Alien? No, resident

I have been happily resident in Malta for the past year. However, it was not until recently that it was pointed out to me that the 'A' after my ID card number stood for 'alien'! In The Concise Oxford Dictionary the term 'alien' has, in this regard,...

I have been happily resident in Malta for the past year. However, it was not until recently that it was pointed out to me that the 'A' after my ID card number stood for 'alien'!

In The Concise Oxford Dictionary the term 'alien' has, in this regard, some distasteful multiple meanings: differing in nature; out of harmony; repugnant; and being of another world...

I can assure you and your fellow citizens, that I most certainly am not from 'another world', and I have not been, certainly in recent years, found repugnant! The term 'alien' has, since Ridley Scott's chilling sci-fi blockbuster of the same name, taken on a wholly unacceptable meaning in this context.

Replacing the 'A' with an 'R' (for resident) might be more acceptable, though as I, in common with yourself, am a citizen of the European Union, I cannot see any reason for distinction.

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