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Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Cantelo" data-source="post: 1315524" data-attributes="member: 2844">Bravo, Kestrel21!  Rest assured that you and your fellows have our unstinting support and admiration.  This is the face of Malta that the island should, justly, be proud of and one that should be given the wholehearted support of the population and government alike.  That this is not the case is truly shameful.  In his previous post it seems to me that Gallina has revealed that his real grouse is not about the illegal destruction of birds in Malta (as he claims), but is generated by some sort of post-colonial  resentment against the UK.  God knows that former colonial nations have plenty to complain about, but to deny the mass destruction of migrating birdlife on these grounds, which is effectively what Gallina is about, is disgraceful.  I know that Gallina will once again trot out his claim that he's against illegal hunting, but in the face of his constant denials this is meaningless and empty. This iron clad indigation at slights against his nation (real and supposed) seems the only (charitable) explanation for his wilful inability to accept that the situation on Malta is infintely worse than elsewhere in Europe.  (For the record in 45 years of very active birding in the UK, I have never seen a protected species shot - how long could Kestrel21 maintain this record on Malta?)  I do, however, share Gallina's distaste for some of the more extreme characterisations of his country and attacks on himself (e.g that he try shooting himself).  I have striven, not always successfully I fear,  to avoid falling into this trap despite the gross provocation of decades of bird slaughter on Malta.   I do this not merely out of sqeamishness or a lack of passion on the matter, but that it is entirely counter-productive since it only seems to re-inforce Gallina's view of Malta's supposed " victimhood".    The more we criticise, it seems, the more he retreats into finger pointing himself.  If you can't or won't listen to the howls of rage from countries across Europe, then for pity's sake take heed of Kestrel21's impassioned pleas.  Until you, and your fellow hunters do so, then Malta will be regarded as a pariah throughout Europe - and not just by conservationists.  Criticisms of Malta are the symptoms, the disease is the unbridled destruction of birds (including many 'protected' by law and those in decline) by a callow minority of the Maltese nation.  When I consider your country in the future I will try to conjure up the image of courageous, honest people like Kestrel21, but I fear that the nauseous image of  macho hunters fuelled by a primitive blood lust will blot it out.  Please, don't insult me and everyone else here, by denying the mass slaughter of birds - it's not some British or European plot against Malta, we have it on the authority of your fellow countryman,Yours in despair,  John</blockquote>

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