Author: Mhix

Posted on

Stormy weather…!

Flash flooding and storms dropping in excess of 42mm of rain hit Malta again today with some devastating effects. Fortunately not all was bad and many saw the funny side, myself included…

 

Parts of Malta underwater, worst affected areas include Msida and Birkirkara.
Parts of Malta underwater, worst affected areas include Msida and Birkirkara.

On a more serious note the stories and pictures relating to this phenomenal event…

42mm of rainfall last night…

and..

Man killed in Zabbar by lightening…

Waterspout photographed off the shores of Malta.
The waterspout photographed earlier by another resident of Malta!

Lastly, a lesson was learned by me today. I have said for a long time if you don’t want something on the Internet don’t post it… Well I posted this image (before editing)… which was all well and good, but the subject of the photo got very concerned when in the first 40 minutes there were over 110 shares and 100’s of likes (On facebook)… concerned it was going viral, she asked me to remove it which I agreed as whilst it is my photo (original and edited) to do with what I please, I agreed with her so I did… But some unscrupulous person had decided to post the picture on her own facebook page and claim her work… a few hours later I was alerted to it, and by that time it had over 500 shares and 1000’s of likes.. Upon asking for it to be removed I was told to ‘F**k off’ and I had no choice to report the picture as a DMCA violation of my rights… 12 hours later Facebook has not actioned the report, I do expect them to do so, but the lesson learned, some people will ignore copyright and polite requests regardless of your intentions. That said the Time of Malta picked up the picture not knowing the original copyright and request and posted it on their website, I alerted them to the problem and within just a minute or two they removed it replacing it with the authorised one at the top of this article. Good on them, at least some people are decent and honorable.

The picture concerned – (C) Copyright Michelle Sullivan 2012

 

This is the article by the Times of Malta:

After the storm… the humour.

Posted on

Vodka Marinated Steak

 
Vodka Steak
Vodka Marinated Steak

250g Local/Maltese Steak
2 teaspoons of black peppercorns
1 Shot (25-30ml) Russian Standard Vodka
1 teaspoon salt
1 Clove of Garlic
Half an Onion
Half a capsicum (bell pepper)
Stock Cube & Cornflower or Instant Gravy
Half a pint of water (cold if using cornflower, otherwise hot)
Splash of Worcester Sauce

 
 
 
 
First the preparation/marination (24 hours prior to cooking)…
 
Crush peppercorns and Salt together, finely chop the garlic, mix it all together in a small bowl (just larger than the steak) with some olive oil. Put the steak in it, and push it down, turn the steak and repeat until the steak is totally covered (add a little more olive oil if necessary). Put the shot of Vodka in the bowl over the steak add a little more oil so the steak is not quite covered. Cover bowl with glad wrap/cling film (or put it’s lid on if it’s tupperware).. put in the fridge.. 12 hours later give it a shake and put it back in the fridge.. The steak must be left for at least 24 hours.
 
To cook:
 
Heat a griddle or fry pan as hot as you can get it (do not put oil in it).. When hot put the steak in and wait 1 minute. Pour half the marinade on top of the steak.. Wait 2 minutes more, and flip the steak, wait one minute and add the rest of the marinade to the top. Cook to your preference by turning it over no more than once!
 
At the same fine chop the onion and capsicum, fry lightly until the onion starts to go transparent. Add the stock cube and thickening agent (cornflower with water), or the instant gravy (about half a pint needed).. bring to the boil stirring continuously and as soon as it starts boiling pour over the steak which is still in it’s pan (do this about 2 minutes before you remove the steak).. Turn off the heat to the steak and let everything sit in the pan together for 2 minutes.  (It will simmer whilst it is cooling, do not stir, or touch it for the 2 minutes, this will cause parts of the gravy to become thicker than others which what you want.)
 
Serve with chips and vegetables, or salad and put a splash of Worcester sauce in the gravy after serving….

NOTE: If you like your steak more than ‘medium’ don’t bother with this recipe as it won’t work.  This recipe works best for those who like medium-rare steak!

 

Posted on

The after nearly a year, the outcome…

Pulizija

Well after nearly a year of back and forth to the courts, the Maltese have not dropped the case instead they have put it on indefinite hold. Turns out that they have a choice, if a person leaves the country to avoid prosecution the courts can either drop the case or leave it on ‘indefinite open’, and they choose either based on a number of issues.. Whether the person was initially served and turned up, and whether there are witnesses or not.

Katie Crothers turned up at court on a number of occasions after making herself a pest with the police, then left the country hoping the case would be dropped. She also got reprimanded by the judge for wasting police time and trying to use them to harass me, after succeeding in using my former employer to harass and discriminate against me. Neither the judge nor the Maltese police were impressed by her proxy harassment (first using my former employer, then the police themselves) so the judge returned the favour and declared that the case should be left open indefinitely. Therefore should she return to Europe (anywhere in Europe) at any time in the future she will be arrested and brought to Malta to stand trial, not only for the stalking and harassment issue, but also for ‘Contempt of Court’.

