Racism reddens our faces

The more sensible Ranier Fsadni, from the same camp, clearly does not exert much influence on the current strategists of the Nationalist Party. His article appears today on The Times. He should forward it to the Prime Minister:

There is a streak of Maltese racism that has come out more in the open since the incident at the Safi refugee camp two weeks ago. The way the incident has been discussed by some people - in public and in private conversations - has brought out a hostility not just to refugees but to non-Europeans more generally.

Now, Maltese racism should be combated because it is bad in itself. It is a self-destructive fantasy of power and human worth that, by denying full humanity to some people, destroys some of the racist's own humanity. But it is self-destructive in other ways. It threatens our economic future for a start. Being a fantasy that is completely cut off from how today's world is economically organised, racism is a threat to our competitiveness...

The Maltese people began that evolutionary leap into nationhood under the Knights when the population grew from some 20,000 in 1530 to 100,000 in 1798. That rapid population growth on such small islands was effected in part by a transformation of the economy - with our ports becoming hives of trading activity and cross-cultural interaction.

On its own, however, economic growth was not enough. The influx of foreigners was also necessary. It was an influx both routine and at times extraordinary, made up of refugees from the Ottomans, captured enemy soldiers and liberated Christian slaves; their numbers matched or exceeded, in terms of proportion of Maltese population size, those of today's refugees.

What is striking is how completely most of these foreigners - including non-Caucasians - were assimilated: today many Maltese are surprised to learn that we are a "melting-pot" that includes, among others, Jews and Africans. Multi-racialism, like cross-cultural exchange, is the very tissue of our identity as a nation.

Racism reddens our faces...and our balance of payments - the full article by Ranier Fsadni