Unfortunately, the fact that there are still people trying to incite racial hatred near our centres for immigrants, which is very “unchristmassy” indeed, did not make headline news this week. It doesn’t even elicit strong condemnation anymore though does it? It has now become part of our landscape that there are a few black people living among us and that the majority don’t want them around, that these kind of spates are somehow natural and normal though not, at least to the slightly more educated minority among us, particularly nice.
Perhaps at this time of year, more than at any other, we should reflect on who we are, why our dislike of all things African is so misguided. We are all celebrating Christmas and the birth of Jesus. Jesus was no Viking although some of the statues in our parish churches have Jesus with brown hair and blue eyes, which is definitely inaccurate and clearly demonstrates our local genetic inferiority complex. Jesus was a Palestinian and he would though definitely not be welcome in Malta today. But who are the Maltese genetically anyway?
A report on Sky News this week brought some DNA surprises for a very English, or so he thought, reporter, whose father is an Anglican cleric. He found out from DNA testing, which can now basically place us all into not all that many groups worldwide, that his ancestors were Polish Jews who earlier on came from North Africa and further south. So this very English European is actually, genetically speaking, African, and it was not that long ago either.
And who do we think the Maltese are? Culturally more European thanks perhaps to the arrival of St Paul, the Normans and the Knights. But it so easily could have gone another way because the genetic pool of the Maltese is really more North African than European. And while it is true that political parties in Malta condemn racial hatred, there is one party that is not exactly, or directly, encouraging it, and perhaps not doing its bit to stamp it out. Where do people, with surnames like Muscat and Xuereb, think they come from, genetically anyway?
The science of DNA is evolving by the day and it is perhaps time to include this understanding in the wide array of uninteresting rubbish we pile on our children at school. From the age of seven or eight they start studying the structure and components of say a flowering plant. Every year after that more and more labels are added so that by the time they sit for the wretched Matsec they have ingested a level of detail that is stupefying. And yet we know so little and teach so little that is interesting about us humans, what makes us up, where we came from and ultimately where we are going.
Rather than having formal race awareness training, which is also perhaps really needed for Malta’s schoolchildren and their parents, we might consider preparing educational programmes about the Maltese DNA. A good subject for Xarabank perhaps as many people would be very surprised at the results, and it would go some way to lessening the terrible racism that is endemic in Malta.
This is not to say we shouldn’t be worried about boatloads of people arriving illegally and whether we can afford to offer them all the basic needs from decent housing to warmth, from food to education. But we have thousands of Russians who have arrived in Malta illegally or semi legally and have caused many a marriage break up and there is no hatred towards them. I guess it is because they are good looking and white.
It’s so strange that we were all worried about Sicilian hairdressers yet the foreign invasion of Malta has been from two non-EU areas, North Africa and Eastern Europe. Certain political parties are exploiting our racist fears and it would be an absolute disgrace for this island if the race card decides an election, which is going to be very tightly fought anyway.
On a lighter note though, nothing puts our funny prejudices back where they belong than the appointment of the new coach for England, an Italian no less. So in an island, which is hotly divided between red and blue, and between supporters of England and Italy we now have this to accept. Life is tough for us English fans at present. Will English football become more defensive, will players foul more and act more like prima donnas than many do already. Will Capello use pasta to improve their performance?
Either way, another national barrier has been broken and the DNA barriers are coming down as we speak.
[email protected]