May I bring to your attention an incident that occurred on March 2, lunchtime as the ferry arrived.

I was waiting for some Swedish friends of mine who live in Mellieħa. As I greeted them we could hear screaming and a commotion outside, so we went to see what was happening.

There was a ‘man’ in some sort of uniform with a walkie-talkie and three thin gold stripes on his shoulder swinging a young man around and threatening him.

The young man was clutching a saxophone and the thug that held the terrified man had four taxi drivers backing him up.

Not being one to idly stand by and watch, I told the uniformed guy to let the boy go as he was terrified. Usual response: “F… off back to your own country.” I informed him it was my ninth year living here.

One of the taxi drivers pitched in: “You don’t understand. These people come here and take our work.”

How many unemployed saxophonists do you know, I asked him. More verbal abuse was the reply.

My friends told me the young man had been ‘busking’ on the bus to the ferry and on the ferry. One of my friends is a musician and told me the saxophonist was not very good but people were sympathetic because of his obvious disability.

This is not the behaviour that reflects well on the country that hosts the European Capital of Culture, is it?

I have contacted the Malta Tourism Authority about this.

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