Comments on: Tension mounts

By: Sharone mhux Sharon

Sharone mhux Sharon — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:02:30 +0000

In reply to Angus Black. says it all.

By: H.P. Baxxter

H.P. Baxxter — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:37:19 +0000

In reply to dery. I wouldn't be too sure. Some of the thickest hamalli in Malta are always going on about x'nejka hadu in central and northern Europe.

By: Stefan Vella

Stefan Vella — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:12:13 +0000

In reply to Interested Bystander. 2,250km as the crow flies from Brussels to Moscow

By: dery

dery — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:05:16 +0000

In reply to dery.

I still don’t agree on this point. I felt much more comfortable n a northern European town than I did in Tripoli or Tunis. I am sure many Maltese feel the same – even the lower social classes.

What I find disgusting with some Maltese from the lower social classes is that they go to North Africa and feel superior to the ‘natives’. I have seen disgusting scenes played out in front of me.

[Daphne – I’m sorry not to agree, but there is no way on earth that anybody at a Labour mass meeting (in the crowd, that is) is ever going to feel more comfortable in Stockholm than in Tunis.]

By: La Redoute

La Redoute — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 22:47:57 +0000

In reply to kev. U tghid li m'intiex iffisat.

By: Angus Black

Angus Black — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 22:00:46 +0000

In reply to dery.

“This is like judging all Maltese on the basis of a Labour Party mass meeting”.

Good one, Daph! You really made my day.

By: Angus Black

Angus Black — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 21:54:50 +0000

In reply to willywonka.

Explain to me how sanctions will prevent Gaddafi from slaughtering his own people. Sanctions are in place now. Have they prevented Gaddafi from bombing rebel held cities? Nooo.

Sanctions usually hit the victims far worse than the criminal, will take too much time to be implemented and in the meantime thousands will become victims of this maniac.

Think about it, willywonka.

By: dery

dery — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 21:19:00 +0000

In reply to Corinne Vella.

Thanks, Corinne. Good read. I think that when we say a ‘culture for democracy’ we mean that the people without a functioning democracy have to be exposed to the workings of a democracy before they can adopt the system.

And after all considering all of human history, democracy as we know it (the ancient Greek version would have been unrecognisable), is a very recent phenomenon and only practised by a small part of the world’s population.

By: Interested Bystander

Interested Bystander — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 21:10:52 +0000

In reply to kev. How far is Moscow?

By: dery

dery — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:57:37 +0000

You keep making this point of us having had or still having a North African culture. I’ve been to North Africa and to Southern Europe. We are definitely closer to Italians of the south then Libyans! Where do you feel more comfortable: in a Sicilian village or a Tunisian village?

[Daphne – Neither. I hate villages of all stripes. I was brought up in a seaside town and now I live in a tiny hamlet. Villages are the pits. You can live in one only if you have grown up in one. If you think Tunisian villages are in any way different to Sicilian villages, then you haven’t been to the remoter parts of Sicily.

I feel most comfortable in Anglo-Saxon culture, which means a pretty wide spread across northern Europe and north America. I am totally alienated anywhere in Italy, but we’ve already established that. I just can’t relate to it at all, can’t understand the culture, can’t bear the conversational style, and would never be able to live there. I love what they make, though. Except for Sicily, I don’t even find it recognisable. The towns and cities of Libya and Tunisia, on the other hand, are entirely recognisable to people from Malta, and so are the people.

The mistake you make is to define Maltese people as those you know of the 8% of the population who are ‘Europeanised’. The rest are very much North African, even in the way they speak. The dialect round where I live, for instance, might as well be Arabic. The only reason there isn’t more interraction and marriage is because of religion. It is screamingly obvious that the differences between Maltese and Scandinavians are vaster than the differences between Maltese and North Africans, and I’m not speaking about physical appearance.

You have to compare like with like in terms of socio-educational background. There is absolutely no difference between me and somebody from the same kind of family in Tripoli. I know this through direct experience. The trouble is that you judge North Africa on the basis of the men you see shouting on television and the women in headscarves. This is like judging all Maltese on the basis of a Labour Party mass meeting.]