Pastizzi from Serkin, Red Bull from Havana: the genuine links of the IIP
IIP applicants bought their way through low-value options to prove genuineness, using parking tickets and receipts from Serkin and Havana
25 April 2021, 7:00am
by Nicole Meilak
Receipts for Pastizzi from Rabat’s famous Crystal Palace Bar and for a Red Bull from a nightclub in Paceville were amongst the so-called “genuine links” presented by IIP candidates in order to prove the ties they had developed to Malta as they sought to get their hands on a passport.
Applicants for the Individual Investor Programm – Malta’s €1.15 million cash-for-passports scheme for the global rich – allowed them to spend just an average of 16 days in Malta out of their supposed 12-month residency period. The system was put in place by Henley & Partners, the IIP’s ‘concessionaire’ and the government agency Identity Malta, which effectively reduced the residency process to a box-ticking and score-gr
The short film In-Nani f’Art il-Ġganti is an exceedingly poignant look into the present moment. It invites viewers into a conversation in which two friends “negotiate a space full of webs of power” with the COVID-19 pandemic as a backdrop. The film’s writer and director,
Noah Fabri, speaks to
Lara Zammit about the ideas percolating throughout the production.
In-Nani f’Art il-Ġganti is a slow-paced short film revolving around a conversation between two friends who take a walk through the countryside during the fallout of COVID-19. What prompted you to create this short film? What are the ideas behind it?
Merlin Publishers is today hosting a live reading of short stories from Trevor Zahra’s latest anthology Sempreviva.
The book is a collection of 37 funny, eerie and heart-warming tales which have flowers as their themes and all of which depict human emotions.
Zahra himself, together with some friends, will be reading excepts from these stories this evening at 6.30pm. One may follow the event live on the Merlin Publishers’ Facebook page. For more information, visit the page https://www.facebook.com/events/449012456278216.
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The best reads of the week by the National Book Council and Times of Malta
Trevor Żahra – Bejn Storja u Miti
By Sergio Grech
€28, ISBN: 9789918200443.
Awarded with the Midalja tal-Qadi tar-Repubblika and various other awards by the National Book Council, the Malta Society for the Arts and the Akkademja tal-Malti, Trevor Zahra is a central figure in Maltese literature. This book focuses on an author whose versatility and energy shine across various literary genres.
Kissirtu kullimkien
While Russian-Maltese diplomatic and cultural exchanges have existed for centuries, it was only 30 years ago that the Russian Cultural Centre opened on November 8, 1990, in Valletta. Maltese newspapers reported this event as an “important step” in the building of a “common European home”.
Russian emigrée Princess Nathalie Poutiatine was instrumental in the popularisation of ballet in Malta. Photo: Courtesy of Tanya Bayona
The first Russian cultural festival in Malta, held in November 1990, created a sensation among local arts and music lovers. The original works of Russian masters Malevich, Kandinsky, Petrov-Vodkin and other paintings from the State Russian Museum collection were brought to Malta along with rare books and archive documents.