The event of the week was the José Carreras concert at the Palace Square. It was beautifully organized. I do admire people who have the gumption to go in for this sort of event. I wouldn’t do it if you gave me back even half my weight in chocolate. A dinner party for ten, leaves me prostate for days on end. It was a most enjoyable evening with all that lovely spaghetti music to delight us. Marechiare, Piscatore è Pusilleco, Passione, Guapparia, Vurria, Silenzio Cantatore and the wonderful Musica Proibita: ‘Ogni sera di sotto al mio balcone/Sento cantar una canzon d’amore.’…Oh quanto è dolce quella melodia…I recall my mother singing it, while she was making jam tarts or possibly stuffing a chicken… What a pity that I am not even a bath crooner anymore.

Our Lydia Caruana rose very much to the occasion with her Vilja o Vilja and so on and her duets with Carreras. Someone present told me he felt she was singing especially for him. Well, perhaps she was. She has a great capacity for flirtation, which I suppose is an asset in an artist. They were generous with their encores and sang four or five arias. The orchestra conducted by Carreras’ nephew David Giménez played well and I particularly enjoyed the Intermezzo from some opera or other by Jiménez – never heard of him. And we all, all love the Intermezzo from Cavalleria. The only grumble I heard was that Carreras sang no arias from opera. I can’t say that I particularly minded but the more sophisticated expected a few from a tenor of his stature. This was a strictly ‘bums on seats’ concert and a most enjoyable experience.

Another occasion was the ceremony at the French ambassador’s residence for an award by the Institute for Maltese Culture set up in 1998 by Marie-Amelie Gleizes-Dewavrin and the Institute of Cellular Pharmacology which came into being in the same year and was set up by Dr Gilles Gutierrez and Charles Saliba. The scientists discovered a new molecule for therapeutic use and called it Maltandianol. I ran an interview about this in First with Dr Guierrez which you may remember. One of the main objectives of ICP is commercialising science. So ICP in collaboration with the IMC decided to establish an award. This prize rewards the expression of creativity dedicated to the enhancement of humanity, and is to be bestowed yearly either in the field of scientific or artistic achievement. The award is of Euros 10,000 and this year’s recipient is Professor Carmelo Agius.

Professor Agius, who gave a witty speech comes from a family of seven children. He was requested by the Maltese government to return from Britain, where he was working, to organise the teaching of marine biology specialising in fishing husbandry and aquaculture. Following this the fish farming industry was developed in Malta.

Prof. Agius has a number of achievements to his name. He is also taking part in the creation of a training centre in Guatemala to train future engineers in the field of Marine Biology and Fisheries. The work is carried out on a voluntary basis and in collaboration with a young Maltese missionary. In his speech Prof. Agius said that “for the past two years I have been following the work of a young Maltese missionary priest in inland Guatemala where living conditions can be pretty desperate. This priest has built a school, community centre, introduced the internet etc. It is my intention to use this money to improve the teaching of science subjects in these communities and to set up useful projects for the communities such as subsistence fish production projects.”

It is always so heartening to meet altruistic people as opposed to the money grabbing variety who think they are going to live forever and simply want to accumulate more and more of everything without contributing anything to humanity. Madame Dewavrin and the ICP directors certainly do not fall into the category. She has been far too generous and in my opinion, sometimes spending ridiculous amounts on projects which were not worth while: for example taking a Maltese opera to France, money which, in my view, could have been better spent on more deserving ideas.

Professor Agius is on the trot a great deal of the time, by his own admission. Sometimes he simply meets his wife at the airport while he is in transit. All those years ago, Professor Agius, had the vision to study the diseases of fish – there must be a technical word for it but who cares. It was a subject never explored in Malta and with that knowledge he was instrumental in setting up the fish farms (like them or hate them. I now visualise those poor immigrants hanging on to the tuna pens whenever I eat a fish). But he is now using his knowledge to improve the living conditions of a community in Guatemala with the award money. I find that very noble.

When the Evans Laboratories first opened I was assistant librarian there and running the science library. I knew nothing about science at all but enjoyed the experience. At the time the teaching staff was largely made up of expatriates a couple of whom I am still in touch with. They still follow the fortunes of their former students with great interest. One of them emailed me recently and gave me news of a couple of Maltese he taught in those far off days: “Michael Chetcuti is professor of Chemistry at Strasbourg University – perhaps he benefited from some of my lectures! Raymond Agius is a professor at Manchester University… what a distinguished lot of students.” Just as well this former lecturer, now 75, is unable to see the shameful state of the Evans Laboratories which was built by Colonial, Development and Welfare funds. It is a disgrace and looks like a chicken pen in some abandoned village in China. How can any government allow a building like that, next to the beautiful Mediterranean Conference Centre, look so unkempt? Surely it can be brightened up with far less money that the driver of Dr Louis Galea is alleged to have earned, according to Parliamentary reports.

When it comes to altruism I also want to add a little piece about yesterday’s Tista Tkun Int. I was hooked on the story of Joanna who had to undergo a hip operation when she was eight and a Dr Bruce Salter in Canada offered to operate her although her parents could not pay for the operation. Joanne is now happily married with four children but her greatest wish was to go and thank Dr Salter personally for giving her a life. And Colin and Rachel were able to make her dream come true as through a devoted nurse who also took care of Joanne, all those years ago, they went to the Sick Kids hospital (yes, it is called that) and found Dr Salter, now 82 and still sharing his knowledge and looking after sick children. He was marvellous and explained how research led to a procedure by which children born with developmental dysplasia of the hip could be cured, the procedure is named after him and is known as the Salter procedure. He said how he had done hundreds of similar operations on children from all over the world, many of them for free. “I did not go into medicine to make money but to help others.” If only more of our doctors could say that! It was a very touching story and I found myself in tears.

Dr Tonio Borg keeps on repeating that Minister Censu Galea is honest. I do not think that there is any doubt at all that he is honest. I always considered him to be a man who got on with his job in his own quiet way. One simply cannot dislike him as one can at least a couple of the other

ministers/parliamentary secretaries, because of their style or sheer arrogance. However, Mr Galea’s recent behaviour has disappointed me tremendously. Honest he may be but sins of omission, especially in his position, are almost as serious as sins of commission. Pontius Pilate too, did not think Jesus Christ should have been put to death, but he washed his hands and let him be crucified anyway. It was the behaviour of a coward and certainly not that of a man who had any principles. Tapes or no tapes, allegations or otherwise, I am afraid that if what has been reported is true then Mr Galea too, has committed a grave sin of omission. If you are made aware of certain practices in your ministry and you choose to turn a blind eye and ignore them, in order not to rock the boat, that is despicable. And treating journalists with the kind of disrespect that we witnessed on television simply made matters worse for Mr Galea. It is not the journalist who went down in our esteem but Mr Galea and his grimaces at the camera. How silly, how offensive and what a total lack of respect. Can you imagine a person in his position getting away with that in any other country in Europe? He would have been hounded by even more journalists and probably made to resign. Respect is something that is being trodden underfoot in this country. Does Mr Galea really think that he will get away with behaviour of that kind? And then we had another show of disrespect with Dr Louis Galea banging a door in the face of a One TV journalist simply because he did not want to answer some very valid questions. Again, it was not the journalist in question who came out badly of this one but Dr Galea. Only those blinded by the colour Blue do not want answers to the allegations made by Dr Sant in parliament, about these two Galeas.