The High Society it has discovered the Sqallija (especially for the lunch, you know…)
A typical eyewitness anecdote, posted by Allamana:
We Maltese have a knack of making a disgrace of ourselves.
Not all of us, but some of us sink to depths of stupidity, selfishness and depravity.
A case in point is the Maltese penchant for making as much noise as possible so as to draw the maximum amount of attention to themselves.
On 15 August, at Marina di Ragusa, amid the Maltese yacht-loving fraternity, two powerboats squeezed in. One of them was a red and yellow boat well known for its noisy high speed runs at Mellieha Bay. The owner likes to publicise the fact that he can afford to burn enough petrol to keep 3 X 230 hp engines at full throttle, disturbing the Sunday peace.
The peace and quiet of the Marina di Ragusa was shattered mercilessly by the powerful stereo on this boat, now adorned with a gaudy red and yellow ice cream publicity umbrella.
The self-styled macho owner was egged on by his friend and his The High Society girlfriend, with her bottle-blonde hair and tanga, who told him:
” Iftah il-huccijiet ha johrog aktar is-sound.”
If I didn’t hear him myself I would not have believed it.
Their loud and stupid banter and their banging music was the only noise heard in an 800-yacht marina, filled to capacity.
Then I heard a remark drift over from another boat: “Nisthi nghid li jien Malti bhal dak.”
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Mhux ghalxejn l-Isqallin decenti ma jharsu lejk xejn sabih meta tidhol f’xi stabbiliment u jindunaw li int Malti.
Irid jghaddi iz-zmien u jsiru jafuk tajjeb biex jibdlu l-opinjoni taghhom dwarek, cioe li m’intix minn dawk il-qabda chavs u slavagg li sfortunatament imorru hemm u jaghtu reputazzjoni xejn sabiha lil min kellu id-disgrazzja li jitwieled Malta.
Kif dejjem nghid, iwaqqghulek wiccek l-art.
I was only 12 years old when I visited Sicily (Catania) for the first time .
Even though I was only a child, I could easily notice that plenty of Maltese young and single ladies did not only go to Sicily to buy clothes and chocolates for the rest of their families, but with the hope to meet a boyfriend.
They talked and behaved as if the Sicilian men were also being sold on the “monti” of Catania.
I remember the chaos on the Tirrenia ship by these chavs hoping for a future with the “principe azzurro” and for them having an Italian boyfriend meant a huge badge of honour.
Oh, yes of course, that too, Catherine – at the time many Sicilian men also used to come to Malta looking for one night stands, knowing full well that those fools would never disappoint them.
I avoid those parts of Sicily where there are too many Maltese. About five years ago, we spent a night at Agrigento in a beautiful palazzo in the town centre. We enjoyed chatting to the couple who live there (and own the place).
At one point the gentleman turned to me (my husband is not Maltese) and said: “I’m sorry, but I really had a different impression of Maltese people and was not so sure about hosting you in our home. However, I’m really enjoying your company and must say that many of your compatriots visiting Sicily are giving Malta a bad name, pity.”
It was meant as a personal compliment but I just could not feel pleased, I felt ashamed.
But then, regrettably it is typical Mediterranean behaviour. We bear witness to huge numbers of Italians who flock down to Malta, still in the belief this is still a sub-cultured Mediterranean outpost and feel it is a must to make their voice heard, and making their presence felt until somebody scolds them.
How the Maltese behave in Sicily or Italy for that matter is hardly significant. Not that i am excusing this kind of shameful behavior but ultimately, we are one of a kind, loud, hypocritically catholic while we indulge in blasphemy and all sorts of obscenities and moreover in public domain. We suffer from a nation-wide inferiority complex largely due to the fact that we are a smaller breed of people and feel that by being loud we tend to overcome this deficiency.
Prosperity has also made us what we are: New money does not necessarily mean that we have made any cultural or academic leaps, we just feel that we are entitled to boast about it and show everybody that in spite of being small, we can achieve.
Sorry, Lorna Saliba but I think that you are exaggerating quite a bit.
The last time I remember witnessing Italian or Sicilian tourists behaving that way was at least 20 years ago.
I know, and have also met, many people from different parts of Italy and Sicily and I must say that in their majority they are very open-minded, and also intelligent and polite – very unlike the majority of Maltese.
We have very rarely encountered locals behaving in that manner while on visits in different parts of Italy and Sicily, too.
So that’s how Lorna Saliba explains our behaviour, eh? Typically Mediterranean, one of a kind, loud and hypocritically Catholic. And that should include (besides the Italians) the Spanish, French, Greek, Tunisians, etc.
I’ve met and observed a lot of these people’s behaviour in Malta and I still feel the Maltese (whether in Malta or abroad), generally speaking, behave far worse.
It is perhaps a question of numbers. Malta being so tiny you would expect to meet such coarse behaviour only very occasionally. But we know (why is it so hard to admit it in public?) that this is not the case, particularly when we’re in a group, even a small one.
You need not be a sociologist or anything of the sort to notice that too many of us act and behave like a bunch of immature adult teenagers all out to impress their peers as well as outsiders. This happens every so often not only abroad but also in Malta, on our streets, the buses, at the beach, etc.
Lorna Saliba says we’re hypocritical Catholics because we indulge in blasphemy and all sorts of obscenities. Those are merely the symptoms not the cause of our coarse, uneducated, sub-cultural behaviour.
