Glimpses of a mysterious past

Linda C. Eneix, President of the Old Temples Studies Foundation, will be making a presentation on 'Malta's Temples of Stone Age Genius' at the Smithsonian Institute on July 12, 2005. In this article for The Cultured Traveler about the Maltese Temples, Ms Eneix writes that "for a traveler with an interest in ancient and exotic places, their magic is singular. There is nothing like them anywhere else on earth." From the Cultured Traveler:

Malta had one traffic light in 1990 when I had my first encounter with the megalithic temples. I was a well-traveled visitor with a lot of curiosity about the "glimpses of a mysterious past" advertised in the tourist brochure. I expected to see stumpy foundations in an excavation trench. Not so! In those days they didn't tell you that they were writing about the oldest free-standing buildings on earth.

One of my first impressions was the surprise of walking inside walls still enclosing space. (Some of the temple walls soar more than 20 feet – six meters – overhead!) If I hadn't recognized the authenticity of the ancient stone, I would have thought this whole scenario was built to snag the tourists. My guide began to talk about fertility cults, and my eyes got even wider. We came upon the bottom half of a sculpture, the remains of what must once have been an eight-foot woman. My hands went to my face in astonishment that there could be such a thing in the world as this, and that the tourism industry of America didn't know anything about it. That situation has changed since then as the world discovers these fantastic constructions. UNESCO has inscribed them to the list of World Heritage Sites and The World Monuments Fund is trying to help protect them.

I enter the temples now like a little child, humbled and awed by the achievements of the remarkable people who made them. The more I learn, the more I want to know. Were the ancient people of Malta the ancestors of later people we know a little better? How are the early cultures related? Did the use of large stones for monumental expression evolve from a common source?...

Malta is a little island. Many people are not even sure where it is, much less why they would want to go there. Yet, participants in structured guided programs like Elderhostel say that they need every day of a two-week program to cover it all. Without doubt, one of the highlights of their visit is the experience of the temples. They are universally amazed to make the personal discovery of these megalithic wonders. Because, for a traveler with an interest in ancient and exotic places, their magic is singular. There is nothing like them anywhere else on earth.

All good things must come to an end!

Karen Kilby from Brighton in the UK blogs at Kinkie Karen's Kblog . She recently visited Malta and posted this entry about her adventures on the island:

I have just come back from the most amazing trip of my life! I went traveling around Malta and Oh My God the fun has only just started! I've still got Italy and Egypt to go... I cant wait! It was so cool, The men were cute especially when they tried to speak English! The sea was so amazingly blue it was unreal! It was so hot there I had to go swimming like twice a day. It was kinda funny I went swimming on the roof of the hotel and I like fell asleep for a few hours and now I'm like a little sun burnt... Oh well, I had loads of sun lotion on! Malta has the best beaches and the food is so nice, The wine is amazing, nearly as good as German wine! But then I had to come home, You know what they say, "All good things must come to an end!"...

Badr Brigades Claims Kidnapping of Maltese Citizen

The Site Institute has published a report that claims that a Maltese citizen has been kidnapped by the organization Badr Brigades. Site Institute is an organisation that tracks the activities of international terrorists. From the Site Institute report:

The Badr Brigades claim to have kidnapped a Maltese citizen named Hajya Khalil whom they assert passed information to “the enemy” about the movements and whereabouts of mujahideen in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The group says they “arrested” him in a unnamed European country.

The group says he will be killed without any negotiations: “As we were attacked, we will respond, in the same language of force: we stand and declare to all that we will not negotiate over this hostage in any way. His lot will be in the hands of our brother Mujahideen in the Country of the Two Rivers [Iraq] or in the Country of the Two Mosques [Saudi Arabia]. He will be transferred to them, together with his briefcase, whereupon he will be slaughtered, as sheep are slaughtered.” The group posted a short video of the captive which shows him in front of the group’s banner on the floor holding what appear to be identity papers.

Fallaci's fears

Aaron, a law student at the University of Malta blogs at Walahi. In this piece, he takes the cue from Oriana Fallaci's book to deal with the wider debate on immigration and racism in Malta and Europe. From Walahi blog:

A certain Italian journalist of apparently some renown, Oriana Fallaci, has published a book entitled La Rabbia e l'Orgoglio (The Rage and the Pride). This book criticizes Islam and Islamic immigration into Europe. She is currently in court having been sued by the Muslim Union of Italy. The complaint is defamation. What is troubling to me is that he have the right to free speech, something that is fundamental to a successful democratic society. I haven't read this book. From various reviews like ones that sing its praises to ones that deplore her (read the one called Fallaci's Fallacy), it seems like a serious and contentious issue. But what are we really arguing about here?...

Negotiating offshore resources

Natalie Klein, a lecturer at Macquarie University, and author of Dispute Settlement in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Cambridge University Press, 2005) raises the Malta - Libya question in her article about the dispute between Australia and East Timor over offshore resources. From the Sydney Morning Herald:

The state with the longer coastline usually receives a proportionately larger share of the maritime area. So, for example, in a case between Libya and Malta, the median line was shifted closer to Malta because Malta's coastline was so much shorter than Libya's. The same would happen to East Timor here. A factor that is not typically taken into account in adjudication is the social or economic conditions of each country. So again, between Libya and Malta, arguments from Malta about the respective wealth of each country were to no avail...

Light regulation

Courtesy of Majistral - Eamonn Butler writes for the Adam Smith Institute blog:

Is EU regulation past the high-water mark? It's encouraging, ASI author Keith Boyfield told our seminar on deregulation this week, that all important EU legislative proposals are to be screened for their impact on competitiveness. EU Commissioners seem keen to axe regulations and look at voluntary or other arrangements. And the Commission says it will move to stop national governments 'gold plating' its directives...

Indeed, we might even see "regulatory competition" along the lines of tax competition. Financial services might re-locate to Malta – light regulation, not too many annoying civil servants, and even those struggle to implement the EU rulebook. The latest EU scorecard reveals that Malta has failed to implement a total of 617 directives. It's even sunnier than London or Edinburgh. Sounds like the place to be.

