Freedom, colonialism and our EU membership

Aleks Farrugia’s philosophical contribution (‘The moral superiority of some PN-leaning writers’, August 14) touched on several subjects. Permit me to comment on a few of them. 

From the recent survey claiming most Maltese are more concerned about their living standards than Ukraine’s desperate fight for freedom from Russian yoke (mind you, we probably still have significant pro-Russian, anti-US and anti-NATO sentiments considering our ‘friends’ in the 1970s and 1980s were dictatorships like Libya, North Korea, China, Iran and Cuba, while our ‘enemies’ were Europe and the US), he goes on to extend his “freedom” derogatory debate to diverse subjects including vaccination, colonialism and the EU.

Farrugia seems to believe vaccination on a national scale was a fascist edict against personal freedom and quotes an anti-vaxxer philosopher for support. But this is the age of science rather than philosophy and, in fact, the European Court of Human Rights had ruled (in an anti-vaccination case from an Eastern European country) that, in a national health emergency, the common good comes before concepts of personal freedom.

Colonialism then comes in for a purely negative one-sided view, presumably aping the local presently ‘fashionable’ narrative that the 164 years of British colonial rule are little more than the ‘Sette Giugno’ incident.  Farrugia, like all other local amateur or professional anti-colonial historians, never lets us into his secret formula of what would have been a better alternative for Malta than being ruled by the most technologically advanced global power of the time. 

Apart from our parliamentary democracy (whether we can make it work now depends on us) and international English, our second official tongue, our usually highly rated medical services are also closely related to our colonial past. 

The main efforts to maintain high medical standards in Malta have not been forthcoming from politicians or philosophers but from successive  medical school deans to maintain close contact with UK medical schools.  Our school still has UK external examiners and the majority of our medical specialists are UK-trained and members or fellows of royal medical colleges.

Malta’s fanatical anti-colonials never convincingly explain in any detail what would constitute better alternative to the EU. Photo: Shutterstock.com

The EU comes next for Farrugia’s criticism.  In 1950s Malta Lyceum (then the top grammar school in Malta and,  possibly, in southern Europe), a history teacher explained to us teenagers how the seeds of the “future United States of Europe” had been sown. 

Ok, many are opposed to this ‘dream’ but, like Malta’s fanatical anti-colonials, they never convincingly explain in any detail what would constitute a better alternative to the EU. ‘Global Britain’, ‘global Germany’, ‘global France’, ‘global Italy’, etc., all again with customs barriers (and hot air, if not worse) between them? 

ALBERT CILIA-VINCENTI – former UK and Malta senior civil servant, Attard

Sirens Aquatic Club

On June 5, I wrote a letter in this newspaper to ask that steps be built to make the new platform running by the external two sides of the Sirens Aquatic Club easily accessible.

I also requested that the toilets be re-opened, and thankfully they have.

We are in the middle of summer, yet nothing has been done about the steps. I appeal once again to the management of the Sirens Aquatic Club, as well as to the mayor of St Paul’s Bay to take action.

DORIS MUSCAT – Mosta 

Better supervision

Like many others, I was greatly troubled when reading about the alleged financial irregularities connected to the parish priest of Marsaxlokk, Fr Luke Seguna.

It is clear to me that supervision of donations and parish expenditure must be improved, for all churches and for charitable organisations, or we may hear of similar or worse incidents in the future.

CHRISTOPHER JOHN LINSKILL – Ħamrun