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

Leggendi Urbani

Mark Vella introduces new Maltese blogger Andrew Sammut, also based in Luxembourg, who dedicates his blog to Maltese contemporary folklor:

Il-proġett ċkejken huwa leggendi urbani. Miżmum minn Andrew Sammut, traduttur ieħor f’Lux, jirrakkonta l-istejjer li tisma’ fit-triq u minkejja li bilkemm jitwemmnu, għandhom biżżejjed realta’ fihom biex jibqgħu jittantawk. Il-leġġendi metropolitani smajt bihom l-ewwel darba l-Italja, bħal dik l-istorja tas-sinjali ċkejkna misterjużi li bdew jidhru mpittra fuq id-djar f’xi bliet Taljani, u li hawn min jgħid li setgħu kienu kodiċi tal-ħallelin żingari ħalli jkunu jafu l-karatteristiċi tad-djar qabel ma jidħlu fihom. Huma folklor kontemporanju, li anki f’Malta għandna bil-bosta, bħall-istejjer ċensurabbli li mid-dehra jseħħu fl-emerġenza f’San Luqa u li rrakkontahomlna Brian wara li konna bdejna nlaħalħu t-togħma tal-pizza bl-Averna. Andrew ma jistax ikun jaf il-leġġendi kollha u għalhekk intom mistiedna tidħlu fil-blogg u tagħtuh l-istejjer tagħkom.

Genn Malti blog - Stejjer ta' karattri Maltin

Mythical place of origin

In her article on today's Malta Independent on Sunday, Daphne Caruana Galizia discusses the politics of race, identity and emigration. She says that very few Maltese emigrants return, and "only when they can be sure of living a better life here than they were living elsewhere. Nobody swaps a high standard of living for a lower one". Taking into account the current state of affairs and future prospects in Malta she states that more Maltese are bound to leave this country. With Malta in the European Union, "people are now free to leave and, believe me, leave they will":

The Maltese are, on the whole, not at all sentimental. We are a pragmatic bunch; we go where the money is, where the work is. We adapt; largely speaking we can fit in anywhere. In Felipe Fernandez-Armesto’s landmark work, Millennium, we are described as the world’s most successful emigrants, because we are able to enter an alien culture and “disappear” into it.

That’s why we manage to do so much with so very little. And when we go away from Malta, we rarely look back. Of course, once we’re safely out of here and raking in the money on the other side of the globe, then we take the time to get a little bit nostalgic. We want news of Malta. We fake village feasts in Sunshine. We stick up pictures of Mintoff in Melbourne. Our Toronto sala features a large photograph of Mosta dome. We listen to Radio Malta over the internet. When a Maltese dignitary visits, we rush to greet him with flags and pastizzi. But then when we come to Malta to visit “the family”, we have to try hard to keep quiet about the inconveniences that we find so difficult to put up with. We grit our teeth at the roads, the dirt, the lack of efficiency, the rudeness of service-providers and shop assistants, the sloppy behaviour in restaurants – and we’re relieved to go back to wherever it is we came from. We suddenly realise that what we always thought of as ‘home’ is home no longer. Sydney is our home. Detroit is our home. Coventry is our home. Malta is just our mythical place of origin.

Tajjeb jew Hazin pajjizi jibqa' - Mark Vella

Divided party

In an explosive attack on the current leadership of the governing party, former minister John Dalli has called for the removal of the peope behind the strategies adopted by the divided PN. Dali, a prominent figure of the Nationalist Party (PN) in recent years and a party leadership contender last year, writes in today's edition of the Sunday Times that the party must change it's policy makers:

Writing in his fortnightly column in The Sunday Times today, former Finance Minister John Dalli attacks the Nationalist Party's "inner core" for greeting the heavy defeat suffered by the PN in yesterday week's local elections "with nonchalance", without even trying to find a reason "why so many have shunned the party" but instead they are trying to "grope for an excuse as far away from their magnetic field as possible". Mr Dalli says the people are still waiting for an explanation of the "strategy" which led to the PN pulling out its candidates from the local elections in Zejtun and Marsa.

When he had spoken at the party's general council last November, Mr Dalli writes, he had appealed for the party to become more inclusive, since "many Nationalist diehards" were feeling rejected in their own home. "Was this warning heeded?" Mr Dalli asks. The former Finance Minister ends his column by saying that "the party needs a root-and-branch pruning", adding: "Since the present strategists are insisting on the strategy that has failed, the party must change them."

John Dalli full article

'This Government's just about dead' - Noel Grima, Editor of the Malta Independent on Sunday

Pressure on the PrimeMinister and Public Anger - Wired Temples

St.Joseph's Zeppoli

MaltaGirl, who has just discovered the traditional Zeppoli, reminds us that the Catholic world is today commemorating the birth of St Joseph. Malta celebrates this day in line with Italian traditions. From Diverse Ramblings:

This morning, before he left to go buy bread from the baker, Dad asked me if I wanted Żeppoli.
My answer was "Huh?" so he explained that they are sort of like doughnuts, with cream, and cherry and chocolate chips. He also explained that they are made for St. Joseph's Day, which is today, March 19th (I didn't know that either, don't follow these things any more). The description sounded good except for the cherry chips (don't like cherry) so I decided that I would try one. In the meantime, I did a little Googling, and found a great article on Zeppole, as they are called in Italy.

In a moment of linguistic inspiration I made the connection between Żeppoli and Gużeppi (Maltese name for Joseph), although originally of course it was derived from the Italian Giuseppe. Kinda shameful that I have lived in Malta all my life and still don't know things like this, but on the other hand, it means that there is always something new to learn :-)
Unfortunately, Dad came back minus the Żeppoli... the baker didn't make any, and the other shop he tried had sold out already. Oh well, maybe I'll get to taste some next year.

Kurat Gybejxi finds Zeppoli in Brussels

St Joseph from the Catholic Encyclopedia

Malta Folklore and Traditions links

MaltaGirl discusses the Maltese blogosphere here

Formal warning for Malta

The Associated Press reports that Malta has been sent a formal warning by the European Commission in relation to transport deals with the US that are in breach of EU law:

EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot will hold talks with U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta starting Monday to try to open the U.S. domestic market more for European carriers and foster more competition. The Commission wants to negotiate on behalf of all member nations at the same time in order to reinforce its negotiating position and eliminate any divergence between national agreements that provide different benefits for different countries.

The Commission argues that a 2002 ruling by the European Court of Justice gave it authority to act against member states defending the bilateral deals. The court said language in the agreements ran counter to the EU's authority. "These air agreements contain "nationality" clauses whereby only national companies in the signatory countries can benefit from the agreement, which is a flagrant breach of European law," the Commission said. Barrot sent warning letters to France, Greece, Italy and Portugal and put Spain, Ireland, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Malta on formal notice.

EU takes legal action against member states including Malta - AirWise news

The Taste of Malta

George Pandi writes for Canada's Montreal Gazette:

The arrival in the Maltese capital, Valletta, bombards the senses. Outside the town gate spreads a plaza where the intercity buses stop. The owner-drivers have adopted the custom of the fishermen who make their boats visible with bright colours: Every inch of their 1950s vintage Bedford buses is painted and chromed to blind you. The second attack is on your ears as a hundred Mediterraneans meet and greet while those big Bedfords rev their engines. Then comes the smell of frying oil from the circle of snack wagons.

I got off the bus, followed my nose to a wagon, pointed at two unfamiliar fried pastries. The first one, qassata, was a mistake. It looked like an Indian samosa and was stuffed with peas but lacked any taste. My second choice, though, imqaret, an anise-flavoured packet with date filling - a kind of date Newton - was addictively good.

I went out my first evening in Valletta to find a simple restaurant where I could explore the local cuisine. Dream on! I got cardboard fish with limp chips. Next to me, a sad man ate soggy pasta in tomato sauce with the same limp chips. Travellers on a meagre budget seem get the British culinary heritage; moneyed tourists go to elegant restaurants for world cuisine at high prices. In between there should be middle-class, home-style Maltese food, but for tourists it's hard to find..

Safe cause?

A comment on Stagno's blog prompted Peklectrick to set up his own blog to write about music, philosophy etc In a recent post he discusses the recent campaign by MTV against women trafficking and sex slavery. He says that 'it is tragic how so many women have their dreams and lives shattered by being forced into this slavery'. From Outer Space:

The people behind the sex industry are generally unknown criminals. The people behind sweatshops are businessmen. Big businessmen. Brands that MTV needs for advertising money. MTV cares more about its image than anything else. It just wants to look progressive. Think about all the campaigns MTV does. Not one has an identifiable culprit. The ones that come to mind are about racism, AIDS and the sex industry. All commendable causes mind you. And all are necessary campaigns, but it's apparent conscious effort to take up causes without identifiable guilty parties is fishy to say the least. The way I see it is that MTV just wants to take up 'safe' causes. The day MTV campaigns against all slavery and calls for a boycott against established companies who use such production methods, is the day that I start taking it seriously..

News from MTV

EUVegas

Malta leads the European Union in the field of online gambling. If only Malta could provide leadership in some other sectors!! From Online Casino reports:

The random number generator software is used to determine the outcome of the games you can play at this online casino. The numbers and cards are drawn at random and feature impeccable fair gaming policy. The online casino software is monitored 24/7, in compliance with Maltese legislation. Based in Malta, which is now a member of the EU, this is the first online casino to come out of Europe. The standards and fair gaming practices of the Maltese legislation are strict and upheld so the player can be sure of safety and security when playing online.

While it´s uncertain if more online casinos will open across the European Union, as more and more country join it only increases the odds and possibilities. The recent debates and proposed legislation in the UK seem to indicate that attitudes towards online gambling are changing in Europe. Some of the best land based casinos in the world exist in Europe and it is quite feasible that some of the best online casinos may also be based in Europe in the very near future.

