A good yarn. Enjoyed it. It shows some facets of uniqueness in Maltese life - and some eccentricities and anachronisms. It's all part of Island life and in Malta's case , one filled with a huge history. The Maltese are all products of all this and most are proud of their heritage. I was left wondering though whether Dave Seminara applied too much poetic licence so he can write an interesting story. "Xemxi" st - so does it really exist? Where is it? The Prime Minister of Malta at the time was a man not a woman - his name was Karmenu. The man said to him"....we don't like Arabs". Well, Island people don't really like anyone from anywhere until they meet them and then they're very hospitable. Many Arabs are liked in Malta (like in the US!). Dave seems to delve too much into political comment at the time. I think we better steer away from it. Maltese love nothing better than a good argument about political partisan views. Dave was probably sucked in by the view of one or two people - so as such his comments are one sided albeit, overall, mostly true! People got killed......well! that gives the impression that there were State sanctioned "killings". This is very very debatable. Yes once a bomb was put behind someone's door and a young girl got killed when it exploded.I note the fact Dave went to a Catholic school in Buffalo and his references to the then Maltese Government's antipathy to the Church.Well, again, this and what we make out of it depends on ones view. The strangle hold of the Maltese Church vis a vis the impact on population and Government had to be broken somehow. Maltese are almost as conservative as Americans when it comes to religious views etc Yes Malta is in the EU and overall things have improved ....but many challenges remain. How many, and what to do about them depends on which side of the political spectrum one sits. In that respect Malta is like everywhere else. If all fails you can still have a couple of pastizzi and a coffee cheaper than anywhere else. That's worth something.

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