No, but they were always referred to as Eyties. Golly, just think how politcally incorrect that comic would be today.

http://www.comicsmagazines.com/victor1964.htm

Your comment overloaded my logic pathways. I needed a double shot of Balvenie single malt to avoid a meltdown.

Does anyone study history anymore?

Peace is not a natural state – it is antagonistic to both entropy and nature. I am aware that the majority of humans are peaceful. I am also aware that those same humans will transform to Mr Hyde as soon as a charismatic “leader” pops up and promises heaven on earth. The human id is just below that nanoscopic veneer of civilisation we so like to flaunt.

Peace is only guaranteed when it is backed by the perception of, or actual military force. It has not changed for 10,000 years and I do not see it changing anytime soon.

If Malta wants to be a peacemaker, it is going to need a lot more than village politicians with no influential allies. For God’s sake, our politicians go ballistic when divorce/pyrotechnic legislation is mentioned and catatonic in front of thousands dying 300km off our shores.

Or rather, the public face of them; they were damaged anyway.

Fsadni (why “Ranier”?) is deluded. Malta has exactly zero clout with any country on the Mediterranean rim, including Arab countries. The one and only exception is Libya, and only because Maltese businessmen and government officials are up to their sleazy necks in business deals, and in hock to the Gaddafi regime.

For all other Arab countries, we don’t even appear on their radar screen. Fsadni’s seems to belong to that optimistic-cum-post-colonialst school of thought which comes through in some of our policy-makers’ texts.

My generation, which came out into the world when everything went to ratshit – mass unemployment, financial crises, environmental disasters, jihad, the works – rightly considers Fsadni-type suggestions as delusions of grandeur.

And they said they came to say “thank you”, too. I can’t, for the life me, understand why they didn’t blow Lawrence Gonzi’s cover once they were out of Castille. Wasn’t Liam Fox told that too few Maltese would get a comment along the lines of “we want to prevent immigration in the first place”?

[Daphne – Diplomatic relations….]

Voting for the neutrality clause was the price paid for enshrining the princple of majority rule, a condition made by that “one man”.

Had that not been done, today we would be living in a political enviroment similar to that in Tripoli.

KMB’s recent declarations further demonstrate how he and that “one man” are on the same page as Gaddafi.

Obviously I will have to disagree with Baxxter.

I think Ranier is trying to explain just what could be Malta’s role in an ever-changing scenario. In such a situation Malta would no longer be seen as the country sitting on its hands but could take the role of a post-Gaddaffi peacemaker.

Just like Norway punches much above its weight when it comes to peacemongering around the world, Ranier quite rightly perceives a similar role for Malta in the Mediterranean.

However, unfortunately, our government has neither the balls, stomach or frankly brainpower to take such an initiative.

That’s why I don’t think Ranier’s suggestion is anything but more of the same.

Chris, Ranier AGREES with the PM. What way forward are you talking about?