Maltese Wikipedia

Steve in the United States who blogs as a Maltese cat at Fahmu links to the Maltese version of Wikipedia the revolutionary free online encyclopedia. I encourage you to help develop Maltese Wiki ( only 6 months old and still in a formative stage ) and create/edit pages by typing in the appropriate boxes - see the help page for more info. About the Maltese language from Wikipedia:

Saru diversi sejbiet minn riċerkaturi storiċi f'Manuskritti ġewwa il-Bibljoteka Nazzjonali ġewwa Valletta (Meqjusa fost l-eqdem Libreriji Nazzjonali fid-Dinja) u bnadi oħra illi jieħdu il-prattika ta' l-ilsien Malti lura fis-snin, sas-sekli sittax. però l-attentat għal-istudju ta' l-ilsien Malti bħala lingwa ikkonkretizza aħjar mall-wasla tal-Franċiżi f'-Malta fil-1798. Il-Franċiżi kienu dawk illi irrikonoxxew il-lingwaġġ lokali bħala mezz ta' propagazzjoni aħjar tat-tagħlim repubblikan, ovvjament ta' importanza politika konvenjenti għalihom, qalb il-poplu. (Aqra aktar dwar Mikiel Anton Vassalli u il-ħakma Franċiża f'-Malta..

Fil-bidu tas-seklu għoxrin naraw qawmien fl-interess fil-Malti bħala lingwa letterarja u kien f'-dan il-perjodu illi naraw lil kjeriku Dun Karm Psaila (li sa dak iż-żmien kien jikteb prevalentament bit-Taljan, tant illi kien saħansitra ippubblika ktieb ta' poeżiji bl-isem "Foglie d'alloro" fl-1896) li bil-mod il-mod, bil-kitbiet pijunieri isfa prolifiċi tiegħu serva ta' inkoraġġiment għal ħafna oħrajn interessati fil-Malti bħala lingwa t'-espressjoni letterarja. Bil-kitbiet ħelwin u profondi tiegħu (bħal fl-Elegija famuża "Il-Jien u Lil Hinn Minnu") Dun Karm ġie rikonoxxut bħala il-poeta Nazzjonali Malti matul ħajtu stess. Fl-istess perjodu kienet ta' importanza ukoll it-traduzzjoni tal-Bibbja għal-Malti mill-Professur Pietru Pawl Saydon.

Maltese Wikipedia Main Page

http://mt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malti

MediaWiki - because ideas want to be free

*Interview with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales - from Slashdot *

Fairy Godmother

In this interview with Adrian Grima for BabelMed, Maria Grech Ganado describes her 'passionate relationship' with Immanuel Mifsud:

Immanuel and I taught in the same College on the same floor for a least 3 years before we started to talk to each other. He’s got this pout and sometimes looks surly and when I smiled at him, as I do with everybody, he never smiled back. I didn’t know his name but I fell in love with his poetry. When I discovered that Mr Surly wrote ‘Poezija lil Clara’ I pounced on him when I next saw him, taught him how to smile, made him, laugh, went around telling everyone what a great writer he was. It was HE who first told me I had asked him why he never smiled when I found myself alone in the same lift some months before. We started a passionate relationship – not sexual or erotic – we were two lonely writers in love with our art who were stimulating each other also by virtue of the differences in our ages, backgrounds, and genders. We fought a lot, but I think he thinks of me as his fairy-godmother because I believed in his work with such intensity that I promoted it as hard as I could – both in Malta and abroad. I’ve translated much of his work, both poetry and prose, and there is such a bond of trust between us now, that the translating is as natural as breathing. He corrects my Maltese spelling and occasional grammar mistake, and helps in the production of my Maltese books. He is also the subject of much of my Maltese poetry. So I think I can safely say the lift was going up, is still going up, because of the interaction.

BabelMed - Malta

Maria Grech Ganado Reviews

Immanuel Mifsud prose translated by Grech Ganado

Thorin's Daily Happenings

Thorin, a Maltese software engineer and owner of two persian kittens, has set up a blog to record his daily events. In this post he writes about car washing and eating snails:

I started off the day by waking (considerably and unsurprisingly) late and after a cup of coffee I went to mum's to wash the car. It definitely was in need of a wash after months of collecting dirt and after, more or less, an hour scrabbing and scruffing off layers and layers of grime I was happy to sit down and eat a very deserved lunch which consisted of artichokes and snail casserole. Yes, snails, those small invertibrates with shells which go out after the first rains. It's a speciality here in Malta which I also believe is also in France. Anyway after dinner I got back here at home and did some house cleaning, watched some TV etc..

The Snail Festival

Diplomatic furore

This is how ChinaDaily reported the death of the six Chinese immigrants in the Mediterranean, a tragedy that is causing a diplomatic furore between Malta and Italy. From China Daily:

Italian police are hunting two Maltese men believed to have caused the deaths of at least six would-be illegal immigrants from Asia, according to the Chinese Embassy in Italy. The six people died off the south coast of Sicily on Thursday and three others are still missing after smugglers threw them off a boat, possibly to evade capture by police, authorities said.
Rescue teams alerted by a passing merchant ship found six survivors struggling in the water nearly 23 kilometres south of Sicily.

The victims are thought to be Chinese, according to local media. "So far, we have not received any confirmation [that they are Chinese] from the Italian side," an official from the embassy told China Daily yesterday. He said because the incident coincided with Easter, it would take one or two more days for the local authorities to release official confirmation, adding that the embassy has learned that the survivors are being cared for by the local police. Embassy staff cannot visit the survivors if their nationalities have not been confirmed...

