Malta's sun, sea and sand beckon, but are not all that await some tourists.

‘Holidays in hell’ programmes make riveting TV. We all have that sense of Schadenfreude as we watch family X from Manchester or Munich coping with disastrous plumbing, sewage outflows on the beach, cockroaches, indelible stains on hotel bed mattresses, stomach churning food or worse.

Below is a round up of the main issues that come to the fore when you search Malta’s bad tourism press online. We’ve hand-picked a small selection of some of the worst, but indicative comments. They make colourful reading of individuals’ views. The other side of the story? This site has a great deal on the plus points to the Maltese Islands.

Of course, one man’s holiday hell is another’s holiday happiness. Also, the more reviews you read, the more confused you can be. The majority of reviews are about particular service providers. A hotel or taxi experience may be negative, but be included in a review with glowing comments on the general atmosphere of Malta (i.e. warmth of people and place). Then, there are the aspects of Malta (cultural and environmental mostly) that tourists may not be aware of on an average holiday, but which could colour their stay if they knew of them.

One reviewer said of his accommodation:”…if you don’t spend very much time in the hotel, you will be all right in Malta.” In fact, if you read accommodation reviews, a lot of visitors tend to rate their hotels as at least a star below the category awarded. Another trend we found was that visitors who had a Maltese friend to show them around had a far better time in Malta on the whole. For those who don’t, we hope you’ll find information on this site to equip you.

Online reviews are unmediated by and large, and you may opt to agree with the review that fits your prejudices. As one reviewer put it: “Malta has a unique character; many love it, many don’t.” The very worst we came across was this one: “Steer clear of this knackered holiday resort. The whole island needs a face lift, tummy tuck, liposuction and botox.” Ironically, Malta has a growing niche in medical tourism.

Make of the following what you will. Just because we’ve posted it here doesn’t mean that we agree with all of it!

Beaches

“Small and a bit grubby, but not bad.”

“The best beaches were reasonably secluded. The abundance of ‘artificial’ beaches is high; sometimes it’s like being on a building site with dusty sand. The amount of quality beaches is very low, they are very small. It is advisable to steer clear of any of the decent beaches on a weekend. They are packed out.”

Our view: If you are town-bound, and don’t have wheels – car or bus it – then you may end up on artificial beaches. While Malta’s beaches aren’t the largest in the Med, most are in rural areas, surrounded by garrigue. The main ones have upgraded and include copious litter bins and a lifeguard service in peak months.

Holiday Resorts & Towns:

Sliema: “An ugly places on an ugly island. ….Sliema appear[s] glamorous in brochures but in reality disappoints… [it's] characterised by bleak, unimaginative, grey buildings many of which are empty.”

“Some might say that the best thing about Sliema is that you can get away from the place quite easily.”

“The pleasure [of walking the strand] was diminished a little, though, by having to remain alert at all times to the presence of dog excrement on the pavements.”

“A strip of concrete a mile wide pushes up against the rocky coastline; there are no sandy beaches. There are a couple of lidos but they are small and I couldn’t see how spending the day at one would be much fun.”

“Valletta was quite impressive (especially from the outside), but a little tired and dirty inside.”

Qawra & Bugibba: (A coastal destination in the North of Malta.) “The gutter of Malta! It’s a large concrete jungle, full of sunburnt people who frequent local restaurants t-shirtless. It really is all concrete! Hotels and apartments, no greenery whatsoever.”

Our view: Malta’s Mediterranean coastline has it urban jungles just as do Spain, the Balearic Islands, Sicily, and so on. But, it also has old village cores with charm, grand palaces, baroque and medieval cities, and surprisingly quite a bit of countryside (though summer visitors or those without a car probably don’t venture there).

Nightlife

“The proliferation of very low class pubs and clubs who serve watered down spirits is 100%, the cost of alcohol is high, the volume of ‘music’ – it really is offensively and pointlessly loud everywhere you go…”

“The Paceville nightlife area is a Chav and hooker filled disaster zone.”

