Comments on: Why are we making a big splash about the 450th anniversary of the ‘Great Siege’?

By: H.P. Baxxter

H.P. Baxxter — Sat, 18 Apr 2015 11:13:00 +0000

In reply to Daphne Caruana Galizia. It is unlikely to have been a carrier pigeon. The Knights wouldn't have risked getting their top bird shot by arquebus-toting missirijietna practising their tradizzjoni minn dejjem. More likely to have used an interconnector hawser to Palermo. During the Siege, they laid one from St Angelo to Senglea Point so they could exchange selfies of them doing victory signs next to beheaded Turkish corpses.

By: H.P. Baxxter

H.P. Baxxter — Sat, 18 Apr 2015 11:06:00 +0000

That’s what we call doggy style, right?

I’ll write a short story about The Sultan, The Harem And The Eunuch if you wish.

By: H.P. Baxxter

H.P. Baxxter — Sat, 18 Apr 2015 10:41:00 +0000

In reply to Daphne Caruana Galizia.

And so we’d have been Tunisians. So what? Better a reasonably-sized country with good life choices and international links than a microscopic island state with a massive anti-Western chip on its shoulder.

Aren’t Maltese businessmen forever harping on about “l-opportunitajiet fit-Tunezija”? They’d have the opportunitajiet right here in their homeland.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Sat, 18 Apr 2015 10:26:00 +0000

As the British saying goes, ‘and if my aunt had balls she would be my uncle’.

This sort of ridiculous hypothesising over a span of centuries is exactly what historians do NOT do.

Malta was not considered to be part of Europe during the hegemony of the Order of St John, not even by the Order itself, and the natives/ethnic population were not considered European but African.

Atlases of the period placed Malta in Africa.

Malta owes its official status in Europe (and the Maltese as European) to the British Parliament, which by means of an Act in 1801 – the start of Malta’s ‘British period’ – placed the islands in Europe: “the said island of Malta and dependencies shall be deemed, taken and construed to be part of Europe for all purposes, and as to all matters and things whatsoever”.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Sat, 18 Apr 2015 10:14:00 +0000

My comment was ironic. Obviously.

It was a reaction to the intolerable way in which so many people who comment about historical subjects project from their own times and context.

By: Lara

Lara — Sat, 18 Apr 2015 06:57:00 +0000

Perhaps we need to whip up this and that celebration to take people’s mind off extra votes being found after we exercised our democratic right.

Funny I thought it was one (wo)man one vote, but is it?

http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2015-04-18/local-news/Five-extra-votes-found-in-Santa-Lucia-locality-6736133994

By: Timothy Duca

Timothy Duca — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 22:34:00 +0000

Is that a token Turk or some other heathen, dressed in only two shades of grey by the Minister?

Oh no! It’s Lou, strange how selective turncoat bashing’s become of late, right boys?

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 22:34:00 +0000

It’s not what I believe, but a fact. Her father’s schism with Rome did not create ‘the Protestant church’. It created the Church of England, which remained essentially Catholic, in the same way that the Greek Catholic church is Catholic despite not being tied to Rome.

The course of Protestantism was a whole lot more complicated than that, and even Elizabeth’s own reforms – the Elizabethan Settlement – left the Church of England fundamentally Catholic.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 18:51:00 +0000

I don’t know where to begin, so I shan’t begin at all. I just wish people got a better education in Maltese schools.

By: SonofWalter

SonofWalter — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 18:51:00 +0000

Simple answer; Nazis had global expansion desires. Ottomans did not.

They were simply happy in a smaller area and happy being commercial powerhouses. The Knights threatened that.