Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/919364
maltatoday SUNDAY 24 DECEMBER 2017 Interview 14 What they said ... These are some of the best quotes from the weekly interviews carried by MaltaToday with various protagonists from the political, social and cultural spheres Philip Fenech Vice President, GRTU 8 January Ryanair has just celebrated its tenth year of operations in Malta and will be basing its fourth air- craft here from this year. In the meantime, Air Malta is left reg- istering losses year after year and seeking a partner in a final bid at staying afloat. Franco Debono Law Commissioner & former PN MP 19 March The truth is that the Nationalist Party wasted five years in Parlia- ment: we needed a reform of the Broadcasting Authority; a reform in how the President is appointed; a reform in the electoral system... all along I've been saying these things, yet I was condemned and even expelled from the party for saying them. Marlene Farrugia PD leader 12 February When I contested with Labour, it was on the promise of transparen- cy, meritocracy and so on. We won on that promise, but what hap- pened? One scandal after another, culminating in the Panama Papers. I didn't get elected to that type of governance, but on the strength of an electoral manifesto that made those promises in black on white. Edward Zammit Lewis Tourism minister 15 January Air Malta falls between two stools. It's not a low cost airline, so it doesn't have the advantage of con- trolled overheads like RyanAir – and it's not Turkish Airways or Emirates, which are unfettered by EU rules, so can take certain deci- sions we can't. We're somewhere in between. So we need to find our own identity. Mohamed Hassan SPARK-15 spokesman 2 April I would tear down all the fences around the camps, and relocate them to the centre of towns. Re- move anything that isolates refu- gees from the rest of the com- munity. Marsa is a good example. Some of the people there have been there for 15 or 16 years. Last year, Haji died under a bridge. He was one of the first groups who had arrived. Mario Vella Brikkuni 19 February I think there is a slight obsession with celebrity culture in certain areas of local music. Mainly in the pop scene, I would say... which I just cannot identify with. I've never understood this urge of recreating celebrity culture in a local context. Even logistically, it's laughable... it doesn't make sense. Angela Caruana President's Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society 22 January Children do not go missing just for the sake of it. I believe that no child goes missing without a plan. Some go missing because they are aware that they are granted no protection in Malta so they risk a second voyage and travel to conti- nental Europe. Kevin Buttigieg Remax CEO 9 April The claim that we have 70,000 empty apartments... sorry but it's bullshit. We don't have 70,000 empty properties. We don't have any empty apartments at all. If it's a priced property, it sells. But those vacant properties are not 'priced'; they're not even on the market. Sekou Dipa Malian detainee 26 February We know we are illegal here. But when you start to work, when you have a work permit... I think that is authorisation to work, given by the government of a country. We are illegal immigrants, but the work permit is not illegal. We pay taxes. Vanni Xuereb MEUSAC 29 January I think that people no longer con- nect with the old narrative of Europe. The original Schuman declaration was an economic agreement, but from the outset there was more to the idea than just trade or production. So what started off as a community built on coal and steel, consolidated into a grand project for peace... Fr Mark Montebello Dominican priest & academic 16 April To my mind the problem is a PR one. Archbishop Scicluna has not, in my view, expressly stated his new level-playing-field position. He needs, I think, to get up on his soapbox. When left to their own devices, without proper instruc- tion or guidance, people's minds fly in all directions. A thought-out, and well-presented, policy instruc- tion is, I think, much needed. Carla Camilleri Researcher 5 March Although the number of candi- dates is relatively low, the success rate of electing women candidates is quite high. However I am not sure whether there is an active movement within the bigger par- ties to recruit female candidates. Women are maybe not empow- ered enough, in themselves, to feel like they can actually go for it. Johanna Axisa McRae Chairperson, Malta Tenants Association 5 February Why should a landlord get as much for renting out a property, as a teacher gets as a salary? It's not a skilled profession. There are social considerations, too. If accommo- dation is priced out of reach of or- dinary salaried employees, we can only expect poverty and homeless- ness to increase. Seyed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad Pilatus Bank chairman 30 April The bank is open. The scandal has not affected the bank's operations. Everything is operating as normal and all that is in the past. What we need to focus on is the future. Malta is an amazing hub for bank- ing. The stuff that's happening. Let's get past this stuff and look to the future. Alan Deidun Environmentalist 12 March Our environmental credentials as a nation... well, they're not there, really. But it's not necessarily be- cause we're 'bad people'. This comes from our lack of under- standing of what the environment is. Appreciation of the environ- ment arises from an understand- ing of how it works.