Our view: There’s more to Malta’s nightlife than Paceville, which we feature here. For nightlife, there are jazz bars and festivals, summer season of cultural events, opera (in Gozo even!), and barely a weekend in Valletta without some decent drama. If you fancy an alternative to Paceville bars, read here.

Timeshare touts

“The first morning, we hadn’t been out of the apartment 5 minutes when we were grabbed by another timeshare rep to view a new development nearby. They blagged [our friends] that they could trade timeshares if they liked it, which later turned out to be more or less a total lie unless they wanted virtually nothing back for what they have now. A morning and half an afternoon wasted when we could have been on the beach or something.”

“Do not treat these creatures [timeshare touts] as a joke. They are at best a pain in the butt. I used to think I was relatively bright, but I got caught. I will not be returning to Malta anytime soon. It leaves a nasty taste in my mouth just thinking of the place.”

Our view: Timeshare is a valid contributor to Malta’s tourism/property mix, but not if its representatives are anything other than professional. Anyone witnessing or being at the receiving end of unacceptable behaviour by timeshare reps may report the incident to the MTA (info@visitmalta.com or 2291 5400) or by lodging a complaint at the nearest police station.

Hunting

“Visit Malta? Not b….y likely! For many environmentally-aware tourists (particularly those of us with binoculars permanently round their necks) the Mediterranean islands that make up Malta are well-known for all the wrong reasons: for migratory birds Malta is part of the southern European “killing-fields” where the slaughter of every [bird] continues as if the 20th Century (let alone the 21st) never happened.”

“I would not set foot on Malta with my tourist pounds untill they make efforts to stop this slaughter. I would love to go to Malta and shoot the birds myself….with a camera.”

Our view: We know people who boycotted holidaying in the States when George Bush Jnr was in office; similarly tourists can be conscientious objectors to several issues in a lot of holiday destination countries, including Malta, on account of the bird hunting and trapping practices here. We sit firmly in the anti-hunting camp.

Food

“The general standard of hygiene in restaurants is poor, the quality of food is low.”

“We had an ‘English’ breakfast in the resort bar. 5/10. It was greasy and the baked beans were out-of-the-tin stone cold. We bought fruit and cereal and didn’t bother again.”

“That night’s dinner was a disaster [at a restaurant in St Julians]. The boys argued with the manager about the food they didn’t eat and got the bill reduced, but it was still an expensive mistake.”

” Beware – most restaurants offer the usual fare of chips and pizza; in fact the resort [Bugibba] is targeted at the English, though not all of us want crap food.”

Our view: Everyone can have a dodgy, rip-off meal anywhere. Stick to tourist areas (in most destinations) and meal variety, value, quality and so on is often compromised. But, do your homework on some restaurants, work out what local Maltese fare is all about, and you can have some great meals out.

Photo: Karl Micallef

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TLC by ELC means Malta's roundabouts are oases of green

The place to find green all year round in Malta isn’t the countryside, but our manicured urban areas. Here, roundabouts sport neat turf, irrigation sprinklers (sometimes on in the full heat of summer at 1pm for some reason), evergreen trees and a variety of annual colour – flowering rosemary, gaudily bright pelargoniums and various bedding plants.

The area of even turf can be so large on some roundabouts that kids in the back of my car often remark that they’d make tempting places to play football. Pitches here are Astroturf or gritty dust bowls usually.

Where do Malta’s green fingers come from?
The colour and variety of our roundabouts changes almost monthly as the public-private cooperative, Environmental Landscapes Consortium (ELC), that maintains them, seems to have a constant supply of seasonal plants from its Wied Incita Nursery on the Attard-Mdina/Rabat road. And, of course, replanting all the time keeps people nicely employed. I do wonder at tender pansies out in late February when they can be beaten down in an instant by the vicious rains and high winds we can still have this time of year.