The inadaquacies that have shamed Malta worldwide - by Noel Grima

Chinese illegal immigrants die at sea - Shackled Hearts

Smoking bans around the world

ZJ from Singapore blogs about smoking bans around the world and reminds us that a smoking ban in Malta is due to be extended in a few days time:

March - Ireland imposes a nationwide ban on smoking in all workplaces, including pubs, bars and restaurants.
May - India bans smoking in public places, tobacco advertising in media and sales to minors, after statistics showed smoking killed 2,200 people in India a day.
June - Norway extends a ban on workplace smoking to bars and restaurants.
Oct - Hong Kong announces plans to extend a ban on smoking to bars, restaurants and offices.
-- Malta, bans smoking in all public places larger than 60 square metres. This will be extended to all public places irrespective of size from April 1, 2005.
Nov - Scotland announces plans to ban smoking in enclosed public spaces by early 2006. The British government announces plans for a public smoking ban across England and Wales from 2006. The ban will cover all enclosed public places and workplaces, restaurants, and pubs and bars serving food...

Smoking ban - Wikipedia

Globalink - Global tobacco control

After Malta it's Italy's turn - MaltaMedia

Smoking ban leads to wider kerbs - MaltaToday

Xemx u xita

A musician living in Paris joins the Maltese blogosphere:

Ghalkemm zgur li mhux daqs xaharejn ilu, ghadni nahseb spiss fin-nies li naf Malta, specjalment fi shabi. Ghadni nkun naf x'qed jigri u fej qed imorru, l-iktar minhabba li ghadni nircievi il-"mass emails" li jintbghatu biex tigi organizzata xi attivita, u ghax jien ta spiss inkun fuq MSN, jew indur fuq il forum ta www.scaremongering.net , frekwentat minn hafna nies li naf.

Ghadni nhoss in-nuqqas ta shabi ukoll. Ma tghaddix gurnata fejn hsibijieti ma jdurux lejn Malta. Minhabba xi konverzazzjoni, xi messagg m'ghand xi hadd jew xi artiklu fuq xi sit jew gazzetta. Ma niddejjaqqx filfatt. Ma nhossnix maqtugh minn Malta. Forsi ghax ili barra mill-gzira fiti iktar minn 6 xhur, imma kwazi kwazi inhoss li parti minni ghadha hemm..

Illejla gig iehor parigi. Go restaurant x'imkien fis-17 distrett. Hlas bil-kappell (igifieri bejn is-sets jiddawwar kappell u l-udjenza titfa kemm trid flus ghal-band - fl-ahhar forsi tispicca b'total ta 100 euros bejn kullhadd, jekk tkun lejla tajba). Alla jaf kemm domt neqred Malta ghax il-muzicisti mhux rispettati, mhux imhallsin tajjeb bla bla bla. Hawn ghar...

Photographic Malta

Don Ravey is a retired database consultant who lives in California. He keeps a record of all his travels and interests. He spent February and March 2004 touring Malta and kept a blog to record his daily activities and his numerous photos:

The next photo is a picturesque archway in Valletta, and the last one is looking across Grand Harbour to Fort St. Angelo in Vittoriosa. I also visited the Lascaris War Rooms which are very impressive, where General Dwight Eisenhower and Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham had offices overlooking the underground war planning operations in the Mediterranean. I'll have photos from that fascinating visit on my travel photos pages soon.

Some of you have inquired about the Maltese Falcon that played a prominent role in the 1941 movie of that name starring Humphrey Bogart. When I first came to Malta I looked in dozens of souvenir shops and was surprised that I didn't see any little Maltese Falcons. When I visited Mdina I chanced upon one shop that advertises that it has the exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute replicas of the movie statue.

They have a web site: http://www.themaltesefalcon.com/ that presents interesting facts about the legend and the movie. But the origin of the connection is that when the Holy Roman Emperor Charles the 5th ceded the island of Malta to the Knights of St. John in the early 16th century, he demanded the token payment of "one black falcon from Malta" to be delivered to him annually on All Saints Day, the 1st of November. Falcons were once native to Malta, but apparently the bombings of World War II drove them all away and they have never returned..

BirdBlog

From BirdBlog, a new blog dedicated to the welfare of birds:

Birds, wild and captive, need new and many voices to protect them and to speak out LOUD. Here's just one reason: The major north-south migratory path of birds from Africa to Europe passes over Malta. Every year, hunters sit on the island of Malta and shoot down their easy prey: 1 million birds. For those not concerned with biodiversity, I can barely find words to provoke you out of your sleepy ignorance. This blog is dedicated to the proper care, freedom, health, welfare and natural habitats of birds and other animals..

BirdLife - Malta; Hunting and trapping in Malta; The Hunters' version

Malta - EU : Hunting and trapping

Stefan's technology blog

Stefan Z Camilleri from Rabat blogs at szc blogspot mostly about science and technology subjects. In his latest entry he blogs about free web mail storage at Yahoo, Google and Microsoft:

Google has had the upper hand yet again in this department... they started off their service from null and therefore had the opportunity of tuning and adapting their system as it grew... plus it is still in beta and therefore they would technically have every excuse should something go wrong from time to time... witty move google!! Added to this is the fact that Gmail's interface is so sleek and fast, this raises serious doubts as to whether or not both Yahoo and Hotmail will be able to match such standards...

