Liberal Owen wants judges to go to mass

Published: September 16, 2011 at 4:24pm

Progressive liberal Labour MP Owen Bonnici has lamented the fact that judges and magistrates did not turn up to high mass at St John’s Cathedral to mark Victory Day.

Perhaps the mass at the same venue to mark the opening of the ‘forensic year’, at which they were harangued by a monsignor and threatened with hell if they sat in the divorce courts, brought them finally to their senses on the mixing of church and state and their sanctioning of this miscegenation by their presence and participation.

Or perhaps they just went to the beach.

High mass – or any other sort of religious ceremony – is not an appropriate way for the state and its agents and officials to mark Victory Day.

Though the 16th-century siege of Malta is so often presented in terms of Christians versus Muslims, it was actually a battle for territory, and for very secular reasons.

But that’s by the by. We are no longer living in the 16th century and should not be concelebrating high masses to thank the Lord for the fact that we didn’t become part of the Ottoman Empire four and a half centuries ago.

As somebody who claims to be a liberal, Owen Bonnici should know that if somebody wants to organise a mass in celebration, then all well and good. But it should be a private matter as to whether judges and magistrates attend or not.

This is not the same thing as a wreath-laying ceremony at a monument.

Ultimately, in any case, I find the whole idea of celebrating Victory Day extremely distasteful in the contemporary world. What is it, if not a way of saying ‘thank God we’re not Muslim’?

It’s completely ridiculous, but entirely in keeping with the way we think and behave, that we continue to mark the day in 1565 that the Ottoman forces said ‘screw this’ and left, while we never bothered to mark VE Day and our salvation from the Axis powers. Maybe we wouldn’t have minded being under the fascist boot as much as we would have minded being – deep breath here – Muslim.

Also typically Maltese is the fact that, while we don’t mark VE Day, the day we got our food delivered – 15 August – is a national holiday. But oh, that’s because it’s St Mary’s Day.




78 Comments Comment

  1. Joe Micallef says:

    I really would like to understand how this Owen reconciles his visceral admiration for KMB and the act of going to mass. Maybe he goes to pray for him?

  2. Jozef says:

    Just a note, the 8th September is also the day Italy surrendered, consigning her navy, (or what was left) to Malta. This effectively marked the end of Axis plans for invasion.

    [Daphne – What a neat confluence of dates. I wonder who came up with that. Unlike the Ottoman siege, the reality is a great deal more complicated:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/siege_malta_01.shtml ]

    • John Schembri says:

      http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Y896DTJD8HkJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_between_Italy_and_Allied_armed_forces+surrender+of+Italy&cd=1&hl=mt&ct=clnk&gl=mt

      “When an Allied naval force headed for the big naval base of Taranto, they watched a flotilla of Italian ships sailing out of Taranto harbour sailing towards surrender at Malta.[2]”

      “The Armistice with Italy was an armistice signed on September 3 and publicly declared on September 8, 1943”
      Malta was at war when Italy entered the war , and subsequently celebrated Victory when it knew about the armistice with Italy. The war dragged for another year in Europe and the Pacific.

      The defeated Italian fleet laid anchor at Saint Paul’s bay.Then it set sail to Alexandria on the 15th September 1943.

      [Daphne – Sigh. The armistice was signed on the 3rd and announced to the credulous peasants on the 8th.]

      • John Schembri says:

        Sigh , the first world war ended exactly at eleven minutes past eleven of the eleventh day of the eleventh month 1918. Was that for the British plebeians?

        [Daphne – No, John, that’s not what I meant. Italy’s surrender was signed on 3 September not 8 September. It was ANNOUNCED on 8 September. But it is not the day on which a surrender is announced that is the key date, but the day on which it happens. If a child is born on 3 September, the fact that his parents announce his birth on the 8th does not make the 8th his birthday. Because it was announced on the 8th, the ‘credulous peasants’ immediately attributed it to divine mercy, and the wrong date has gone down in their minds. Also, quite clearly those same credulous peasants, and apparently even their descendants today, can’t distinguish between the surrender of Italy and the liberation of Italy. Italy might have surrendered, but it remained occupied by the Germans. Rome, for example, was not liberated until May 1944 – eight months after Italy surrendered. Clearly, there wasn’t much of a newspaper-reading public at the time in Malta, because if there were, they might have heeded Roosevelt’s words that the surrender of Italy did not mean the end of the war in the Mediterranean, so please don’t celebrate.]

  3. Antoine Vassallo says:

    On 8th September we actually commemorate both sieges (1565 and WWII): “tal-Vittorji”.

    [Daphne – 8th September is the anniversary of 8 September 1565. It has nothing whatsoever to do with VE Day.]

  4. Francis Saliba MD says:

    I thought that the 8th September celebration referred also to the lifting of the siege of Malta during the second world war when no Muslims were involved.

    [Daphne – That’s strange. I’ve never known Otto Settembre as anything other than the commemoration of the end of the Ottoman siege in 1565.]

    • yor/malta says:

      It was victory day for Malta with the Italians officially no longer bridesmaid to the third Reich . Daphny bear in mind that we have more than one patron saint per village and more than one national day , so an extra V.E. day does not sit badly within our shores .

    • Antoine Vella says:

      8th September 1943 was not the day the war ended – it dragged on for another two years. It was the day that Italy surrendered (and immediately switched sides) and, in what I can only describe as an acute burst of superstition, the Maltese attributed the event to the fact that it was the feast of the Madonna.

      We do not celebrate the end of WWII, we celebrate the day when Malta was no longer bothered by the war.

      [Daphne – Thank you, Antoine. I was furious there. It never ceases to amaze me just how many people in Malta have been force-fed myths. They don’t even seem to realise that no, Malta did not cease to be bothered by the war in 1943, because hundreds of Maltese men – possibly thousands – were right there in the thick of it, in the army and the navy, and some of them stayed in POW camps right up until the end of the war in 1945.]

  5. Jozef says:

    When a ‘rock opera’ includes the lyrics “mietna ghall-barrani” implying an allergy to anything outside these shores, I’m not surprised at the reluctance to remember VE day. How dare the allies be American as well?

