When white Australians looked at the Maltese the way the Maltese look at Africans today
This is from Grazio’s site about Malta:
According to the 1911 census there were 248 Maltese in Australia. The number increased considerably in the years to follow. However, in 1912 the Australian Government excluded Maltese immigrants from the assisted passage scheme as a result of trade unions bans on “cheap labour”. In the same year the Government legislated the new policy of White Australia called the 1901 Immigration Restriction Act. This unfair exclusion of the Maltese made of mockery of the fact that they were British subjects and held a British passport.
….
In December 1913 Joseph Vella from Mellieha, Malta and his friend Paul Abela, decided to emigrate to Australia. They left Malta for Naples, Italy. They continued their journey to Australia aboard the Otway. The two friends were able to find a job as labourers within a week however when they lost their jobs they run out of money and they experienced poverty and hunger. They lived in the bush not very far from Port Adelaide. Every day they walked from the port to the city in search of work. During this period Joe and Paul lived on scraps, grass and tree roots.
The darkest period in the history of Maltese migration in South Australia occurred in the 1920s when they were savagely discriminated against. The Australian Government banned them from being employed with the Australian railways. The irony is that a large number of them served in World War I. The majority of the Maltese suffered hunger and despair in spite of many of them were skilled artisans. Mr Gunn, the South Australian Premier, regarded the Maltese as “uninvited immigrants” and refused to assist them to find employment.
This is from www.maltamigration.com:
In 1947 the Misr had embarked on her first voyage to Australia carrying on board a number of passengers who had originated from the Middle East. When the Maltese arrived on the Misr and disembarked first in Melbourne then in Sydney, some sections of the Australian Press had taken them for Levantines.
And this is about the White Australia Policy under which Maltese people were barred entry to Australia as immigrants:
White Australia Policy, policy of Australia restricting non-European immigration in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The policy was developed by the British colonies of Australia, mainly in response to Chinese immigrants, who were attracted to Australia by gold rushes in the 1850s. Later the policy was expanded to cover Eastern Europeans, South Americans, Africans, and people from islands near Australia. The colonial and federal governments claimed the laws were needed because immigrants often worked for low wages and in poor conditions, thereby worsening conditions for all workers. Although these fears were real, many Australians also believed they were racially superior to immigrants, and a significant minority believed the races were so different they could never form a homogeneous single society.
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“The majority of the Maltese suffered hunger and despair in spite of many of them were skilled artisans. Mr Gunn, the South Australian Premier, regarded the Maltese as “uninvited immigrants” and refused to assist them to find employment.” (Extracted from http://www.aboutmalta.com/grazio/maltaustr.html )
It sounds quite familiar, doesn’t it?
http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/belongings/people/peadon/index.shtml
Here’s another interesting bit, this time extracted from http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2003/s991149.htm
“MARGOT O’NEILL: In 1916, Emmanuel Attard and about 300 other Maltese men, all of them legal migrants, many of them Gallipoli veterans, most of them deeply in debt after paying full fare, board two ships and set sail for Sydney with high hopes.
They had no clue about the storm ahead.
PM Billy Hughes is campaigning to introduce conscription to send more Australians to war.
There’s to be a referendum on October 28.
But he’s bitterly opposed by the Labor movement.
It’s late September when the first group of 97 Maltese immigrants sail into Sydney Harbour and into the middle of Australia’s war over conscription.
The unions brand the Maltese cheap labour who’ll steal jobs from Australians forced to go to war.
DR BARRY YORK, AUTHOR ‘EMPIRE AND RACE’: It became hysterical and greatly exaggerated and it became vindictive as well.
MARGOT O’NEILL: PM Hughes responds quickly but not to defend the rights of the Maltese.
He sees them as a threat to his referendum.
While the Maltese are allowed ashore, Hughes demands the British colonial office stop any more Maltese men receiving passports to Australia.
DR BARRY YORK: PM Hughes promised that there would be no further boat loads of foreign workers.
MARGOT O’NEILL: Problem solved for Billy Hughes.
But then —
DR BARRY YORK: He heard that another boat was on its way.
MARGOT O’NEILL: Another boat called the ‘Gange’ is indeed on its way, and this time there are more than 200 Maltese migrants, including young Emmanuel Attard, and it’s due to dock on the very day of the referendum.”
Replace the word “Maltese” with the word “Africans”, and it sounds oh, so familiar, does it not?
And here’s another extract from the link provided above. Maybe Malcolm S should focus on the last line:
“MARGOT O’NEILL: Billy Hughes vows the Maltese will never disembark in Australia, so they’re forced to sit a language test — in Dutch.
DR BARRY YORK: Naturally they failed, which is the intention of the dictation test, and, therefore, within the law are prohibited immigrants.
MARGOT O’NEILL: But where can they go now?
Billy Hughes opts for a Pacific solution and sends them on to New Caledonia.
They’re kept in a disused hall in Noumea at Australian Government expense for nearly three months, even though referendum is lost much sooner.
But it’s no longer about conscription, it’s about race in a country founded on the white Australia policy.
DR BARRY YORK: Well, OK, we’ve stopped the Chinese but what about these southern Europeans?
What about these Mediterraneans?
They’re not quite white either.”
My father went to Australia in 1948 and had to return to Malta after 4 years since my mother never wanted to move from Malta: he always talked in glowing terms about Australia and was always treated well. It must be understood that even in the USA the Irish about a 100 years ago were not welcome: see the film ‘Gangs of New York’ by Scorsese and you will see how bad the situation was then: and Australia must have been similar at the time.
In our case we do not have a land almost 3 million square miles as Australia or the US in area, only 121 sq.miles so we cannot afford to give any away.The Maltese also went to Australia legally with passports and after World War 2 with assisted passages.The illegal immigration we have is forced on us and as anything forced we do not want it!
[Daphne – Australia: your father’s reported experience cannot negate the fact that the Maltese were ranked as coloured people before 1948 in terms of Australia’s immigration policy and discriminated against. Your assertion that the Irish were barred entry to the US is ridiculous. The Irish made up a sizeable percentage of New York’s population a century ago. Millions of people left Ireland after the mid-19th century famine http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/famine_01.shtml that killed off around a million people through starvation. The Irish cop in New York became a cliche. Hell’s Kitchen was the Irish quarter. The descendant of an Irish immigrant became the most iconic US president of the 20th century – John F. Kennedy. I won’t go on. I don’t think you should be getting your history from films, quite frankly.]
sick isn’t it – and you don’t need to go so far back. A friend of mine reports that racism is still alive and kicking there, especially against the Middle East types. And what about that race riot of few months back?
