Misleading advertising 

I write in response to Mandy Calleja, GO’s head of corporate communications, who wrote about the special package for the elderly (July 31). This package offer is absolutely not as advertised with great pomp and as shown on ONE TV.

I ask the minister to illuminate me and many other elderly persons how we can avail ourselves of this great monetary discount as did the 120,000 he proudly told us have already done.

All that is being offered is a two-year free movie channel, which, quite frankly, doesn’t interest all of us. Correct me if I’m wrong but the translation of roħs is discount but there is nothing of the sort. I was told this on the GO chat and, to confirm, I went personally to their outlet in Mosta to be told exactly the same thing, that it was a misunderstanding in communicating it to the public. Go figure. In this sorry country of ours, nothing ever is as it seems to be.

Obviously, another fake agreement, which probably found itself in the shredding machine soon after the lights went out on the protagonists.

Alexandra Vella – San Ġwann

Due credit to Bonaparte

Bonaparte’s historic signed chirograph on display during an open weekend by the Archbishop’s Curia, in Floriana in 2019.

I must congratulate Joe Bezzina  (August 10) for outdoing my effort in reproducing in his 2002 book Storja tal-Knisja f’Malta General Napoleon Bonaparte’s signed chirograph through which St John’s was conceded to the Maltese Curia for its exclusive use in 1798.

For the record, I made some further research and found that it was actually Joseph M. Brincat who had first published the manuscript in Melita Historica in 1991.

I have to contend with bronze, enjoying my first in a history book in English.

Allow me to add a reflection: public historians like myself who continuously share research and sociological analysis of history with the media, do not ‘brag’ (that is, practise ‘excessively proud and boastful talk about one’s achievements or possessions’) but record fresh findings for others to acquire, enhance or confront as the correspondent had the opportunity to do.

When, in 2012, I had managed to find my way to this unique document at the Ecclesiastical Archives, in Floriana, I was somewhat disappointed to find it in a lowly state, folded in a file on an ordinary shelf. Today, museums and heritage authorities pay thousands to get hold of a signed document by Bonaparte.

However, I was pleased to note that, five years after the publishing of my book France in the Maltese Collective Memory, the Curia, on the occasion of the feast of St Calcedonius, in July 2019, during an open weekend, exhibited this same document in full glory (photo above).

May I appeal to all historians, including Bezzina, to join my ongoing petition to the foundation running St John’s, in which the Curia is strongly represented, to give deserved due to Bonaparte’s unique signed chirograph that historically has permitted this magnificent temple to belong to the Maltese people by permanently displaying it in St John’s museum. Omission equals manipulation.

Charles Xuereb – Sliema

Overboard 

In his article ‘League of shame’ (July 31), Revel Barker went grossly overboard when he compared Malta to the countries he mentioned.

I’m one of the majority of Maltese people who deplore the actions of the few who tarnished Malta’s good name but feel that Barker’s article is an insult to our beloved country.

I suggest Barker be nominated for the Ġieħ ir-Repubblika award for his disrespectful article towards the island he chose as his home.

Alfred Gauci – Sliema

Climate change

Among the constant prophecies of doom we hear about climate change, are there any crumbs of comfort?

Might, for example, some parts of the globe become more amenable to human settlement and the pursuit of industry, farming and agriculture? And if not, may we know why not?

Alan Cooke – Sliema

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