Malta: an island of secrets and lies
newstatesman.com
newstatesman.com
All that and crawling with the families of minor Russian oligarchs and unashamedly advertising all sorts of tax-haven services. Just... weird.
Ireland is corrupt like this - not for major crimes, just lots of little things, like planning permission and speeding points on driving licenses.
Nobody wants to make a big stink because everybody swims in the same small pond, and what goes around comes around.
Here's a case study on the topic of speeding points: https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2013/oct/03/iri... ; speeding points corruption is an ongoing political issue that has brought down multiple justice ministers, primarily due to the attempted coverups (trying to silence Maurice McCabe).
I think drawing correlations between country size/population/gdp/wealth and corruption is going to be difficult. However, arguably, looking at smaller countries we should see this trend at a similar rate. I'd suggest comparing with extremes: two, much smaller European countries.
- Andorra; pop: ~90k, GDP per capita (2016, est.) ~36k USD
- San Marino; pop: ~35k, GDP per capita (2017, est.) ~45k USD
I spent a while looking in to them, but then started thinking "how do you measure corruption"? I came across a 'corruption perception index (2017)'[1], which aggregates different measures of corruption across various sources, but sadly they have no data for either countries. Comparing them with neighbouring countries however, would put them right in the ball park of Malta.
[1] https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_percept...
If you can attract a significant slice of the world's wealth and somehow funnel just 1% into the local economy, that can be enough to provide generous services for a 6-digit population. But it obviously doesn't work for anything larger. My example of Ireland, above, is probably just on the threshold. And the model only worked for them because they also have a well-educated and english-speaking population, making it attractive for actual operations to be located in Dublin.
The problem is, obviously, that this is an international zero-sum game. The US, Russia, and most EU countries provide all the infrastructure that allowed their citizen to earn the money, but the money leaves those countries as soon as the tax-man rings.
Which is why the last decade has seen an assault on tax havens: Switzerland's bank secrecy laws have already been neutered, Panama has lost most trust with the recent leaks, and Ireland is forced to play nice by the EU.
It's highly likely that oligarchs will soon run out of such locales, because it's becoming increasingly difficult to maintain both ingredients necessary for a tax haven: you need not only low taxation, but also robust rule-of-law. Those two goals come into conflict once the first is used to brand you an international pariah.
But they are just getting started moving into bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, in the nick of time
This is a pretty baseless assumption. Most of the wealth is obviously produced in large countries with very significant natural and human resources, but we have no way to know if they would be producing more or less wealth if their tax burdens and governments were smaller.
What evidence that exists suggests government significantly smaller than the norm in the developed world is better for economic development.
If it is indeed the case that low taxes contribute to more global economic growth, then these tax havens are bolstering the world's economy rather than exploiting it in a zero sum way.
>>Those two goals come into conflict once the first is used to brand you an international pariah.
By the sounds of it, there is a concerted push by a large and powerful political faction to make it illegal for any country in the world to have low taxes, on the basis that a country exercising its sovereignty in this way is somehow victimizing and exploiting other countries.
https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2016...
"amongst the least corrupt" != "free of corruption"
It's like saying X is among the best schools in the region and sends the most children to university and someone rebutting the statement with "yeah, but billy went there and didn't graduate and didn't go to university."
It's as if their brain is a computer program that's designed to purposely misinterpret information and then argue against the information for the sake of it.
Sorry for the rant. This type of nonsense has been building, or least becoming more obvious, lately in the public and political spheres and I needed to flag it for my sanity.
Why would anyone be ashamed to advertise tax-haven services???
Which covenant is the founding of societies based upon?
Please enlighten us.
I was just a fly on the wall but what I learned is Malta is a mix of old world families and familiarity and new world, EU, business rules. Where even billionaire megayachts get duty-free fuel smuggled in from Libya through a series of handlers. It's also something I really enjoyed about that island. The big box stores were on equal footing or disadvantaged to local, small shops. Everyone had a friend or family member who dealt in one speciality or another. The rock bottom price wasn't reserved for friends or family. Little haggling was even necessary. The price you paid was the best price you were going to find. Whether that be sailboat parts, limes, or rabbit.
I really miss it and look forward to going back.
That said, Malta is awesome, and this is not really something you see as a tourist. The scuba diving is some of the best in the Mediterranean.
[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/03/italy-accuses-ma...
[2] http://europeanpost.co/mafia-seeing-malta-as-a-little-paradi...
[3] http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-11-20/news/50-un...
Source: Maltese born and bred, 24 years and counting.
Fair?
My biggest complaint with recent times around here is how fast the Panama paper's debate was first politicised then was swept under the rug and the murder of Daphne. Daphne was the cattle prod Maltese politics needed to better itself, instead she got the short end of the stick and whoever decided killing her was the best option also decided to kill any good reputation we had on an international scale.
I was super pissed and distraught about it, still slightly am.
I'm curious as to how a non-citizen has a greater knowledge of Mafia presence than a Malta citizen.
Not after this: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/jan/17/briton-fights-ex...
I won't summarize that article, since it's all quite clear as long as you read to the end. The upshot is, that anyone diving in Malta is subject to bizarre legal risk if something goes wrong. It's a bit like stopping to help at an accident, and then being charged with causing it!
The whole thing raised a massive stink amongst BSAC divers, since it seemed (at one point) that BSAC insurance wouldn't support him. I think he's still 6 figures out of pocket.
TL/DR: do not dive in Malta.
My view is, who's to say they won't do it again?
> Most people have no issues diving in Malta
Until they do! :-)
PS. Not trying to start an argument, just stating my view from this side of the pond :-)
Seeing what happend to Stephen Martin, I ask myself, could that happen to me (if I was diving there), and if so, how could I reduce my risk? The answers (for me) are Yes It Could, and Don't Dive There!
Apart from that, the occasional xenophobia and selfishness is visible.
From a dev perspective, iGaming (online gambling) is booming and raising the prices of rent making it more difficult for locals. Poor get poorer, eh..?
Source: Living in Malta for almost 2 years now.
P.S. The trick is not to read too many news, not having interest in politics, enjoying the weather and ignoring crappy people.
That trick is applicable in any part of the world.
That only works for so long until the crappy things and people you've been ignoring have festered long enough that they start inserting themselves into your life and it's too late to stop them.
I'd say most places becomes a lot better if you stop engaging the mainstream news and politics, even Sweden seems quite sane after doing so. I've found it gives you time and energy to focus on your actual life surroundings.
There is plenty of bullshit to safely ignore. That doesn't mean it's a good idea to completely bury your head in the sand.
That's true also in the US, and generally true for anything that is complex requiring dedicated time to 'understand'. The default route is to mimic parents. Some people never grow out of that behavior.
Some examples -> https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Malta+mass+meeting&tbm=is...
The internet services are not so great, compared to mainland EU. Mostly because it's an island, I guess. I pay ~30 euros for 100down/5up. There are not a lot of options, look up Melita or Go for more in-depth info on that.
I work for a Maltese company as a developer. Can't complain. If you work in a Maltese company, it is fairly more relaxed than working in an iGaming company :)
Gets annoying when I tell people that my hobby is gaming and they think I'm a closet gambler.