What can we expect from the New Year ?
It's New Year's Eve tomorrow and I'm sure everyone is looking forward to partying, I know I am ! So 2009 is here , the last year in this decade , this time next year will be celebrating a new decade , a decade which will bring about many changes to the world as we now it. Unfourtunatley in 2009 this dreaded Credit Crunch will remain dominating the news and there is even a potential fear that it may arrive in Malta :( . However on the positive side the United States will have a new president , Barrack Obama , a breath of fresh air after 8 years of (yes I admit it was bad ) right wing rule under George Bush . Could Mr. Obama be the saviour or he is just a dreamer ? I will be anxiously waiting to find out and will be observing his work closely. In the UK it could go from bad to worse in terms of the credit crunch and there is a slight possibility that there may be a General Election in 2009 , in which I will root for Mr. Cameron . Lets us also hope that 2009 will see the end of this terrible conflict in Gaza which is currently unfolding before our eyes.
And what will 2009 hold for Malta ? Well I do hope that the current government will be sensible when fighting the credit crunch and try and find a solution to these rising of tariffs . Also I hope that this current issue between the MUT , UMASA and the government will be resolved since both University and Juniour College students are becoming victims and the Government should do something about it . Finally I look forward to the European Parliamentry Elections in May and urge the voters ( not me :( ) to vote sensibly.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL
See you Next Week
Luke Mizzi
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
A new dawn
Post Christmas Day
Another Christmas has gone by and I'm sure everyone is still recovering from yesterday's festivities , be it from the food they ate , they alcohol they drunk or others. Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year and I believe that is a time for family especially on Christmas day itself and I being a person who believes in the traditional values of life believe in the motto ' It's better to give than to receive ' . In recent times that motto has been near extinction , with Christmas becoming the Capitalists ' holiday where shops and large business care about profits and less about transmitting the real values behind Christmas . This year , however that has all changed and suddenly I'm seeing more of the real values being transmitted to the general public and this is due to one thing : That Dreaded Credit Crunch !
Although in Malta the credit crunch has yet to arrive ( Next year it will) in the countries which have already been affected by this crunch namely the US and UK , we have seen less of the Capitalist message and more of the positive values of Christmas : Family, Unity, Peace and even the real meaning of Christmas , The Birth of Jesus got a mention ! So for once the Credit Crunch did something useful and that is got the real meaning of Christmas back to our households. The problem now is it's disadvantages !
2008 in Review -Local/Foreign
2008 has to be one of the best year's of my life, it seemed that everything went right for me except for a few near misses. But today I'm not going to review what 2008 was like for me I'm going to review what it meant to everyone starting with my own country:
2008 in Malta
2008 was dominated by the closest election the Maltese Islands had seen for decades with the Nationalist Party winning by the narrowest of margins , 1,500 votes. The campaign was intense with the PN presenting their leader Lawrence Gonzi as a man you can count on and a man who is ready to continue strengthening this country with his '2015 Vision ' . The MLP ( PL now) campaigned for a ' New Beginning' stating that this country needed a change from the arrogant PN government. The last week of campaigning was dominated by talks of Corruption with cases such as Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando ( which by the way still hasn't been resolved) and the supposed arreset of Harry Vassallo . Come Saturday 8 March thousands of citizens decided to stay home and not vote, this indicated a Labour victory and on Sunday morning the smiles were on Jason Micallef's face . However by 3 pm it was Joe Saliba who was smiling not Jason Micallef and in a tense afternoon it was the Nationalist's who kept their lead and won a 3rd consecutive election , unsuprsingly . In my opinion I think the best party won , even though now almost 10 months since the election, the Nationalists are not exactly doing a great job , only God konws how this country would be under Alfred Sant.
The Labour Party was in tatters after the election and we finally saw the end of Alfred Sant. A new leader was required and I was opting for George Abela ,but the MLP delegtes had other thoughts and choose Joseph Muscat , a young , Tony Blair like leader who wants to change the image of the party . Altough Joseph 's past isn't great ( He was against EU membership and HSBC ) I think in 5 years time he would be mature enough to take Castille under his wing lets just hope people like Anglu Farrugia and Toni Abela would do the same and mature !
Aprat from the General and MLP leadership elections , 2008 also saw some tragic moments such as the Naxxar incident , a tragedy which took many lives. Speaking about lost lives word must also go out to Sir Anthony Mamo , Malta's first President who died aged 99 and former Labour MP Karl Chircop who died at a very young age , a terrible loss.
