I agree with everything you wrote about Italy and must say that you are much kinder to the Italian south than any of my Tuscan and Piedmontese acquaintances.

My qualm is how this translates to Malta. I feel that the Siculo-Arab definition is a politically correct and xenophobia-free way of saying Arab culture. I do not wish to make too fine a point but I believe that the Maltese cultural divide has more to do more with the internalisation of 10 years of anti-west propaganda, compulsory Arabic lessons and humiliating green passports than a generation of of kids with nothing better to watch than RAI or the Fininvest stations.

On a separate but related note I wish to recommend to your readers a book about the history of Italy and the quasi-irreconcilable nature of its regions. It’s called ‘In Pursuit of Italy’ by David Gillmore (not of Pink Floyd fame). He explains that the aversion to outside influence is driven by the regions and not the nation and that more subtle and complex repulsive forces are in play than the old north/south divide. (It’s a bit of a slog in the middle, mind)

Interesting comment, Mr Fenech.

You would have found that the alternative to “perfumed Latin” would have been even less flattering.

Getting suspended for wearing a CND badge is a little harsh but the CND did evoke Communist connotations in Britain so much so that the MI5 considered it “Communist-controlled” and “Communist-penetrated” at different times.

When the wearer is thought to hail from Italy, home of the largest Communist party in the west, the housemaster’s frown must have deepened.

I dislike generalisations as much as the next guy but do you really blame the clerk for sneering (at the time) when the Brixton job centre is half an hour away from Soho?

And Daphne please, enough with the Italy bashing already :-)

Two tribes for sure but I would hope it’s not simply the Anglo – Italian divide (fairness and vindictiveness excluded).

[Daphne – It definitely is the Anglo/Italian divide. Perhaps I should be more specific: not Italian at all, but Siculo-Arab/Southern Italian. The mindsets are so completely different that they can never understand each other. It took me a long time to understand this. As for Italy, there is much about it that I love (a great part of my work is in food, remember), but generally speaking it is an undynamic society that is not open to growth or external influence, and the many problems it is experiencing today are the result of that long, slow process of fossilisation. In protecting what was was seen as the epitome of achievement in food, art, and so on, they in effect fossilised it at a single point. The fantastic design activity in Milan is the exception that proves the rule.]

On the other hand, so many anglophiles, who are immersed in the English way of life, are pro-Labour or have switched over to Labour. Actually, I rather think they are pro-Labour because they are pro-English.

Otherwise, I tend to agree so often (but not always) with what you write and am so glad that this blog is still going strong.

[Daphne – It’s got nothing to do with being an Italophile or an Anglophile. Many of the Anglophiles I know are 100% Sicilian in their forma mentis, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando being the prime example.]

[Daphne – That’s not what I mean when I use the word ‘culture’. Culture is not synonymous with art. That’s a Maltese misunderstanding of the word, shored up in the concept of a ‘Ministry of Culture’ which should more properly be a Ministry for the Arts.]

[Daphne – No, not bad, just different. And watching RAI was all right as long as you also got plenty of exposure to British journalism, but sadly, few Maltese households did and the results are all around us.]

In Malta on the other hand, we have the culture of ‘haxxejja’, of playing the victim, in other words, with politicians making recourse to that famous fake phrase ‘inhossni imwegga’.

I think a majority of our (pseudo) politicians are untrustworthy.

Many are millionaires and play the beggar card. Only the gullible believe them.

I was referring to the journalists in London.

I love the sound of your Housemaster, Albert. A ‘perfumed Latin’. Gorgeous.

ALBERT FENECH

[Daphne – Easy to see where the chips come from, Albert.]

And then there’s AST.