In a ceremony presided over by President Eddie Fenech Adami yesterday, High Commissioner for Malta in London Dr Michael Refalo was made a Companion of the National Order of Merit.
The Midalja ghall-Qlubija (Medal for Bravery) was awarded to Roger Mulvaney who saved a French swimmer in distress in Gnejna Bay.
During the ceremony, an officer, four members and four honorary members were appointed to the National Order of Merit, one was awarded the Midalja ghall-Qlubija and four members were awarded the Midalja ghall-Qadi tar-Repubblika (Medal for Service to the Republic).
THE NATIONAL ORDER OF MERIT
COMPANION
MICHAEL REFALO K.O.M.
A lawyer by profession and a politician. Graduated at the University of Malta in 1961. Between 1956 and 1961 he was president of the Students Representative Council. He entered politics in 1962 and was politically involved in the campaign for independence. He contested ten successive general elections and served as a Member of Parliament for thirty-three years. From 1987 to 2003, Dr Refalo served successively as Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, and held various ministerial portfolios, namely, Youth and the Arts, Justice and Tourism. In 1972 he founded and edited his political party’s Sunday newspaper, Il-Mument, to which he contributed thousands of articles and editorials. He is currently the High Commissioner for Malta in London. Having tourism at heart and on his own initiative, he invited ambassadors and High Commissioners in London, representing their countries, to come for a short holiday in Malta, which for many of them was the first time they visited the island.
He also published My Century which is an adaptation into English of Herbert Ganado’s Rajt Malta Tinbidel.
OFFICER
DAVID JOSEPH ATTARD U.O.M.
Professor of International Law of international repute who has held various academic and international appointments. In 1988 he was appointed to the Chair of Public International Law at the University of Malta. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Rome II, a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, and a Fulbright Fellow, Yale Law School. The Université de Paris I – Pantheon Sorbonne has appointed him Professor Invité for the academic year 2007-2008. In 1990 he was appointed the first holder of the UNEP Chair of Environmental Diplomacy. Since 1992 he has been the Director of the IMO International Maritime Law Institute, which has to-date trained in Malta some three hundred and nine-six government lawyers from ten states. In his capacity as legal advisor to the Maltese Government, he is regularly consulted on international law problems, particularly on maritime jurisdiction issues.
On his advice, the Government of Malta requested the United Nations to take action to protect the global climate. His proposal led to the 1992 UN Convention on the Protection of Global Climate. In 1989, through the initiative of Professor Attard, the Swiss and Maltese Governments established the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies at the University of Malta which now trains diplomats from Mediterranean States. He has added luster to Malta’s name by his service in senior positions to many international institutions. Since 2005 he has been member of the EU Expert Group on Maritime Policy. In 2006 he was elected Pro-Chancellor and President of the University of Malta Council.
Professor Attard has contributed various articles to leading journals. His book The Exclusive Economic Zone in International Law was awarded the Paul Guggenheim (International Law) Prize, Geneva.
MEMBERS
JOSEPH S. ATTARD M.O.M.
(in absentia)
Born in Nadur, Gozo, he migrated to Australia in 1960 at the age of 26. He soon became involved in voluntary work and has never looked back since. Since most of his compatriots did not speak fluent English he acted as interpreter for the new arrivals, guiding and advising them at the same time. Through his initiative volunteer groups from various nationalities were formed and branches were opened in the Western Suburbs. These branches provided legal aid, tax advice and information and assistance on immigration and housing issues. He was elected as a committee member of the Western Regional Council for Social Development. He was founder of the North Altona Migrant Community Centre, known today as Westgate Migrant Resource Centre, which has become the focal point for several ethnic groups, including Maltese. Joseph S. Attard was president of the centre on and off for thirty years. He has also been involved in founding several ethnic associations, clubs and societies around Melbourne.
Joseph S. Attard was the first ethnic broadcaster on the H.S.V. Children’s Hospital Appeal and also on the G.T.V. Yooralla Hospital Appeal, and was also instrumental in lobbying for ethnic radio in Melbourne. He received several awards in recognition of his work.
CHARLES BUSUTTIL M.O.M.
A successful entrepreneur, under whose leadership the business of Foster Clark Products Ltd expanded considerably and today has become one of the leading exporting companies in Malta.
Foster Clark was set up in Malta in 1967 as a joint venture and started operations a year later. In 2000, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Busuttil Group. Under the leadership of Charles Busuttil, who is directly and actively involved in the marketing of the company’s products, the company’s business expanded considerably and so did its turnover. The growth in business necessitated additional space and the company has invested heavily in the construction of new and modern facilities. With a steady growth over the years, the company has today become one of the leading exporting companies in Malta specialising in foodstuffs and table sauces, selling its products in the Middle East and African countries. The company employs around 300 workers.
For a period of time Charles Busuttil served as a director of the Malta External Trade Corporation.
LAURENCE GRECH M.O.M.
