Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/884700
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 8 OCTOBER 2017 Opinion 26 HOME Affairs and Justice Minister Tonio Borg has refused, once again, to disclose the number of inspections carried out on fireworks factories, after he was asked to table the list in parliament by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo. It's the latest refusal from the deputy prime minister after repeated queries from the press. He told Bartolo he had "nothing to add" to a previous parliamentary question by the Labour MP tabled back in July. "I find the minister's non-answer totally unacceptable and bears the main charac- teristics of this government: arrogance, incompetence and unaccountable. "It is the non-answer of a scared minister who has something to hide and for whom votes come before people's lives and security. It also means that the minister does not want to admit that the inspection system regarding fireworks factories is neither efficient nor consist- ent and the minister does not want to answer my question to conceal this." Borg has also repeatedly ignored queries by MaltaToday to disclose the number of inspections on factories car- ried out by the Explosives Committee, an indication which would reveal the level of safety standards in Malta's fireworks factories. "If he had a good system in place he would find it simply, very simple to give me the number of inspection visits carried out in the last four years, who carried them out, what did the inspectors find on their visits and what steps they took to address the problems and short- comings they found," Bartolo said. Last August, an email erroneously sent to MaltaToday by the Home Affairs ministry revealed the government's de- liberate attempt at keeping under wraps a recommendation by another committee, the Pyrotechnics Commission, to relo- cate two fireworks factories over safety threats to nearby residents. The Commission had recommended that Borg closes down the San Mikiel factory in Lija – the minister's home con- stituency – and the Sant Andrija factory in Luqa because of the danger they pose to nearby residents and property since they are not sufficiently distant from public areas as required by the law. In the email addressed to Tonio Borg but mistakenly sent to this newspaper, communications coordinator Joe Azzo- pardi informed the minister that the MaltaToday journalist "keeps insisting, even after I sent the reply as drafted by Leonard Callus," referring to the Prime Minister's spokesperson, and continues: "Shall I ignore him?" In a tragic accident on 27 July, the St Helen's factory in Gharghur went up in smoke leaving five men dead. It was later revealed that a decision by the Fenech Adami administration in 2001 to allow the St Helen's factory to continue operat- ing despite being in breach of distance requirements, was taken without ever consulting the Explosives Committee – the government watchdog on fireworks factories. Tonio Borg refuses to table fireworks inspections in Parliament Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 | Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. News – 10 October 2007 Rejecting 'Ponzi' claims by BitMalta I refer to the article published on the 18th September, 2017 (Man snapped with Prime Minister labelled Ponzi scheme affiliate), with a view to drawing attention to the false informa- tion which was published in the article. I feel extremely aggrieved by this defamatory article about my business and me. Predominantly due to the fact that, prior to the article being published, no attempts were made to contact me in order to comment on the claims and accusations made by the cited two sources, i.e., BitMalta and Behindmlm.com, the latter of which appears to be an anonymously-owned website identified only by its URL with seemingly no individual repre- sentation. This modus operandi has resulted in an article which cannot be described as any- thing but fake news about me personally and my business, the most serious being that I know- ingly promoted a Ponzi scheme (through Net Leaders) and that the DasCoin project is a scam. These are clearly very grave accusations which I consider to be an attack on my honour, dignity and reputation with far- reaching legal consequences for whoever is responsible for these false claims, ostensibly result- ing from the fabrication and deliberate misinterpretation of a minor dealing with OneCoin as described further in this reply. I have never been a princi- pal, partner, director, officer, employee and/or consultant of either OneCoin, or any company affiliated with OneCoin. Whilst I did purchase products from OneCoin (strictly as a custom- er), my first, last and only actual public interaction with OneCoin occurred in July of 2015 when, upon the invitation of a profes- sional acquaintance, I took part in a discussion which lasted no more than 10 minutes, about the growth potential of the cryptocurrency industry, during a phone call announcing the launch of OneCoin in the US. On the same day as the phone call in