Racism and us Maltese

Are we racist, or becoming so? A statistically large sample of Africans currently living in Malta, under whatever guise, suggest so. More than half of 500 black people sounded out in an EU-sponsored survey, showed they felt harassed by widespread sectors of the Maltese community, the police included.

They feel thoroughly unwelcome and some of them may not be imagining things. Racist or not, we are certainly not blind to colour.

If we are to be frank, as we ought to be, it is a fact that growing numbers of Maltese are becoming increasingly aware that there is a black community in Malta, whether made up of people with residence permits, asylum seekers or immigrants who went down to the sea in rickety boats hoping to get to mainland Europe, and ended up in Malta.

There are thousands of other non-Maltese living on our islands. Yet it is black people who attract most attention. It is more common than hitherto to hear otherwise balanced people talking of a fear that blacks will, in not so many years, become a dominant group in Malta.

No one can or should generalise. No one should anyone tar any people, our own included, with the same brush. No doubt, there are some racists among us too, and have been here well before colour became a noticeable phenomenon.

Years ago I was introduced by a banking friend to an acquaintance of his who wanted some advice. We had a drink plus a few more. The third man became loquacious. To my horror and disgust he began singing praises to the Nazis. He even admitted wishing to have the shrivelled head of a Jew among his treasured possessions, a cruel practice not uncommon also among Nazi fellow-travellers.

I told that repugnant man he turned my stomach. I pointed out that, according to his creed, someone like me, born with a physical difference, should not live. I turned upon our common friend, one whose offspring had a child with a disability, the apple of my friend's eye. Do you know, I barked, that if it were up to this shallow person your grandson would be obliterated? I walked out.

The existence of one Nazi did not make Malta of yesteryear racist. But I know of others. Fact is that one finds all sorts. Always. So it is now. Irrespective of the phenomenon of the boat people over the past seven years there are those who cannot stand the sight of a black person. They think them inferior, dirty, prone to crime, carriers of all manners of disease. Others are simply xenophobic and hate the resident presence of all non-traditional foreigners. They tolerate people from Britain or Italy, but can't stand eastern Europeans.

In the villages there used to be those who sniggered at the presence in their midst of some female from outside the village. Yet, strangely enough, it was a gender thing. Can all this be possible in Catholic Malta? If not good Catholics are we not, at least, good Christians? Religion apart, are there really those among us who may be hugely generous to those who are in need abroad, but cannot suffer certain types of foreigners in our midst? Sad truth is - there are. And the abhorrent attitude is growing.

The steady arrival of boat people fuels the unsavoury feelings of those who cannot tolerate blacks, whatever the circumstances. It is also generating ill-feeling among more decent folk. Above all it is instilling a frightening negative attitude in our children, not least those who carry home from school some teacher's observation that the blacks are "taking over".

There is certainly a need to ensure that we do not take in more boat people than humaneness demands of us. There is definitely a need to tell Italian ministers who think they can bully us to go wash their extreme silliness off in the Tiber.

Nevertheless there is also a great need for all of us to remain on an even keel, to remember there is such a thing as the brotherhood of men, even if we do not want to enter into religious sentiment about the welcome owed to strangers. There is a need for civil society to rethink itself, for all of our leaders to remind us who we are, what we should be.

The situation is deteriorating. Racism, if not rampant, certainly lurks in too many hearts. Our outlook, whether we admit or not, is changing. Over a luncheon in honour of the UN Secretary General President George Abela had some fine words to say of Malta.

As a country with a Mediterranean vocation, the President said in his welcome speech on Wednesday, Malta continued to work incessantly towards better understanding among all peoples in the region. Its constant endeavours in promoting peace and security, respect for human rights, protection of the environment and the fight against human trafficking, arms and drugs, remain highly visible in Malta's agenda, within a European and even wider context.

A beautiful vision which we should all share - without tainting it with shameful racism, whatever the circumstances.