Archive for the ‘ Business ’ Category
Some ambassadors meet royalty, others dine with powerful presidents but our ambassador to the Netherlands gets to greet potatoes!
The company was today visited by Malta's Ambassador to the Netherlands Martin Valentino and Malta's consul general in Breda Herman Stevens to welcome the arrival of some 100 tons of potatoes. - Source: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120322/local/maltese-potatoes-make-it-to-the-netherlands.412324
Hello potato!
I have been enjoying this drink ever since I was a child. Way back then I also appreciated its angular shaped bottle, so distinct from other soft drink bottles and even more so when compared to the bland PET containers of today. I remember the pleasure and sense of pride I felt when I discovered it in a supermarket on the outskirts of Nicosia, Cyprus, in the 80s. At the time I was attending an international youth camp organised by the Leo Club and I couldn't help but point it out to the fellow participants who were shopping with me; it goes without saying that I bought a few Kinnies to share with them too. Thirty years on and I'm still recommending the product, this time to my classes of mixed nationality students who come here for a few weeks, even months, to improve their English language skills. I don't do it because I have a lucrative promotional contract with the bottlers, Farsons, but primarily because it satisfies my taste buds. Secondly, it's a local product which I believe deserves more international recognition.
One of the ingredients which goes into the making of Kinnie is bitter oranges, although the label simply states "oranges". Now I don't know about you but I got thinking - just how many bitter oranges are actually used in a 1.5 litre bottle? Hence my email enquiry to the company yesterday, asking them exactly that. Once their reply comes in, I'll attach the information to this post.
A premature greeting, is it not? What with the summer not having melted away completely and another two months before that December day. However, springing up from the turfed roundabouts are the decorations heralding the Christmas season. Why such an early blossoming of baubles?
Commerce is probably the main factor because, as economists and politicians like to emphasis, spending stimulates the economy. Since childhood, our minds have been trained to equate Christmas with gift giving and consequently these traffic island embellishments are actually a diversion to the shops and malls. Physically we might be driving home or to work but mentally we have been detoured into drawing up our shopping lists.
There could be a religious dimension to the matter of course, especially in view of developments in neighbouring Libya. Last Sunday, National Transitional Council leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said that Islamic Sharia law would be the main source of legislation in the country. Many on this island shuddered upon hearing the words "Islam" and "sharia", immediately fearing that Maltese Catholicism was facing a new threat. The Church, which has recently lost its battle against the introduction of divorce in Malta, may now be girding its loins for another holy war. This early erection of Christmas symbols in public places is proof of Malta's preparedness to become Europe's bulwark against the spread of Islam once again. I ask, is it mere coincidence or prescience that the government has been repairing the formidable bastions which protected us from the infidel in the past?
A merry Christmas to all.
The photo above depicts what one sees today upon reaching the car park of Gnejna Bay - three aluminium container-like structures housing two kiosks and a water sports centre, all partitioning the beach from the parking area. In the eyes of some, the sight of silver aluminium shining in the sun is more satisfying than tanned sand, shimmering sea and crumbling cliffs. In the pockets of others, it is more rewarding to allow businesses to appropriate what, until recently, belonged, at no charge, to all those who frequented the bay. Where once upon-a-stormy-day it was possible to sit in the relative comfort of one's car while watching nature unleash its fury, today one can still sit in the relative comfort of one's car but, watch what exactly? Aesthetic idiocy unleashed.
Or so goes the advertising slogan of Mediterranean Bank, which I've been hearing on the radio recently.
From the financial angle, this catchphrase is not the wisest that could have been chosen. Look at Greece, a bankrupt country without even a national consensus on how to pull itself out of the deepening hole. Spain, with unemployment hitting a negative record of 21.3% in the first quarter of this year. In the southern Med we have Libya, an economy shattered by exploding bombs and gunfire, and Egypt, where the cronyism of the Mubarak regime allowed for untold millions of dollars to be siphoned off from the economy. To the east, Syria's ruling elite of power-hungry money-mongers is imposing too bloody an exchange rate for the freedom of the inhabitants.
So, is it really that great to be Mediterranean?