The Media Fire

Richard Marlowe is back at Shackled Hearts. In this piece he discusses media and politics in Malta:

You would have thought that after years and years of being quietly connected to the Maltese islands I would have understood the workings of my own industry there - the media. But dear reader, you are so very, very wrong! Whist never actually never having had any role or part to play personally in any aspect of the Malta media scene I have viewed quietly from behind my newspaper in little street cafes, in my favourite little bars, in the seclusion of my hotel and rented apartment rooms and through one or two well meaning poor souls who have offered their services in an advisory capacity over the past couple of decades...

The most loved bedfellow of any politician is the media machine. To have that machine permanently available and on tap at the slightest beck and call must be sheer heaven. For the consumer, my beloved “ordinary folk” it must be boredom made in hell where the flames rage on and on..

Warning - EU Employment Offer Scam

A number of individuals have been told by email that they had been accepted for training & a post within the EU and that they should send money for the training part which would be refunded once they took up the offered post. This, of course, is not the way in which posts are filled in the EU. Anyone receiving such an "offer" is advised to treat it as computer spam. The EU's website advertising employment is the European Personnel Selection Office.

A pro-European NO?

Hours away from the French vote on the European Constitution, here is some reading material for reflection: Paul Virilio on why the practice of holding a referendum on a subject like the European constitution is suicidal (and more), and here's a EU referendum cheat sheet. Can Europe do away with nationalism? From The Guardian, is it possible to salvage the EU dream? Key thinkers from both sides debate (and part 2), and more from New Statesman. From Sign and Sight, Jean Baudrillard describes the French referendum on the European constitution as a farce and as state terrorism, and here's the open letter from German intellectuals to France originally published in Le Monde. Timothy Garton Ash on who will dare to fill the black holes being left by Russia's long retreat. Jürgen Habermas on the illusionary "Leftist No": Adopting the constitution to strengthen Europe's power to act. Habermas and others cry out, "Do all you can to prevent France from betraying progress!" Mark Leonard on why Europe will survive a French Non (and a response). Margot Wallstrom outlines reasons to worry:

The debate on the Constitution illustrates not only the formidable challenge in arranging referenda on such a complex issue as this legal document, but also the general mistrust in politicians and apathy towards the political process. Voter participation in European, national and regional elections continues to decrease.

I was in France last week. At least we cannot say we do not have a proper debate on the Constitution. Finally we seem to be moving beyond national issues or domestic politics. In both France and the Netherlands, the real choice votes face is between the progress made in the Constitution or the limitations imposed by the Treaty of Nice. I really hope that over the crucial next days, voters focus on this choice.

Question and Answer - The French Referendum

Eurovision conspiracies

One week after the Eurovision Song Contest, the debate continues. Another letter from Romania on today's Malta Independent complaining about the remarks made by Grace Borg, chairperson of the Malta Song Board. Fausto Majistral blogged about this on Thursday:

Grace Borg, the flamboyant chief of the Song Board, is now coming up with all sorts of paranoid conspiracy theories about why Malta lost the top spot to Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest. First, Grace is convonced the numbers from Albania and Romania were cooked. Grace admits she doesn't know a thing about the telecoms capabilities of these two countries but she's still asking the European Broadcasting Union to investigate. As anyone knows, talking authoritatively about something you don't know anything about carries risks. In fact, someone in Romania spotted the report on the redhead's comments and sent in a reply to the Indy..

Well done Grace. I'll sure Romania will be giving Malta douze points next year. Grace also has a theory why Greece did so well: Turks... I just hope the Turks do not take offence either. Otherwise the community here might decide to pack up and leave. How would we survive without their kebab places then? Update: More angry Romanians in today's Indy.

Abortion consensus ruined

Tonight's edition of Xarabank discussed abortion , a subject that triggers strong and passionate reactions in Maltese society. There was a national consensus in Malta about the abortion issue until a couple of weeks ago when the Government decided to push a proposal that extends the illegality of abortion to a Constitutional ban. The proposal is intended to bind future generations but, in practice, abortion tourism remains a common reality - Maltese women travel to Italy or the UK to perform abortions just like Irish women - where abortion is also banned by the constitution- travel to England. Women I know, who are prepared to consider abortion as a personal option, tell me that if one day abortion becomes legal in Malta they would still prefer to go abroad away from the gossip of judgemental neighbours. Toni Sant recently blogged about the subject:

It started a couple of weeks ago when I blogged about a proposal by the Malta government to entrench something that's already illegal by criminal law into constitutional law. Since the subject of the constitutional hack-job happened to be abortion, follow-up comments on my blog about this topic degenerated into a debate between those who are pro-life vs those who are pro-choice. Meanwhile, our grubby politicians continue to make a medieval spectacle of themselves. Thankfully, other bloggers picked up on the actual bone contention and understood that the main argument was (and should be) "don't mess with the constitution!" An excellent blog entry on this topic comes from cartoonist Mikiel Galea, who is also a worthy writer of social commentary. Another eloquent entry comes from Antoine Cassar, even if it's only related to all this in a tangential way. If you can't read Maltese, or don't give much credence to blogs anyway, there's an article in The Malta Independent by Raphael Vassallo that's also most poignant.

Malta sandwiched between EU and USA - Wired Temples

Tabellina

With her new look blog, Sharon in Glasgow writes about a new initiative that "aspires to be an independent network of writers, published in Maltese and English and initially updated every fortnight". From Lost in thought:

After Immanuel's coy reference to the need for alternative journalism, I feel we should tell you all about our baby. And what better way of doing it than by blogging about it, which is how Immanuel and I got together in the first place.We've been working on an exciting new project for a while now, hoping to create a space for new writing to be published online. It's mainly just the two of us plodding along at this point but we recently decided to throw the idea open and see what kind of a response it attracts. We already have some great people on board and the contributions have started trickling in.The site, at www.tabellina.com, is envisaged as a new online journal of contemporary critical thought. It is dedicated to opening up a space for free thinking about our society and aims to publish intelligent opinions to inform debate...

Land of Rabbits, Rifles and Rocks

Ben Mason, an Australian based in the UK, blogs about his travels jointly with his fiancée, Louise Jamieson (aka Weisie) at Weisie's World. He blogs about their journey to Malta a few months ago - with photos. From Weisie's World:

The flight was good but the in-flight movie was cut short due to our early arrival. We dropped into the diminutive island nation of Malta in the early evening. Like many Mediterranean islands the land was barren, but the buildings were golden against the sun. We were greeted by the last rays of warmth and were happy to have escaped the chill of London...

