My mother tells me I'm an EU citizen now...

Messages of congratulations from friends and well-wishers have been coming in by the dozens over the past day or so. This is one of the first experiences of having Malta as a full member of the European Union that will probably remain with me for years to come, especially because I was not in Malta to witness any of the accession celebrations.

I just shared this with the aboutmalta.com newsletter subscribers, but I'll be back later today or sometime tomorrow with some more thoughts about all this.

Here we go!

I was hoping that my next entry would be about how wonderful it is that Malta is joining the EU as a full memeber. Still, I now realize that this blog will be highlighting those issues that are somewhat more controversial than the simple spins given by partisan politics.

So, were you surprised by this news headline today?
Malta put on illegal European wildlife trader route
By MaltaMedia News - Apr 27, 2004, 09:20 CET

It's too early in the morning here in New York for me to engage in further discussion of this matter, but I believe this news item speaks volumes as we prepare to celebrate Malta's accession to the EU!

It is not my intention to be a pessimist who spreads negative thoughts or energy. I think that something like this is a realistic wake-up call to the proverbial reality: all that glitters is not gold.

First Blog at MaltaMedia

Well, here we are! This is the first blog experience for us at the MaltaMedia Online Network. I have taken on the role of the first MaltaMedia blog writer for two reasons: (a) I would never ask someone else to do something I'm not willing to do myself, and (b) I love a challenge. Perhaps I have also been convinced that having a blog is something I will enjoy.

My plan is to write comments about news items and other things published by the MaltaMedia Online Network. However, from time to time I may even write about things that are not directly related to any of that.

I'll be right back as soon as I have something else to say.