Notebook
The most positive news this week was bitter-sweet, involving as it did decent behaviour in the face of death. The funeral of Abdulrahman Abdalla Gedi, the 21-year-old Somali fisherman who drowned when the Simshar went down, was treated no differently to that of Carmelo Bugeja and Noel Carabott, who died with him.
I am glad that the prime minister decided to lead by example in this hideously racist country, and ensure that in his absence from Malta, he was represented at the burial service, held at the Corradino mosque, by his deputy. The only irony is that his deputy is Tonio Borg, possibly the most conservative and right-wing member of the government. I wonder how he felt, having to stand through the burial service of a black African in a mosque. At least he had the rather more opened-minded George Pullicino there for moral support, in his role as fisheries minister.
And I’m glad to see that several fishermen went along too, just as they did to the funerals of the other two. It’s the realisation that The Others are human that breaks down the barriers in the end. The imam, Mohammed El-Sadi, spoke at the burial service about the issue of irregular immigration and reminded us that hard-heartedness is not an option in the face of so much suffering. Ah, but apparently it is.
A few days ago, rescue personnel went out to a half-submerged boat laden with people, and hauled a heavily pregnant woman out of the water. She died immediately. Beneath the on-line news report of this sorry story, there is a litany of the most terrible sentiments. I read them and asked myself: who are these horrible people? They are so secure in their ghastly beliefs that they feel no shame at all in putting their name to opinions that make me blush on their behalf when reading them.
Take this, for instance: “If someone plays with fire he knows that he risks being burned. Why should we worry about them when they know the risks that they are taking? This shows that they are irresponsible and do not even care for their own unborn children. So why should we?”
Or this, posted in response to somebody I know, who had written a brief comment chastising others for their spite and hatred: “How innocent can you be not to realize that the only reason pregnant woman are included in the trip is to generate comments like yours? Are you ten years old? That one of the passengers ‘happens to be’ a pregnant woman is a coincidence as much as it is a coincidence that the boats always contain groups of 28.” You understand that this person is suggesting that heavily pregnant women are planted in the boats, and possibly also submerged to the point of drowning, to generate sympathy.
Here’s another one (I’ve left the errors intact): “If one want to commit suicide there is nothing to be done. Moreover has onyone questioned that these illegal immigrants should be prosecuted for not only risking their own lifes but also that of minors or the unborn? They are using these children and pregnant women for one scope that the public opinion will pity them and they will then roam our streets with their children and parasitising on our social system.”
And just look at this one: “There are also other possibilities like are female immigrants the get-out-jail-free card when rescue is needed, are female immigrants the first to be thrown overboard when the situation becomes dire on the boat? There are also other considerations like how are these women earning their boat ticket in Libya which in any case in a way is none of our business. It is also interesting how they manage to secure a place on the boat given that places must be in high demand and that when the law of the jungle rules male to-be-immigrants are more likely to force themselves onto a boat.”
I posted a comment of my own: “Behold a host of chest-beating Catholics. A bit of compassion will get you to heaven a lot faster than a lifetime of Sunday masses. If you don’t believe me, ask your confessor. The AFM has just spent hundreds of thousands of euros searching for the body of one boy, yet the rescue of 28 living people is considered an abhorrent financial burden. Oh, but the boy was Maltese and the others are not, and God in his heaven distinguishes between humane acts to our fellow countrymen and humane acts to others – I don’t think.”
A man called Denis Catania replied: “Daphene Caruana Galizia: Keep that little angel out of this. First they didn’t spend no Hundreds of thousands and if we did, yes it’s no problem. little Theo’s father paid Maltese taxes. Shame on you for using him as an example. The issue is this woman died commiting a crime, when she took that unborn child in the high seas on a rinky ding boat. Haven’t we rescued enough of them. How many of these poor kids have you taken in? Or are you just mouth and no actions. Any parent who puts thier unborn child or minor in danger is a criminal (selfish criminal) the worst you can find. Matter of fact any time a minor is on a rinky ding boat, they should arrest all the adults as criminal and take there kids. By that, they waive there rights to any asylum. Whether they are white, Black, Blue or purple.”
