Saturday, 24th January 2009
HOW DEPRESSINGLY FAMILIAR
What a sad country this is, sometimes. Even sadder is the fact that we reflect the wider world.
Just over the last couple of days, a motley crew of assorted UN bods was here to examine the state of various detention centres and, hardly astoundingly, they came to the conclusion that all was not of five-star quality.
For many reasons, I tend to take much of what package tours full of do-gooders have to say with quite a healthy dose of salt.
In the few short hours they have in between nourishing themselves and trying to meet everyone and her brother, relevant or not to their investigations, these visiting fire-men will of necessity get plenty wrong or emphasise the wrong thing.
They'll then shoot back off to their comfy offices to wreak more havoc on the rainforest by producing reams' worth of reports. Heaven forfend that they should take realities into consideration.
It is a mark of reports such as these that any opportunity to state the bleedin' obvious is certainly never missed. Did we really need a UN band of worthies to tell us we have an unsatisfactory system for handling the hundreds of people who wash up on our shores?
But even more depressing than the notion that the UN (more precisely, the bits of it that arrange these jollies) thinks that this country is incapable of recognising its own deficiencies (unlike the countries whence some of the members of the delegation hail) is the alacrity with which many of our citizens gave cause for this to be seen as being the case.
Many of the comments that appeared below the story on Friday night demonstrate precisely what I mean.
Predictably xenophobic, nauseatingly racist and disgustingly smug, emanating mainly from the usual suspects, these comments - simply by dint of the fact that they were made at all, to say nothing of the revolting nature of their content - made me wonder whether we aren't, in fact, a country that should be ashamed of many of its citizens.
Luckily, despite the erudite observations of the UN junketeers, there are many of our citizens who are doing their level best to cope even while much of the rest of the world looks elsewhere and pretends to be doing something constructive by writing reports.
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Comments
When someone writes 'If you had not been in such a great hurry to eject NATO ' ..... the reader would deduce that 'you' refers to him and not to the whole Maltese nation . Of course that reader would need to be full of himself to dream that he had ever been in such a grandioso position to have had that mega power . Don Quichotte de Cervantes maybe ? Or perhaps an Australian National who is accustomed to 'Yous' for the plural of 'You' ?
Personally I think that such a pedant would clutch to anything to start a superfluous argument , I call them 'outdated confrontationists' and try to avoid their encounter .
I think you are doing fine.
may be that I did not choose my words with sufficient care.
When you write "I cannot disagree with what you write" (clearly meaning me) "but if you had not been in such a great hurry to eject NATO ......" the reader would deduce that both your pronouns "you" referred to me and not the first one to me and the second to the whole Maltese nation.
The ejection of NATO and the Royal Navy were both the brainchildren of the same MLP of which you are an afficionado and a maverick admirer. Myself, the PN and about half the Maltese nation did not have anything to with it. Even so, I have my doubts what today's British Navy or UK (with which Malta would have become integrated) would have repelled the influx of illegal immigrants!
In my younger years divide, pride and prejudice was so sicken rampant that marriage between different club supporting families was almost inexistent and all this had the unofficial sanction of our church at times also encouraged.
When my parents found out that I was dating an English girl they almost died of a heart attack because the girl wasn’t Maltese but her greatest fault was that she wasn’t Catholic. Eventually I married a girl out of time and although she was accepted with open arms in my family she was still regarded as ‘Minn ta barra’ a stranger, by the rest of the community.
Things have changed since then however the plague of divide and prejudice still exist and not restricted to politics only.
I come from a town of barely 6000 inhabitants. We have two band clubs locally known as, ‘Ta Strickland’ and ‘Ta Mizzi’, ‘Ta Strickland’ is the sanctuary for Anglophiles like myself and Labour supporters. The official name of the club is ‘Imperial’ and its blue flag which, in heraldry terms means ‘Truth and Loyalty,’ is embellished with a hybrid of a Royal Cote D’arms and something else. ‘Ta Mizzi’, La Victoria offers sanctuary to the town’s Italophiles and PN supporters and, at least until a few years ago, they still displayed the Fascist Flag in their main hall.
