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Comment by atombender | Hacker News Reader

There's also a heavy mafia presence, and organized crime in general. When Italy cracked down on organized crime, some maafia elements moved their operations to Malta. The recent killing of a Maltese journalist was almost certainly related to organized crime [1] [2]. It's amazing how much violence they've had for such a small country [3].

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...

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Honestly... the mafia presence / organised crime bit is either totally over my head or very much overblown in international media.

Source: Maltese born and bred, 24 years and counting.

"There are clearly risks in probing too deep into modern Malta: insanity, I’d say, as well as death. Lies are routine currency. The bus company recently announced that its punctuality rate had reached 94 per cent: I think there may be a decimal point missing. "

Fair?

I think when dealing with anything that sounds too good to be true or is somewhat related to the government or a governmental tender a healthy amount of scepticism is warranted. We do like to shit all over some government provided things (even the tax-paid healthcare), but most complainers don't realise how good we have it.

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.

Oh you have no idea how rooted the mafia is in Malta then.. I've experienced it first hand, and i'm not even a Maltese citizen. Everything you see in Malta is more or less under the mafia's influence, its really just like in the movies, and thats partly because, as another user pointed out, the mafia moved from Italy to Malta.

What did you experience first hand?

I'm curious as to how a non-citizen has a greater knowledge of Mafia presence than a Malta citizen.

I lived on the island(Sliema) for a few months a few years ago. Let's just say i know someone who knows someone... The maltese are completely unaware of whats really going down on their island.

> Malta is awesome ... the scuba diving is some of the best in the Mediterranean.

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.

Fortunately, the charges were dropped [1], and the reaction from Britain probably made the Maltese authorities think twice about pulling such a stunt in the future. It's a deeply unfortunate incident, but I'm not sure it warrants such an extreme reaction. Most people have no issues diving in Malta.

[1] http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-35350295

I'd say they only dropped it because of high-level pressure and adverse publicity. I wouldn't assume the same outcome with, for example, a random ozzie instructor on a diving holiday. The concerning issue, IMHO, is that such serious charges were bought at all, particularly given the absurd allegations contained therein (improper diving profile etc.). Also the fact that they didn't even inform him of their investigation or give him a chance to appear!

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 :-)

Sure. But "until they do" applies to anything. No one has issues until they do. One bad incident doesn't automatically ruin everything.

Most people do not have car accidents. But seeing one might reasonably cause you to wonder how that happened, whether it might happen to you, and if so, how you might reduce your risk.

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!

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