I will remember how an Israeli journalist and novelist who came to see me while on a visit to Malta, explained that he had been pleasantly surprised by the Maltese houses which he had entered and their gardens. They resemble the houses I know in Jerusalem, he said... However the contrast with that city is that in Malta, as soon as you leave the houses, you soon find yourself close to the sea. It was a contrast which he seemed to appreciate.

I was not too amazed with the comparison, since the climate and the natural terrain (or at least what is left of it in Malta) are likely similar in the two countries. It is a pity I cannot check personally on this.

I have never visited Israel. The ways by which the Palestinian people have continued to be treated by the Israeli government persuaded me not to visit, even though such a trip would have a lot to offer.

Meanwhile in Malta, the problem is that those areas which could bear comparison with Jerusalem are dwindling. The gardens are being demolished and the island is being transformed into blocks of fat, square, pseudo-modern barns piled on top of each other. 

*** 

ATTENTIVE

This month in Brussels and Strasbourg, with people out in the streets, I observed almost everywhere a full observance of sanitary rules. Everybody seemed attentive to follow all the health measures in force in order to avoid repeating the fiasco of last year, with a total lockdown for Christmas and the New Year.

In Brussels, restaurants and cafes all shut dwn exactly at the stroke of eleven o’clock at night. All apparently agree that it’s better like so, otherwise things would be worse. On top of which, those without a vaccine certificate are being denied entry to all establishments.

At the time of this writing, Belgium had achieved a major cut of its infection rates. The pressure was growing on those who were refusing to be vaccinated (and of whom, there are many in France and Belgium) to change their mind.

Vaccination apart, which the Maltese people seem to have accepted without complaint, we would have been – so I believe—in a better situation had we demonstrated the same attentiveness and discipline as the Belgian people.

***

SOCIAL HISTORY

A Maltese social history still needs to be written in a comprehensive and wideranging format that would include not only the changes that social policy underwent, but as well a description of how members of the different social strata lived. Certainly attempts were made to break new ground in this regard but they did not provide a continuous account of how social life developed over the decades. In many cases, the perspective adopted was more in the nature of a sketch about some particular aspect of Maltese life or in the life of a given family.

We need more than this. And no doubt we have researchers and historical theorists with the skills to carry out such a task masterfully. In a way, this need for a social history resembles that for a diplomatic history about which I wrote here some time ago.

Yet I would imagine that the history of how the Maltese nation developed socially and culturally, in parallel with the development of political and economic conditions in the Maltese islands, should be considered as the first priority.