And you are a profound thinker.

I can understand how horrible you are in Maltese … and in English it’s “orthography”, Johnathan.

[Daphne – My Maltese is actually near-perfect and very idiomatic. You will never catch me saying ‘majtezwel’ or ‘just han mur nixtri sigarett’, for example. People who have an ear for one language generally have an ear for any other. The interrogating officer wrote that, and I reproduced it verbatim. It obviously doesn’t reflect the way I speak. This is the way an interrogation goes: you answer the question, and because the police officer is not a stenographer and can’t take it down second by second as you are speaking, he must listen, then ‘play it back’, ask you whether this is indeed what you meant/said, then put it down on his keyboard. For example, I became particularly irritated at his insistence on using ‘izda’ wherever I said ‘imma’. I never say ‘izda’ – not because it is incorrect, but because those who say ‘izda’ are either working-class or else they’re middle-class people trying to be PC and saying ‘izda’ because they think that’s what they should do, something about which I don’t give a stuff.]

I know. You can cope, but the country can’t. I mean this isn’t just about you. It’s about press freedom, public accountability, the integrity of public officials, and ultimately about what sort of society we want to live in.

[Daphne – Agreed. In fact, I told the police – though this wasn’t something they took down as part of my statement – that it’s a good thing I’m an iron-willed 45 years-old raised under Mintoff, because I’d like to see them subjecting a 20-year-old student to the same treatment.]

The reaction of the press to all of this is straight out of some Sicilian omertà-bound village (jaqq). It’s like: everyone knows li kullhadd haxxej, but let’s not talk about it.

And the dots connect. The Realtà story = Let them see no Evil.
And when they grow up: it’s fine to do Evil, as long as They don’t see it. Omertà Omertà Omertà. Jaqq and jaqq.

The high-water mark of a liberal Maltese society was reached around 2005. The waters have been retreating ever since.

I think we reached the nadir yesterday: university students being interviewed about whether condom machines should be installed on campus.

[Daphne – Yes, I only raised my voice once – when they thought I am too damned stupid to work out that they were trying to get one particular answer by asking 15 different questions.]

No really, it’s a stirring read. When you think that we’re in 2010, and in the EU, and that you were being questioned by the police…. Call me sentimental but I shudder to think where this country is heading.

And “Il-Magistrat Consuelo”? First name terms, what?

[Daphne – Actually, it was ‘Il-Magistrata Conswelo’, with a very appropriate W, throughout, but I changed that so as not to make the police look even sillier at not even being able to spell the name of the person around whom the case centres. As for teh rest: I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, Baxxter. It’s not like I couldn’t cope or anything.]

[Daphne – dcg@proximuspr.com]