Maltese administrative matters

Some time ago, while on a flight from Malta to Heathrow, I witnessed an unusual exercise in national promotion. A national soft drink was accidentally sprinkled on no fewer than three passengers by a member of the cabin crew serving meals. This may have been a blessing in disguise, though I guess better manifestations of blessings could be thought of.

The Malta passport police checking the documents of outgoing and incoming passengers were quite efficient and polite.

Coming back through Heathrow again, I noticed what must have been an exercise in tri-partite international cooperation. The Maltese national airline seemed to be working with Italian nationals at a British airport. The Italians checked Maltese passports at the check-in - which seems quite strange to me. The Italians had some difficulty understanding a document attached to a passport of a foreigner married to a Maltese national by the Maltese Department For Citizenship. They studied the passport and discussed its contents among themselves. Later, at the second check-in before boarding, the same discussion started all over again.

I realised that it is the Maltese who can handle their own administrative matters best.