A journalist by profession who joined the Allied Malta Newspapers in 1963 and appointed sub-editor of The Sunday Times of Malta in 1964. Three years later he was appointed assistant editor and later deputy editor. In 1991 he was appointed editor of The Sunday Times. Laurence Grech was the film critic for the daily paper The Times of Malta as well as its parliamentary editor for a number of years. He has been Malta correspondent for ANSA, the Italian news agency since 1985. He was fellow of the Salzburg Seminar on American Studies in 1981 and US international visitor in 1983.
Laurence Grech also involved himself in civic work when he was the Msida Civic Council public relations officer between 1969 and 1971 and president of the Teens and Twenties Talent Trust during the same period. In 1989 he was appointed member of the Commission for the Advancement of Women.
MICHAEL ZAMMIT
CUTAJAR M.O.M.
(in absentia)
Has devoted a large part of his career to work in and around the United Nations on international cooperation for development and environment. He has undertaken several assignments with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and was part of the founding secretariat of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) – both in Geneva Switzerland. During the 1980s, he joined the International Foundation for Development Alternatives and was a consultant to the UN Office for Emergency Operations in Africa and the Office for Special Political Affairs. His name is synonymous with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. After having set up and directed the secretariat supporting the UN’s climate change negotiations in 1996, he was Executive Secretary to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change occupying the rank of Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations from February 1991 to January 2002. Since then, he has continued to participate in the international dialogue among governments – and between them and the business community – on climate change and the development of the carbon market. He also chairs an independent advisory group for the World Bank’s Community Development Carbon Fund. In 2007 the EU Commission’s President invited him as one of the eleven high level and world-renowned experts to be part of an Advisory Group for Energy and Climate Change and to provide him with independent advice.
Michael Zammit Cutajar also advises the Government of Malta on environmental issues and represents it at ambassadorial level in international negotiations on climate change.
HONORARY MEMBERS
ANDREW GATSEY M.O.M.
Group chairman and chief executive officer of Toly Products Ltd since 1991. Although the company is international, he made Malta the company’s headquarters and today the Group Board of Directors is all based in Malta. Under his direction Toly Products Ltd has continually evolved into a world-leading supplier with manufacturing plants both in Europe and in Asia. Under his initiative the company has set up four clusters which are, Tek Moulds, Proficos, Fullcos and D-Square. The company which employs around 400 employees was awarded the Award for Industry in 1997 and Award for Training Excellence in 2006, by the Foundation for Human Resources Development.
Andrew Gatsey is very active in the local scene where he has been a Council Member of the Malta Federation of Industry for the last ten years. His positive outlook about Malta gets many a foreign investor back to the island. He is a great ambassador and puts in a lot of time and resources to give foreigners visiting the company a good impression of Malta which he calls “The Toly Experience”. Toly Products participates worldwide at exhibitions abroad where Malta is always featured being the hub of the organisation.
JOSEPH EDWARD
MONTEBELLO M.O.M.
(in absentia)
Maltese migrant who immigrated to Australia in 1951. He gave exceptional voluntary service to the Maltese Community, as the official cameraman in Victoria for the TVM programme Waltzing Matilda which dealt mainly on the life of members of the Maltese Community in the various states of Australia. Apart from filming the way of life of the Maltese in Australia, he has also covered all official visits in Australia of Maltese personalities.
He joined the Maltese Ex-Servicemen Association of Victoria as an associate member to plan and erect the George Cross Memorial in Parkville to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the award of the George Cross to Malta. He was entrusted with the design and the building of the said memorial and coordinated the opening ceremony. He was nominated to join the Maltese Community Council of Victoria and served for a number of years as its public relations officer. He also formed part of a survey team to gauge the then current and future needs of the Maltese community in Victoria.
LUIGI PEZZOLI M.O.M.
Founder of the SITIP Group and owner of Nylon Knitting Ltd, which is one of five companies forming the Group with the other four established in the surroundings of Bergamo in Italy. The company has been operating in Malta since June 1966 and is one of the leading foreign owned companies in Malta engaged in the production of synthetic fibers and fabric and selling its products worldwide. Nylon Knitting has two spinning plants in Malta.
Over the past decade the company has been undertaking a series of substantial investments in machinery and equipment and has expanded gradually ever since. Last year the company undertook another investment and again expanded its spinning and knitting department in Malta. Employment as a result of this investment is expected to reach 320 persons.
CLAUDIA SAGONA M.O.M.
(in absentia)
A Senior Research Fellow in Archaeology at the Centre for Classics and Archaeology, Melbourne University who since 1990 has devoted much of her scholarly efforts to a better and more detailed understanding of Malta’s ancient past especially the Phoenician and Punic periods. Her service to Malta is achieved through her international standing as a scholar and her promotion of Maltese heritage. Her publications include four substantial books on Malta and a large number of articles, reviews and reports. Her detailed studies on Malta are considered benchmarks in the discipline and are often cited in scholarly works. In 2005 she organised a Round Table at the 6th International Congress of Phoenician-Punic Studies in Lisbon and in 2006 she organised another conference in collaboration with Heritage Malta and the University of Malta on Phoenician-Punic Ceramics.
