Julian Manduca, ten years after

Julian Manduca may have been the high priest of tree-huggers, and add to that a committed vegetarian and a charming ladies’ man. But here at MaltaToday, it was his unadulterated idealism and high political values that were bequeathed to us when he left the newsroom on a Tuesday afternoon, to go back home to Valletta where he would die in the arms of his wife.

What would Julian say of the state of the environment today under a Labour government? Perhaps this is the fairest question we ask ourselves today, measuring ourselves to his journalistic intellect and judicious environmental awareness. He would surely complain, but not give up on his country. A cosmopolitan soul stuck in a small world, his friendliness striking up alliances everywhere he goes, he would surely protest the unscrupulous carving-up of natural landscapes for the gain of the few, of the rich, of the powerful.

Julian was part and parcel of the green movement that took on the building onslaught that ate away at the Maltese and Gozitan countryside in the 1980s, leading him to set up the federation of environmental groups called Zghazagh ghall-Ambjent. He was skillful at living a full life: dedicating himself to voluntary work, play football and organise the film club at the University of Malta, hold court at City of London… even that was lesson to all of us.

As in 1987… so in 2013. When the government changed back then we realised that things would not change for the environment. From his flat on Triq il-Kuccard we plotted a new political party… he later ensured catering for the 1,400 people who appeared at the launch of Alternattiva Demokratika on that torrential evening on 6 October, 1989.

From then on he was a reference point for the greens: the waste crisis, land use, MEPA, the Hilton, Ta’ Cenc, GMOs, the golf course… and as a libertarian, his outspoken views on morality and drug decriminalisation endeared him as a ‘radical’.

But unlike others he never wavered. He left his job with an audit firm to finally obtain a university degree and then turn to journalism. As a tutor of English, he met his wife, the German actress Irene Christ, who with her set up Actinghouse Productions.

Julian was irreverent and irreverence is a pastime inside the MaltaToday newsroom. That’s what led to him to take on the Price Club investigation to reveal the fraudulent bankruptcy at hand.

I must say that 10 years after his death, the baton of Julian’s probing journalism has been assuredly passed on to our colleague, James Debono. To those who remember Julian, all of us carry a piece of him in our hearts – we remember him every time we grapple with a new threat to the environment, every time we are to question the powers that be, every time we remind ourselves why we are doing this job.

Julian lives.