A delight for drivers
Since Malta has large urban areas, with towns cheek by jowl, and a high density of cars on the road per head of population (Malta ranks 5th worldwide for cars per 1,000 people) we drivers spend a lot of time crawling along. So, we’ve have come to appreciate the greening of our urban landscape that has been going on since 2003 when ELC started up. For an interesting read on Malta’s car density issue, click here, and scroll down.

The approach to Valletta along St Anne street, Floriana is always a riot of colour despite registering some of Malta’s worst emission and particulate pollution. The roundabouts in Qormi, another heavily urban area, are a welcome sight as are the planted-up central reservations on the Regional Road. Even several countryside verges have had a make-over.

We’ve also bougainvillea attempting to clad the unsightly walls on the Kappara hill part of the Regional Road. How they will be watered in so dangerous a place till their roots find solace deep below Tarmac, I don’t know.

Urban safety first, urban plants second
In fact, the only negative thing I can say about the whole urban verge and roundabout greening is the traffic hazard posed by the badly parked vans of the maintenance staff or bowsers. It’s quite common to round a bend or emerge from a tunnel and suddenly find a maintenance van parked in your lane without prior warning. A few cones aren’t enough; we need notices saying ‘lane closed, men at work in 500m’, to give us time to change lane safely and avoid screeching to a halt with the potential of a mass of ‘front-to-rear’ bumps. I am waiting for the day an ELC man or a bowser guy is mowed down too.

We like the green, but with a few more cones, some commonsense and caution, we’d like the greening that much more.

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It's OK, the real live wave is coming soon

Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Malta, scheduled for April 17-18, is to celebrate the 1,950th anniversary of the shipwreck of St Paul (Malta’s patron saint) on the islands in A.D. 60. Malta will be his 14th trip overseas since becoming Pope and makes an ideal visit outside his home territory.

Malta is near (an hour from Rome); has a population that’s stated as being 98 per cent Roman Catholic, and is guaranteed therefore to give him a vociferously warm welcome; is safe (little likelihood of the allegedly deranged leaping barriers to have a go at him); and it has a history steeped in defending the faith (as home to the Knights of St John for around 250 years).

There are also the benefits of Malta that most tourists enjoy – Malta’s compact size means the Pope, according to his published programme, will pass through some 33 parishes (just under half the total). The Popemobil won’t stop in all of course. During the visits of Pope John Paul II (1990 and 2001), many parish priests were disappointed, to put it mildly, as all they saw of the Pope was a papal wave from a rather high-speed Popemobil. Allegedly too, local legend has it, nuns were known to have used rather interesting methods to get to the front of the crowd during previous papal visits.

No doubt Pope Benedict’s trip will provide years’ worth of anecdotes along with memories of his astute addresses and the solemnity of religious ritual, handshakes with the President and blessings. Leaving aside the logistics, you’ll come across mumblings about the Pope’s visit. The Vatican has said that the Pope’s visit will be a time to reflect on and deepen the Christian faith. Here’s a round up of some issues minorities would like the Pope to reflect on in Malta, but on which he is he is unlikely to:

Interfaith Dialogue: When the Pope visits Britain later this year, interfaith dialogue will have to be on the agenda given the recent schisms in the Church of England and the multi-faith make-up of the UK. But, in Malta, with a solid 98 per cent (not all practising of course) Catholic, his agenda setters see no need to bother with it here, despite calls from Hindus and Jewish leaders across the world for him to urge Malta to have greater moral responsibility towards minority faiths on the Islands. The minority will just have to let the show go on. But, we should reserve judgement till we hear the Pope’s addresses, though it seems he will play to a home crowd only.

Religious equality under Maltese law for minority faiths: Linked to the point above, is a similar call by influential spokespeople of other world faiths for the Pope to urge Malta to treat all religions and denominations equally under its laws. Malta’s Criminal Code reportedly makes one liable to imprisonment up to six months for publicly vilifying the “Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion”, while committing such act against “any cult tolerated by law” makes one liable to imprisonment for up to three months.