Top 25 innovations

Ms Mac's Easter meanderings

Ms Mac, a book lover from Switzerland, heard mass in Latin during her visit to Malta. She was "raised catholic, attending mass every Sunday without fail from birth until I turned 18 and broke my mother's heart by not going any more". Last Friday she described her "top ten Catholic reminiscences":

Once, while in Malta on a family holiday, my mum was feeling extremely hung over from a BBQ which served bad vino from the night before. We attended mass the next morning (no question of that) and she was green. The church was packed out in the middle of summer so you can imagine how stifling hot it was. She spent the full hour rocking back and forth in the path of the the oscillating tiny electric fan trying desperately not to throw up on the rest of the congregation or pass out. She managed and I have nothing but admiration for her. Incidentally, that night was also the first night I got drunk in the presence of my parents but they were so plastered they didn't even notice me staggering home, wine bottle in hand swigging all the way to the apartment!..

Medical Madness - with a reference to the Maltese Catacombs

HOLY WEEK AND EASTER IN MALTA - Special MaltaMedia Feature

Oliver Reed's pub

A review of The Pub in Valletta by Marcus_De_Sade . From BeerInTheEvening.com:

The final watering hole of the late, great Ollie Reed, who died here after one last session during the filming of Gladiator. As such it is as much a tourist attraction as a pub, but you can get English beers (albeit keg) and Pukka Pies and Walkers crisps. Also idiosyncratic opening hours: the boss Warren likes to close early and hit the town himself! An absolute must if you are on the island. Raise a glass to Ollie while you are there.

Marcus De Sade's Masolini blog and his new blog DeSadeDiary

Actor Oliver Reed dies in Malta - BBC

Death of Jim Callaghan

Lord James Callaghan, described tonight as 'a giant of the labour movement' by Tony Blair, has died aged ninety two. He was British PrimeMinister between April 1976 and May 1979 (when he lost elections to Margaret Thatcher) and knew Malta well having undergone tough negotiations with Dom Mintoff over the British military bases and on the future of Malta-UK relations. He was one of the most influential British politicians of the 20th century and the last Labour Party leader to rise from the ranks of trade unionism. From The Guardian:

The former Labour prime minister Lord Callaghan died today, on the eve of his 93rd birthday, at his home in East Sussex, a family spokeswoman said. His death came 11 days after the death of Audrey, his wife of 67 years. Lord Callaghan was the unique holder of the four major offices of state: prime minister, chancellor, foreign secretary and home secretary, and was also the longest-living prime minister in British history. He became prime minister in 1976, succeeding Harold Wilson. However, his slim majority meant he had to be sustained in office by the contentious Lib-Lab pact. He held the office for only three years and one month.

The Labour party chairman, Ian McCartney, said: "Jim Callaghan was an inspiration to many in the Labour party. He was a role model of someone who came from a modest background to achieve the highest office in the land. "He remained closely connected to the party, and I know from personal contact that he was devastated by the recent death of his wife, Audrey. "He was one of the last remaining links with that inspiring 1945 Labour government, but it will be his role as prime minister and leader of the Labour party in difficult circumstances which we will best remember him for. Our thoughts go out to his family at this time."

Alternative entertainment

No newspapers are published today in Malta as the traditional media takes an Easter break. For those who can't bear the information vacuum, the following are a personal selection of recent clips from the Maltese blogosphere for your alternative entertainment:

Immanuel Mifsud's mutterings: Immanuel writes about the romantic reflections of a number of Maltese bloggers living abroad (Toni, Sharon, Mark, Jacques) who wrote about their recent sentimental visits to the island. "For some reason I find it hard to share their romanticism. Most probably because unlike these fellow Maltese I haven't met the white horse waiting to take me away"

Richard Marlowe's Shackled Hearts: The relationship of Kenneth Halliwell and Joe Orton which ended in tragedy. "With Orton's fame came Halliwell's bitterness. Kenneth Halliwell had claimed (and I guess to appoint he was right) that he had created Joe Orton. He also claimed that Orton had sidelined Halliwell, turning him (Halliwell) into the "invisible man"."

Individwi blog by Erezija: A Maltese artist who returned to Malta after emigrating to the Czech Republic. "Ħassu ftit stramb, ma jafx għaliex, u malajr ikkonkluda li din kienet il-ħtija li ġieli jhoss meta jaħseb f' oħtu li hija daqshekk mara qaddisa... wara kollox hu għadu jqum, meta hi diġà għamlet siegħa talb waħedha f' kamritha. Għadda l-ħsieb minn moħħu li forsi jmorru tant aħjar li kieku jgħixu f' din id-dar ta’ tfulithom kuljum, flimkien..."

Sharon Spiteri's Lost in Thought: Quoting How to be popular by Terry Eagleton, reviewing a new batch of guides to famous thinkers in The New Statesman. "And because academia is all about footnoting, hair-splitting and going on at interminable length, those who know most about a topic are often the least well equipped to communicate it clearly. It remains one of the great mysteries of modern civilisation that a PhD is considered to be a qualification for teaching rather than an obstacle to it".

Girl about life - Nina's sphere: Join Nina in her Easter reading - Reading like mad - finished Hemmingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, Helen Fielding’s Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination, and Anna Maxted’s Behaving Like Adults. (I know… don’t say anything… the term escapism is screeching in my ears, like nine inch nails grating across a blackboard!)

Il-Gagga blog: Kenneth's new blog in Maltese with useful links to other Maltese blogs. "Bħall-għasfur issa nagħlaq għajnejja, nintefaħ ħa ma nħossx bard mal-lejl, u norqod ġol-gaġġa. Ingawdi biss il-fatt li għalissa għad hemm sidi jġibli l-iskalora u l-ilma biex nitrejjaq, imma għada pitgħada l-iskalora u l-ilma rrid noħroġ infittixhom jien, għax is-soċjeta' hekk tordnali."

