Drawing the line on immigration

I trust that columnist I.M. Beck will not be offended if I do not rush to the newsagent every Saturday to read his column. As far as I am concerned I would rather watch Tom and Jerry cartoons.

Therefore, it was no surprise to me that it was only by chance that recently I found out that this columnist had on several occasions focussed on me his vitriolic sarcasm.

A few years ago he tried to ridicule me because I departed from a football match in the 90th minute. A year ago he viciously criticised my letters concerning illegal immigrants. Last week he again tried to ridicule me on his blog concerning the immigration issue.

OK. So we both think alike about spring hunting but differ on this issue. This is democracy. And we must all look after this precious lifestyle. We could lose it in the same way that we nearly did not so long ago.

In my letters I have always maintained that we must be kind and help these immigrants while they are in our country.

However, I have also maintained that in a small overpopulated island we cannot have an increasing number of illegal immigrants most of whom belong to an aggressive faith at the same time that most of us are embracing the Catholic religion.

On September 18 a correspondent commenting on my letter on timesofmalta.com wrote: "The problem has become worse as the number of immigrants increase. The pressure on Maltese society is growing - on taxes, our education, our health system, our social security, the peace of mind of some once-quiet neighbourhoods."

We now have no-go areas such as Marsa and Ħal Far. These people have been brought up to think differently from us.

In which religion are women given 40 lashes just because they wear trousers or are seen kissing a man in the street? In which religion do people plan to blow up three airliners killing thousands of innocent passengers including women and children? Three terrorists were sentenced last week in England. In which religion does a father kill his daughter simply because she is living with a man of a different religion as happened in Italy last week?

While not every person of this religion is a terrorist, every terrorist belongs to this religion and acts blindly. Unfortunately, terrorists do not have "I am a terrorist" written on their forehead.

These are some of the reasons for my insistence that these immigrants should be sent back to their country, since the EU refuses to help us in a serious manner.

On the other hand, what has I.M. Beck suggested to ease this challenge? Perhaps he does not see it as an issue and is happy with seeing more immigrants arriving on our shores? What is his end game? Do we integrate these people? Do we give them passports? What magical formula has he in mind? The easiest thing for a columnist to do is to criticise without providing an answer, and this columnist is excellent at doing just that.

I would like him to inform us of his solution loudly and clearly so that in 10 years' time, if both of us will still be around, I will remind him of it.

I would like to repeat the words of the great Schiller: "Against stupidity even the Gods are powerless."

I.M. Beck is impervious to the thousands of Maltese living below the poverty line and who should be our priority. I suppose that this eminent lawyer does not even know that there are Maltese who do not have a roof over their heads.

He asks whether I know where the poverty line starts.

During World War II, before your this columnist was born, for four years I had experienced real poverty and hunger, resulting in pleurisy (four months in bed).

That is one of the reasons why I am trying to help those Maltese who are living below the poverty line through my Spiro Mizzi Foundation.

Perhaps your I.M. Beck columnist will inform us what good deeds he has done for our islands.

Finally, may I remind everyone that these illegal immigrants have arrived here without an invitation. What would happen to I. M. Beck if he were to arrive in Somalia without a visa? He will definitely not be Beck for a long time, and we will all miss reading his column which might not be a bad thing.