@P.Shaw – if I’m not mistaken all the conquerors before the Knights all came from Sicily. I’m not a historian so I might be wrong on this one.

Se usiamo il nome di battesimo io ti dò del tu! :) Or should we call you Ms. Caruana Galizia?

@Abram qbilna nahseb fuq din ghax jiena ghedt li huma gosti personali. Imkien ma nehhejt mill-mertu tal-fatt li Piano jew England huma periti ta’ fama u kbar. Personalment lili l-iktar haga li ma ghogbitnix huwa Bieb-il Belt. Jiena kien jghogobni hafna l-Bieb li kienu ghamlu l-Inglizi, cioè dak li kien hemm qabel dan li ghandna llum. Kif ipproponih Renzo Piano ma laqatnix. Però tinkwetawx jiena ma jiena hadd igifieri zgur li ser isir kif jiddeciedu l-kbarat.

“Se vogliamo che tutto rimanga com’è, bisogna che tutto cambi.” Tancredi
Translated in English ” If we want things to remain as they are, then things have to change”

On a completely different note… the only Maltese television I watch and really listen to is ‘Dissett’ and ‘Bondi Plus’.

@ Claudette

“Kultant iddahhkuni imma ta’. Allura possibbli li ma jistax ikollok gosti li jkunu differenti minn ta’ haddiehor?”

Of course everybody has a right to an opinion. It is one thing expressing an opinion – it is quite another thing to go out of your way to obstruct a project as some people are keen on doing.

Whatever is proposed by government, there will always be people who disagree with it. The constant obstructionism of those who disagree is one of the reasons why the opera house has remained a ruin for so long.

And if we are not careful, history will repeat itself.

Malta, as we all know, has strong cultural and historical links with Sicily. We have shared the same history and the Maltese islands were once part of the Kingdom of the two Sicilies. The Maltese population [Daphne- as pointed out by a geneticist elsewhere on this blog] is largely from the same gene-pool as Sicilians and Southern Italians.

Further on in the chapter Daphne has quoted from, Don Fabrizio describes the immense heat that persists for six months. Like the Sicilians Don Fabrizio describes we have been colonized over and over and over again and rulers left magnificent monuments such as Valletta, which most Maltese do not truly love because it is incomprehensible to us.

Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, or rather his alter ego Don Fabrizio Di Salina belonged to one of the ruling families in Sicily whose presence, influence and intuitive understanding of his own people cannot be discounted.

It is astonishing how similar the two cultures are. It is astonishing when reading this – he could be describing us. The question is, will Malta change? Will we wake up to the 21st century?

Will we take responsibility for our actions, for the environment we have created for ourselves? Or do we prefer to sleep the sleep described by Don Fabrizio, understanding nothing, caring about nothing?

Claudette l-ewwel trid tkun tifhem naqra dwar x’inhi l-arti. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Forsi dak li jghogbok lilek ma jghogobx lili u vice versa. Imma meta ssemmi ismijiet ta’ periti kbar li ghamlu isem ghalihom bhal meta ssemmi Richard England, (nerga ntenni mhux bilfors li kollox isir perfett ghax Richard England) imma trid tammetti li Renzo Piano mhux imbecilli li jaqbad u jhazzez xoghlijeit bl-addocc.

Finalment hemm ismu fin-nofs. Ikun hemm il-hsieb warajhom, altrimenti vromi jaghmel bniedem hekk. Perit ta’ kalibru ma jistax jaghmel pudini imma opri tal-arti. Taqbel u ma taqbilx mal-istil li jkun ghazel. Jiena nghid ghalija ma nifhimx imma NAHSEB li Malta m’ghandhiex bzonn li t-teatru rjal jerga jinbena mill-gdid. Ahjar sar ufficini tal-gvern fejn in-nies jinqdew minflok joqghodu jduru madwar il-belt minn ufficcju ghal iehor biex persuna tiehu servizz.

I was just asking a question, maybe it came out wrongly. I wonder why we have similar traits, given that we do not share any history.

Just asking myself whether this squirming poor excuse for a journalist is in reality a lecturer at uni. He was just concerned to come out smelling of roses. I expected him to start mumbling and Lou Bondi wasn’t much better. Thank God for Daphne – I will repeat this to my dying day.

Twanny

“Half the population votes PN even if it’s led by a one-eyed Martian.”

They don’t actually. As a rule, PN voters have higher expectations of their party than PL ones and are more prone to dissent and criticise.