I was very impressed, as you can imagine, not least by the saccharine sentimentalism (typical of racist right-wingers – Adolf Hitler was a fine example, with his puppies and kittens) which makes a Maltese child who dies at sea ‘a little angel’ with a heroic father, but an African child in similar circumstances a sub-human creature with criminally irresponsible parents who should be arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned, if not publicly flogged.
I posted a response to this man’s idiocy, though for some reason (oh dear, I can’t imagine why) it didn’t appear. It was along these lines: that my interlocutor is clearly of below average intelligence and of so poor a level of education that he couldn’t string a coherent argument together, still less spell it. He appears to believe that our search-and-rescue services are not obliged to search for and rescue those who do not pay taxes in Malta. He also has a very inaccurate understanding of how much things cost, like sea-searches involving planes and large boats that go on for almost two weeks. It couldn’t have cost hundreds of thousands of euros, he claims, flying in the face of an AFM statement that said it did – as though we needed telling.
Well, some people do. They think that everything provided as a public service is free, except when it comes to rescuing boat-people and keeping them corralled. Then, suddenly, the money is coming straight of their pockets and they begin referring to their status as taxpayers. The country becomes ‘our living-room’ and the people in detention are ‘uninvited guests in our house’. The recent news that many hundreds of millions of Maltese liri were poured down the drain at the Malta Shipyards with no benefit accruing to the country, still less the taxpayer in his living-room, was greeted with complacent silence. Nobody came out screaming in the on-line comments sections that this was their money, and that the country couldn’t take such a crippling burden. The same people who were silent in the face of the news that many hundreds of millions of Maltese liri – I feel the need to repeat that – were thrown away in a shockingly wasteful exercise of keeping a couple of thousand men in a job (it would have been cheaper to pay them to stay at home) haven’t stopped thumping their keyboards to let as many people as possible know that Malta can’t take the crippling financial burden of keeping a few hundred boat-people in detention. I wouldn’t employ these people as accountants if they were the last ones on earth.
Will all my saner and more rational readers excuse me while I address the other ones? Get a grip on yourselves, people. Sit up and recognise where the real financial haemorrhage is, and where the real threats to our morals and so-called traditions are coming from – from within, from those Maltese who soul is corrupted and whose spirit is shrunken and mean. I hate hectoring people about good manners, especially when I am sometimes prone to being quite a savage myself, but here’s this Sunday’s lesson in basic etiquette. Don’t give vent to your racist and hostile-to-Africans opinions in a social setting, when you have no idea whether others who are present think as you do. You are forcing others who do not think the same way to leave the group, change the subject, or pretend not to hear you, failing which they will be forced into an argument they might not particularly wish to have. It is very difficult for some people to sit in silence listening to racist remarks and opinions that are hostile to others on the grounds that they are African. This causes them severe embarrassment.
I am astounded when apparently reasonable people make the wholly unreasonable assumption that all Maltese have the mentality of Georgia, USA rednecks in the 1950s. But of course, that’s not how they see themselves. They see themselves as more sophisticated than any African, and then open their mouths to prove the opposite.
This article is published in The Malta Independent on Sunday today.
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i was as horrified as you were at the racist comments referred to above and did not submit my views because i was running late at the time of reading. still, i have to admit that your labelling these narrow-minded individuals, whose perspectives, in my opinion, verge on mad, as catholics hurts me personally, being a “catholic who beats his chest” regularly and who has been involved in several initiatives regarding irregular immigrants throughout these five years. i am sure that if you had to probe such people for their beliefs on religion, they would be vociferously anti-catholic, blaming it with our country’s policy re immigration and what not, seeing themselves as non-catholics or even non-christians as much as you do.
