One of the best journalists at Union Press or better still of l-Orizzont, Victor Vella was in the news after receiving an anonymous letter, presumably because of his writings about immigration. Certainly he did not receive a Thank You letter. Whoever wrote the letter told him to leave his country together with his wife and their two adopted Ethiopian children.

I agree with the Institute of Journalists that in this day and age, such types of letters do not impress and this form of threat only damages the person or persons who do them. Whoever is behind this threatening letter thinks that he or she is a bully, when in reality this person must have serious psychological problems.

My first reaction to this letter would be how does one dare to intrude on the privacy of any family in this manner? What are we coming to? How dare any citizen threaten a fellow Maltese citizen and his family with leaving the country because he or she has adopted Ethiopian children?

Mr Vella’s move to publish the letter was sensible. In so doing, he shows that he is not impressed by such threats. Furthermore this incident goes to show that the current psychology, where people wanting to take a firm stand, is to resort to anonymity because they do not have guts. From the way this letter was written, in Maltese, the person who wrote it is still young and relatively well-educated.

Those individuals who are in the public eye, irrespective of their functions, are destined not to please everyone. I too have received subtle threats related to my job including being accused that I am not a good history lecturer because of my direct way of writing. Be that as it may, those who do want to agree with one’s chronology of facts, are always going to be annoyed. Unfortunately the majority prefers only to hear or read only facts, which suits its ears. But that is not the role of a historian or a journalist.

This letter confirms that there is no room for individuals who hide behind pseudonyms in the press. This includes those writing in public blogs. People should not be afraid to express themselves in public. It is by expressing ourselves under our name that the culture of “omerta’” is destroyed. It is not an issue of “ad rem” arguments, that by declaring who you are, you may risk a riposte from the person you are criticizing. The only manner to combat such nastiness is to challenge this mentality and culture by continuing to write in one’s usual style.

Corrupted minds want to act in darkness. It is only by exposing such corruption that these sick minds will become vulnerable, however much they want to be part of the onorata’ societa’. Rightly so, St. Augustine describes the behaviour of these types, in chapter 7 of his Confessions as “bloated with pride”. By exposing their wickedness, one would not only be infringing on corruption but also destroying the image of purity that they want to convey to society.

For St Augustine, sin starts with the corruption of the human will. Once the human will becomes corrupt, then, the mind starts thinking that it is strong enough to enforce its thoughts and desires on others; wishing that all agree with these thoughts and desires. Those who dare to disagree are invited at first to leave or accused of being academically incompetent. Once in power, these types of individuals will force their way through.

Perhaps the best thing for this anonymous species is to go back to school and learn some history. Both Ancient and recent history teaches us that there is no pure race. Perhaps the scientific work of Franz Boas will come in handy to the writer of this letter. Obviously, I presume that he or she believes he/she is a pure Maltese Aryan. Nonetheless, in all probability, this individual would not like the scientific findings of Boas. Possibly this individual would be too ignorant even accept ancient history and civilization. I would not state that potentially we have here again another David Irving, the denier of the holocaust et al. I do not wish that the author of this letter to finish in jail as was the case with Irving. Jail is not a solution in such situations. But I honestly hope that thanks to the reaction of our civilized society, the perpetrator may realize that by such writing, he or she is only making a fool of himself or herself.