The people of Malta were very friendly and it would seem that everyone had a relative in Victoria, Australia. In fact, there are more people living outside of Malta than there are living in it. Another fact: there are more Maltese people living in Melbourne than there are in Valletta (the capital). With a population of 400,000 and around 400 churches, there is room for everyone on Sundays. Malta has a rich history, having been occupied at various times by Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, the Knights of St John, the French, and the British (among others). As a result, many place names are Arabic, the people bare a resemblance to those in Southern Italy (many have blue eyes), and most menus include a full English breakfast, pizza, pasta, rabbit and horse. The fishing boats are beautifully colourful and reminiscent of Venetian gondolas, but with the enigmatic “Eye of Osiris” painted on the bow...

I have wanted to visit this part of the world for a long time. I recall buying a geographica at Uni and reading the following: “Malta and Gozo have the oldest freestanding stone structures in the world”..Little is actually known about the “temple builders”. Archaeologists generally agree that the temples were built between 5,600 and 4,500 years ago. The builders had a penchant for obese (female) figurines and the odd phallus, and they tended to favour a temple orientation approximately in the direction of the winter solstice. All of this makes for some fantastic theorising. We were very lucky to have almost exclusive access to every site given that the tourist season was drawing to an end...

And no trip to Malta can be made without an examination of the curious “cart ruts”, apparently worn into the limestone by repeated use of carts by a race of Bronze Age people that occupied Malta sometime after the mysterious disappearance of the temple builders. The ruts are all over the island (Weisie posed in front of most of them for perspective) and in some places run off the edge of cliffs and reappear on the other side of a bay. I have seen photos of underwater ruts (and read about submerged temples), but did not see any personally. From what I did see, I can say that the ruts are truly baffling and that even the most authoritative archaeologists cannot fully explain them. Please note that Erich von Däniken is neither an archaeologist nor authoritative on any point..

Ode to Ben VanMeter

David Tieche in San Jose, California, inspired by his friend Ben VanMeter's trip to Malta, blogs about finding his own 'Malta' one day:

Yesterday, at approximately 4 p.m., my friend Ben VanMeter left this hemisphere to go to Malta (official motto: Pass the Straits of Gibralta, then head on to Malta). He's doing something that most people don't have the courage to do: he's following the dream in his heart. He and his wife have a passion for languages. They're both linguistics majors, and one of the more entertaining things is to listen to them talk about the differences in words and idioms in different cultures. They talk about stuff like tongue placements on the upper palate with a passion and energy most people only reserve for professional sports. It's refreshing to see people like that...

So Ben and his wife Jess, one night, were sitting around a table with friends in Mendocino sharing about what they were hoping to do in 2 years, 5 years, 10 years. Suddenly, the got the realization that if they wanted something to happen, they needed to act. So they did. They set a timeline and now, 11 months later, they are on a plane with a year's worth of salary saved up and a hope that Malta might be a springboard into other adventures. It's a good starting point: Maltese is a language closely rooted in Aramaic languages, which will give Ben and Jess another language family to study. It's also a bi-lingual country, which will make the transition easier. It's also in close proximity to three continents.

Aurélie sous le soleil Maltais

Aurelie Herbemont is a French journalism intern working for the Malta Independent on Sunday. She blogs about her stay in Malta at Aurélie sous le soleil maltais (with photos). In her latest article for the sunday paper, she wrote about French ex pats in Malta who will vote in next sunday's referendum in which France will decide about the European constitution. She discussed the French European dilemma at length in a previous article:

The French who live in Malta are generally afraid that a No vote would only be for political reasons specific to the current French political climate, even if it sounds ridiculous to vote against the Constitution just to show Jacques Chirac and his government that you don’t agree with them. Many French people living here think it is a “primary reaction”, which is true. However what is also true is the fact that the French abroad don’t really feel like the French in France. “These reasons are bad. We cannot say No to Europe just because we disagree with the French government. It is nonsense.” Reactions here are really hard towards the French who want to scupper Europe only because of home problems...

France and the European constitution - John Simpson - BBC

Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe - Wikipedia

au pays du père noel.. - "A côté de ça, malte est véritablement un microcosme, un havre de paix - un jardin d’Eden presque!" - Aurelie Herbemont

Ewrocucati - Antoine Cassar

Damascus Gate

Adrian Grima will be speaking about his recent trip to the Middle East this friday 27 May, 7.15pm, at St James Cavalier in Valletta. He wrote at length about his trip for Babelmed.net:

The van ride to Ramallah takes about 15 minutes. It’s heart-rending. Every minute of the way I hear harrowing stories about how the Israeli establishment is squeezing the Palestinians out of Jerusalem. I’ve read about this in one report after another but here I can see it happening. That, in itself, is a privilege. Many of my friends in Al-Bireh and Ramallah cannot visit Jerusalem. Israel, the “only democracy in the Middle East,”(1) has denied them access to their magnificent city.

Khaled Katamish, the director of El-Funoun has never been to Jerusalem, he’s not allowed to – it’s so close and yet so frustratingly far. I remember him telling me about this in Malta – he seemed calm at the time, but he can’t have been. For him, when friends visit Jerusalem they are making a statement for him and his people too. “It’s important that you go,” he had told me on the telephone. And when Khaled tells you something like that, you know there are so many reasons you can’t even start to imagine...

Distances - Wired Temples

European Cultural Foundation

Robs Diary

Rob in Surrey, UK writes that the skipper of this boat is a teenager who steered the boat "with its bow thruster bringing it alongside perfectly on it enormous Fender-soxed Fenders (which mysteriously appeared from nowhere) having previously put a man ashore to take and secure the mooring warps." From Robs Diary-see photo:

Atlantide - A most beautiful boat found on a beach in Malta and brought back from extinction by a loving and caring owner. To my mind the most beautiful of boats above decks as well as below, with her gratious furniture Lalique glass, cut glass mirrors and sculpture, created by her owner. She now spends her time as a support ship for a racing "J" class yacht. Far from the sounds of an ongoing battle

Former fugitive in Malta charged with selling bomb to terrorists

A man who spent a year imprisoned in Malta was charged yesterday with trying to build a bomb and sell it to an affiliate of al-Qaida. Ronald A. Grecula, 68, was arrested on Friday in Houston during a meeting with undercover FBI agents. Grecula was angry at the government over losing custody of his children, with whom he fled to Malta. He met a confidential source in prison in Malta while awaiting extradition to the United States for the alleged kidnapping of the children, then 10 and 3. Grecula has been charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization. From the Houston Chronicle:

A man who compared himself to Spartacus and claimed the U.S. government had tortured him and stolen his children appeared in a Houston federal court Monday, accused of trying to sell a bomb that "approaches nuclear ... capability" to an undercover agent posing as a terrorist.
Ronald Allen Grecula, 68, believed he was talking with someone from a terrorist group when he claimed he could build a bomb that would destroy everything within more than a half-mile, federal authorities said.