Hi Daphne, Can you please expoundd the Hitler-puppies and kittens comment please. I tried looking it up on the internet but it did not yield any information. Thanks
@Darren – I suppose she means that the photos and videos of Hitler with his dogs ( never saw him with puppies or kittens) would make you think he was a homely sort of guy who likes nothing better than to ruffle his dog’s ears….
@Darren and Mario – Hitler was notoriously sentimental in a saccharine way, fussing over animals while gassing humans. He was particularly fond of his pet dogs. Extreme right-wingers sentimentalise and romanticise what they consider to be traditional aspects of their nation’s way of life, and find themselves moved to tears by – in Hitler’s case – Wagnerian music, blond maidens in loden coats and dirnls, Bavarian countryside scenes, and so on.
@Rene Cilia – read my comment again, please. I didn’t refer to all chest-beating Catholics as racists (of course they’re not). I pointed out that there is a deep dichotomy between the horrible inhumane sentiments of those people and the fact that they think of themselves as Catholic. Yes, that’s how they think of themselves. I disagree with your view that they are mad. I think they are merely poorly educated, in the widest sense of the word. Some years ago they would have been ranting against homosexuals, using the ‘p’ word. Now they rant against Africans, and use the ‘n’ word.
Should all comments be placed online by the editorial board of the Times? Such racists have their own chat rooms where they can vent their sentiments. Is the Times playing a responsible role in the debate on how to deal with the issue of irregular migration? There definitely needs to be a public debate, but is the editorial stance of allowing a free for all space for all xenophobic and racist views contributing to a rational debate? Is there a balance? I distinctly recall a period in which a spate of disgusting racist letters were published in the Times of Malta – one letter advocated a curfew for migrants. One of the most interesting Nazi occupation exhibitions I visited outside Malta was aptly named ‘curfew’. The Times deems it fit to give a platform to such views and Malta’s left wing intellectuals are more concerned with writing pseudo-letters critcising DCG. Mable Strickland – a champion of resistance to fascist doctrine must be glad she is not around to read letters, in the newspaper she did so much for, which are a carbon copy of that fascist doctrine she, together with the Maltese population, fought against. Times of Malta there will come a time when you will be judged as having given a disservice to the migrant debate by allowing it to degenerate into a debate devoid of any rational thoughts. You of all newspapers are giving the most prominent platform to the most racist of expressions. Reflect Mr edtitor of the Times on the dangers of sentiments advocating a curfew for a minority among us and please start to support a rational debate becoming of your newspaper, if for nothing else but the baggage your newspaper name carries. PS: there are not many givens in life bit any expression of thought which has the words ‘I am not racist’ is about to give vent to a quintessential racist view.
Daphne, it would actually be interesting to read your opinion and of other fellow columnists with some suggestions on what can be done to control the infux from the neighbouring continent. The government seems very passive on doing anything. Years ago there was a seminar on immigration. I do not really know what came out of that for nothing has really changed.
I beleive we can not get to the bottom of the problem if the government shuts up on the issue. If everybody gets their heads together something can work out.
You have just been racist against your own kin. By putting all shipyard workers in one basket. Like there are lazy Maltese there are those who are hard working. You can not write with such strong sentiments and then loose the point in the last paragraph.
Wern’t you preaching tollerance. Where did it go in the last paragraph???
I am not surprised at the way people write, but I think one has to go beneath the surface to see why they write that way. I have no problem with anybody as long as they are respectable and hardworking.
When reading these comments I assume that people feel threatened of loosing their job to an immigrant who can work for less. This is what is wrong and that is what those 65 people in parliament should be legislating, equal conditions for all, and more stringent regulations and punishment on those who challenge the laws. This is what creates these undercurrents and their seems to be no will for a change.
I worked with a Maltese who did just that, with Europeans and non-Europeans, so I know what I am saying. The government is passive to exploitation etc.