Since 1996 she has been senior investigator in charge of pottery finds at the excavations at Tas-Silg, conducted by the Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta. Dr Sagona has a commitment to promote Maltese heritage to the public at large. She has done this through interviews for a film documentary and public lectures at the University of Melbourne and Sidney, the Maltese Historical Association (Melbourne), and the Archaeological Society (Malta). She encourages students in Australia to pursue the study of Malta, whereas in Malta, during her annual visit, she has willingly trained students in her specialist area and encouraged them with their research.
MIDALJA
GHALL-QLUBIJA
ROGER MULVANEY M.R.Q.
Staff Sergeant and member of the Air Wing of the Armed Forces of Malta, who on 1 September 2007 with no regard to his own safety, committed an act of bravery by saving the life of a French tourist who had found himself in difficulty after saving a local swimmer at Il-Karraba, limits of Gnejna Bay. The tourist was trapped in a crevice and efforts to pull him up proved futile. Acting on his advice that the only option was to call AFM divers to rescue the man from beneath the surface, the pilot of the Alouette helicopter went back to base to pick up a diving team. In the meantime, Staff Sergeant Mulvaney, who remained on site, could hear the stricken man crying out for help and realised that, if no immediate action was taken, the man’s life could seriously be threatened. Without consideration to his own safety Staff Sergeant Mulvaney dived into the open water, swam underwater through the cave’s entrance and then crawled to the man in distress. He managed to extricate the man whilst being continuously battered against the rocks and intermittently submerged by the strong waves.
Notwithstanding the fact that he acted selflessly, heroically and also injuring himself in the process of rescuing another person, he humbly did not boast of his actions and submitted a report only upon the insistence of his superiors.
MIDALJA GHALL-QADI TAR-REPUBBLIKA
HARRY DOMINIC ALDEN M.Q.R.
Born in 1928, Harry Alden contributed significantly to the local contemporary artistic developments in a career spanning over 60 years. He taught art in secondary schools, in St Michael’s Training College, at the Centre for Art and Design and led the School of Art in Valletta. His works were exhibited in various local and international exhibitions including the International Biennale of Graphic Design in Czechoslovakia. Besides postage stamp sets, his works include paintings at the Carmelite Church in Balluta St Julian’s and murals in the British Council and Lyceum Gian Frangisk Abela.
TERRY L BENCINI M.Q.R.
One of Malta’s most talented and best loved entertainers on stage, radio and television. Terry L Bencini started her singing and acting career at the age of sixteen. In the fifties she became the resident singer and actress in the popular Radju Muskettieri show which ran for fourteen years. In May 1960 she won The Best Singer Trophy in the first Malta Song Festival and in November of the same year she won the First Festival of Maltese Songs. Also in 1960, she sang on the Italian Radio RAI and selected as resident singer in a TV show. She was also one of the performers at the inauguration of the Malta Television and successive musicals on the then MTV. Besides being a regular performer on the then Rediffusion and Radio Malta, she had her own musical programmes.
Terry L Bencini was always one of the mainstays of the stage in Malta and in the eighties she established herself as Malta’s leading soubrette. As an ambassador’s wife, she gave lectures in Moscow on life in Malta with special emphasis on art and culture. In Moscow she also sang and delivered excerpts from works by Maltese authors such as Ebejer, Friggieri and Dun Karm.
GLORIA MIZZI M.Q.R.
A household name in local broadcasting, Gloria Mizzi’s career as a television presenter and producer covers a span of over forty years. For the past five years she has also ventured into radio as well. Her vast experience in broadcasting has led her to lecture on various topics, particularly on women’s issues, healthy lifestyle and regional cooking. Her first appearance on local television was in 1966. From then on she never looked back and her popularity increased considerably when a year later she produced and presented the weekly programme Il-Mara tal-Lum which was very popular among Maltese housewives. Forty years later she is still producing and presenting programmes both on television and radio.
Gloria Mizzi served on various boards and committees, including The Hotels and Catering Board and Institute of Tourism Studies Board. In 1975, on the occasion of the Year dedicated to Women, she took in hand the organisation of the Malta’s Pavillion at the Malta Trade Fair. She was also Wardrobe Mistress of the Atturi Theatre Group, editor of the Maltese magazine Il-Mara ta’ Llum and still is a regular contributor to local newspapers and magazines.
As a former counselor of the Sliema Local Council her major contribution during her tenure of office was towards the culture in general and the cultural heritage of Sliema.
SIMONE MIZZI M.Q.R.
Has had an extensive career in the service and retail sectors. Following her education in Malta she attended the French Lycée Bilingual Business School in London.
After graduation, she worked in public relations, marketing and management with leading hotels in Malta before setting up her own retail business.
On moving on to the UK with her family in 1984, she continued in retail and ended her UK years running four London outlets of one of the leading fashion chains. Now based in Malta, she has been responsible for setting up and managing the Italian and Maltese markets for a leading international retailer of cosmetics. In this capacity, she has been closely involved in social and environmental campaigns championed by the retailer. She was the driving force behind several community projects in Italy’s most economically-emarginated southern regions.
In Malta, Simone Mizzi is actively involved with the NGO Din l-Art Helwa. As their communications officer, she has launched various heritage education projects in conjunction with schools and Local Councils. She has also been appointed deputy chairperson on the Heritage Malta Board.