When lately Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was addressing a conference on business attractiveness he said: “We will definitely not close our doors to our foreign friends. We actually need to be a cosmopolitan society and see what our priorities are. If we want growth and businesses to invest in new sectors, we cannot say we don’t want more foreigners.”

A senior minister added recently: “We are fiercely cosmopolitan.” 

‘The process of re-traditionalisation, a counter-culture to globalism, has started in many parts of the world.’‘The process of re-traditionalisation, a counter-culture to globalism, has started in many parts of the world.’

Cosmopolitanism is synonymous with globalism. Maybe they are not identical, but fraternal, twins.

In other countries, especially European countries, the trend is picking up to go away from globalism because of its suffocating characteristics.  Because it will eventually kill a country’s distinctiveness, ethnicity, culture, language, customs, religion, heritage, identity and traditions.

 Hungary, in particular, and Poland with it, two countries that were robbed of their freedom and independence many times, are two typical countries presently fighting globalism, even the EU itself, because of it.

Denmark, Spain, Austria, Italy and Sweden have shown this trend in their latest general elections.  

Big Germany is also moving in that direction. Friedrich Merz seemingly with very good prospects of taking over the leadership of the biggest and ruling political group in Germany, the CDU, said that when at the helm of the party, after Merkel leaves politics probably after the next general election in 2021, he will promote and activate what he is calling  the “lead culture” with which he will be calling on Muslim immigrants in Germany “to assimilate and adapt  German values and traditions”.

 The UK and Brexit seem also to be moving that way. 

Malta is a small country and a small society.  Unless the increase in population is done judiciously, Maltese society may end up absorbed in something much bigger than itself, not necessarily geographically, which will make the locals feel aliens in their own land.

 Read about Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian hero, general and co-architect of Italy’s unification for what it is to feel an alien in your own country when Nizza, his birthplace in Italy, was declared French land,  and what this may drive people to do in desperation.  

Lately when setting the question for debate about the state of the Maltese language, the editor of this newspaper (November 10) quoted Malta University Rector Alfred Vella: “…complaining that in some outlets already those speaking Maltese were treated as if they came from the moon.”

This within the context described in the same discussion by Joe Farrugia, CEO of the Malta Employers Association, that “at present 30 per cent of the workforce in Malta within the private sector is non-Maltese”. At the same time he projected “that in a few years’ time that would make half of the current private sector workforce.”

Unless the increase in population is done judiciously, Maltese society may end up absorbed in something much bigger than itself

Lawyer Frank Psaila, an aspiring member of the European Parliament, in the same discussion quoted also the University rector commenting on the importance of the use of the Maltese language, saying: “(While) we need to remind ourselves that Maltese is the language that defines our country and (so) is an important tool for communication, Maltese-speaking citizens (in Malta) are being treated differently and feeling as though they were in a foreign country.”  

In the same discussion Martin Cauchi Inglott, general secretary of the  Malta Democratic Party, while  observing that there is a huge demand for a foreign workforce, and while we are creating a cosmopolitan society “which is rapidly increasing” asks: “What about our Maltese identity, more specifically our language?”

In this scenario he then, very forcefully, asks: “How is the Maltese language expected to survive the foreign onslaught?”  And he goes on to suggest four ways of finding the right solutions. Mostly that foreigners be expected, even made a condition, that to enter, or on entry to Malta, to learn the Maltese language, or at least the basics of the language. As other countries in Europe are doing. 

 All the world knows by now that man does not live by bread (and play) alone. 

Ask any sociologist. Any anthropologist.

 The Times of Malta editorial ‘Declining investment attractiveness’ (October 31 quoted the Ernst & Young Attractiveness Survey and its worrying statistic that investors gave Malta a score of 44 per cent, a considerable drop of 37 per cent over the past two years. 

The editorial ended with a comment which is not very encouraging. “Sadly, there is little indication that the concerns of both foreign and local investors are being addressed by political policymakers beyond lip service aimed at giving a false sense of security  to those with their feet firmly on the ground who fret about  the sustainability of our economic model.” 

 To the extent that this reflects reality Maltese society may be marching  through a blind alley which will lead it to one place only: a brick wall.

 While closing his 2019 Budget speech in Parliament, the Prime Minister literally shouted how much he is against the erection  of any kind of wall which can obstruct his government’s  march towards more successes in its economic policy.  The process of re-traditionalisation, a counter-culture to globalism, has started in many parts of the world, and Europe, ironically,  because  of what is happening to this continent at present, especially with migration,  seems to be at the forefront of it. 

In September the Danish Ministry of Culture gave Danish Radio, the public broadcasters, a new set of guidelines. Their programming is now required to bolster Denmark’s native cultural heritage, as well as emphasise the foundational role of Christianity in Danish society. Danish Radio are now contracted to make clear that Danish society is based on the principles of democracy, which have their roots in Christianity.

According to Campbell Campbell-Jack, a retired presbyterian minister, the Danes, previously notorious for wholeheartedly embracing radical secularism, globalism and feminism as their new established state ‘religion’ are beginning to see that a recovery of Christian legacy is necessary if there is to be a defence against destructive progressivism and the Islamisation of society which is eroding Danish distinctiveness.

The Danes recognise that simply closing the borders and halting immigration is not enough. If there is to be any safeguard against multiculturalism and demographic change it is necessary to recover their culture and traditions, the things which make them Danes.  

Tony Mifsud studied politics and social affairs in Oxford.

This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece

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