The bones of Nerik Mizzi, the skilful pre-WWII Nationalist Party leader and, later, briefly Prime Minister of Malta, must be having a jolly good time tumbling about with joy in his grave while the subtle Italianisation of Malta goes on almost unnoticed.

Mizzi was the prime mover of a pro-Italian, pro-fascist movement on the Island when Mussolini was on the ascendency and lovingly calling Malta bel fior del mondo. That it eventually led to his being unfairly exiled, with several other misled Maltese supporters of Italian irredentism by the British, and to a popularity plunge by his party in the early post-war period, are facts that have been long debated.

Maltese society had always had a Language Question, and Mizzi’s quirky vision of an Italian Malta at the time did a lot in alienating the Maltese working population from the grim realities such as poverty, massive unemployment, lack of skills, lack of education, and other social miseries. Even when thought long dead and forgotten, embers were still glowing below the surface, waiting for the first opportunity to re-erupt and rekindle itself as a national issue. Are we perhaps on the brink of another linguistic Pompeii?

For one to have once considered setting up a British Culture Association as rather superfluous on an island increasingly aware of its Mediterranean identity, this business of finding Italian restaurants and cafes at every odd corner, even Italian bus drivers, Italian postmen and mysterious Italian loiterers does make me feel awkward, though admittedly it is all thanks to Malta’s booming economy. Suddenly, my objection to the “traditional” but obsolete bright red telephone-boxes all over these islands loses much of its validity.

I hasten to clarify I am not anti-Italian by nature. I love Italian food and my daughter is happily married to one. Yes, we disagree a lot about football, what with my misunderstood love for never-winning-anything West Ham and his always-winning-something Milan fanaticism, but we get along fine over a good red, local if my choice, inevitably Italian if his. I like Italian fashion and Italian art, while some of my best television mates throughout my broadcasting career came from RAI.

So, you may understandably want to ask, what is really bothering me? It is because I do not relate our Mediterranean identity with being strictly Italian, though it has to be admitted that much of our language, our cuisine, our customs and traditions have Sicilian/Italian roots, just as much as there are North African and Middle Eastern as well as some British elements in them. That is exactly what makes Malta unique in the whole region. Our very history oozes an incredible cultural fusion that clearly distinguishes us from other Mediterranean nations.

In the past, the linguistic dilemma was assuaged by the gradual growth of Maltese in not only the vernacular, but also an official language with its own alphabet, grammar and literature. This placid reality continued until the advent of English-based Internet which has since sent all languages in the world, including of course Maltese, reeling, with new generations of young men and women willingly undergoing what best can be described as a culture shock.

The linguistic metamorphosis is evident everywhere. While we watch our shop signs rapidly switching to welcoming Italian phrases and catchwords (Lungomare ice-cream parlours, Pizzaiamoci, Con Gusto, A Modo Mio, Al Solito Posto etc.), our letters being delivered by postmen who can’t read a word of English or Maltese and bus drivers who demand you speak to them in Italian, a short session of Italian TV-watching will, in contrast, show you the current fascination with English on the part of young Italians. Adverts containing English words and expressions are the rule rather than the exception and, unlike Nerik Mizzi’s, what’s left of Dante’s bones must be rattling with displeasure.

So it’s not easy to put your finger on it. Many Maltese clients – except of course those who feel more Italian than the Italians themselves, pretty much the same we’ve always had those who feel more English than the English and more Catholic than the Pope – feel irritated by this annoying, almost subliminal process of Italianisation. No one wants Malta to become another Lampedusa, though the appalling Matteo Salvini would rather that Italian island nearest to Africa were Maltese so he could win the immigration argument he started out of empty, ignorant, political spite.

 

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The President wants him, the President gets him

At a time when the Adrian Delia-led segment of the Nationalist Party has been criticising the matter of justice on trumped-up issues based on fake news and false conclusions, in the US President Trump has fired another discomforting salvo by opting for Brett Kavanaugh, a religious fundamentalist who makes no secret of his ultra-right-wing, conservative views, as his nominee for the US Supreme Court.

If confirmed, Kavanaugh has already brazenly promised he would shift the Supreme Court to the right, as if justice is something based on ideological preferences rather than fairness, independence and anti-bias. Not a very warming decision given the legacy of any nominee to America’s highest court has the potential to influence American society for decades to come.

When you remember the fuss made by the Opposition and some sections of the media over the appointment of Judges Wenzu Mintoff and Toni Abela who, like many before them, had a political background, it all fizzles to nothing when compared to this American system of appointing pro-incumbent and pro-ruling party judges at the highest level. Suffice to say Kavanaugh is known to be a politically connected member of Washington’s legal establishment, a former aide to George W. Bush and a former investigator of “enemy” President Bill Clinton. He also has deep links with Republican groups that have been lobbying hard to getting more conservatives on the federal bench.

The nomination is set to have a laborious time before it is confirmed, but Trump has already successfully made another such appointment and few can see him failing with this one. The President wants him, loveable, bible-hugging guy, the President gets him.

While our system of appointing magistrates and judges has been firmly left in the hands of a Commission set up as a sub-committee of the Commission for the Administration of Justice and is made up of the Chief Justice, the Attorney General and the President of the Chamber of Advocates, in the US it seems it is only a question of whether the Supreme Court should either go left or right.

But then, remember, the Americans have institutions that judge, criticize and categorize all other judicial systems in the world…