What does being 80 mean in the life of a human being? A consciousness of growing old, for sure; creaking bones, aching muscles, and a recognition that the road travelled is much longer than the route ahead.
But there are positive aspects too. Old age makes us capable of attracting respect, endowing us with wisdom – or at the very least experience – and provides us with the opportunity to look back on what we have done with a sense of reflection, and at times, nostalgia. Of course, health and attitude are the all-important difference between having one foot in the grave and making the most of every moment.
The Times of Malta, which became an octogenarian last Friday, has much to look back upon since it was brought into this world by Mabel Strickland and her father on August 7, 1935. It was a stalwart during the war years – famously never missing an issue – and proudly bore on its masthead the George Cross that the nation was awarded for its collective bravery.
In Malta’s post-war history, the Times of Malta was there to document, blow by blow, every big and small development. As it watched the country grow up, it grew up too – slowly shedding the skin of a British promoter and finding a new reason to exist as it became a bastion for Malta and the Maltese.
When Archbishop Charles Scicluna celebrated Mass at the newspaper’s Valletta offices last Friday, he remarked that the Times of Malta had always stood up for what it believed in – even if doing so sometimes came at a price.
That indeed has been its mission throughout: to report without fear or favour, doing whatever it takes to ensure that its readers are kept informed, and to stand up and be counted.
It has done this on many occasions in Malta’s history: from fighting for democracy when it was clearly under threat – and paying the ultimate price when its premises were burnt down – to wearing its heart on its sleeve in Malta’s long march to EU membership which finally came to fruition in a landmark referendum in 2003.
And it has done all this without ever allying itself to a political party. Its views and the positions it took may have coincided with the Nationalist Party’s for a period of time, but the newspaper remained fully anchored in its own port – one whose sole criterion is to separate right from wrong in a quest for a better Malta.
Not one iota of that has changed today. We still took at each issue that crops up in the country and deal with it in isolation, without ever considering the position of a political party. Malta’s challenges are thankfully not as fundamental as they once were, but challenges they remain: migration, on which we have taken strong stands; the environment, upon which we have been utterly consistent irrespective of who is in government; and holding those who govern us to account as well as insisting on transparency. These are our hallmarks.
As an organisation, we have a great advantage over a human being. We are able to renew aching bones, cure mild heath issues and continue to grow.
The Times of Malta of today is not the Times of Malta of 30, 40 or 80 years ago because Malta is not the Malta of 30, 40, or 80 years ago. Like the country, it has moved on. It has embraced the wonders of modern technology with all the challenges that brings with it and seeks to evolve continuously.
Yet it still possesses, and guards most jealously, the values that have made it what it is. Those have not changed, and we hope they never will.