Teaching of comparative religion in Malta’s schools: While religion is not a compulsory subject in the curriculum, there are those who feel religious teaching in Malta’s schools should include information about all world faiths, not solely the dominant Catholic religion. Children get a lot of Catholicism from their upbringing, family and parish yet have no formal way of being introduced to the teachings of other world faiths in the spirit of understanding, broadening horizons, tolerance for other’s beliefs and so on.

Pope Benedict’s 13 journeys to date have been tailored to national situations. Malta, with its homogeneity of faith, doesn’t require him to raise these issues. Both fervent Catholics and the less so will be living in hope then for the Pope’s visit. One group may be more disappointed than those parish priests who missed John Paul II – at least they got a brief wave. The minority voices here most likely won’t even get a cursory nod in their direction.

Photo: Gethin Thomas

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Viewing is one thing, doing is another: the dilemma of a would-be volunteer

Being a volunteer for a good cause comes naturally to some people. We all know of someone who fits this category, and we admire them. But what happens when we’re put on the spot and asked to ‘help out a bit’? Our pained expression belies our guilt at really wanting to do some good, but then we start thinking about our limited time, the pressures of work and our own families (kids’ extra-curricula activities take up our time, there’s the supermarket shop to fit in, an MBA to study for…and so on).

We’ve all been in the ‘I would help, if I could, but you know what it’s like….’ situation. But late last year, a group of students at the University of Malta came up with a new style of volunteering which makes it far easier for us to give some time, using our particular expertise, when and where we can. There are obligations, but within a far more manageable framework of volunteering. Here’s how it works, in their words.

What is Get up, Stand Up?
GetupStandup is a new voluntary organisation created to offer more channels for activism in Malta. The desire to promote love and friendship among all people is at the core of our beliefs. In Malta, there are many community-oriented projects, but the areas of human rights and cultural acceptance are often neglected. So, our initial focus has been on improving the conditions of immigrants, spreading awareness about human rights and campaigning for improved inter-cultural relations.

Whilst the immigration issue is close to our heart, there are many other social causes which we feel deserve more awareness. The environment, education and poverty, are particular aspects of human life which we feel passionate about, and which we want to devote our energies towards changing.

A new approach to volunteering
We feel that there are plenty of people who have a passion for social causes, but many don’t end up getting involved with any projects because of a fear of long commitments. Our website is designed to allow people to commit to roles within different projects and events. This means that you can choose a role depending not only on how much it interests you, but also to the extent of time you can give to it and playing to your strengths and areas of expertise.

Get Involved
Each project or event that we take on is coordinated by one or two project managers. This means that any project can be undertaken by the group, as long as there is a project manager to take responsibility for it. So if you can identify with our causes, or you feel like a cause you are passionate about ties in with our group, please contact us!

Apart from affecting change with small steps through our projects we also feel passionate about creating an environment where we challenge ourselves. Thomas Edison summed it up when he said “Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress”. We want to create an environment where young people challenge their beliefs and think creatively without the inhibitions of dogma. We hope to create a platform for debate, discussion and friendship!

Come and visit us here: www.getupstandup.org.mt

Final word (Editor’s note)
Clearly, some roles like project manager need people who can commit more. But, the ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ way in which we can give time frees us up to help with less worry about committing and at least gives some projects man-hours that otherwise would never come their way. Finally, don’t be cynical about this initiative; and note too that being generous and compassionate lifts our own spirits and can bring us well being (if we still have the need to think of ourselves as we volunteer).

Photo: Walter Lo Cascio

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Locked away. Because nanny state Malta knows best

Were any of you marching against censorship tonight? Or were you just curling up, waiting for the football to get going on TV? Or perhaps merely nodding at the comments that pepper the mainstream media about the issue?