He actually was talking with a Houston police officer, working as an undercover agent with the federal anti-terrorism task force, they said. A criminal complaint accuses Grecula, of Bangor, Pa., of offering to build the bomb to be used against U.S. citizens for a group he believed was affiliated with al-Qaida..

While in prison in Malta, Grecula met a man who later acted as a confidential source in the investigation, authorities said. They did not say how they came into contact with the man.
Baldwin said in the affidavit that Grecula had asked the source for help finding a terrorist group that wanted to purchase a bomb, saying he would fly anywhere in the world to build a prototype to demonstrate his capabilities.

He also asked the source to help him hire someone to kill his wife, who now lives in The Woodlands, the affidavit states. Grecula suggested that the killing be done in a "mysterious way," to avoid the appearance of murder, the document says...

The Heart of the Mediterranean

Harleydreamer from Altoona, PA blogs at Does It Really Matter 2 U?. He is calling for donations to help his daughter travel to France, Italy and Malta on a European student travel program. From Does it Really Matter2u:

Tomorrow is my day off. If I don't stop after work tonight I'll stop tomorrow to see about a new cell phone for my oldest. I'd like to get a picture phone so that when it's used, it can be sent to a moblog. I think it would be cool to see the trip from France through Italy, ending in Malta, through my child's eyes. Especially if I set it up to post when the picture is taken. I'd have to link the site on here to share with everyone. I can't wait! I think that would be the best birthday gift anyone could give me.

Just for background: My oldest child was accepted into the People to People Student Ambassador Program. There program is The Heart of The Mediterranean. If anyone would like to donate, the button is at the top of the blog. I'll send you a copy of all the photos taken if you make a donation. If you know of something else I could repay your generosity with let me know (I have about 500lbs of chocolate bars :~} ). We have been doing fundraisers for months now. It only seems like forever. It's tough collecting that much money for one child, but I'd do it all over again if I was asked. It will be a once in a lifetime trip..

Improving Product Malta

Today's editorial of the Malta Independent follows on the interview by Matthew Xuereb with the newly-appointed executive chairman of the Malta Tourism Authority:

The Malta Tourism Authority has undertaken to improve what it describes as “product Malta”, that is upgrading what are known as tourist priority areas in a bid to substantially increase customer satisfaction. Areas such as Valletta, Sliema, St Julian’s, St Paul’s Bay, Mellieha, Gozo and Comino have all been identified to form part of this “comprehensive project”, and will be cleaned up according to action plans to be carried out within a specified timeframe..

One important point mentioned by Mr Lungaro Mifsud is the MTA’s plan to have segment specialists based in Malta but travelling frequently to promote the country as a destination. They will complement the four offices in the main markets. In this way, there would be a better focus on the niche markets that form the basis of the industry – conference and incentives, history and culture, and leisure. Added to this, administrative costs will be reduced and, at the same time, more funds can be utilised for marketing and promotion.

Tributes to Julian

The sudden death of Alfred Giglio, a photographer of The Times, this morning while on duty, came as another shock to everyone connected with the Maltese media. His death comes less than a week after the sudden demise of journalist and environmentalist Julian Manduca. The editor of MaltaToday, Saviour Balzan, has written a tribute to Julian Manduca who worked for the newspaper. A number of other tributes were published here and here. With the help of the internet, Julian's friends around the world have also discovered the news of his unexpected departure. American environmentalist Daniel Stout who blogs at Manufactured Environments posted this entry in remembrance of Julian:

I was saddened to read on Wired Temples that Julian Manduca died Tuesday in Valletta of a heart attack at the age of 46. I remember Julian as being one of the most interesting people I met during the year I was living in Malta (an island nation in the Mediterranean). He was what we Americans would call a non-traditional student at the time, which simply means he was attending university as an older student. I remember many conversations with him talking about film and culture and the environment.

Julian was very welcoming to us foreigners and made us feel comfortable in our new surroundings. I remember going to parties at his flat and the interesting, literate people who were his friends. Julian is the last person I remember saying goodbye to before I left Malta and returned to the States, and I still remember his last words to me, which were “We’ll run into each other again on the streets of some city somewhere in the world.” Julian was very much Maltese, but he was also a man who had a distinctly broad worldview. As I plan a return trip to Malta, I’m stung by the loss of this exemplary person. He will surely be missed by those of us abroad, as I’m sure his loss will be distinctly felt in Malta.

Life according to Mark

Mark, a philosophy student from Zurrieq, blogs at Me, Myself and Mark. This weekend, he was in philosophical mood discussing life:

As we grow and mature, so does our thought and instinct. What is 'Life' to a child? What is 'Life' to a teenager? And what is 'Life' to a person on his or her deathbed? Perhaps, to a child, life is something that comes out of nothing; divine intervention, perhaps. "Life is love," a child would say, inspired by countless Disney animated features. A teenager is usually the person who's tired of Life; simply because Life is, for the teenager, a routine. It is merely up till that point in time a climax of studies, where each step forward looks to be harder than before. For the teenager, life starts with pleasure, and perhaps as teenagers, we have a very slight misconception of death...

Through movies, dramas, radioplays and books, we are presented with a spectrum of life and death, which usually bring out the following points:- Life sucks; death is seen as the ultimate release;- Tragic death; everyone mourns and loves the dead person;- Die to protect; the ultimate way of life. I could, of course, keep on going with the above, but the main points are the above three. And those three are usually constantly repeated - we are constantly exposed to the theme of self-sacrifice in movies (Titanic or Pearl Harbour would be major influences, but they are also accompanied by movies like Constantine).

