I refer to the Youtube video ‘Potato blood in my veins’ which was uploaded on timesofmalta.com on May 2. On one of our German holiday trips my wife and I made, driving from Hamburg to Hanover, we arrived at about 8pm at our hotel all tired and weary after a day’s driving, we threw our luggage into our room and went down for a dinner.

I do not know why Maltese potatoes have a red cross of the Knights of St John

Having sat down, a smart chef came and told us what he has for dinner that evening. We had just seen the menu, but he spoke only of his two special dishes an Eintopf, which is a stew eaten as a main meal made with meat, vegetables, and potatoes and an Auflauf, which is similarly a baked casserole made with variety of savory sweet ingredients, again with a mixture of baked meat, vegetables and potatoes.

However what impressed us most was the fact that, he made a very big fuss about his new crop of potatoes, their Maltese origin and their high quality and seasonality. When we told him we are Maltese, he was most impressed and out came the German sparkling wine and the violins to celebrate his stews made with Maltese potatoes, for his Maltese clients. We could not distinguish between Eintopf and Auflauf and asked him to give us his best choice, which he indeed did very willingly.

With sparkling wine flowing we soon got our German stew. We were not told which one it was, but the Maltese potatoes were the highlight of the evening. He later asked us whether we liked his cooking and on the way out to our rooms, he even greeted us by showing us half a sack of Maltese potatoes, with a red Maltese cross on it.

I do not know why Maltese potatoes have a red cross of the Knights of St John. The Maltese cross is identified as the symbol of an order of Christian warriors known as the Knights of Malta. It came to be identified with Malta, is one of its national symbols and is used on practically everything from aircrafts, old currency as well as the latest euro coins introduced in 2008.

The ownership of this cross, however, lies exclusively in the hands of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta or the Knights of Malta, with an address in Rome, Italy. They are the modern continuation of the original order which operated from Rhodes until they came to Malta from 1530 to 1798, when they were ejected by Napoleon.

We Maltese give this cross to many people in a system known as the ‘Members of the Xirka Gieh ir-Repubblika’. Top most on this list was Muammar Gadhafi, who had his award withdrawn in 2011, and a whole list which includes Kim Il Sung, Jose Manuel Barroso, Susanna Agnelli, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Her Majesty Queen Sofia and about 70 others.

Why should we place this cross on Kings, Queens, coins and sacks of potatoes, when it is not the property of the Maltese nation?