Editorial

Here's a selection of cartoons published in the Sunday Times (Malta)

A quick lick of tarmac in strategic places is usually the most noticeable Maltese preparation to an official visit by a foreign head of state.
Queen Elizabeth II visits Malta in May 1992....

The first Earth Summit is held in Rio De Janeiro in June 1992. A Maltese delegation is present ...of course. I pondered the alternative - the number of hunters' shotguns in a country with a population of 400,000....

Malta formally applies to join the EU in 1990 hoping to join the so called EFTA countries frontrunners (which included Sweden, Finland, Austria and Norway) By mid 1992 it is clear that Malta is not considered at par with these countries and Malta's application is quietly put on the back burner. Cartoon published in July 1992.

Every year in July the Malta Police Force organizes a week-long series of activities to celebrate its nth anniversary. This was my cartoon from July 1992 when the MPF turned 178...

Public transport reform has been on the political agenda forever. In 1992 the authorities introduce a prototype bus for Malta but fail to address the small issue of the infamously bad behaved Maltese bus drivers. Cartoon from October 1992.

In 1993 the new Malta Independent newspaper introduces a star columnist - none other than former Premier and strongman Dom Mintoff. His writing is however heavily rhetorical and frankly says not a lot in spite of the profuse verbal diarrhoea. The old warrior was still to erupt one more time during Alfred Sant's short shift as Prime Minister during 1996-1998. Cartoon from April 1993.

Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami's reputation suffers when he is heavily involved in getting to the bottom of the sordid case of the near-fatal stabbing of his personal assistant Richard Cachia Caruana. In court EFA describes night time meetings with a shady star witness and former canvasser popularly known as Zeppi l-Hafi (rough translation Barefoot Joe). Cartoon from July 1999.

...On the other hand, Opposition leader Alfred Sant makes as much mileage as he can out of this controversial court case...perhaps imagining that the momentum could well carry him and his party up to the next elections. Cartoon dated August 1999.

After losing power a mere 22 months after become Premier in 1996, Alfred Sant turns bitterly anti-EU, describing the PN government re-elected in 1998 as illegitimate. Alfred Sant was by then also bitterly against the holding of a referendum on Malta's accession to the EU and always maintained that EU entry would be decided by the next elections' results. Confused? So was Dr. Sant's thinking I guess...

A cartoon from January 2000. I am not sure about the origins behind this one; whether Margaret Thatcher actually visited Malta or was invited to do so either by the General Workers Union or the Malta Labour Party. At any rate it provided a good spoof on David Low's famous World War II cartoon - this time with Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici welcoming Lady Thatcher...

The idea of an airport for Gozo is resurrected during the PN's 1998-2003 term in government. The idea, first mooted during the same administration's 1992-1996 term, was never exactly popular and was hotly opposed by environmentalists. The Gozo airport remains a plan on paper (if at all) to this date, Cartoon dating from February 2000.

After losing power to the PN in the premature 1998 election Alfred Sant and Premier Fenech Adami were visibly never on the best of terms, one suspects on a personal level as well as the more obvious political one. This cartoon from September 2001 captures the mutual antipathy between the two leaders.

The Archbishop of Malta Giuseppe Mercieca and the Gozo Bishop Nikol Cauchi issue a rare pastoral letter promoting love and respect for animals. This is a pleasant surprise in a country notorious for its vociferous and lawless hunting community. The caption is an actual quote from the Bishops' letter.Cartoon from August 2002.

In the run-up to EU accession the hunting issue takes on much more prominence than it rightly deserves. The government bends over backwards to give the hunting lobby the requested assurances. Cartoon from September 2002.

Malta's notoriously moody and macho bus drivers start attending EU funded courses in 2003.

Public areas, roads and roundabouts start getting a landscaped makeover with palm trees and elaborate flowery patterns. The busy Kappara roundabout gets half a dozen fully grown palm trees...

Malta has a notorious reputation when it comes to hunting. Over the years the subject has provided some rich material for local cartoonists. The outrage at the time (January 2004) was the illegal killing of spoonbills. The movie Kill Bill was released around that time. A favourite personal cartoon and definitely one of my all time favourite movies.

A 42 storey tower block is proposed for the Naxxar Trade Fair grounds in February 2004...mercifully nothing comes out of the development application.

Kellek hin ghall-familja llum? An ironic billboard reading "Did you spend enough time with your family today?" put up by the National Families Commission hits the roads in November 2004. At the same time a new budget measure dictates that public holidays falling on weekends are no longer to be added to employees' leave entitlement

A spoof on Richard England's LOVE monument in Balluta. Carton from 2005. An image of the monument can be found here.

Increased travel taxes do nothing to help an ailing Air Malta. Cartoon from 2005. Air Malta was to undergo a massive restructuring exercise in 2011-2 aimed at halving its bloated workforce.

Dr. Alfred Sant - leader of the opposition Labour Party from 1992 with just one short stint in government (1996-1998) reckons he will win again - at some point...