"For you to live, I must die." How many times have we heard that?! This is absurd. Through such things, we believe, whatever our age, nationality, culture and so forth, that self-sacrifice is the way. At least for some minutes following the movie. Then, the 'depression' of life falls back upon us, cloaking us with its dark gown and forcing us to, once again, abandon fiction and move across a well-lit path known as 'reality'. And what are we trying to do? Break out from the path, or ignore our fantasies and dreams? I wonder...

Chiara and the Eurovision in blogosphere - a selection of posts

Piglet's blog (Belgian) - Eurovision 2005 Final: (reviews all the songs) "Malta: Chiara – Angel - Urgh. Collective sigh of bliss on my sofa, and of course I’m the only one who sees sense. Yes, the woman can sing, and yes, she’s wearing a sparkly dress. I know it’s a relief not to have boobs shoved in your face for once and the lack of drums is also refreshing, but come on…this is boring. The Ukranians are going out of their minds over this and the consensus in the living room is that this will win. Please, spare me. Though I do fancy a trip to Malta next year…"

Nimmy's World (British) - My Eurovision tradition: "Angel – Malta - Oh Chiara returns, she’s got a lovely voice and came second I think two or three years ago. Dressed in rubies from 16/47, she’s Malta’s very own Johnny Logan. This could be one of the key songs of the night...The female Ukrainian presenter’s definitely got a corset on. How she can shout like that I don’t know. I think it's going to be between Serbia Monte Negro, Moldova and Greece. But I am not going to vote for the sake of my phone bill."

Blog-A-Drew (N.Irish) - Eurovision: "Bottom countries were, France, Germany, UK and Spain. The 4 big western countries in Europe. Could this be the rest of Europe telling us to wise up and treat them like equals? Even in the Eurovision contest itself it isn’t fair. The Main counties (Inc those above) are guaranteed a place in the final automatically where all the other countries have to make it through the Semi-Finals (where Ireland were among those kicked out this year). One of the reasons for the EU Constitution is to make the EU fair by giving voting rights based on population size rather than importance as at the moment and one of the main reasons the like of France and probably the UK are going to have such a large No vote. Its time that people made a few sacrifices to make things fairer."

EurovisionBlog.com - So how was it for you?: "As a result, we’ll all be off to Athens for the 2006 contest, which has already been given a provisional date of May 20 2006 (with the semi-final on May 18). And as the dust settles on Eurovision 2005, here’s what we made of the performances: ..MALTA – we were never fans of this but we have to admit Chiara did a good job here. A great performance, and she really looked like she was enjoying herself. In an era when flashy performances tend to be the order of the day, she ought to be proud of the fact she came second with little more than an empty stage and a microphone."

Chris's Scotland Diary: "I watched the Eurovision Song Contest last night at a friend's place. This is a big event in Europe and most take the contest very seriously even when the song and dance routines are very silly. Britain does not take the contest seriously and puts on a show with the most sarcastic commentator they can find. As the commentator said during one of the acts, "I take my consolation in drink". One of my friend's daughters said that he must just sit there with a bottle of whiskey because the comments get worse and worse after every act. It was wonderful. Anyway, I am not going to comment on every act just a couple that I thought were the worst and the best.

First up is Israel. Ok. Now the last time I checked Israel was NOT in Europe. All those years of geography in primary school out the window because Israel is, as far as Eurovision is concerned, now a part of Europe. Everyone will now need to update their maps.

Malta was the best of the night. They put on what I thought the Eurovision was all about, good songs. Rather than just techno beats with skinny girls in short dresses. The singer was definitely not skinny but she had the best voice out of all the contenders and the best overall song. They came in number two, which is just a tragedy.."

Mobile phone Fan - Eurovision hangover in UK: "Yesterday Eurovision 2005 song competition ended and UK took 22nd place (3rd from the bottom), so now some folks in UK are calling for pulling out of Eurovision contest. Well, of course UK has many good singers, song writers and composers however if UK sends to Eurovision such very lame singer as Javine Hylton then no wonder she scores nothing (apart from some mercy votes from Ireland and Malta). The winner was the representant of Greece - a girl born in Sweden from Greek parents - very European! So stop whining, Brits! … and next time just send somebody good to the contest instead of lame ducks like Javine Hylton!

MaltaMusic - Chiara’s Angel flies to Eurovision heaven: "Malta’s Chiara made this small island in the middle of the Mediterranean enormously proud when she came an excellent second in the 50th Eurovision song festival held in Kiev last night...The enormous gamble paid off: big huge Russia gave her 12 points, Ireland, UK, Norway, Israel, Denmark, Ukraine itself gave her 10 points, and so on. Chiara totalled 192 votes against Greece’s 230, and did better than her previous appearance at the Eurovision song festival when she came third. Previously, Malta’s best showing was Ira Losco who also came second. Paparizou’s song was described by Terry Wogan as a mix of Zorba (or Zorbette) and Riverdance. But in most Maltese minds what marred Greece’s win was a determined campaign in Greece against Malta’s Chiara.."

Kenneth's Online Repository (Maltese) - Hellas go to hell!: "Betting house William Hill was nearly there when predicting Malta would place third. And her "awful dress" didn't seem to have made any difference on her performance and results.This is the second time we placed second (Ira Losco had placed second in 2002.) To sum it all up: Chiara had placed third in 1998 and now (2005) second. What's next... first in 2012?Her performance was rather good on the whole, although I spotted a small mistake. Those who have the MP3 of the song may have noticed that she made a mistake when singing the bit which is found at around 02:08 - 02:12 in the MP3. I'm sure many didn't notice it, but it was quite evident to anyone who had heard the MP3 long enough. But all in all, she did great.."

Jumping on the Bandwagon (Israeli) - The Silence that remains: "Israel won one year, thanks to Dana International (a transvestite[its amazing who is chosen to represent the Holy Land]). This year our singer was Shiri Maimon. She became famous in 2003 when she came in second on Kochav Nolad (something like American Idol). We thought her song was great, her only problem was she didnt make a whole production like some of the others who used dancers and props. She just stood and sang beautifully. In the end, I voted for Latvia, and MyShan voted for Greece. Then we had to sit while each country went through how many points they gave to the other countries. That part takes longer then the actual singing.."

