Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/294639
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 13 APRIL 2014 6 News PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS MANGION Maltese 'loud, no sy and religious' TEODOR RELJIC WITH discussions about what con- stitutes Maltese identity currently in full swing, owing to the myriad national celebrations being prepped this year, an international team of academics will be publishing a paper that seeks to pinpoint some key char- acteristics of the Maltese national character. The picture of Malta that emerges from the study is that of a 'safe ha- ven' of sorts: a comfort zone, but one whose comfort comes at the price of an over-reliance on a "backwards" at- titude towards religion and an overly "nosy" social intrusiveness. In an anonymous survey to a to- tal of 372 students at the University of Malta aged 17-46 years, and 336 other Maltese nationals from vari- ous localities aged between 15 and 89 years, an entire series of attributes deemed to represent the Maltese was presented to them. Except for "laziness", all of the at- tributes received value ratings higher than 4, meaning that these traist were genereally held to be typical of the Maltese character: loud, nosy, religious and short-tempered were regarded as the most typical traits of the Maltese. The attribution of these traits as distinctive of the Maltese in general is corroborated by the comparison with the attribution by the same sample of the same traits to Europeans, who are mostly regarded as 'hardworking' – but at a value of 4.65 only slightly less than the extent to which this trait is attributed to the Maltese, 4.84. Interesting, for the Maltese, nega- tive traits are held to be more char- acteristic of the Maltese than positive ones. But positive traits held to also characterise Europeans (i.e. socia- ble, hardworking, hospitable, happy, helpful, generous, and honest), are accorded higher values to the same Maltese as well. "The Maltese, there- fore, and according to the same par- ticipants who are themselves Mal- tese, are both better as well as worse than Europeans in certain ways," the study found. Noteworthy differences emerged in comparing the student sample with the general population sam- ple. While the general population values the Maltese more positively on the favourable traits, the student sample, on the other hand, mostly accords the Maltese higher negative values on unfavorable traits (except short-temperedness) than does the general population. It is also worth noting that for the general popula- tion, it is the 'generosity' trait that is mostly representative of the Maltese (M=5.83), as opposed to 'loud' for the student sample, whilst for students it is 'honest' that fails to emerge as rep- resentative of the Maltese character with a mean higher than the neutral midpoint (M=3.93), as opposed to 'lazy' in the general population sam- ple. The study also incorporated three individual interviews with Maltese citizens who emigrated and spent some time living and working in the United Kingdom. The three Maltese people interviewed for the study – 'Angelika', 'Benna' and 'Zaren' – shared many common perceptions of what Malta meant to them, when seen through the perspective of a mi- grant. While all three respondents com- plained about what could be de- scribed as traits endemic to Maltese insularity – closed-mindedness, overzealous religious attitudes, rac- ism and a tendency towards gossip – they also found themselves craving the tight-knit community feeling that is part and parcel of the Maltese ex- perience. The interviews suggest that the positive aspects of Malta are made clearer once Maltese residents have spent some time abroad and are able to compare and contrast Maltese life and its natural character with that of another country. The researchers ultimately propose that this is an in- tegral part of how national identity is formed, at least in resident's minds. Interestingly, this also meant that the respondents looked at certain 'negative' traits more kindly once they experienced some distance from Malta. For instance, when comparing the Maltese to their more emotion- ally distant British counterparts, An- gelika began to look at the 'Maltese' trait of being 'loud' more kindly – particularly in relation to laughter in a social context. "They [the Brits] don't have a laugh like we do […] you're still accepted […] you can be yourself, [but] obvi- ously when you're with Maltese you feel different, when you laugh you laugh from the heart, because that's where your roots are," Angelika said, while also emphasising that – perhaps predictably – Maltese communities abroad tend to flock together, further strengthening a perhaps latent com- munity bond, and emphasising local STUDY BY AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM OF ACADEMICS FINDS THAT THE MALTESE CONSIDER THEMSELVES TO BE SOCIALLY INTRUSIVE AND 'BACKWARD', BUT ALSO MORE PREDOMINANTLY 'HOSPITABLE' THAN THEIR EUROPEAN COUNTERPARTS Has new McDonalds drive-thru aggravated traffic problems? JAMES DEBONO A Traffic Impact Study (TIS) pre- sented before the approval of a new McDonalds outlet had concluded that the roundabout in Gharghur only 50 metres away was already "failing" to keep up with traffic flows, before the opening of the popular outlet. Amid public reports that the drive- thru has intensified traffic in the Gharghur area, which is also con- joined to a petrol pump station, a MaltaToday analysis of the planning permit for the restaurant found that the TIS deemed the impact of the new drive-thru on traffic flows as be- ing "marginal". The transport regulator claims works on the roundabout are re- quired, but not because of the new 24-hour drive-thru restaurant. Asked why Transport Malta did not insist on the upgrade of the roundabout junction at Triq tal-Balal and Triq Santa Katerina, before the drive-thru was approved, TM chair- man James Piscopo said the neces- sary upgrade is required because of network traffic growth, and not di- rectly related to the traffic generated by the McDonald's outlet. "Transport Malta has committed itself to undertake necessary junc- tion upgrade works. These junction upgrade works will be carried out in accordance with national road in- frastructure upgrade priorities," Pis- copo said. The traffic impact study presented in January 2013 concluded that the additional vehicular traffic generated by the new McDonald's restaurant and drive-thru at Gharghur would represent "a relatively small propor- tion of the total traffic" already using this part of the road network during the peak periods. Peak times for traffic to the restau- rant, the TIS says, are lunch times and early evenings, after 6:30pm. Since these peak times do not co- incide with the normal morning and evening traffic rush hours, the im- pact on traffic flows generated by the McDonalds outlet was deemed to be "marginal" by the TIS. However, the TIS has also pointed out that traffic on certain arms of the roundabout intersection, sometimes experienced delays during the rush hour – a common occurrence for motorists returning from work in the evening. A 'junction modelling' carried out for the TIS, claimed that additional traffic generated by the restaurant ! ! " # $ %& '# ( ) # *& +,- . # ) / -- , *( 0 ' /+,,,, 1 ( ! & ! " # ( $ % '# ) # %% +,- . # & ) % / -- , 0 ' * /+,,,, 1 /234'5$67$ ,,8- !9 :9 ,, );:9 $ / ) 8-<= ! ! " # $ %& '# ( ) # *& +,- . # ) / -- , *( 0 ' /+,,,, 1 ( ! & ! " # ( $ % '# ) # %% +,- . # & ) % / -- , 0 ' * /+,,,, 1 /234'5$67$ ,,8- !9 :9 ,, );:9 $ / ) 8-<= How the Maltese see themselves, and how they see 'the Europeans' All of these attributes received mean values higher than 4, meaning that these traits are generally held to be typical of the Maltese character, except for laziness. Traffic Impact Study highlighted 'failing capacity' of existing roundabout junction in Ghargur, but deemed impact of new drive thru on traffic flows as marginal. The golden arches alert motorists to a new 24-hour drive-thru, as traffic on Tal-Balal road remains a problem at rush hour