ghaddejjin proceduri kriminali quddiem il-Qorti, ghadhom qeghdin jirrapportaw ghax-xoghol.

Fost il-membri tal-Korp li jinsabu sospizi, hemm kuntistabbli li hu akkuzat b’attentat ta’ qtil u li ilu sospiz mill-2008. Hemm surgent li hu akkuzat b’ferita ta’ natura gravi li ilu sospiz mill-2006 u kuntistabbli li hu akkuzati b’feriti gravi li ilu sospiz mill-1996. Kuntistabbli iehor huwa akkuzat b’korruzzjoni ta’ minorenni u ilu sospiz mill-Korp mill-2008 u, kuntistabbli iehor hu akkuzat b’pornografija tat-tfal u gie sospiz is-sena li ghaddiet. Hemm zewg kuntistabbli ohra li huma akkuzati b’serq u li gew sospizi fl-2009. Hemm ukoll kuntistabbli iehor li hu akkuzat bi frodi u ilu sospiz mill-2006, iehor li jinsab akkuzat b’kacca illegali li gie sospiz fl-2009 u iehor li hu akkuzat bi hsara involontarja li ilu sospiz mill-2007.

Fost dawk il-membri tal-Korp li huma akkuzati b’reati kriminali imma li ma gewx sospizi, hemm kuntistabbli li hu akkuzat bi sturpru u feriti fuq il-persuna. Hemm ukoll kuntistabbli li hu akkuzat li kkaguna offizi ta’ natura gravi. Ghal xi raguni mhux maghrufa ghalkemm dawn iz-zewg membri tal-Korp ghandhom akkuzi daqstant gravi, dawn baqghu ma gewx sospizi mill-Korp, minkejja li hemm membri tal-Korp li ghandhom akkuzi inqas gravi u li gew sospizi.

L-oghla ufficjal tal-Pulizija li ghandu proceduri kriminali ghaddejjin kontrih huwa supretendent li hu akkuzat li kkaguna feriti fuq persuna.

Hekk ukoll spettur li hu akkuzat b’telefonati anonimi u spettur iehor li hu akkuzat bi ksur tal-ligijiet ambjentali. L-ebda wiehed minn dawn it-tliet ufficjali gholjin tal-Pulizija m’huwa sospiz mill-Korp. Hemm ukoll surgent u erba’ kuntistabbli li huma akkuzati b’feriti fuq il-persuna u hemm surgent u erba’ kuntistabbli li huma akkuzati b’theddid u ingurja. Kuntistabbli iehor hu akkuzat b’tixhim u iehor li gie mixli b’abbuz ta’ poter.

Dan it-taghrif inghata fil-Parlament mill-Ministru tal-Gustizzja u Intern Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici bi twegiba ghall-domanda parlamentari tad-deputat Laburista Carmelo Abela.

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