If you saw that abominable incident with your very own eyes at the time, then I hope you did the right thing by reporting immediatly to the authorities whilst trying to assist that poor girl.
:(

[Daphne – You must have lived a sheltered life. That sort of thing happened with depressing regularity. There was even a girl nicknamed Lamp-Post, because all the boys ‘raised their legs’ against her. As far as I know, none of the girls are beating themselves up about this, and the boys are all family men who are probably returning from Sunday at the Marsa Club round about now. That’s why I tend not to have rose-tinted spectacles where girls, alcohol, beaches, night-time and men are concerned.]

No, Maltese are not above that but at least we supposedly have laws and a culture which are supposed to maintain a certain decorum. Certain forms of abuses are not excused in our culture and country.

My concern is that we have so many of our own home-bred specimen that we really don’t need to shouldering the weight of others who may come here from the north or south and expect to do as they please.

Please do not forget that between one fourth and one third of prison inmates and persons on probation or with suspended sentences are non-Maltese and the incidence and rate of these figures are on the increase.

[Daphne – Perhaps I should tell Religio et Patria that story about the stoned girl lying on the ground at Sliema Pitch in the middle of winter way back around 1980, while the boys at Fortizza queued up for their turn. There are quite a few married men around our age who should have served 15 years in jail going by the standards of our courts.]

I heard about the sort of things Daphne mentions and I do not hesitate to state that I would expect those sort of men to be put away for long periods as they are nothing but rapists. No question as to that.

And, yes, I had heard about the Fortizza case and I am not sure whether it was 1980 or 1981…

[Daphne – Perhaps I should tell Religio et Patria that story about the stoned girl lying on the ground at Sliema Pitch in the middle of winter way back around 1980, while the boys at Fortizza queued up for their turn. There are quite a few married men around our age who should have served 15 years in jail going by the standards of our courts.]

I have no problem with what you say above. My only problem is on “generalising” and assuming that, for instance, because Islam might give “more latitude to men to do as they please over women”, this means that individual Muslims necessarily are more prone to rape than individual Catholics or individual members of other religions or none.

That “there are groups of usually young men who view countries such as Malta as the ideal venue – away from home – where they can, so to speak, get their rocks off quite liberally”, is basically true, just as in the case of many European students who come to Malta under the pretense of studying English, when in actual fact, what they really want is to be away from their parents so that they “get their rocks off quite liberally”.

So I think that basically, we are in agreement here.

I will agree with you that I do tend to be an idealist sometimes and particularly on certain issues such as this case in point. However i do not agree with your argument entirely. From the testimony and from eye witness reports it is clear that the girls were not interested in any form of sex and they made this amply clear. I quote:

“An eyewitness, Zakarija Abdisamed Abukar, said he saw two Libyan men walk onto the beach with two Swedish-looking girls. He overheard their conversation because the girl seemed very insistent that she did not want to have sex.”

Added to this it was not the case of a drunk women leading on a guy who she might or might not know. I quote:

“Speaking to the girls at the police depot after the incident, Inspector Vassallo said one of them told him she had tried to get away from Mr Nadar on the beach when another man pushed her to the ground. She bit him and Mr Hasan put his hand over her mouth. She could not breathe so kept quiet in the hope that he would stop.”

While I agree with your argument viz a vis the difference in the pysche of a serial rapist and a “rapist”,i do not believe that it applies in this case. These men who raped the sweedish women were given ample messages that the girls were not interested in any form of sex. In my books the fact that he had to put a hand over her mouth and pinning her down is evidence enough that she did not want what he had to offer and that he forced it onto her. It was not a case of a consenting couple who are recently dating and things go to far.

Putting aside the fact that she was an idiot for letting herself get into that situation, my point is that this case should be treated as a serious rape.

15 years to me sounds reasonable. If we do have a serial rapists who is found guilty then yes why not sentence him to life in prison.

The sad with our justice system is that many a time the judgements meted out do not reflect the severity of the crime and thus criminals are not being deterred from going about their crimes. Just by casually going through court reviews (i have no statistics so i stand to be corrected) it is my impression that jail terms issued are very lenient compared to the crime that took place. It is in my opinion that only this Judge is consistent and delivers a judgement that merits the severity of the crime.

Apologies in advance for the long rant.

John

[Daphne – Has it ever occurred to you that the other man might have turned state evidence and even lied so as to get off? I’m trying to picture a scenario in which a grown woman walks onto a beach at night with strange men who are asking her for sex, and she carries right on to that beach while saying ‘No, I don’t want to have sex.’ Does this chime as realistic? It doesn’t, with me, and I’m a woman. I’ve lived long enough to understand one thing: that men in Malta really have an odd idea of women. We’re either virgins or whores, with nothing in between, and we either deserve a good kick or we need ‘protection’. Oh, if only you knew that most women know all the time what they’re doing while they’re doing it, and why they’re doing it.]

‘I do have an understanding of the psyche of certain people, so much so that I do not generalise and claim (unscientifically) that all persons living in a certain land are psychologically clones.’

Let me put it simpler: What for us may be a taboo, for others it may be an accepted norm. Take, for example, the varying interpretations on things such as the age of consent.

“It is certainly true that sexual repression gives the opportunity for a minority of perverts to exist (this would perhaps explain pedophilia in a minority of Catholic priests).
But just as I do not generalise and do not say that I would expect all Catholic priests to be pedophiles, I also do not generalise and do not say that it is expected of Arabs to be rapists when they find themselves in more liberal countries.”

I was very clear that not all Arabs – muslims, to be correct – are rapists but Islam gives more latitude to men to do as they please over women. As I said earlier, unfortunately there are groups of usually young men who view countries such as Malta as the ideal venue – away from home – where they can, so to speak, get their rocks off quite liberally.

I do have an understanding of the psyche of certain people, so much so that I do not generalise and claim (unscientifically) that all persons living in a certain land are psychologically clones.

It is certainly true that sexual repression gives the opportunity for a minority of perverts to exist (this would perhaps explain pedophilia in a minority of Catholic priests).

But just as I do not generalise and do not say that I would expect all Catholic priests to be pedophiles, I also do not generalise and do not say that it is expected of Arabs to be rapists when they find themselves in more liberal countries.

You will perhaps appreciate the difference between a proclamation of something to be “just” and justice itself.

Justice, by definition, cannot be other than just.

If a judge sentences an innocent to life-imprisonment, for instance, he/she would claim it is justice, but it would not be so.

Do you perhaps believe in moral relativism?