Don’t know what the fuss is all about – the British treated us as their inferiors for 164 years! With the even more insular mentality of the Australians the fact that Maltese were regarded as their complete inferiors is of no surprise at all. A bit rich coming from a nation of convicts!
[Daphne – A nation of convicts? Not unless they bred really fast and allowed no immigration since the late 18th century. What does that make us, then – a nation of seafarers’ bastards?]
One cannot equate the situation in Australia – then just coming out of being nothing more than an underpopulated semi-penal colony – to the situation Europe is facing today and Maltese were indeed permitting to go their with the full blessing of the British Crown – at the fury of the Aussie settlers of the time who felt threatened by the sudden influx of so many people at once.
Whilst I share Daphne’s and Amanda’s sentiments in condemning without any form of reservation any type of racism or bigotry, I cannot accept the situation as it is developing in Malta due to a number of reasonable concerns – which range from the sheer pressure of numbers to the sanctioning of various forms of illegalities.
I know first hand the plight of genuine refugees and I can safely say that a very small fraction of those seeking refuge in Malta are worthy of this status and I very much loathe that part of immigrants coming from certain countries – such as from certain Eastern European or even African countries – who choose to come here just to indulge in illegal activities because they consider Malta as a land of ‘fertile opportunities’ for their ‘trades’ – be they concerned with fraud, prostitution or drug trafficking or worse.
Furthermore, there are other specific groups which are coming to Malta to settle in and form quasi-tribal associations and I have seen this happening in other countries in Africa as well. Most notable in this form of action are certain groups from the Horn of Africa and not all of these do so out of a wish to feel protected by their own kin but rather do so to form pressure groups intent on control of certain ‘businesses’. This is a worrying feature which I am already seeing – albeit in a very embryonic manner – in Malta.
Going onto a hard fact which is so often unfortunately very much overlooked – conveniently or otherwise – I can mention, sadly, that racism is not simply a trait which is common to us Maltese or the ‘white people’ as it may. Look closely at the contempt with which Eastern Africans view Western Africans or how even certain African peoples view other African people (Hutu and Tutsi, for example). The fact that Egyptians react horribly when anyone refers to them as ‘Arabs’ is another case in point and the list can go on and on and I haven’t even touched on what Black Africans think of us Europeans… Ignorance and bigotry are, alas, universal.
Know that in countries such as Mali alone there are over 200 ethnic minorities and that many of these do not go well together at all – A legacy of the artificial borders which the colonial powers deigned to carve with ‘modern’ Africa.
All this talk, however, is all well and good and may help to while the time: Unfortunately, the problems we are facing in Malta – whether we admit it or not – are quite serious and require some hard decisions which however cannot be inhumane.
The problem, however, is whether or not the people who have to take these decisions are in a position to take them or have the necessary incentive to do so.
“Dad didn’t worry that he (the husband) was an Australian and not from the Maltese community – you see they kept in contact with the Maltese community but they also wanted to have ‘Aussie’ friends. When I was growing up there was a bit of a stigma about being a New Australian so we tried hard to fit in and felt at home.”
This Maltese legal emigrant realised that his family must integrate to be accepted in a foreign country.
Some illegal emigrants here are accepted because they are learning Maltese. A friend of mine (a refugee from Ivory Coast) is learning Maltese fast he also can write and speak French , English and his native language. He is integrating.
BTW: to put some pure white Maltese racist’s mind at rest; he intends to go to France.
So you seriously think Malta today treats African immigrants in this manner?
[Daphne – Aren’t you that Norman Lowell man? You tell me then.]
The worst problem for Malta is mainly that we are one of the most densely populated countries in the world. You cannot compare Malta with Australia, Australia is a continent which is even larger than Europe with a relatively small population (21/22 million). In my opinion, that is the main problem with illegal immigrants and not their skin colour.
[Daphne – Not to put too fine a point on it, we’re not men in a changing-room and we’re not comparing size. We’re comparing racist attitudes and perceptions.]
Hearts and minds started changing in Australia in the sixties, esp cause of the opposition to the Vietnam War. Australian families had experienced hosting students from East Asia and were not that scared anymore.
I personally blame this mess on this administration, nothing is being done to integrate Africans locally, just look at their housing situation. There is a total lack of information about how they can be of benefit to our society. Every mistake that has been committed by other countries before is being done here again. I really cannot see how one can blame the locals for this. I really could not care which political partyis running the show. This is way too important to mess up.
Religio et Patria: Uummm.. and your point is…?
Emanuel Muscat: Wasn’t it Irish immigrants who attacked the Chinese community on the West coast because the Irish claimed the Chinese were lowering wages?
Daphne – “we’re not men in a changing-room and we’re not comparing size”
Talking of which, maybe that’s what they’re worried about … Based on their own insecurities, of course
Dear Dick
I am not worried about illegal immigrants, however, it is true that a considerable number of Maltese do not like these peolple for the simple fact that they are Africans and of a different race.
Nevertheless, Malta as a country has to be on the alert on this challenge to put it mildly, there are many problems that could arise from illegal migration such as increased criminality, employers abusing these immigrants, social disorder, cultural problems etc etc…..
This problem has to be tackled in a moderate way and based on facts and I disagree with both extremes, namely those who seem to want illegal immigrants to come over and those who want them out and extremely so.
[Daphne – Aren’t you that Norman Lowell man? You tell me then.]
Is Norman Lowell in government? Is the government at all sympathetic with Norman Lowell? Does Norman Lowell influence at all the official handling of African immigrants?
That’s the point. Your article about how the Australian government treated Maltese immigrants can relate only to how a purported minority WANTS TO treat African immigrants, and not to how Maltese treat African immigrants. Even AN’s proposals as to illegal immigrants were far far more progressive than the Australian measures you speak about. And this is not to compare the contexts and especially the numbers of Maltese emigration to Australia with those of African immigration to Europe, and Malta.
BTW, I’m Jean Gove’, not Norman Lowell. He follows his mind, I follow mine.
[Daphne – The purported minority being your Imperium Europa, judging by what your leader – who follows his mind while you follow yours – says in public whenever he finds somebody who might listen.]
I know I might be slaughtered for posting this, but I don’t think that a lot of the Maltese are racist, however I think most of them are concerned about the number of ILLEGAL immigrants arriving and not about the colour of the skin. Daphne, I think that rather then commenting on the racist note (i know you are rebutting all those idiots ‘blogging’ on The Times Online) you should comment on the numbers coming here and illegally. I do not have a problem with legal immigrants and integration, that is helpful to Malta, but with 4% of the popluation (4000 illegal immigrants in Malta atm) being illegal, I think that is a problem.