Malta once again did poorly in the Eurovision Song Contest with Morena's 'Vodka' song barely impressing the public. In my opinion Malta should stop wasting good money on this contest which has now become a joke it is quite obvious that with all the bloc voting that Malta dosen't stand a chance .
In Local sport it seems that the honeymoon period enjoyed by the national football team is finishing , apart from the 7-1 trashing of Liechenstein , Malta didn't garner any positive results since then . Ok, the 4-0 home defeat from Portugal was expected but heavy defeats to Austria, Albania, Iceland and Denmark ? Even coach Dusan Fitzel seems to have lost faith in his team ! Something must be done and fast. In the club football , Valletta and Birkirkara won the major trophies hinting a possible return of the rivalry between the two clubs in the late 90's . Valletta also shocked the football world when they beat Juventus (yes Juventus Italia) on penalties in the Betfair Cup . In water polo Sliema Asc dominated winning the double while the national team reached the final of the Comen Cup under new coach Sergio Afric. The national rugby team also improved beating Sweeden away. In the Olympic Games Malta failed to impress but that is expected .
2008-International view
2008 will always be remembered as the year which saw the start of the dreaded Credit Crunch began and leaving countries such as the UK, US , Japan and Iceland carefully planning out every move . There was also the price of oil , rising to a high price and then following to a low price once again . A historical moment happened in 2008 with Barack Obama , the first ever Black Us president winning a heated campaign over John Mc Cain. Even though I am a right winger and Mr. Obama is a left winger if I was American he would definitley get my vote since he was the right man to get the USA back on track after 8 years of poor governance from the Republicans . Just as I said for Alfred Sant , 20o9 will see the end of George W. Bush and thank God for that ! I just hope that Obama will not do what a typical left winger does and that is keeping his head in the air and not looking at the real world. 2008 also saw terror in India . In the UK , Gordan Brown continued to get unpopular and David Cameron more popular. 2008 also saw a serious threat to Democracy in Zimbabwe with President Robert Mugabe refusing to give up power and this lead to immense political violence before the election. The situation still hasn't been resolved .
There was the tragic death of young actor Heath Ledger in January. A terrible loss of such a talent. Watching him in 'The Dark Knight' can confirm this, in this great film Heath Ledger is the star of the show with the best portrayl of a villian for a long time . RIP Heath
Despite all it's controveries and protests the 2008 Olympic Games were a huge success with excellent venues and organisation. The stars of the show were without doubt Jamaican sprinter Usian Bolt who broke world records and American swimmer Michael Phelps who won a record 8 gold medals . The Great Britian team also gave one of their best shows since 1912 winning a large tally of Gold Medals. In football 2008 was dominated by Manchester United. They won the Premier League on the final day , the Community Shield and Fifa Club World Cup however the creme de la creme was the 2008 Champions League Final , a excting game which after a 1-1 draw went to an exicting penalty shootout which saw John Terry miss a penalty which could have won it for Chelsea. The Euro 2008 tournament was also great , this saw Spain finally winning a major trophy .
Next week we'll take a look at what 2009 could have in store for us
Thanks for reading
Luke Mizzi
Another Christmas has gone by and I'm sure everyone is still recovering from yesterday's festivities , be it from the food they ate , they alcohol they drunk or others. Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year and I believe that is a time for family especially on Christmas day itself and I being a person who believes in the traditional values of life believe in the motto ' It's better to give than to receive ' . In recent times that motto has been near extinction , with Christmas becoming the Capitalists ' holiday where shops and large business care about profits and less about transmitting the real values behind Christmas . This year , however that has all changed and suddenly I'm seeing more of the real values being transmitted to the general public and this is due to one thing : That Dreaded Credit Crunch !
Although in Malta the credit crunch has yet to arrive ( Next year it will) in the countries which have already been affected by this crunch namely the US and UK , we have seen less of the Capitalist message and more of the positive values of Christmas : Family, Unity, Peace and even the real meaning of Christmas , The Birth of Jesus got a mention ! So for once the Credit Crunch did something useful and that is got the real meaning of Christmas back to our households. The problem now is it's disadvantages !