14M2 in Montmartre (French) - Eurovision: "Then there was Malta, which offered up by far the best singer of the evening: a plus-sized mezzo with wonderful stage presence. I hoped she would win, but she ended up in second... Alas, France did get a sizeable number of points from Andorra. But this tiny principality of the Pyrenees mountains wedged between Spain and France was probably keenly aware of just how easily it could be invaded (the French head of state is partly in control of the country anyhow for seven centuries now)...But the lesson of tonight's Eurovision was really that Western Europeans, that EU-15 enclave of prosperity, can't count out places like Romania or Moldova. Hell, they've got grannies in rocking chairs who rock out.

Emirin Mohamed Kasah (Malaysian) - Eurovision Finale: (click here to hear the winning song) "The finale of the most popular music contest in the Europe. Too bad it doesn't get that much attention here, as compared to almost anything that happened in America. Culture dominance, perhaps? I watched it halfway through the end bacause of internet problem here. Well, there was no other alternatives other than to stream it, is it not? It was superb; the show surpasses any music competition that I've watched so far. So the winner was Helena Paparizou from Greece, with her My Number One. That song deserved the place and recognition, as it is considerably the best out there.The second was Chiara from Malta, with the song Angel. Such a soothing song...In conclusion, I was happy with everything about this competition. Such competitive and such diversification in songs, languages and presentations. Unlike the one that we have in Malaysia, either a carbon copy of American cultureless, or just some lovey-dopey songs...

Ebby brett (Irish) - Read Ebby's Eurovision awards with photos: "Celine Dion Powerballad Award: Malta’s Chiara, bless her. What would the Eurovision be without a good decent powerballad sung solo with atmospheric lighting and full orchestra? Bless her though, at least she wasn’t singing yet another upbeat, arabic influenced pop song with many drums on stage and skimpy skirts. Sheesh, it was like someone passed a memo around that this was the theme for this years Eurovision..."

Hillary Molin (American in Sweden) - Stupid Eurovision: "Ugh. I don't know why I watch this at all.. :/ It is always so disappointing. At least Malta came in 2nd place, that made me happy at least. And Isreal received lots of points as well, too, and that was nice. And at least Sweden didn't do very well, because it didn't deserve it...And now Sweden saying stuff like Sweden won a little, too, because the singer is "Swedish." (Only born in Sweden, her parents are from Greece.) Ugh... Swedes sometimes make me mad.. :/ The voting is so predictable btwn countries.. ugh.. and knowing that there is no way to fix it is even more annoying.. :/ See, I always tell myself that I won't watch it the next year, but of course I will end up watching it..."

Eurovision Kiev 2005; EurovisionBlog.com; EurovisionMalta.com

Swedish singer wins for Greece

The Eurovision song contest was won by Swedish singer Helena Paparizou representing Greece. Malta's Chiara obtained an impressive second placing. The following are excerpts from the international press:

MaltaMedia - Chiara satisfied with Eurovision Song Contest result: "Asked during a press conference whether she would consider participating for a third time in her bid to win the contest, she replied that it's too early to say. Chiara believes that the result she garnered is both excellent and frustrating, having missed the top spot by just on place. Chiara and the Maltese Eurovision Song Contest delegation are expected to arrive back in Malta on a flight from Munich at around 0100CET on Monday."

Canadian Press - Greek artist wins Eurovision song contest: "Helena's personal history echoes the contest's ethos of uniting Europe's diverse people and cultures: she was born and raised in Sweden and still lives there. Nonetheless, at a post-win news conference, she jumped on a table waving the Greek flag. "I am happy that this prize finally goes to Greece . . . I wish to welcome you to Greece next year," she said. But, she added "I think this prize is a big honour for Sweden as well." Other transnational performances were by Vanilla Ninja, from Estonia but representing Switzerland, and by Bosnia-Herzegovina's Feminem, with one of its three singers born in what is now Croatia."

BBC News - Euro-unity and divisions in Kiev: "Maltese balladeer Chiara struck the right note with her soaring voice - sending a collective tingle down the spine of the vast crowd. But it seemed there were no performances which were unengaging, each with their own beguiling charm.. The UK, Malta and Cyprus exchanged goodwill points, while Ireland's eight points to its nearest neighbour saved singer Javine from nul points shame."

Deutsche Welle - Germany Last as Voters "Run and Hide": "This year's Ukrainian candidate, the Greenjolly group, placed only 20th. Its selection to represent the former Soviet republic had sparked controversy, as had its choice of song, "Razom Nas Bahato" (Together We Are Many), the hymn sung by demonstrators against former president Leonid Kuchma's regime in Kiev's Independence Square during last year's "Orange revolution." Greenjolly was largely unknown before the revolution and its last minute choice unleashed an avalanche of criticism of the new government which was accused of manipulating the vote that picked the group.

DotEurovision - Greece wins 2005 Eurovision Song Contest: "The so called ‘Big 4’ countries – the ones that contribute most financially to the EBU and have the largest potential viewing public – ended in the four bottom positions. Germany, France, Spain and the UK failed to garner much interest. According to the current rules of the contest, the big four automatically get a place inb the 2006 final. Their low scores make it easier to name the other ten nations that are through. These are Greece, Malta, Romania, Israel, Latvia, Moldova, Serbia and Montenegro, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Spain, United Kingdom, France and Germany. The others will take part in a semi final."

ABC News - Europeans Under Spell of Eurovision: Most Britons profess themselves too sophisticated to embrace the sort of cheesy Euro-pop that Eurovision celebrates. But some 8 million viewers, in a country of 60 million, tune in every year to watch and, in recent years, to see their country roundly trounced. "The great thing about Eurovision is you can come at it from so many different angles," said John Kennedy O'Connor, a fan since the 1970s and author of the official history of the competition. "There are some people who take it deadly seriously, as if it were a major political contest. Others watch to see how bad it will be. You can enjoy it on so many different levels.".. But that has not lessened the appeal of a competition as fraught with diplomacy, feuding and delicate allegiances as the United Nations. Lebanon, due to compete this year for the first time, pulled out after its national broadcaster refused to show the Israeli entry.