    Joseph likes his poppy however.

  6. Delacroixet says:

    On 8th September, 1943 General Eisenhower publicly announced Italy had signed an armistice with the Allies. It was signed on September 3rd, but Allied radios made it public on the 8th.

    Some units of the Italian fleet from Taranto were ordered to steam for Malta. Many in the northern Italian ports were sunk by German bombers.

    [Daphne – The siege of Malta ended in 1942, almost a year before 8 September 1943. But that is not convenient fact, because it doesn’t fit in with our fantasies.]

    • Delacroixet says:

      The plan was to use Malta and other bases to intercept Axis convoys before the Second Alamein, in late 1942. So the islands had to be secured and ‘free to act’ before October/November of that year.

      After Operation Pedestal, (mid-August 1942), the British fleet had to organise another fast-convoy to resupply Malta; I assume the lack of important feast days might have led to that second convoy being forgotten.

      Equally fantastic is the belief that Rule Britannia was played while the Ohio was towed into harbour. I never could find mention of it in anything official or in diaries. It’s probably the result of the tune being dubbed over newsreels. Here ends the raving on a pet subject.

      Our national psyche can only be described as ‘convoluted.’

  7. David says:

    If by VE day you mean Victory in Europe day, VE day is not the 15 August. In any case the latter is also a public holiday. Besides the 8 of September is also a feast of Our Lady.

    [Daphne – David, every time you pop in here with your misguided pedantry, you make me groan. I know exactly when VE Day is: 7 or 8 May (1945), depending on whether you’re in the Commonwealth or not. That is exactly my point: we should not be celebrating 8 September when we let the far more important 7 May pass by unnoted. I think it reflects the general feeling that we were dragged into somebody else’s war, whereas the Ottoman Siege was ‘our battle’. History is fraught with politics and myth-making.]

    Victory day is, in my view, more important than Sette Giugno. Besides these two days are not politically controversial. Victory day is a victory for the Christian and the European culture our State upholds. Voltaire said “Nothing is more well known than the siege of Malta”.

    [Daphne – Rubbish. It’s a damn shame we don’t have a date to mark the process by which the principled and religious Maltese converted from Islam to Christianity, presumably because it paid them to do so. Or are you one of those people who still fondly believe that we speak a derivative of Phoenician? Set aside your ‘Gateway to our Nation’s History’ and read a bit more widely – real historians, that is.]

    Now if progressive means not going to a Mass held to celebrate a national day, then logically all those who went to the Mass – including I assume ministers, MP’s and foreign ambassadors – are conservatives. By the same logic no Labour party member should attend such a Mass.

    [Daphne – David, this is the liberal position: the state does not organise the mass or turn that mass into a state-sponsored commemoration. When the mass is said or sung, all those who want to do so turn up, but not in their official capacity, unless they are doing so purely to pay formal respect to the organisers of the mass.]

    I forgot to mention that the 8 September also recalls the day when Italy surrendered in World War II.

    Many European states do not celebrate VE as a public holiday.

    [Daphne – That’s it, they don’t. But they don’t have public holidays or state ceremonies to mark, say, the Battle of Waterloo either.]
    In the past judges sometimes did not attend such Masses as they had a dispute with the goverment of the day.

    • Kenneth Cassar says:

      David, progressive does not mean not going to mass. It means not whining like a toddler about judges and magistrates (or whoever) not going to mass.

      But hey…”liberal” and “progressive” are “cool” labels to use, even though apparently, people like Owen (of all people in the PL) clearly have no idea what they really mean.

    • David says:

      Maybe you can tell us who are the real historians and who are the false ones.

      [Daphne – Real historians are academics. False ones write political myths (that is political as distinct from party politics) and books like Gateway to Our Nation’s History.]

      Now I realise you are a real historian and all those who studied, taught and wrote books on history are false ones. Presumably this is an example of a false historian http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110908/opinion/The-significance-of-the-Great-Siege-of-1565.383789

      [Daphne – I trust you are joking. In fact, that is exactly what I mean. Lino Bugeja is a nice man by all accounts but he is certainly not a historian. Nor are any of the people he mentions: they are novelists.]

      • David says:

        “one of the turning points of early modern history, when a heroic defence prevented the rampant Ottoman forces from gaining a strategic foothold in the central Mediterranean” http://www.historytoday.com/tony-rothman/great-siege-malta.

        Real or false history?

        [Daphne – David, please don’t be tedious and childish. This is a discussion, not a competition. The link is to neither real or false history, as you describe it, but to an opinion based on selected facts. That opinion is tendentious and ignores the fact that the siege of Malta did nothing to prevent the Ottoman forces from gaining that ‘strategic foothold in the central Mediterranean’. They had that strategic foothold already when they attacked Malta – a stone’s throw away in Tripoli – and shortly after the debacle at Malta they took our hop, skip and a jump away neighbour, Tunis. Also, they could have gone for practically any part of poorly defended Sicily and southern Italy (they had taken Otranto already in 1480) but didn’t bother. When you cut through the myths and the legends and the drama, what you’ll find is a whole lot more prosaic and wholly unglamorous: the attack was commercially motivated. It was not an attack by Muslims on Christians, but by one piratical enterprise on the headquarters of its main piratical rival.]

      • David says:

        Is Ernle Bradford a real or a false historian?

        [Daphne – Was. He’s dead. He was neither a real historian – in the sense that he was not an academic, but a retired naval officer who enjoyed researching and writing about strictly naval and related matters – and he certainly was not a false one, in the sense that he did not write to further political myths. You could best describe him as a writer of popular history.]

      • H.P. Baxxter says:

        Nah. Ernle Bradford? The Mediterranean as seen by British slightly bohemian toffs*. Now Braudel….

        *Which is why he’s loved in Malta. Why, he’s on the Systems of Knowledge reading list.

      • David says:

        The armistice was signed in Malta. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5382.htm

        [Daphne – Yes, David, I’ve known that all my life, not because I ever had any special interest in military matters or World War II, but because my grandfather’s brother (the one I mentioned earlier as being involved in the Salerno landings) was Dwight Eisenhower’s aide at the time. I get the feeling you’re learning all of this now and are trawling the internet to find points to score off me (a risky business, with this particular subject), but I’m glad that I’ve provoked you into further research. It would help, though, if you approached things in the spirit of enquiry rather than petulant challenge.]