Diverse Ramblings: Easter entertainment with MaltaGirl. "I wanted to talk a bit about Easter, and I started out with "As we all know, the most important thing about Easter is getting chocolate", and then the children immediately reminded me that this is Malta by saying "And figolli! I got four already!". Lol. Figolli don't feature in my Easter beacuse I don't like them - I'm not a big fan of almonds but unfortunately many Maltese sweets are full of them - even wedding cake!"

International Policy (2): United Nations Reform

This Global Policy Forum site is an excellent resource for material about United Nations reform. It provides a good starting point for a background to the much awaited Kofi Annan report for UN reform presented this week. I would like to invite comments, opinions about the prospects of successful reform given the divergent opinions forthcoming by Governments and NGO's and in light of the urgent need to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. From Global Policy Forum:

In the run-up to the UN's 50th Anniversary in 1995, foundations and governments commissioned a number of major reform studies. Commissions of eminent persons met to reflect on the future. The UN General Assembly itself established five reform working groups. In a post-Cold War world, knit together by economic globalization, many observers expected that the UN would assume a greatly expanded role. But deep disagreements emerged and a worsening financial crisis cast a pall over reform efforts. Bitter national rivalries stalemated the long discussions over reform of the UN Security Council. Clashes over institutional reform, cloaked in technocratic language, proved to be shadow battles over global socio-economic policy and geo-strategic power in a sharply-divided world.

Since the mid-1990s, reform discussions have regularly flared at the UN. Secretary General Boutros Ghali proposed global taxes to ease the UN's finances, an idea that has not yet won support from powerful states. Among positive accomplishments, the UN set up a new Office of Internal Oversight, strengthened its peacekeeping operations, and steadily revised the working methods of the Security Council. Secretary General Kofi Annan introduced reforms of his own, including re-organizing the Secretariat and strengthening coordination among the UN's many programs, funds and agencies. Still, power battles among states frustrate many initiatives while the UN's budget remains far too small to pay for innovation and dynamism. The following pages of reform topics provide information about the reform proposals and the profound disagreements underlying this issue. There is also a section on resources, links and bibliography for further research.


From UNA/USA: In Larger Freedom: Secretary-General's March 20 Report:

On March 21, 2005, Secretary-General Kofi Annan released a report—"In Larger Freedom: Toward Development, Security and Human Rights for All"—that puts forward a comprehensive deal for tackling poverty, security threats and human rights abuses while overhauling the United Nations through a set of recommendations slated for action by national leaders when they gather to mark the world body's sixtieth anniversary later this year. The report is drawn from two wide-ranging reviews-one from the 16-member High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change that made proposals to strengthen the collective security system; the other from the 250 experts who undertook the Millennium Project, which required them to produce a plan of action to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. If acted on, the proposals, ranging from a nine-member increase in the Security Council's membership to the establishment of a new Human Rights Council, would mark the most dramatic change in the UN's functioning ever achieved at once. The report also contains recommendations to address terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, civil conflict, international atrocity crimes, extreme poverty, disease and environmental degradation. See our Talking Points on the report. The full report and supplemental information can be accessed at www.un.org/largerfreedom.


Reform at the UN by the Secretary General - official UN site


*International Policy (1): Web of Influence (with comments)*

Individwi

A promising new blog Erezija, created by a regular user of Scaremongering.net (an independent Maltese initiative aiming to discover and promote potential and talented artists) aims to articulate the life of a sensitive artist living in Malta. In this post , the author writes about the urge to write in Maltese:

Meta tlaqt minn Malta u mort ngħix Praga lejn tmiem l-1995, skoprejt li l-ilsien Malti huwa għal qalbi. Mhux fis-sens li xtrajt il-Grammatika Maltija ta’ Bro Henry u studjajtu minn fuq s’ isfel, jew li naf nikkwotalek mit-Tagħrif ta’ l-Akkademja tal-Malti – fil-fatt sa ftit xhur ilu kont batut fil-kitba Maltija u huwa biss issa li bdejt nitgħallem ’l għaliex tikteb ’l għaliex u mhux l-għaliex – imma fis-sens li l-istejjer li bdejt nikteb ’l bogħod minn art twelidi ħarġu f’din il-lingwa stramba, li mill-pinna tiegħi ħarġet żlugata, mimlija tbenġil lingwistiċi u idjomatiċi. Skoprejt li jekk nikteb dwar membru tal-MUSEUM, ma’ nistax nuża l-Ingliż. Il-mixja tiegħu lejn id-dar, l-għadajjar li jirriflettu d-dwal tat-triq f’għajnejh huma riflessjonijiet Maltin, id-dawl tal-bozzoz huwa dawl Malti. L-Ingliż ma jidħolx hawnhekk. Kellu jkun il-Malti.

U għalhekk bdejt nikteb bil-Malti, mingħalija xi hero litterarju, l-uniku Malti fuq wiċċ id-dinja li qed jikteb xi ħaġa valida, li qed iħaffer ħofra fl-art niexef tal-lingwa Maltija. Dan kollu ħsibtu mingħajr ma kelli l-għerf biżżejjed biex naqta’ ġudizzju bħal dan – kull ma kont qrajt bil-Malti sa dak iż-żmien kien nofs “Ulied in-Nanna...”, xi drammi u stejjer ta’ Alfred Sant, u xi ħaġa żgħira ta’ Oliver Friggieri. Sa ftit ilu kont għadni konvint li jiena aħjar minn dawn kollha f’daqqa. In-novelli ta’ Stagno ma biddlux fehemti. Issa, il-lum, jiena ċert li minix daqshekk tajjeb, u nħossni aħjar li naf u nirrikonoxxi dan il-fatt.

