Direct from Latif Yahia Author of The Devil's Double: the Fake books you shouldn't buy

Since I wrote my first book in 1992, originally in Arabic and then translated to German. I have been trying to remove and stop certain publishers, especially American publishers namely Arcade publishing ( a bankrupt part of Time Warner) and now Skyhorse Publishing who bought the bankrupt Arcade publishing, from selling books that they attribute to me but that I have never given consent or authorisation to be published.

If you want to buy my books, then please go to www.arcanummediagroup.com or if you wish to buy the Kindle versions go to Amazon.

Malta the diamond in the Mediterranean.

Malta.

I have travelled a lot in my 40+ years on this planet, some, especially my Mother, would say too much but whether it was for business, pleasure or out of a desire to "FLEE" I think that I have managed to see just about every country there is. Thankfully in recent years the desire to Flee has subsided, and more and more my travel is more business than pleasure, so when I go somewhere on business and find myself having a wonderful time it's a bit of a shock.
A few weeks ago I went to Malta to do interviews and promote the movie The Devil's Double, I had been to Malta every other week during the filming but had been either on set or in the Hotel, filming days were long and when you are in that kind of situation the film crew and talent become like family, you don't really look too much outside. This time Malta for me was like finding a Diamond in the middle of the sea, I was no longer in the bubble of the film crew, I was in the hands of the Maltese themselves and they were wonderful. From the moment I "checked in" on my Air Malta flight I was treated with the utmost respect and care, not in a forced or fake way but in a truly heartfelt way, and that treatment continued for my whole week in Malta. Now, it may be easy to say, well you are famous etc, but believe me that can be just as much of a hindrance as a help, I am sure that Malta has seen it's fair share of Celebrities (Gladiator among other movies was shot there), it hosts many movies and many of the Maltese people work in the film industry, make up, hair, camera etc, not to mention that all the extras, the schoolgirls and Uday's mother Sajida in the movie are all Maltese actors.  What really struck me was the honest care for my well-being, everyone wanted to make sure that I was okay, I had everything I needed etc but not in a pandering way, in a concerned familial way. I was invited to peoples homes, friends that I had made while in Malta and through Facebook came to see me, and all the time I understood that really I wasn't getting any special treatment, this is how the Maltese are, they care, they care about you no matter what you have in your pocket, who you are, where you come from. I was truly touched by their openness and generosity of spirit. They are the kind of people that if they only had a loaf of bread and saw you hungry on the street would give you half and smile.

Press Conference Malta 2011.

I can't really say enough about them, they gave me a renewed sense of ease in this world, I had become cynical and was truly beginning to believe that the good hearts of this world had been taken over by greed, but thanks to the Maltese people I still hold hope.
I suppose I feel a kinship with the Maltese because of their language which is like a hybrid of Arabic, Italian and I'm not sure what else thrown in, but I can understand at least half of what they say, their alphabet on the other hand is something else. Being in the middle of the Mediterranean as they are they had to have been influenced  by the trade that passed, also they were conquered more than once which accounts for the fact they the are also fluent in English, but up until recent years were made to learn Arabic at school. The Maltese Prime minister was the first in Europe if not the world to support the opposition in Libya and condemn Ghadaffi's regime, even before NATO or the UN, even though Malta sits only a few hundred miles off the coast of Libya and in easy range of missiles if Ghadaffi should decided to send them a few.

XARABANK Maltese TV.

 The country is truly beautiful, in the past the Maltese used to live in the center of the country to protect themselves so cities like M'dina were built, it is a walled city with narrow walled streets, there are only doors, those doors lead to courtyards and then houses. Valetta is also very beautiful, actually all of Malta is, if you get a chance really you should visit. A surprise for me was a small little cove on the coast away from the main towns and cities, it was where the film Popeye was shot, it is the little town that they built as a set, it still stands and is a small tourist attraction, very colourful and unexpected.
I would like to thank everyone at Xarabank, Air Malta and the Radisson Blu Hotel for taking such good care of me, I had a wonderful time, made good friends, spent some time with good friends I already had and felt for once in a long time that I belonged.
Thank you Malta.

A very special thanks to the following:
Xarabank Production Team:

Presenter: Peppi Azzopardi
Production Manager: Norman Vella
Producers: Fabian Demicoli, Rebekah Grima, Catherine Aquilina, Claire Preca Taroum, Joe Julian Farrugia, Deborah Azzopardi, Melanie Casha Sammut and PJ Mintoff Vassallo
Video Editors: Olwyn Jo Saliba, Aaron Attard and Mandy Micallef Grimaud
Production Secretary: Katia Desira
+ Director Mark Vassallo and all the camera people and crew of Where's Everybody

TVM News:

Journalist: Keith Demicoli
Head of News: Dr. Natalino Fenech
CEO: Anton Attard
Chairman: Joe Mizzi

Air Malta

Radisson Blu Resort, St. Julian's

KRS Film Distributers
Maltese Police Force

Here is my interview on "Xarabank"

A New Era.

