House of Cards

Patricia Daniel, a senior lecturer at the Centre for International Development and Training of the University of Wolverhampton, shares her thoughts from a recent visit to Malta:

..On Christmas morning, the internet café is the only open place in town. It is packed with young Africans, skyping home, checking emails, surfing for work or accommodation. One is on his mobile, discussing photographs for a new passport. Another has managed to get a short-term job as an electrician. The majority are economic asylum seekers or refugees. Not all are from Libya itself... a jumping-off point for youth from war-torn Somalia and even from Ghana (probably via Gao in northern Mali, a thriving illegal immigration centre which manages several routes out of West Africa).

Public debate has been facilitated, for example through a four-part series in The Times (Malta) by Martin Scicluna (December 13th-16th 2006). A majority of the Maltese population agree that, while appreciating charitable support for refugees from (Catholic) religious orders, they do not wish this to be used as a wedge to open up the island to illegal immigrants..

..Amnesty International’s EU office warns against ‘the deep divide between Europe’s repressive immigration agenda and Africa’s interest in increasing development and opening up legal channels of immigration.’ In Malta, the non-governmental organisation Moviment Graffitti argues from an anti-capitalist position, against the construction of ‘fortress Europe’ and the fact that ‘free movement of capital around the world is accompanied by restrictions on the free movement of people.’

The island is orderly and hospitable. But a holiday on Malta is a neatly packaged reminder that, while separate ideologies may wax and wane, the god ideology remains, rampant. The entire floor of St John’s Cathedral is tiled with giant tombstones for illustrious knights. The guidebook calls it a unique treasure of heraldic devices. The suit of swords predominates, the black eagle soars and death, grinning, holds up the hour-glass. These are not religious symbols. They are the language of the tarot cards, which, though not harmful in themselves, reveal for us the influences which have not yet passed away, that which has been ordained and which has not yet come to pass. ..