http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10553600

I agree with and have experienced everything you write and find it incredibly depressing. Is the percentage as high in the under 30 age group? They are our only salvation.

[Daphne – My sons, who are in their 20s, tell me it’s as bad among their contemporaries, which kind of means there’s no hope. In a way, you wouldn’t expect any different because young people here pick up their value system from their parents – they don’t break away or challenge anything – and they grow up in homes where the conversation is utilitarian, there are no books, newspapers or journals and they have mothers who are isolated from the real world and have no interest in anything outside the home, while their fathers are largely absent from the picture and so have little influence. There is no doubt that the mother is the greatest influence, for better or worse, on children and teenagers in Malta, and women here are very poorly educated in the widest sense of the word. Men are not much better, it’s true, but at least they’re exposed to different experiences through work.]

Just out of interest, what percentage of the Maltese people do you think are far right and racist? Because the more I meet either through their comments on line or socially, the higher I think the percentage is, and the more shocked and upset I get.

We are no longer a colony, we’re independent, we live in a republic, we form part of the EU and we still
use the expression “If you don’t like it, go home”.

When will Malta grow up?

[Daphne – I have no idea what the percentage is, but it must be very high. All I know is that whatever the social situation and the sort of people present, whenever the topic of conversation comes round to this, I am invariably in a minority. I was once at an excruciating dinner-party where I thought it best to signal to my husband that we had better leave before the coffee arrived because my blood was boiling and I feared a scene, given that I have an uncontrollable temper despite being very calm most of the time. Fortunately, somebody noticed and made strenuous efforts to change the direction of the conversation. We were being served by a Filipina who, we were told, was in Malta raising money to support her four-year-old son back in the Philippines after her husband had been killed. She was in the kitchen the whole time, scrubbing and cleaning away, until 11pm at least. She slept on a truckle-bed under the stairs, was given no time off except for a few hours on Sunday, and the hostess boasted about how little she cost. Basically, she paid her less for a 14-hour day, six days a week servitude than I pay my Maltese home help for three mornings a week. And while the household slave was popping in and out of the kitchen fetching and carrying, the conversation was about how They are stealing our jobs, changing the social fabric, bringing things down, how They will never integrate because They are too different. There have been many similar situations and they are all the result of the most unbelievable ignorance. It made me realise what it must have been like to live among rednecks but not feel the way they do in Georgia, the United States circa 1955.]

Both countries have their problematic areas – try walking in Nottingham’s city centre after 6.00pm in winter – and presently the financial situation of a large number of employees is not that rosy either.

Though I believe that the “level of richness” as compared to the standard of living in Malta is much better than either country, on the whole I find that in the UK meritocracy is more evident and in my personal experience, there are few know-it-all-I-am-better-than-you-as-I-am-a-professor persons, even though their CV has to be compiled in over two volumes. So given a choice where to work and live I would live in the UK, but retire in Italy (still in love with the country).

Just thought there was a deeper meaning in it.

If dualistic thinking re Britain/Italy makes no sense in modern day Malta then you are never in Malta when an Italy/Great Britain football game is played during the World Cup competition and you never ever hear what the plebs say on radio phone-ins during sports programmes.Funnily enough, it is not the first time that I read articles in the local press where this sort of “dualistic thinking re Britain/Italy” is very noticeable.

Germany and Denmark….. you forgot Swizerland.

[Daphne – We are not speaking about football, I am not interested in sports, and God forbid ‘the plebs’ should set the standards for rational thought on their phone-in shows. You might as well say that racism makes sense in 21st century Malta because timesofmalta.com is riddled with racist comments.]

What’s your message on that “serial killer art” piece?

[Daphne – I don’t hate them, for god’s sake. I think merely that they are accorded far too much adulation in Malta.]