Connections and cliques

With the Eurovision Song contest starting in a few moments "all Malta is glued to radios, TV sets, big screens and PC monitors in huge anticipation for the final". Anthony Gatt writes for MaltaMedia about the Economist article that deals with the research on Eurovision geopolitics just published by arXiv. From MaltaMedia:

...To try to understand such ambiguities the team working on the study took a 12-year range worth of results for imaginary contests in which all songs were equally nice and there were no biases between countries and compared them to what really happened in the ESC between 1992 and 2003. The two sets of scores where than analyzed so to determine some major voting patterns. “Voting cliques were immediately apparent, with geographical gangs of countries that show a strong tendency to vote for each other, such as the Nordic bunch, and political allegiances between countries such as Greece and Cyprus. But some cliques, such as that between Croatia and Malta, defied explanation, with no obvious geographical or political connection”, affirmed the study.

The creators of such study are now anxious to analyze future developments especially after Middle Eastern countries join the contest.“For now, though, they are waiting to see what horror the judges will inflict on a hapless continent this time” concluded the study. Meanwhile all Malta is glued to radios, TV sets, big screens and PC monitors in huge anticipation for the final hoping that not only Croatia will favor us and that our song queen will climb right up to the top of musical Europe.For more detailed information about Malta's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest see EurovisionMalta.com.

The original arXiv research: How does Europe Make Its Mind Up? Connections, cliques, and compatibility between countries in the Eurovision Song Contest (PDF)

Chiara set for a splendid performance in Eurovision final - MaltaMedia

Il-Blogosfera Maltija - Introduzzjoni

Arcibald posts an overview of the Maltese blogosphere:

Ghal min qatt ma sema’ bil-kelma ‘blogg’, merhba. Hafna Maltin ghogobhom jibdew wiehed, jiktbu dwar dak li jhossu u jiddibattu suggetti li fil-gazzetti Maltin sar impossibli li titkellem dwarhom minghajr ma taqla’ libell. Kull persuna jkollha speci ta’ djarju li fieh tikteb li trid u dwar kwalunkwe suggett. Min irid wara jista’ jhalli kumment jew inkella jirrispondi fuq il-blogg tieghu aktar fid-dettall.

Il-blogosfera nista’ nghid li hadet ir-ruh mal-bidu ta’ din is-sena, ghalkemm xi pijunieri bhal Toni Sant diga ghalqu aktar minn sena jikkontribwixxu. Hemm per ezempju Robert Micallef bil-blogg ‘Wired Temples’, li jikteb u jillinkja affarijiet konnessi ma’ gziritna, ‘It-Triq il-Maqluba’ ta’ Antoine Cassar b’poeziji b’hafna lingwi mill-aktar interessanti, il-blogg ‘Tgedwid’ tal-kittieb Immanuel Mifsud u ‘Xemx u Xita’ tal-muzicist D li huwa Malti jipprova xortieh f’Parigi. Hemm ukoll ‘Il Bollettino della Sfiga’, li huwa miktub b’Malti Taljanizzat umoristiku ghall-ahhar. U xi nghidu ghall-blogg ta’ Guze Stagno, li l-ewwel beda jikteb bil-Malti, umbaghad iddejjaq u waqaf, umbaghad rega beda imma bl-Ingliz, u issa mid-dehra regghet qabzitlu?

Hafna jiftakkru wkoll id-‘Dizzjunarju’ li ghal xi raguni waqaf u sparixxa. Idea nobbli li taret mar-rih.Insomma hallata ballata ta’ ideat, kreattivita’, zvog mir-ripressjoni mundana kif ukoll lehen gdid fid-dinja virtwali ta’ nofs l-ewwel decenju ta’ dan il-millenju l-gdid. U erhilna nikkummentaw fuq li qed jigri f’pajjizna b’mod mill-aktar miftuh.Ghal min jixtieq isir midhla ta’ x’inhu ghaddej fid-dinja alternattiva tal-blogosfera Maltija, nistiednu jibda mill-aktar pagna li fiha lista nklussiva tal-bloggijiet minn persuni ta’ nazzjonalita’ Maltija:

www.aboutmalta.com/INTERNET/BLOGS jew inkella nistiednu jzur mal-ewwel il-blogg li nahli hafna hin fuqu jien: ajjut.blogspot.com (ghidtilkom li dan riklam sfaccat).

The President of Italy in Malta

The President of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, is in Malta for two days on a state visit. This follows another official meeting with the previous Maltese President that took place January last year. Last night he made this speech during a dinner offered to him by the Maltese President:

..Il rapporto fra Italia e Malta poggia su storici legami culturali e spirituali. La comune appartenenza alla dimensione mediterranea ha dato luogo ad una millenaria simbiosi culturale. Ne ammiriamo le tracce a Malta nell'arte, nell'architettura, nella lingua. A questa antica tradizione, si aggiunge una naturale complementarità d'interessi, una stretta comunanza di obiettivi, una solida prospettiva d'intensa collaborazione.

Malta e Italia sono nella condizione ideale per comprendere le ragioni profonde dell'incontro fra civiltà diverse, i benefici dello scambio di valori, di tradizioni, di conoscenze fra i popoli. Sono anche pienamente consapevoli della necessità di un rinnovato impegno congiunto per il superamento dei problemi che frenano le potenzialità dell'area mediterranea...

I saldi rapporti di cooperazione fra l'Italia e Malta possono svilupparsi ancora. In campo economico, attraverso il potenziamento dell'interscambio, i progetti sostenuti dalle importanti intese di cooperazione finanziaria bilaterale, nuovi investimenti italiani. La collaborazione culturale è in crescente sviluppo: negli scambi universitari, nell'archeologia, nel restauro. L'italiano è lingua corrente a Malta: tra gli studiosi, nelle famiglie, tra i giovani. E' interesse di entrambi i nostri Paesi contribuire alla diffusione della lingua italiana come fondamentale strumento di collaborazione e di recupero di una secolare tradizione d'affinità culturale..

Ciampi a Malta: ad attenderlo, Caravaggio, Preti e altri - IGN Esteri

Ue, Ciampi: ratifica Costituzione europea obiettivo immediato - Reuters Italia

The official declaration by the President of Italy in Malta - Quirinale website

Ciampi: “La presenza della lingua italiana a Malta è una realtà ben affermata. Si tratta di potenziarla ancora”

Luciano Micallef revised

In this interview over lunch, artist Luciano Micallef shares his views with Josanne Cassar about art, the lack of art critics, his upcoming exhibition and his Italian connections. From the Malta Independent:

“We’ll start you off with some meze,” he tells us, then goes off and returns with bruschetta with mozzarella di bufala and tomatoes, olives, anchovies, various dips and small rolls. The Italian touches are welcome by Luciano, whose affinity for Italy can be heard in the way he lapses into the language in casual conversation. “Well, we speak Italian at home,” he explains. “There is a Sicilian connection because my wife’s mother is Sicilian so they speak Italian between them.

