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Friday, January 14, 2005

Zealots

The news from Malta these last couple of days is quite astounding. I refer of course to the unrest at Safi Barracks where refugees are detained until they are granted asylum or deported.

Last year I blogged at least three times about the flood of refugees and illegal immigrants reaching Malta. The first post was about Malta appearance on Amnesty International's 'baddies' list. The next post was a welcome note to the first asylum seekers and other boat people who had just reached Malta as a full member of the EU. And the last post was a clarification about terminology and actual conditions this unsettling phenomenon from a friend of mine who truly knows much more than I do about all this. This week's incidents will most probably land Malta on Amnesty's 'baddies' list for 2005. I wonder how this will be received in Brussels.

Photo by Alfred Giglio
The above picture was taken by Alfred Giglio during yesterday's incidents at Safi and appeared along with others published this morning in The Times.

Protest is never unprovoked. Peaceful protest is the manifestation of a plea for change from people who feel oppressed for one reason or another. And the most violent of protests is known as terrorism (in the broadest sense of the word, since there is no universally accepted definition).

Most violent protest occurs when the suffering protesters either believe that they should govern themselves or feel that rather than voice their opinion against a particular issue they should eliminate the cause of their subjugation. In this way, terrorism is a form of violent protest. I believe that terrorists resort to individual or group terror acts when other avenues for change do not appear as effective. It is my opinion that one way to reduce terrorism is to ensure that where there is a population feeling oppressed, some avenue of problem resolution is kept open, and that both sides see and feel the openness.

It is not my intention to be controversial without cause in this blog entry. All I really want to do is mark this sad moment in Malta's history while raising awareness about something that can potentially escalate into an international scandal. The Prime Minister did the right thing asking for an official inquiry after he saw the pictures by Alfred Giglio. Let's hope that the inquiry leads to radical changes within the way Malta deals with refugees and illegal immigrants very soon.



2 MCs can't occupy the same space at the same time!
It's against the laws of physics.

- Lauren Hill



Blogger Toni Sant said...

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only person blogging about this issue. See also:

Confusion now hath made his masterpiece! by Immanuel Mifsud at http://immanuelmifsud.clarence.com/permalink/181234.html

and

Investigating migrant assaults by Robert Micallef at http://wiredtemples.blogspot.com/2005/01/investigating-migrant-assaults.html 

11:08 AM, January 15, 2005
Blogger BlogFcuka said...

'Astounding' is an understatement - this issue would never had arisen if matters were looked into a very long time ago. You refer to the inquiry - too little, too late - just politics with a last minute token, that's all.

Good Blog, by the way!

Mentioned it on my Blog as well.

Richard. 

12:02 PM, January 20, 2005

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