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THE GOZO TIMES - The Times of Malta - 14th June 2004
Grotesque Gozitans?
In all honesty, I have enjoyed reading Daphne Caruana Galizia’s columns for many years (even occasional bouts about troubles with the Gozitans!), and will probably continue to do so. However, her latest broadside against Gozo and its culture (published in a recent Sunday paper) was very hard to swallow. It appeared so incredibly saturated with hatred for all things and beings Gozitan that one could almost be inclined to take it for tongue-in-cheek, maybe in order to stir up some discussion. Almost!
On second thoughts, could it be that something awful has happened to Daphne in the past that caused some kind of paranoia, marring her perception of Gozo and its inhabitants forever? Then again, perhaps her editor simply asked her to fill a page about murders in Gozo – that’s quite a few words to produce! The more I ponder the possible motives behind her outbreak, the more I really would like to know!
Some people are laying in wait for this bout of mine. Having repeatedly – and heatedly – discussed the mentioned article, they are now expecting me to shoot back in defense. I really want to try not to do that; it’s tempting though. Actually I’m not into ladies’ mud-wrestling contests, and more importantly, I don’t see what good it would do to get into some senseless polemic about which island has the worse people. After all, it takes all sorts of people to populate the world; show me a culture that is free of “undesirable elements”!
Suffice to say, I have lived in Gozo for more than two decades, coming from an even larger island than Malta (although Berlin was then surrounded by a wall rather than water), and to this day have not regretted the decision to settle here.
Nobody can claim that I have just scratched the surface of local life. I’ve been living in the thick of it and have seen the good, the bad and the ugly, so to speak. A couple of “friends” ceased being friends as soon as I stopped being the paying tourist. I was just glad I realized in time, and then got on with my life. Two somewhat frightening incidents of xenophobia during my early years in Gozo were the only really bad experiences I ever had, apart from my car window being broken to facilitate the theft of my car stereo. But wait, that one happened in Valletta – and in broad daylight, too. I even know a handful of people who had the same thing happening to them – worse even, because their car was gone altogether. Never in Gozo, mind you, but in various locations in Malta.
According to Daphne’s rule of prejudice, the following should be deduced from these experiences: half the Gozitan population is only after my money, the remaining half hates me, and all Maltese are robbers and thieves. What nonsense.
Alas, Daphne applies her rule further, and that’s where it really does get weird: Saying that people who – for whatever reason –gave her wrong directions to a lunch date would keep knowledge about a murder to themselves, is a pretty hideous assumption. According to Daphne the poor girl that was recently rescued from a balcony in Mosta was lucky not to have been kept in these conditions in Gozo, because the neighbours would have kept quiet about it. I can’t help thinking that her Maltese neighbours did a pretty good job of it themselves, continuously feeding her secretly (!) without any further intervention!
But to liken the Gozitan culture to the “creepy weirdness” of the Nadur carnival is the icing on the cake. Were the spontaneous carnival being held in Mqabba or Qormi, she would probably speak of its “wonderful uninhibited creepy weirdness” because after all, that’s what carnival is – and should be – all about.
I fully agree that Gozo is not another country. But a separate region, or district, it definitely is. It remains an undeniable fact that it is isolated by “that narrow strip of water” – a barrier at best, insurmountable at worst of times. And that is precisely why Gozo is in need of tailor-made policies as well as its own presentation in the cabinet.
Other countries would painstakingly try to preserve a gem like Gozo. But Malta is able to produce partisan attitudes to about every trifle subject under its hot sun. In this country, where even poor Harry Potter becomes a controversy, and chocolate manufacturers are attacked for their fresh approach to marketing, some silly sort of rivalry – quite like that between young, immature siblings – prevents people to think of solutions to problems which don’t affect the majority.
Well, while I’m still hopeful that there are other Maltese out there who see us Gozitans in a different light and recognize Gozo as what it really is, I do look forward to reading some more pleasurable columns by Daphne!