      • David says:

        I already knew that the armistice was signed in Malta. I researched this to confirm that it is a fact and not a myth.

    • David says:

      Now for some real reasearch on the origin of the Maltese language and its resemblance with the Lebanese language:

      http://malta.lebaneseclub.org/index.htm

      http://phoenicia.org/maltese.html

      According to the Acts of the Apostles say, the Maltese were described as “barbaroi”, meaning they spoke neither Latin nor Greek.

      [Daphne – David, you are such an amateur. 1. Greek, Latin and Phoenician were not the only three languages in the Mediterranean 2,000 years ago. 2. Two thousand years ago, the people who lived on Malta might well have spoken a Canaanite language because they were from across the water in Carthage. There is, however, no continuity with that population because Arab scouts arriving from Sicily in early medieval times described the island as devoid of inhabitants. We speak corrupted Arabic precisely because, when the islands were repopulated once more soon after that, it was again from across the water in Tunisia, via Sicily. The most common ‘place of origin’ surname in Malta is Kairouan-a (Caruana) http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/499

      The two websites you mention are anything but ‘proper research’. They are desperate attempts at finding a Phoenician origin for Maltese, by people who think the Phoenicians were glamorous but the Arab court of Palermo was not. All you have to do if you don’t believe me is ring Professor Albert Borg at the University of Malta, who will tell you that Maltese is most closely linked to Tunisian Arabic. And when you have a bit more time, sit down with an Arabic-speaking person (find a Maltese one if you don’t feel at home with North Africans) and discover for yourself that ‘Maltese’ nouns and verbs, with the exception of those which describe post-13th century developments and inventions, are Arabic. Some examples: the days of the week (dead give-away, that, especially Il-Gemgha), numbers, the name of every part of your body, all traditional food items, herbs and spices. A boy aged five years and four months is a ‘tifel ta’ hames snin u erba’ xur/xahar’ in both languages. In both, you ohrog barra and tidhol gewwa. In both, you itla, inzel and imxi.

      Lebanese is not a language. The language spoken in Lebanon is Arabic. Hence the ‘thrilling’ similarities. The Phoenicians wouldn’t have recognised a word of it. ]

  8. Kenneth Cassar says:

    Just what we need – more fundamentalist retards: http://creation.com/battle-for-the-bible-ministry-tour-in-malta-with-philip-bell

    • yor/malta says:

      People like P . Bell are terrified of dying so they go to great lengths to justify a glorified afterlife. There may or not be any shiny pearly gates at road’s end, but we should still strive to live in a responsible and decent way if only to be human.

      If there are rewards as well, all the better and that is that .

    • David says:

      A statement showing lack of tolerance. That is surely very progressive and modern!

      • Kenneth Cassar says:

        Where’s the “lack of tolerance” in anything I wrote. Apparently it is you who shows lack of tolerance, in expecting me not to give my honest opinion.

        But then, I assume you’re a pseudo-liberal too.

      • Kenneth Cassar says:

        By the way, my retard comment was descriptive, not disparaging. Anyone who still believes that dinosaurs lived contemporaneously with homo sapiens sapiens is a retard.

        What’s worse, they are lobbying to teach this nonsense (among loads of other unscientific nonsense) as SCIENCE!

        I wonder…what’s your opinion on creationism, David? Or would you be “intolerant” if you give your opinion?

      • il-Ginger says:

        To a Pleb: Progressive and Modern means tolerance of everything. Tolerance to bribery, political violence, corruption, of people who think the sky is a carpet painted by God, of idiots in parliament, idiots in the public eye and the list goes on and on, but none of that is progressiveness.

    • il-Ginger says:

      “Britain, once the bastion of Christianity”

      ROFL you have got to be kidding me; also I didn’t know they had Christian Bukkake parties in Qormi.

  9. Pat says:

    The 8th September was the day when it was first announced that Italy would surrender. As far as Malta was concerned the war was effectively over in the sense that, at least as far as the civilian population was concerned, the battle then moved away from the island itself. I’ve always considered it a happy coincidence that this date coincided with the end of the 1565 siege.

    [Daphne – Comments like this enrage me. ‘The war was over because the battle moved away from the island. 1. The war was far from over but had another almost three years to play out. 2. Malta was not in any way out of the game because it was a British colony and, presumably, on the side of what was right. 3. If the war was still on, Malta was in it. 4. Let’s stop thinking like peasants at the mercy of feudal overlords. 5. Malta was not at war with ‘Italy’ and there is no way on earth that Malta can be said to have been victorious over Italy which is what ‘Victory Day’ suggests. Otto Settembre has never been anything other than the commemoration of 8 September 1565, and any attempt to make it anything other than that is political myth-making. Malta victorious over Italy, indeed…unbelievable.]

    When I was little I loved the idea of it being Victory Day. Now that I’m older I feel a day of remembrance would be more appropriate. Today’s youngsters could sure do with reflecting on the events of those turbulent times.

    • Pat says:

      I was very careful not to say “the war was over.” However, the day Italy surrendered effectively marked the end of the siege of Malta.

      I see nothing wrong with commemorating that fact.

      If we take your argument to its logical conclusion we wouldn’t need to bother with VE Day … after all the war still had months to run in the Pacific.

      [Daphne – Pat, if we take your argument to its logical conclusion, the whole of Europe would be littered with similar celebrations, but it isn’t, because people have more sense than that. That’s why there one single VE day and not different days for different countries.]

  10. David says:

    In order to aid your lack of knowledge on the Otto Settembre and WWII you can read this http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/8/newsid_3612000/3612037.stm.

