Malta 2020: Racism Alert

2005 A.D. A man with a walking stick is speaking in front of audience. It’s cold. He is cold. People are agreeing and clapping. A little distance away, a sad child is sowing a seed in the cold soil of a barren field. A man, dressed in black, is hurrying to the square. He is late.

2020 A.D. A young couple, both aged thirty-three, are walking on the seafront at Sliema. They walk past a newsagent. The headlines read, “Riots in Paceville. Three seriously injured”. The seed sown fifteen years earlier has grown into thorn.

2005 A.D. I stand in the library at home in front of my computer. It start thinking as I read the back page of The Sunday Times. The headlines read, “Lowell says immigrants constitute ‘genetic threat’”

Definitely, I don’t like to be a catastrophist, but from what I have seen and heard lately, it seems that in fifteen years’ time, when we will be thirty-three years of age, one of the major problems we may be facing may be racial discrimination.

At thirty-three years of age, we will be forming an active part of the Maltese Society. Some of us would be starting up families whilst others would be furthering their studies. We imagine ourselves in 2020 as standing tall and pretty - and happy.

But happiness may be marred when we realise that the seeds of racial discrimination being sown today may grow into something concrete. Today’s talk may be tomorrow’s action.

Let me give you an example. In fifteen years’ time we may be electing a parliamentary deputy with racist outlooks. Or else we may be faced with some employers that dare to abuse of immigrants and ethnic minorities (the second generation would, by then, be reaching adulthood), just as some do now. These are just possible, but not laudable, situations that may occur in the future - in a future which we will be in control of.

In what kind of future shall we be in control of? What shall our children say about us? Will history books define Lowell’s Safi speech as the start of a long, painful process? Shall we leave the early signs of discrimination, a sour grape that may ripen in fifteen years’ time, unnoticed?

Every question needs an answer. We need foresight in order to face the challenges that lie ahead of us. It is useless postponing action when the grim farmer is already sowing the dark seeds which, at the end of the day we may be harvesting.

Racism is no joke at all. Auschwitz, Rwanda and Bosnia are the sad witnesses of this greatest truth. Today, we are writing the introduction of a long essay which we may, happily or sadly, conclude in fifteen years’ time. It is from today that we must start thinking about our future, which, after all is not so far away. We definitely want our happiness to be safeguarded. We demand to live in an environment where peace and stability make room for prosperity. We want to excel, not be thrown back.

It is for these reasons that we shall not let anyone manipulate our future in a way that it pursues a dark alley. It is for these reasons that we are today being called to take a pro-active action in order to start preventing problems that may appear when we would be in control of our society.

The answer lies within a national conference that the Maltese Government will be organising soon. Let us, youths, meet with today’s players in society and show them our apprehensions about a future of ours that may be marred by unwise decisions of theirs. Let us propose an acceptable future which we will want to live in. Let us start seizing what is ours.

2020 A.D. The young couple buys the paper and read, “A far right group yesterday attacked a bar usually attended by Libyan and Tunisian youths. Five were hospitalised with serious injuries whilst a Libyan aged seventeen was injured to death. Seven were arrested. Magistrate Joe Sciberras was appointed to investigate the case.”

Will this ever happen?

The ball is in our feet