Hello Peter, hope you are keeping well.
Re: ... I cannot deny what d Attard has to say-though I fail to grasp the relevance.
Relevance: a nation developes because it evolves academia, debates (quality media), analyses, identifies action, implements, reviews and so on.
Belittling the importance of analyses, even analyses of what may appear to be obvious, short-circuits the essence of a process of developing for the better, and condems Malta to remain a monument to mediocrity.
I did not single out you nor PN. I prefer to think of Malta as a state and not a collection of warring tribes. "You" meant Malta -as you were well aware but this endless and pointless strife is the be all of the chattering classes of Malta.
I am left wing but I recognise worth in both political persuasions.I also trecognise failings but continual harping on the short comings of the other side prevents the progress of the Republic of Malta-an island state for which I have the highest affection.
Privately I always harboured a dream of a Malta totally independent of both its last occupier-Britain and also the European Union of which i approve in principle but not in detail.
There is immense potential in Malta and in particular the Maltese people but it will never be realised under the present conditions.
I agree with what Charles writes and I cannot deny what d Attard has to say-though I fail to grasp the relevance.
You are aware that I am advanced in years and cannot argue in the manner of younger days but I assure you that I am hoping for a prosperous future for
Malta.
Neither I nor the PN had any enthusiasm for the hurried ejection of NATO or the British Navy. We did have great concern that NATO had a base here, imperilling all of us, and we had no status in NATO neither as members and not even as observers. The vagaries of Mintoff and his MLP regarding our foreign policy had a lot to do with the situation but not me and not the PN.
Ms Castrillo is overly concerned about the detention centres conditions "was unacceptable (for) people - who were not criminals". Since when forcing oneself into a foreign country without permission and without papers not 'criminal'? Would Spain let anyone in without question even if lacking documents? Good, then as a previous writer said, let's solve the problem and send all the detainees to Spain. Of course this is ridiculous and so are the findings of the UN working group.
If their exercise was solely to illustrate Malta's problem, the group should just say so and carry on with a solution. Our immigration policy is clear - we will not allow any legal, let alone illegal immigrants, so letting all the detainees free is irrational verging on suicidal.
Let my comments not be interpreted as racial or anti-immigrants - that's not the issue. The issue is that no one has the right to act as prima donnas, not understand our plight and blame the authorities.
Where is the solution Ms.Castrillo?
@ PeterPrictoe - I didn't know Dr. Saliba or the PN expelled NATO and the British Navy.
@ Peter Prictoe
Integration would not have solved all our problems and this is stating the obvious but it would have solved our big problem of double insularity, being an island and being a small state. Integration with Britain would have still allowed us membership with the EU and our position would have been much stronger.
During the campaign I was positively inclined towards membership but now I feel sceptical. My dream has been and still is to live in a European Federation but I do not think that wish would materialise in my life time.
" Such is the Old Town of Manchester, and on re-reading my description, I am forced to admit that instead of being exaggerated, it is far from black enough to convey a true impression of the filth, ruin, and uninhabitableness, the defiance of all considerations of cleanliness, ventilation, and health which characterise the construction of this single district... in the heart of the second city of England, the first manufacturing city of the world."
Roba da meditare
I cannot disagree with what you write but if you had not been in such a hurry to eject the NATO and particularly the Royal Navy then I am sure those forces would have been more vigilant in guarding Malta's shores. As always Malta is the victim of its location.
Gentle readers are well aware of my reaction to the failure of Integration and the EU is not too sure of the loyalty of the Maltese towards the main continent in view of the action of the last leader of MLP.
Instead of "lambasting" our efforts these UN delegations would be better occupied making the bigger wealthier nations shoulder their fair share instead of "picking on the littel fellow"!