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Tomorrow Beckons I am scared and my limits haunt me as when I think I know them I am petrified as they fall short or rather shorter than my Ego dictates. So I wonder and stare pale into the oblivious tomorrow and the surprises it holds. Ray de Bono 21.02.08

Ma Nafx! ................................ I don’t know Ma nafx I am not in love I am captivated Enthralled I am a collection of photos shifting in the wind Clapping my hands against sighs of approval as I doze off thinking Afloat on dreams of caverns that… Hugging me dear Oh dear! ….twinkling stars How I wish I can stay there I don’t know Ma Nafx Ray de Bono 18.09.07 ................................

...and both MLP and PN Approve. How come? Read link: http://images.google.com.mt/imgres?imgurl=http://www.libya-almostakbal.com/Reports/June2006/human_rw_busleem280606_files/image001.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.libya-almostakbal.com/Reports/June2006/human_rw_busleem280606en.html&h=300&w=300&sz=18&hl=en&start=10&tbnid=PQueHHtXBB_fXM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3DLibya%2BHuman%2BRights%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den mage001.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.libya-almostakbal.com/Reports/June2006/human_rw_busleem280606en.html&h=300&w=300&sz=18&hl=en&start=10&tbnid=PQueHHtXBB_fXM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3DLibya%2BHuman%2BRights%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den Libya: June 1996 Killings at Abu Salim Prison A Human Rights Watch Backgrounder 28/06/2006 In the summer of 1996, stories began to filter out of Libya about a mass k...

I Wonder When it is my turn to die, Will I ponder on my days afar? Will I yearn for your arms and cry? When it is my turn to die, Will I despair in a lonely chill? Will I hold your hands in mine? When it is my turn to die, Will I close my eyes and sigh? Will lost loved ones linger on the other side? Ray de Bono 18.07.07

The problem with illegal immigrants in Malta is not the illegal immigrants themselves but the Maltese people! Why I like Daphne's Reasoning... (Thumbs Up!) There isn ’t a single EU member state that hasn ’t got problems with illegal immigration, and here come the whining Maltese, behaving as though illegal immigration was invented just for Malta. There are illegal immigrants pouring in to the EU from every point on its borders except the Atlantic coast, and even there hopeful immigrants are working their way in from Morocco to the tip of Spain and Portugal. Albanians have been pouring in to Greece and Italy for years. Bulgarians and Romanians, before they became part of the EU, were streaming in and making their way all over. Russians and Serbians are everywhere. The big cities of Europe are chock-a-block with Chinese. Almost all these people want to make their way to the United Kingdom as the ultimate pot of gold at the end of their rainbow. They try desperate measures to get in,...

Expats a political force in Spain Independent political parties dominated by expatriates - many of them British - are campaigning for the first time in Spain's local elections. Mick Blake (left) is vice-president of one of the expat-dominated partiesThe BBC's Danny Wood examines this new phenomenon in San Fulgencio, in the southeastern province of Alicante. Never before have European expats taken to the Spanish political arena like this. They are the backbone of new political parties that have more expats on their lists of candidates than locally-born Spaniards. Since the 1960s, the beaches, sun and affordable fiesta lifestyle have drawn millions of Europeans to Spain for holidays. And not just holidays - there are now about 1.5 million expats resident in Spain, mainly British and Germans, many concentrated on the Costa Blanca around Valencia and Alicante, on the Costa del Sol and in the Balearic Islands. For more than a decade, European Union residents have had the right to vo...

1. One proves he/she is starving, has no other subsistence, no other alternative food source. One should not allow anyone to starve, when there are so many wild birds around, ey? 2. All hunters must prove that they are not littering. Seriously, anyone can get fines for littering so why are hunters allowed to shoot thousands of lead pellets all over the place, and get away with it? I mean, lead is known to be cancerogenic, and with the amounts dumped in our soil every year we must have the a sauciest lethal cocktail seeping into our water table and turning up into our vegetables...No wonder we have such high cancer rates on the island! Only if these 2 points are rigorously met will I tolerate hunting in Malta. Ray de Bono

In Malta we are blessed with an abundance on sun and wind energy, not to mention wave energy. This surely presents us with potentially suitable alternative energy sources given we (and forget about the government, people), WE the Maltese ourselves come up with feasible options. We cannot keep depending on our governments. We can take the initiative. We can succeed. It takes a good, bright idea, and loads of motivation. We can do it. Portugal managed. Why not us? Portugal opens major solar plant The solar power plant is based in one of Europe's sunniest areas of Portugal and is probably the world's most powerful solar power plant. The array of electricity-generating solar panels covers about 60 hectares (150 acres) in one of Europe's sunniest areas in southern Portugal. Officials say the plant should produce enough energy to supply 8,000 homes. The plant is part of Portugal's efforts to cut its reliance on imported fuel and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that...

