Nostalgia

Listening to 'Closest thing to Heaven' this afternoon, the new single by 'Tears for Fears' evoked many memories of my teenage years back in the eighties. In those days when 'Tears for Fears' were at their commercial peak, I was much more interested in music, drama and sports. Politics came a distant fourth despite the overbearing presence of the political establishment and the general unrest in Malta in those days. Recent blog entries by Mark Vella and Immanuel Mifsud (Toni Sant is not so convinced!) portray a sentimental yearning for that period of Malta's past. In a piece posted today, Mark Vella powerfully evokes many feelings and memories of eighties Malta from an anti-establisment angle. In the same vein, Immanuel Mifsud yesterday wrote about socialist nostalgia and related it to the wider European experience. From Immanuel's blog:

I have no doubt that many people my age who watched Ir-Rewwixta tal-Qassisin last weekend had their share of socialist nostalgia as well. This is a very interesting socio-psychological phenomenon, which, like many other things, has not yet been analysed locally. In an interview I gave to Adrian Grima for babelmed.net last January I spoke about the nostalgia sweeping through former communist countries. While in Bratislava last December I was taken for a night out of bar hopping in the city centre, and my host was trying to amuse me by touring me to pubs like KGB, and others.

I don't know why exactly but these lines from the greatest Maltese poet, Victor Fenech, come reeling back to mind:

"Ibqa' sejjer Samuraj - u narra s-seba' pesti jlaħħqu miegħek. Inħares lejn din l-art ma narax ħlief id-dell tiegħek: poplu mgħaxxex għajnejh ħġieġ, sieket jixhed seba' qmura ta' qerdiet, mutu jredden fuq rebbiegħa li falliet."

"Be off Samuraj - may the worst curse fall upon you . I look at this land and I see nothing but your shadow: a frail people with glass eyes, silently witnessing the seven moons of havoc, babbling mutely the failed spring."


'Closest thing to heaven' - the video - Virgin