Time to shed this collective insecurity complex

It invariably sets my teeth on edge when I read about some news item and the inevitable tagline appears: “Only in Malta.”

Granted, we have our share of problems which are particular to an island state, coupled with a laid-back Mediterranean approach towards life, but if you are the least bit aware of what happens in other countries, it becomes quite clear that human nature (and failings) are pretty much the same all over the world.

This is not to excuse or justify what goes wrong, of course, but merely to point out that we seem to excel in grinding our own country down to the ground, taking a perverse sort of grim pleasure in seeing it fail.

Then follows the usual “OMG, how embarrassing, so ashamed to be Maltese” mantra which makes me wonder if people go around blushing and writhing in agony while they cringe and wince at everything that happens. Why does everything which happens in this country on a national scale have to be taken so personally? If someone high up in authority says or does something stupid, why do people practically prostrate themselves on the ground, beating their faces in self-flagellation and wailing in paroxysms of shame?

Remember the famous photo of Speaker Anglu Farrugia texting while waiting in the queue to meet the Pope? It was completely inappropriate of course, but why should I be embarrassed to be Maltese because our Speaker does not know to put his phone away at such a time? There are those who say it’s because he is representing Malta so by extension, if he fouled up, we all look bad, but really I am not that convinced by such an explanation.

I think it has more to do with our national insecurity complex which is constantly, but constantly, craving approval from “others”. Its roots probably lie in our past history where anything Maltese was always considered second grade, of inferior quality and just not quite good enough; to this day if we want to praise something we say “qisha ta’ barra” (it’s like it’s from abroad), whether it’s a song or a product. So, when it comes to our representatives abroad, we still hang on to this same old complex: will “the others” find our politicians “good enough”? Will they be accepted as equals or will they be looked down on as third rate politicos from a backward little island which is struggling to find its own identity?

I’m a firm believer that no one is automatically “better” than anyone else simply because of where they were born. You are who you are, you stand on your own two feet, be fiercely proud of your roots and heritage and you walk into a room confident that you belong there, not cowering in a corner as if you were the uninvited guest who just tagged along at the last minute.

After all, politicians all over the world do and say stupid things all the time – the most extreme example must be Berlusconi, of course, and I suppose there were Italians who felt embarrassed to have him as their head of state – but personally, I cannot understand having such a vested interest in a politician. They are not gods but human beings just like us, so they are bound to make mistakes. Not too long ago, President Obama committed a major gaffe when instead of saluting the Marines as he got off Air Force One, he raised the coffee cup he was holding in his hand towards them. The debate over what came to be known as the “latte salute” went on for days: was he disrespecting the troops? Was it an unintentional slip? Yes, over such inconsequential things are talk shows made of. Tutto ‘l mondo as they say.

But because in the US everything is pretty much fodder for comedy, including the US President, the comedians had a field day.

Here, however, rather than laughing something like that off, we just shrivel up in embarrassment. For example, we get all hot under the collar because the majority of Maltese politicians do not have a good enough accent in English (for which read, they do not sound “upper crust British” enough). But, hello, we stopped being a colony half a century ago, and yes the British English accent has been diluted beyond recognition by now because we have lost the native speakers who used to instill the accent into students and (oh, the horror) American English has crept in instead through cable TV.

But really, isn’t it time we got over this accent/pronunciation hang up? Check out all the dialects and accents throughout the UK and you will find that even there only a small percentage speak like the Queen anyway. Let alone here in Malta where you will find that even some English language teachers have not mastered their vowels (or the “th”).

The fact remains that it is extremely difficult to speak English “properly” unless one has lived in an English-speaking country. (Even those who are fluent have a distinctive Maltese intonation and sing-song cadence, which is eventually even picked up by English language speakers who live in Malta long enough and find themselves adopting the same rhythm). The irony is that many of those who like to mock others about their accents, have an equally distinct Maltese/English accent themselves which would single them out as a foreigner in Britain as soon as they uttered their first sentence.

The rather futile controversy over Zieme, the three-legged horse, is another case in point. Some liked it, others, hated it, but I lost count of the times I read anguished cries followed by multiple exclamation points that the choice of this sculpture at the entrance to the capital was embarrassing and that Malta is culturally bereft, yada, yada, yada. And yet, just this week in the cultural capital of the world, Paris, an inflatable bright green thing (a Christmas tree, apparently) was placed smack in the middle of Place Vendome, looking exactly like a sex toy. There was an ensuing uproar and it was deflated by vandals within a few days.  

So, you see? Gaffes, questionable art, controversy and political blunders happen all over the world. We need to relax and just get used to the fact that we are no worse, and no better, than anyone else.

So stop with all the embarrassment already. It’s embarrassing.