Readers should note for the future, had she actually turned up at court it would have probably resulted in a EUR50-EUR400 fine with an order never to contact myself. Instead, by running from it, now she has screwed her future in any bank or government agency as she has an indefinite arrest warrant pending across Europe for the more serious crime of Contempt of Court which could result in a jail sentence if she ever returns to Europe. Of course anyone with experience with the legal system will also know that should she turn herself in, that charge will be dropped, though the other cases will not.

Posted on

Only in Malta

With the upcoming Olympic games in the UK and it’s associated buzz around Europe, Arriva have decided to join the sporting spirit.  This year for the first time ever we have the Arriva Bendy-bus Rally Of Malta (ABROM), we are expecting this to be a week long yearly event, though organisers have indicated that if successful it may continue for the entire summer.  One hopes that in this case they get a good scoring system otherwise it could leave for frustration amongst the waiting spectators.

 

Today’s action comes live from the Marfa Road, Rabat where the first stage of “Bendy Bus Off-roading and illegal manouvers” can be seen:

8:24am Mtarfa Rd to Rabat.. Stage one, off-roading.
8:24am on the Mtarfa Rd towards Rabat

 

Please join us tomorrow for the second event at Ahrax, Melliha where we will be searching for Malta’s Strongest bus.  Each contestant will test their buses true Air Brake strength by driving off the Cliff.

Day three will be held at the on the Island of Gozo where each bus will be tested for it’s handling and speed in an unbraked race down to the Azure window.

Day four will begin with a test of swimming endurance where each bus will attempt to return from Gozo to the main Island of Malta, without the convenience of the Gozo ferry.

Day five will be held in the Maltese capital of Valletta where each bus will attempt to negotiate and random turn route through the narrow streets which will be lined on one one side by continuous line of legally parked vehicles of all shapes and sizes, whilst the opposite sides of the streets will have a random dispersal of illegally parked delivery trucks and white cabs.  This should prove one of the more interesting events to spectate as some of the route will be blocked completely by parlimentary cars, and unplanned/unsigned road workings requiring the driver to turn his bus around, or face a long retrace of the route in reverse.

Further events are planned for next week, please see the official rally website http://www.arriva.com.mt/ for more details.

 

Posted on

Inequality of Laws on Sex and Statutory Rape (in Europe)

Over the last few days I have had interesting discussions with a friends about sex, the legal age of consent and statutory rape (ie. sex with someone considered ‘under age’) the implications, how it applies and how others might be affected by it.  I thought I would pose the questions, both answered and unanswered to you the reader.  If you wish to comment please do, if you do comment, please do not use any names or identifying details of the people concerned.

What follows are some scenarios, some real, some fictitious (and I’m not going to reveal which are which)…  Some refer to situations I have been in, some not, if you know me extremely well you will may possibly guess who and when, but otherwise you’d have to be one of the people concerned to know.  Others I mention are public as they have been in local and national newspapers, sometimes causing public outcry.  In all cases I will not reveal names, and I will delete/unapprove any comments that indicate who is involved (so please don’t do it if you comment, think before you write.)

First though the laws… according to Wikipedia in the UK, the age of consent is 16 (18 if one of the people are persons in a position of power (Person in a position of power are people like: Mum, Dad, Gardian, BabySitter, Doctor, Teacher, Priest, etc)  In Sweden it’s 15, in Malta its 18 etc… Now in most countries the age limit is physical age, not mental age, and that would be because of the difficulties of defining mental age.  In a couple of countries (eg Malta) there is an additional caveat in that a person that who has engaged in multiple consensual sexual relations in the past cannot be considered a minor even if their physical age is lower than that specified in law…. some countries have differing laws for homosexual vs hetrosexual relationships as well, I’m not going to get into that mine field, except to refer to both as if they are the same… that in mind consider the following:

Note: In each of the ‘non public’ examples I will refer to me as one person regardless of whether it was or not as there are at least 2 cases were the ‘other person’ was someone of around my age.  This of course ensures they are ficticious, but give real world issues.  It also means it’s harder to tell which ones have me involved and which ones do not. 😉

First some public cases…

Two Maltese residents/citizens of ‘minor’ age (both 14 or 15 if I remember correctly) the male was prosecuted for rape, the female wasn’t.  On the other hand in Britain, 2 persons (one male, one female) of ‘minor’ age engaged in sex, both were arrested and prosecuted for statutory rape.  Outside of Europe but something directly related, a 20+ female school teacher in Australia was jailed for engaging in sex with a 14 year old student.  Now the discussion on that is “why?” well in the latter (Australian) case it’s simple, a position of power, large age difference etc, laws were applied correctly and justly, but looking at the other two cases.  First the British one… how can two people (both minors themselves) be prosecuted for non consensual sex (statutory rape) with each other?  To ‘Rape’ someone one person is a victim, one is the instigator, how can both be the victims or worse (logically) both be the instigators?  Second, the Maltese case, there have been several such cases, some better argued by lawyers and some not, and that affects the outcome.  Some cases the lawyers have argued that the female has been sexually promiscuous in the past and therefore the law does not apply, this has affected the outcome and resulted in a ‘not guilty’ verdict.  The question here is ‘should it’, and ‘how is it proved’?

