New communities

In this interview with Erika Brinacat, Ronnie Micallef - the British Council’s Malta director - talks about art, identity and the creation of relationships of trust. He acknowledges the contribution of blogging to this debate:

As a younger generation comes into power in the UK, the nature of UK-Malta political discourse is also bound to evolve. We have to move on from the tourist and George Cross Island dialogue...Visitors to Malta represent a distorted picture of what is happening in the UK today. Our target audience in Malta therefore consists of young Maltese who are willing to go deeper into the question of what constitutes British identity.

This issue of ‘who we are’ is receiving a lot of attention worldwide, in the UK and also in Malta. I think it is important for an organisation such as the British Council to be aware of this debate and to contribute to this question. These discussions are mostly led by individuals, and many of them are web-based. There is a particularly vibrant discussion on the nature of identity at all levels taking place on internet blog sites. Individuals are therefore forming new communities, which transcend our natural borders.

They are slowly taking responsibility, and people do not depend as much on governments anymore. And as an organisation we are very aware of this. At least 10,000 people visit our website. But it’s not just the numbers – it’s the quality of interaction that counts as well. What excites us is the idea of influencing the future. E-democracy, E-expression, E-poetry, and IT communities. I think there is a lot that can be done in these areas. We are also building up a reputation as an office that operates on a wider Euro-Mediterranean platform...