Daphne Caruana Galizia’s articles are, on the whole, informative, and I have retained some of them. Her article, Jungle Behaviour (TMID, 13 October), will also be retained, but not quite for the same reasons.

She quoted the experience of TMI journalist David Lindsay (TMIS, 9 October), describing what he saw on the No.13 bus after the Alleanza Nazzjonali Republikana’s rally in Valletta. Briefly, a group of 20-somethings began to insult a number of black people on this bus.

As despicable as the behaviour of those Maltese men may have been, it would have been just as appropriate for your columnist to have asked Mr Lindsay what he did do on that bus.

Did he stand up, voicing his disapproval? Did he do the right thing of ticking them off? Did he jot down a description of those people involved? – note down the driver’s name and bus licence number – or call the police?

Daphne also wrote that “One should get involved in a situation like this, or face the fact of being no better than those who walk past a collapsed person on the pavement, pretending not to have noticed anything untoward” and “Those who fail to intervene are guilty by collusion”. Is Mr Lindsay therefore “guilty by collusion”? For it seems to me that all he has done is simply report on the situation.

In his article, Mr Lindsay wrote that the majority of Maltese passengers were “visibly appalled and uncomfortable”, with Daphne adding that “if I were on that bus, I would have exploded”. Perhaps Mr Lindsay exploded within the safety of his home or office?

It is all very well to criticise what people should have done in a particular situation from the safety of your office, but what about the people on the bus? Who were the aggressors, and who were the passengers? Not everyone has the same temperament!

Finally, may I add how sick and tired I am of being lectured by the “usual suspects”, drumming it in our heads that we are a xenophobic and racist country. It has now gone beyond education, and has long since entered into the realms of indoctrination, by people apparently too much in love with the sound of their narcissistic thoughts whirling through their heads, as they type their words of contempt for those who don’t agree with them. We may have our share of trouble-makers, but that makes us no different from other countries, nor should it single us out for special criticism.

Hermann Buttigieg

Birkirkara

David Lindsay writes: It must be pointed out that, in contrast to my colleague Daphne Caruana Galizia, who enjoys a free rein to express her thoughts in any manner she deems fit in her opinion column, in my capacity as a reporter I am bound by ethics of neutrality and as such my own personal opinions are not, and will never be, expressed in news reports. In essence my role is to simply report on the situation.

Mr Buttigieg should be informed that my personal opinions were indeed vocalised at the time of the incident but given the content of the ensuing discourse with fellow commuters, they were not appropriate for inclusion in an unbiased news report. If, as suggested by Mr Buttigieg, I had chosen to ‘explode from the safety of my home or office’ I would have certainly preferred to have left my name out of the article in question.

Should Mr Buttigieg be interested in further information on my personal conflict and my vocal reaction to the behaviour witnessed on the bus, he is more than welcome to contact me directly at our offices.