Silent Gozitans

The proper though not quickest method to obtain the basis for delicious sauces and soups is to cook bones. This process may take anything from four to eight hours, until the last particle of flavour has been boiled out of all the crevices of an animal’s or other’s skeletal bits and pieces.

And that is exactly how my head feels this morning. I can almost sense every single nook and cranny of my brain, which has been simmering on a low heat since I woke up a few hours ago. The essence I was hoping to extract: my last blog post on Wired Temples! Oh well, the first 104 words are out now, if not of much substance so far.

The usually more than helpful internet does not give much inspiration when it comes to Malta’s sister island. A google search on ‘Gozo’ showers you with all imaginable accommodation left, right and centre; narrowing it down to ‘Gozo blog’ amazingly throws my own blog at me in first place, followed by various travel reports by mainly foreign and a few Maltese bloggers. Our little island’s inhabitants remain suspiciously absent.

Are there any bloggers in Gozo at all? That’s a rhetorical question, by the way. I think it’s safe to say there aren’t any (but if I’m in the wrong, why don’t you drop me a line?).

Gozitans shy away from expressing their opinion in public. Exceptions are a few, albeit prolific, letter writers in the local press, who notoriously keep harping on their respective pet subjects; I actually used to be one of those. One of my favourite games while reading the letters pages, is guessing a particular author by the letter’s headline – more often than not, I win!

It has always been my opinion that Gozo does not get enough media coverage. I thought it was a blessing when the Times of Malta started its monthly supplement called Gozo Times in 2003, to which I contributed on a pretty regular basis. Sadly the supplement was put to rest in 2006; one of the reasons for its demise was the unwillingness of the Gozitans themselves to participate in it. What a pity!

When I started blogging early this year I didn’t expect at first to continue on a regular basis. But almost from the beginning and much to my surprise, the blog was hit daily by quite a few people. (Thanks to Robert, by the way, who plugged it immediately after my very first post!) The rest is history, as they say.

Making your – and consequently Gozo’s – voice heard by means of a blog is so darn easy. To create a basic site it hardly takes more than knowledge of typing and saving a letter on a pc. It’s free. It’s therapeutic and satisfying. And you can do it in complete anonymity, if that’s your wish. So why don’t you…?

Through e-mail, I have lent a hand to a few people (all residing abroad, by the way) to get their blog up and running. I’d be happy to help you too, if you drop me a line at scassaralpert@yahoo.com.