Small is abominable

Granted. We have established a record in corruption on the local scene. However, the Financial Secrecy Index 2020 places our country in the 18th place. Above Malta feature such respectable countries as the USA (second) and Switzerland (third) and three EU member states, namely Luxembourg (sixth), the Netherlands (eighth) and Germany (14th). And yet none of these states appear in the infamous “grey list” by the FATF.

One marvels how neither the government nor the opposition, nor the House of Representatives as a whole, nor the European Parliament, have ever noted and protested about this discrimination. Nor do I hear an outcry in the local media. And yet all these institutions, somehow or other, to a large or lesser extent, have through the years contributed towards this dismal reputation.

Woe betide the family who contributes towards and then succumbs to the reputation that the mother is a certified whore. Small is abominable. So is political expediency.

Joseph Psaila – Victoria

Bernard Grech on looking after your money

PN leader Bernard Grech

I found it extremely difficult to choose which was the most incredulous statement made by the “temporary” PN and opposition leader, Bernard Grech, during Saviour Balzan’s XTRA on TVM. So I thought of choosing the only true statement made by the only politician in the world I have ever known to have defined himself as a foreign national instead of his own nationality, when talking to foreigners.

Grech , displaying an air of superiority and arrogance rarely seen on such programmes, as if he had just seen a survey showing his trust rating ahead that of the prime minister – when the latest one showed the opposition leader languishing far behind Robert Abela – said that the people had to choose him as prime minister “because I am very careful before parting with my own money”. Hence, they should trust him to look after their own money.

That Grech is very careful before parting with his own money is something we all got to know when Malta Today had revealed Grech’s tax-dodging shenanigans. The opposition leader, who wishes Maltese and Gozitan voters to elect him as their prime minister, took 12 long years to part with the money he owed the department of income tax. And it had to be his wish to contest for the PN- leadership election which finally convinced him to part with the money.

It was even worse when it came to parting with other people’s money which was in his pockets. Money which his clients had paid to him as VAT. Instead of sending it to the VAT authorities, Grech put the money in his pocket, and kept it there for a number of years. Not to look after his clients’ money, but to look after his own interest.

What if he is ever trusted to be prime minister, would he similarly consider the Maltese people’s money as if it were his own?

Finally, a word of advice to Grech and the PN: the more mud you hurl at Abela, the dirtier your hands become.

Eddy Privitera – Mosta

Some are more equal than others

John Azzopardi’s letter (February 14) quotes at some length ex-pope Benedict’s words during his visit to Malta in 2010, warning Malta against the dangers of abortion and divorce.

It also conspicuously fails even to name the current Pope Francis, or to refer to his forthcoming visit except in  terms of hypocrisy and disloyalty on the part of those who might welcome him as a pope who is clearly sympathetic to those involved in marriage breakdown, same-sex partnerships, problematic pregnancy, and political and religious persecution. His letter suggests a parody of George Orwell’s words in Animal Farm: ‘All popes are Catholic, but some popes are more Catholic than others’.

Sooner or later, Azzopardi and others like him will have to face up to the fact that Malta, like the rest of the western world, is no longer a Catholic theocracy, but is instead built on democratic  values which sometimes have less to do with ‘Christian heritage’ than we might wish.

Hell is no longer a credible prospect for those who, for whatever reasons, fail to agree with the catechism of the Catholic Church.

Alan Cooke – Sliema

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