The concept of an archaeological museum on the seabed is an excellent one. Personally I will never be one of those who will go down into the depths to visit the place and many others will be in the same position. But that interested divers can descend to the site where the remains of shipwrecks have been deposited and left over the centuries is a very attractive proposal.

If I understood correctly, without creating any problem (indeed the contrary is the case) regarding maintenance of the site to ensure that archaeological researchers can continue with their studies, the area will be open for “tourstic” visits by other divers, just like any other museum.

And for the rest of us who do not have the skill to drop into the depths of the sea, there will now be the opportunity to view from up close in the videos visitors bring up, what is going on down there

Who knows how many shipwrecks are strewn all around the Maltese coastline, dating back many centuries. The problem is – again if I am well informed – that many such wrecks are buried in extremely deep waters.

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MEMORIES OF THE 1960s

In the Labour camp, the 1960s rightly remain signposted as a “heroic” period. On the Opposition side, the leaders of the party but above all the citizens who gave it support had to outface a state power that was set to discriminate against them, hand in hand with a clerical power that subjected them all, and most were practising Catholics, to severe religious and social sanctions.

To a large extent, the men and women who were active in those days are now deceased; even their children have been decimated.

Accounts of the events of that period have been told and retold, from the political, constitutional, religious and economic perspectives. Potted biographies have also been published about Labour activists of that period, even if in a rather episodic manner  or by focusing on some person or other, or indeed sometimes in a rhetorical style that can quickly become monotonous.

What is still needed is a synthetic and objective study of the experiences that the “common” people  lived through in those politically troubled times. While building on the personal experiences of different individuals, the account would evade becoming dominated by them as it would seek to give as wide a social overview as possible of all the available facts.

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MALTESE FOOD

Maltese food is getting greater appreciation than in the past, not least because “official” websites exist to promote it. Television programmes which have also been running cookery competitions in a Maltese setting serve to underpin promotional initiatives which deserve full support.

We sometimes get told that there is no such thing as a Maltese cuisine because the food we traditonally eat simply consists of a promiscuous mix of what gets cooked in other areas of the Mediterrananean. That is one of the myths by which we keep alive the lack of self-esteem that characterizes our national make-up. The Maltese cuisine has developed from the ongoing adaptation of the population of these islands to the physical and material (from the economic point of view) circumstances that prevailed; as well as from the influence of other peoples with whom the Maltese came into contact – and what’s wrong with that?

All the elements of national life that define our identity have to be given their share of importance.