
Malta: an island of secrets and lies - Thevet
https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2018/02/malta-island-secrets-and-lies
======
m_fayer
I found this interesting after spending a few weeks there this Summer on a
whim. Everything about it is just so improbable. Tiny ancient place, Arabic-
descended language, Mediterranean climate, built environment like some cross
of Crete and Jerusalem, Catholic culture and social mores, English food-and-
drink, and now also ugly sprawl and car-culture, receding nature, people
everywhere.

All that and crawling with the families of minor Russian oligarchs and
unashamedly advertising all sorts of tax-haven services. Just... weird.

~~~
neaden
I wonder if corruption is to some degree inevitable in any country this small.
How do you deal with international companies and billionaires who are richer
than your entire nation?

~~~
matt4077
The "tax haven" business model only works for small countries: Malta, but also
Luxembourg, the Caymans, Panama, and Ireland.

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.

~~~
CryptoPunk
>>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.

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.

------
yardie
Part of our travels took us to Malta. My family spent a few months there and
got to be embedded in Maltese culture. Hard to do as a tourist because while
the Maltese are nice they are not inviting to strangers. Since the Crusades
they've been a softball between Eastern and Western empires, coming in and
telling them what's what.

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.

~~~
atombender
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...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/03/italy-accuses-malta-
failing-counter-organised-crime-murdered/)

[2] [http://europeanpost.co/mafia-seeing-malta-as-a-little-
paradi...](http://europeanpost.co/mafia-seeing-malta-as-a-little-paradise-
italian-anti-mafia-commission-warns/)

[3]
[http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-11-20/news/50-un...](http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-11-20/news/50-unsolved-
murders-since-1972-3238133761)

~~~
purrcat259
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.

~~~
gerdesj
"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?

~~~
purrcat259
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.

------
andriussev
Personally, Malta is a great country but the political part is complicated and
makes it hard to expect good but controversial change, ex: attempts to lower
the number of cars on the road. If someone tries that, they might do some good
but it's very likely to make a lot people unhappy and everyone knows everyone,
voting for political parties goes for generations (15-16 year olds chanting
for Labour party because their parents and grandparents did that -- even
though they can't even vote yet). Hard and drastic changes are needed but you
won't get reelected if you do that...

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.

~~~
craftyguy
> voting for political parties goes for generations (15-16 year olds chanting
> for Labour party because their parents and grandparents did that

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.

~~~
mmusc
Can't really compare the two. while the US struggles on voter turn out. In
Malta during elections there is a rabid and more than 90%+ of eligible voters
vote. But its all tribal and pointless..

Some examples ->
[https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Malta+mass+meeting&tbm=is...](https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Malta+mass+meeting&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7nL6i1srZAhVJ7lQKHafzAfMQsAQIKw&biw=1536&bih=759)

------
rumcajz
Btw, there was another murder of a journalist few days ago, this time in
Slovakia: [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/28/slovakian-
jour...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/28/slovakian-journalist-
was-investigating-political-links-to-italian-mafia)

------
Numberwang
Its a bizarre place for so many reasons. Us swedes are everywhere because of
igaming. No one in Sweden ever thinks or talks about Malta, but we are enough
Swedes here to be counted as a small city.

~~~
kzrdude
What's igaming? I'm kind of guessing online poker.

~~~
purrcat259
The palatable name for any sort of gambling/betting related sector really.

Gets annoying when I tell people that my hobby is gaming and they think I'm a
closet gambler.

------
zwieback
We worked with ST micro in Malta, they had a bunch of good MEMS engineers
there, weird place for that.

------
mcs_
I worked for different sports book, casinos and poker companies there. Gaming
licenses there are regulated and the environment is toxic. My work experience
was very bad. Despite the regulations for that industry, mafia still drives
the entire sector and is not something hidden.

------
mehrdadn
Seems like an appropriate place to leave a link to this video:
[https://fb.com/10157136069225329](https://fb.com/10157136069225329)

------
Feniks
Fitting for a country founded by real Templars.

~~~
dragonwriter
Malta wasn't founded (or ever ruled by) the Knights Templar, though it was for
a period ruled by Knights Hospitaller, the other of the two best-known
crusading orders (and the one that still exists, known now as “the Sovereign
Military Order of Malta”.

