Malta is quite diverse. Whenever I hear someone talk about the ‘Maltese way of life’, I never really know what they mean. My way of life is vastly different from so many other people living in this country. I won’t say that my way of life is better, it is just different.

Many people who meet me for the first time jump to a number of conclusions that are all wrong based on their perception and expectation of me. I am certainly not alone in this, and often do the same to others. When living in the UK, I had to battle exactly the same problem. It was, in many ways, harder since I was not always aware of how I was ‘read’ by British people in London.

Take for example my friendship with a canteen lady at my university. She told me that when she first met me, she thought I was very rude.

The reason for this was that whenever I gave her money, I would put the money on the counter, even though she had her hand out expecting me to place the money in her hand. I never realised I did this, and started making it a point to be more aware of this. I couldn’t understand where I got it from. It was only when I had returned from the UK for a holiday that I realised.

In Malta, when we pay for things, it is common to place the money on the counter. Placing the money in someone’s hand is seen as fussy, and inconvenient, and can lead to lots of faffing about. Placing the money on the counter means the cashier just needs to swipe the money with one hand, while collecting it in the other, in one manoeuvre. What was convenient in Malta was rude in the UK.

Living abroad opens one’s mind to these details. Hopefully it leads one to the realisation that one’s perception of the world may be completely wrong.

Living abroad opens one’s mind to these details. Hopefully it leads one to the realisation that one’s perception of the world may be completely wrong

Take for example the Muslims praying in Msida. We woke up one day to find a group of Muslims praying in the open. This was seen as some sort of provocative protest. It was thought that they were being too demanding, expecting Malta to have more mosques, and explanations of how they are going to destroy our ‘Maltese way of life’ filled the comments boards of news portals. However, the truth turned out to be far simpler, and one I am sure we can all identify with. All they want is a prayer room.

Not a new mosque built by the government, but just a garage or other benign venue to use as a prayer room. They need it in a more central location, so that those using the bus only have to catch one bus. Sometimes, the time between prayers is short, so they would like to have somewhere as local as possible.

The problem, though, is bureaucracy. To have a prayer room they need a permit. Of course they applied, but it kept on being rejected. They tried hard to follow the rules, but a civil servant’s hands are tied since they can only permit something if all the correct boxes are ticked.

If you have ever had to deal with civil servants, you will understand their frustration. The bureaucracy in Malta does not reflect the diversity of the population. A ‘one size fits all’ has to be enforced, but this makes things just that much harder when your community is not only ignored but completely unknown or unrecognised by the majority, something that is often the case in Malta, where social problems go unnoticed until it is too late.

We have to keep in mind what governs our perception of others. We are bombarded by images and news reports on a daily basis, but rarely consider the agenda of the news outlet. We believe generalisations so much that they have now faded into the background, never to be questioned.

This governs what we see, and how we see it. It is possible to hold xenophobic views without actually realising it, simply by misreading events and intentions. So often, when we see something we don’t understand, we assume there is ill intent, regardless of what the truth may be. We must be more open to dialogue and better communication. This is the only way forward.

Edward Caruana Galizia is an actor and studied psycho-social studies at Birkbeck University of London.