Thanks for the lecture on the difference between an atheist and a non-Catholic. Since I was born yesterday I never realised the difference.

[Daphne – Apparently not, because you assume I am an atheist on the grounds that I am not a Catholic.]

I’m not understanding why you would care if the mother of God is made into a pagan goddess. Aren’t you an atheist? and anyway, paganism is very subjective.

[Daphne – No, I’m not an atheist. I’m just not a Catholic. People who are not Catholics are not necessarily atheists. In fact, atheism is relatively unusual. I know it is difficult for some Maltese people to understand the distinction between non-Catholic and atheist, but if you practise every day you might get there at last.]

Din hi diska bil-Malti ghax ahna MALTIN. Bhalma ntqal fil-kumment ta’ qabli, li kieku kienet xi diska bl-Ingliz, u kantata minn xi hadd min-North aqta kemm ikun hemm tifhir fuqa.

Haga wahda nghid – Jekk ma thobbux il-festi halluna bi kwietna, ghax hafna ghandom din it-tradizzjoni f’qalbhom, mhux iz-Zabbarin biss. Il-Festi huwa “xoghol sekondarju u volontarju” li nies idumu sena shiha jippreparaw ghaliha, u ftakru li DAN MA JAQILGHU XEJN GHALIHOM PERSONALI. Ara kieku il-Kazini tal-Baned jhallsu lil min jahdem ghalihom, malajr tara xi Dapne Caruana Galizia diehla tiddeffes ghax tara l-flus.

Viva Il-Madonna Tal-Grazzja!

[Daphne – Right on cue: somebody to illustrate the point that the differences are educational and not cultural. Viva l-Madonna Tal-Grazzja! Dik differenti mil-Madonna ta’ Stella Maris, ta. And this person doesn’t even know that websites are by definition international because anybody can read them anywhere. ‘Jien ha nitkellem bil-Malti ghax jien Malti’ – jaqq. Il-Bambin (it-tifel tal-Madonna tal-Grazzja, tal-Gilju, ta’ Stella Maris u l-ohrajn) jilliberana minn dil-injoranza tal-babaw.]

Educational differences? I don’t think cultural expression and traditions have anything do with education and I think it’s a form of arrogance to deem anything which you don’t like or understand as coming from poorly educated people.

Although I fully agree with your statements about university education, you also said, and I quote; ‘…means also being forced outside your environment to learn new ways of doing things’. Don’t you think it’s time for you to buy a road map of the Maltese islands or a GPS, find your way to Zabbar, and actually investigate and try to understand why these people decided to express themselves in such a way?

[Daphne – The assumption that 1. I don’t know Maltese and 2. I know nothing about Malta outside Sliema is very amusing. The reason they express themselves that way is simple: they know no better, beginning from the manner in which they have turned the mother of Christ into a pagan goddess in her own right, one who demands worship and sacrifice.]

Speech therapists are there for when speech, not words, fails you.

There’s a difference.

Ghogobni kif assuma li hafna minna ghandhom pool. Minn meta qed nikteb fuq dan il-forum qed jahsbuni benestant. Se nohrog linja ta’ T shirts “I’m with Deffni”

You and Jean did. That’s an audience of two. More than enough.

Why can’t you just let others be!

[Daphne – Somebody from the ‘north’? What north, for heaven’s sake? Denmark? And anybody Maltese singing in English is even more embarrassing than this – with very rare exceptions.]