Our hypocrisy lies somewhere else and that’s because we’re unprincipled, dishonest opportunists. We don’t know the meaning of tolerance and compromise except where it touches our pockets. So we become macho, arrogant and bullish to achieve our egotistic aims.
Talking of pockets, this is the most absurd, superficial statement in this comment, namely that prosperity has made us what we are. I have lived long enough to notice that in previous days prosperous people were the ones we looked up to for their behaviour, education and culture. Even those of us who came from a working-class background were generally raised to emulate their behaviour and possibly their education and culture.
From a re-reading of our recent past (since WWII) it seems to me that our malaise stems from our political history where some of our leaders, indeed their whole party organisation, projected the image that arguments, debates, negotiations don’t lead anywhere and therefore only physical might is successful, indeed right. So right in fact, that by making the people happy with their ‘prosperity’ you can ride roughshod on ‘other’ people’s rights.
How’s that for a hypocritical (doublespeak), dishonest and opportunistic attitude translating itself into coarse, uneducated and sub-cultural behaviour?
Kulhadd bil-boat, u dan bi 3 magni alla jbierikhom. Ghax taf int, Gonzi qatel lil kulhadd bil-guh.
Has the PN gone into ‘sleep’ mode? The leader and deputy leaders are busy filling their Facebook pages with festa photos and very little else of substance.
The party finances are in a mess, workers made redundant and the government riding roughshod over everybody in the full knowledge that the opposition is estivating.
The PN needs a total rehaul. Latest elections to top party positions were a sad sight of losers who tried to hide the deep divisions within the party.
The PN needs to be more aggressive and constructive and come up with new ideas on the way forward for party and country.
Simon Busuttil is a nice guy but I am afraid he’s driving his own party ‘ghal gol-hajt’.
The PN is in crisis. Maybe it’s a good thing they weren’t re-elected; however I am not seeing much progress on their part.
At this point the only way out is to have someone like De Marco or Fenech Adami head the party. Legacies I know, but in terms of leadership qualities the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
They are doing what Labour did in opposition.
The PN has not gone in sleep mode, they are just reasoning that if such a great majority voted for these scoundrels, then let the Maltese enjoy them in peace.
Most probably the tattooed owner of the 3-engined petrol guzzler power-boat is registered as unemployed. Usually these typical Maltese dustbins spend the day roaming around in Qormi driving their BMW 5 series (tal-Ingilterra) c/w black tinted windows.
His other vehicle would normally be a Mitsubishi Pajero (pronounced Paaagiero) also with tinted windows, and used to pull the boat and/or horse.
Then there’s the gold necklace and heavy choker.
And then we civilised beings work tirelessly to make ends meet and sustain a family.
“Ħuċċijiet”. She has never heard of ‘bokkaporti’, probably.
To witness the “poverty” inflicted by Gonzi’s government one should visit Mgarr ix-Xini on an August weekend. The entire valley full of yachts and speedboats line up one next to the other, most of them owned by young men, most of them, playing loud music, some sounding fog horns a la mass meeting. Peace and quiet of a magical place definitely shattered.
Kull pajjiz ghandu l-paljazza tieghu. Ftit ilu kont go pool ta’ lukanda hawn Malta u gew sitt irgiel Sqallin.
Fil-pool hemm avviz biex ma jsirx qbiz. Dawn le, dawn bdew jitilghu fuq bicca tonda li tigi xi tlett metri ghola mill-pool u jaqbzu minn hemm.
F’dak il-waqt fil-pool anke tfal zaghar kien hemm jghumu, u ma nafx x’kien jigri kieku gew fuq xi tifel.
Ahna cwiec ghax ma nxandrux affarijiet bhal dawn. Jien kull ma ghamilt ktibt email biex nigbed l-attenzjoni tal-lukanda fil kwistjoni.
PN? What PN?
Aunt Hetty……best comment ever on the current situation.
Just came back from a 10 day best holiday I had in ages; Lampedusa with its 6600 population and 30,000 visitors and not one Maltese. Sheer bliss.
Unfortunately, it is the loudest of us that are heard and attract attention for all the wrong reasons. It seems that there are quite a few of us who act (or are) idiots, hence “voi Maltesi” etc.
This shows that nothing beats education and a good upbringing.
PS some tend to avoid certain port in high season for this reason.
It is true I have to admit, but Daphne you too I remeber once saw you parking a white conertible BMW double parking, and whn I asked you to park modestly, you just ignored me. Please think about your sins, would you?
[Daphne – I have never owned or driven a white convertible car. Other than that, there is no such thing as ‘parking modestly’. You got the wrong girl, my dear.]
On Aug 14 at the Syracuse marina there was a cabin cruiser with a loud crowd partying to ear-shatterung music and swearing their heads off (in Maltese, thankfully) punctuating all of this with screams and hollers.
They were very conspicuous in the otherwise silent marina and were obviously silenced by the marina management. So it seems the Maltese creme de la creme invaded Sicily last week.
Ah. huccijiet = hatches. It took me a while to work that out.
Empty vessels make most sound. I-injorant tisimghu min seba’ mili l-boghod. Javvelik.
The same can be said for the many Maltese (not all) who cross over to Gozo during this time of year. You can see many of them riding their cars as if in a F1 route with their car stereos full on at all hours of the day.
Others entering shops with hardly any clothing on, others eating in restaurants with their swimsuits soaking, other mocking locals, others parking everywhere they feel like. This is Malta. These are the Maltese.
I’m surprised how someone could have heard the blondie if the whole issue was that the music was so loud?