Now some non public stuff, both fictitious and real…

The law in Spain has the legal age of consent at 13 (unless deceit is used – which increases it to 16) the legal age for marriage as of November 2000 was set to 13 also.  So consider this, if 2 people from Spain are married and engage in a normal sexual (and marital) relationship and go to the United Kingdom for a holiday where the law states to be married or have sex they have to be over the age of 16… what happens?  Do they both get arrested and prosecuted for Rape, do they become ‘unmarried’ for the duration of their visit?  What happens if instead of a visit they move there to live permanently?  (On that last thought, if one of the couples’ parents moves to the UK permanently, and the son/daughter moves as a child of the parents… can the spouse gain a spouse Visa and move with his/her wife/husband?)

Now something to consider with me…(fictitious or not?  You decide!)

I was recently engaged in conversations with others about a relationship with me and others (none of which I have engaged in I might add).. I am 42 currently and a pre-op transsexual and all my documentation indicates ‘female’…  All ‘prospective’ partners turn out to be under the age of 18, however they professed to being/appeared to be 23+ when the question of a relationship came up.  Had I engaged in a relationship with any of them I could have been in a very serious and very dangerous place.  Being Australian (even with being a Maltese resident) the laws of Australia apply to me, so as per another case a few years back, I could have been arrested, prosecuted and jailed for engaging in a relationship with either of them (regardless of not knowing their real ages…) but forgetting the Australian laws (as this is an European issue) what would happen here in Malta.

The two girls are 17 year old Maltese residents/citizens, the next is 17 year old Swedish girl and on a long (6 month) holiday, another is a 17 year old British girl…  So lets look at them individually with my thoughts..

First being 42 and being more than double their ages, any consideration of ‘age difference’ are mute.

Now.. Maltese girls, 17, sexually active but legally considered a minor (18 for the age of consent.)  It would have been consensual (she chased me for a relationship), but is it legal?  How does one show that its consensual, how does one show ‘prior sexually active’ if it came to the ‘crunch’?  Well with one that would have been easy, a 17 year old mother already, so that definitively shows prior sexual activity, but what about the others, past boyfriend or past girlfriend? (that doesn’t show sexual activity, only that the person had a relationship..)  Next a Swedish girl, legal age of consent is 15, as a non-resident/holiday maker do the same laws apply, as I am resident and she not, does that make a difference?  If I visit her at home in Sweden, it is legal (Swedish law, I’m Australian so that starts other issues.) Similar issues go with the British girl, except the legal age of consent in the UK is 16 unless you’re in a position of power..  So what would happen if she approached me as a student of IT (at school/university/college) and asked for help, would I be in a position of power if I did help (I am not a teacher by profession.)

Now for some other issues that cannot be applied to me…

How about a if a 16 year old Spanish girl and a 16 year old British boy met on holiday here and engaged in sexual intercourse…?  Would either/both be arrested?

The conclusion and my thoughts (or more of a whole load of questions to be answered)…

The laws across Europe are totally inconsistent, and within the Schengen area there are even more issues in that it is conceivable that two people could engage in sexual activity and either or both be totally legal in their actions and then just walking 10 paces it could be illegal for either or both and have jail time as a possible result.  How are the laws applied?  How can they be applied in such cases?  Should age difference count in the legal system?  If a 16 year old in the UK engages in sexual activity with a 15 year old (two people in the same class at school for example) should one be guilty of statutory rape?  (if not how would one apply the law as there is a need for a clear age ‘limit’ and variations will result in more expense and confusion in the legal system.)  It is indicated in the Maltese definition of consent that majority (if not all) prosecution are based on complaint of the parents and often a same sex relationship is objectionable were as a differing sex relationship is not and therefore rarely prosecuted.  Should psychiatric evaluation of both parties be taken into account?  I know many 20+ year olds (both male and female) with an apparent (and in some cases a real) mental age of a 12-14 year old and I also know plenty of under 16’s that have an apparent mental age (and looks) of a 20+ year old. Does/Should country of residence have an influencing factor on prosecution?

If you do decide to comment, please prefix your comment with your profession if you are a lawyer or policeman/policewoman and your country.  As mentioned before please do not provide identify details of any one involved unless the case is public record (ie quote legal precedence or newspaper publications.)