Iżda minkejja dan, iddeċidejt illum li nibda nippostja l-istejjer tiegħi. Nibda mill-ewwel waħda. Dawn jifformaw ktieb li jismu !ND!V!DW!. Ma tantx għamilt dak kollu li stajt biex nippubblikah dan il-ktieb li inkiteb fis-sena bejn l-1996 u l-1997. Mark Vella kien qalli li kien hemm ċans iżda l-Minima sfaxxa ftit wara.Insomma, biex taqra l-ewwel storja, dan huwa l-indirizz: http://individwi.blogspot.com/

Luis Mendo's Malta Diary

Sharon from Lost in Thought has discovered a fascinating diary by Spaniard Luis Mendo of a four-day visit to Malta which includes unique drawings:

From what I can gather Luis lives in Holland and came to Malta last year for the Creative Thinking seminar. He does a very good sketch of my friend Sandra, the coordinator of the seminar. He also includes a collection of pictures taken during his four-day visit.I can't seem to link directly to Luis' diary but you can go to his website and click on Malta Diary towards the bottom of the menu on the left.

Breaking French law of 1891

A Maltese company is being threatened with legal action by a French operator for breaking a 114 year old French law. AFP reports:

French betting operator PMU on Thursday threatened to take four foreign bookmakers - three British and one Maltese - to court for breaking its monopoly by offering bets over the internet.
"These bookmakers are breaking the law of 1891. What they are doing is illegal. We are launching legal proceedings against them," said Francoise Toussaint, a spokeswoman for PMU (Pari Mutuel Urbain).

The four companies - Sporting Bet, Bet and Win and Stanley International Betting of Britain and Mr Bookmaker of Malta - have in recent months launched French websites on which they offer odds on a range of French sporting events including horse races and football matches.
France established mutualised betting in 1891 and the PMU was granted a monopoly in 1930 in a bid by the government to protect the public by controlling the industry and preventing its takeover by mafia interests.

The foreign companies plan to defend themselves against legal action by an appeal to the European Union's Court of Justice which, in November 2003, forced Italy to drop similar proceedings against a British bookmaker, according to lawyers..

Industrial disputes

News in Malta over the last days was dominated by an industrial dispute involving the General Worker's Union, EneMalta ( Malta's monopoly energy provider - a very useful website providing daily updates of numerous power cuts and power interruptions around the Maltese islands!) and the Government. From Union Network International:

Following partial industrial action ordered by the General Workers' Union (GWU) at the Enemalta Corporation (Energy Corporation), the Government and the Management have breached the Employment and Industrial Relations Act by suspending employees who followed directives ordered by the Union.

The Government, who owns and conducts major industrial relations on behalf of its companies, has resorted to such action in recent weeks in a number of occasions. Moreover the Employment and Industrial Relations Act only allows managements to hold the union or employees responsible in case of illegitimate industrial action in the eventuality that this is declared by a court. Implying that no management may unilaterally suspend workers following industrial action ordered by a Trade Union.

The management, backed by the Government, suspended the workers after the large majority of workers opted not to sign a declaration by which workers were requested to over-ride the directive of the union and return to their normal duties.

The Government's breach of the Employment and Industrial Relations Act follows up on the Government's breach of free collective bargaining as granted by the ILO, where the government introduced a law on public holidays that made void all collective agreements currently in place.

Small but perfectly formed

According to Mark Stead, the Maltese islands are small, but perfectly-formed. Stead got a taste of Malta in 2003 and wrote this feature for the South Wales Echo (Cardiff, Wales):

A Quick quiz question to kick off with: What do you get if you cross the UK and Italy?
One answer is epic car chases in Mini Coopers, as evidenced by Michael Caine's group of blaggers in The Italian Job. Another - for the Welsh, at least - is epic soccer victories over the might of the Azzurri.

But although the footballing fraternity might disagree, perhaps the most impressive answer is Malta and Gozo - two tiny islands which wear a British influence on their sleeve, and in the shape of red phone and letter boxes and pubs and chippies with Brit-esque names without losing sight of their roots slap-bang in the middle of the Mediterranean. And they combine a justified pride in their centuries of history with a zest for modern life which makes the pair of Anglo-Italian islands a fascinating holiday destination. Malta, all 95 square miles of it, has a historic tapestry to devour - 7,000 years old, to be precise - and one which is crammed with legends, heroes and energy. Pioneers such as the Phoenicians, the Greeks and the Romans have all had their moments here, and both it and Gozo are islands with a tale to tell at every turn as they shimmer in the Mediterranean haze.

The best place to start is Valletta, the Maltese capital - and the best way to absorb it is the Malta Experience video show, the perfect taster to what these islands have to offer. Considering Malta's diminutive stature, it's amazing how much time you need to really take in the feast of architecture Valletta has to offer - and equally amazing how much the city packs in. Valletta dates back to 1566, having been built by the Knights of St John - whose legacy can be found everywhere on these two islands - and contains within its walls the National Museum of Fine Art, Grand Masters Palace and St John's Co-Cathedral. And it's in the latter where one of the most lasting impressions of Malta can be found. I don't confess to being an art buff - anything but, in fact - but the awe-inspiring painting of The Beheading of St John by Italian master Caravaggio definitely demands more than a second look. The sheer power of it can only make you gawp.

The contrast between bustling Valletta and, almost at the heart of Malta, the second city of Mdina is a marked one. Mdina, one of the best-preserved medieval cities in the world, is tagged `The Silent City' and the feeling one gets while strolling around it can be, to say the least, eerie. It's not unusual to find the streets all but deserted, and the views to be had across the island from the city's ramparts are stunning. From here, you can really let the aura of Malta wash over you.

