Well done, Mr Zarb
Mr Tony Zarb has not been treated with soft gloves, least of all by us, yet his decision to oppose Tony Coleiro’s intention to change a cardinal rule at the General Workers’ Union was a breath of fresh air.

We applaud the GWU and Mr Zarb, for we believe that Mr Coleiro’s presence, being the extremist that he is, can only serve to diminish the credibility of the union and not enhance it.

He is vehemently against Europe, against having the Drydocks doing business with warships, against seeing any structural changes at the dockyard and, above all, he is intimately attached to his old ways.

He has held the union back from changing and reassessing it’s role, a feat he has accomplished by twisting the union’s arm.

And let us not forget the abuse some dockyard workers, led by Mr Coleiro, wreaked on the character of Mr Zarb. Surely Mr Zarb will find such acts difficult to forget.

Mr Coleiro, as we all know, had yearned to stand as a Labour party candidate in the next general election – a desire that led him to cross the limits of a union though still unabashedly close to the MLP.

However, it is a union that holds firm to the ideology that union leaders cannot be both politicians and union leaders at the same time.

Mr Zarb has come out stronger this time around and has shown that the union cannot go back on the principles that are moulding its new image.

In reality, Mr Coleiro’s departure is the GWU’s gain. However, if he does enter the political fray and becomes part and parcel of the MLP, he will not be welcomed with open arms by the party he loves so.

In fact, many lieutenants at Mile End are suspicious of Tony Coleiro and his militant policies. They will not forget his antics with Dom Mintoff in the summer of 1998. They (the mile end folk) might appear to be close to him at present but, in truth, they view his presence as derogatory for the MLP in the long term.

We will have to wait and see if Mr Coleiro succeeds in making any substantial inroads at the MLP, an accomplishment we find to be most unlikely.

It’s news, it’s fresh
Today is the first issue of The Malta Business & Financial Times, which replaces the 18 month-old Business Times. In doing so, it turns pink, it becomes more focussed and it grows both in size and in content.

The team that has put The Business Times together is still here, but we have added some spice to the otherwise bland landscape of business and finance.

We have also committed ourselves to ensuring that our top story drives home a business and financial reality that interests our readers.

We are encouraged by our readership surveys, which have placed us in the very high percentage bracket of Malta’s business and financial readership – this augurs well for the future.

We hold no intentions of killing off our competitors. In fact, we welcome diversity. However, we do intend to be more interesting, forceful, investigative and innovative.
A better choice in other words

Female dynamism
They are young, attractive, resourceful and are full of energy and dynamism. This is the new brand of young Maltese women who are single-handedly running new businesses – many of which are flourishing in Malta and Gozo.

Women, it has been proven, are more disciplined, have fewer distractions, are more organised than men and they are definitely proving it.

The Malta Business & Financial Times hopes to bring our readers closer to some of these success stories in the near future.

They could serve as an eye-opener for several male businessmen