The shock wave that spread across Malta at around noon yesterday as news of the hijacking of the Libyan plane spread around just cannot be described.
There was also a comic aside: the crowds in Valletta which were beginning to hear about the hijacking suddenly heard police sirens and noise. No one could understand what was happening.
Then they realised the shouting, the running, the sirens were just because of L-Istrina. Meanwhile the plane shunted to a remote area of the airport stood there while the world wondered what was about to happen. Then, as we now know, everything was resolved without bloodshed. The passengers began to deplane and then came the hijackers, not before one of them waved the old Green flag of Gaddafi times.
Then it was over.
It was almost as if the Christmas spirit had overcome any ideas of violence and of mayhem.
The hijacking, however, has made the world realise a simple fact of geography: Malta is very near, too near Libya.
It is easy for Malta to be overtaken by events in Libya. Come to think of it, it is easy, very easy, for a rogue plane to cross over to Malta, just as those two jets had escaped from Libya and came to Malta at the height of the Libyan civil war.
In other words, Malta is too near Libya. It is very exposed to any fallout from Libya.
And Libya is as we know a failed state, crisscrossed by warriors of every hue and at the mercy of ISIS.
All’s well that ends well. It was just a shock, a reminder of the danger to which Malta is exposed, a victim of its own geography.
At the same time, Malta is the foremost outpost of Christian Europe. Its focus these hours is the birth of a Jew in the Near East 2000 years ago, adored as the Son of God.
For all the resemblances between the Maltese and the Libyans, in physiognomy, language, habits, etc, there is a world of difference encapsulated in religion, history, tradition and culture.
This is Malta, so resembling Libya, so different from Libya, but so exposed to anything coming from Libya. We had forgotten this, or we had stopped being aware of this. It is time for us to remember this basic fact of our existence.
Meanwhile the publishers, the editor, the staff of The Malta Independent wish all readers a Happy and Blessed Christmas.