P.S. So do my comments not get published on the Times website. Therefore, you are not alone :)
[Moderator – Shipyard workers are not a race.]
Did you forget Jason & Michael?
http://www.maltarightnow.com/content/docs/38200892224Letter%20to%20George.pdf
You want an idea of how you can be racist while saying you’re not? Check out Maurice Mizzi’s letter in Salvu Balzan’s rant-rag last Sunday. It won’t be on-line soon, if at all, but it’s cringe making (like most of what goes into MaltaToday nowadays) I refer to it in my blog.
I would say that a large part of the blame for all the hassle that’s going on should be put squarely on the administration’s shoulders. I believe that whoever is responsible is in a no win situation in whatever direction he/they take.
The problem seems to be that all we hear about is the number of immigrants landed.
When was the last headcount made?
Some have been repatriated, others have found a new life in another country with the help of the authorities.
But how many have left our country without the authorities knowing?
Are the authorities afraid to make a headcount?
Would a headcount prove that not only one can enter Malta unnoticed but one can also leave the island unnoticed?
How would the authorities look if after a headcount it transpires that many are missing ?
@ Daphne: Whilst I agree with most – if not all – of your arguments I would – genuinely – like to know what you think should be done on the matter of immigration, exploitation by Maltese employers and, finally, the stance of the Libyan authorities on the matter.
@ Dr. Borg Cardona: Immigration is one of those many topics in which we Maltese tend to excel in taking extreme positions. In my opinion, the very basic starting point is that the matter of immigration has at its heart the fate of human being who are no better and not worse than any one of us.
What’s more, I believe that the issue related to visa over-stayers and migrants coming in from other less obvious countries is of much more serious concern as is of concern the whole industry revolving around the EU and other funds which are being pumped into sectors associated with migration which often are not seemingly delivering the necessary results or accountability.
Daphne and Mario: Thank you for your replies.
Andrew Borg-Cardona – Here it is, in it’s full glory. Shame on the “man”.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2008/08/03/l1.html
Iwish you both daphne and ABC your children to marry a non European person such as a pigmy, a nigerian, some one from swaziland, someone from Tombouctu or a Chinese a Lappon, a Touareg, or one of those recently dicovered forgotten races. They are all human beings, and lastly a Labourite whether man or woman. I will be present at the wedding whether Catholic, Mahomedan, Indian Cinese or wild ceremony invited or not.
[Moderator – What? You seem to be from a forgotten race yourself.]
It’s not just about racism, Daphne. You also have to deal with the logistical problems if you want to be taken seriously. You need to at least give a reasoned treshold as to the number of African immigrants that are sustainable – 5,000? 20,000? 50,000? 200,000? Does an organic treshold exist or does it peak out at some stage and remain sustainable? (Also take into account Malta’s pop. density and the fact that only 10% of the world pop. inhabit Africa, which is generally very fertile and is resourceful in mineral deposits).
Then, there is the democratic-cultural problem – best exemplified by this no-nonsense address here (no matter what political label you decide to give the speaker): http://www.dotsub.com/view/84f5c72d-b0ba-408c-ace3-8cc40995e011;jsessionid=r90g6eszzg3j
…and by the way, I am NOT a racist – I come from the progressive Left of the Euro-70s; but today, as a social libertarian, I see a huge problem in reconciling civil liberties with territorial integrity and culture (I mean, take it to the extreme – stoning for adultery, anyone?).
Your attacks on racists are passé and they offer no solutions – why not take it to another, more sensible, level?
[Moderator – Kev, how do you know that all Africans spend their time stoning each other, and that they wish to export that culture?]
Moderator is right.
It is not racist against your own kin. It is intolerant against your own kin. I got caught by the vortex of the word racist.
I still stress that taking care of workers dignity and equality should be one of the first issues on the agenda if the government means business.
There is exploitation, but those things do not really make the headlines.
