Malta is a particular place. In my experience, you either love it or hate it. Very few are indifferent to it. My wife is Maltese, and what I love most about the Maltese character is that the people are warm, generous, gregarious and red blooded. The weather is perfect and the summers are long. So what’s not to like?

Seldom has the experience of visiting a country and living in a country been so far apart. For the first 30 years of my life I refused to come to Malta on account of Malta’s approach to dealing with the hunting of migratory birds.

It is utterly abhorrent to most northern Europeans and up to today Malta is yet to listen to the EU on this issue.

However, on account of the exceptional bravery shown by the Maltese during World War II and their resistance to the Ottomans, I felt that Malta, the plucky island nation of Malta and the Maltese people had to be experienced. So I came.

I must admit that I didn’t take to Malta immediately or readily. I liked the people but thought that overdevelopment had ruined the mainland. Malta too frequently sees the world introspectively. Despite all that, I was persuaded to stay, and so I opened a business here.

I’ve been living in Sliema, opposite Manoel Island for the past three months, and by increment I’ve been going insane. Indifference has given way to frustration. Frustration to anger. The culprit? The Maltese bombi: those particular fireworks that serve no aesthetic purpose whatsover other than to mimic an exploding bomb.

Day after day, the pounding has continued, disrupting my business, disrupting my wife’s business and traumatising my dogs who cower in terror every time one is detonated. If I happen to be caught out while walking my animals they get so frenzied they nearly choke themselves to death as they search for the sanctuary under my bed.

I’m fed up. I’ve had enough and I’ve sounded off to anyone who will listen. The truth of the matter is that very few people enjoy the petards, including the Maltese themselves.

The government needs to show leadership and appeal to the enlightened majority rather than a dubious minority who have been pandered to for far too long

There have been campaigns to rid us of this obnoxious practice for years but the advocates for the bombi have managed to defend themselves on the grounds that it’s history, heritage and, even more ironically, culture  a spurious and inadequate argument.

On this point I turn to Jeremy Bentham, the 18th-century British philosopher and social reformer. Among other things he argued for the abolition of slavery and equal rights for women but he also argued that we should define what is right and wrong for society using ‘the greatest happiness’ principle.

The greatest happiness  or ‘the good’ for the greatest number of people should be the measure that drives government and social policy. In essence, the wellbeing of the majority should always trump the interests of any minority.

Clearly these arguments haven’t taken hold in Malta.

With the petards, as with the hunting issue, their advocates, who are euphemistically labeled ‘traditionalists’, have made the argument: “This is our culture. It’s been like this for years and if you don’t like it, sling your hook and leave.”

But that’s not good enough. Opponents to the abolition of slavery and giving women the right to vote had also made similar claims. It’s not good enough to make the argument that because something is one way, sanctioned by a minority, it cannot be overturned by a majority who find the minority behaviour obtrusive.

Worse still, it’s backwardness. To try to claim the cultural high ground is bogus, and opponents should be stopped in their tracks.

Western civilisation and democracy were founded on progress and change.

Similar to the hunting issue in Malta, most people know what’s going on should be changed but nothing is done because both political parties calculate that engaging these groups is a vote winner, that in some way they hold the balance of power to sway the vote.

This thinking is misguided and wrong. It’s a race to the bottom, and both parties are guilty of it.

The government needs to show leadership on this issue and appeal to the enlightened majority rather than a dubious minority who have been pandered to for far too long.

As a foreigner living in Malta it is not my place to dictate the cultural customs of a country that is not my own but what I can do is vote with my feet: pack up my things, pack up my business and go elsewhere.

In the meantime, suffer the animals, suffer the children, suffer the sick and suffer the majority who have to put up and shut up in the name of Maltese culture.

Lino Spiteri’s column is not appearing this week.