We have been there. Fought potentially oblivious of forming an integral part of the tapestry of Europe, yet our forefathers died on the battle ground that has morphed the Europe that is today. And now it’s the 50t h Anniversary. A call for celebration, of the peace secured, of people united, of sovereignty shared, of shared differences, languages, races and livelihoods. We are new in the Union but as age old Europeans we have shared a common history to most of our neighbours; as a Roman province, a Moorish conquest, a Norman liberated land, a Spanish dominion, a reluctant Knights base, a French dominion and ultimately, a willing British Colony. Irrespective of their geographical and numeric disadvantages, the Maltese too have paid a dear price and in many humble yet instrumental ways, moulded European history in its present shape. At the soft underbelly of Europe lies our semi desert island, over populated, thriving economy, petty environmental standards, peripheral if not pathetic ...

Long Live Blogging: And they say Egypt is Free!? Blog trial: A lengthy jail sentence looms for a 22-year-old blogger accused of insulting President Hosni Mubarak. Abdel Karim Nabil Suleiman was arrested in November in a move condemned by human rights groups abroad. Read more: 1. http://karam903.blogspot.com/ and 2. http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGMDE120042007 Yeps. Blogging is here to stay. In the west where we live, I meant. In Egypt, if one dares writing against the countries supreme leader he/she risks persecution, and probable death. Think about it! Ray de Bono , Dmax Malta

EU citizens' 'right' to divorce Ivan Camilleri Source Timesofmalta.com Evelyne Gebhardt: "There is no law which says you can be divorced only if you are living in your country". The European Commission has proposed a law to regularise the jurisdiction of EU courts concerning which law they should apply in case of cross-border divorce. The government has called for an "opt-out" clause so that the legislation would not apply to Malta. Ivan Camilleri spoke to Evelyne Gebhardt, a German Socialist MEP who is handling this hot dossier for the European Parliament How do you look upon divorce?The issue has nothing to do with the introduction of divorce. This has to be clear in people's minds. I am German and for us it is normal to have divorce. However, I've been happily married for 32 years and I do not want to divorce. At the same time I recognise the fact that sometimes, unfortunately, divorce is necessary. Do you consider divorce a fundamental huma...

New call to save EU constitution Good Morning, Malta! My Island of surreal peace. My Lilliput- landia . An outpost of ambivalent Europeans suffering from a mass amnesia. Is this the end of our EU- phoria ? It is time to stand up and be counted! For once, an issue agreed upon by all local political parties is at stake. And what are we doing about it? Nothing. There is hardly any real debate on this topic. Life goes on. For a second I wonder if this means anything to the crowds that so much cheered or booed the EU membership saga before May 2004; but now, like silent dumb sheep, we are not the least bothered. We got our Petty cash funds. We are patching up our streets. Getting jobs in Brussels. We move on with our lives, as if nothing is really happening beyond the lovely shores of our islands. We assume that we are the one and only country on earth; the centre of the universe; if anything else exists is must be obviously a threat; or a source to suck up to… How pathetic. If there ha...

Yes. And its not a Joke. And Malta maybe next... With the ever-so-passionate +9 campaign in full swing, an anti-divorce crusade on the go, and with probably one of the highest concentration of churches on earth - we should be next, after Michigan (US), to ban extra marital flings! The New Bishop will surely have more reasons to smile with the likely backing of such a rule from the ultra-Catholic Government, don't you think? And considering Malta's historic blind backing of Catholic dogmas at state level, I will not be surprised this anti-adultery regime becomes the next mission of some of the many zealot campaigners around, and before we know it, Malta follows suit... In fact, the Michigan state's appeals court recently ruled that extramarital flings can be prosecuted as first-degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony punishable by up to life in jail. "We cannot help but question whether the Legislature actually intended the result we reach here today," Judge Willi...