[Daphne – The island was packed with Bulgarians way ahead of Bulgaria joining the EU. They were laying tiles, painting walls, serving in restaurants….did we ever hear a word? No.]
Bang goes myth that most of the people coming here from Africa are from an educated back-ground etc., etc., etc. Prof Frendo has just shown (on Dissett) that only 4 to 5% of them have any profession or any special skill, and that up to 40 – 50% of them are completely illiterate.
[Daphne – Professor Frendo has a major problem. If he weren’t Michael Frendo’s brother he would probably be with Azzjoni Nazzjonali, going by what he writes. He takes nationalism to the extreme. I can’t help thinking that he’s ultra-peeved at not having got the attention and recognition that he seems to think he deserves. I imagine he’s teed off that his more popular brother stole the limelight. Oh, and he has no sense of humour to speak of. Really intelligent people are marked by a sharp sense of humour.]
Stanley Cassar Darien
“I personally blame this mess on this administration, nothing is being done to integrate Africans locally,”
Unfortunately they are leaving the matter almost entirely in the hands of NGOs and it’s not working.
Arnold Galea
“I disagree with . . . those who seem to want illegal immigrants to come over. .”
This is a myth invented by the rabid right. Nobody is saying that they want immigrants to come to Malta. What decent people are saying is that, when immigrants do come, they should be treated in a civilised manner, with the dignity they deserve as human beings.
You cannot say you disagree with this because, as you put it, it is an “extreme” position. Perhaps you have other reasons.
Mario F
” . . . but with 4% of the popluation (4000 illegal immigrants in Malta atm) being illegal, I think that is a problem.”
4000 is not 4% of the Maltese population but 1%. Moreover, not all 4000 are illegal. About half have been granted refugee status or are allowed to stay on humanitarian grounds and so have now become legal. As you say, you have no problem with them, thus leaving only a few more than 2000 ‘illegals’, i.e. approximately 0.5% of the population.
[Daphne – We have a much bigger problem with what seems to be roughly 50% of the population who can’t think straight, but let’s not go into that, shall we?]
Daphne
I do not get my history from films.To be more exact about’Gangs of New York’ it was based on what actually happened in New York around 1860(so about 150 years ago) when an irish immigrant sect/gang fought an established local irish sect/gang.What you said about the irish in USA is history.
It also seems that in this blog anybody who is anti-illegal-immigration is immediately labelled as a follower of AN or of Lowell or has a personal axe to grind:can’t we just comment on the content!
In recent years Henry Frendo has been sounding more and more alarmist, especially with regard to how migration is threatening or may threaten Maltese national identity (whatever that is). Not to sound melodramatic, but I find Frendo’s attitude slightly worrying given that he is a historian who teaches university courses on Maltese nationalism, nationhood and migration. I was especially interested to see to what extent such views would come out in yesterday’s Dissett. In general Frendo stayed away from controversy and, being the intelligent scholar that he is, chose instead to drive home his point of view indirectly. Hence when Reno Bugeja asked him whether it may be possible to integrate immigrants into Maltese society, he seemed to put the onus for integration solely on the immigrant. As a historian and a social scientist Frendo surely knows that integration: (1)is a gradual process not an overnight transformation, and (2)requires an effort on the part of both immigrant and host country. Maybe I being too picky or too harsh on Frendo but I think that given some of his recent contributions in the press, he is not exactly an unbiased commentator.
Emanuel Muscat: Who here is ‘pro illegal immigration’?
Marku: I don’t think you’re being picky pr too harsh.
On Dissett, Profs Frendo did say, however, that integration is quite possible and that it would, in fact, be beneficial for Malta to have this influx of “different” people (I don’t remember his exact phrase) as it would make our society more open and progressive.
Regarding burden-sharing, he also clarified that – contrary to what the Emigrants’ Commission had stated – the total area of a country is not the only criterion to consider when calculating the quota of immigrants that every state can accomodate.
Finally he admitted (perhaps a little grudgingly, I thought) that the boat-people who arrive on our shores are not the only immigrants to enter the EU and many other thousands enter through its land borders, especially from the east. These would have to be taken into account when sharing the burden, a point that was, incidentally, also mentioned by the Italian ambassador.
Once again, the JRS declined to participate in a public debate on the subject and it isn’t good. I don’t know their reasons for staying away but they should take every opportunity to get their point of view across.
@Mario F
Yes, immigration can be considered problematic.
But why the the Maltese seem to think (a) that this is the *only* problem facing Malta (when immigration is not even the most serious *demographic* problem facing Malta) and (b) that this is a problem *only* faced by Malta?
[Daphne – The purported minority being your Imperium Europa, judging by what your leader – who follows his mind while you follow yours – says in public whenever he finds somebody who might listen.]
And that is exactly why your comparison between the Australian government did OFFICIALLY and what our Maltese government does officially does not hold any water whatsoever.
[Daphne – I’m not talking about government attitudes, but about the attitude of the general public.]
Here’s the right wing in the USA. Sounds familiar?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLfrFMe4bZ8&feature=related
Marku,
Prof. Henry Frendo is “sounding more and more (isn’t that increasingly?) alarmist” because he is increasingly alarmed by an increasingly alarming situation. We’re not all sitting in ivory towers at our University, fortunately.
Whom would you propose as an unbiased commentator in Malta exactly?
Daphne
Last sunday I was at the market in Marsaxlokk.I could not help looking at a young arab couple(the lady was wearing a veil) with a baby shopping:the husband was examining the vegetables and from 10 feet away the wife was signalling him whether they were OK,while minding the baby in a pushchair and the green grocer was surprise!surprise! a maltese woman with her husband in the background:now you tell me how on earth we are going to integrate with these people!And you think Dr.Henry Frendo is biased!
This muslim man must think that we maltese are all the time sexually harassing women as they themselves do in Cairo,Egypt:see BBC website!
[Daphne – I can’t work out what your point is? Please explain.]
Justice and humanity 2 – Norman Lowell 0
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081015/local/norman-lowell-loses-appeal-case
[Daphne – What a ridiculous man, classifying himself as a white supremacist when he looks like an extra from Lawrence of Arabia.}
Emanuel Muscat: Who are “we”? Based on what you say her, and particularly on the way you say it, I can see that you and I and other people here are very different, yet the world has not fallen apart and the sky has not fallen on our heads.
everyone looks at the illegal imigrants problem with his or her point of view.what do you tell the guy who used to do a part time job asa dishwasher in a hotelthat he is not needed any more as the immigrants have taken over. what do you tell him that he has to suffer the smell in a closed bus that the black guy sitting next to him has never heard of or seen a deodorant or of muslim man who squat and not sit on a toilet with the door opened wide because in his country they have holes in the ground instead of toilets and as muslims they consider sitting down as unclean. i have 3 working mates from sudan whom i give lifts when i use my car.i consider them as my work mates but they still feel as unwanted here in malta because in sudan they speak arabic and they understand nearly everything we are saying. its much different to all of those who have no immigrants in their neighbourhood or working plce and see the others as racist.
[Daphne – In Italy, which people like you probably regard as the height of civilisation and culture, they have lavatories which are holes in the ground. This was a cultural shock to me as a child when they were ubiquitous, and they are still a cultural shock to me in adulthood when I occasionally encounter the last surviving few. The last time I was gassed out of my own office by somebody wearing a polyester shirt in August, which he had probably worn for three days running without the benefit of anti-perspirant (not deodorant, which doesn’t do the job), the man was Maltese. My colleague and I took it in turns to lean surreptitiously out of the kitchen window and gasp for air.]
Corinne Vella
“we” are the maltese in general and if you ask them all, 95% or more will tell that since the majority wants all these immigrants out, in a democratic country such as ours ,what the other 5% think is politically zero:ask AD,AN about it:even the migrants commission(!) and the imam(!) is worried about it while the PN and MLP also agree that we should get rid of them(it is very rare that the main political parties agree:they understand where their bread and butter is!)
[Daphne – I’m sorry, Mr Muscat, but I don’t feel I can include you in my definition of ‘we’. It’s subjective. The fact that you and I are both citizens of Malta does not mean we have anything else in common.]
Emanuel Muscat: let me see if I can figure out what you’re trying to say. You were apparently shocked that an “Arab” (presumably meaning Muslim) husband and wife were doing their shopping and it was the husband who happened to be choosing the vegetables at the greengrocer while his wife was minding the baby and apparently asking the husband if the vegetables looked good or not. And this story is supposed to tell us what exactly about cultural values and integration?
Jean Gove: you’re absolutely right that “we are not all sitting in our ivory towers at our university.” In fact, even though I am an academic at a university thousands of miles away from Malta, I continue to take an interest in what is happening in my country and to exercise my right to express my views as a Maltese citizen. I was happy to see Henry Frendo on TV yesterday because I very much appreciate his scholarship and his contributions to society in general. I also think, however, that it would have been helpful to the viewers had they been made aware that Frendo holds certain views about the effects of migration on Maltese society and culture that are not shared by all.
Maltese people should know tht in the first 30 years after the second world war 140 000 maltese people went abroad. That means every family in malta have 2 or 3 klandestini in australia or canada or usa. Let us see in each black person the image of god. thanks
Emanuel Muscat: “get rid of them”? Where did you get the notion that the agreement on burden sharing amounts to “getting rid of them”?
I wonder where you got that 95% statistic. Is it related to the one that says the HIV infection rate among immigrants is as high as 30%? That turned out to be a good deal lower – a news report today said that the total number of people found to be infected with HIV infections was 38 over a four year span.
In any case, what 95% think is irrelevant. This is not the Eurovision song contest we’re talking about. There are laws and there are obligations that go with them. I may wish to be rid of you (nothing personal, that’s just an example) but that does not mean I can go ahead and do so.
You may think that that’s because you’re a citizen, whereas immigrants are not. No. It’s because everyone’s rights are limited by the rights of others.
David Farrugia: I can tell you about plenty of disgusting behaviour I’ve witnessed that does not involve squat toilets and immigrants. And if you’ve ever stood in a queue anywhere, you can’t have failed to notice that an aversion to deodorant is culture-blind.
Losing your job to someone else is unfortunate, but not unusual. It happens to people in all areas including people in business and those who are in professions, yet you seem bothered by the loss of a dishwashing job not because of who lost it, but because of who got the job instead.
Ms Caruana Galizia
Agreed your ‘we’ is the 5% who are in favour of illegal immigrants coming to Malta:my ‘we’ are the 95% who want them out:we can agree to disagree!
[Daphne – Nobody is in favour of people coming to Malta illegally. I am in favour of the decent and humane treatment of those who have walked through fire to get here, because I assume that only terrible circumstances would have driven them to do that. There are lots more people who, like me, are able to feel some form of empathy. The fact that they are not as vocal as the messengers of hate does not mean they do not exist.]
Emanuel Muscat:
And what exactly are you trying to imply by saying that the woman was wearing a veil? Is it essential detail to your little descriptive? Did you ever think that there might another reason why the lady chose not to get in the middle of the Marsaxlokk market? The crowd maybe? People walking and smoking with her baby in a pushchair? The heat?
I’ve been to Cairo, Morocco (my father lived and worked there for 5 years so I was a frequent visitor) and even (gasp) Libya and I can’t recall any people harassing me.
Also, can you kindly refer me from where you got the 95% figure? I want to read that research.
David Farrugia:
So the dishwasher lost the job because the immigrants are coming to Malta. What about the cleaners when the Eastern Europeans started coming in?
Did I hear any man complain?
[Daphne – The cleaners? What about all those eastern Europeans kept as white slaves and forced to service 15 Maltese men every day – most of them married, no doubt – for EUR10 a go, while their ‘owner’ gets the rest?]
@ Emanuel Muscat Don’t you think you’re being a wee bit
big headed thinking that 95% of Malta agrees with you
and your warped thoughts? Count me out please.
It’s very convenient to rubbish the will of the majority when its suits us! If we’re taking about obligations, I wonder where and when our obligations stop. Isn’t there a limit to the number we will accept. What are the obligations of those who put themselves, their wives and children including newborns at risk travelling on dangerous seacraft. Most have no right to be here, and there’s nothing racist in this statement. Had they arrived on a plane without a passport and visa they would have been sent back, by the same authorities who accept them here because there’s no practical way of sending back someone arriving on a makeshift boat without a passport.
John – “Let us see in each black person the image of god.” It’s not a question of religion, but a question of morality, humanity and compassion.
i am not saying that these people should not be treated in the most decent and humane manner. all i am saying is that a birzebbuga man who daily use buses to go to work has a very different view of this problem to those living in high ridge or bidnija who goes to his or her office in their car without meeting any of these people intheir neighbourhood on at their workplace.
[Daphne – I have no problems meeting ‘any of these people’ on a daily basis and in fact do so, given that there are several who work in my neighbourhood and to whom I give lifts up or down the hill when I pass them by on the road to the nearest bus-stop which is a mile away, or from the bus-stop to their place of work. It’s the Maltese people I have problems with on the rare occasions that I use the bus: you know, the kind who taunt disabled women and then post the clips on YouTube.]
A Camilleri:
You say we shouldn’t rubbish the will of the majority. There are 192 members of the United Nations. The majority, 147 of them, ratified the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.
Anyone who turns up in any of these countries may claim refugee status, and if they fit the conventional definition of a refugee then they should be recognised as such. People who claim refugee status, whether they arrive by boat or airplane, should not be repatriated unless it is proved that their claim is false.
People who make the journey by boat do not ‘put themselves’ through it. They are put through it by circumstances which are beyond their control. A person who is seeking refuge from a violent and oppressive state is not exactly going to get through border control at their airport.
@ David Farrugia: Ask your friend to board this bus instead: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081013/letters/environment-conscious-bus-passengers-ejected
Daphne
Those who ‘walked through fire’ as you say,are the real refugees who only represent 5% of the amount that come to our shores and it is reasonable to give them refugee status in Malta.The other 95% have been working in Libya for years to save up money to be carried across the mediterranean and they are economic migrants:why leave Libya,a rich country with plenty of space(almost 1 million sq.miles),no persecution of any kind,of the same religion?They think that Europe is better!And they end up in Malta,most of the men at the Valletta Terminus drinking coffee,smoking cigarettes,and making mobile calls;when they get bored they board the no.13 busy and the maltese going the same way have to stand by the side not to be crushed by stampeding somalis trying to get on the bus first!We even had an’english’ somali coming to Malta to sell them Khat(he got caught at the airport) to start a new drug business in Malta!
The above is not hate :it is facts which either I witnessed with my own eyes or are from reliable sources.
[Daphne – Their status in Libya is what it is in Malta. They can’t stay in Libya indefinitely, and while Libya might be rich as a state, its people are dirt poor and there is little or no work, even for Libyans themselves. I’m not going into detail about the Libyan economy, because this is not the place and I don’t have the time, but your simplistic reasoning is terribly annoying. Sub-Saharan Africans in Libya sit by the side of the road as they do here, waiting for somebody to pick them up and give them a day’s work for a few dinars. They sell bits and bobs at the market in the old town in Tripoli, and whenever the police get a bee in their bonnet, they run through the market arresting them and shutting down the stalls. They don’t ‘think’ Europe is better: it actually IS better. Your relentless reference to buses is most unfortunate, given the significance of buses – or one particular bus incident at least – in the US civil rights movement. If you bothered to read some European history, most particularly your own, you will know that every so-called ‘nation’ has been formed by a relentless admixture of different peoples and religions. Do you honestly imagine that the Maltese are anything other than the original Tunisian stock from a thousand years ago, liberally mixed with the genes of traders from all over the Mediterranean, Africa, Asia Minor…look the telephone directory, for heaven’s sake, and at the physiognomy of people on your beloved buses. You’ll even see features that are clearly indicative of Chinese and Japanese genes.]
Daniela
She was in the middle of the market with all its smells:the veil gives these people away,regarding identity.My daughter was also in Cairo with her husband and the husband came back telling us how crude their men’s behaviour was and my daughter is very cautious what to wear since she and her husband had been to other arab countries(including Tunisia where they had offers to exchange the women,my two daughters, for camels)!
[Daphne – Oh my god, you are so backward.]
Emanuel Muscat:
“Those who ‘walked through fire’ as you say,are the real refugees who only represent 5% of the amount that come to our shores and it is reasonable to give them refugee status in Malta.”
Out of curiosity, would you be so kind to share these “facts” that state that “The other 95% have been working in Libya for years to save up money to be carried across the mediterranean and they are economic migrants”
You claim that your argument is based on facts, while providing none. I’m sure there are available data on the origin of the immigrants and it seems obvious you have had access to this data, so please share with us.
Daphne
If the somalis and the eritreans in libya which is the majority of people that come to Malta as illegal immigrants are so poor and they do not earn good money in Libya, how come they can afford the exorbitant(for them) 1000USD plus that the people trafficers are charging them each?
Read your history well:the gozitans are the offsprings of sicilian farmers who were brought there after the north african arabs raided the island and carted away all able bodied people including women and children to be sold as slaves in the markets of north africa The maltese had originally chased away most of the few original arabs away with the arrival of count roger and with the gradual conversion back to christianity the last remnants disappeared and this also happened to the jews: you also should know that ,as in Spain, the amount of actual arab blood in malta is less than 5%.You should not assume that because there are a lot of maltese(arab) sounding surnames that these were originally arabs,only our language is of semitic origin.
[Daphne – They are poor precisely because every cent goes towards their passage. Your garbled account of the history of the population of Malta and Gozo is ‘Gateway to Our Nation’s History’ rubbish. The Maltese are descended from a core population of a few thousand people of Tunisian stock, who came here via Sicily, and that’s why the language we speak is Arabic, and why we use the vocabulary of Islam for the Catholic rite and feasts: Christmas is Milied – the feast-day marking the birth of Mohammed; randan – the Islamic period of fasting; genna – the Islamic heaven; Friday is Il-Gimgha/Gemgha, the day of the week when Muslim men were obliged to gather for prayer at the mosque; Easter is Ghid, the Islamic feast that marks the end of ramadan/randan. There are more, but I’m in a rush.]
While on the topic of clear thinking, may I suggest a quick visit to
http://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081015/local/norman-lowell-loses-appeal-case
some of the comments are pitiful.
[Daphne – I’m not going there. It’s too dispiriting.]
@ Emanuel Muscat
You said:
you also should know that ,as in Spain, the amount of actual arab blood in malta is less than 5%
How was the figure reached?
[Daphne – He learned about it while watching Gangs of New York.]
@ Amanda Mallia
John – “Let us see in each black person the image of god.” It’s not a question of religion, but a question of morality, humanity and compassion.
… erm … how would you define religion if it is none of the above?
Daphne
You should have said carthaginian not TUNISIAN:tunisia did not exist at the time!I do not exclude that some of the carthaginians stayed back when defeated by the romans in the punic wars but Malta sided with the romans and was granted roman citizenship as a reward;do you think that the romans left much of the cathaginians around after their defeat!But also include the phoenicians in the equation since they were the original carthage founders.Remember also that the population of Malta and Gozo was only a few thousands at the time.This population level stayed for years at this level ,even when the knights of st.john came to see what was being offered by charles V they found a barren land nowhere near where they were before:and this is when the population started to take off with the influx of people from europe and especially sicily.
That ‘discovery’programme you saw on the carthaginians has some truths in it but the rest is lies and conjecture:purely to denigate the romans as the ‘terry jones’ series did,also on ‘Discovery’.
[Daphne – Tunisia did exist at the time. The place and the people were there. To say that Tunisia didn’t exist a thousand years ago is like saying that Malta didn’t exist at that time either because it had a different name. Yes, Tunisia had a different name a thousand years ago, but it wasn’t Carthage. It was Ifriqiya. Carthage is the Anglicised version of the name used when it was Carthaginian territory. Tunisia was where Arab forces built their first fortress outside their home territory – at Kairouan in the seventh century. The surname Caruana denotes Kairouan as a place of origin, which is precisely why it is both a Sicilian surname and a Maltese surname. Your view of history is extremely childish and simplistic. I do not get my knowledge of Maltese, Roman, Phoenician and Arab history from the Discovery Channel. I am an honours graduate in archaeology – a full-time four-year programme with mandatory, wide-ranging reading, which is why it is called ‘reading for a degree’ elsewhere, rather than ‘taking a degree’ as it is in Malta. I strongly encourage you to read way beyond Gateway to Our Nation’s History.]
@ Zizzu:
What Amanda Mallia probably meant is that morality, humanity and compassion need not involve religious belief.
Atheists can be moral, humane and compassionate.
Emanuel: it might be worth your time to read Godfrey Wettinger’s study of slavery in Malta during the rule of the Order of Saint John. There you will find that thousands of Muslim (Arab and non-Arab) slaves were brought to Malta during the Order’s 300-year presence. Household slaves from North Africa were also common in Malta in the fifteenth century. In any case, how does whether we have Arab, Sicilian or Scandinavian ancestors affect the way we should treat immigrants?
[Daphne – Slavery was abolished in Malta only 200 years ago, and many slaves continued in their roles for years after that because they had been born into slavery and knew nothing else. Anybody could be taken into slavery, not just Muslims. The only proviso was that Christians couldn’t take other Christians into slavery – but those who converted to Christianity didn’t count. So a Christian could still have a Christian slave if the slave had converted to Christianity after he/she was enslaved. Muslims couldn’t hold other Muslims as slaves. When the Norman raiders arrived in Malta from Sicily in the late 11th century, the Christians who greeted them were not Maltese but were the slaves of the Muslim Maltese householders. This is a matter of recorded fact, but that particular note in the Norman annals is suppressed in Malta because it would mean undoing the fairly recent myth that Malta has been Christian since St Paul. And where would our national identity be then? For politico-religious reasons, the history of Malta was falsely rewritten to record that the ‘Normans’ had liberated ‘the Christian Maltese’ from ‘the Arab Muslims’, who they sent packing. The reality is that the Christians who were liberated were slaves owned by the Muslim Maltese, and it was they who were sent packing: loaded onto ships and sent back to their homelands. The Muslims (Maltese) stayed on, just as they did in Sicily, whence those Normans came. Because people in Malta know even less about Sicilian history than they do about their own, they never ask why the Normans would have thrown out the Muslims from Malta, when they didn’t throw them out of Sicily, and when Muslims were among the leading members of the Norman court in Palermo.]
Well,I accept that you know a lot about archeology:tell us then where all these archeological remains of the period of these tunisians are in Malta so that we could all go to admire them!Well don’t talk too much about qualifictions:I myself have a masters degree from a famous british institute of science and technology but I don’t flaunt it around!
[Daphne – I don’t flaunt anything around. You suggested that I get my information from the Discovery Channel and I explained that, in fact, I don’t. If you really did have a ‘masters degree’ from a ‘famous british institute of science and technology’, you would know how to use capital letters where appropriate and that master’s takes an apostrophe. What sort of remains would you be looking for, may I ask – a house that bears the legend ‘Maltese Muslims used to live here?’ I could give you some details to look for in old houses, but I doubt that you’d be interested. The evidence is not so much in the archaeological record, but elsewhere, in documents in the Palermo archives, in our own notarial and military records which continue to yield names like Mohammed until the 15th century, and of course, in the language you and I speak – Arabic that developed in isolation from the mainstream – and, as I mentioned earlier, the Islamic terms we use when practising Catholicism. We wouldn’t have used them if we weren’t Muslim to start with. Why on earth would we use Ghid for Easter or Mulied for Christmas, do you think? Incidentally, do you know that there is no Christian place of worship in Malta that predates the first half of the 15th century? This does not mean there were no Christians here before then, but it rather does undermine the argument of some that Malta can’t have been Muslim because there are no mosque remains.]
Daphne
The maltese were never slaves of anybody!The most they were ,was conquered and paying the gizya which was an annual toll to continue practising their beliefs in private and don’t convert to islam:if they had converted to islam they would not have been slaves but fellow muslims!
[Daphne – You’re deluded, my dear. Your argument starts from the point that there was always such a thing as ‘a Maltese’, as we know the Maltese today. That’s not the case at all. The Maltese people of the 11th century were Muslims from Sicily. Before they arrived, there was virtually nobody here, or literally nobody. The Maltese were never slaves of anybody! What kind of an ungrammatical and nonsensical statement is that? Plenty of Maltese were slaves. And plenty of present-day Maltese are descended from slaves who came from elsewhere. Where you go wrong is in thinking of the Muslims of Malta in the 11th century as They, when actually, they were Us. The dichotomy has been seared into your brain: Muslims = They; Christians = Us. It is quite clearly beyond you to grasp the fact that the Maltese Christians of today are descended from the Maltese Muslims of Tunisian descent of a thousand years ago. For you, everything is unchanging and cast in stone. Malta had a significant Jewish population, too. What do you think happened? Why do you think the Jewish cemetery in Marsa is full of people called Mamo, for instance?]
Kenneth Cassar – Thank you.
Maybe Zizzu assumes that people can be compassionate, humane and have good morals only if they are religious. I know of several people who put on a sanctimonious front, and yet lack severely in all three facets mentioned above. (U jekk jemmnu b’Alla, b’Alla ma’ tidhaqx.)
Emanuel Muscat :
The Somali that was caught with Khat was not going into a new drug business as Khat is available in Malta just like cocaine and exctasy is. If you take a look around the rave parties or clubs in Paceville it is always Maltese folks pushing drugs so please let’s not get into that.
@ Amanda Mallia:
You’re welcome. Actually, moral atheists such as myself actively seek to live a moral life despite not believing in an “eternal reward”.
Of course, this does not mean that all atheists are necessarily moral (or more moral), or that theists are necessarily less moral. But I’m sure you know this already ;)
Emanuel: your historical arguments are not only illogical but also misinformed.
The Maltese have thrived wherever they settled inside The former Glorious British Empire.Canada,NZ,Australia and Africa.More Maltese live abroad than in Malta because of this fact.Please dont try and claim victim status as the working classes in England were treated far worse than any foreigners.
[Daphne – Felipe Fernandez Armesto, in his mammoth work Millennium, writes that the main reason the Maltese integrated so successfully in Britain is because they pretended not to be Maltese, due to the shame they felt at the reputation of the Maltese as pimps, white-slavers and drug-dealers, and the contempt in which they were held.]
Dear all: make sure that you check out the video clip of Josie’s version of the Nazi rallies on the Times’ website. Quite a turnout!
Marku
Are you a caruana galizia rentacrowd or what?:you seem to agree with all she says and everybody else is ignorant,illogical,etc and you never substantiate why you are calling other people names and label them as something despicable.Go and get lost!
David Farrugia
If there is a problem with buses in Birzebbuga, the obvious answer is to improve the service and have more frequent trips. Why blame the immigrants? Are you implying they should walk instead of taking the bus?
[Daphne – The man has clearly never heard of segregation, so the irony goes right over his head.]
Is this an admission of guilt?.For you to believe the great Felipe Fernandez Armesto it is no wonder you hate your own kind so much.
[Daphne – He’s right. The Maltese had such a bad reputation in England in the 1950s and 1960s, that decent Maltese’disappeared’ and made sure they were invisible.The Maltese pimp was a truism and a cliche. It’s you who hate your own kind – you refuse to accept your true genetic and cultural history because you have been taught to be ashamed of it by a rigid process of brainwashing in schools and through public discourse: the Maltese versus the Arabs, Malta has been Christian since St Paul, no mention of slavery, a veil drawn over Jews. Meanwhile, in neighbouring Sicily they celebrate their heritage, which is identical to ours up until the mid-16th century. Couscous is regarded a traditional meal in the Palermo region, tourists are proudly shown the old mosque, people speak with fascination about their Arab heritage. And guess what? This is more attractive to tourists than heroic tales of how ‘we fought off the Muslims’.]
Daphne
So what if the maltese became all moslem for 200 years out of the last 2000 years:it must have taken some undoing to go back to 100% catholicism!How clever the church was in keeping the names of moslem festivals in malta and christianising them,as happened with the roman festivals!It shows how adaptable are the maltese to have been able to learn from their bigger neighbours but when it counted they were able to throw the arabs out first,resist them in the great siege,throw out the french,resist the italians and the germans,and finally throw out the english when they had served their purpose and now we have been independent for many years.And we did not resort to suicide bombers:and you seem to think that we came from north africa?
[Daphne – I almost give up. You are beyond redemption. THE MALTESE DID NOT BECOME MUSLIM. THEY WERE MUSLIM – THEY WERE BORN AND BROUGHT UP AS MUSLIMS. TO BE MALTESE IS NOT TO BE CHRISTIAN. THE ONE DOES NOT FOLLOW ON FROM THE OTHER. THEY DID NOT ‘GO BACK’ TO CATHOLICISM. PEOPLE DID NOT THINK IN TERMS OF CATHOLICISM IN THOSE DAYS ANYWAY, BECAUSE THE APPOSITION TO PROTESTANTISM HAD NOT YET COME ABOUT, AND WOULDN’T DO SO FOR ANOTHER HALF-MILLENNIUM. PEOPLE WERE CHRISTIANS, NOT CATHOLICS. FOR SOME REASON THAT WE DON’T YET KNOW, THE ORIGINAL NUMBER CONVERTED TO CHRISTIANITY AND OVER TIME, THEIR DESCENDANTS BECAME ASSIMILATED CHRISTIANS. I am curious as to how you define ‘the Maltese’ in your mind – people who looked, talked and spoke like the ones you see in Republic Street on a Monday morning? Hardly. Now I am going to shout again: THE MALTESE SPEAK ARABIC BECAUSE THEY WERE ORIGINALLY ARABIC TO START WITH. The British were here for almost 200 years, but did English replace the native tongue? No, it didn’t. Not only did it not replace the native tongue, but most people can’t speak the language at all, and a large number of the rest only with great difficulty.]
Even works of fiction written in the fifties and early
sixties and based in London mentioned the Maltese,
when describing Soho,as pimps and petty criminals.
I remember reading a book by Monica Dickens and thinking,
in my innocence, why is she being so nasty to us.
[Daphne – I’ve just read the book and watched the film The Long Firm, about gangland London in the 1960s. A social worker goes to see a gangland boss in prison, wearing long hair, a generous moustache, a leather jacket and nifty trousers, and the gangland boss recoils and says: ‘What are you wearing? You look like a Maltese ponce.’ In Fay Weldon’s autobiography, she describes how her voyeur first husband used to make her go out to work the bars in London, because he got a thrill out of it. She writes that she made a point of avoiding the seedier bars, the ones owned by the Maltese.]
“FOR SOME REASON THAT WE DON’T YET KNOW, THE ORIGINAL NUMBER CONVERTED TO CHRISTIANITY AND OVER TIME, THEIR DESCENDANTS BECAME ASSIMILATED CHRISTIANS.”
Forgive me my ignorance, but isn’t it possible that during the Muslim reign in Malta, practicing other religions were allowed, although slightly penalised. After the seisure by the knights the conversion to catholocisim was more or less forced upon the people. Not to attack catholicism, but in those days the catholics were not famous for sparing the rod.
Now admittedly I don’t know a great deal about the history of Malta so might be out on a limb here and if so would appreciate correction.
[Daphne – One imagines that it was a mix of things. There were still Muslims in Malta until the early 15th century at least, just as there were in Sicily. The real turning-point came not with the mythical heroics of ‘Count Roger the Norman’ in the late 11th century, but with the policy of religious unity pursued by Queen Isabella of Spain some four centuries later, when Muslims were forced to flee Aragonese territory, convert or die. Malta was part of the Kingdom of Aragon at the time, as was Sicily.]
Countries were created by human beings becuase really and truly human beings have evolved from Nature. The languages, cultures, customs, flags, national anthems have all been created by humans.
This goes to show that humans like many animals do create territories and this have caused so many wars and difficulties for humanity in general.
Personally, I am not an expert on this subject, however, I do posess a good general knowledge on history and what Daphne is saying about the Maltese does make a lot of sense.
Maltese is a semitic language written in Latin alphabet (the only one) and the semitic languages include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya and Hebrew.
People all over are scared of opening up their territories and refusing the concept of Globalisation. If we take the current Financial crises for example, we have seen world governments gathering together in order to find a solution for this crisis becuase what happened in the US is having an impact on Europe, Asia, Africa and all over.
With regards to the territory called Malta as a territory it does have a problem with over population, however, this does not mean that the problem is being caused by the Illegal or Legal immigrants only, but the fact is that we are too many on a very tiny area.
If we feel that there is no more space here, we should consider to move in another territory or else we should just stick to the territory that we have and try to improve it instead of moaning on a daily basis.
I lived in London from ’67 to ’71. In ’68 one of my cousins came over for a course, took me out for supper and then for a ‘stroll’ through Soho. He wanted to show me the Maltese pimps outside the bars and clubs. I heard them shouting come on in, lovely ladies etc in Maltese and broken English…Quite a sight.
Fanny – “Malti ta’ Londra” is an expression used to describe such undesirables.
One such person – who made his money out of running a Soho brothel (which had, if I recall correctly, burnt down many years ago) – is now a decrepit old man who has retired gracefully to Malta. He’s often seen taking a walk along Ghar id-Dud / Fond Ghadir, almost blending in with the “old” Sliema residents, having acquired a more respectable appearance in his old age.
Daphne – “TO BE MALTESE IS NOT TO BE CHRISTIAN”
Try explaining that to all the holier-than-thous
Emanuel: I actually disagree with Daphne on how to deal with someone like you. I think ridicule, rather than debate, is the best tactic against sheer, persistent ignorance. However, I will give you one last bit of advice. Once again, your historical arguments are false. They are based on wrong information which makes your interpretation complete drivel. You really ought to read history books that were actually written by historians because, you never know, you might actually learn something new. If you wish to have an informed opinion, the least you can do is to try and get informed in the first place. For once, you might actually say something that makes sense.
Let me share with you one of my favourite quotes from the bible: L-ikbar trux min ma jridx jisma.
Pat,
the question of the survival (or not) of Christianity on Malta during the Muslim period is still not fully resolved as much of the evidence is indirect. Overall, however, it makes historical sense to suggest that the population of Malta was pretty much Muslim by the time the Normans arrived here in the late 11th century. A chronicler who accompanied Count Roger on his expedition to Malta in 1091 says that the Count released a few Christian slaves then living in Mdina but makes no further mention of Christians. Those Christian slaves promptly left Malta with the Norman war party, an act that would be difficult to explain if they were part of the indigenous population. Count Roger also immediately proceeded to leave the same Muslim governor of Malta in charge of the island – evidently no Christians could be found to replace him. The evidence of place-names also seems to suggest a near-complete eradication of the previous pre-Arab/Muslim culture. Finally, if we look at nearby Sicily, we find that at least the entire western half of that island was inhabited by Muslims at the time of the Norman conquest. Unlike Malta, however, there is documentary and physical evidence showing that Christianity (albeit in the Greek form) did survive in some parts of eastern Sicily. In places like Palermo, however, the Christian presence was a fragment of what it used to be. The archbishop of Palermo is described in a Norman source as an old man living in near-poverty and without a proper place of worship befitting his rank.
The most thoughtful discussion of this period can be found in Charles Dalli’s, Malta: the Medieval Millennium (Midsea Books, 2006).
@Daphne; if I may come in somewhat belatedly, the assimilation of Christian semitic terms into Maltese is not necessarily an indication of our Muslim past (although of this there is no doubt). Apart from the words you mention – Milied, Ghid etc – which are also used by Muslims to denote Muslim festivals, there a few others which are peculiar to Christianity, such as qrar, tqarbin, maghmudija, tewba, etc. which could not have been adopted from Muslim terminology. It seems to be more likely that Maltese Christians adopted these Arabic Christian terms from Christian Arabic-speakers. This appears more probable when we consider that, at the start of re-Christianization, the Eastern (Greek) rite (geographically closer to the Middle East) rather than the Latin seems to have been prevalent for a time (refer to some old place names like Wied Incita, Nikita being a saint of the Eastern Church). One must not forget that in Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, there were some of the oldest Christian communities some of which survive today. I am informed that some of the terms we use in Maltese are still current among Maronite Christians in the Middle East.
Regarding the expulsion of Muslims after the 1492 edict of Queen Isabella, one must also mention that this affected Jews as well and, as a result, the Jews of Malta (then under Aragon/Castille) were forced to convert or be exiled. Muslims (unless they converted) had already been expelled from Sicily and Malta earlier on at the time of Frederick II and by 1492 the Maltese had reverted firmly to Christianity.
@Marku: another piece of circumstantial evidence that the Maltese islands may have been depopulated after the Muslim conquest (as suggested by Al-Himyari), apart from the absence of place names dating to the pre-Arab period, is that fact that no study so far has managed to find a substratum (i.e. signs of a previously spoken language) to Semitic Maltese. It would seem that the Arabic-speakers who may have re-populated the islands may have started off on a “tabula rasa”. Of course, the question as to what was spoken by the inhabitants of Malta before 869-870 remains open.
All good and bad is being said about Malta, but as an African migrant living in Malta, it is typically difficult for me to join the bus on my way to work everyday without being abused – lest we forget that we have many Maltese who live and work in Africa especially a country named Nigeria. The way Africans are treated is too bad here in Malta, where you are seen as nothing.
I actually AM an Australian and I am utterly enraged by and entirely oppose the mass, multiracial, immigration that has been inflicted upon our nation over the last five years!
It’s destroying our nation and driving us to the brink of genocide.
This is against everything that we wisely set up our sovereign nation to protect ourselves against.
The small minority of Maltese who came here, who were basically quite well regarded (I myself quite like the Maltese); and a few other European groups…though it was not without it’s troubles…is NOTHING like we are bearing the brunt of now!
With enormous numbers of Chinese and other East Asians, Indians, various Muslim groups; and now various African peoples all flooding in here!
The grim process of mass immigration and “multiculturalism” is a threat to every Western nation and White person.
We Australians have EVERY right to keep our society for ourselves and our descendents…as do the Maltese in Malta.
It’s a people’s birthright!
Scott