Mind your language

The Labour Party is calling the Nationalist government "old and tired" (xih u ghajjien).

Quite naturally one expects that politicians do not trade only compliments between them. Harsh words are part of the game, especially in the run-up to a referendum and an election. But there are words and words.

We were under the impression - now proved to be false - that our cultural advancement has been such that the word xih should not be used to insult someone. We thought that xih in our culture denotes a category of people that deserve everybody's respect.

The Labour Party should leave our xjuh alone and not use the term as an insult to be hurled at its political adversaries. Politicians as people in a position of role models should more than others beware of how they use words, especially when they are using them in a negative way.

Mind your language, please!