It’s bizarre that we’re still talking about censorship in 2010 in an EU country. But that’s just the way things have panned out over the past 24 months or so. A play was banned; a magazine normally distributed on the university campus was similarly banned and the editor reported to the police; the normally raucous Nadur Carnival was more muted than usual following veiled threats that the police wished to ‘vet the lyrics’ of songs and harass people dressed in religious garb. And the debate rumbles on, online, with the Front against Censorship and offline. There’s more material here.

We’re not getting on any soap box or bandwagon. We’ve identified doing away with archaic censorship laws on our 2010 wish list. We don’t know if a march is what it takes to get people to resolve many lacunae in archaic legislation or even if the issue will get hijacked by groups with their own social or political agendas.

But the censorship issue – and particularly the censorship of all things ‘cultural’ – needs to be addressed and resolved quickly if the rumblings about a police state, religious zealots or high-handed tactics are to be permanently quelled.

The trouble with small places is that sometimes it is all too easy for someone in a position of power to lever on some long-forgotten piece of legislation to exert control. Malta needs to wake up to the 21st century, repeal its censorship laws and put some trust into the maturity of its citizens.

Photo: Gethin Thomas

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The edible thistle, the globe artichoke, in season aplenty in Malta right now

I have just seen Jamie Oliver’s TED talk video. Love or hate his style, Jamie is just about the only celeb voice consistently banging on about the junk that’s in a lot of kids’ diets these days, whether they’re eating at home, school or on the street. His crusade to get us to feed our kids healthily has now extended to America. His TED talk showed a clip of what looks like five-year olds in class unable to name correctly, or recognise at all, basic fruit and veg like potatoes and tomatoes (let alone an artichoke). Scary stuff. They looked as if they’d never seen a raw ingredient.

A few weeks ago, my son started receiving a portion of fruit or vegetables in a small plastic container, once a week, at school break. The initiative is part sponsored by the European Union. Malta has high child obesity rates ranking pretty much alongside the US rates. The veg in schools initiative is therefore laudable, but has its problems. I saw one of the offerings as he brought it home, part eaten. It was watery lettuce, cucumber and a bland, anaemic tomato. Kids can like salad, but usually it has to appeal to them. This was rabbit food at its worst and I could barely eat it.

The art of veggie shopping in Malta
Having Jamie’s TED talk and my family’s health at the forefront of my mind, I ended up scrutinising more carefully than usual my shopping basket of goods in the supermarket today. I don’t mean I paused over the low-fat, but high-sugar yoghurt (health-con) products, but I made a point of taking a long hard look at the labeling of the fruit and veg. A recipe on my menu plan for the weekend required ’snow peas’ – not in season right now, if ever, in Malta. There were some on display though, cellophane wrapped, and stating that they were from Guatemala.

Far too many food miles to contemplate that purchase. Similarly, though I love pineapple and mango, I gave them a miss too and opted for what’s local, in season, plentiful and therefore cheap. At present, that means strawberries! I usually reckon on strawberry season in March, but with growing under plastic and our exceptionally mild winter, they are in the shops now – and they are huge, sweet and just five, reasonably sized ones can provide a child’s Vitamin C quota for the day (according to nutritionist Natalie Savona. See below).

Pick ‘n’ Mix, Squash ‘n’ Squeeze those veggies
In Malta, a good deal of our fruit and veg comes loose, definitely on the veggie carts, and even in supermarkets. That’s a good start to cooking from scratch with raw ingredients. The loose goods are generally local if they are common fruit and veg – or from Sicily.

You can of course get most things, like those snow peas, from anywhere in the world, but why bother? Only around three per cent of Malta’s population is in agriculture, but they work hard and eke out a fairly good spread of raw ingredients. Broccoli, spinach and artichokes are some tempting veg that is in season at the moment. I know that the impoverished soil here might mean that some farmers spray a lot of chemicals around, but who knows what is on most of the imported fruit and veg, unless is says ‘organic’, which itself has been in dispute as the manna from heaven. Wash, scrub and peel things, I say, when in doubt.

