A work in progress

Toni Sant's review of Maltese blogs helps to widen interest in the subject. It has apparently also triggered the re-awakening of Malta, 9 Thermidor (thermidor from the name of the 11th month of the French Revolution) whose anonymous creator once stated that the Maltese blogosphere is a desolate, barren place. In an entry posted last October Fausto Majistral discussed the problems of running a Maltese political blog connecting this with the poor online services of domestic papers. In yesterday's post, apart from making kind comments about Wired Temples, he raised the issue of the controversial introduction of the UK's Freedom of Information law. From yesterday's Malta, 9 Thermidor:

Hmm, I must have pronounced the Maltese blogosphere dead prematurely. Toni Sant made an update of a previous round-up. Hell, even I get a mention, having almost completely abandoned the enterprise owing to Christmas holidays, seasonal family committments and the like.

Nice to see there's Robert Micallef running a blog called Wired Temples.... Micallef's must be the most political blog in Toni Sant's list. The others occasionally make a comment (usually lame of the "what-a-wonderful-place-Malta-would-be-if-its-politics-were-different" type). Sadly Micallef is also prone to an occasional "Balzanism" -- the belief that Europeans do it better. True, they often do. But as I have often shown in this blog they do not do it that much better.

Here's an example: Micallef refers to the fact that the UK, a country with a long tradition of government secrecy, now also has a Freedom of Information Act. Germany will follow suit leaving only Malta, Cyprus and Luxembourg as the only EU countries without such an Act. Fair enough. But couldn't one have mentioned at least that in the UK it was claimed that paper shredders in Whitehall were working overtime just before the Act came into force?