In the Garden of Eden

Jacques René Zammit who blogs at J'Accuse writes a weekly article in Espresso, a new online journal created by green activists as a forum for debate about contemporary Maltese affairs. In his latest piece, Jacques says we are all wearing tinted glasses:

..What 9/11 really did is bring to the fore already existent differences. Suddenly the media was very interesting in highlighting "the clashing cultures" that had always been around us. From the veil in the street to the cross in the classes, everyday symbols of peaceful coexistence suddenly became symbols of oppression or rebellion. The "common man" in the street caught on - always eager to pin all his anger and frustration on some unknown "other". Because after all that is what post-9/11 man is all about. About the "Us and Them". We are on one side or the other. We would love to point our finger at the other side and say "That is not right. That is not how it should be. Is it?" And then go on to our evermore materialistic lives and blast the heads off the heathens on the latest Playstation issue of "Doom".

In a way we have all begun to wear blinkers. Or let's put it more fantastically - we are wearing tinted glasses graciously provided by the masters of the "Clash of Civilisation Spin". Truth is that cultures will always be different. Even nations on the same continent will have a diametrically opposed manner of looking at the same thinking. Take the noble art of pole dancing for example. The different cultures could even be reflected in the way we read the last sentence. To a Maltese reader, reading it with the fresh memory of the recent police raids in Paceville of all the gentlemen's shops, a sentence describing pole dancing as a "noble art" is surely pregnant with sarcasm. To a Norwegian reader, where the Norwegian high Court has just announced that pole dancing IS an art and that therefore it's perfomers are to be TAX Exempt, any intended irony is lost.

Take sarcasm and irony. They are two of the worst victims of the post-9/11 world. The long arm of censorship has ridden the tsunami of political correctness to the point of ridicule. Anything that may be considered "offensive" by "the other" must now be kept away and suppressed. The critical eye of the sarcastic commentator is now covered by the bandages of a twisted justice that is going nowhere. It is like a new Garden of Eden. We have always been naked but now we are aware of it and ashamed...

Victor Fiorini discusses animal rights activism