Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/553115
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 9 AUGUST 2015 Opinion 23 the travel agent In Malta, greed remains good are doomed to mediocrity. I cannot recall having four athletes not finishing their events, so many wooden-spoonists, a lacklustre performance in third- grade athletics competition, a heavy score-line in a team sport… certainly not since 1995 that is. And the glaring non- performance in shooting, our flagship sport since Larry Vella's performance in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. There's no doubt in my mind that the only winner from the Baku games was the travel agent selling the tickets to our contingent. In 2006, the MOC fielded 30 athletes for Melbourne's Commonwealth Games, with 10 Maltese-Australians saving on total flight costs; and we obtained results in a much tougher arena, amongst them a silver and bronze medal in shooting and two play-offs for bronze in weightlifting and lawn bowls. The list continues. In the final table, we placed 28th out of 71 federations, which included England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, and Nigeria. So we went from the top 25% of athletes in Melbourne in six of nine disciplines we competed in, to the bottom 25% in Baku. It's as if the clock was turned back. 'Join the Olympic team and see the world' found its way in again after a hard-fought battle to move away from this perverse culture. Serious administrators don't take athletes to gain experience in intercontinental, multi-sport events like Baku. Salient questions come to mind: Were MQS for all sports and athletes achieved? Did we monitor the Baku competition before fielding a team that was an embarrassment? Was the top- quality scientific mentoring and monitoring programme retained in the run-up to the games? Were the athletes monitored every six-week meso-cycle? Were the national federations monitored on all facets of their preparation? And were they afforded the necessary funds for a proper periodized training and preparation programme? Baku exposed our lack of a strategic, technical macro-plan for sport, and this after investing €9 million of taxpayers' money over the last 18 years, and a revolutionary and unprecedented investment programme in sport infrastructure. The MOC is to carry the responsibility for this sporting debacle: after two years of repeated non-performance, whoever gives the committee their tax-funded income has to take stock of the situation and ensure we do get value for money while respecting the MOC's autonomy. As in all walks of life, sport administrators must be held accountable for their decisions and actions. Pippo Psaila was coach of the national football team (1991- 1993) and is a former director of sports at the MOC F orget all the posturing about how different from each other Simon Busuttil and Joseph Muscat want us to believe them. The party faithful will clap and cheer, but what we have is just a continuation of what started a long, long time ago, bad governance and the closing of an eye or two, letting the greedy stuff themselves at the expense of the rest. Their economic model is based on short-termism and putting all of Malta under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Take the police force – senior policemen engaging in business with people under investigation. Other policemen in cahoots with local businessmen, not actually known for their straight ways. These policemen were supposed to uphold the law without fear or favour. These same policemen were promoted by the previous government; their 'good luck' continued till this day, from the 'stil ta' politika ġdida' (sic) Gonzi era, till Muscat's 'tagħna lkoll' (sic) era. Until the Italian police stepped up their investigations into the Italian side of mafia-business connections. The Italian police, not the Maltese police, who were left with no choice but to do something The Italian police have also put our financial and gaming watchdogs to shame. They have shown how our laws allowing so called 'fiduciary companies' – are attractive bait for organised crime, tax evasion and money laundering. Our so called 'due diligence' process has been shown to be a sham. An 'Il Sole 24 Ore' online article reports how a certain Mario di Gennaro was known to the Italian police and investigating Magistrates for ages. But due diligence "made in Malta" did not. David Gonzi did not know of Mario di Gennaro's shady history, which says a lot about the background checks of the law firms that provide such services. Mario de Marco ends up defending the betting companies whose licences have been suspended in court. José Herrera, throwing about figures of our economy's dependence on 'fiduciary services' tells us that 'other countries are doing the same' – what he fails to mention is that his government is continuing the previous government's policy of resisting stricter laws on financial services and gaming. It is understandable why – it is easy money for their peers. Transnational legislation will become stricter, whatever Herrera says, so he'd better prepare a strategy to diversify our economy and come up with alternative ways of attracting investment. Does he know how much of our economy depends on the mafia? How much on tax evasion and money laundering? Does he think that the situation is sustainable? These are the questions he should answer. It is obvious that the few, with a different set of surnames from the previous favoured ones, and some others who transferred their allegiances because it suits them, are stuffing their faces. These will transfer them again when the tide turns and they will continue stuffing their faces. This is the way that the PL and the PN conduct themselves. 'Għidli xi trid u nirranġaw', the politics of greed. Ralph Cassar is Secretary General of Alternattiva Demokratika and a local councillor in Ħ'Attard If we don't set our targets and aspirations at a higher pitch we are doomed to mediocrity Herrera had better prepare a strategy to diversify our economy and for alternative ways of attracting investment Ralph Cassar "Greed is good" – Michael Douglas as Gordon Gecko in Wall Street