question, the fact that OneCoin was not in a position to make a FinCEN registration was brought to my attention and since this was a formality which I considered crucial to ensur- ing compliance with US laws and regulations, I decided that OneCoin was not a company I wanted to work with. There- fore I immediately moved on to pursuing potential solutions and developing my business elsewhere. In due course, I founded DasCoin, with a view to bring- ing a cryptocurrency to market that offered a balance between decentralized and centralized elements. DasCoin is part of an entire ecosystem of solutions designed to unlock prosperity for millions of people around the world. It would appear from Mr Galea's comments to MaltaToday that he is unable to fathom the possibility that there may be more than one type of blockchain, which may not nec- essarily fit with his own precon- ceived ideas of what blockchain technology should comprise and has instead untruthfully labelled the DasCoin project as a scam. DasCoin and OneCoin are and have always been, completely separate entities with absolutely no affiliation or connection or business association with each other. Consequently the state- ments in the article in question that "DasCoin is an offshoot of OneCoin"; that Michael Mathias is an affiliate of OneCoin, one of the biggest crypto Ponzi schemes"; are completely false with no factual basis whatso- ever. Contrary to the BitMalta al- legations that "the company has not yet released any product, al- though it had vowed to do so by March this year" I confirm that the DasCoin actually did launch its blockchain as promised on 31st March, 2017. The only individual who has corroborated the content of this article is Mr Galea. Following the publication of a negative post about DasCoin on Bit- Malta's blog, I reached out to Mr Galea on two occasions in order to open a dialogue to address any queries and misunderstand- ings, however to date Mr Galea has failed to respond to any of my invitations for an open dialogue. As a final attempt to properly address the inaccuracies which have led to this response and in an effort to prevent the further spreading of false news regard- ing myself and DasCoin, I would like to renew my invitation to Mr Jonathan Galea, to partici- pate in a public debate on the matter (to which MaltaToday, together with any other inter- ested media houses, would be invited). As a tentative date I am pro- posing Tuesday, 17th October at the Excelsior Hotel, Floriana at 3pm. This will provide Mr Galea with the platform to defend his statements in a public forum, an opportunity which Mr Galea would surely accept if he felt that there was any truth what- soever to the various allegations made via BitMalta's blog. If the date is not suitable, he may sug- gest two other alternative dates during the month of October. Mr Galea is in possession of my contact details and I hereby in- vite him to contact me in order to take this forward Michael Mathias CEO - DAScoin Only truth sets one free In my letter 'God's design is not always clear to us", towards the end of the letter I had recom- mended J. Guillaumier to start reading good books. This could lead to the attainment of faith if he is humble enough to acknowledge that man is like being down a well through his own stupidity. He knows he ought not to be there, but he cannot get out by himself. Help must be extended from without. In a word, we need a Saviour, and in his own interest to find Him. When one is in darkness one is hypnotized by the darkness and is obsessive of what he sees in darkness only. This fixed idea will be one's philosophy and will lead one to stubborn- ness in disbelief in God. Only truth sets one free, once one ac- cepts faith and true philosophy. Even a little prayer coming from the heart and a meek mind would not be amiss. Pas- senger Geoffrey Lye after his f light to Athens was hit by an engine fire and for some f leet- ing moments felt the need to recourse to some mysterious being. "I am an atheist but even I was praying" Lord Byron's words seem to be written explicitly for our friend: Those who will not reason, are bigots; Those who cannot, are fools; And those who dare not, are slaves. But Jesus' words are more authoritative and worth believ- ing. Amen I say to you, the pub- licans and harlots are entering the Kingdom of God before you. For John (his namesake) came to you in the way of justice, and you did not believe him. But the publicans and the harlots be- lieved him; whereas you seeing it, did not even repent after- wards, that you might believe him (Mat 21:31-32) Didn't Jesus say afterwards that whoever exalts himself shall be humbled and whoever humbles himself shall be ex- alted (Mat 23:12) And Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away (Mat 24:35) If the above sounds like a sermon well... Proverbs 25:12 says "Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear. Here's the golden opportunity of his lifetime to pick up the threads of a lost religious terrestrial life which could be converted into an eternal bliss one. John Azzopardi Zabbar