It seems obvious and fair or rightful to some, that one would select an African or any other person who does not have a work permit to do a job at a cheaper price. Why is this allowed??? I dealt with the authorities when my personal issue came along on work abuse. The authorities were lethargic and never reacted.
My personal experience with a similar employer will not make me forget what being treated in an inhuman way is, an experience I shared with my european and non-european collegues. It was like living in hell.
I am fortunately working with good people now.
Moderator, couldn’t you find a wittier statement?
[Moderator – It’s a question not a statement. Couldn’t you find an answer?]
@Andrew Borg Cardona – yes, I read that letter and stopped to wonder what in heaven’s name got into Maurice Mizzi, and more so, what got into Malta Today. Some months ago, Maurice wrote something similar as part of his gardening column, and somebody at Malta Today got upset when I remarked that I hadn’t known they’d engaged Norman Lowell to advise about plants. People in a privileged position should lead by example – a good example, that is, not a bad one.
@Philip Dupuis – don’t get your genes checked out any time soon, or you’re in for a nasty shock, if that’s how you think. Why do you imagine that there are Maltese people with obviously Japanese and Chinese features? With Berber hair? With African lips? Coincidence? No, genes. Malta was nothing but a port for centuries. Don’t forget that we use the Arabic (native) word for mother but the word for father was a rather more recent addition, a corruption of the French ‘monsieur’ – which in itself should tell you quite a lot.
Hi, Kev – happy holidays. Sorry, but you’re going to get no joy from me on the question of numbers. I’m one of those practical people who makes a clear distinction between problems that can be solved, and situations that cannot be resolved but only coped with. The issue of immigrant arrivals belongs in the latter category. It seems to me obvious that if you can draw the line at 5000, then you can draw the line at one, and so have no arrivals at all. So discussing where to draw the line is fatuous and pointless. How do you draw the line? By shooting people at sea, as Norman Lowell and his followers wish to do? By leaving people to drown?
Malta has no control over how many arrive. What we do have a certain amount of control over is how fast the case-load is handled, and how the people are treated once they are here.
Another thing, Kevin – the law is the law. If it is against the law to stone people for adultery, then it is against the law to stone people for adultery. The law of the land – in Europe – supersedes religious law. That’s why adultery and buggery are no longer crimes in Malta. But they were…
I want to emphatically correct the wrong impression being given here that ‘Hitler loved animals’ – Correction – Hitler ONLY loved dogs and in fact specifically hated cats – and this is because – being megalomaniac he loved it so much when his dogs obeyed all his orders – but cats never obey orders – not just his but no ones orders. That’s why he really hated cats. So please stop insinuating that Hitler loved animals. His love of dogs shows him for what he really is – a deranged ruler.
What are you insinuating, Catherine – that those who love dogs are deranged rulers? Hitler was also an obsessive vegetarian. Where does that leave other vegetarians?
Stalin hated dogs….and he killed and exiled more people than Hitler. Both were bastards and a skidmark on the underpants of humanity.
Let’s not get into a dumb “Dogs versus Cats” debate.
Dogs are hierarchically based social animals; cats are not, mostly inclined to individual hunting rather than packs.
This is what makes dogs more “obedient” to those that they perceive as their more dominant pack leader.
Cats do not.
So what?
They both make great pets for different reasons. Anyone who hates one or the other should try and understand why.
Oh, and there are many who can’t control a dog and whose dog won’t obey them because they lack the necessary personality to earn its respect. They might as well have a cat, it keeps itself cleaner at least.
OK, Daphne, that’s a step forward – you can’t just draw a line, true, but you still need to tackle the logistical problems, which, left unattended, can only increase racist perceptions. As I see it, you simply hope the problem will either fade away or somehow solve itself in time.
As to my stoning example, it was, as pointed out, just an example taken to the extreme. What I meant to say is that with increasing numbers comes democratic say, which in turn should influence the enactment of future laws.
