Taking control back

John Vassallo was a vociferous critic of Brexit and, therefore, I was astounded to read his opinion piece ‘Malta for the Maltese’ (June 11). As a former ambassador to the EU, one assumes that he is familiar with Article 45 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union which enshrined into EU law the free movement of people.

Vassallo is now discovering that there are disadvantages to free movement: large net inflows of people cause infrastructure problems, exacerbate housing crises, add to congestion, compress wages, create ‘brain drains’ and lead to the indigenous population often feeling overwhelmed by a large influx of people from different cultures who often change the nature of an area.

“You can’t have your cake and eat it” Mr Vassallo, unless you decide to take back control.

JONATHAN CHARD DEELEY – Sliema

Maltese trumps all?

John Vassallo’s article, as usual, provides food for thought on a Sunday (‘There will be no Malta left’, June 18). However, while Maltese as a language is certainly important, the lingua franca, like it or not, is English.

Perhaps as we aspire to attract quality tourists, we need to be cognisant of the fact that, today, so many locals struggle to string together a sentence in English.

Indeed, many foreigners in our midst are not only more fluent in English but way more polite. As for Germans, Swedes, et al, irrespective of their public schools, I am certainly grateful that everyone in these places has a decent command of English for the sake of tourists visiting their respective countries.

ANNA MICALLEF – Sliema

Dust storm

Recently, I saw a dust storm while I was in Dingli. When I swept up the dry dust from 20 square metres of a 100-square metre terrace, I weighed it and found 140 grams.

So, 100 square metres would have 700 grams of dry dust, one hectare in the same storm would have 70 kilos and so every square kilometre would have seven metric tons at the same dust fall rate.

We have to ask whether this is harmful to us as we breathe. And what about the effects on agriculture?

I would like to know the opinion of experts on this queston as climatologists may have more to warn us about.

CHRISTOPHER JOHN LINSKILL – Ħamrun

Colonial patriotism

Responding to Albert Cilia Vincenti’s roaming on a theme, I thank him for protracting the debate on Britain’s acquisition of Malta (June 18). The discussion would have benefitted more, however, had he kept to the subject under review rather than attack the singer.

Serious academic research normally focuses on a theme, period or event, hence my two successful publications France in the Maltese Collective Memory (2014/21, Malta University Press) and Decolonising the Maltese Mind, in Search of Identity (2022, Midsea Books), which earned commended reviews in Malta and abroad. Comparisons – though frequently elicited in these works – are best left to intelligent readers.

I could not, however, not condemn a perfidious opinion in the correspondent’s invective when he states that “The Sette Giugno public holiday is a monument to local political hypocrisy and prejudice...”

While offering compensating respect towards the memory of six murdered patriots and numerous wounded on that tragic 1919 event that put Malta on the road to self-governance, a reflection is evoked.

Jean Paul Sartre’s warning words ring so true: “It is colonialism that creates the patriotism of the colonised.”

CHARLES XUEREB – Sliema