Our government is currently auctioning off more than one piece of our God-given land cultivated by our forefathers with toil and sweat through the ages. In my opinion, a more heinous crime other than the selling of portions of our island nation is the unpardonable sin of the flagrant disposal, a betrayal through secret bargaining, of our birth right, our citizenship.

The god Mammon is grinning merrily, noticing that for a meagre 30 pieces of silver we are defaming our heritage, our citizenship, our nationality. Globalization is partly to blame but the culprit is greed, the desire for gain whatever the cost.

In time, if it persists, and it seems that there is more in the pipeline, it will be the demise of our spiritual combination that distinguishes our heritage, our culture, our language. The distinctive mark of a people with its traditions, customs and religion will be no more. It might take more than a generation, but the end result is there for all to see.

It is inconceivable and mind-boggling how a foreigner after having disowned his nationality and in a sense his birth right has the audacity, with tongue in cheek and a blank cheque, to apply for another nation's birth right.  No due diligence, to which incidentally no one has any access, not even his investments in whatever sector, can justify his presence as a Maltese citizen. We have to preserve our citizenship. Even the vulnerable indigenous isolated tribes of the Amazon rain forests put us to shame when they fight tooth and nail to uphold, maintain and preserve their tradition and their property.  

This year marks the centenary of the birth of one of the most controversial political person of Maltese politics.  Still loved by some but hated by most during his retirement years, this mercurial statesman is not only turning in his grave but banging his walking stick to reprimand and use it if it were possible on whoever debases that most famous phrase he used to end his political speeches - 'Malta l-ewwel u qabel kollox' Malta first and foremost. This patriotic connotation trodden down by his political inheritors is interred with his memories.

 Francesco Simon Mercieca