I’m Maltese and have now caught up with the budget. And I have read a lot from both sides of opinions regarding the fees for tourists and people who live and work in Malta who are from countries not in the EU (cos I hate using the word TCN).

Yes I agree wholeheartedly with the increased fee of the eco tax, the increased fees for Comino and Gozo, so we can get rid of low quality tourists once and for all. We don’t want teenagers coming to Malta just get drunk at Paceville, on boats, and techno festivals, and dump their rubbish everywhere and vandalize property in their drunken stupor. We want tourists who come for our culture, our prehistoric temples, our wonderful old architecture and beautiful sunsets at the cliffs.

With the issue of the higher cost of living for non-EU people, well I really don’t understand why people are making it a point of racism??!! If I, a Maltese person, go to live in the UK or the USA or Australia, or any other country, I will definitely not be provided with free healthcare and free childcare, and most probably most of my wage will be going in taxes and rent. So why is everyone angry that the non-locals in Malta are now being offered the same services we would be offered if we go to live and work abroad?!! Anzi, non-EU people living and working in Malta were lucky enough to have many of these services offered for free just like locals. I do understand wholeheartedly that this could be a big burden for non-EU families living and working in Malta, but does this not happen in every country?? Times change, legislations change, and budgets happen to help alleviate the country’s economy. Again I understand that the government was shitty, and many business were shitty too, because they advertised Malta as this utopia and maybe it started out like that for Non-EU individuals but as I said times change, and laws and benefits change accordingly too.

So my question is this - why are people making it as we Maltese are racist when it happens worldwide in all countries that non locals actually do pay more to live and work in any other country that is not theirs?

We do need fresh faces and new ideas.

Cross posting from another subreddit,

In Serbia, students brought the method of direct democracy into electoral politics. Instead of a top-down organization based on leaders, they formed student general assemblies (plenums) where everyone could have a say. Decisions were discussed and, as much as possible, reached through consensus. They extended this method beyond universities. Citizens' assemblies (zborovi) were established in neighborhoods, cities, and villages. People gathered to discuss their own problems, propose solutions, and make decisions together.

They formed the 250-person parliamentary candidate list as follows:

1- First, the 250-candidate quota was distributed among the six university cities based on student numbers. To prevent Belgrade from dominating the list, they ensured that other cities were also represented in the top ranks. Then, each city's quota was distributed among the faculties.

2- Student general assemblies were held in more than 80 faculties across the country. Students did not nominate themselves as candidates, but each could propose a candidate and explain why they were suggesting that person. Names were discussed, consensus was sought first, and voting was conducted when necessary.

3- They closed the door to existing political cadres. They did not nominate current or former members of ruling parties, politicians and bureaucrats who had served on behalf of the government, or high-level executives of opposition parties. In this way, they created a list independent of both the government and the established opposition.

4- Faculties also vetted each other's candidates. All proposed names were compiled into a common list and opened for review by all faculties. Objections were discussed in student assemblies. For a candidate to be eliminated, more than half of the assemblies had to veto them. An objection from a single faculty was not sufficient.

5- Reserves were brought in to replace eliminated or withdrawn candidates. Thus, a 250-person list emerged featuring professors, doctors, scientists, workers, artists, and activists.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw5yn3xlprpmo

An interesting video explaining how these "DROP SHIPPING MENTOR" scams work. There are many different types of scams but these are some of the most common tactics used by scammers to deceive people and take their money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxa-lKu4ips

How the Shopify Guru Scam Works

Fabricated Proof: Gurus use browser inspection tools to rewrite Shopify sales code or use fake order generating apps to display inflated round number revenues.

They rent luxury cars, high end Airbnbs,or stage fake travel to create an illusion that dropshipping made them rich overnight.

Ghosting & Upsells: After taking payment mentors often provide minimal access push expensive upsells, or completely ghost students.

"Done For You" Traps: Some schemes charge thousands of euros claiming they will run an automated store for you which frequently turns into a Ponzi style collapse.

Unsolicited Cold Messages: Genuine experts do not cold message people on social media or community forums to offer secret systems.

Focus on Speed and Ease: Claims of passive income with little to no work ignore the difficult realities of customer support ad spend and profit margins.

Fake Analytics: You can learn more about how fake data is manufactured via guides on Swishtag.

Ma min qed tahseb li qed titnejjek Liam? Jien kont Dubai qabel ma inti twelidt. Importajt xoghol bit-typewriter u fax. Ghandi Businesses tieghi anke online stores. Kelli officju b'team ta nies go Shenzhen qabel l-internet kien jezisti. Kelli warehouse Abu Dhabi Free Zone. Kelli businesses il-Libya. LI QED TGHID INTI HUWA BULLSHIT U MHUX VERU. Inti persuna dishonesta u hungry for fame and money. Qed tinganna lil huti Maltin biex ihallsulek il-lifestyle tieghek. Mhux ser inhallik tkompli tinganna l-poplu Malti zgur.

