Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1466490
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 MAY 2022 OPINION 11 In fact, I fail to see why this particular acquisition should be treated any differently from all the other (major and minor) companies that likewise just 'change hands', from time to time… and invariably, without their users ever being consult- ed in the matter. For instance, Google's takeover of Android in 1998; or AT&T and Time Warner in 2005 (where the sum of money involved was actually twice that spent by Musk: $85.4 billion, to be precise…) That's not to say, of course, that there was nothing to ring alarm-bells in any of those oth- er cases; or – even less – that there is nothing at all to worry about in the case of the Twitter sale, either. It's just that: well, you can't really complain about one, but not the other. There is, after all, a word to describe the par- ticular economic model which actually permits all those trans- actions to occur in the first place (including the greediest, and most mercenary of corpo- rate takeovers known to man.) It's called 'capitalism'; and – while, again, I understand that some people might have strong opinions about it (I do myself, as it happens) – it also represents the entire modus operandi into which we are all currently plugged anyway: whether we like it, or not. The bottom line, I suppose, is that: if you're going to com- plain about 'Elon Musk buying Twitter'… then, for consisten- cy's sake, you should also be complaining about all the oth- er, myriad ways in which the 'filthy, filthy rich' (even much further down the wealth-scale) always get to just 'buy whatev- er they want' – including influ- ence over power, by the way – just by doing the one thing they actually CAN do, that others can't. That is to say: spend shit- loads of (sometimes, other people's) MONEY… And just to put all that into at least a tiny bit of context: take Labour MEP Alex Agius Saliba, for example. When contacted by the local press for his reaction (note: ex- actly why this even happened at all is another mystery… but let's not digress), his reply in- cluded such nuggets as: • "Elon Musk did not like the way Twitter was run… so he just bought it!"; • "$44 billion is not what you call a bargain, but it seems nothing is too ex- pensive for the richest man on earth." • "Today we are living in a world where the su- per-rich can buy out platforms to change their rules to their liking." • "It's shocking enough that one individual can acquire a global service like Twitter on his own…" See what I mean? The ques- tion almost asks itself, really. But I'll ask it all the same. If Alex Agius Saliba finds it so very 'shocking' that 'the super-rich can buy out platforms'… then how very 'shocked' must he be, at the fact that they can al- so buy Maltese passports, for a measly '€1 million' a pop? Not exactly what you'd call a bargain either, is it? Certainly, it's just as unaffordable as Elon Musk's $44 billion… to the thousands of other foreigners who – unlike the lucky 'Gold- en-Passport'-buyers – actually ARE domiciled in this country; actually ARE entitled to either Maltese citizenship, or (at min- imum) temporary residence… and yet who are routinely put through interminable bureau- cratic hoops and hurdles, just to get what is theirs by right. And while I'm at it: if it is so ut- terly inconceivable, that these 'super-rich' can also 'change the rules to their liking'… what does Alex Agius Saliba have to say about local contractors and developers – like Joseph Portelli, for instance: and there are others – who always seem to get exactly the sort of devel- opment permit they want (even 'against the rules'; and despite negative recommendations by case officers, etc.)… shortly af- ter boasting, on live TV, about all the money they regularly 'donates to both parties'…? Once again, my mind reels with literally countless oth- er examples – where the 'su- per-rich' just buy out whatever 'platforms' they like… invar- iably, 'changing all the rules' in the process – without peo- ple like Alex Agius Saliba ever complaining too loudly about it… But I reckon the point has been made, by now; so I really will 'stop here', this time. If Alex Agius Saliba finds it so very 'shocking' that 'the super-rich can buy out platforms'… then how very 'shocked' must he be, at the fact that they can also buy Maltese passports, for a measly '€1 million' a pop?