Another message of solidarity after Associate Professor Kevin Cassar twisted facts to attack my academic reputation

Shift News recently carried Kevin Cassar’s article “The Wrong of Rudeness: Mercieca’s Meanness” followed by OPINION: The maximum expected from academics   is that their views and opinions  are based on facts and evidence.

The title is worthy of a 3 to 4-year old child’s bedtime story book. Better still, substitute Mercieca with say Bagheera then the title would be perfect. But as is, the title is simply nonsensical.  

As for Cassar’s OPINION statement, one would expect nothing less from an academic but not only academics for that matter, nonetheless, his statement is flawed.  By specifically referring to academics he is being elitist. Even worse, he seems to forget that he is a practising surgeon who also happens to be an academic responsible for and lecturing to the upcoming generation of doctors.

Cassar’s long diatribe against a fellow academic, albeit not in his field, is even more despicable for the simple reason that this surgeon shoots from the hip. It is obvious that he has not taken the time to read the facts and substantiated evidence presented by Mercieca in his analysis. Instead, he chooses to warp and twist irrefutable facts preferring to base his criticism on snippets of fake news circulating in the media thus doing more harm than good.  To conclude, all I add is that had my son or daughter to follow his courses, I would be most concerned.