    This is the speech by the rector of the University of Malta at the Victory Day commemoration http://www.um.edu.mt/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/133229/jumilvittorja2011mt.pdf

    [Daphne – I have no lack of knowledge of World War II, David. I just have a different perspective from that of the average Maltese ‘mietna ghall-barrani’ and ‘it had nothing to do with us after Italy surrendered’, largely because all four of my grandfather’s brothers were army officers who saw active service in that war – one of them ended up in a German POW camp while another was involved in the Salerno landings – and their sister and her children were taken prisoner by the Japanese and marched about, along with other women and children whose husbands were in Japanese POW camps (like hers) until they were released and evacuated. So no, the war did not end for Malta in 1942 or even 1943, not unless you had your head in the sand.]

    • David says:

      You can have your head in the sand or in the clouds or eslewhere.

      Malta was in a state of war when Italy declared war in June 1940. When Italy surrendered Malta was then no longer under siege. The last air raid on Malta was on the 20 July 1943. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Malta_(World_War_II)

      The text of the armistice can be read here
      http://seconda_guerra_mondiale.historiaweb.net/doc/testo-lungo-corto-armistizio-cassibile.html

      Marshal Badoglio issued this declaration on the armistice:

      “The Italian government, recognising the impossibility of continuing the unequal struggle against an overwhelming enemy force, in order to avoid further and graver disasters for the Nation, sought an armistice from general Eisenhower, commander-in-chief of the Anglo-American Allied forces. The request was granted. Consequently, all acts of hostility against the Anglo-American force by Italian forces must cease everywhere. But they may react to eventual attacks from any other source.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badoglio_Proclamation

      [Daphne – David, Malta was a British colony. It was not a republic. When Britain went to war, Malta went with it. And not just in World War II, either. In World War II, Malta was directly and geographically involved in battles. That’s the difference. But in all other wars in which Britain was involved, Maltese soldiers fought. And please do not quote Wikipedia at me. The distinction between Malta and Britain which you project into the past is an anachronism. With the exception of the professional classes, stalwarts of the nascent Nationalist movement, nobody else felt that way. Despite the myths that have developed since, the reality is that during the war itself, everybody mucked in and pulled the same rope – against the Axis powers.]

      • David says:

        How nice to argue that the educated professional classes were in the wrong and the “ignorant” classes were right.

        [Daphne – The professional classes made up only a tiny percentage of the ‘educated’ at the time, David. Malta was very different then. You didn’t have all these aspiring Super One lawyers. Merchants, civil servants (a respectable position, at the time) and army officers outnumbered doctors, lawyers and architects by far. Also, it is only the working-classes, and mainly those who vote Labour, who make the equation ‘tabib/avukat/perit = importanti u lahaq.’]

        Malta was certainly a colony but it entered the second world war when Italy did.

        [Daphne – Repeat after me, David. All British colonies and dominions ‘entered the war’ with Britain in 1939. Whether they were geographically involved in conflict or not is another matter. You are confusing ‘war’ with ‘geographical involvement in conflict’. The two are completely different. Malta was not free to enter or leave any war because Malta was not a state, and when it finally became a state it decided it would enter no war at all and be neutral.]

        To my knowledge Malta had its separate own army (or armies) as it had its own police force and its own legal system even when it was a British colony.

        [Daphne – That was the sound of my head hitting the desk. Only a state can have an army, and it has one army not several armies. You are confusing ‘army’ with ‘regiment’. Malta could not have had an army because it was not a state. You are thinking of the Maltese regiments in the British Army, like the KOMR (King’s Own Malta Regiment of Militia) and the RMA (Royal Malta Artillery). By the same token, the Royal Gurkha Rifles were not the Gurkha army but a regiment in the British army. ]

      • Antoine Vella says:

        David, by your reasoning, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – or the US for that matter – never went to war because they were never bombed, besieged or invaded.

      • H.P. Baxxter says:

        I’m looking at my anorak on the coathanger here. Both Australia and, to a much lesser extent, the US mainland were bombed during World War II.

        [Daphne – Pearl Harbour, and we never stopped hearing about that.]

        Now, re. David’s last paragraph: In a sense, he’s not entirely wrong. Maltese regiments, or regiments in any other British dependency (or colony at the time) were not on the British Army’s order of battle, so they could not be deployed outside the territory of that colony or dependency, unless its government gave its assent.

        So, for instance, the British government couldn’t decide to send a regiment from the RMA to fight in the Italian campaign, unless the Maltese government (OK, for you purists: the government of Malta) gave the green light. Those Maltese who fought in both world wars on the continent did so as soldiers in the British Army, or in Dwardu Ellul’s case, in the French army. This was more common than you would think.

        [Daphne – Makes no difference, H. P. There was still no Maltese army, just Maltese regiments in the British army. They served the King/Queen – it was even in the name – not the council of government. By the time the Second World War broke out, the government here might have been so constituted and inclined to use its right of veto, but that was certainly not the case earlier. Many Maltese officers and men – from the Maltese regiments, not the regular British army – fought in various wars and battles, including Gallipoli and the Sudan Campaign.]

        Which brings me to today’s sorry spectacle of Frazier & OC. The Maltese were never short of martial spirit. What are we to conclude then? That it was independence which totally fucked up this nation’s psyche.

      • John Schembri says:

        Daphne, let’s put it this way – the people of Benghazi celebrated victory on 18th March 2011.

        Sabha up to now is still in the hands of Gaddafi loyalists. The people of Sabha couldn’t celebrate victory when Benghazi fell under the control of TNC, because they were still under Gaddafi rule.

        The Benghazi people feel that the war is over for them even though there are patches in Libya under the control of the loyalists.

        Likewise, Malta’s Victory Day came when the danger of an attack was definitely eliminated with the surrender of Italy. That’s why the church bells were allowed to be rung for the first time as an expression of joy.

        [Daphne – You miss the point, John. The key word here is ‘victory’. Malta was not victorious over Italy and did not overcome the Italian aggressor. If people of this mindset – ‘we needn’t bother about the war anymore’ – are to mark any day at all, it would be 20 July, the date of the last air raid, as apparently this is the main concern.]

        When Britain entered war against Germany because of the latter’s invasion of Poland, in Malta there were only signs of uncertainty, but there was no war in Malta, because war was far away from its shores.

        [Daphne – Only signs of uncertainty among whom, John, and who are you quoting and referencing?]