The debate is stifled and distorted when all those who show preoccupation are labeled ‘racists’. Your goody-goody stance is a comfortable one, yet it offers no solutions – unless you manage to convert the majority perception. Yet perceptions change not because people are converted, but because they eventually die. The problem is that the perceptions of the younger generations are not getting any better. That is why I am not as hopeful as you seem to be.
Kev – And your solution would be?
Face facts! It is a problem to which there is no immediate solution, unless, of course, you intend to have the various watchtowers manned once again, this time to shoot these unfortunate people lest they dare approach our shores.
Kevin, it’s all down to ignorance. Maltese people are among the most poorly educated in Europe. I won’t say Tne West, because the USA takes all the honours there. All this schooling had led to nothing except the closure of minds. People don’t read, they don’t get out and about, they don’t take an interest in anything that isn’t of direct relevance to their lives, and haven’t you noticed that most people here don’t know how to have a conversation or discuss things? “Allura x’tahseb, sinjura?” “emmm, heqqq, hekk u hekk hux. Opinjoni….”. The trouble with small societies is that the people within them tend to be narrow-minded and bigoted, but there shouldn’t be any excuse for that in the media age.
And my ‘goody-goody opinions’, as you call them, are not comfortable at all. Our house was set on fire while we were asleep a couple of years ago, remember? The comfortable opinion to hold in Malta is the racist one, or even better, the ‘I am not a racist but…” one.
Some of the comments posted on this link just goes to show the sheer ignorance of some people:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080807/local/120-migrants-stranded-on-drifting-boat
Daphne, my main point is that you’re preaching to the converted while helping distort rational discourse through the threat of ‘racist’ labeling.
The Netherlands come first in post-WWII education in Political Correctness, but they have among the worst anti-immigration sentiments in Europe. That says a lot about current popular sentiment (it is far worse in Eastern Europe), which is generally labeled ‘far right’ by the MSM. Yet, as you know, people like Pim Fortuyn, assassinated in 2002 by a neo-moralist (Green), are in fact true liberals, not conservative nationalists.
Pim Fortuyn had maintained that “Holland is full” – racism had absolutely nothing to do with it. The gay Fortuyn also feared the sentiments of the Muslim communities that democratically campaigned against gays and liberal thinking in Holland. That’s where freedom, democracy and unassimilated cultures collide (unassimilation is extremely problematic, as Britain’s “ethnic diversity” project has shown).
It all gets very sad and dangerous when neo-con influences are echoed across the pond and into Europe – the crusade against “Islamo-fascists” and “trr’rsts”, when the real fascists are those currently trying to provoke war against Iran just because its rulers won’t submit to the imperial whims of the US.
Malta has come to face the immigration issue at a time when most of Western Europe is nearing a closure of some sort. The end is still far off, yet it is the beginning of a closure nonetheless and it ushers no paradise. Berlusconi’s fingerprinting of the Romany people is only the beginning.
Don’t expect to sucessfully preach to the Maltese at times like these. Your opinions are rejected because to the vast majority they make little sense. They come out as irrational. That is why you’re preaching to the converted.
You’re right, though, in that the goody-goody-seat is not so comfortable for you, this being Malta. It is however goody-goody throughout Western Europe – the favourite of champagne socialists and the rest of the centrists, in fact.
@ Amanda Mallia – I don’t profess to have solutions. But calling the reasonably pre-occupied ‘racists’ does not help.
We are EU members. We should make it clear at EU level that we are not ready to be burdened more than other EU countries (as the current rate per capita shows). The Greek police, for example, are notorious at breaching EURODUC, failing to register African immigrants and letting them slide off into Albania or Italy. That’s the only type of pressure they understand. What would the Italians do? Bomb us? Impose a fine through the EU Court? Or would they rather try their best to share the burden with the other big states?
@moderator: what’s wrong to belong to a forgotten race. You are a racist. They are human beings No! be carefull because you are becoming transparent.
How I would love to belong to such a race that do not have to bear such people as certain bloggers disciples of you know who.
E.O.E