Our country is small but breathtakingly beautiful. It is also blessed with other riches, not oil but the ingenuity and valour of its people. Unfortunately, unguided, this can result in brigands and bad-tempered babies.
Our ancient ancestors used our Christian heritage and some papal dispensation to plunder Muslim ships, taking all they could get their hands on.
These rich pickings for the few involved and their Order of St John overlords resulted in retaliative Ottoman attacks. The resultant enslaving of the whole of Gozo meant that many paid dearly for the short-term benefits and poor leadership of others.
Later, we upgraded from brigands to babies – happy to live under British rule, being protected from the bad guys next door (Hitler and Mussolini) and suck the colonial teat by repairing British ships and servicing their men.