Wandering round Sliema with an Italian friend who is employed by the European Commission, I came across a shop advertising “Bajtar ta’ x-xewk ta’ barra”. I thought that this really epitomises the Maltese belief that anything foreign is better!

My Italian friend asked me about “Notte Bianca”. He said, aren’t there words in Maltese for “notte” and “bianca”? I explained to him that the Maltese have lived under foreign domination for so long that they still think that things sound better in any foreign language.

He then went on to ask me why the European Union spends so much money translating documents into Maltese when government notices like applications for planning permission are in English. I gave him the lame explanation that there may be foreign residents who might want to object to these applications. He said, why can’t the one in a thousand foreign resident ask their Maltese friends to translate? I tried to change the subject!

Another thing, he said, why are speeches made by politicians in Maltese translated into English in the papers to be read by Maltese people? My friend is too logical!

But then why am I writing this in English? The reason is that the only papers in Maltese are either political or religious. Maybe, dear editor, you can take the original and mould breaking step of publishing a page in Maltese every week. The language I hear being used in political arguments on the benches on the Sliema front is much more forceful and colourful than the anaemic convent school English that is generally used in your paper!

“Daphne” in Maltese... I look forward to that!

Joe Carachi

Sliema