Sharing the countryside

Bill Andrews (April 3) seems to doubt that my aim too is to reach a "peaceful co-existence between us all" and accuses me of seeing him as an imperialist coming to "teach the 'natives'" how to live their lives. (fortunately a thing of the past)

The point he failed to understand in my letter (March 11) is that his comparison to walks in the UK countryside can never be compared to walks in Malta for the simple reason that our small overpopulated islands can never offer the tranquillity he experienced in the UK.

His preoccupation with hunting posing a danger to the public is, therefore, more justified in Malta than it is in the UK, and as such requires a high degree of prudence from all concerned. I fail to see his point of referring to this as an "excuse for not keeping up with the modern world" or to my trouble "understanding that as the world progresses, so do we all, otherwise he (myself) would dress in animal skin, live in a cave and kill his birds with a slingshot and arrows". How progress and the modern world were brought into the argument I leave Mr Andrews to explain!

Mr Andrews refers to the courteous manners of a hunter he met on one of his walks and implies that such manners are to be encouraged. Indeed good manners are essential to a perfect co-existence but they should be practised by all concerned. What he might not be aware of is that over the years several bigoted and often ill-mannered tourists, ex-pats and locals that oppose hunting have made it their mission to stop this activity in Malta.

Their way of doing this leaves much to be desired and has left many a hunter wary. Hunters have been insulted, condemned, ridiculed, disrupted, even threatened. Their property has been vandalised and trespassing seems to be a God given right even more prevalent in recent years.

However, what irritates most is when people like Mr Andrews through their letters, try and portray hunting in their country as being the ideal. His reference to hunting in the UK being held on "privately owned estates", and "within the framework of the law" all apply to Malta. His reference to the "strictly controlled conditions" in the UK led to the discovery of 29 swans shot by irresponsible English hunters buried in a pit in Bedfordshire last October. According to his statement one is led to believe that hunting illegalities only occur in Malta (where conditions are also controlled). Unfortunately atrocities occur even in the UK. Yet Mr Andrews seems ashamed to mention them as his sole concern seems to be Malta's hunting and its affecting his country walks.

His reference to birds not "ending up on the dinner table" as done in the UK goes to show how limited his knowledge of hunting in Malta truly is. His hiding behind the excuse of progress and modern worlds has no bearing on the argument. What he should admit to himself is in the search of an ideal he is not prepared, as I previously suggested, to accept hunting in Malta with all its "particular characteristics". I am quite sure that even though he rightly commented about the idiotic driver who stopped his car in the road he has learnt to live with our particular driving characteristics.

Indeed he might now realise the need to compromise his ideals with regard to hunting and his walks in order to share and enjoy the little countryside there is and co-exist with the hunters. After all hunters have co-existed in the countryside with anyone pro or anti-hunting long before he learnt to walk.