Malta Stuprata- Raping Malta

The following is a poem in Maltese by an unknown author. It was sent via email and is meant to create awareness of the way the little green areas and the beautiful beaches in Malta are being exploited because some bastards have enough money to buy whatever they like even enough to buy the malta planning and environment authority and then spoil such a beauty by building concrete monsters to make more money...this time it is the Ramla il-Hamra the victim of such atrocity.

Ramla Bay in Gozo is another one of my favourite bays. I remember fondly the days I spent there when I was a small kid during our frequent trips to Gozo. Ramla Bay is located at the bottom of another rich and fertile valley on the northern side of the island of Gozo. The village of Xaghra, located on one of the hills of Gozo, overlooks this valley. The Bay can be reached from the village of Nadur, Gozo's largest village. Terraced farmers fields blanket the whole valley in a green carpet with the field-rock walls built by the farmers giving the valley an appearance of a quilt when viewed from the high ridges surrounding this valley.

The beach is quite wide and is very sandy. It is particularly golden-reddish sand which makes this beach different from all other beaches in Gozo and Malta. Maltese people often refer to this beach as the "Ramla il-Hamra" - the Red Sandy Beach. Close to the beach there are some very rich and interesting historical treasures. Amongst these are the Roman remains as well as the famous Calypso's Cave at the top of the cliffs on the Western side of the beach.

Getting to the water is sometimes tricky since there are many rocks covering the sand between the edge of the water and a few feet away before you reach water deep enough to swim in. Many of these rocks were part of a wall built during the time of the Knights of Malta. The wall was built to prevent unfriendly ships from reaching the shore, a sort of underwater trap!

Situated in the middle of the sandy beach, there is a statue of the Virgin Mary. This was built as thanksgiving from an escape from a shipwreck many years ago.

According to tradition, this is the cave referred to by Homer in The Odyssey, where the nymph Calypso lived. The nymph entertained Ulysses, who was shipwrecked on the island of Ogygia (Gozo), for seven years before he resumed his journey. Calypso's Cave is in fact a series of caves extending, some say, right down to the sea. The view from the cave's entrance is magnificent. The valley, the golden beach, Ramla Bay lie beneath it.

Bhal Calypso grala ir-Ramla

Gewwa ghar il fuq mir-Ramla
Zmien twil ilu tal-Allat,
Kienet tghix tfajla mill-isbah
Illi bhala ma deher qatt.

Din Calypso kienet vergni
Ghax fil-gzira ma jghix hadd
Hlief dit-tfajla sola, sola.
Irgiel kienet qatt ma rat.

Imma d-destin taghha wasal
Ma` Ulisse il-gellied
Li l-Allat tal-Grecja tefaw
Fuq ta` Ghawdex ix-xtajtiet.

Kif Ulisse ra l-Calypso
Huwa kaxkar gewwa l-ghar
U hemmekk lit-tfajla stupra
Issa addio l-kastita.

Din l-istorja wisq antika
Sejra tigi ripetuta
Bi progett mghoddi mil-MEPA
Li l-pajjiz waqqa fil-muta.

Flok l-Allat issa ghandna l-MEPA
Flok Ulisse l-kuntrattur
Flok Calypso, l-ambjent vergni
Jgawdi biss l-istupratur.