        At present Britain is at war with the Taliban, but the British lead a normal life because the war in Afghanistan against the Taliban is away from the British shores.

        [Daphne – No, they lead a normal life because the nature of war has changed, and also because there is no risk of their sons, husbands, fathers being called up to fight, possibly never to return. And – crucially – because it’s a war that does not disrupt trade.]

        Victories are celebrated by people who suffer the pains of war, and when their enemy is eliminated.

        [Daphne – No, John, victory is celebrated by the victorious. And everybody involved suffers, not just the victorious.]

        The last time I saw this kind of (spontaneous) victory celebration was in the US when Bin Laden was killed. Why didn’t the British celebrate like the Americans did on that day?

        [Daphne – Because their temperament is completely different and laconic, and more to the point, because the US did it, not the British.]

        The people make their victory days when their war is over, our victories were both on the 8th September.

        [Daphne – Because we take liberties with the facts and our reactions are hysterical.]

      • H.P. Baxxter says:

        I’d like to add a few words about those rare men and women of calibre in the AFM, since I’ve had the pleasure of knowing some of them.

        They’re as frustrated as we are at having joined the armed forces knowing they’d never do any real soldiering.

        Then there’s another problem: rank progression is extremely slow in the AFM. You get soldiers in their mid-30s, with 12 years of service under their belt, who are still lance-bombardiers. In the British Army they’d be getting close to senior NCO rank.

        It saps morale in any organisation.

        Every time a foreign deployment or training opportunity comes up, the AFM always has more applications than slots. It says something about the troops’ motivation. AFM soldiers generally perform brilliantly on training courses. OK, we’re not talking Ranger School, but still they’re a credit to their service.

        Joining the British Army as an officer is harder than you would imagine.

        There is a ten-year UK residency requirement for some units. To join up at your peak – say 22 – you’d have to move to the UK when you’re 12. If you join up as a squaddie the residency gets shorter. In short, it can be done, but you need to make up your mind VERY early on.

        The longer time goes by, the weaker our links to the UK grow. One day, they’ll fade away completely.

        We’re already hanging on to the language by a thread.

        There’s no EU freedom of movement in the armed forces. And some of us don’t dream of a job in SmartCity.

        The UK was Malta’s gateway to the world for as long as Malta thought of itself as a country apart.

        A country as tiny as ours needs to rethink the concept of independence. That’s something for the PM to chew over when looking down at the seething mass of humanity fuq il-Fosos on Tuesday.

      • john says:

        ‘ . . the professional classes, stalwarts of the nascent Nationalist movement ‘

        No doubt about the lawyers and priests. I wouldn’t be so sure about the doctors and architects though. Most of the ones I can think of were ‘on the other side’.

        [Daphne – Yes, me too. Strange how the reactionaries go straight for law. Back then it was the nationalists (small and big N), now it’s Labour.]

      • John Schembri says:

        “.. it would be 20 July, the date of the last air raid” , 20 July would have been Victory day with the people in the streets shouting with joy if they knew that that was the last air raid.

        And yes, people’s main concern wasn’t to keep away the Ottomans from Europe, or to help the British Empire in its war effort. Our main concern, like all other nations, was always and will always be our survival. When the threat to survival is eliminated, people celebrate their victories.

        [Daphne – You know, John, I get the feeling sometimes that Malta left to its own devices would have behaved like the Vichy regime in France. Presumably, they too acted for their survival.]

  11. Jozef says:

    The 8th September capitulation of Italy and the delivery of the navy from Taranto was given major importance by Patton who had just landed in Sicily in July.

    Having a knack for symbolic victories, he was the first to make the link between 1943 and 1565. His vanity made him push to Palermo, a minor strategic move in military terms, simply to outdo Montgomery.

    The Americans were concerned Italy itself would be handed to Britain.

    I personally see it as closure to the language question.

  12. Jozef says:

    Guess who calls Churchill a drunk and quotes Patton’s antisemitism?

  13. J Abela says:

    While agreeing with you that judges and magistrates shouldn’t attend mass when representing the judicatory, I have to disagree with the rest of your argument. Victory Day is a very crucial day for the Maltese cultural identity.

    Remember that it was the Knights of Malta who reinforced the Maltese European identity.

    [Daphne – It wasn’t. To the Order of St John, the Maltese were Africans who spoke Arabic, apart from the nice ladies and gentlemen in their city-palaces, who were thought of as semi-Sicilians. Malta became officially part of Europe by act of parliament in 1801, and then only because the British didn’t want to pay their people ‘hardship posting’ wages.]

    Hence, if it wasn’t for Victory Day, the Maltese would probably be less European or not European at all. The Maltese wouldn’t have had Valletta either and many other things.

    [Daphne – If, if, if. If and but. If we weren’t European we wouldn’t have cared, Mr Abela. Doesn’t that occur to you? People in Libya and Tunisia don’t go about bemoaning the fact that they are not European. As has been more than amply demonstrated, they’re pretty proud of their identity. The fact that it’s so important to the Maltese to prove that we are European and to underscore the fact means that even we have doubts about our identity. There’s nothing wrong with being on the cusp. I think it makes us more interesting, or it would if we weren’t so fixatedly obsessive about it.]

    However, it’s true, we should give VE Day and Armistice Day their due importance.

    • J Abela says:

      Part of Kazakhstan is officially part of Europe. Does that make it European?

      [Daphne – It does, yes. Define European, given how little your average Maltese person has in common with your average Swede.]

      I’m talking about cultural identity not territory.

      [Daphne – Same difference. Culturally and in every other way, the Maltese have far more in common with the people of Israel than they do with the people of Norway. Remove the soldiers and walking round Tel Aviv is like walking round Hamrun. You look around you in a coffee shop and for a moment there you wonder why they’re speaking a ‘foreign language’.]

      And anyway who gives a damn about what Westminster decided in 1801 if the Maltese had already identified themselves as European?

      [Daphne – Thanks to that Act of Parliament, ultimately, we are in the European Union today. It was not up to us to decide whether we are European or not, given our geographical location. The no-doubts members of the Europe club could have blackballed us as being ‘not quite’. Ask Israel.]