This story is noticed by the Casino News and Updates blog

Online Gaming in Europe - Wired Temples

Serpentor for the World Bank

Since U2 lead singer Bono, the favoured candidate of the Los Angeles Times, may not make it as head of the World Bank, Erik from Indiana, who is studying at Notre Dame, considers the appointment of a specially manufactured leader. A Serpentor style President who would rule the World Bank with an iron fist and mortify Malta in the process! From Uncle Screwtape Knows Best:

At first I thought, maybe Bono would make a good choice for leader of the World Bank. Sure the tour might have to be put on hold or maybe just the number of shows trimmed up. But at least it shows people are starting to warm to the idea that maybe World Bank money isn't just for making more money for the World Bank.Yeah right..

That's right originally they were going to create--out of the DNA of Julius Caesar, Hannibal of Carthage, Attilla the Hun, Vlad the Impaler, and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man--SERPENTOR!!! Then were would we be?!?!

Of course the intent would be to keep him as World Bank puppet-king firmly controlled by Washington. But would that have happened? NO! A man/thing like Serpentor couldn't be caged up...the greatest military geniuses all roled into one body? Are you kidding? He would have ruled over the entire clientelle of the World Bank with an Iron Fist! Tunisia would tremble! Malta would be mortified! And Germany would momentarily stop laughing at America to honor Serpentor with the world's largest all-night rave where everyone had to come as their favorite COBRA villain! [I was thinking of going as Destro, but I probably would have had trouble fitting all my hair inside the silver mask.] Thankfully, we don't have to worry about that.

U2 Sermons

Could Bono handle the World Bank?

World Bank President Blog

European Onion

For fans of The Onion and MaltaFly, a new satirical site dedicated to European Union affairs has been created by keen insiders! One of the first victims of The European Onion was the Vice President of the European Commission Margot Wallstrom who blogs here. From Commissioner Wallström takes up Federalists’ cause' - note Malta comment):

ThE UnIoN's Propaganda Commissioner Margot Wallström was not doing her utmost to convince the people of Europe to vote Yes for the EU Constitution. This emerged during the February 23 meeting of the Federalist Intergroup in the European Parliament, which met again yesterday in Strasbourg to evaluate Wallström's actions following the publication, March 3, of her 10-Point Propaganda Strategy to sell the Constitution.

According to the fraternal minutes of the Federalist Intergroup, MEP Jo Leinen had been enraged at the Commission for not doing enough to campaign for its Constitution, while opponents were actively pursuing un-European activities with impunity. Among these detractors we find the "Referendum Group", whose MEPs are proposing an Alternative EU (pdf), and the European No Campaign, which is a subversive organization warding off the millions of euros pumped by the Commission, the European Parliament and the governments of member states in favour of ThE UnIoN's Constitution...

Malta-Libya joint immigration paper

From the immigration-onlinelaw blog:

The Maltese and the Libyan Foreign Ministers, Michael Frendo and Abdul Rahman Shalgam, have agreed to prepare a joint paper on combating illegal immigration to be presented at the 5-5 Western Mediterranean Forum Ministerial Meeting in Valletta next June on the 29th and 30th. For the latest news updates,visit immigration law portal.com

Kinnie Generation

A promising new addition to the Maltese Blogosphere has appeared on the scene. Warm welcome to Luxembourg based Jacques René Zammit otherwise known as Gakbu Sfigho of Il Bollettino della Sfiga fame. From J'Accuse:

The Kinnie generation who are slowly becoming nostalgic for the eighties, saw the nineties fly by them and still cannot understand whatthefuck they are meant to be doing in the '00s. By the way Mark is a wankellectual who has his own blog called xifer - take a peek and you will see what i mean. There are many more ... wwitchie , stagno and pierre and wiredtemples too - all struggling for space. More Kinnie generation products. They can see the other people. They can see dead people. All the rest are busy standing by their pre-written scripts preparing for the next carcade to victory..

Yep. My blog. Called J'accuse. Playing with words a bit... thanks to my forename. The idea is there too.... Zola and all. The truth if I lie (A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on. - Terry Pratchett, The Truth). That's another theme. Mark asked me... "What theme will it have?" then he said something in German meaning purpose (Oh!German... thought there was something wrong with you - Basil Fawlty). Themes many, themes none. Don't know and couldn't be bothered. Just wanted to hook and not miss the bus of the Kinnie Generation. Because we are out there.

Americans are not the fattest

The Maltese have overtaken the Americans in the obesity stakes. Bob England writes at Freedom's Trumpet:

That’s not to say that we’re not fat. There are 300 million of us milling about the country and most of us are doing so from the comfort of our automobiles, but according to this story from the very left leaning UK Guardian American fatness has been surpassed in Greece, GERMANY, Finland, Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Seven European nations are fatter than we are. I shouldn’t gloat. I’m in that 67% figure that they quoted for the US and I am trying to lose the weight and follow a more Greek style of eating at the same time. Maybe that’s why the weight is so hard to lose. What they don’t tell you in that story is that a traditional Greek diet is among the healthiest of all diets, but these new figures could be coming from an increase in the consumption of fast food.

EU promises action to tackle obesity epidemic

Bookshop Italia

The Internet Bookshop Italia has a section for Maltese books. It includes several books about Malta that are not found elsewhere neither on the internet nor in Maltese bookshops. The link came via the Italian Viaggi Magazine which recently featured Malta:

Mentre girate per l’isola sulle orme di Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sharon Stone e Roger Moore, non dimenticate di dare un’occhiata ai principali monumenti che 7000 anni di storia hanno lasciato in giro per le isole. La capitale Valletta, con la sua magnifica Cattedrale di San Giovanni e le fortificazioni è una città patrimonio dell’Umanità. Le coste sono punteggiate di pittoreschi villaggi di pescatori che si alternano a spiagge e scogliere. Medina, la capitale medioevale, conserva intatte le architetture siculo-normanne che testimoniano del suo passato glorioso. Romani, Cartaginesi, Fenici hanno lasciato sull’isola le loro testimonianze. I templi megalitici di Ggantija, su Gozo, ci rimandano echi di civiltà la cui antichità riusciamo a malapena a concepire.

No Maltese tan for Hugh Dancy

In a post about Hugh Dancy who plays the part of Daniel Deronda in BBC 1's adaptation of George Eliot's novel, Constancia refers to Dancy's other filming commitments in Malta:

Soon to be seen in the thriller Tempo with Melanie Griffith, Hugh is currently filming in Dublin for his next role in the movie Ella Enchanted, a traditional fairy tale with a slightly more modern slant, which Hugh believes is aimed at Shrek audiences. "It’s set in a fairy-tale kingdom and buys into that whole fantasy world, but it’s a bit tongue-in-cheek as well," he explains. Some filming for the drama took place in Malta. The searing, 40-degree heat was a tourist’s paradise, but for Hugh it was location hell. "It was absolutely baking," says Hugh. "It was about 40 on the hottest day. And, of course, the Maltese know what side their bread’s buttered - they all go to sleep between 1 and 3, but not the British. It’s the old saying - mad dogs and Englishmen and film crews!" To preserve his fair complexion for his 19th-century role, Hugh wasn’t allowed to get a tan. "So the rest of the crew were there, stripped to the waist, and Rom (co-star Romola Garai) and I were larded up with sun cream and big hats. It was very frustrating."

Sailing trip

For several years,Greek born American Vasilis Riginos has been writing a personal description of his Mediterranean sailing trips with the S/Y Thetis. His weblog is illustrated with photographs and historical and geographical descriptions of the places visited as well as several links to related web sites. He went to Malta in September 1996 and again in 2001. This sailing link came courtesy of Mark Vella in Luxembourg who blogs at Xifer:

About 1 M from the harbor, I reported on the VHF, as we were directed. We were told to go directly to the customs in Marsamxett. We need not anchor off but we were to dock next to the "black schooner." We entered the harbor and following both my memory from my last trip in 1996 as well as the plan in the 2001 edition of the Mediterranean Almanac, we headed for the S side of Manoel Island in the Lazzareto Creek. Tired as were, we could not locate a docking space by a black schooner. We were hailed in the VHF and after a somewhat confusing conversation it dawned on me that they wanted us to go to the Msida Creek [35° 53.8 N 14° 30 E] instead. Sure enough, as soon as we entered the creek there was a uniformed gentleman waiving at as and indicating us to come side-to. We waved back that we had understood and made a wide turn to allow us to put up the fenders and docking lines. Then we made our approach. Two customs officials were waiting for us and caught our lines. With their help the maneuver was executed without any trouble despite the rather brisk wind. Imagine Greek officials ever condescending to be so helpful! We had definitely arrived in a different country..

Malta Diary september 1996 with photos

Malta and Gozo Diary May 2001 with photos

Honey nut chokers

The Propolis blog is dedicated to bees, honey and other sticky objects. It comments on a recent decision to withdraw a number of Nestle Cheerios from the Maltese market:

According to the Times of Malta, some 80 boxes of Nestlé's Honey Nut Cheerios have been recalled because “lumps of honey and sugar” that might conceivably choke consumers. I suspect the lumps were a bit more sugar than honey, but Sugar Nut Cheerios doesn't have the same ring does it?

Beekeepers urged to lobby European Commission

Food safety warning from Nestle

Bullets and fire

Referring to a James Debono interview with the editorial director of left wing newspaper Il Manifesto, William Teach from Pirate's Cove is not convinced by Giuliana Sgrena's version of events in Iraq. He goes out of his way to defend American actions in Baghdad. From Pirate's Cove:

From Malta Today comes an interview with Francesco Paternò, the editorial director of Il Manifesto and a colleague and friend of journalist Giuliana Sgrena. Woopie. Another anti-American rant. She will apparently not be going back to Iraq, nor will any other Commie Il Manifesto reporter because “in Iraq there are no longer the circumstances to conduct proper journalism due to the ongoing war, and all journalists are considered as US spies.” Could be a bad translation in the English version. I will assume that it was meant to mean that all journalists are considered by the US to be spies. Maybe..

