Malta is a zoo – Ryan Murdock
Malta is an open-air zoo, but the keepers are all amateur and no one is in charge. New foreign residents on the island may have been shocked to read that Eric Attard of Zebbug was fined this week for...
View ArticleSummer in Malta is the bomb
Another fireworks factory has exploded, spewing toxic smoke, torching crops and sending several people to hospital. This is not a rare occurrence on a very small island with 35 of them. There were...
View ArticleYou’ll have your botched day in court
I’ll never forget the winter when I was served with a summons to appear in front of a Local Tribunal for nonpayment of a traffic fine. I’d gone abroad to write a feature for a travel magazine and had...
View ArticleThe luckiest woman in the world lives in Malta – Ryan Murdock
The luckiest woman in Bormla might just be the luckiest woman in the world. The 64-year-old lottery aficionado had her VAT receipts drawn among the monthly winners at least 13 times since January 2021....
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Tony Blair’s spin doctor on meeting Malta’s Kink
“Smaller than I expected, a bit pudgy, but sharp.” That’s how Alastair Campbell described his first meeting with Joseph Muscat in 2014. The spin doctor who engineered Tony Blair’s rise to power coined...
View ArticleWhen the green’s gone, build on the blue
It isn’t enough to fill every remaining green space in Malta and Gozo with blocks of flats. Now they want to build on the sea. Labour MP and former Parliamentary Secretary for Cleaning protest...
View ArticleHolidays in hell
I’ll always remember my first visit to Comino. Don’t get me wrong, I won’t cherish it. But I’ll remember it. I’d spent a quiet weekend in Gozo with my wife, wandering through villages and down country...
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Government attacks The Shift with legal Groundhog Day
Forty separate branches of the government are attacking another branch of the government in order to attack a news outlet, and you have the pleasure of paying for it. Yes, it’s Groundhog Day in the...
View ArticleLawless roads and random lead
The Canadian government has enraged the ‘go back to your cunt-ry’ brigade by updating its travel advisory to include lawless road conditions, “accidents involving stray bullets”, sexual assaults, rape...
View ArticleHumour in the face of tyranny
Hadi Matar had only read “a couple of pages” of Salman Rushdie’s work when he dashed on stage at a literary event and stabbed the novelist 10 times in the chest and face. He didn’t have a clue what...
View ArticleUnlicensed drivers on lawless roads
No one who’s experienced Maltese roads was surprised to hear driver’s licences were issued based on political connections rather than competence. I mean, it’s a good enough qualification for road works...
View ArticleSuitcases in the night
Frustrated citizens took to the streets again this week to demand an end to the impunity that has smothered the country since 2013. It was the first outbreak of large scale anti-corruption activism...
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Livin’ (at) large in Dubai
Ahh, to be young and free in Dubai, especially when facing serious money laundering charges. I’ve often wondered what became of the girl who had “the courage” to vote Labour back when Electrogas was...
View ArticleGetting away with murder
Another 16th has come. Next month marks five years of cover-ups, stalled court cases, political shoulder shrugging and police inaction since a massive car bomb ended the life of investigative...
View ArticleThe boys are back in town
Malta’s part-time prime minister is on holiday again. Not on his yacht, but your dime. Get ready, New York — Bobby’s in town. The EU’s smallest country is well known for punching above its weight. Ok,...
View ArticleIl-Hutch goes down in proxy war
Another Party loyalist lost his livelihood this week in a fit of pique directed not at him but at the man he pulled strings to help. The Cold War was marked by conflicts such as these, as the world’s...
View ArticleCreating reality one rubbish bin at a time
The government of Malta has been scolded again for playing fast and loose with the truth. The situation could have been resolved quietly if only Prime Minister Robert Abela hadn’t disregarded the...
View ArticleFive years of stalling and avoiding
Representatives of the world’s leading press freedom groups are in Malta again on a fruitless mission to lobby the government to do something other than stall efforts to achieve justice and...
View ArticleMelvin Theuma’s refusal to testify
Melvin Theuma has refused to testify against the men who allegedly gave him a government non-job after he brokered the contract for the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Such cases tend to...
View ArticleSubsidising energy while Electrogas scores
As the European Union sprints into recession, the finance minister attempted to perform the delicate balancing act of clamping a lid on simmering resentment by feigning responsible cost-cutting while...
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