In contrast is the seafront town of Sliema - where Malta hits its fashionable groove and where home base for this particular trip, the excellent Crowne Plaza Malta hotel, can be found. Sliema, a short ferry trip across the bay from Valletta, boasts some of the best shopping and eateries the island has to offer and is one of the best places to start making the most of those spare euros. And speaking of ferries, if you think Malta is laid-back, try hopping across the water to its little brother, Gozo - just 14km long, less than 7km wide, and every bit as worth a visit as its sibling.

One of the beauties of Gozo is that, because it's so small, getting from A to B is a doddle, and that makes it very easy to take in all the island has to offer, even if you only have a short time there - and especially if the children are in tow. Top tips - take in Victoria, Gozo's capital and home to the only shops on the island; get acquainted with some of the best scuba-diving you're likely to find in the Mediterranean, all around the island; check out the Calypso Caves - named after Queen Calypso, who the legendary Ulysses was shipwrecked here with for seven years; and munch some grub. The food - particularly the seafood - on both Malta and Gozo is varied, fresh and excellent, trust me.

To sum up, these are two islands which are mere specks on any map, but three days on them is enough to consume a wealth of history while, at the same time, feeling you've only really scratched the surface. So, who said size matters?

Malta slows down Europe

Malta placed right at the bottom of the Lisbon strategy scorecard published this week by the Centre for European Reform and presented by the President of the European Commission. The European Union's ‘Lisbon’ reform programme aims to make Europe the world’s most competitive economy by 2010. Europe is far from achieving it's economic objectives and during this week's EU summit governments are expectd to clash over how to reach the Lisbon targets. The scorecard report states that "it is hard to make a definite judgement about the tiny island state of Malta - it does not supply data for many of the key Lisbon measures". No explanation in sight from the National Statistics Office. Despite the embarassing performance of the Gonzi-led Maltese economy, Europe has been making some slow progress. Jacques René Zammit, currently having a break from his duties at the European Court of Justice, blogs about Malta's dismal performance:

Malta Placed Bottom in Lisbon Process: Okay. Here we go. Almost one year in the EU and we rank with Bulgaria and Romania. Economically? No not just. It includes female employment rankings and achievements in secondary education. Dumping in Landfills is significant... others are cutting down and we are adding I repeat adding the amount of dump per person. Every Maltese citizen is worth 187kg of rubbish a year. We should put it on our ID cards instead of the photo. Every one with his personalised photo of rubbish... However do not panic. I am hoping that some Macchiavellian minded Nationalist at Darcentrali has seen all this. The chart comes conveniently at a half-way term in government. I'm ready to bet that for most of the standards the results will be very different as elections approach. Then we will be the record country that bounces from 27th to 8th in one go. Thanks to lies, damned lies and statistics.

The economic cost of non-Lisbon

Political groups split over revision of Lisbon strategy

Catalogue of Life

The participants of the ambitous 'Catalogue of Life' programme have been meeting in Malta in the past days to discuss the progress made in the project that aims to catalogue all life forms on earth by the year 2011. The meeting in Malta about the project named Species 2000 coincided with the Species 2000 Europa Annual Meeting. The Independent Sunday (United Kingdom) reports:

A project that is attempting nothing less than to compile a list of every living organism on Earth is making what it describes as "spectacular progress" in a world which is still discovering scores of new species every week.

The Catalogue of Life has just logged its 500,000th species, which may sound a lot, but the partly British-led project has a long way to go. Around 1.75m species have been identified somewhere on Earth, and this is a fraction of the estimated total. Even the most conservative experts put the number at five million, and some say that as many as 10 times as many different species may inhabit the land, seas and skies.

It is this colossal hole in human knowledge that the Catalogue of Life programme addresses. It began in 2001 as a joint venture between Species 2000, based at the University of Reading, and ITIS, based at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and aims to complete the listing of life on Earth by 2011. Speaking from the project's annual conference in Malta yesterday, one of its founders, Professor Frank Bisby of Reading University said: "It is like a telephone book listing all organisms and where..

About Species 2000

Related Links

Multi-culturalism

Suburban Scrawl - Stuart Fenech's blog - is an excellent way for keeping udated about the politics of Australia. Last week, Queensland based Stuart, who is half Maltese, blogged about racism, multi-culturalism and Maltese migration in Australia. From Suburban Scrawl:

As a British colony, Malta was on our side during World War 2, consequently getting bombed more than London. After World War 2, the Chifley Labor Government in Australia launched a program to bring in large numbers of immigrants to boost Australia's population and provide the labour for large projects like the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. Since Malta was in such a bad shape after the way, many Maltese took their chances and moved to Australia. On the 9th of April 2005 my branch of Fenech's are having a gathering to celebrate 50 years since the original journey was made by sea by my father's family.

'Wog' had traditionally been a term used to refer to people from the Mediterranean area, like the Greeks, Italians and Maltese. It was used as a taunt on my family many years ago, as they struggled to adapt to a new country while working hard to make a winner out of the big move. The term 'wog' seemed to disappear from mainstream dialog during the 1980's, partly due to Hawke and Keating Labor Governments. It's ugly appearance in two distinct social circles I am around around a month ago got me thinking about issues relating to racism, prejudice, assimilation, multiculturalism in Australia.

Prejudice and racism are not easy to define. I consider prejudice as when you believe that most or all people in a certain group have particular negative characteristics that make them worse than or inferior to other groups of people. I view racism more as when people display or promote prejudiced views, which actively harms those that are being misrepresented.

The main targets of prejudice and racism have moved over time, with the focus in recent years on Asians and Muslims. I believe that there are many factors that contribute towards the prejudiced and racist views of individuals. These include but are not limited to an individual's upbringing, exaggeration of our differences, lack of knowledge, limited personal experiences, overly simplistic views, irrational fear and opportunistic presentations of specific groups...