      Who were the Maltese who identified themselves as European in the 18th century, Mr Abela? Around 98% of the population was completely illiterate and certainly wouldn’t have thought in terms of European versus African. You’re confusing religion with geography. They would have thought in terms of Christian/Muslim and not European/African.]

      In normal circumstance I would ask you to admit but I know you won’t. Victory Day is a crucial turning point in the history of the Maltese Islands and has a meaning beyond just a battle victory. Therefore, it should be given its due importance. Period.

      [Daphne – Ask me to admit what, Mr Abela? The only thing I will admit here is that I am one of those difficult people who prefer my history in its proper perspective, without the decoration of myths and propaganda. September 8, 1565 was not a crucial turning point of anything. It was glorified for reasons of political propaganda at the time and since, just like Sette Giugno. In effect, it had no real meaning – unlike the day Malta gained independence from Britain or became a republic. The way ‘the great siege’ is taught to Maltese children (and adults, apparently) is completely absurd: a bunch of ships comes from Turkey and attacks ‘us’. There is no context at all. The reality is that those Ottoman forces were not out to attack ‘Christians’ (like they gave a damn about a bunch of starving peasants on a bit of rock), but the corsairing Knights of St John who had been pillaging and looting Ottoman merchant ships for years.]

      However, I reiterate that VE day and Armistice should be given more importance.

      There’s nothing wrong with being on the cusp? So the North Africans would reject us, the Europeans would do the same and yes that would make us ‘more interesting’ ….like freaks that are marginalized.

      [Daphne – You said it, Mr Abela, not me. And that is in fact the case. To Europeans we are not really European and to North Africans we are North Africans who think we’re special and like to keep ourselves apart because at some point we turned Christian. Yes, it certainly does make us more interesting, and the more clever of those among us really play that up. I know somebody who was described in an interview in Vogue as being ‘from that exotic island in the cusp between Tunis and Tripoli’. Who wants to have to say they’re from Hamburg, for God’s sake.]

      And in almost all cases human nature (which marginalizes the strange and the awkward) trumps idealistic arguments so please spare me the latter on this one.

      [Daphne – Why strange and awkward rather than rare and unusual, Mr Abela? You have one hell of a chip. Better to be one of 450,000 Maltese than one of several billion Chinese.]

      • H.P. Baxxter says:

        Alex C was born and raised in Hamburg, so please show some respect for this city which inspired such masterpieces as Doktorspiele and Du hast den schönsten Arsch der welt.

      • David says:

        I have never been to Sweden or Norway or Israel. However I I have visited Turkey which is a secular but Islamic society.

        I feel more at home in Germany or Ireland than in Turkey. Therefore I think I would feel more at home in Sweden than in Libya or Israel.

        There are many cultural differences between our Western society and North African or Middle Eastern societies (as in religion, dress and food).

        [Daphne – I said Tel Aviv, not ‘Israel’. It’s Malta away from home, believe me. As for your feeling at home in Germany and Ireland, that’s impossible because they couldn’t be less like your home. What you misinterpret as ‘feeling at home’ is the comfort and security of familiarity through a lifetime of positive socio-cultural messages which breed trust. You would not have felt at home in Germany 70 years ago. You do not feel at home in Turkey because of a lifetime of negative messages that have bred fear and mistrust. To the Germans and the Irish, a Maltese person might as well be a Turk – same difference. You feel at home in their countries but they do not feel at home in yours.]

      • La Redoute says:

        A pedantic observation: there are 56 ethnic groups in China (26 in Yunnan alone). The Han are the largest group.

  14. J. Parnis says:

    Very strange Daphne, all this coming from you, such an EU fervent person.

    [Daphne – I don’t mix my facts with myths and legends, Mr Parnis, and I am especially allergic to right-wing Islamophobic fantasies and theories.]

    Otto Settembre, should not only be our one and only National day, but the most important day in Western Europe. It’s not about religion, far from it, it sums up to the saving of il vecchio continente, preserving the culture and THE civilisation that gave practically everything to the world. Had Melita fallen to the powerful Ottoman Empire during the Great Siege, the aftermath would have been a catastrophe for Europe and its’ people. It’s a real pity that the young generations are not appreciating enough this pivotal moment for the true Europeans .
    The paradox however is, that while we commemorate the braveness of our forefathers in confronting the armed invaders, we today remain passive while other invaders land on our shores….if not go out 100miles to get them here quicker. What a way to emulate the 600 knights and the hundreds of local ‘peasants’.

    [Daphne – Read my reply to David, where I pointed out that the Ottoman Empire had the whole of Tripolitania and was soon to get hold of the whole of Tunisia and with central Mediterranean frontage like that, they hardly needed Malta. Also, Malta was not considered European at the time, certainly not in the way we think of European today. The natives of Malta were considered African, not least because they spoke an Arabic dialect. Geographically, Malta is further south than Tunis, remember. That Malta is part of Europe was so much in dispute that it had to be asserted by an Act of Parliament as late as 1801, under the British. That Act was repealed in 1872 by one of the periodical Statute Laws Revision Acts, but the clause which declared Malta part of Europe was not repealed. Even this was not enough, because as late as 1876, in the Customs Consolidation Act, it had to be specified once more that Malta is part of Europe.]

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      And you know why, right? Because British army pay for service in Africa and India was higher. So they declared Malta European to save on the extra pay. Thank god for those stingy but astute Victorians.

      [Daphne – Yes, H. P. I know. That’s why the Act of Parliament is dated 1801.]

    • Antoine Vella says:

      J.Parnis, you forgot to tell us that it’s a ‘battaglia di cultura’ and that, of course, all Europe should celebrate the ‘Otto Settembre’ because Malta is the Holy Island and we saved the West, not once but twice.

    • La Redoute says:

      Paper came from China. So did paper bills – the ones you use to pay for things. Most of what came westwards over the Silk Route was in heavy demand in Europe. Much of what went east wasn’t very popular, right down to Britain’s gifts being rejected by the Emperor of China.

      Algebra is not a European invention.

      And Maltese certainly isn’t ‘European’.

