Malta in a league of shame
Honest readers may think that Malta’s reputation for money-laundering is bad enough but now it has been linked with the funding of international terrorist activities and that should be too much even for the Maltese to bear.
This country has been added to a list of untrustworthy countries that doesn’t even include our Mafiosi neighbours in Sicily. In fact, Malta is the only European country to qualify as being so openly corrupt.
It’s like Malta FC (the initials standing for Financial Chicanery) being promoted from the Banana League, moving up this month alongside Haiti, South Sudan and the Philippines.
If this looks a bit like minor nations stuff, it is. The others in the group are (in alphabetical order) Albania, Barbados, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Mauritius, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Senegal, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe.
Those may be places of minor importance on a world scale but they are major players in graft and corruption as well as in the funding of terrorism.
There are only two countries in the Super league – North Korea and Iran.
But Malta is in with a shout, having deservedly climbed its way into the list of First Division dodgy countries. It takes foreign money in, converts it, creams off the top of it and cares nothing about what happens to it thereafter.
And, from what we read in the papers on a daily basis, there’s nothing to stop tiny Malta reaching the top and a play-off, perhaps with Iran.
It’s a league right enough. But it’s a league of shame.
Revel Barker – Għajnsielem
Special package for the elderly
Photo: Shutterstock.comI refer to Emmanuel Cilia Debono’s letter ‘Internet service for the elderly’ (July 27).
I would like to start off by expressing our apologies for not getting back to him in the expected timeframe. I will, therefore, use this as an opportunity to shed light on the matter for him as well as for the benefit of the public.
GO has indeed signed an agreement with the Department for Active Ageing and Community Care within the Ministry for Senior Citizens and Active Ageing. By means of this agreement, GO is participating in the KartAnzjan scheme, in which it is offering a special, dedicated package on some of its services. The offer is as follows.
GO home pack, including internet, landline and TV, is being offered at €30, discounted from €35.99. This also includes access to movies and series TV pass, which offers over 10,000 hours of TV entertainment, including local TV content.
On the mobile front, GO is offering the mobile freedom plan, which includes 5GB of mobile data and full speeds and unlimited calls and SMS to all local EU and UK numbers, at €17.99 instead of €24.99, when taken in conjunction with the home pack.
This offer is open to all customers. In order to benefit from this scheme, existing customers will be required to sign up for a new, two-year agreement, given that the conditions of the offer are different to their existing contract. New customers will automatically be signed up for this scheme on presentation of their pension card.
One can now apply for this scheme online by accessing this link: www.go.com.mt/kartanzjan-form.
For the sake of clarity, this is not a subsidised scheme but a special package offered by GO to Malta’s senior citizens, which will ensure that communications services are even more accessible to them.
We wholeheartedly support an inclusive society and believe that everyone should have the means to actively participate in a digitally driven society.
We regret that the conditions of the scheme may not have been clear at the outset. We invite members of the public to contact us through any of our digital channels, by sending a message on WhatsApp 7970 7970, through Facebook Messenger or live chat on our site at www.go.com.mt for further information.
Mandy Calleja, head of Corporate Communications, GO – Marsa
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