Imagning Australia: Ideas for our future and other blogs

A Maltese journal by Robert J Eakin

NoeHill is the personal website of several San Franciscans who reside in the Victorian heart of The City, the boundary between Noe Valley and The Castro. The site is devoted mainly to journals, both narrative and photographic, about life in San Francisco, travels in America and Europe. One of these journals is written by Robert J Eakin who spent a number of days in Malta while travelling in the Mediterranean. The entries have interesting observations about life in the Maltese islands and include some impressive photos. Start here with the arrival in Malta and link to journal entries for Valletta, Comino, Gozo, Mdina & Rabat, Marsaxlokk and finally Zejtun from which this piece is taken:

The mingling of the religious and secular music doesn’t seem to bother anyone inside the church or out. Behind the church are the floats that will be used in tomorrow’s procession. Food and drink are sold everywhere. Quite a few booths are selling honey nougat which, I guess, must be a local specialty. Two different bands march about town for a while and then each settles on its own bandstand. During the night they alternate playing, each with its own soloists, an eclectic mix of music: opera, show tunes, Cole Porter, omm-pa-pa. The town dignitaries and spouses sit in designated chairs at the bandstand and when one band finishes, the group moves to their designated chairs at the other bandstand. The mass of people sit at tables and on curbs all around the town, eating, drinking and thoroughly enjoying themselves. Later, fireworks light the sky. No child, no matter how young, goes to bed early tonight. We had a wonderful time.

Easter season

Athena, a Maltese graduate studying archeology at Cambridge, blogs at Rites of Passage about the subjects of her studies, food, politics etc.. She has a particular interest in Mediterranean prehistory and African ethnography. In her latest post she entertains us with an anthropological overview of Easter rituals in Malta. For the first time in years I am unable to spend the full Easter week in Malta and will only be back on Good Friday. I am currently teaching an International Economics course at a Czech university and unfortunately there is no such thing as an Easter break in Czech academia. From Rites of Passage:

..Then Saturday is a quiet day because Christ is still dead and you are meant to reflect even further. Easter Sunday simply RULES. You wake up early and rush to the village/town centre where the church stands to watch the statue of Christ the Risen being brought out. The men literally *run* down the church parvis and then on the way back the statue is thrown up slightly and they catch it again. The lovely bells will be ringing (real people ring our bells, Great St Mary's Church please take note) and figolli are distributed. Oh and there's Easter lunch of course, lamb and more food than anyone can ever handle really...

Holy Week and Easter week in Malta - MaltaMedia

The 2005 Easter festival of Music and Theatre in Valletta

Shackled Hearts

The Maltese blogosphere is enriched by the comeback of the articulate UK based broadcaster Richard Marlowe. Richard, who shares my admiration for the work of English playwright Joe Orton and Maltese poet Charles Flores, formerly blogged at 'Simple as ABC'. Following a break from the blog scene he returns with an ever better blog called Shackled Hearts. In this piece he writes about his affinity and interest in the affairs of the Maltese islands as well as about his imminent return to the "country he loves and admires":

I have taken a deep, some would say, personal interest in these evocative islands for more years than I care to remember. The only thing is, I have always remained in the background ... the shy man who, like Gustave Aschenbach in Thomas Mann's Death in Venice remains an observer. The difference between Mann's 'Aschenbach' and myself is there is no 'doomed Greek god' or any individual of worshipable(?) value - but there is this real love for the simplicity that hides (or tries to disguise) the complexity which is Malta.

So, to cut a very long story short ... I have observed the Republic from behind a veil as an outsider. Secretly I have witnessed the political comings and goings. Nobody knows, apart from you now, dear reader, how my heart has privately leapt and sunk with every political ebb and flow. Only you know now how I have sat alone, peacefully in street cafes, bars and restaurants - watching, learning, digesting. Only you now know how I have steered clear of the package deal, burnt-out, red-faced, drunken, holidaymaker. And only you know how I have dreaded the reaction of Maltese who observe my fellow country folk on their 'jolly jaunts' - the level I cringe when I see the Brits make a tit of themselves abroad is beyond words.

Now, as maturity grasps my mortality with an irreversible grip I am planning to remove the veil and retire into the society that has grabbed my attention for so long. But, dear reader, I am a mere youngster in my 50's with a wealth of life's experiences behind me. So, I feel that whilst the 'McFly' generation probably regard me old, knackered and generally washed-up, I intend the relish the best years of my life in the country I have so secretly loved and admired for so very long. You must understand ... It is your fault - you have seduced me - I had no chance - I took one look at you up close and from afar you sucked me in and now, I am helpless!!

As part of my 'distant shy admiration' I have secretly been a fan (oh! that word is so tacky!) of the Maltese poet, journalist and media person, Charles Flores. His words go straight to the heart:

Stepping Stone

Nothing takes the place of youth
A flower wrinkling underneath
The heartless thud of time.
I am the good old lad - la la la la Of Dylan, Donovan.
There's a song that reminds me
Of our days and lost embrace,
Of the time we spent in happiness
Of the love that we exchanged.

AND

It's this
That makes me shudder
As I step into manhood.
Nothing takes the place of youth.
Here's a dagger,
Here's a knife.
Cut the flower.
Cut my life.

A voice from Kalkara
New Broom Press, Leicester1974
ISBN: 0901870188

Guze Cassar Pullicino

Alfred Sant writes about the recent demise of Guze Cassar Pullicino (born 1921) described by Immanuel Mifsud as the 'pioneer of Maltese folklore studies".