  15. Carmelo Micallef says:

    Ferdnand Braudel: ‘ we all search out the ancestors we think we deserve’

  16. Carmelo Micallef says:

    Reference: Labour MP on church attendance and Dessie Marmara’s articles on church attendance are not coincidental but yet another ‘cunning plan’.

  17. GCHARLES says:

    daphne naqbel ma hafna milli ntqal pero nisma lil missieri u lil hija li ghadu haj ghax meta f’ 8 ta settembru 1943 kellu 10 snin. Forsi ftit jafu li fil gwerra il palaz ta quddiem il knisja tan Naxxar kien hemm hafna pilots tal R.A.F. u waqt li il Madonna tal Bambina fegget fil bieb flis stes hin 17.30 fuq ir radio habbar li Italia cediet u bdew jajtu ‘ war is over ‘ war is over, Ghal Malta ma kienx hemm izjed air raids ghalekk nghidu li gwerra spiccat dak inhar.

  18. Jozef says:

    J.Parnis,

    The Viennese can lay claim to the salvation of the old continent much more than we can.

    And please don’t call Suleiman the Magnificent uncivilised, he had the most lavish court, with artists and scholars vying to gain an audience.

    He had an alliance with France, traded with the Venetians, and entertained envoys from all the courts of Europe. His vision for empire extended from the Meditterranean to India.

    He was basically tired of having his shipments of tapestries pilfered by the Knights.

  19. john says:

    Nothing is more well known than David Beckham and Lady Gaga.

    Bugger what Voltaire said about the siege of Malta.

  20. red nose says:

    There is a theory that the 1565 siege ended because the Turks felt it would be better to return home to avoid the October weather. It was, I think, a retreat, not a defeat.

    [Daphne – Yes, of course it was a retreat. But the way it is taught in schools, and the way most Maltese adults speak of it, is as if ‘the Maltese’ – no mention of the Order of St John here – decimated the forces of the Ottoman Empire. It doesn’t for a moment occur to anyone to ask why the Ottoman forces never bothered to return. The fact that they controlled the whole of Tunisia and Tripolitania and couldn’t give a damn about this rock might have had something to do with it.]

    • Ken from the Netherlands. says:

      The real turning point for Christian Europe came when the Ottomans layed siege to Vienna and the ensuing battle on the 18th September 1683.

      In what became known as the battle of Vienna, the march of a relief force through the Weinerwald in the battle of the Roman Holy Empire, the Ottomans were defeated by Christian armies. These Christian armies came from various European countries and were lead by the King of Poland, John III Sobieski.

      The battle was fought and won at the very gates of Vienna, the furthest point north the Muslim forces were ever to advanced into Europe. From this point north the armies with the faith of Islam would gradually be pushed back.

  21. john says:

    The largest contingent of Maltese soldiers that saw active service in North Africa was a battery of one hundred gunners from the Royal Malta Fencible Artillery that served with the 1882 British Expeditionary Force in Egypt. We’re talking active service here – not loading crates of Pepsi.

    Volunteers from the same regiment also participated in the battles of Suakin and Tofrek on the Red Sea coast – both allied to the first Sudan Expeditions of 1884-85. Lt. Alfred Vella (of Daphne fame) won a medal in this campaign.

    [Daphne – Qed tara, it’s a good thing he survived because otherwise I wouldn’t have been born and we wouldn’t all be bickering about the subject on this website. Four of his five sons were officers too; they were the ones I mentioned earlier. That medal is in a drawer somewhere at the Museums Department, if it hasn’t waddled off. My father’s cousin had no children and she left her father’s ( Victor George Vella – http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/41909/supplements/5/page.pdf) and grandfather’s (Alfred Vella) medals and so on to the state.]

    In 1889 the word ‘Fencible’ was dropped from the title of the regiment, which, henceforth, was known as The Royal Malta Artillery.

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      “Lt. Alfred Vella (of Daphne fame) won a medal in this campaign. ”

      Which of course belies all that rubbish about “taht l-Inglizi ma stajtx tilhaq xejn hlief bidwi jew dockyard worker.”

  22. Ken from the Netherlands. says:

    Antoine Vella:

    Certainly, Australia territory was invaded on the 21st July 1942.

  23. Orlando ellul micallef says:

    ‘Thank god we are not Muslims’ – yet they organized a party for Muslims.

  24. sandro pace says:

    And what is Independence Day if not ‘thank God we are not British or Protestants’?

    Regardless of the fact that many a Muslim leader is a fascist (some were truly nazis), some by ideology and others by style, had we become Muslim in one way or another you would have had much more battles to fight, in an uphill struggle, and if ever given the chance. Prior to the Arab Spring that is, hopefully. Not to mention other consequences.

    The largest majority of the Maltese, if not all, are happy with this course of historical path, and the least we can do is publicly thanking Him for choosing it. Regardless of anything else.

    [Daphne – If the course of history had been different, Sandro, you would have been different too. You would have been ‘Sandro the Muslim’ thanking God you weren’t born Christian.]

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      Sandro, that’s like saying that if a warlord from the Arabian desert hadn’t decided to liberate a few camels from the neighbouring tribe back in the 6th century, the Tunisians would have an uphill struggle because they’d be speaking Greek.

      You know what, if 1565 had gone the Ottomans’ way, Malta would be another island off the coast of Tunisia, I’d be a Tunisian citizen, with vastly more choices than “cittadin Malti fl-EU”, and we wouldn’t be crammed 1300 to each square kilometre.

      • sandro pace says:

        Choices indeed Baxxter. You would have been free to burn yourself publicly. Like Ian Palach in communist Prague. That’s real desperation. Or to join the thousands of Tunisians flocking to Italy, a country which is not much better than Greece, but going by migratory ‘choices’, both still better than any country in North Africa.

        You had a choice to blog against the government, just one chance before finding the internet censorship police at the door. That is what ‘just being another Tunisian citizen’ would have entailed. Not to mention birth rates and square kilometres.

        Hallina tridx. You are either reception class material, or just joking. I believe its the former, for no one in his right mind would take such a twist of fate so lightly. Greeks have faults and problems Baxxter, and even the EU. But the Maghreb is no real or natural substitution.

