I can’t make head or tail of Corinne Vella’s reply (TMIS, 28 August) to my letter “True Colours” of the previous Sunday. What is she on about?

Does she agree with me that skin colour does not determine race? Is she bragging about her prodigious travels around the world? Or is it that, although she is Maltese through and through (her claim), she considers herself as coloured?

Ms Vella starts her missive by berating me and trying to ridicule me for suggesting that I was, on several occasions, mistaken for an Englishman or some other European. She then proceeds to list various countries in Asia, Africa and Europe, where she herself was mistaken to be other than Maltese. Oh, by the way, she has also been taken for an Argentinian.

Your correspondent then went on to prove what I had contended all along, namely that skin colour does not normally determine the race of an individual. In fact her skin pigmentation appears to be so indeterminate that she could pass of as an Indian, a Spaniard, a Lebanese and a French woman. (From where? Algeria, Martinique, Montmartne or Marseilles’ docklands)?

But then, perhaps, the whole purpose of Ms Vella’s letter was to show off her penchant for globe-trotting. Hardly something to boast about in this age of mass tourism and travel.

Ah, yes, if it’s any satisfaction to Ms Vella, as a Maltese, my “feathers have been ruffled” by Daphne’s and her stupid suggestions that we are a coloured people. Not because there’s anything wrong or inferior in being coloured, as they and others of their ilk are constantly harping on, but because facts are sacred. And facts have shown ever since Europe as an entity was born centuries ago, and in spite of whatever Enoch Powell and his merry men may have thought at the time, that the Maltese are Europeans and happy with that fact, as recent historical events have shown.

Incidentally, my perception of being mistaken for an Englishman/European was only a manner of expression. I have been addressed in English in a certain way which implied that I was taken for a “white” European. I never meant, as Ms Vella seems to think that I wished to pass off as an Englishman, because these are superior to the Maltese. They are not and I am the first to berate those who say qisu Ingliz of someone whom they admire.

I have nothing against the English per se. It’s just that I am not particularly enamoured of them (sorry guys)! It’s in my psyche.

Perhaps their giving us Maltese a hard time on occasions, way back when I was young, may have something to do with it.

Why don’t we stop all this hypocrisy. For all their championing of the illegal coloured and black immigrants, I would like to see how the Daphnes and the Corinne Vellas of their world would deal with a situation, where their children, close relatives and friends would intimate a very close relationship with one of these unfortunate boat-people.

I am sure they would be overjoyed and welcome the intruders with open arms. Oh, don’t worry! I am only joking.

Alfredo A. Camilleri

SLIEMA