Like most canny shoppers in continental Europe, the Maltese housewife (and I use that term because many women do describe themselves here as that) touches and squeezes the produce and digs deep the in plastic tray to find the best of the tomatoes or whatever. There’s a lot of pecking and picking over goods, and the barging aside of other shoppers (as I witness on my local veggie cart days). The economical shoppers go out of their way to ask for any veg that’s almost past its best. I often see people buy a load of wilting this or that to pop in a ‘brodo’ or stew. These are people who use every last sad veg from the bottom of the fridge, and why not? In these times, we have a thing or two to learn from them.

Maltese-descent Celeb Nutritionists
As an afterword, it’s worth noting that the Islands have two Maltese-descent UK celebrity nutrionists to their name. Natalie Savona, an academic and practitioner who has written for and broadcasted extensively in national UK media; and Dr John Briffa who had a long-running column in the UK Observer and has an active blog.

Now, I’m off to work out how to dissect those massive globe artichokes I bought on whim, and see if I can learn what to do with them! They were going like hot cakes on the veg cart yesterday. Damn, I should have called upon the collective wisdom of my fellow ‘housewife’ shoppers to ask their advice…

Related Posts
Cost of Living: Food shopping in Malta
How to shop at the village veggie store
Pumpkin: not just for Halloween
Strawberry Fair

Photo: James

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Pointed comments in a blog. But who will come out of all this walking tall?

A week is a long time in politics, they say. But it’s more like thirty years if you’re talking about Malta. Because this week has seen some thirty years of dirty laundry (including juicy bits that leave Sex & the City seeming bland) washed in public by Malta’s very own A-list blogger, political and social pundit, commentator and doyenne of the media columns – Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Who? Say the name ‘Daphne’ to anyone who’s been more than a few months in Malta, and they will not be thinking of a middle-aged mother of three grown-up sons, but of a razor sharp pen, no-holes-barred approach to writing about anyone and anything, and a publish-and-be-damned approach to the media. Daphne this week became the ‘Daily Daphne’ and I would hazard a guess that the majority of Malta’s 400,000 population was reading her next installment. Daphne grew up writing print columns, but what we’re all reading is her blog. That’s where her power base now lies.

Malta’s past has seen institutional powers try to censor and even close down print media; the last few days has seen the powers that be get to grips with the blog. We’re all waiting to see if the daily Daphne will be gagged, switched off, sued or whatever else can shut her off.

So, as the word got around this week, Daphne’s blog was getting more hits than the mainstream media, such as the Times. If you click on the ‘Most viewed’ and ‘Most commented’ section of her blog, you will find out why.

But what’s of real interest is that in Malta, blogging and citizen media are finally coming of age. You could opine that the furore this week is an exception, that Daphne is simply a trusted, trained journalist who has managed to migrate her skills sets and social capital seamlessly to new media; but you cannot fail to notice that something is changing as far as media production and power systems in Malta are concerned. That while only a couple of years ago, you had to rely on a letter to be printed in a newspaper for you to have ‘a voice’, you can now set up your Web 2.0 stall somewhere and become a media producer in a matter of a few minutes. As long as you have something to say, even in a micro-market like Malta, you have a chance to connect and engage with people who would not necessarily be buying a newspaper. And perhaps more importantly, to say things that the mainstream, for various reasons – including concerns about libel – would simply not support.

It’s been the week when the term ‘global village’ really resonated in Malta.

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The signs are that Gozo is the place to head for dental treatment these days!

Malta has quietly been establishing itself as a medical tourism destination in recent years. The islands can claim a long and veritable history in medicine from the time of the Knights of St John to their role as ‘nurse of the Mediterranean’ in World War II.

Despite the Sterling-Euro exchange rate of the past year or so, Malta still seems to be attracting medical tourists. Its pull is not only its value-for-money, professional medical and dental treatment but also its climate, culture, English-speaking medical staff and relative ease of access from European cities.

