15th August 1942 – as Malta was on the verge of surrendering to the enemy, the people were famished and the country in ruins, and the embattled Ohio, having endured enemy fire, sailed into the Grand Harbour bringing much-needed supplies to Malta.

With pride, Malta called it the Santa Marija Convoy, and 83 years later it remains a special occasion for Malta and the Maltese. Every year we celebrate this special occasion and remember the hardships our ancestors endured.

The brave men, women, and children who lost all but not their determination to see Malta emerge victorious from the ruins of World War II. Resilience has always been our trademark. Since World War II, we have faced challenging times, yet we have persevered and remained victorious ever since. We are a country of doers; of people who believe that nothing is impossible to achieve, and that no challenge is insurmountable. We are a nation of winners.

We cannot stand still

What happened in Malta 83 years ago is happening in Gaza now, with the exception that the Palestinians of Gaza are still waiting for their Ohio, with little to no hope in sight. The situation is desperate and the people are famished. According to Gaza health authorities, since 2023, more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed.

Entire villages have been razed to the ground. Thousands of lives have been uprooted. Livelihoods destroyed. Children have been orphaned. Disease is widespread. The international community, Malta included, has, as recently as this week, called for immediate action to allow food inside Gaza. In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Malta and the other signatories said “urgent action is needed now to halt and reverse starvation” in Gaza, where months of Israeli bombardment and blockade have left much of the population without food, clean water, and medical care.

I fully concur with Her Excellency, President Myriam Spiteri Debono, who this week said that it was “useless to extol the heroism of the past” if concrete action did not follow the “disgust” felt by people at the conflict in Gaza.

Next month, Malta will go one step further and recognize the State of Palestine. As we celebrate Malta’s 1942 convoy, we cannot stand still knowing that less than 2,000 kilometres away from our shores, the people are desperate for the most basic needs of life: bread and water.

A beautiful canvas

Tonight, our skies shall depict not the horrible enemy fire that ravaged Malta and its people 83 years ago, but they shall transform themselves into a beauti

ful canvas of extraordinary fireworks renowned for their intricate designs from the many village feasts across Malta and Gozo.

Localities within my electoral districts, from which I have the immense privilege of representing the people in Malta’s House of Representative, is awash with feasts dedicated to Santa Marija, and needless to say the clubs and organisations within these localities shall inevitably rise to the occasion and deliver the most beautiful of village feasts, attended to by thousands of Maltese and tourists. We have done so much to invest in and nurture the Maltese festa, which is now recognised by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

We took decisive action to save band clubs from eviction and rolled out numerous schemes to sustain, financially, the voluntary organisations that make the Maltese festa truly unique – and we shall do so even more.

Francis Ebejer

Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of inaugurating an art exhibition by one of Malta’s foremost authors, Francis Ebejer, on the 100th anniversary of his birth. Ebejer has since passed away, but his writings and his paintings remain.

I had the privilege of studying Ebejer’s texts in my final years

of secondary school and remained a lover of his works. ‘IlĦadd fuq il-Bejt’ was perhaps one of his finest plays, reminiscing on Malta’s cultural and societal changes after the Second World War. It was made into a television series and was a tremendous success. But I wasn’t acquainted with Ebejer’s paintings as much as I was with his writings. It is often said that a painting speaks a thousand words. Ebejer’s paintings did so to perfection, as did his words. He was an all-rounder who remains immortalised in his works of art.

A Space Hub

This week we announced that Malta will have its first Space Hub and Astronomical Park at Binġemma Fort.

This was made possible following an initiative by the Lands Authority to take back this extraordinary Fort, which for years was illegally occupied and left in shambles, restore it, and it shall now be used for this noble, and much needed initiative which shall enrich further Malta’s research and innovation sectors. A lot of preparatory work has been made with Xjenza Malta so that we can hit the ground running.

Deepening ties

At face value, we might see little in common between Malta and Serbia: The Maltese are Mediterranean, and the Serbians are Slavic. Our languages are entirely different. Perhaps even our outlook on life is different. But there is one thing that brings us together, and that is resilience.

We both experienced war – the ravages of war, the destruction that it brings, and the terrible loss of lives. The people of Serbia experienced war even more recently. Our people endured, stood firm, and were resilient.

On the 10th of August 1918, during the First World War, a vessel, named the SS Polynesien, came under enemy fire a few meters away from the Marsascala coast, which left hundreds of young Serbian men and women injured and at least 17 dead. The injured were treated in Malta for their injuries, and eventually, they sailed away to become the Serbian heroes who liberated their country. That tragedy demonstrated Malta’s role as the nurse of the Mediterranean. We remain so to this day.

107 years later, together with the Serbian Educational and Cultural Centre of Ste Helene of Anjou, the Marsascala Local Council, and Heritage Malta, we inaugurated a monument in Marsascala that reminds us of that fateful day, when the people of Malta and the people of Serbia stood shoulder to shoulder in the face of adversity.