Food for fuel

From the Food for Great Health Blog in Los Angeles:

Switching from petroleum oil to plant oil (biofuel) could go some way to getting the Kyoto Protocol on climate change rolling. Feeding our cars on fuel that comes from living plants seems a friendly enough idea. Fossil fuel comes from plants long dead, locked deep in the ground. Burning oil from this source releases back into the atmosphere carbon dioxide which was captured eons ago.

If nothing is done to prevent or slow global warming by reduction of carbon dioxide the planet could see catastrophic changes within 20 years. Some crops growing in the Mediterranean region may not be able to adapt as the climate becomes more like that of a sub-tropical zone..

The biotechnology industry is reasearching how to modify genes in fuel crops to produce a plant which will render more calorific value. A pre-accession report on the impact of GMOs and their regulation in Malta found that GMOs approved by the EU such as rapeseed could have a detrimental effect on the local environment. The report emphasised that any applications to carry out deliberate release of such products should be subject to the most stringent boundary and safety regulations.

No studies have yet been carried out to establish whether genetically modified rapeseed would hybridise with related species in the Maltese environment. There is a lack of mathematical models for predicting whether a particular species will become invasive in the Maltese ecology.

Irkant virtwali

New blogger Archibald from Hamrun writes about the Maltese version of Ebay. From Ajjut! Ajjut!:

Kemm niehu gost nibbrawsja f' www.maltapark.com li hija speci ta' ebay Maltija b'entertainment garantik inkluz. Tajjeb izda li, jekk be hsiebek tixtri xi haga, tkun taf ftit informazzjoni dwar f'jigri f'din is-sajt qabel titfa xi bid u titwekka b'xi bicca imbarazz.

Normalment l-irkant f'din il-websajt jimxi bil-maqlub - iva bil-maqlub - jigifieri jekk wiehed irid ibiegh xi mutur jew mobile antik (ovvjament fis-section antiques) ghal Lm100, in-nies li jirrispondu minnflok jitfghu bid ihallu messagg bhal nghidu ahna 'Lm 60 u niehdu'. Ma titwemminx imma tigri kemm il-darba. Jew inkella issib irkant ghal 'Vocalist Wanted' li l-ewwel bid taghha tkun Lm69 (ovvjament xi hadd li ma fhemx l-iskop tas-sajt u qed juzaha differenti).

Inhallikom thedew taraw b'ghajnejkom stess l-istramberiji li jkun hemm. Is-section everything else mhux ta' min jitlifha ghax dejjem ikun hemm xi rkant li fieh valur umoristiku bhal ghal pet and animal holiday caretaker jew xi baby tarantula (li milli nista nifhem hija speci ta' brimba).

Rock star Caravaggio

Marathon mother Maureen Stapleton is training hard for this April's London marathon. She took some time off training to visit the Caravaggio exhibition in London. Having fled Italy, Caravaggio lived peacefully in Malta protected by the Knights - until he offended one of them and was imprisoned. He later escaped and went back to Italy. From Marathon mum:

I took the morning off to see the Caravaggio exhibit at the National Gallery. The pictures were amazing, and I'm not really one to fall for the seriously religious stuff. Caravaggio lived the life of a rock star. Seriously! (Who knew, right?) This exhibit looks at his final years, when he was banished from Rome after killing a man in a duel. He went on the run-- painting beautiful pictures along the way-- and was made a knight in Malta. Just as things started to look up for him, he was involved in bar fight in Naples, and got slashed and stabbed beyond recognition in the face. He survived the stabbing, and then learned that he might be pardoned by the pope, so he headed back north via ship. However, he disembarked, got thrown in jail, and the boat-- with all his belongings and pictures on board-- left without him. ("Wait! Wait! My pictures!!") He then tried to chase after it, only to suffer heat exhaustion and die. You can't make this stuff up, can you?

Caravaggio biography

The miraculous Caravaggio - see paintings here

Lost opportunity for Malta

International Policy: Web of Influence

Foreign Policy is a global portal for economics, politics and ideas. A recent article discusses the impact of blogging on international affairs. From Foreign Policy:

Every day, millions of online diarists, or “bloggers,” share their opinions with a global audience. Drawing upon the content of the international media and the World Wide Web, they weave together an elaborate network with agenda-setting power on issues ranging from human rights in China to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. What began as a hobby is evolving into a new medium that is changing the landscape for journalists and policymakers alike.

It was March 21, 2003—two days after the United States began its “shock and awe” campaign against Iraq—and the story dominating TV networks was the rumor (later proven false) that Saddam Hussein’s infamous cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid (“Chemical Ali”), had been killed in an airstrike. But, for thousands of other people around the world who switched on their computers rather than their television sets, the lead story was the sudden and worrisome disappearance of Salam Pax.

Otherwise known as the “Baghdad Blogger,” Salam Pax was the pseudonym for a 29-year-old Iraqi architect whose online diary, featuring wry and candid observations about life in wartime, transformed him into a cult figure. It turned out that technical difficulties, not U.S. cruise missiles or Baathist Party thugs, were responsible for the three-day Salam Pax blackout. In the months that followed, his readership grew to millions, as his accounts were quoted in the New York Times, BBC, and Britain’s Guardian newspaper. If the first Gulf War introduced the world to the “CNN effect,” then the second Gulf War was blogging’s coming out party. Salam Pax was the most famous blogger during that conflict (he later signed a book and movie deal), but myriad other online diarists, including U.S. military personnel, emerged to offer real-time analysis and commentary..

Plenty of bloggers discuss international affairs, but a few, in addition to those mentioned in this article, stand out from the crowd. Jeff Jarvis’s “BuzzMachine” is the single best source for information on the global expansion of the blogosphere. University of California, Berkeley, economist Brad DeLong (“Brad DeLong’s Semi-Daily Journal”) is perhaps the most influential economics blogger, while Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok comment on microeconomic theory and the globalization of culture at “Marginal Revolution.” The group weblog “Oxblog” has won serious media attention for its campaign promoting an assertive U.S. foreign policy supporting human rights and democracy.

Blog coverage varies throughout the world. Although Salam Pax paved the way for Iraqi bloggers, he has stopped blogging himself, and only around 70 Iraqi blogs have picked up where he left off. Among the more prominent: “Iraq: The Model” and “Baghdad Burning,” which respectively support and oppose the U.S. military intervention. Western Europe has a sizeable number of blogs, especially in Britain, with the right-wing “Edge of England’s Sword” and the pro-war leftist “Harry’s Place.” “Slugger O’Toole” covers the Northern Ireland beat, while “A Fistful of Euros” seeks to provide an overview of Western European politics. Elsewhere, “BlogAfrica” syndicates blogs from across that continent, while “Living in China” offers an expatriate perspective on Chinese politics and society. Last is the blog of Japanese tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist Joi Ito (“Joi Ito’s Web”). He reportedly visits 190 blogs regularly and averages five hours a day reading and writing blogs.

Safety valve

Art lover and medical student Roderick Mallia joins the Maltese blogosphere and starts by discussing Maltese literary writers of the sixties. Another warm welcome goes to nostalgic Koncetta who also listens to the music of Depeche Mode as well as to Fup of Nigredo whose favourite Maltese book is 'L-istejjer strambi ta' Sara Sue Sammut'. In his last post Roderick writes about a trip to Paceville with fellow medical students. From Hsibijiet rodmallia:

Is-sens ta' nostalġija li kont qed inħoss nhar il-Ħamis li għadda baqa' jakkumpanjani matul dawn it-tlitt ijiem tas-seminar: speċjalment il-Ħamis filgħaxija meta għamilt sforz biex immur nixrob mal-bqija tal-kors. U qalb l-istorbju tal-mużika R'n'B li bdiet tindaqq Havana (li jien ma togħġboni xejn), dwal iteptu, litri ta' alkoħol u iġsma iħokku ma xulxin bla ebda inibizzjoni, ippreferejt noqgħod f'rokna nixrob waħdi u nosserva l-ġenerazzjoni tal-lum li moħħha biex tieħu 'buzz tal-ostja' u ssir 'ħara'. Ġenerazzjoni li ssib is-'safety valve' għal-istress u l-problemi fl-alkoħol, fil-ġiri sfrenat bil-karozzi, fis-sens ta' periklu u avventura, fl-imħabba tas-Sibt filgħaxija (jew f'dan il-każ, tal-Ħamis filgħaxija).

Equivocality

Jonathan Shekter uses Malta to start off his philosophical reflections about the internet, the global flow of information and the international media. He argues that although the web itself is a uniquely decentralized and democratic medium, it is still possible to create a prototype distributed news system in a few years time. He states that as things stand "due to the very real issues of information overload, online journalism is still pretty much the same as its analog counterpart, including being dominated by the same few centralized conglomerates". From Equivocality:

What do you know about Malta? Suppose you watched a documentary about Malta on the Discovery Channel. What would you know about Malta then? Would you perhaps know that it occupies an area of 117,000 square kilometers on the coast of northern Africa? Would you know that it was settled predominantly by Turkish traders in the 12th century? Would you know that the main export of Malta is patterned cotton cloth? Would you know that the Maltese people consider yellow to be a holy colour and therefore offensive to wear outside of religious situations? Probably you would not, because I just made up all of these facts on the spot.

And yet, in the absence of other data, we might believe all of these things if we’d seen them on television. This illustrates a central feature of modern civilization: if we wish to understand any more of the world than perhaps our own neigborhood, we have no choice but to rely on secondhand information of one form or another. This is the essence of the so-called mediated experience, from the word “mediate” meaning “to act as an intermediary.” Such experiences include traditional news media of course, but also all other forms of indirect communication: books, films, personal reports, photographs, music, even things like theme parks and exported goods. Such secondhand modes of communication may exist for many purposes, but whatever their intrinsic possibilities, they are absolutely fundamental to our current lifestyle and culture.

This has become obvious to me, away from my home culture for almost a year. I see little reminders — movies, headlines, emails from home — and I realize that I am beginning to lose touch. It is the ineffable that I miss most, the perception of what it’s like to “be there” in a particular time and place, the kind of deep knowledge which can only come from thousands of small everyday experiences. San Francsico, California, from late 2003 through summer 2004, was like what? What was on people’s minds? What were considered the important issues of the day? How did the people of that era react to world events? I cannot say for sure and will probably never know. All I had at the time were dim reflections of the actual events, courtesy of the international news media. And yet, this is the only way most of us have ever known the world at all, beyond our daily routines...

Nine percentage points

The capture of the governing Nationalist Party by the faction led by anonymous 'strategists' has been a very successful political suicide operation. For several weeks, supporters of the unpopular PN were consistently told to feel reassured by the presence of the totemic figure of PrimeMinister Laurence Gonzi at the elbow of the Joe Saliba directed 'strategists'. Following the results of the local council elections won by the Malta Labour Party by a huge margin (MLP 53% - PN 44%), it will be easy to discover the identity of these few male individuals on whom the unfortunate Gonzi relies - just look whos running fastest in the coming days to escape the rage of delusioned PN supporters.

Nine percentage points are a huge margin by Maltese standards but predictably Di-ve.com euphemistically calls the result "another mid-term election setback for the PN"

Temi ta' kampanja

Dingli cliffs

Rhodri Marsden is visiting Malta because he is attracted by 'Dingli' cliffs:

If I can have a holiday this year - and I hope very much that I can - I'm thinking of going to Malta. Did you know that Malta is smaller than the Isle Of Wight? Well, it is. It also has some cliffs called Dingli Cliffs. There is also a village in Derbyshire called Dingley, I believe. Does anyone know any other places that sound like rude parts of the human body, so I might expand my possible holiday destinations? Thanks in advance.

Rhodri Marsden's time wasting

Sunset over Dingli cliffs

Nice and cosy cliffs

Malta Jazz

SushiYoga's travel blog in Chicago aims to form a group of travellers who share the same interests and to sponsor cool international trips. The blog is also about his spiritual journey devoted to positive forces and experiences. In his latest post he promotes the Malta Jazz Festival:

if you're a jazz head you had to see Tania Maria perform at the Malta Jazz festival. She sang her greatest hits by the sea. Man was that a thing to see. You can at their next one this summer

http://www.maltajazzfest.com/.

Thinking outside the box

Blogging pioneer Camworld, the subject of one of my early posts from last year, discusses his new addiction for fruity drinks. From Camworld:

Bitter, sweet and sour all at the same time. Lastly, Fortuna also makes a blood orange drink that I thought would be a lot like the ones I fell in love with when I vacationed in Malta a few years back, but sadly it's nowhere near as good as the freshly-squeezed blood orange juice available along most of the Mediterannean coast.

Camworld's Malta Diary

Podcasting versus Blogging - by Camworld

Technology, blogs and politics - retrospective

A nation always at the crossroads

Last year , the UK's Daily Telegraph published this report by Robin Gedye about Malta's imminent entry to the European Union:

MIGRANTS - the feathered variety and foreign workers - have unwittingly provided a vital key to Malta in its imminent entry to the European Union. The tiny island nation is joining the EU only on condition that it can continue to kill one variety and ban the other. At about this time of year, anything that flies, from swans to seagulls, is blasted from the Maltese sky in a killing frenzy without parallel in European blood sports.

Joe Camilleri, a market trader in St Julian's, a fishing village close to Valletta, was adamant: Malta's referendum on joining the EU, held a year ago, would have resulted in a No vote if its 17,000 licensed hunters had not been exempted from Europe's ban on the springtime slaughter of migrating birds. "It has been a way of life on the islands for decades and nothing to do with anyone else," insisted Mr Camilleri, wagging a finger.

His other great fear, which he shared with most Maltese, had been that their already overcrowded labour market would be swamped by eastern Europeans seeking to swap chill winters and unemployment for warmth and work. As part of a raft of sweeteners, the government engineered a clause under which, for the next seven years, it can refuse permits for migrant workers. Meanwhile, its own workforce will have unlimited access to Europe's labour market.

Covering less than 150 sq miles, and with a population of only 391,000, Malta will become the EU's smallest state on May 1, relieving Luxembourg of that status by a margin of 45,000 inhabitants. Malta's ambivalence towards joining the EU is easy to understand. It has been occupied and ruled by foreign powers for all but 39 of the past 4,000 years. Only 54 per cent of its inhabitants voted last year in favour of joining the union. So keen was the EU to include these tiny specks in the Mediterranean as a member that it agreed to a record 77 exemptions to its rules of accession.

Poland, the largest of the 10 new member countries, had the second-highest number, with 43.
It is Malta's geographical position, between Europe and north Africa, that makes it so attractive. It is 50 miles off the coast of Sicily and not much more than 200 miles from Tripoli - making it an important halfway house between two distinct cultures. Many Maltese trace their heritage back to ancient Carthage and Phoenicia; others to Italy and southern Europe.

The island state was Britishness itself - complete with the George Cross it won for holding out during the Second World War - until the socialist firebrand Dom Mintoff became prime minister in 1971 and effectively closed the Royal Navy's base. Putting the final touch to his vision of a non-aligned Malta, he set off to woo new friends in the region. The most notable and alarming of these was the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, who earned his place at Valletta's top table by bankrolling Mintoff's Labour government while Britain was being elbowed out.

One of the few concessions Malta had to make to the EU was to end visa-free travel for Libyans - a privilege maintained even at the height of Col Gaddafi's involvement in state-sponsored terrorism. Mintoff's dream of realigning Malta in the image of a "Mediterranean Switzerland" caused alarm in Nato, but gave Malta connections that suddenly appear highly attractive after the September 11 attacks.

Anyway, the days of ideology-driven neutrality have been succeeded by the more pragmatic policies of the Nationalist Party under Edward Fenech Adami, who was succeeded as prime minister last month by Lawrence Gonzi. That is perfectly apparent in Malta now. The pole-dancing bar at the heart of St Julian's club district - which last month used its revolving advertising board to carry the message: "Welcome to the USS Bataan" - bears witness to that change. The sailors from the Bataan, an amphibious assault ship, toured the local haunts during their five-day stay.

"Europe is where we belong," Mr Fenech Adami told The Daily Telegraph before retiring last month. "Joining it is a sort of homecoming. "It has become a catalyst forcing us to make much-needed changes. We are a tiny country, proud of our nationhood, which wants its voice listened to."

A cultural and religious melting pot, the islands have incubated a unique blend of Islamic, Arab, Christian and European values. From the Phoenicians, fishermen have retained the habit of painting Osiris's eye on the prows of their boats to protect them from evil; from St Paul, shipwrecked in AD 60, Malta received Christianity; "and from the British, we have the language, tea, beer, fish 'n' chips and HP sauce," said John Darmanin, business development manager of the Demajo Group, one of Malta's largest corporate groups.

There are also the red GPO post boxes and telephone booths, and a local habit of expressing all numbers in English, even when speaking Maltese. The official currency may be the Maltese lira, but everyone calls it the pound. Besides this, much of its rugged coastline resembles the British seaside without the rain. Now, two centuries of British occupation are about to pay off in more than bad cuisine and right-hand-drive cars. When it comes to dealing with Brussels, Malta - with three votes in the Council of Ministers, five MEPs and one commissioner - could become a useful ally for Britain. That English is an official language in Malta is merely an added bonus.

Political bias

As I had to be back in the Czech Republic this week, I could only follow the last days of the local councils election campaign via the internet. Having delivered five hours of lectures yesterday afternoon at the Department of Public Economics at Masaryk University I was too exhausted afterwards to bother with Maltese politics preferring instead to have a drink with colleagues at the Faculty cafeteria. Maltese political campaigning could wait till the morning. Later in the evening, following a walk in the snow (it has not snowed so much here in 40 years and there is more to come), I needed to update my blog and read other Maltese bloggers who posted last night such as Toni Sant (currently visiting Malta for the first time in 4 years) and Immanuel Mifsud.

With both major parties concluding their campaigns yesterday I was curious to know how these last events were reported on the independent media. The online versions of the newspapers do not report anything due to an archaic law that prohibits the media from reporting political events on the eve of an election. You will not find a similar law anywhere in the civilized world. Fortunately blogging escapes the clutches of this Malta-specific regulation. It is ironical that such a law could also be extended to ban campaigning for a whole day before elections that are meant to promote the interests of our local communities.

With MaltaMedia preferring to opt out from political reporting yesterday, I had to resort to the 'safe' and 'uncontroversial' Di-ve news for Thursday's news but unfortunately yesterday's campaign reports on Di-ve were a prime example of political bias. Due to their online presence these reports can be read today and throughout election day. Di-ve published three reports about the local elections yesterday: The two reports covering PN events, PN tries to invest millions (the claim that the MLP is obstructing any EU funds is false) and later Gonzi ends PN political campaign were quite comprehensive and both accompanied by photos of the smiling PrimeMinister. On the other hand, the single report published yesterday covering the MLP campaign was very brief and had next to no content. It was a clear indication that di-ve journalists were present for the PN activities but did not bother with the MLP event.

In my view, this biased reporting by di-ve will not have much of a bearing on the election results. Most readers of the website owned by Maltacom - in which Government has a shareholding - will find it it difficult to recall the last time when Malta had a Governmnent as unpopular as this one led by PrimeMinister Gonzi. A survey conducted for the Sunday Times and published earlier this week finds that 75% of the Maltese are unsatisfied with the performance of this Government. The PN, which is in turmoil, had a disastrous campaign dominated by the stormy consequences of it's decision to withdraw candidates from two local government elections for fear of heavy defeats. On the other hand, the Malta Labour Party conducted a very slick and well crafted campaign on the same lines which earned it victory in the last local council elections and in the European Parliament elections. It will be difficult for the PN 'strategists' to dismiss another defeat as mid term blues for the Government. It is much more than that.

Anti-democratic - Wired Temples

Malta it-tieni l-aktar li jivvutaw fid-dinja

'The Government has lost all credibility and is not accountable' - interview with MLP leader

Di-ve makes up for it's sad political reporting with this useful piece by Concita Demicoli about Gnocchi with ricotta

Madrid bombings one year on

It is one year today since train bombs schocked Europe particularly the residents of Madrid. The pain is not gone as families still grieve. The Guardian reports that anger is being directed at politicians and media:

Although the scale of the casualties was different from September 11, there were similarities in the detailed planning and in the aim to kill as many as possible.

By chance, the Puerto Rican writer and academic Lisa Paravisini was present for both events. "The mood and the media coverage here was less cataclysmic," she said. "In New York, everything was paralysed, they went into high paranoia that the whole country was under attack like a Hollywood disaster movie. Here the aim was to get back to normal as quickly as possible."

There is a memorial at Atocha station in central Madrid where people can leave a computerised handprint and type in a message. There are 58,000 such handprints and messages now. Some say simply "No words are enough". Others are angry: "200 people died for an absurd religion and a God who doesn't exist."

Some of those who leave messages knew the victims, for others it is almost a tourist attraction as they pose beside video images next to platforms where passengers now face airport-style security..

Dimech u l-Gahan Malti

Guze Stagno writes about Mark Montebello's well researched book on Manwel Dimech and says that history keeps repeating itself in Malta. From the xemx blog:

Dwar Dimech kienu jghidu li jtir ma’ tas-Setta, li ried idahhal il-Protestantizmu f’Malta u li ried igarraf il-knejjes. X’ghamel il-Gahan Malti? Emmen lil min ried iżommu njurant u ħaggar lil Dimech. Madwar sittin sena wara, gralu l-istess haga Mintoff. Ipprova jifdina mill-injuranza, u x’qalu dwaru? Qalu li ried igibna Komunisti, qalu li jekk jitla’ fil-gvern, lill-Arcisqof jixhtu l-habs. X’ghamel il-Gahan Malti? Storja pjuttost maghrufa; qqas hemm ghalfejn nidhol fiha.

Ghax il-Gahan Malti tih igerger dwar l-iskarsezza tac-cikkulata Mars. Jinsa’ l-Gahan Malti li inqas minn ghoxrin sena qabel, kien qed jittallab ghall-gaxin m’ghand l-Inglizi. Il-Gahan Malti jgerger ghax fl-Universita’ ma setax jaghzel BA fil-History of Art. Jinsa li inqas minn ghoxrin sena qabel, kien ikollu jmur jahdem ta’ erbatax-il sena biex imantni ‘l hutu. Il-Gahan Malti kien dak li kien; hu dak li hu. Jibqa’ jhalli ‘l min ibezzghu mill-haddiema barranin li jigu Malta biex jehdulu hobzu. Jibqa’ jhalli ‘l min ibezzghu bil-filmati ta’ Novembru ’86. Jibqa’ jhalli ‘l min ibezzghu ghax jigi n-Nigerjan u, bil-bilbla kbira li ghandu, jisraqlu l-mara.

In this interview with MaltaToday Mark Montebello compares Mintoff to Dimech

Manwel Dimech u l-idejali tas-Sette Giugno

Gahan u l-identita' kulturali Maltija - Adrian Grima

Lack of investment in Eurozone

The News Room Finland site reports that the PrimeMinister of Finland will visit Malta for talks with the government next week. The discussions "will focus on EU affairs and, in particular, on the new financial framework, Growth and Stability Pact, Competitiveness Strategy and Enlargement". From the same site:

"Weak growth of investments in one the biggest problems Europe is facing," Prof Honkapohja said, presenting a report by the European Economic Advisory Group published Wednesday in Brussels. Prof Honkapohja chairs the group made up of eight prominent European economists.
The group recommended for example longer working hours as a means to improve the productivity of European companies.

Weak investment into old EU member countries is a long-time trend, which has of late been dubbed the China Syndrome in Finnish circles. Companies are taking their production not only to the Far East but also the new EU member countries of former east bloc countires, where labour costs are but a fraction of those of old EU member countries. Prof Honkapohja took as an example German cars that may in fact be manufactured to the very last stages outside of Germany with only the final touches being added in Germany.

Malta sandwiched between EU and USA

Malta has always taken a conservative line about women's reproductive rights at international United Nations conferences. As a member of the European Union, Malta has new obligations and it is being squeezed between liberal EU positions and Catholic conventions. With added pressure from the Americans, Malta, like Poland, is increasingly becoming cornered. Julien's List reproduces an article on the Guardian by Mary-Ann Stephenson reporting on the current ten year review of the United Nations Conference on Women ( known as the Beijing Women's Summit of 1995). From the 'educated eclectic blog' via the Guardian:

For all George Bush's courting of Europe, when it comes to women's reproductive rights he is closer to Iran and Syria than the EU. In 1995, representatives from 189 countries met in Beijing and agreed a major program on women's equality and human rights - the Beijing platform for action. This statement was ambitious, and the UN commission on the status of women is currently meeting in New York to review its progress over the past decade. The meeting was to publish a statement reaffirming international support for the platform for action. But the US has refused to support it unless it is amended to say that the platform does not create any new human rights or the right to abortion..

It's not just abortion rights that the US is opposed to. At an Asian and Pacific conference last year on population and development, the US delegation tried to eliminate all references to condom use as a way of preventing the spread of HIV/Aids, insisting on a policy of "simple abstinence". The US was isolated, and its position was defeated by 32 votes to one.

At the start of last week, the US had looked similarly isolated, but its tactics of picking off one country at a time through a familiar combination of promises and threats appear to be working. The EU is standing firm, issuing a statement reaffirming its support for the platform and placing emphasis on the need to pay greater attention to sexual and reproductive health and rights. But some activists are worried that countries such as Poland and Malta are coming under intense pressure. Fears of a US-led backlash have already affected UN activities on women's human rights.

Beijing + 10 Conference on Women review

Abortion-Pushing NGOs at UN Aided by Canada and EU Against the US - from LifeSite

European Socialists challenging Bush administration over abortion

United Nations abortion push - Wired Temples

New book on Paolo Freire

The Comeuppance blog is a collection of thoughts on popular education, storytelling and activism for a possible better world. It stareted off with some important words for activists from William James: "It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true." A former colleague of Maltese academic Peter Mayo writes about the latter's Freire publication. From Comeuppance:

Peter Mayo, who has written the definitive comparison of Paulo Freire and Antonio Gramsci has just released a new book: Liberating Praxis: Paulo Freire's Legacy for Radical Education and Politics (Praeger, Boulder, Co., 2004). I, for one, can't wait to read it. Peter, myself a several others formed a popular education study group (inspired by the Naming the Moment Project) in 1990 that met for a year. I have followed Peter's work since and have always found it a source of excellent learning and reflection. Peter and I were also part of the editorial team that put together a special issue of Convergence on Paulo Freire. Here's a report and review of Peter's new book (launched along with another interesting one) posted on the University of Malta's site:
University Professors' New Books.

The Freire Institute blog

The Catalyst Centre: Promoting cultures of learning for positive social change

Quiet visit to India

If you want to know the whereabouts of the Maltese foreign minister you need to carefully monitor the foreign press. There has been no announcement here about this latest venture but for those who care, the Indo-Asian News Service reports that Minister Michael Frendo is in India for a week of meetings. From India News:

Malta's Foreign Minister Michael Frendo Monday began a six-day visit to India aimed at exploring economic and commercial cooperation between the two former British colonies..
During the visit, the Maltese minister will hold talks with his Indian counterpart K. Natwar Singh on bilateral and international issues. He will also explore possibilities of economic and commercial cooperation with Shipping Minister K. Chandra Shekhar Rao, Road, Transport and Highways Minister T.R. Baalu, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and Communications and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran. Besides Delhi, Frendo will go to Agra, Mumbai and Bangalore to interact with captains of industry, especially in sectors such as IT, automobiles and pharmaceuticals.

A series of unfortunate events at the Opera

A composer based in Edinburgh is blogging with the psuedonym gedudu. He appears to be Maltese - he is certainly concerned by events on the island. He reports an incident that despite it's seriousness appears to have been carefully hushed up. A high profile Gounod opera that will be performed at the National Theatre in less than two weeks seems to have been overshadowed by a serious injury to the baritone as well as by the resignation of the director. The blog questions the safety measures at the theatre and enquires about who will take responsibility for the resignation of the director. From Chronic Chronicles of a Cronie:

16th & 18th of March as part of the BOV opera festival (which comprises of two operas, with 2 performances each...sad) there will be Joseph Calleja in Gounod's Romeo et Juliette. Without going into the various intrigues that have struck this opera (including Brian Schembri pulling out over rehearsal times!), we arrive straight away to the cherry on this lyric cake!

The opera is meant to involve a swordfight. Unfortunately, opera singers are not really trained for swordfights (they use much deadlier weapons, like vibrato, high notes and melodrama). During a rehearsal one of a swordfights, one blow missed its aim sending a baritone straight to hospital. He is now in the Intensive Care Unit with a sword blow through his nose.

The doctor who was called when the incident happened left in a fury, rightfully pissed off over the lack of safety and common sense. The unfortunate guy who struck the blow is now under shock and probably wont sing. To make matters worse, the director threatens to pull out. The result: a CONCERT performance of an opera!

It's time these things are made more public, for people should know how national assets are being managed (or rather mis-managed). Also, incidents like these seriously dent our reputation in the international sphere. We should be proud of who we are, and anyone who denies us the right to be Maltese should not be allowed to take any position of national importance.

Joseph Calleja to play Romeo; 6th edition of BOV Opera festival

Manoel Island race

Couragous MaltaGirl has been kayaking again this year. Read about her exploits here with photos:

It wasn't nearly as dramatic as last year for me though - there was no rescue boat to swamp me (although I was wearing a spraydeck this time, just in case!) and although the sailing class had started by the time I was on my third lap, it was in another area of the bay, closer to the Msida Marina, so I didn't have to help rescue stricken sailors. Lol..

I finished with a sigh of relief, and although I have plenty of aching muscles and joints, I'm happy that the race went ahead, that the weather wasn't too bad, that I finished, and that I didn't capsize :-) Coming first/second is just the icing on the cake!

Malta Canoe Federation

Malta's man in the USA

When the US State Department forgot to invite Malta for an important briefing about the Iraq war, Malta's polite representative did not complain. John Lowell, Malta's ambassador to the United States, is former chairman of the Manoel theatre and former President of Floriana football club. Nora Boustany interviewed him for the Washington Post:

The British colony was an inviting target for the Axis powers during WorldWar II, and Malta suffered relentless German bombardment and a blockade.The ambassador grew up during that war and remembers taking cover from bomb attacks in underground shelters. It was a time of famine and devastation. Lowell has never forgotten the privations of wartime. He stood in line for meals at a victory kitchen and wrapped his share of the family loaf in a handkerchief so it would last several days. "You cannot imagine the anxiety of hearing the sirens, having to rush up and down the stairs at night. . . . Seeing other children asleep in a doorway," he said. "Physically,we were hungry people. My mother sold a diamond ring for a sack of potatoes."

After the war, Lowell attended a Jesuit school. After graduating, he went to work in 1952 for Barclay's Bank. He was 16 years old. He became a diplomat late in life after a career as a businessman, working in real estate, travel agencies and catering businesses. Lowell opened six of Malta's choicest restaurants and clubs, including the first Chinese and Japanese restaurants in the country. At 61, he decided to retire and sold his businesses. His first public role came in 1992 when he was asked to help run and raise funds for the National Theater.

When he presented his credentials to President Bush, he carried a photograph of the president's father, GeorgeH.W. Bush, and Mikhail Gorbachev taken when the U.S. and Soviet presidents met at a summit in Malta in 1989, signaling the end of the Cold War. A letter from President Bush thanking Lowell for the photograph is framed and hanging in Lowell's office. Lowell said there has been a flurry of activity since Malta entered theEuropean Union. After the interview this week, he said he was going to attend a reception at the Dutch Embassy that featured a photo exhibit ofMaltese scenes.

Lowell said he focuses on good manners as the highest of values in his job. "I never feel at a loss in the company of other diplomats," he said. He was not insulted, he said, when Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus were not invited to a March 19 luncheon at the White House for an update on the Iraq war. But he did make a polite inquiry at the State Department afterward. "We took no offense; I just wanted to make sure there were no issues or hard feelings that needed to be sorted out," he said. It had been an "oversight, "the State Department protocol office told him, which would not happen again.

Marketing Malta by Thomas Cromwell - Diplomatic Traffic

Malta joins forces in Washington with Cyprus, Luxembourg, Iceland, Slovenia and Liechtenstein - Washington Diplomat

Bloggers arrested

Curt Hopkins of the Committee to Protect Bloggers writes about bloggers who were arrested this past week in Bahrain, Iran and Malaysia:

As Reporters sans Frontières reports, Iranian blogger Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi began a six month prison sentence this week for comments posted on his Webnegar site which supposedly insulted the country's leaders and were considered anti-government propaganda. Hopkins adds that Abdolahi's pregnant wife and fellow blogger, Nasjeh Omidparvar, has also been arrested.

In Bahrain, three moderators of internet discussion forum BahrainOnline have been arrested in the last week. Mohammed Almosawi and Hussain Yousif were detained a day after their colleague, Ali Abdulemam, who faces five possible charges, including defaming the king. Finally Malaysian blogger Jeff Ooi has been questioned by police over comments posted on his blog, Screenshots, back in October.

Unsatisfied Maltese

With just one week before Local Government elections, it's bad news for the governing Nationalist party. A survey conducted for the Sunday Times and published today concludes that 75% of the Maltese are unsatisfied with the way Government is running the country. It also states that dissatisfaction runs high among all ages and socio-economic groups. From the Sunday Times:

The fact that the reading is negative is very alarming; the fact that it is so negative suggests that the performance of the current administration is performing well below the expectations of the electorate. Asked whether Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi's style of government was serving the country well, a mere 0.3% of respondents declared that "he is doing extremely well"; another 17% stated that "he is doing well enough"; and 17.3% of the respondents are "in two minds about how he is doing". However, the majority of the respondents (54.7%) clearly stated that "he is doing badly" and 5.7% consider Dr Gonzi as "doing very badly". Worked out on a 100-Point Performance Index, this gives a negative -23 points..

Strikingly, none of the three political parties obtained an absolute majority in terms of voting intentions if elections had to be held today. Of the three political parties, 38% of the respondents said that they would vote for the Malta Labour Party (MLP), 17% for the Nationalist Party (PN) and 2.3% for the Alternattiva Demokratika (AD). As many as 28% did not wish to commit themselves either way, while yet another 14.7% stated that they would not vote if a general election were to be held today.


An interview I gave to the Malta Independent on Sunday is published today here. The subjects discussed include the European Constitution and Maltese public perceptions on the European Union and National institutions.

Malta blogs

Bilingual writer Immanuel Mifsud is blogging more often these days. This is good news for the Maltese blogosphere. In his latest entry he laments the state of the Maltese press and expresses agreement with last Sunday's Saviour Balzan editorial for MaltaToday. He urges the creation of 'a critical, biting newspaper which offers an alternative to the mainstream print'. He also regrets the lack of independent Maltese language channels in the national media. A couple of years ago I had participated in an attempt to fundraise for a new Maltese newspaper unsuccessfully. With a high tension referendum and general election on the horizon , the timing was not right. However, as Immanuel reminds us, there is a huge empty space that needs to be filled. In his 'comments from everyday life' blog Mifsud discusses the phenomenon of Maltese blogging. From Immanuel's blog:

The recent proliferation of Maltese blogs is an interesting social and intellectual phenomenon. While some of these blogs are merely diary-like posts fulfilling the owners' narcissitic and exhibitionist needs, others are creating a discourse which is not yet to be found anywhere in the local print. It seems that writing a blog gives one the freedom that the Maltese print is still denying to citizens who, for different reasons, have distanced themselves from mainstream journalism and intellectual engagement..

A number of blogs, particularly those owned by Mark Vella, Toni Sant and Robert Micallef, even if on varying degrees, are committed alternatives to what Maltese journalists are feeding the public. This new, emerging chattering class, seems to have promulgated a no-confidence vote in Maltese print, and have seeked new pastures, which presumably defy the red felt-pen of some hidden censor ready to file reports and send them to court once the 'borders' are crossed.

It is also very interesting to note that a good number of these weblogs are written by Maltese emigrees. Mark Vella is based in Strasbourg, Toni Sant in the UK, and there are others, like Pierre Mejlaq and a certain gybejxi in Brussels, and Sharon Spiteri currently studying in Scotland. What imbues these Maltese emigrees to write weblogs loaded with comments about the country they left? Perhaps they are carried by a sense of freedom and detachment, making it easier for them to look at what they left behind, the way James Joyce was when he wrote Dubliners in some shabby room far away from his native country.


Xemx Wisq Sabiha - The Maltese blogosphere welcomes author Guze Stagno. Expect some loud, witty entertainment in Maltese! Stagno interview here.

PN turmoil

A prominent former secretary general of the Governing party has joined the list of dissidents opposing the strategies of the Nationalist Party administration. Victor Ragonesi, in an interview with the Times, is urging more Nationalists to publicly oppose the tactics adopted by their own party's leadership in relation to the withdrawal of candidates from local government elections. According to The Times he stated that the Nationalist Party was generating a feeling among the younger generation that politics is something to despise because it is "dirty". He added that the PN should become "more democratic". In defense of the Nationalist Party, the anonymous Fausto Majistral questions the credibility of Mr Ragonesi by quoting the historical accounts of Herbert Ganado ( political leader who later left the PN to set up his own party) who had disagreed with Ragonesi's tactics back in the 1950's. From Fausto's Malta9Thermidor blog:

Herbert Ganado's excellent autobiography recounts the events going on the Nationalist Executive Committee in 1958, his differences with Dr Borg Olivier over Mintoff and Party organisation, his exclusion from the Executive Committee and, finally, a resolution of censure against him the "passing" of which was engineered by Dr Ragonesi. Ganado quotes from a letter, written and published by a relative of his Dr Albert Ganado, on how Dr Ragonesi prepared a written declaration against Herbert Ganado and singled out members of the Executive Committee and had them sign the declaration...

Public Anger - Wired Temples

Sanremo festival

The final night of the Sanremo festival in now underway live on Rai 1 from the Teatro Ariston of the Italian city. Vasco Rossi is a guest tonight. Kenneth from Mellieha has assessed yesterday's semi-finals for his blog. From Kenneth's Online Repository:

Last night I happened to catch the last hour or so of the Sanremo 2005 semi-finals on Rai 1. For some reason, yesterday's concert took longer than usual (apparently) and lingered on till around 2am. The stage was majestically brilliant. Once again, the Italians have proved that few people around the world are capable of staging any performance more professionally; a quick look at most Italian TV productions is enough to confirm this.

As usual, the orchestra (they do it live, not like the amateurs in Malta) was amazing, and they had a great guitarist, even if his solos were far too simple and short for my liking, but still he is to be commended for his style and versatility... Anyways, I was disappointed by the bands that made it to the semi-finals yesterday, even though the musical level was way higher than the Maltese in the we-have-money-to-waste Song for Europe. We want Gibsons playing decent music on stage.

A Guide to the Sanremo Festival

A house divided

Few literary works impressed me more than Isabelle Allende’s The House of the Spirits inspired by events in the author's home country not least the overthrow from power of her uncle in 1973. The imagery of Chile acquired a universal meaning inspiring generations of authors around the world. The novel is often compared to Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. The obvious similarities are that both novels relate the saga of a family, both make liberal use of magic and fantasy, and both established their authors’ literary reputations. But where García Márquez’s words create a poetic picture of Latin-American life, Allende’s words offers an explicit commentary on the political situation in Chile. On the surface, Allende’s novel is the story of Esteban Trueba, his wife, his children, and his granddaughter. But The House of the Spirits is also the story of political corruption, patriarchal authority, feminine oppression, and the movement from the old world into the new. The action in the novel spans four generations and covers more than fifty years of history. During those fifty years, the country changes, first through technology and modern communications, and later through the desire to find a better life. Twenty years after it first appeared in English, the novel is being published again with an introduction by Christopher Hitchens. An extract of Hitchens's intro is reproduced today on the Guardian:

It is while speaking of the island of Crete, in Saki's story "The Jesting of Arlington Stringham", that the eponymous character says that the place "produces more history than it can consume locally". We all know of certain distinctive countries on the map of which this seems to be true. For some reason, a lot of them also begin with the letter C: Czechoslovakia (which now exists only in memory), Cuba, Cyprus - and Chile. And there is also a literary surplus that often comes with these territories: think only of Kafka, Kundera, Yglesias and Neruda.

For people of a certain generation (my own, to be exact: those of us sometimes vulgarly described as the baby-boomers), the imagery and cosmology of Chile is a part of ourselves. A country shaped like a long, thin, jagged blade, forming the littoral of almost an entire continent, and poised to crumble into the ocean leaving only the Andes behind. A place of earthquakes and wine and poets, like some Antarctic Aegean. And a place of arms: the scene of the grand 20th-century confrontation between Allende and Pinochet..

The romance between the rich man's daughter and the penniless son of the peasant is such a folkloric cliché that one has to become wary for an instant, even with an author who has already won one's trust. However, The House Of The Spirits depends for its ingenuity on the blending of the microcosmic with the macrocosmic: the little society of the family and the wider society of Chile..

Nonetheless, there was a point at which family and honour and politics converged, in a kind of redemption of all the wreckage and intolerance. The leaders of the French revolution, with the exception of Lafayette, went to the bad and consumed each other as well as many rivals. The leaders of the Russian revolution - with the arguable exception of Leon Trotsky - went the same way. There are numerous other examples of Jacobin and Bolshevik cannibalism and fratricide, or the analogues of same. The Cuban revolution, even as I write, is expiring in banana-republic futility. But Salvador Allende never murdered or tortured anyone, and faced his own death with unexampled fortitude, and that has made all the difference.

When I first met Isabel Allende, at the point that this novel was first published, she ended our conversation by recalling her uncle's last words, spoken over a hissing and howling static from an improvised radio station, as the western-supplied warplanes were wheeling and diving over the dignified old presidential palace of La Moneda: named for its former office as the Chilean mint. Here is what he said, as cited word-for-word in The House of the Spirits:

''I speak to all those who will be persecuted to tell you that I am not going to resign: I will repay the people's loyalty with my life. I will always be with you. I have faith in our nation and its destiny. Other men will prevail, and soon the great avenues will be open again, where free men will walk, to build a better society.''

Malta in the Non Aligned Movement

In her memoirs, the former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Sirima R.D.Bandaranaike describes why she opposed Malta's entry into the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) in the seventies (she mistakes British military bases with American). Until just before EU membership, Malta was a member of the NAM which is composed mainly of developing nations from Asia, Africa, and Latin America that embrace more than half the world's people. Non Alignment in a Cold War context meant equidistance from the USA and the Soviet Union. From Sri Lanka's largest English language newspaper, The Sunday Observer:

She was adamant and maintained the position that as long as Pakistan was in Seato, India would not agree to Pakistan being admitted to the movement (Though Pakistan could not participate at the Summit in Colombo P. M. Bhutto gave us a lot of material aid for the conference). Though I was aware that Malta which had an American base in her territory was admitted to the movement before Lusaka Conference, that was a period that the SLFP was out of power (1965-70) therefore not in the movement.

But when I met President Tito in Algiers and called on him in the Villa he was staying in, I raised this matter of Malta being admitted as a member while still having a foreign base within its territory. His reply was that the PM Mintoff of Malta had given an assurance that the lease of the base to America was about to expire shortly and they will not renew it. On that basis Malta was admitted. In fact I told the President that I did not think it was right. Apparently nobody opposed it unlike in the case of Pakistan.

Malta's Foreign relations

A tribute to Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lanka's charismatic matriarch

The Non Aligned Movement - Background information

Punctured nostalgia

Kurt from Birkirkara and based in Brussels writes in his latest post about his upbringing in Malta and the island's artistic expressions. He also discusses the film Brussels by Night and the Metro free newspaper that he reads on Belgian trains. From his bilingual blog 'inutile de degeler'(1 Mar-05):

I grew up on a small island the size of a small city (but with a contemporary cultural deficit) with very expensive flights. Although I grew up in the biggest town there wasn't any art anywhere, no good bookshops, no alternative cinema or anything remotely interesting except a large supermarket literally three doors down. It wasn't really visually pleasing either. There was a bakery (if you're into flour), a guy that used to mend car silencers, many showrooms selling used cars and offices.

The island had an abundance of "heritage" (like any European country has) and the 16th century which was quite beautiful but vulgarised by presenting it as the only culture and ramming it down people's (particularly tourists) throat and making it the only "official" artistic expression worth sponsoring or spending more than a Euro on (because the tourists, sir, the tourists like it! our Essex ex-military private 67 year olds aren't just interested in sea, sun and cheap food - they're also interested in 16th century catholic-inspired Mediterranean baroque art, and, besides isn't culture "old stuff"? suits them then)

Malta rules the waves

AnonEUmouse from the UK is not happy with the prospect of one maritime policy for Europe led by Joe Borg, the Maltese EU commissioner. From the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:

Borg of the collective to rule the waves. Maltese Commissioner Joe Borg to chair task force for a future EU maritime policy. The European Union views the contribution that the sea makes to our livelihood and well-being as a good potential for economic growth, but the challenge is to ensure that the most of this potential is taken in a sustainable manner. i.e. buggered up through regulation.

Malta's man - Joe Borg profile on the European Voice

The European Union's maritime policy

Windy Malta

Chris Murphy continues to write about his adventures in Malta. Due to high winds, his stay was extended allowing him to visit Rinella, Valletta and the harbour. From Murph's blog:

We've run into a bit of a snag here, we have to cross a 90 miles of open sea in a 8 meter unseaworthy boat ASAP. The only problem is that right now there are 25-35 knot winds and they don't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Not having a death wish, John and I have decided to stay in Malta for a while. This is a mixed blessing, Malta is beautiful and so rich in history and has a great energy about it. Already we have met a lot of the boat people in the harbor and had a lot of great times going out. We have also gotten to see a great amount of Valletta, the city-fort built by the Knights of St John after they withstood the siege brought by the Turkish Empire in the 16th Century..

Chris Murphy's Europe trip - Wired Temples

Malta pictures by Chris Murphy: North Valletta harbour; Kids on horseback; Rinella big gun; Crazy bus driver; Statue staring down

Michael Wessely

Viennese artist Michael Wessely is soon launching a multimedia exhibition in Vienna featuring pictures from Sicily and Malta. I chanced upon a poster as I was walking along Mariahilferstrase with Birgit and Paula earlier this week. Although some of his photos are outstanding, his website is not blog-friendly and it is difficult to create links. Go to GALERIE at www.michael-wessely.com/ and click on the blue Europe map to view the Malta photos (the first five photos are Sicily and the rest from Malta). In this section he describes his shows in various other countries.

40 Euro for Sudan

Emergency expert Birke Herzbruch of Malteser Germany (Foreign Aid Department) is currently in Sudan doing emergency relief work. She spoke to Reuters Alert Net about the Malteser Lent Campaign 2005 - 4o Euro for Sudan. Malteser Germany is a German Catholic relief agency of the Order of Malta. Founded in 1953 and based in Cologne, it is one of the major relief organisations in Germany. From the Reuters Foundation website:

Herzbruch has been working in the north of Darfur since summer 2004. She organises immunisation campaigns against polio as well as drug distributions. Additionally she coordinates and supports the rehabilitation of destroyed health centres and training programmes for midwives. During the 40 days of Lent she reports once a week about her experiences in Darfur. Thus she supports the Malteser Lent Campaign 2005 “40 Euro for Sudan” which has started three weeks ago. Malteser Germany asks to save one Euro per day for Sudan, that is 40 Euro during the 40 days of Lent. With 40 Euro 160 children can get an immunisation or five children can be fed with the necessary sugar-salt-solution.

Today, Birke Herzbruch reports about her office work in El Fasher: For one week already I am out of electricity in our Malteser office in El Fasher. And even today there won’t be some. Our local staff members have told me about the enduring blackout of both generators in town. The repairs will still take some time. Perhaps there will be electricity tomorrow, Inshallah….God willing...

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

'Malta is Atlantis'

Documentaries in the USA and Japan have given credibility to the theory of Maltese author Anton Mifsud whose book - 'Echoes of Plato's island' - claims that Malta was Atlantis. From today's Times:

The theory that Malta was Atlantis, proposed by Anton Mifsud four years ago in his book Malta: Echoes Of Plato's Island, has been put forward in documentaries aired by two television giants, National Geographic and TBS-1, Japan's national channel. Both were in Malta last spring to film the footage and carry out interviews on the "Malta is Atlantis" theme. Both incorporated the theme into two documentaries that have been transmitted to millions of viewers in the US and Japan. In Japan alone, an estimated 28 million viewers watched the 90-minute feature on TBS-1.

National Geographic screened its documentary on January 19 and it will be repeated this month, before entering into the list of recurrently transmitted documentaries on the various international documentary channels. Dr Mifsud said that notwithstanding the formidable number of sites identified with Plato's Atlantis, the National Geographic research team only gave serious consideration to three sites - Malta, Santorini and the Bahamas.

He said the director of the National Geographic production team, Simon Mansfield, and his television crew interviewed him and filmed the archaeological sites for the documentary. Adriana Cacciottolo, a Malta Tourism Authority representative from the UK, accompanied the National Geographic team in Malta. Although Thera Santorini has been the favourite "unofficial" site with the established archaeologists, Malta has the edge on it because of its greater antiquity, Dr Mifsud said. Thera, he said, has enjoyed this "archaeological favouritism" since the time that Spyridon Marinatos, the Athens-based Greek professor of archaeology, was excavating the site in a bid to associate it with Plato's lost Atlantis.

Dr Mifsud argues that the Maltese islands have the edge on the other two sites principally on the grounds of chronology. It is only Malta that predates Egypt by 1,000 years and this has been one of the major criteria that have identified the island mass that Plato described as Atlantis. But there are other arguments too. Details furnished by Plato about the culture of Atlantika and the Atlanteans say they built several temples in honour of their gods, their docks were constantly busy building boats and they participated in the cult of the bull, which they ritually sacrificed to their gods in the temples. "The landscape was dotted throughout by hilly country and canals of all shapes and sizes were dug out all over the surface of the land. These characteristics feature significantly in the prehistoric Maltese archaeological record," Dr Mifsud said.

Atlantis - a backgrounder - from answers.com

Ancient mysteries: Malta's Atlantis debate

Malta's temple under the sea - Joseph S Ellul

This BBC story says that Atlantis could just have been a powerful literary device by Plato

Malta and the EU

The Eurobarometer report about Malta is the subject of today's editorial of the Independent newspaper. It also featured yesterday on the Malta Business Times. From today's editorial on the Malta Independent:

Some believe that the Maltese are pessimists, complain about anything under the sun and traditionally see the glass half-empty, but judging by the way they responded to questions for the Eurobarometer survey last October, made public last month, it seems that there might be a change in this trend. Of course, considering that the survey questions were put to them four months ago – that is before the budget, before the failure of the social pact negotiations and before the more recent difficulties they had such as the gas shortage – they might respond very differently if another survey had to be held today...

Eurobarometer on the Sunday Times

Suburban scrawl

Stuart Fenech, a Labour activist in Australia, is preparing for his new role as Queensland Young Labour policy convenor. He is concerned about emerging racism in Queensland. From Suburban Scrawl:

Is it possible that we are moving backwards when it comes to racism in Queensland? I have heard at least two people say the word 'wog' in reference to people from the Mediterranean area in a genuinely negative way. Given that half my family is from Malta and these were the taunts they faced from bigots forty years ago, I find it bizarre for people to be using this term in this day and age. Given that these 'wog' statements were made in groups of people where no one objected, I am concerned that we are becoming even more accepting of racism.

Mike Tyson befriends Maltese community

Boxer Jeff Fenech, son of Maltese immigrants in Australia, is taking his good friend Mike Tyson down under with a view to help him reinvent his image and career. From BBC news:

Former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson is to train full-time with Australian boxing great Jeff Fenech. Fenech told Aussie broadcaster Channel Nine that Tyson, 38, could even make his next comeback Down Under. "I'm a great friend of Mike, and it will be a pleasure to try to get him back on track," said Fenech, who won world titles in three weight divisions. "I think that the best thing for him would be to get away from everything in America," he added.
"Mike's a changed man, he wants to do the right thing." Fenech worked briefly as assistant to Tyson's coach Freddie Roache before his last fight - a humiliating, four-round loss to England's Danny Williams in July.

Jeff Fenech profile

Mike Tyson could have trouble entering Australia - Fox news

Maltese in Australia - MaltaMigration.com

Random life and art

Violino is sad about not being able to study in Malta:

I found out that i can't go to malta, which is sad. there is good news though, now i'm going to england. malta didn't have the classes i needed for my major, but england does, and the college of reading is only like $1,000 more, which seems like a lot, but i would already be paying a crap load of money even to go to malta. i need to talk to my parent's about this, and about my invitation to join alpha zeta. i really hope all of this works out.

Violino's random life and art

Maltese Lacy Loo for Britney Spears

Bit Bit and Lucky follow Maltese puppy Lacy Loo in Britney Spears's household. She now also finds Paris Hilton's Tinkerbell 'very cute'! From ObviousNews:

Pop diva Britney Spears, who had annoyed Paris Hilton by saying that her dogs are much cuter than Tinkerbell, now backtracks her comments. In a statement released on her website, Britney says, "I hope none of you really took my comments seriously when I was talking about Bit Bit and Tinkerbell. I was just being silly and of course I think that Tinkerbell is very cute. Who knows? Maybe they will have a little play date together!" Certainly, 'The Toxic' singer, who started her canine family last year with Maltese puppy Lacy Loo, before buying Bit Bit and Lucky, is hoping to avoid a potential dog war with the hotel heiress.

Dog's crib from Britney Spears website

Malta campus in Tripoli

Malta and Libya are discussing active collaboration in the area of irregular immigration as well as in the field of tertiary education. An official proposal suggests that the campus of the University of Malta should be extended to Libya:

Dr Frendo also brought to the Prime Minister’s attention his initiative to suggest to and encourage the University of Malta to set up a Link Campus in Tripoli on the lines that it has already set up a Link Campus in Rome where it has over 400 students currently following postgraduate courses. The Libyan Prime Minister enthusiastically approved of this initiative and said he would give it his full support.

University of Malta Link campus in Rome

National Geographic expedition

A National Geographic expedition to Malta, Libya and Tunisia will take place this october led by distinguished archeologist Bob Hohlfelder. From National Geographical:

Join archaeologist Bob Hohlfelder, on an extraordinary Mediterranean cruise to Malta, Libya, and Tunisia aboard the legendary Sea Cloud. This is a unique opportunity to explore outstanding archaeological and cultural sites, including destinations only recently open to American visitors. Archaeologist Bob Hohlfelder has written and lectured widely on ancient Mediterranean civilizations. In recent years, he has served as a visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome where he has conducted research on ancient Roman maritime life and the engineering of Roman harbors. Bob has participated in 38 archaeological expeditions around the Mediterranean Basin, including several funded in part by the National Geographic Society. He currently teaches at the University of Colorado.

View itinerary of the Malta, Libya and Tunisia expedition here

Horse racing Maltese style

Lori Hein is the author of "Ribbons of Highway: A Mother-Child Journey Across America." - reviews and excerpts at www.LoriHein.com - She is a freelance writer and newspaper correspondent. Her photography credits include a national travel magazine cover. She's a marathoner, world traveller and former corporate exec and lives in the Boston area. During a visit in Malta she took her daughter Dana to the horse races in Marsa. From Lori's travel blog Ribbons of Highway:

We watched the Breeder's Cup on TV this weekend. For Dana, my 12-year-old, the horse races ranked up there with Halloween trick or treating as the highlight of her weekend. As we watched, I thought of the sun-splashed Sunday on the island of Malta when I brought her to the national race track in Marsa. Sulky racing is big in Malta, and the track is the place to be on Sunday after church.

We paid the four dollar entrance fee and joined the crowd cheering the silk-clad drivers and their equine partners. Between races, the men in the crowd would disappear into the cool tunnel behind the grandstand where a line of betting windows had been cut into a wall. They laid down wagers on trotters like D'Artagnan, Pay Night and other local favorites. Everyone was laughing and enjoying the Sunday afternoon scene -- the spectators, the bettors, the men booking the bets. They joked and talked and smiled. Comfortable amounts of money were on the line. Amounts that could be shrugged off if lost.

Outside the racecourse, grooms and sulky drivers led shiny-coated trotters, some harnessed to their carts, through Marsa's dusty, narrow streets. The sun turned the silk on the drivers' uniforms into electric blues and reds and yellows and bathed the pastel stucco of Marsa's old buildings in brilliant, ochre light. I watched the people. Dana watched the horses. It wasn't the Breeder's Cup. It was better. A day at the races, Maltese style.


Pictures from Malta: The streets of Marsa-Malta on Race Day; Sulky racing in Malta; Marsa sunsplashed walls; Smiling spectators.

About Ribbons of Highway, the book.

Crowded streets- Another Malta photo from the Logical Photo Blog in Florida.

Chris Murphy's Europe trip

Chris Murphy has started a blog to document his journey across the Mediterranean on behalf of RPM Nautical Foundation. He has just arrived in Malta where he will meet the Research Vessel Juno. On the first day he faced embarassment at the airport and on the following day he played Trivia at Ta' Linda's. From Murph's Europe trip:

I went out drinking with Dave and Laurie my second night at this little place called 'ta Linda's ('ta apparently indicates possession so it would translate Linda's Place) This place is roughly 3/4 the size of my bedroom in Key West and packed because the night we were there, they had a trivia test that everyone at the bar entered. The cost of entry was 55cents or $1.65 American. The proceeds went to the winner after Linda recouped expenses for the snacks that she sent around...

Island of farmers and fishermen

Iain Mayhew wrote this article about Gozo on the UK's Mirror earlier this year. From Maltavista.net:

Gozo has something of a Greek island feel to it. With a wild terrain of rocks, gnarled trees and sheer cliffs, it is windswept in winter and, apart from a few very good hotels, has no pretensions to be anything that it isn't. Quite simply it's a place you come to for a step back in time, some relaxation, a spot of scuba diving and warm sunshine from April until October. Luckily, modern-day temple builders (otherwise known as hotel developers) have not been quite so prolific here, and Gozo remains relatively unscathed by the excesses of tourism. Gozo is where Malta goes to relax and get back in touch with its roots - literally. It is an island of farmers and fishermen and life here is simple but comfortable.

Gozo: an island of legend - Wolf Arnold for the Toronto Sun