Odious comparisons

I completely agree with all that John Vassallo wrote (August 13) in reply to the Chinese ambassador’s letter in the Times of Malta. I felt like doing so myself but Vassallo is eminently more qualified and more learned and I am certain that he has reflected in his letter the sentiments of the majority of the Maltese people.

On a different note, he said he’s proud to belong to the EU and referred to independent Malta – a contradiction in terms.  ‘Independence’ means free from outside control and not subject to another’s authority. Malta is, of course, subservient to EU laws and under the control of unelected commissioners, who, from time to time, send some non-entity to Malta to investigate corruption, when really they know Malta is irrelevant to anything that goes on in the (itself corrupt) EU.

It was also disingenuous for Vassallo to, for some incomprehensible reason, use the UK and Scotland becoming independent (which he obviously knows nothing about) as some sort of analogy. Thank God the UK dumped the EU and reclaimed its independence and it’s no longer subsidising corrupt countries (predominantly Malta) within the EU.

Perhaps Spain and Catalonia, which are within the EU, would have been a more apt comparison but, of course, Vassallo, who tells us he is a past ambassador to a number of EU countries, well knows that that might have upset his EU pals and brought the wrath of Spain and the EU down upon our islands and generated another attempt by Catalonia to declare UDI.

Oh, how I’d have loved to have seen that. Sometimes it’s best to stick to what one knows best.

Paul Brincau – Uxbridge, UK

Memories of Comino

It is tragic to witness the environmental degradation of Comino, countenanced by the prime minister’s “right balance” in favour of the commercial exploitation of the tiny and fragile island.

There was a time when Comino was accessible from Malta only by those who had their own motorboat – and not many did.

Comino is no longer a tranquil island.

The first time I visited Comino was in the early 1960s, when I went for an excursion to the island together with the Jesuits, thanks to a benefactor who provided his yacht and his own pilot to take us there.

We visited the island on a Wednesday afternoon in August and we had the Blue Lagoon all to ourselves. It was delightful to swim in the crystal-clear sea in such a pristine, secluded location.

This is sharp contrast to the current degradation of Comino, as shown in the video footage by Moviment Graffitti. The video shows a boatful of visitors arriving on Comino, one of many “large boats arriving and depositing hundreds of tourists” every day; a crowded beach; dozens of deckchairs and umbrellas; kiosks and billboards; rubbish all over the place; and dozens of yachts moored in Comino’s inlets.

When I spent a day at Comino in the summer of 1984 on my brother’s yacht, while on holiday in Malta from Canada, there were only about five yachts moored at Comino. The island was then as tranquil and peaceful as it had been in the 1960s. There were no Captain Morgan cruises and no commercial activity.

On one occasion in the late 1960s – when tourism in Malta was in its infancy – I went to the cinema to watch a Hollywood movie which was set in an over-populated future. In one episode, hordes of tourists descended from a boat on an arid, Mediterranean island, similar to Comino, and roamed all over the place.

I thought to myself: “Is this the way it’s going to be in Malta in the future?”

Unfortunately, this is the way it has turned out to be in Malta and in Comino as well.

John Guillaumier – St Julian’s