When you think of Italy, for example, even though they are languishing economically and socially, you still bring to mind a concept of their excellence in fashion, anything culinary, Dante and Michelangelo, Florence, Venice and the lovely mountain villages nestled into the landscape.
The UK has the Premier League, the Queen and Parliament, Germany has good cars and engineering and both have historical towns and countryside to enjoy. Prague has good beer and stylishcabaret and is breathtakingly beautiful. Switzerland has some of the best skiing resorts, Belgium has great chocolate, Holland does flowers and art masters, and BiałowieżaForest in Belarus is one of the last and largest remaining parts of the immense primeval forest that once stretched across the European Plain.
And Malta? Sure CNN or the Guardian or Daily Mail will make good features about the island. It is their job to do so and most have been sent here by marketing companies to write about it. Certainly, much of what the writers print is true and we are very happy to read about how Valletta should be visited and that it is one of the most important cities to see. But here we are more interested in private views, in what people, local and foreign, think we do well in Malta. With what do they associate Malta? Judging from the Fireworks Festival and the many Festi that are found around the island, a lot of focus is put on this aspect of what Malta is known for. If you ask a German he will probably tell you it’s the Knights of St John that come to mind, a French man will ask you What’s a Malta and a Spaniard might say Auto bus de Leon or a summer job.
As good as these impressions may be, with the exception of the Knights of St John, it is just marketing products that we are promoting. We can create events and try to make a name for Valletta but integrity or excellence, talent and creativity are not invented. It is a cultural and social phenomenon. It is a nurturing and fostering of values that go beyond materialistic or commercial interests.
Malta and Gozo are a beautiful archipelago in the Mediterranean sea but we may be biased too in this regard, being Maltese. People who have travelled to the many enticing islands and countries around the world have a wider perspective and dig a bit deeper when seeking knowledge about people and places.
Up to the not so distant past, we did Religion. Malta was the Christian bastion, the only country to have received the Gospel from St. Pauland was still Roman Catholic. It had the Knights of St John and it was later ruled by the British so that the combination of Semetic, Latin and Anglo Saxon made it interesting and special, giving us an edge over our neighbours.
But we were not content with being special in that way and wanted to become modern and like everyone else. Now the only thing we do well is mediocrity. Those people who individually strive to do well in sports, public service, civil and religious society, management and industry (fishing and farming included) are to be admired for their belief and efforts. Collectively, however, the bar has been lowered to the point that you can hardly even see it anymore.
Today our Prime Minister travels abroad to sell Maltese Citizenship as a commodity. Whatever attraction there may have been in retiring or settling in Malta is now secondary and anyone with a thought of relocating to Malta will have to consider who their neighbour may be and will also have to contend with the inflated property prices for unoccupied homes.
But apart from what others may think of our country, what matters is what we think of it ourselves. If we know it well and have great respect and pride in it, we will endeavour to protect our heritage, our environment, our families and homes and we will not peddle our land as though it could be re-produced infinitely. Malta had one of the first universities in Europe. Today, it is cast aside and accused of being a monopoly, so that we can make way for a fake university. Simply discarded as if it is one too many.
We cannot even decide on a National day. My Russian friend describes the nationalistic feeling she has on the national day of her country, because she remembers the struggle of the people and the battles they fought and what her country represents to her today. How sick is it that we do not have an innate sense of the truth and what constitutes a national day. Over time we may resort to Solomon’s decision, when confronted by the two mothers claiming that the child belonged to each of them – he said cut the child in half. The true mother gave up her child so that it would be saved.
When the mediocrity begins to spread into every service, such as Public Transport, the Police, Health and Safety, the Civil Service, the way we look after our animals and nature, and the way in which we relate to one another, then we are surely sinking fast into oblivion or infamity. Also with the way women, children and the aged are treated. Other societies, not just Asian cultures, pride themselves on their elderly citizens and have a place for them in the community not dying alone in a hospital corridor. You can find them sitting under the trees, trying to catch some respite from the sun or looking after their grand-children. Here in Malta, nowadays, everything is done with commerce and entertainment in mind and never mind that our grand-parents have lost another part of their ancestry and heritage. Today we have to content ourselves with old photographs of how Sliema and St. Paul’s Bay or Gozo used to be. The shade has been cast over what used to be the local lido or rocky shore by the high rise buildings. Not even swimming is the same anymore. Nothing is authentic anymore and the charm, of which there was a good amount, is gone.
Italian restaurants have mushroomed all over Sliema, St Julians and other popular resorts. All with Italian names and Italian speaking staff. Whatever identity we were trying to evolve around our food and tourism, is fast disappearing. Nowadays it is easier and more profitable to rent out your establishment rather than run it as a business. Where the funds come from to maintain the rent and running costs, is another matter which may come to light in time.
There was indeed a time when Malta and Gozo did something well and that was its people. We were friendly, family oriented, religious but not fanatics, generally well educated and we were hard working and quick to learn and master a new trade. We could mix well with other nationalities, be they from north or south of the Med and we could contribute experience and ambition.
Sadly our inward looking attitude has destroyed so much of what was good in us and left a paranoia and selfishness where before there was a happy and content people.
Sadder even to think that it’s not going to get any better soon.