By : Latif Yahia

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…..
I had better stop there or I’ll be charged with plagiarism, but, it is definitely an interesting time, especially for the Middle East. The spark that ignited that whole region of the world and gave hope to the idea of democracy or at least regime-leader change, has fully taken hold and now and there is no turning back.
As I watched the events unfold on television, I was struck by a mixture of elation at the fact that after forty or more years of rule, the people had had enough of their masters and were –for the most part- protesting peacefully for their removal and a sadness that this “liberation” was not the kind that Iraq had been able to achieve for itself.
Having said that Iraq had played it’s part in recent events, Iraq was held up to the rest of the Arab world as a ‘cautionary tale’ and example of ‘how Not to do it’ and when outside help was offered, the nations replied ‘No thanks, we’ll do this ourselves’ a lesson hard learned by Iraqis.
I send out my greatest respect to Tunisia and Egypt, who have made effective change without the loss of too many citizens and I send my deepest sympathies and respect to the families of those that did lose their lives in the protests.
I know that Tunisia and Egypt especially are open minded and progressive countries and will be strong enough to continue on their path to democracy, I can only hope that the other countries that are following in their footsteps –like Libya- will not succumb to extreme Islamists, something that is quite possible. Maybe that is why the drums are beating for Ghadaffi in a way that they didn’t for Ben Ali or Mubarak, add to that the fact that Libya holds nearly 5% of the world’s petrol and you have a recipe for America to go in there and secure it’s position. Unilateral sanctions only punish the people, not the regime. The regime have enough money outside the country to still be able to do and buy what they want, it is only the man on the street that feels the lack. It is estimated that Ghadaffi has 20 billion in London alone. While I am writing this, his money - 40 Billion in America and god knows how much in Switzerland- is being frozen.
Which leads me neatly on to my next point, an International court needs to be set up not just to hold Dictators, Tyrants and Despots to account, but those who supported the regime and I’ll explain this point clearly, a regime cannot function if it does not have suppliers, weapons, banking, business. A petrol filled country with a tyrannical leader cannot make money from it’s petrol if there is no-one who is willing to do business with them, they cannot keep control of their population if they cannot buy arms and their money is of no use if they cannot keep it somewhere safe outside their own country.
So often we are shown people like Saddam, held up high for us to despise and point at, but could or would he have survived so long if he didn’t have ‘friends’, let’s be clear here, business is the agenda of the day. Big business. It’s too easy to point the finger and say ‘Dictator, Despot, Tyrant’ but then under the table sell them billions of dollars worth of weapons so you can buy the oil cheap, the people who suffer are the citizens of that country.
But let’s also take a look at how these people get power, it could be argued that they took it by force, yes, but how did they get that “force”? somebody had to support and supply them.
I was a participant in a peace mission five years ago, and one of the other participants was a retired Colonel from the US Army, during this mission he tried to explain simply what the policy of the US was with regard to Non-US leaders, his explanation went something like this:
A country has a leader who is a bad guy, the US doesn’t like this Bad guy so we decide that he needs to go. He has an enemy who is not a really good guy, so we support the not good guy against the bad guy to get him out. But then after the not so good guy gets power he turns out to be a really bad guy.
Does that make sense?
My case in point is Noori Al Maliki, you only have to look at Iraq, the corruption (yet another Minister ran form Iraq yesterday with the best part of 100 million dollars), lack of any sign of progression since the installation of Democracy, the damning fact that 80 people have died in Iraq while protesting for change of the governing system, not the government. The fact also that none of this is getting any coverage in the Western media, why? Because, America doesn’t want to look like it has failed. But it has, America made so much noise about not letting Iran get it’s hands on Iraq but then handed the leadership over to people that it Knew were supported by Iran, Noor Al Maliki stood up a few days ago and said that nowhere in the world had democracy like Iraq, Iraq had the best democracy in the world, well if you call handing Ministries and positions of power over to people who haven’t been elected by the people Democratically, then I don’t know what the Yemenis, Bahrainis, Saudis or Libyans are demonstrating against, they already have democracy!
The leaders in the Middle East are in a state of panic, most of these leaders be they Presidents, Kings or dictators acquired their power with the help of Britain or America 40 or more years ago, the King of Saudi for instance has made an offer of 150 Billion dollars to buy Facebook! Why? Because he knows that through social networking the people are exacting change, they can mobilize and exchange ideas faster than the country’s intelligence service can track them. If he was a good leader why should he worry? If his people were happy why would they need to protest against him? As with most countries in the Middle East the power is held by the few, it is designed that way.

I wish all those who want change the best and send them my heartfelt support, I hope that those who succeed always keep in mind what it was to be downtrodden and instill in their children and the generations to come a sense of responsibility for their democracies. When we are complacent, tyranny has the opportunity to reign, when we say ‘ what can I do? I am only one’ we forget that that we are many and it is our voices that should be heard. When we say ‘ Uh, I‘m not going to vote, they’re all the same anyway’ then we let down not only ourselves and our country but the ones that had to fight and die for us to have these rights.
Never take your right to be heard for granted, you have heard the phrase ‘Use it or lose it’ and it is far easier to lose it than it was to get it in the first place.