From the shallowness of politics I plunge back into culture. Not that I have too much culture or know much about it—so forgive me if I spout uncultured, uncouth or unadulterated garbage.

A few blog-posts ago I wrote about V18 and our national application to make Valletta the cultural capital of Europe in 2018. How great it would be if we won this capital honour. Like all things pan-international this will make us look at ourselves from an internal point of view, see our deficiencies and our attributes and make us showcase that which makes us Maltese and unique and also what makes us part of a world which goes beyond our shores both to our north and south.

The world has become a more globalised, more international village. Some still think of us as the centre of that village. But the main thing about this new way of looking at the world makes us appreciate our Maltese soul and essence even more when viewed from the bigger picture of our international—and realistic—significance.

So I find it ludicrous that we try to use Maltese when we are discussing something like V18 and anything which is international.

At this conference where some leading men from Malta and abroad discussed what we can do as a nation, if we do get chosen as the cultural centre of Europe, a lot of interesting stuff was discussed and debated. But I do feel it was wrong for such a conference to be held in Maltese. If any of the speakers didn’t feel comfortable expressing themselves in English then simultaneous interpreters should have been provided for them and not the other way round.

As a nation we have thankfully opted to keep English as our second and widely-used language. We are living in a world in which the use of such a language gives us an enormous and far-reaching advantage. Maltese is our national language—and woe betide anyone who thinks it is not our legacy, our culture, the most important aspect of what makes us truly, and resoundingly, Maltese. But that—excuse my seeming lack of nationalism—is no reason to give our national language a bigger significance than it actually represents for us and in the world.

We are, and should always be, proud of being Maltese and we should remain nurturing our language as the vehicle for all that makes us a nation. But by using English in international fora or when there are foreigners present, and especially when we are discussing Malta and its nationals in an international context, then I do believe we should make use of English as our communications vehicle.

It’s not that Maltese lacks anything—if it does this lack is hardly important. This is not at all the case. The importance of English worldwide has now been acknowledged. English is the international language and it is universally accepted as the language for all occasions and the language that nearly unites us all. By using it even in fora and conferences, like the one at the Manoel, we would be showing anyone who cares to listen that we can go a step higher than some other, more economically, or numerically potent, countries. Because we can do it while some others still can’t. We have always had an edge over some other countries that started utilising and learning English only recently. So let’s keep it that way, let’s be proud of our capabilities and not think that this is just pandering to our former colonial masters. Let’s not lose this edge.

It is incredibly strange that the foreigners amongst us—even those who come from France, where English is hardly their second, or most loved, language—somehow, sometimes manage to speak to us in English, while we try to be super-nationalistic and use the vernacular. We go against the grain just to try to prove a point to the point of idiocy.

Does this have any bearing on our former colonial masters? Do I want to see us use English more as a demonstration of the superiority of our former colonisers? Garbage and utter bilge. English is the international language so let’s use it profusely.

Even in something as shallow as the Eurovision Song festival all the countries giving their votes proclaim their votes, and their greetings, in English. The French and some other silly country do not use English. And they sound pathetic and poor when they try so desperately to sound important and to give their language an importance which it lacks. English has stopped being a language that proves Britishness or Americanism.

Viva Malta and viva l-Malti but let English—as a language—rule our international life.