Guzè Cassar Pullicino kien kittieb li ma stajtx tifirdu mill-imgiba gentili tieghu tul hajtu. Jien ftit iltqajt mieghu, imma niftakar minn zmien twil ilu, il-kitbiet fejn sirt nafu — essays, studji kritici u ta’ ricerka, novelli — bhala parti mill-edukazzjoni taghna fil-Malti. Ma kellux l-istatura letterarja ta’ Aquilina jew Saydon jew Anton Buttigieg, ghalkemm bhala studjuz fil-qasam tal-folklor Malti ghal zmienu, ghamel ricerka mill-aktar serja u bzonnjuza. Imma forsi bl-eccezzjoni ta’ Buttigieg u Ruzar Briffa, f’kitbietu baqa’ dejjem itektek ir-ritmu ta’ sentiment uman li minnu nnifsu donnu jaghti xiehda ta’ gherf mohbi imma qawwi (se jkun hawn ammiraturi ta’ Gorg Pisani u Karmenu Vassallo li jiddejqu li ma semmejthomx fost l-eccezzjonijiet…) Matul hajtu, b’umiltà u b’dedikazzjoni, Cassar Pullicino kiteb dwar dak li hass, dak li emmen, u dak li studja: kiteb b’lingwagg semplici u konciz. hu u jwettaq dil-hidma, kiseb fama gustifikata bhala protagonist tal-glieda biex il-Malti jitpogga fuq sies nazzjonali — kien wiehed minn generazzjoni li jixiriqilha kull gieh. Il-mewt tieghu ma setghetx ma timliniex b’dieqa. Naghti l-kondoljanzi profondi tieghi lill-familja tieghu.

Articles by Guze Cassar Pullicino from aboutmalta

Three dimensional Ggantija

Jorgen Holm from Denmark edits Zinken an archeology blog with global links and an impressive archeology blogroll. In this post he reports on the Ggantija Temples 3-D Survey:

A digital three-dimensional survey is being carried out at Ggantija Temples in Xaghra (Malta) for a detailed documentation and a blueprint of the actual status of the temples to be drawn up. The survey is the first of its kind to cover a temple in its entirety in the Maltese islands. The survey is being carried out through the EU's Solidarity Funds after the Gozo Ministry applied for such funds following the September 2003 storms, in which parts of the temples suffered structural damage ... Stone Pages Archaeo News

World Heritage Sites and Monitoring the Temples- Wired Temples

Interview with Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales from NewsatNature via Zinken

Charles Flores

Maltese author Charles Flores talks to Stanley Borg about the books he keeps around his home. He states that apart from his compulsory reading he usually reads prose but turns to poetry in his weaker moments (my links):

A book I finally got round to reading of late and which soon turned into an obsession was Amin Maalouf’s The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, given to me as a present last Christmas. It not only gave me a new insight into the sad spectacle of so many inhumanities over such a personal thing as religion, but it introduced me to the Lebanese author. My journalistic training compels me to go for the faster, unfettered style in a book. I also have a tendency for liberal and irreligious views backed by a general tone of sincerity and camaraderie.

Usually I read prose, but turn to poetry when I’m feeling a bit down or sad. Wit has to be there in all its forms. I am now breaking my compulsory reading, by revisiting Sartre’s Nausea.There are also three or four books which have been started simultaneously and now wait hopelessly for my attention. These include The Lexus and The Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman and a fascinating collection of short stories by a group of Australian creative writing students, Inkshed 13.

Godfrey Wettinger’s Slavery has also been beckoning on the shelf for far too long and so has The Kiss, a collection of 20th Century Hungarian short stories. My favourite books until now can be linked to a particular emotion. Precious is the collection Chinese Poems edited and translated by Arthur Waley. Uplifting is the whole series of books making up Spike Milligan’s war autobiography. Nostalgic is Linji Godda, the 1960s benchmark in Maltese poetry.

Poems by Charles Flores

Island to Island by Charles Flores

The Divorce debate

Malta may soon be the isolated exception in the world wide divorce debate if Liza Maza, a member of the Phillippines House of Representatives, gets her way. Maza is pushing a divorce bill that has sparked a strong reaction from the Catholic church. This latest initiative may have failed it's first congress test but the pro-divorce momentum in the Phillippines is taking shape. From Karl Wilson of Agence France-Presse via the Phillipine Daily Inquirer:

It is the last nation on earth, besides the tiny Mediterranean island state of Malta, where divorce is not legal. And, like contraception, the issue is seldom openly discussed for fear of incurring the wrath of the Catholic Church which still holds considerable influence over the country's politics and government. But with a growing number of women demanding the right to divorce in the archipelago nation, the controversial subject is now back on the political agenda.

Left-wing congresswoman, Liza Maza, on Thursday published a bill for the legalization of divorce, and in doing so ignited another bitter debate on the issue. The last attempt to legalize divorce in the Philippines was made during the last Congress (2001-2004). Despite being well drafted the bill died on the Congress floor without a vote. The Church is already on the counter attack describing Maza's bill as "anti-women."

Archbishop Oscar Cruz, a past president of the Catholic Bishops Conference on the Philippines, was quoted recently saying that divorce "strikes at the social standing" of women in the country.
Women's groups, however, see the church's views on divorce as being outdated and out of step with the realities of life in the 21st century. Last year Chile, after a bitter eight-year fight by the Catholic Church, managed to overturn a 120-year-old ban on divorce. Ireland, another staunch Catholic nation, legalised divorce in 1997 while Spain managed to change its law in 1981. The Philippines is now braced for a similar battle.

Interview with Liza Maza

Forbidding Divorce - Wired Temples

This story was also noticed by the Bad Thinking blog

Public opinion survey in Malta on divorce and abortion by Mario Vassallo