If 2013 heralded the oil scandal then will someone please tell me what the 2018 one is? A colossal oil scandal? A journey to the centre of the earth?
Basically, there is no need to say anything more. It describes itself clearly enough. The deal done and signed by then Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi, is simple enough in that it eliminates the board that was responsible for purchasing oil for Enemalta and hands over the purchasing power to SOCAR of Azerbaijan and packages it neatly into the whole Electrogas one stop shop. I can't imagine how the actual stone and mortar is still standing at Delimara because so much of what we owned and controlled is now gone overseas, whilst Russian citizens flock to purchase Maltese citizenship and buy bogus property.
What amazes is how a home-made hobby clock and a whiff of commissions, of which to this date we still await the outcome of the enquiry, pales in comparison to the epic scale of this purchasing arrangement and yet there isn't even a blush from rosy-cheeked Mizzi and all the agents who were engaged to shout for shame are now carrying on with business as usual and talking about boycotts of restaurants and calling honest women a bitch for having gone to a protest in London.
The outrage and defense of the victims unjustly accused and coming under fire of the labour trolls, was delivered by Dr Beppe Fenech Adami in parliament to what seemed an empty hall. He also properly sounded alarm at the hate speech that is going on in Malta, especially towards the family of Daphne Caruana Galizia and a repetition of the same hatred provoked towards her, leading to her brutal assassination.
That this kind of deal was suspected to have been done is not a surprise. All the delay in tabling the contract, all the secrecy and all the redacted pages when it was finally laid on the table indicated nothing less than hidden assets.
This group of gangsters have masterminded anarchy from the people. Many fools believe that they have been taken with them into this realm of the citizen, unable to distinguish between what is theirs and what is not. Who would have thought that socialism could do capitalism so well? Muscat, Schembri, Mizzi and Nexia BT are the next great conglomerate, turning a rock into bread, oil into wine.
Edward Scicluna, Minister of Finance, must be whiffing some of that cannabis that will soon have us all happy and serene as it spreads it perfume over our tiny island and blows across our fields, because he is on a long delay in coming up with some reactions, if ever at all. We know he has a need for a coffee before starting the day but we begin to wonder where he has been all this time whilst all of these contracts were being signed and bank accounts opened right under his nose or possibly, behind his back. Hard to say which.
The message on 1st May will be to tell the people to forget the millions of euros and dollars that cost Daphne her life and to remember the surplus and the amazing economy and all the lovely foreign brides for those lonely men or a happy ending at the massage parlour.
Millions are vanished away and a human is reduced to 8 cells. Mr Sandro Chetcuti was right about Muscat's "magics". The motivating force in believing all the lies is hate, pure unadulterated hate. It is the mainstay of the labour party, just as it has always been. For expediency, a blue tie, a wife and kids and a Trudeau style love-fest was brought out for the masses to project onto. Now it is the Putin-style leader who will be performing to the masses on 1st May in Valletta. The deals have been done, the public have been saved and the leader is an international force. Bring out the T-shirts.
But there is another international force now that reckons with Muscat. The Daphne Project is an energy beyond Azerbaijan's oil and gas. Dr Muscat can still play strongly to the labour crowd and his accomplices on the bench but outside this choking rock he will be hard-pressed to find a welcome mat amongst the lofty neighbours he seeks and it may be a while before he receives another wedding invitation. What he is too naïve to notice is that even his trusted friends abroad will abandon him at this time. Either that or they themselves will be toppled, arrested or completely discredited and they will have Muscat to thank for it.
In that Xarabank programme in 2017 with the showdown between Joseph Muscat, Prime Minister and Simon Busuttil, leader of the opposition, as he was caught muttering unfitting words towards Simon when he thought he was off camera, Joseph Muscat showed that he does rage, he does get frustrated and he sees where his enemy goes.
The pain must be excruciating right now, as all these forbidden stories are uncovered and his facade begins to crumble, like the many houses in Sliema.
Simultaneously, the libel cases are coming home to roost, the delegations keep coming back - maybe they like the weather - and the enquiries will soon begin to talk. In the meantime, he can still continue to count on the rabbit-eating commissioner to stay collecting the panini for the world-cup instead of doing his job. We actually are now at a point where the police should be charged themselves with obstructing the course of justice. But who will charge them? Not the Attorney General who, like Scicluna, is quite happy these days to do nothing about pursuing justice.
Malta's turn as President of the European Union was a non-starter when the election was called for June 2017, more or less dismissing it before it had even begun and now Valletta 2018 is facing a similar fate with shame all around it. The pomp and ceremony lasted as long as a Chinese take-away. The throw-away culture is all that there is. It will indeed be hard for the Prime Minister to find a lasting legacy other than the destruction of our land and of Labour's socialism and the death of an internationally acclaimed journalist under his watch, who, from another place can still speak.
Uncomfortably too, as those hefty water and electricity bills and bank loans start eating into the tidy profits coming from rentals and new businesses, people will start to think twice about the deal coming to them from Enemalta. Definitely, all those foreigners now living in rented flats will need to add the exorbitant rate for utilities in addition to the already high rent they pay. This has been a false economy from day one. Good while it lasted but destined to hurt many whilst indulging the rich.
It is possible for Dr Muscat to say that the model used for the structure of the energy supply is a good one and was the best decision. But it will not be easy to convince the crowd once those bills make our eyes pop out of our head and a summer stay at the "villegatura" will be more expensive than renting a villa in Spain. And harder still to explain why Azerbaijan has 40 million euros in one year off our backs.
But, the labour gurus managed well till now, so good luck to them if that's how they like it.