Liam, I am challenging you. SUE ME for defamation. Tista tqabbad lil siehbek Matteo li qijed Malta biex ittelani il-qorti.

email me here Liam on - [978345097@protonmail.com](mailto:978345097@protonmail.com)

Hi. I have a question and need an opinion.

My team was moved to a new branch so new projects, laptops etc, as if we were hired for the first time. On our first day, we did what we usually software developers do, we set up the laptops with the applications that we will use. Now for me and a coworker, we were not given any projects, any access, nothing. When we asked for them, they said to us that they will give us the projects tomorrow.

So me and this coworker simply talked to each other because we had nothing to do. We were called in the boss's office at the end of the day and he yelled at us, (me and the coworker are 31 years old). The other coworker started crying but he didn't phase me out. I was actually more hurt that he made the coworker cry.

My question is this, I am Maltese, she is not, is this normal behavior for a Maltese boss because he told us that if he does not instill fear in his employees, then he is not doing a good job. He said that the employees should fear him.

Do you think we should get out of this company ASAP?

I want to see if we are doing the right move because honestly, me and the coworker have had enough after he scolded us. We are not kids.

Not to mention that the office is...under constant surveillance, there is barely any ventilation or circulation, there is mold on the walls, there are no female and male bathrooms and apparently, he doesn't raise the yearly wage by COLA (which someone told me that it is illegal)

I've seen a lot of arguments and discussions over the past few days about the new policies for TCNs, and how these added costs (alongside the minimum wage increase generally) will supposedly "force" businesses to raise their prices. This is ridiculous! Malta's minimum wage already falls far behind what constitutes a liveable wage, and wage growth in general lags far behind fuel cost increases and food inflation. This isn't even mentioning the fact that restaurants are already ridiculously expensive for the quality of food and service you get (not to mention that none of the foreign servers seem to speak Maltese, and most appear to struggle with English as well). They always complain and whine about how they have to depend on TCNs for work, but no shit, only South Asians will want to work there if the pay is literal peanuts. Obviously no one wants to be a bus driver working 10 hours a day when they only get paid 10€ an hour.

This isn't even mentioning the fact that housing is ridiculously expensive despite the endless construction, partly due to the increased demand resulting from immigration. Apparently, building more and more apartments hasn't done much to make housing more affordable when you also bring in >130,000 people in less than 10 years! And to those who say TCNs built this country, I would recommend you look at Malta less than 10 years ago, in 2017. Malta of 2017 was a decent country to live in, and the construction had not yet gotten out of control, and also, most importantly, did not depend on TCN labour. This is a problem that can be fixed, though the draconian way the government is going about it is moronic. A focus on cutting the flow of low-skilled immigration, on language requirements, on local labour, and on increasing the cost of residence permits, as well as restricting most immigration only to jobs paying at least the minimum wage, would massively help.

Well I am part of the Maltese Youth, and a majority of the people I talk too can barely read anything above a paragraph. I tried to get my friend who stopped school at 16 to read a harry potter book and he couldn't get through the first page.

Then the maltese youth perform much better in the english subject than they do in the maltese subject. I also tried to start a book club in my secondary school, and out of the twenty students that came only 7-8 didn't need several minutes on a single page.

I know it's not for everyone, but here's the latest Bajd u Bejken episode, on which I was the guest.

Let me know what you think. I feel it was pretty decent overall, hopefully you don't find it boring as I'm sure I'm not as colourful as some previous guests hehe.

Gave an honourable mention to the community on r/malta at around 01:23:00 :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKVUw08J29Q

This budget was a bit of a divider of the people. I don't recall a budget in recent history that divided people that much, however I believe it was a very obvious choice if we look at the signs.

This year the Maltese Government issued over 1.5 Billion in Gov bonds, that's 1.5 Billion of extra debt needed to finance whatever the country needs. 1,500,000,000 in debt, in 10 months let that sink in.

Now considering the 1k per year Super Bonus and other measures promised by the Government, how else would we gather up the money to pay for the interest and the debt itself? Something needed to give, and pay more. Now either they put more taxes on everyone and raise fuel prices and electric bills or start taking back some of the benefits they are currently giving, and they decided to start with TCN. I believe that the current benefits we are receiving at the moment are not sustainable and this is the first of a series of budgets that will follow suit.

Whilst the working class fight each other on whether or not the new measures surrounding TCNs are justified and/or necessary, the ruling class hoard the actual wealth and absolutely nothing is done to curb government's reckless spending of taxpayers' money (remuneration for persons of trust, ridiculous marketing campaigns & sponsorships, extravagant film awards, sponsoring privately-organised concerts and so on).

​

it looks so gorgeous I'd definitely love to get one! Seems perfect for hand luggage.

Where do they make them pls?