Xarabank is a long ruuning TV discussion program with live audience - loved and detested equally by many. This is a spoof of the program based on a don't-drink-and-drive campaign advert. January 2006.

Gozo - Malta's sister island - comes in for quite a bit of flak from the mainlanders. Gozitans have a reputation of charging different prices for Gozitans, Maltese and foreigners (that's everyone else). Cartoon from 2006.

Malta is a popular destination for students who travel to learn English. However their often rowdy behaviour tends to raise eyebrows among the locals. Cartoon from 2007.

Malta has one of the highest population densities in the world and a massive 22% of its area is built up. And yet at the time this cartoon was published in 2007 the number of vacant properties was calculated to be in the region of 53,000. That number is now closer to 70,000. Population density - right!

Malta introduces the Euro in January 2008

Malta remains Europe's most densely populated country. A regular influx of illegal immigrants complicates matters. 2008 cartoon.

Lighting on little used roads to be switched off. This was an actual news item from November 2008.

Speed cameras start cropping up in all sorts of ridiculous places. The public suspects that easy money - rather than safety - is behind their siting.
Cartoon from March 2009.

My comment on gambling - a rampant Maltese trait. Cartoon from April 2009

Copenhagen Earth Summit - December 2009 cartoon.

The new leader of the Opposition, Joseph Muscat makes quite a few promises but never quite explains how those promises will be kept.

The Malta Police make complete asses of themselves when people are arrested at the rowdy Nadur Carnival in Gozo for dressing up in religious habits. Moreover the police request to vet lyrics to be sung by participants. The take on The Police's (Sting's band that is) lyrics and this silly incident was too good to resist. Cartoon from 14th February 2010.

Free wifi is introduced in public squares. June 2010

A fall in consumer confidence. January 2011

Maltese EU Commissioner John Dalli makes some weird public comments on Libya during the crisis there - comments which are widely viewed as pro Gaddafi and at odds with official EU policies. March 2011. The Sunday Times goes all colour at around this time too.

Former Labour Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici also takes a pro Gaddafi stand during the Libyan conflict - hugely embarrassing for the current Labour leader Joseph Muscat, who distances himself from the former leader's diatribes. March 2011.

Leader of the Oppositon Joseph Muscat portrays himself as progressive but frequently makes statements which are seen as simply populist.
April 2011 cartoon.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi paints himself into a pretty tight corner with a referendum on divorce which he eventually loses. In the run-up to the referendum it is difficult to gauge whether Gonzi and his sidekicks are leading the State or the Catholic church. Memorably one of his ministers publishes an opinion piece in which he states that he is pretty sure Our Lady must be crying in heaven at the thought that the last earthly bastion of Catholicism could be contemplating legalizing divorce. Cartoon from May 2011.

From time to time, talk of linking Malta and Gozo by means of a bridge or tunnel resurfaces. Economically a no-no project. Cartoon from June 2012.

The silly season in full swing. Taking your dog to any "designated swimming area" - (read: any beach) suddenly becomes an offence punishable by hefty fines. A health official helpfully explains that dog poo is known to contain bacteria. Honest - I never would have figured that one out.
Cartoon from August 2011.

So...what kind of shite are you choosing come next election? Both local major parties seem to have nothing much to say except throwing the brown stuff at each other. You too are unlikely to escape unsmeared. This cartoon appeared on 9th October 2011.

Survey after survey give the same sad statistic - the Maltese are among the fattest people in the world. Newspaper articles on the subject frequently carry a photo (blurred) of some unsuspecting obese person. The cartoon is an imaginary take on such photos.

Transport Malta starts putting up self-praising billboards every time it patches up a bit of road. Great stuff for cartoonists...
This one from March 2012.

Pluralism in broadcasting was introduced in the 90's with the idealistic intention of countering a sole state broadcaster usually outrageously biased towards the party in government. Both parties set up their TV stations. Twenty years later the Maltese get two opposing versions of outrageously biased news from these stations - black or white with no shades of grey anywhere.

Down down down....Taking politics to the next level. Cartoon published 15July 2012

Power cuts, a staple of the mid-eighties, make an unwelcome return in the 2010's. Back to the Eighties retro parties are popular events for people on the wrong side of forty. Cartoon from August 2012.

Hilariously, the Malta Environment and Planning Agency (MEPA) wakes up from a deep slumber and asks for police intervention to halt illegal developments by the country's foremost serial building laws breaker. Cartoon from September 2012.

The Malta Environment and Planning Agency (MEPA) frequently takes controversial decisions which leave one wondering whether the environment features at all in its deliberations. Cartoon from October 2012.

The Budget of Crossed Fingers. With a rebel MP vowing to veto the budget for 2013, Minister Tonio Fenech's bag of election year goodies is hardly likely to make it through Parliament. Budget Supplement cartoon, The Times (Malta) 29November 2012.

