Please, give us a break

Charles Xuereb continues (July 16) to laud the period when our people had to accept being a Mediterranean piracy and slavery centre under the Crusaders’ dictatorship and totally denigrates the British colonial period.

He confirms that our public holidays celebrate only the Sette Giugno episode and the ending of the British connection and that we have no public holiday commemorating deliverance from the terrible misery of the two-year French occupation.

Both our main political parties are responsible for this hypocrisy. The Sette Giugno incident happened at a time when some prominent members of one of these political parties had an ‘Italian colonial mindset’ coinciding with the Italian ‘irredentismo’ movement, which claimed some ‘lost’ territories (including Malta) had to be returned to the motherland.

The Italians have filming showing Maltese (waving “Malta” placards) among the crowds in Piazza Venezia, in Rome celebrating Mussolini’s announcement that Italy was entering the war.

This political party, however, redeemed itself, managing our independence with great diplomacy and on a friendly note with Britain. At the same time, the other main political party became the anti-British one (because of failed ‘Integration with the UK’) and had to invent a public holiday to mark its place in history – hence Freedom Day.

I don’t see why Xuereb should continue justifying his existence by denigrating his fellow countrymen, claiming they’re just a bunch of idiots lacking identity and in a confused state of “British colonial mindset” when he is actually in a “French colonial mindset” and having been rewarded for it by the French Republic.

His obsession with lauding everything French and denigrating everything British emerges again in this paper’s sister daily publication (July 12) where he blames British colonialism for our building chaos.

According to Xuereb, we have imitated London, which he claims has been ruined by high-rise buildings, while Paris, he says, remains in pristine architectural condition. He seems unaware that the Paris suburbs are where the high-rise social housing problems exist and which have been the focus of the recent serious social disturbances. Charles Xuereb, please, give us a break.

ALBERT CILIA-VINCENTI – Attard

Wider reading needed

Once again, Charles Xuereb (July 16) claims that the history of British colonialism in Malta can only be truly understood by reading his own book on the subject and loftily dismisses the “colonial mindset” of those who may find reading it “too daunting”.

Let me recommend two recently published books he may not yet have had a chance to read. Colonialism. A Moral Reckoning, by Nigel Biggar, recently retired from a professorship at Oxford, offers what might be regarded as a more balanced view of Britain’s colonial past.

France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Petain, by Julian Jackson, professor of history at Queen Mary University of London, gives valuable insights into how life in Malta, and Europe’s history, might have turned out if (as Xuereb would seem to prefer) Malta had been governed by France rather than by the United Kingdom during World War II. It is not an encouraging comparison.

ALAN COOKE – Sliema

Declining standards 

Michela Spiteri drew attention in her opinion piece (‘Din dining – can you repeat that please?’, July 9) to the cacophony of mind-numbing music which many diners now endure when visiting restaurant areas across the Maltese islands.

I agree with the writer that the dining experience is being degraded by irritating soundtracks. However, a problem of similar magnitude is the obvious lack of staff training.

I will not name the hostelry, however, upon a recent visit to a supposedly top-rated establishment, my wife and I ordered pre-dinner drinks – one of us ordered a white wine spritzer to which the bartender replied: “I will have to google that.” Yes, seriously. 

It is often said that “when you are in a hole stop digging” but I persevered and also ordered a Pimm’s, to which the bartender’s response was to pour it neat into a liqueur glass.

At this rate of declining standards, staying in will most definitely become the new going out.

JONATHAN CHARD DEELEY – Sliema