I think its time to stop crying about politicians, we all heard it, we all got the tshirt, wore it, speak about it, every day .. but when are we going to look at our selves?

All I hear at work today is "1000 euro"

Arah how fucking easily corrupted you all are.. mbasta all the crying about your home, crying about greed and corruption, mbasta virtue signaling about the tcns, but as soon as a cheque is waved under your nose, your pupils dilate. I need as much money as the next person, but I do not let it blind me. I do not forget the bigger picture, clearly a lot of people have.

This short term fast track mentality has sent us 6 feet under, and now after bringing all these people here, we decide to reward them for their sacrifice and contribution with a big fuck you. And if you think it will stop at this, just wait.

We was not even going to get a super bonus, we cannot afford it, we are still keeping bills down with a system implemented during covid.. meanwhile the global situation is getting more drastic.. how long we will keep these costs down? (Increasing debt) but hey now we found the solution? Let's tske money from TCNs and put it into the average laburists pocket, amazing, 2027 is sorted, onto 2028 now.

You know what makes me laugh about us maltese.. when we start crying about how the country is ruined, how we have no identity.. well sorry, YOU are the reason this island is ruined. Greed is the only idenity here.

And in typical maltese fashion, we always need someone else to blame, never us

Always the Government

The TCNs

The tourists

The pigeons and fucking cats, but never ever ourselves.

Slowly slowly cracks are getting worse, slowly slowly even the average gahan will start to struggle.. this nation is crumbling. There has never been a long term sustainable vision and now we reap what we sow.

Keep participating in the circus guys, Malta will never have a true identity, EVER.

You are given crumbs and you thank them for it.

600,000 people, thousands of visitors at any given time and quick travel for Italians. So how come so few artists perform in Malta ? Am I just really underestimating how unprofitable it would be? Please don’t just downvote and educate me.

It should affect Maltese nationals as well, since you cannot convince me otherwise; this isn't a 3rd-world country.

Jokes aside, it's funny how politicians can’t get these things right.😂 The Western countries struggle since they issued extra rights, and they treat TCNs more positively than their own citizens. Here we are, overcompensating and restricting TCNs. I think everyone wants fkin 1 thing. EQUALITY!!!!!

If I don't abide by the law, then I should be retaliated against, no matter my race. But if I'm contributing to the economy, I should benefit from what everybody else is benefiting from.

WHY IS THIS SO FKIN HARD??! Omg

Sorry for the vent tho

I want to find the owner of the property in the centre of the picture in Marsascala.

I have checked with PA and asked a notary but no luck.
Wanted to see if anyone knows of any other options or someone who offers the service.

Ħelow lill-kulħadd. Recently I've been looking more into my family history/geneology (Barthet family) and specifically the Tonna-Barthet connection. Maltageneology.com connects the Tonna family to the Medieval Emirs and Siculo-Arab rulers of Gozo (for example, the earliest listed was Muhammad Bin-Tunne, a Kalabid ruler of Gozo and descendent of Quda'a [Ancient Arab geneological figure])

This is very intriguing, but I'm not sure how true it is because I haven't been able to find any independent corroboration on the internet, although this could simply be because M bin tunne is a niche ruler of a tiny central Mediterranean island nation 🤷🏻‍♂️

So, does ANYONE have some information on him, or the truth in this matter? Grazzi 🙏🏻

Just a quick last minute Halloween costume lol

I'm Italian and I'm making a game where your whole life happens through phone notifications. Right now I'm writing the mum character: all the messages your mum sends you, from the day you get your first phone at 14 until you're old.

The problem is I'm Italian, and I have no idea what a typical mum text looks like in Malta.

Could you help me? Reply with the text your mum sends you most often, and if there's a word only a Maltese mum would use, even better. I'd really appreciate it, and I'll add the messages you send me to the game.

Does anyone manage to make use lte on a smartwatch and is able to make/receive calls on the standalone watch?

If yes which provider are you using?

I m manged to install the esim on my Samsung Galaxy watch ultra 2 and can send and receive SMSs. But unable to send/receive calls. GO support are not seeing any thing wrong and I tried resetting the esim but issue persists. Maybe the watch is faulty!!

Cheers

www.glennbedingfield.com/tohelp

Just what the title says. Would they have thought about measures so this doesnt impact maltese people who just want a break in their own country or do they not realise that for some Maltese, that’s the only holiday they can afford?

Hello there,

I am planning to install a cat net to the front balcony (facade from top to the bottom. I have the landlords permission, but i want to know if I need to apply to Planning Authority for this. It will temporary and easy to remove. Do you have any information?

Thank you.

Meaning how the country function and how society evolve, are changing in a way just to accommodate the tourist having a "cool experience" in their visit, while the people living there have it even harder to have a every day normal life.

With a general small population and high numbers of international tourists, have you noticed a shift to a lost of national identity or difficulties coming out of it?