Election Campaign 2013. The first couple of weeks of the campaign are taken up mainly with a "debate" on cheaper and cleaner energy while an increasingly confused electorate is left to sift through the metaphorical emissions coming from both main parties... Cartoon from January 2013.

Election Campaign 2013. The main parties go overboard with electoral promises. Free tablets, less tax, more incentives are promised by all - and both parties also claim they have costed the goodies... Cartoon from February 2013.

Election Campaign 2013. Labour leader Joesph Muscat, riding high in the polls, starts talking bombastically of a Second Republic - a concept most of the electorate probably does not really fathom or care about.

Election Campaign 2013. The polls keep showing a good margin for Labour but the eventual landslide (54% of the popular vote) leaves many surprised.

Election Sunday 2013. Malta waits for the winning party....and a veritable avalanche of pre-electoral promises!

The Labour Party wins the 2013 elections by a huge margin - the biggest in post-war Malta apparently. Joseph Muscat the new prime minister manages to overturn an almost uninterrupted 25 years of Nationalist power in one fell swoop and becomes a Labour icon of sorts....I thought this was an appropriate Easter Sunday cartoon...

Simon Busuttil, the new PN leader, will have a veritable mountain to climb to overturn Labour's landslide. June 2013 cartoon.

The newish Labour government proposes a bridge link between Malta and Gozo - echoing the madness of the previous administration's tunnel link proposal. A project which could easily bankrupt Malta. June 2013 cartoon.

A wave of sub-Saharan migrant landings, coupled with the Prime Minister's declaration that he is considering migrant push-backs in breach of
international legislation, unleash a wave of xenophobia among the Maltese public. Unfortunately, a massive majority appears to back the PM
on this inhumane "solution". Cartoon from July 2013.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Rights alienates the anti-hunting lobby by relaxing curfews for the autumn hunting season
- a whiff of Orwellian new-speak... Cartoon from August 2013.

Government plans to sell Maltese citizenship to wealthy foreigners raises eyebrows - more so since the identity of any buyer will remain undisclosed, giving fuel to speculations that Malta might end up harboring unsavory characters such as ousted dictators or war criminals. This cartoon, published in October 2013, joyfully mimics the Wizard of Id creator's style - which explains the apology.

Slow wheels of justice. Forty years after a Labour administration abusively triggers a run on the National Bank of Malta the courts decide that the shareholders' human rights were breached; way too late for the shareholders themselves to be of any consolation - never mind material compensation. Cartoon from January 2014.

Alfred Sant - Prime Minister in the short-lived Labour government of 1996-8, and an ardent campaigner against the EU, changes tack and ties his luck for an MEP seat in Brussels. Cartoon from April 2014.

Prime Minister Muscat taunts the nation for a couple of days with heavy hints of very good news for Malta, then announces an urgent press conference (complete with Malta and EU flags for backdrop) to announce that the price of petrol is going down by two euro cents. Cartoon from May 2014.

Malta keeps its place among the world's most obese nations once again. Loved transforming the map of Malta into this visual.
Cartoon from June 2014

The Malta Environment & Planning Authority (MEPA) will allow construction of high-rise buildings in six locations.
Cartoon from June 2014

Just a matter of perception? Malta's closer links with China start to raise more than a few eyebrows...
Cartoon from November 2014

An abrogative referendum seeking to repeal a law which allows Malta to hunt for turtle-dove and quail in spring is announced for April 2015.
The hunters' federation does a good bit of scaremongering, warning that practices like pyrotechnics or amateur fishing could be next
- a non sequitur of the first degree. Cartoon from January 2015.

A migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean involving the loss of life of some 800 people finally triggers the EU to start talking, seriously one hopes, on the subject. I remain skeptical that this human tragedy will be resolved. This is my reaction published on 26th April 2015. The cartoon was also selected as the featured cartoon of the day on the Cartoon Movement website two days later - a very satisfying first for me.

"...And don't ever come back!" Government keeps its electoral promise of de-merging MEPA in a move seen by most environmentalists as being a step closer to make 'development' easier for property developers. Cartoon from July 2015.

The hapless Minister of Transport becomes very much the national scapegoat (and the butt of numerous jokes) as increasing traffic with the start of the scholastic year brings many parts of Malta to a virtual standstill. Malta has a population of around 440,000 sharing some 300,000 vehicles attempting to drive on roads in an area of some 316 sq.kms. Cartoon from October 2015.

A knotty week for the Labour government as it loses maverick MP Marlene Farrugia over apparent plans to render the Malta Environment and Planning Authority more toothless than it already is. The newly inaugurated and very blasé Migration Summit monument in Valletta provides an interesting metaphor for this cartoon from November 2015.

This cartoon is available as an art print here.

The Labour government marks three years in office but public attention is riveted by the fact that one of its prominent ministers is involved in the Panama Papers scandal. Cartoon from 13th March 2016.

Recent political developments on both sides of the Atlantic appear to be triggering far right and xenophobic trends in the western world.
Cartoon published on 10th July 2016.

This cartoon is available as an art print here.