For Britons, facing a lack of NHS dentists and exorbitant rates for ‘going private’, a trip here makes sense. For some, it’s almost a home from home. At the tail end of last year, journalist Jennifer Pulling joined them, taking the dental tourism trail to Gozo, Malta’s small sister island.

Here, she describes her ‘dental Odyssey’ on Calypso’s Isle.

It actually all began the Christmas before last. I wanted to escape the frantic shopping fest and plumped for Gozo. I basked in warm sunshine, sat in deserted village squares and discovered the mix of sacred and pagan in the island’s folk lore and myth. But even here I couldn’t escape the nagging anxiety about my teeth. As I walked across the salt pans on Christmas Day, I told myself I would not let another year pass without resolving it. I wasn’t sure how as I knew that I could never afford the verging on £20,000 my UK dentist was asking.

The answer came out of the blue. One evening, I opened the local Yellow Pages and looked up dentists. The following day I stood in a telephone box in Victoria making a call to a dental clinic. A few days later I flew home with all the literature.

Never one to make decisions swiftly, it took me almost a year to find the courage to go for it. In the meantime, the enormity of the problem and the lengths Brits go to solve it surprised me.

Some 70,000 Britons went outside the country for health care in 2007, a figure which was expected to rise to 200,000 by 2010. Out of a sample of 650 UK health tourists, savings on treatment cost accounted for 92% of the reasons for having treatment done abroad. 97% of medical tourists said they would ‘definitely go abroad for medical treatment again’. The ex-UK medical tourism market is currently worth £375 million. Dentistry is a particularly good example, due to the UK’s shortage of National Health dentists.

I’m a journalist who goes for research in a big way. The Google machine was both a blessing and a curse, taking up hours of my time as I ploughed through websites on dentistry abroad. The British Dental Association made gloomy reading as it only pointed out the pitfalls: number of visits required, qualifications and experience to check, and darkest of all, what does one do if things go wrong.

In my capacity as a journalist, I got the chance to check out a Bulgarian clinic, but the young age of the dentist there, and the clinic’s rather austere atmosphere despite its professional manner somewhat dissuaded me from taking that route. So I returned to Malta to combine a holiday with a trip to that Gozitan clinic. It was incredibly hot and the long bus journeys coupled with ferry crossings were exhausting. But from the moment I stepped into the practice I felt I had come home.

[eds. note: Jennifer was mid-way in her treatment writing this but was impressed with the care, attention to detail, time and professionalism she has received at the Gozitan clinic she chose.]

The confidence in knowing I am now on the road to correcting my teeth has over spilled into other areas. I have no qualms about returning to begin on the next phase, the implant procedure I need. In fact I can’t wait.

Perhaps I won’t have absolutely perfect teeth. There have been far too many years of my own and some UK dentists insouciance…..but I’ll be able to talk, laugh and eat with confidence. I have taken the step in time. I dipped into my savings and had the initiative to take myself to Gozo. What of those who can do neither and must suffer broken, painful and missing teeth for the rest of their lives?

I look back on that call I made from a Gozitan telephone box; it was one of the best things I’ve ever done.

Jennifer was treated at the Savina Dental Clinic, Gozo.

Photo: Therese Debono

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Storm in a tea cup-sized island - Malta's news on most days

Malta has completely schizophrenic weather in winter. A friend took her daughter to the beach to romp around for an hour today and said it was wonderful. But by 6.30pm, we had storms and right now it’s lashing and blowing a gale outside. This has been the pattern for the past days. All or nothing.

Just as unpredictably predictable is the news here too. Like the weather, it is astonishing for the schizoid impression it gives of the country; the two faces it can give of the self same Islands. Mondays can be lean news days, unless there’s been a flurry of political party podium pieces or photo opportunities for local politicians on the Sunday before. This Monday’s news then had the same podium pontification to it as usual.

