I was appalled to read a letter by a Dutch correspondent, Lenie Reedijk (Immigrants Are Not Illegal, August 5).
In his letter, the Dutch gentleman tries to teach us Maltese people lessons in what he terms principles "of a long, mature, liberal and humane history" which, according to the author, is what the society of European countries is made of.
May I remind Mr Reedijk that his country of origin is famous for its so-called "humane" history, when the Dutch had their colonies in the Americas and South Africa and were highly involved in moving around black slaves from one colony to the other.
On the other hand, Mr Reedijk may be assured that Malta's history is mature, liberal and humane. Indeed, Malta never colonised anywhere or anybody. On the contrary, Malta was always colonised by whoever had the upper hand in the Mediterranean. As the Dutch gentleman is surely aware, in its colourful history, Malta has fought innumerable battles against aggressors and invaders. Indeed, Malta's history has matured her to the extent that her contribution in World War II moved King George to award the island the unique George Cross in order to, as stated in King George's message to the Governor, "bear witness to a heroism and a devotion that will long be famous in history", making Malta the first British Commonwealth country to receive the award.
With regard to the massive problem we are facing as a result of the present influx of African migrants, I yet again think that Mr Reedijk is jumping the gun. The facts are that Malta is one of the top five most densely populated countries in the world. With no natural resources, we strive to make a good living for ourselves. It is obvious that Malta just cannot offer a proper living to all these people who are just coming over in hundreds. Whether the unwanted presence of these people in Malta falls under the definition of "illegal" or not is quite irrelevant because their presence in Malta falls under my definition of "inappropriate".
However, the correspondent claims that since our population is still growing at a fast rate, although we are already densely populated, we have no claim on refusing to accept these people because we are doing nothing to slow down the growth rate of our population.
May I ask Mr Reedijk what he would suggest to slow down our population growth? Should we follow the Netherlands' example and legalise abortion and euthanasia? Should we start sending away Maltese citizens, born and bred here, just to make space for "irregular immigrants?" Or perhaps should we put a quota on the number of children a family can have or kill people over a certain age?
What solutions, pray, can Mr Reedijk come up with to address this rather pressing problem?
Finally, the alleged hatred towards foreigners, which Mr Reedijk speaks so much about, is in reality anger vented towards people who instead of helping us in facing this problem forward their criticism based on false assumptions and half baked truths.