Nurse tells of 'gardener' Saddam When Sgt Ellis left, Saddam Hussein said he would be his brother Saddam Hussein watered weeds in a jail garden and drank coffee while smoking cigars to keep his blood pressure down, a US army nurse who cared for him says. In an interview with a US newspaper, Master Sgt Robert Ellis provided a rare glimpse into the last years of Saddam Hussein, who was executed on Saturday. Sgt Ellis looked after the former Iraqi leader - whom they called 'Victor' - in 2004 and 2005 at a camp near Baghdad. The prisoner rarely complained during his time in captivity, he said. He added that he was under strict orders to do whatever neccessary to keep Saddam alive. "Saddam Hussein cannot die in US custody," he said a US colonel had told him. 'Coping skills' Sgt Ellis, from St Louis, told the St Louis Post-Dispatch that Saddam Hussein was held in a six foot by eight foot (1.8m to 2.4m) cell with a cot, table, two plastic chairs and two was...

It is sad. Terrible. A supposedly western styled democracy that behaves like a third world tyrant. Attacking a defenseless nation and reducing it to rubble. Having at its disposal one of the word's finest and most renowned secret service, some of the world’s best military observation satellites capable of spotting an object smaller than a meter right from space - and yet failing to distinguish between a defense post and a 14-storey apartment building, between an enemy gathering and a 40-year old United Nations landmark building, between Kalashnikov branding gangs and white flagged feeing vehicles... I am angry as I do not expect that a nation of such brave and highly educated people, that have contributed to our civilization two main religions - leaving deep mark in our vision of life, the arts and culture - can be directed by such a weak government. A weak prime minister so much determined to live up to the image of his predecessor that has become blinded by his ambition to establ...

It is sad that Malta, a supposedly Christian haven is so stubborn at accepting that democracy means pluralism of ideas, opinion and, yes, even of religious believes. In other European countries pluralism of religions means also divergence in what one may define as 'conscience' and what dictates one's dogmas, the 'do's' and 'don'ts' in life. If a Maltese lady walks in a Teheran avenue in a mini skirt, she may be arrested for improper attire. A Muslim lady with her zealous outfit covering her face and entire body may be looked upon in Malta with curiosity, if not ridicule. It shows that when it comes to multicultural comprehension and respect, though us Maltese can rank high amongst those who are quick to patronize others on how they ought to behave, talk, protest, live their lives, respect their women, etc. we have still a long way to go to set our own record straight. No wonder this week's announcement that a Spanish doctor will be offering '...

PRAISING A CATHOLIC DICTATOR. Was he what Europe Needs today? General Franco: Catholic conqueror of communism It's not often you hear a paean of praise to the Spanish fascist dictator General Franco these days. Even Catholic Church in Malta is said to have considered him a real hero as fighter of Communism, and it was not alone its support. One certainly doesn’t expect to hear such support in the European Parliament. So members were shocked when Polish MEP Maciej Giertych got to his feet. He was speaking in one of those debates that seem rather pious and pointless, to mark the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish civil war - full of MEPs condemning a regime that is long dead and buried, already reviled by most. Now Mr Giertych is not some marginal figure. He was a presidential candidate and his party is a coalition partner in the Polish government. His son doubles as deputy prime minister and education minister. Franco guaranteed the maintenance of traditional values i...

I thank all my readers, amongst them Uwe (from Germany), Keith, Josette(Gozo), Staphania, Anton, Daniela, Raymond, Fr. Ray, Katya, and the many anonymous others that occasionally drop me a comment on my blog here and there. It's a weird period we are living through right now. Not bad, just a bit strange: Burning cars, disastrous euro concert results, barren political scenarios, lack of national role models, false anti-Da Vinci Code crusades, the absence of a real night life scenario...Well, the list is longer, but it's Sunday and I do not wish to bore you any further. I came across this poem, written a year ago - that I felt like sharing with you. What is a poem worth if retained hidden saved as binary code (Bill Gate’s word doc)? Worst still, It was not even on 'my' pc, but saved on that of my brother's! Enjoy! Ray