2008 in Review -Local/Foreign
2008 has to be one of the best year's of my life, it seemed that everything went right for me except for a few near misses. But today I'm not going to review what 2008 was like for me I'm going to review what it meant to everyone starting with my own country:
2008 in Malta
2008 was dominated by the closest election the Maltese Islands had seen for decades with the Nationalist Party winning by the narrowest of margins , 1,500 votes. The campaign was intense with the PN presenting their leader Lawrence Gonzi as a man you can count on and a man who is ready to continue strengthening this country with his '2015 Vision ' . The MLP ( PL now) campaigned for a ' New Beginning' stating that this country needed a change from the arrogant PN government. The last week of campaigning was dominated by talks of Corruption with cases such as Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando ( which by the way still hasn't been resolved) and the supposed arreset of Harry Vassallo . Come Saturday 8 March thousands of citizens decided to stay home and not vote, this indicated a Labour victory and on Sunday morning the smiles were on Jason Micallef's face . However by 3 pm it was Joe Saliba who was smiling not Jason Micallef and in a tense afternoon it was the Nationalist's who kept their lead and won a 3rd consecutive election , unsuprsingly . In my opinion I think the best party won , even though now almost 10 months since the election, the Nationalists are not exactly doing a great job , only God konws how this country would be under Alfred Sant.
The Labour Party was in tatters after the election and we finally saw the end of Alfred Sant. A new leader was required and I was opting for George Abela ,but the MLP delegtes had other thoughts and choose Joseph Muscat , a young , Tony Blair like leader who wants to change the image of the party . Altough Joseph 's past isn't great ( He was against EU membership and HSBC ) I think in 5 years time he would be mature enough to take Castille under his wing lets just hope people like Anglu Farrugia and Toni Abela would do the same and mature !
Aprat from the General and MLP leadership elections , 2008 also saw some tragic moments such as the Naxxar incident , a tragedy which took many lives. Speaking about lost lives word must also go out to Sir Anthony Mamo , Malta's first President who died aged 99 and former Labour MP Karl Chircop who died at a very young age , a terrible loss.
Malta once again did poorly in the Eurovision Song Contest with Morena's 'Vodka' song barely impressing the public. In my opinion Malta should stop wasting good money on this contest which has now become a joke it is quite obvious that with all the bloc voting that Malta dosen't stand a chance .
In Local sport it seems that the honeymoon period enjoyed by the national football team is finishing , apart from the 7-1 trashing of Liechenstein , Malta didn't garner any positive results since then . Ok, the 4-0 home defeat from Portugal was expected but heavy defeats to Austria, Albania, Iceland and Denmark ? Even coach Dusan Fitzel seems to have lost faith in his team ! Something must be done and fast. In the club football , Valletta and Birkirkara won the major trophies hinting a possible return of the rivalry between the two clubs in the late 90's . Valletta also shocked the football world when they beat Juventus (yes Juventus Italia) on penalties in the Betfair Cup . In water polo Sliema Asc dominated winning the double while the national team reached the final of the Comen Cup under new coach Sergio Afric. The national rugby team also improved beating Sweeden away. In the Olympic Games Malta failed to impress but that is expected .
2008-International view
2008 will always be remembered as the year which saw the start of the dreaded Credit Crunch began and leaving countries such as the UK, US , Japan and Iceland carefully planning out every move . There was also the price of oil , rising to a high price and then following to a low price once again . A historical moment happened in 2008 with Barack Obama , the first ever Black Us president winning a heated campaign over John Mc Cain. Even though I am a right winger and Mr. Obama is a left winger if I was American he would definitley get my vote since he was the right man to get the USA back on track after 8 years of poor governance from the Republicans . Just as I said for Alfred Sant , 20o9 will see the end of George W. Bush and thank God for that ! I just hope that Obama will not do what a typical left winger does and that is keeping his head in the air and not looking at the real world. 2008 also saw terror in India . In the UK , Gordan Brown continued to get unpopular and David Cameron more popular. 2008 also saw a serious threat to Democracy in Zimbabwe with President Robert Mugabe refusing to give up power and this lead to immense political violence before the election. The situation still hasn't been resolved .
There was the tragic death of young actor Heath Ledger in January. A terrible loss of such a talent. Watching him in 'The Dark Knight' can confirm this, in this great film Heath Ledger is the star of the show with the best portrayl of a villian for a long time . RIP Heath
Despite all it's controveries and protests the 2008 Olympic Games were a huge success with excellent venues and organisation. The stars of the show were without doubt Jamaican sprinter Usian Bolt who broke world records and American swimmer Michael Phelps who won a record 8 gold medals . The Great Britian team also gave one of their best shows since 1912 winning a large tally of Gold Medals. In football 2008 was dominated by Manchester United. They won the Premier League on the final day , the Community Shield and Fifa Club World Cup however the creme de la creme was the 2008 Champions League Final , a excting game which after a 1-1 draw went to an exicting penalty shootout which saw John Terry miss a penalty which could have won it for Chelsea. The Euro 2008 tournament was also great , this saw Spain finally winning a major trophy .
Next week we'll take a look at what 2009 could have in store for us
Thanks for reading
Luke Mizzi
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