Throughout history, the Maltese people have always been friendly, especially to strangers. When Malta was a small, almost barren island, raiders came to visit us, and if we were not smiling, helpful, generous and friendly, we would be hit on the head and kidnapped. So we became the friendliest people in the Mediterranean, and we survived.

Then along came the Knights.

Malta was sold to them by the King of Spain for the price of one falcon. The Maltese had no say in the matter, even though we probably thought that we were worth a bit more than that, but we imagined that it was  better the Knights being here to live with us and protect us, than keep worrying about raiders attacking us. And so it was, the Knights came and settled here happily for many, many years.

The Maltese were very friendly towards them and life went along quite smoothly.  The Knights liked us, because we were friendly and caused them few problems. By being friendly, the Maltese got what they wanted. Peace, security and a reasonable standard of living.

Then, things started to get awkward in Europe, and some countries lost most of their nobility, resulting in the Knights losing their strength in Malta, leaving the way open for Napoleon to take over the islands.

Once again, the Maltese saw an opportunity to be friendly with the French, and all started to go well until the French started pinching valuable things from our churches and palaces. This was not good, and it was not friendly either, so we said enough is enough, and asked the British to come here and throw the French out. Which they did.

Now the British were another kettle of fish. They wanted Malta because of its strategic location, and saw that it could be a strong and secure base for years to come. The British and the Maltese got on very well together and great lasting friendships were formed. We loved the British and the British loved us. It was a match made in heaven.

The British employed lots of Maltese and the spending power of the three thousand or so service people settled in Malta kept the economy going along nicely. Then, came World War II, where we fought side by side with the British and valiantly helped to keep this important part of the Mediterranean safe and Germany’s hands off the oil in the Middle East. The result was the George Cross being awarded to the Maltese people.

We learned many hundreds of years ago that it pays us Maltese to be friendly, especially to those who would want to do us harm

After the war, Malta was put on the list of countries that the British no longer wanted or needed, so they left, and Malta was given independence.

The long developed skill of Maltese being friendly to foreigners was never so important.

Now and in the future, Malta had to stand on its own two feet, and to do this, we had to work with and deal with people from outside Malta. We not only had to deal with different types of foreigners but we had to do this in a friendly way because Malta had no natural resources and had to rely on doing business, and we could only do business with foreigners.

Foreigners to come to Malta to manufacture things. Foreigners to come as tourists. Foreigners to come to reside here on a permanent basis. We had no option but to deal with foreigners in every shape and form.  And we were good at it. We had years and years of practice.

We Maltese were experts at being friendly and doing business with outsiders, and were and still are very successful. This is our forte.

How else can you explain how a small independent island such as Malta, with no natural resources except human resources, could have survived so well and become so prosperous?

We did this because we are not only intelligent people, but also very friendly people.  And ask anybody. It is very difficult not to like friendly people. It is very difficult not to want to do business with friendly people. People want to come and visit a friendly island, again and again.

If you ask visitors to Malta, why do they like our country, very high on their list will be the friendliness of the Maltese people.

We learned many hundreds of years ago that it pays us Maltese to be friendly, especially to those who would want to do us harm. So we learned to be friendly, but we also learned to be crafty. We had no other alternative.

Translate that to today’s scenario, and you now have a combination of friendliness, hard work, craftiness and good solid family background and upbringing, giving us a fair degree of honesty and integrity, which are all used to our advantage and success.

Long may this continue, with more emphasis on honesty and integrity.

Today many foreigners are coming to live and work in Malta. Malta is doing well, but every bit of business that earns Malta money to help our economy, is earned because of foreigners. We don’t earn a penny unless we include foreigners in the equation.

Fortunately, most of us are in agreement with this, but unless we keep up our natural friendliness and desire to please people, we could lose all we have gained.

Greed is the biggest enemy of friendliness.  If people see you greedy they do not like you anymore. Before, we had very little to be greedy about, but things have changed. 

So let’s keep our hats on and our memories sharp, so that we don’t get too carried away and lose all we have worked so hard to achieve.

This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece