An injorant tal-prima klassi, or why history is important
Posted beneath the story on yesterday’s memorial ceremony, in www.timesofmalta.com
Kevin Zammit (17 hours, 32 minutes ago)
It is about time we start calling the spade by its real name. We remember a war that was after all brought upon us. The British were here and mainly the Italians tried to bomb them out. In the end the result would have been the same so for us it did not matter. The Allies would have bombed us instead had it been the other way round. How many Maltese pilots do you know? How many Maltese sailors above the rank of petty officer do you know? We were just a utility in the hands of the powers of the time … that’s our past and so be it. What we remembered today is what greed, intolerance and ego did to Europe. If only the English themselves remember that when they vote in an EU referendum … peace in Europe would be more assured. Or are we also remembering a long lost power?
Our education system has failed. Oh yes, it has. And because our education system has failed, half the population of this country continues to vote for a bunch of clowns and nut-jobs.
41 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
I do not believe that the education system has failed. It is some of the students who have failed education. You rightly wrote in one of your blogs that you ‘read’ archaeology, and that is the crux of the argument. Many of today‘s students expect education to be ‘read’ to them instead of searching for the arguments and logic on their own. Many have lost the inquisitive mind and gobble up all that is shoved down their throat, and that is what creates clowns.
Ok, here goes.
My great-grandfather was chief engineer during the war. Ok, it was merchant navy but their role was just as vital to the war effort, if not more.
If you permit me Daphne… Dak il-kumment m’hu xejn hlief injoranza tboss!
[Daphne – You don’t have to tell me that. My paternal grandfather’s brothers were all veterans of World War II. One of them spent a good part of the war in a German POW camp, while another was involved in the Allied landings in southern Italy and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The other two fought in Malta. Their father was a war veteran, too, but that was another war.]
Clowns are usually very intelligent beings. It is however true that most education systems do not foster an investigative mind and ours is no exception.In this case,the parents need to make up the difference by surrounding the kids with books from a very early age and encouraging discussions in the family:at school, debates and public speaking should be re-introduced as part of the curriculum (plus more sports and gymnastics) and open oral exams too.
Good point. In fact it would appear that the education system has succeeded perfectly with this Kevin Zammit. Just open that organ of wrongness, ‘Grajjet Malta’. This is History as She Is Taught. A series of Barranis oppressing the plucky socialist Maltese, dressed in Gensna catsuit bottoms+tunic+headband, who of course were yearning for independence and Helsien since the Upper Paleolithic.
Never mind the bollocks about Crécy and Agincourt lapped up by my parents’ generation. It pales into insignificance next to Mintoffian education. And the new generation, Generation X or whatever it’s called, if it limits itself to what is taught at school, will grow up thinking that history is one long nothingness with two golden ages and nothing else: Ancient Greece and the Renaissance. Yes, Peter Serracino Inglott and Kenneth Wain: on this point, j’accuse.
[Daphne – I remember one of my sons coming home with history homework about the Great Siege, when he was about 10 or 11. I mentioned the Ottoman Empire. He wanted to know what that was. He had been taught about the siege without hearing the words ‘Ottoman Empire’ even once. Apparently, it’s still taught in terms of Turks and Maltin, like cowboys and Indians, and has been taken completely out of the context of the wider picture. So children – and even adults – are under the impression that a bunch of Turks had a fit one fine day and rushed over to Malta to attack a bunch of farmers taking shelter behind the bastions, who were, in turn ably and heroically protected by some knights who just happened by good fortune to be living here.]
Here’s the story that Kevin Zammit missed.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081108/local/squadron-back-to-recall-lives-it-defended
It emerged yesterday that Flight Lieutenant Luke Gili-Ross, one of the four pilots who landed at Luqa, is the grandson of a Maltese national who served as a ground crew member during World War II, Norbert Gili-Ross.
Mr Gili-Ross was part of the team that kept the aircraft flying. He would have been very proud to learn that his grandson would form part of the squadron that commemorated the sacrifice made by the defenders of the island so many years later.
Oh sure, Malta under Nazi/Fascist rule would have been no different from Malta under British rule. And pigs fly.
[Daphne – Kenneth, you are another example of the failure of our education system. I honestly can’t believe you think that way. What a disgrace.]
What amazes me the most is how people like Kevin Zammit and Kenneth Cassar come up with such statements. I do not even think that it is a failure of the educational system. Their comments depict shear ignorance (not necessarily a lack of education) and a very healthy dose of arrogance. How do Kenneth Cassar and Kevin Zammit substantiate comments like that?
John
[Daphne – I think it’s more down to prejudice in Kenneth’s case, because he is extremely open-minded in most matters. He is especially open-minded about freedom of religion, something the British tried to get us used to here, while adhering to their policy of not challenging the dominance of the Catholic Church so as to smooth their path. Life under the Nazis, however, would have meant no freedom of religion at all, and no freedom of expression either.]
Kenneth Cassar: “Oh sure, Malta under Nazi/Fascist rule would have been no different from Malta under British rule. And pigs fly.”
Is that sarcasm or seriousness?
I am waiting for Kenneth to redeem himself from such a comment before sending him to blazes. As you put it, Daph, he usually comes across as open-minded etc…I am hoping that his tongue was in his cheek when he wrote that. So Ken, explain yourself.
Daphne, I think you may have misread Kenneth’s statement and unjustly chastised him for being a failure of the education system. Unless I’m mistaken, the clue lies in beginning his sentence with ‘oh sure’ and following it up with an ‘and pigs fly’.
Perhaps you should direct your educational energies to the difference between shear and sheer instead.
@ Daphne:
I thought your comment was sarcastic, like mine was. Now I know that you have misunderstood me (and apparently John did too).
So let me put it more clearly. British rule compared to Nazi/Fascist rule would be like heaven compared to hell (if one believes in either). And just to be clear, hell would be the Nazi/Fascist rule.
[Daphne – Kenneth, I’m sorry. I thought it was very odd. I don’t see comments in context or in sequence but in chronological order as they come in, so I can’t follow the flow.]
Surely Kenneth’s comment is a sarcastic one. The last sentence about flying pigs kind of gives it away.
However I agree with John above. We could afford to shear some ignorance.
p.s. I thought the “pigs fly” bit would be a clear give-away that I was being sarcastic. I should perhaps be more careful next time.
Daphne, you forgot to mention that one of their sisters was a Japanese POW, along with her two infant children, and that her husband, an army officer, spent years in another Japanese POW camp and came out wrecked. Perhaps you should also mention that our maternal grandmother’s brother volunteered for the US Army when war broke out, and had the great misfortune to be among the US troops first in to the German death-camps, an experience from which he did not recover.
@ Kenneth
See? He was being sarcastic…thought that ‘pigs fly’ was a nod to that direction. All’s right with the world then :)
Partly my fault. I should have made it clear that my reply was in response to Kevin Zammit.
No harm done.
Apologies Kenneth- A misunderstanding on my part- hope there are no hard feelings.
John
Thanks for pointing it out Malcolm and J. Shame on me! My time to eat humble pie.
No problem, John. The day I praise fascists and actually mean what I say, point a gun at my head and pull the trigger.
There was no need to apologise, but apology accepted.
Anyone thinks (like I do) that Kevin Zammit is a Norman Lowell cohort? Seems likely. They speak from the same orifice….
Last week I was talking to a 20-year-old man who thought that the Great Seige and World War II were one and the same thing. He did say that at school they were never taught history, though. In my time, years before independence, when Malta was still a British colony, we were taught a lot more about our country’s past then they do now. However, blaming teachers is not fair. I did not chose history as a subject at school yet I knew more about it then anyone else I ever met when I was a student, because I was taught history at home and from some original texts, too. I did the same with my children.
And to boot Kevin Zammit seems to be a right real europhile! His argument is that the EU has stopped wars in Europe and that eurosceptic Britain needs to realise this. It’s like the cock who thinks the sun rises because it crows.
His sub-argument makes more sense and is closer to reality: that Malta has always been used and abused by imperial powers, on whichever side fate may have placed us.
To add to this, bearing in mind that history repeats itself, imperial powers have always been highly tyrannical and conspiratorial towards the people. If you don’t believe me, google “Operation Northwoods” (or check on Wikipedia, or the US Congress docs). In this case, President Kennedy had nipped the bud.
Kev, please define “always”.
‘Our education system has failed’. Who’s been running it for the past 21 years? (In any case, it’s damn hard for education to overcome deep-rooted prejudice, as seems to be the case here.)
What we’re remembering here is that whilst the whole of Europe was kissing Hitler’s ass and letting him do what he liked – Britain, albeit belatedly, stood up for freedom and democracy and saved the world from tyranny. Sadly so that numbskulls like Mr Zammit can say moronic things like this and not be hauled off and shot, as would have been the case in Nazi Germany.
Kevin Ellul Bonici: Never one to miss an opportunity to promote conspiracy theory, are you?
Operation Northwoods is “conspiracy theory”? And the de-classified document is what, a forgery? And what are it’s contents? A joke?
See what I mean, you people are so superficial you don’t know whether the world is coming or going. It’s all about Joseph’s tie and Michelle’s silver dress, you see.
I guess it’s time for me to take a long break from your world. Don’t miss me too much, I might return. Spare your comment, Daphne. Thanks.
Kevin Ellul Bonici: “imperial powers have always been highly tyrannical and conspiratorial towards the people”
You said it, not I.
It is extremely foolish to blame the British for the hell on earth visited upon Malta between 40-42. However, lets not raise the British on a pedestal. They fought tooth and nail not to defend the Maltese people but to defend the island, the land, and its strategic importance. If Malta was not important strategically, the British would have left us to the dogs, no doubt about that. But still, a quirk of history placed us on what could reasonably be considered the right side of the fence in WW2, since the Axis powers were so obviously on the wrong side.
[Daphne – What tedious rubbish. Had we not been a British colony, the Allied Forces would still have had to fight to liberate Malta from Mussolini, just as they fought to liberate Sicily, and southern Italy, and the rest of Italy, and France, and Poland (which was then sold down the river….). I imagine you assume Malta would have been in some kind of vacuum. Well, we couldn’t have been. We had no banking services to exchange for immunity from the Nazis, like Switzerland.]
I wish you would read more carefully and avoid jumping to conclusions before reaching for your gun and shooting back.
I assume that if the British would have had to fight to liberate Malta their primary objective would have been to get the Nazis out, not to liberate the Maltese because they had some special affinity with them. My point being that either way the Maltese were stuck in the middle, and the fact that the British “defended” Malta (or “liberated” if that would have been necessary) does not point towards a special friendship between the the Maltese and their colonial masters.
[Daphne – Stuck in the middle of what? It was a world war, not a battle between two countries. Even if we were an independent state we would have had to pick our side.]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=A1YourView&xml=/opinion/2008/11/11/dl1101.xml
Naturally, we would have had to take sides, because as you pointed out, Malta was no Switzerland. But as an independent nation perhaps we would have had a choice. As things stood we did not. Thank our lucky stars we were ib the side of the “good guys” in that particular war, because that makes some of that glory (we defeated the evil Nazis after all) rub off on us Maltese. Not to take away anything from our grandparents’ generation who suffered great hardship.
But if we had been an Italian colony, would we still look back with admiration at our ancestors? As a colonized nation they would still have been victims of circumstance.
[Daphne – Please explain to me how Malta would have become an independent nation without the British interlude. Have you visited Pantelleria?]
That’s another thing altogether. We were discussing the Maltese experience of WW2 as a colony of the British and what informs our interpretation of those events, along with various what if’s.
[Daphne – Thank God we were a British colony. I would have hated to have grown up on some remote Sicilian island. Remote Sicilian islands are fine for holidays. Full stop.]
Alex: Discussing what might have happened under different conditions is an interesting intellectual exercise, but little more. The greater insight lies in what happened, not in what might have been.
The cleavage between “the Maltese and their colonial masters” is not as sharp as that phrase implies. Some people may have seen themselves as victims of circumstance. Others may have seen an opportunity to serve. The former did not exclude the latter – and thank heavens for that.
@Alex
Actually, without the British there was a good chance we would have ended up under the Russians when the French were kicked out!
@ Corinne
Actually, the “cleavage” between the Maltese and the British was worthy of Dolly Parton :) Perhaps the divide was really between the Maltese common man and his Maltese leaders, the ones who served the British so well. I’m not about to get into a debate about the pros and cons of the British presence in Malta. I suggest you read Orientalism by Edward Said for a mind opening take on what colonialism entailed (and still does). The recent misadventure in Iraq is a case in point. I also am of the opinion that if we had been a French colony, bad as that would have been, we would have fared better from a cultural standpoint. Under the British the Maltese pretty much lost their barings as a people, and it can be seen to this day.
@Alex,
All “other powers” were here for hundreds of years with barely a squeak from the locals. The French were here 3 measly months and all hell broke loose. That should give you a clue as to how much better off we would have been.
[Daphne – That’s because the French weren’t smart enough to leave religion alone, which is why their empire never really got off the ground. History has shown that the only way to do it was to ‘persuade’ or force people to convert (the Arabs to Islam and the Communists to atheism) or to be completely tolerant. There is no halfway house called insulting the local religion while allowing people to worship. The most successful empire-builders in history – Rome and Britain – used an approach of religious toleration, being wise to the fact that people are more likely to riot over insults to their religion than they are over food shortages.]
In North Africa the French left religion alone as far as I know. Perhaps because it was Islam and therefore alien to them. Malta on the other hand was Catholic and the French were still fresh from the revolution and partial to the silver they found in the Maltese churches. No one can say for sure how Malta would have developed if the French had stayed. Some historians believe we would have fared better as a nation. After all the evidence seems to suggest that the French supported and gave free reign to local culture in their colonies, unlike the British.
[Daphne – To see how we would have fared had we been a French colony, take a look at all the former French colonies, which are an unmitigated disaster of poverty and backwardness. This may be the result of other cultural influences, but I don’t think it’s solely that. The British did give free rein to Maltese culture. People carried on exactly as they did before, and still do today, the difference being that they were obliged – odd word given the context – to accept the principles of religious toleration and freedom of expression, and the removal of legal provisions that made a promise to marry enforceable even if one of the people involved changed his or her mind. Those are just a couple of things that come immediately to mind. The greatest oppression the Maltese suffered in the 20th century was not by the British but, interestingly, by Maltese autocrats in the period 1971 to 1987.]
Alex: I’m not about to get into a debate about the pros and cons of the British presence in Malta. Well, thanks for that, seeing as your comment was addressed to me and I’m not interested in that discussion right now. It’s interesting that you cite Edward Said. For all he had to say about colonialism, I think you’d find he was not one who favoured rallying behind the banner of nationalism if the banner of principle was on the opposing side. Incidentally, who were “the Maltese common man” and “his Maltese leaders, the ones who served the British so well”?
@ Daphne
You can’t single out former French colonies as being an unmitigated disaster. What about India? Uganda? They were British colonies. As for the British giving free reign/rein to Maltese culture, I’m not sure about that but I’ll stop there because I’m not 100% informed.
@ Corinne
I don’t understand what you mean by your statement re. the banner of nationalism (which in this day and age I consider cringe worthy). What banner of principle are we talking about here? And the Maltese leaders who served the British so well were the ones who had alot to gain from Malta being a colony, unlike others who desired a general raising of the level of education of the people, such as Manuel Dimech, in order that they could then take charge of their nation’s destiny.
What I want to say is that nothing we are discussing here is black and white. Too many times people tend to interpret history in simplistic terms, which is dangerous in my view. That’s all. Anyway, discussing on line really tires me out. Cheerio.
[Daphne – India? India beats us on every score industrially and in terms of IT. Uganda – the problem was Idi Amin, just as our problem, had it been allowed to go further, was Dom Mintoff. ‘Free rein’ – it’s a technical phrase borrowed from carriage-driving.]
Alex: “Too many times people tend to interpret history in simplistic terms”
I agree, which is why we disagree on everything else in this discussion so far, including what we’re talking about.
I’m off too but before I go, let me thank you for pointing out to yourself that there is no Dolly Parton cleavage “between the Maltese common man and his Maltese leaders”.
@Daphne
“the removal of legal provisions that made a promise to marry enforceable even if one of the people involved changed his or her mind”
Well, today the court will make you pay back any meal you had at his/her parents!!