I found myself killing an hour in a Valletta café this morning between meetings. With this rare downtime, and finding a copy of the local newspaper on the table, I bothered to read print for once rather than my online news. By page four or so, I was beginning to wonder what kind of place I’d imagine Malta if I took today’s ‘news’ into consideration. The few articles I read, gave me these snippets of insight into the country.

1. Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi of the ruling Nationalist Party (PN) was making responses to the usual jibes by the now well seasoned opposition Labour Party (he implied that they excelled so much as opposition that it was their métier and job to stay there). Among his responses was one about abortion. In the early 2000s, a Labour Party politician had suggested that abortion should be legally allowed in cases of rape, if there were danger to the mother’s health or if the child would be born severely disabled, for instance. Note, we aren’t saying he was out and out pro abortion, just in very rare and specific cases.

Apparently, the man has now modified his views – probably from undue pressure from pro life groups and his party – and is against abortion in all circumstances – a volte face that did not go unnoticed by the governing party. The PM of course said the Nationalists were and always would be resolutely against abortion in any circumstances. Any legalisation would be the thin end of the wedge. So steadfast is the rock of Malta, that nothing will split it asunder now on the topic of abortion.

2. Pro life campaigning isn’t quite strong enough when it comes to protecting birds in Malta though. Apparently, there are indications that government will seek dialogue with the European Union on reopening the spring hunting season this year. The season was closed abruptly in 2007 after a flock of honey buzzard, a protected species under the EU Bird Directive, was gunned down. Malta can employ, legally, a derogation to allow spring hunting. Legalities aside though, it doesn’t give out the right signals. Plus ça change.

3. The third news item I had time to read was about the EU appointments of two veteran Nationalist Party politicians – one is already an EU Commissioner; the other now Malta’s appointment to the Court of Auditors. A renegade PN backbencher suggested ulterior motives for their shifting to EU institutions (out of sight, out of mind seems to be an appropriate phrase here). Their presences in Malta were too close for comfort for some perhaps. There’s nothing like an EU appointment to put people out to grass; it’s been the norm for decades in all EU countries. Malta is just following suit, at least on this, if not on birds.

And so ended my five minute news digested over coffee and croissant. It all sounded familiar; I could have sworn the topics came up last year. I felt same way I feel when a storm catches me by surprise after a blue, clear, warm day, before I remind myself that, well, it is winter in Malta after all so it’s expected.

Malta, unpredictably predictable. That’s my verdict on the place that I call home.

Photo: Leslie Vella

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Plenty of space to share

Next week, Malta Inside Out has its first birthday. This week saw us notch up 1,000 Facebook fans. So first, this to say a huge thanks to all our followers, friends and fans and to those who comment and contribute.

We’ve seen visitors from 84 countries. We’ve no real definition of insider-outsider as this changes with each topic we write about. There are overseas ‘insiders’ (people who’ve holidayed here or are Maltese emigres for instance) and local ‘outsiders’ (newly-arrived expats are one such group).

But today’s piece isn’t for us to talk about statistics or give ourselves a pat on the back now we’ve been alive for a year. Since you are the reason we started Malta Inside Out, it’s about time we gave you more voice; the space to chip in, contribute, chat back, complain, help, point out our errors, chastise us, provoke and generally make Malta Inside Out the shared space it needs to be.

We’ve been very aware that sometimes we may be guilty of talking at you. Many of you have given us great ideas of topics to cover, and we’ve taken the plaudits for the write ups. So, the next year sees us launch some add-ons to this site to help nurture the Malta Inside Out community.

We’ll start with a Malta Inside Out Forum. A place for you to talk with each other rather than via us, the gatekeepers. We’re also thinking of a monthly newsletter that will feature some goodies that go beyond what we normally feature on the site. Just some ways we can say a thank you to those who’ve listened to us for a year!

The Malta Inside Out Forum will be up and running in a few weeks. Do stay with us.

And thinking of snails, anyone an expert on collecting, cooking and eating this most common of Maltese delicacies?

Photo: Therese Debono (thanks for sharing!)

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