      • H.P. Baxxter says:

        Taking it lightly? On the contrary, I am dead serious. I never joke about life choices.

        I’d rather take my chances as one out of 10 million compatriots in a country with a population density of 63 per square kilometre rather than one out of 400 000 in a battery cage.

        Life is all about choices. Ours are limited, EU membership notwithstanding.

        There are many things you cannot do if you’re Maltese, even with an EU passport.

        As for self-immolation, the Tunisians and Czechs took notice, and eventually overthrew their old regimes.

        In Malta I’d just get a badly written report in The Times, everyone would assume I was crazy, and it wouldn’t change a damn thing.

  25. Jozef says:

    We may not be Protestants but we sure do.

    Can we please subscribe to the idea that Malta’s history reflects the interaction of the three monotheistic religions? And that filtering facts with emotion is doing us a great disservice?

    This obviously implies cognition, research and analysis. Are we up to it?

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      I am. Our publishers are not.

    • sandro pace says:

      Indeed Jozsef. A history of a people is interactions, but also choices and emotions. It should not take a PhD in history to ‘recognise’ that a maintream emerged out of those three, the result of the little free will our forefathers had at the moment. In 1565 they could have just as freely opened the doors. They didnt. Even with tempting promises from the Sultan.

      The only disservice one can do to history is being politically correct with it.

  26. John Schembri says:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/maltatodaypics/5918048343/in/photostream/
    every picture tells a story.

    [Daphne – Those ‘Dad’ jeans are unwise.]

  27. red nose says:

    The Great Siege of Malta has been put under a huge magnifying glass; just like the “Sette Giunio” affair. Those unlucky Maltese that were killed, were just passers by and had nothing to do with the “bread riots” Of course, our “historians” made quite a huge meal about how the British soldiers fired on the rioters.

  28. Jozef says:

    H.P.Baxxter,

    How many times a day does it cross your mind that we’re at the saturation point when it comes to mental space?

    That it’s become a priority, given the geography?

    It’s our only hope.

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      How many times? About 60 times a minute. There’s no mental space to speak of. The whole country is a sclerotic mass of complacent islanders.

      Hope? There’s no hope. Try changing anything in this country, on any scale. Unless you’re some god damn kuntrattur with truckloads of cash, you’ll get nowhere. And if you’ve that sort of cash, then Malta is a lovely place to live in anyway, so why should you change it?

  29. Jozef says:

    Will you get me coat?

  30. Jozef says:

    Sandro,

    Was Manuel Dimech a criminal, guilty of murder and spared the gallows simply because he was legally a minor or Missier Is-Socjalismu Malti?

    Was Carmelo Borg Pisani ultimate hero, traitor or one of the most tragic figures in recent history?

    Was Mons. Saydon a softspoken academic who never forgot his rural origins, or a staunch leftist who defied the hierarchy of the church?

    The real disservice, if I may, is when cognition, research and analysis are supposed to lead to one accepted version of history, usually by the victors. It tends to promote myth and the comfort that we’re sorted.

    As for my forefathers, I’m afraid the paternal side were still in Naples in1565, one of them quite a painter.
    They were all servicemen in 1943, little did they know one would marry into a family who had a member arrested and detained simply because he loved his music and was a frequent visitor to Rome.

    Does that make me less Maltese?

    • sandro pace says:

      Jozef, I have heard that the Turkish omit this event in school history subject. They’ve sent thousands of troops and the best commanders, but for them it didnt happen. Not that it should matter much for us, but that’s the loser account for you.

      [Daphne – Honestly, Sandro. Isn’t this just what I’ve been trying to tell you? It was an event for Malta, but it was not an event for anyone else, including the aggressor. This is the Ottoman Empire you’re talking about, not ‘the Turks’.]

      The fact remains the unanimous ‘monotheistic’ statement made freely by the Maltese in the 1565 ‘interaction’, which can be arrived to even prima facie. More, unlike Cyprus and what you think, the outcome sorted us out big deal in this respect, and it is not a myth. It is tangible and relevant to this day.

      Borg Pisani can be anything to anyone according to sympathies. History records him as a spy, which at that moment, he was.

      Buon San Gennaro.

  31. Jozef says:

    If the garrison at the main guard hadn’t been left in the hands of a young officer whose inexperience caused him to panic, the Sette Giugno riots could have been avoided.

  32. M Calleja says:

    Jason Micallef
    Il-bierah filghaxija l-istazzjon tal-istat immexxi minn Kastilja/Pieta nizel fl-aktar livell baxx li qatt nista niftakar. Irreklama sit ta’ blogger ghomorha frustrata bi problemi psikopatici gravi. Mur gib lil BBC, RAI, TVE, Deutsche Welle, TV5 kollha stazzjonijiet nazzjonali jaghmlu l-istess? Shame on PBS newsroom mhemmx kelma ohra.
    Share · 15 September at 13:11 ·

    Jason’s Facebook comment vera trid tkun Jason Micallef ta!

  33. Jozef says:

    Sandro,

    My intention is not to belittle the unanimous statement made by the Maltese. I’m wary of the distortion made by certain individuals to push an ideology.

    It seems that this mechanism is induced whenever someone removes the mundane details to iintroduce a faith system in their strain of politics. That really gets my goat.

    Manuel Dimech is portrayed as John the Baptist, opening the way to the coming of the Salvatur and Borg Pisani and 1565 have been conveniently appropriated for the coming of another.

    The truth, I think, is much less romantic. When its facets are acknowledged however, the instruments to build a future are sharpened leading to a refined design.

    And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to practise my tarantella.

  34. Christopher Ripard says:

    Dump on me all you like, Daphne et al, but she – as a woman especially – really should be thanking God we’re not Muslim.Won’t admit it though.

    [Daphne – My Muslim girlfriends lead lives no different to mine, Christopher. And a generation back, Maltese women led lives no different to those in Muslim countries. ALL religions seek to oppress women. I sometimes think one of the main driving forces behind the growth of organised religion was the need men had to keep women subjugated. Catholicism is no different; it is merely forced to operate in a secular democracy nowadays, that’s all.]

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