February 10. By mere co-incidence or a great sense of irony two incidents were reported and/or commemorated.

• A group of criminals and accused people guarded by a number of Roman soldiers were shipwrecked. The Maltese welcomed them. They made a large bonfire to keep them warm.

• In Safi a small number of persons guilty only of accidentally landing in Malta escaped from the place where they were being kept. No warmth was offered,

Thousands celebrated in Valletta to commemorate the arrival of the criminals of yesteryear. What irony!

On the other hand the Safi escape was met by the anger and prejudice which dirtied the cyberspace occupied by some bloggers.

Welcoming the foreigners

The openness to the foreigner two thousand years ago changed our history. It was a great encounter. Those who had lost everything except their lives were met on the shore by the Maltese who seemed to have everything – security, shelter, food.

It transpired that those who prima facie had nothing in fact had a lot.

Was there anyone, 2000 years ago, who argued that those who were ship wrecked would be a burden on the population. Was there anyone who asked: What good would come from welcoming them? What could they give in return? They were criminals, after all. People should beware. Would those responsible for peace and order be able to cope with the arrival of such a large number of do-gooders?

The risk was taken. Doors were opened. Hearts were welcoming. It turned out that the favour was returned; and how! One of the illegal visitors had a gift which he shared; and we still treasure. His name was Paul.

Demonising the foreigner

Two thousand years later a totally different reaction was registered when it was announced that a dozen and half humans, like you and me, panicked when they heard that they would be returned to the country they run away from. Their hope for a better future had turned out to be a tent city. But even that was better that what they had before. Hearing that they would be repatriated they escaped.

The reaction of many was very different from the reaction of the Maltese towards illegal visitors 2000 years ago. The following are some of the comments that were posted under the timesofmalta.com story which announced the news.

Read and feel the shudder of utter shame.

P Debono: Malta is no longer a safe place for tourists. Many English people that I know told me they would not be visiting Malta for their annual trip next year mainly because they’ve been reading about this news.

Louise Vella: Do Maltese citizens feel as secure as they should in their own country?

Carmel Dimech: Malta is not the safe country it used to be.

E Psaila: What if we have a national emergency, say earthquake and we need our soldiers to help? Who will guard the people in detention?

Lgalea: Gonzipn YOU ar guilty of every crime these have committed and are committing in Malta. Get rid of ALL the illegal immigrants the moment they set foot in Malta.

WE DO NOT WANT THEM HERE. THIS IS OUR COUNTRY NOT THEIRS. PERIOD.

Johann Zammit: In my opinion we should get Armed Forces from EU countries to help us in this situation. We need more and more soldiers to control detention centres.

Stephen vella: the country is rapidly turning into an anarchy.

Malcolm Farrugia: Let’s hit the streets and demonstrate.

Joseph Abdilla: why not turn Filfla into a detention centre.

The seed of destruction

Such comments leave me speechless. The pettiness of such comments is evidence of persons with pea sized brains. This panic is just a sign of frightened and terrified people.

Such comments breed racism. And racism breeds hate and human tragedies. The history of the world is stained by the scourge of racism: from the genocide of Rwanda to the man created hell called the Holocaust; from the obscenity of apartheid to the injustice of segregation in the USA of few decades ago. All these and so many other examples show the nadir that humans can fall into and can drag so many others with them.

A few weeks ago the anniversary of the mother of all racist crimes i.e. the Holocaust was commemorated. But it seems that some people never learn. In fact we have just gone through a controversy seeing a bishop who is a member of a ultra-conservative society deny the existence of this grave sin against God and humanity. All hell broke loose. And it was very good that there was such a reaction. We should react strongly when such incidents happed. We should remember that the Holocaust was possible because many people were imbued with a racist spirit and did nothing to stop those so evilly inclined.

Let us not repeat history. Let us fight these racist trends that are plaguing our country.

Till next time I wish you all good bye and good luck.

PS It is awful to deny the existence of the Holocaust. But it is diabolical to publicise a character that says that he can get sexual pleasure looking at pictures of the victims of the Holocaust. The rubbish which does this is a play called Stitching. But liberal pseudo intellectuals call such rubbish art.