I have been a reader of The Times and The Sunday Times almost all of my life, and I particularly like reading about the exceptional deeds that my fellow Maltese manage to do for our small but special group of islands, that has continually punched way above its size in international fora.
Recently we read about two policemen receiving an award from the Commissioner of Police and shortly after we read about three of our more adventurous “young” men conquering the slopes of Mount Everest to get to the top of the world! They too received recognition in the form of a document from the hands of the Prime Minister.
It is good that Malta recognises these “above and beyond” type of feats, carried out by our fellow citizens.
One cannot help but ponder, why does this country not honour its citizens by an award in a more tangible manner as is customary in other countries? We are fortunate that among our national awards, we have the Gieħ ir-Repubblika, the Ordni Nazzjonali tal-Mertu in four classes, then we have the Qadi tar-Repubblika and the Midalja għall-Qlubija each of which has been designed to honour particular circumstances or achievements. If none of these awards are deemed to be appropriate to distinguish the extraordinary achievements of our fellow citizens mentioned above, then it is about time we had another decoration that would fit the bill.
On February 10 we celebrated a memorable shipwreck of nearly 2,000 years ago, as a result of which St Paul changed the destiny of this island for all time. The papers of Wednesday, February 9, were full of the outstanding achievement of another boat, another sea, another time and another man: Thomas Cremona and his five-member crew not only rowed across the Atlantic Ocean but did it in record time (not to mention his other more personal achievements, in beating cancer and raising funds for the childrens’ cancer charity Puttinu Cares), must certainly be counted as a worthy achievement, deserving the recognition of his fellow citizens.
In many years’ time when Thomas and his fellow oarsmen will show their decoration to their children and grandchildren, or wear it on a special occasion, when people will have long forgotten, and will ask “what was that for?”, they will be able to recount their story, inspiring other young people at another time to do something special with their lives for the greater glory of God and this noble little island.