I also spent a number of years studying in Italy which was a major influence. Their temperament is very similar to ours, but I also like their way of life. If financially I could afford it, I would even consider spending more time there than I do here because I feel the magic of Malta is gradually vanishing. I find that very upsetting because I never thought Malta could be replaced. In any case, I feel more that I belong to the Mediterranean, rather than just being Maltese.”

Luciano has come a long way from his childhood in Birkirkara, the middle child of nine children. “I remember I was critical of everything even then, and would ask my mother why there had to be so many children. I was the only one who ever asked such things!” Perhaps because of the inevitable crowded conditions, even as a child he always yearned for his own space, something which lingers with him to this day. At his home in San Pawl tat-Targa, the studio is an area which is “his”, where he can work and relax and even sleep if he chooses to.

He loves travelling around the island on a motorbike, stopping to roam around the pathways and countryside of the villages. He used to run regularly, which probably explains his trim figure, and he is still a light eater. He is analytical, pensive, forever questioning the forces which lead us down one road and not another.“We didn’t choose anything in our life, we are the way we are because of the energies around us influencing our lives and our decisions. Even when we think we have made a conscious decision to do something of our own free will, in reality it was a series of events which led us to that decision.”...

As for his upcoming exhibition, Transitions: “There have been four different stages in my work and each exhibition is a continuation, a sequence, and search for an aspect of something. Before this, metal was primary, but now I’m back to my trademark which is colour. Hopefully, I can create positive energy which we need to survive. “You can either complain endlessly about how you wish things to be or be positive.

I am always keen to notice the reaction of the viewer to my work. I am revising all the work I’ve done, that is why I’ve called it Transitions – a period in which I am reviewing all the work I’ve done. And by trying to transmit the thinking process through painting, I believe painting can help us to understand what is taking place. I am writing a book to make these ideas more tangible.”

Luciano Micallef in Tripoli

Dreams wrought of Rock

Norbert Ellul-Vincenti, arts critic for the Sunday Times, reviews 'Mill-Blat Insawwar Holma' - a new poetry book by Gorg Borg:

Ah, the fossilized sea-snail opens the conversation with memories that are just memories, and bringing no comfort from their recalling. The sea has beaten the snail inexorably but he has hung on to the rocks for dear life, blowing bubbles of pleasure and steaming with wild desires. That's all his life has been, and even that is gone, leaving behind a fossil of a snail. Is that all there is to life – or is this a prophetic sizing up of the human condition of a poet caught in the act?

Vanitas vanitatum, dixit Ecclesiastes, vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas or, all life is made of bubbles blowing in the air. As Anne Bronte says in one of her poems, "In all we do, and hear, and see, / Is restless Toil and Vanity; / While yet the rolling earth abides, / Men come and go like Ocean tides; / And ere one generation dies, / Another in its place shall rise."

The arrival of another anthology of poems by Gorg Borg is a notable event, because Borg writes sparsely. Not only do published works come slowly, but even his words come haltingly, as it were, in economy size.

Borg is like his snail, timid and struggling hard against the waves, but he is far from negative or lacking in appreciation. Again and again he returns to the rock-hardness that comes with trial.
In the second poem he is a "little" sea-shell, opening and closing mid the perfumed grasses (presumably the sense of smell works in the water for a shell), and in full view of the young fish milling all round – he is moved by one fish coming close up and setting his heart a-dreaming.
In another place he promises to come back as a sparrow to pierce a pomegranate with his beak and suck it for his pleasure.

He wrestles with the sun, sucking the night dew before the fiery Lord of the Morning takes it all away from him. And he will hang out his washing on the rainbow, hoping that as their wetness dries he will catch sight of the eternal light of God: Ghad xi darba nitla' nonxor/ hwejgi kollha mal-qawsalla/ u kif jinxfu u x-xemx tisreg/ nara d-dawl etern ta' Alla.

It is not only the impossible imagery that strikes, and certainly not any out-of-the-ordinary vocabulary, but it is the right words in the right order, and the musicality of the march of simple foot-infantry, as it were, to their logical goal. Borg is the poet of the reticent, the self-effacing and the down-trodden, but not for that reason, is he lacking in daring dreams. He is soaked in sanguine expectation of a beneficent conclusion to present predicaments. He is not averse to cracking along on all cylinders, sensuously gratifying the senses of sound and sight and touch and taste and smell.

Again and again he is fascinated by the strength of rock and particular by its hardness; a hardness to be cracked; achieved over many years of being acted upon; a hardness to admired; and a hardness to be desired and awaited with enduring patience:

Ic-caghaq biex isir caghaq
jiflah jistenna
u flok ma z-zmien jherrih
isahhu u jqawwih. (Caghaq)

Borg's imagery is constructed more readily on the verbal than the visual. How does one hang one's washing on the rainbow (anymore than on the Siegfried Line)? And how does one go down into an empty well that contains enough material to last a lifetime? Similarly, it is difficult to visualize the poet's "stupid" heart getting away from its anchorage and kneeling at the foot of a running fountain, while washing its hands and face.

The poems about pebbles recall Marjanu Vella, even metrically, and so do a number of poems about walking without returning, or pleading for no questions to be asked before setting out, or walking into the moon or sun:

Ghada ser nitlaq nimxi
F'silenzju kbir, fuqani,
Lejn l-orizzont bajdani.

U meta jroxx id-dlam
U tghib il-hmura
Inkun imbieghed wisq
Biex nerga' lura.

Gorg Borg publishes his own book with a beautiful picture of Rock formation on the cover, by J.P. Borg. Toni Cortis has looked after the fine production.

Malta boat tragedy turned into a movie

Sify news in Mumbai, India reports:

The horror of the "Malta Boat Tragedy" in which nearly 300 South Asian illegal immigrants drowned on Christmas Day 1996 will soon be turned into a movie starring two big-name Indian and Pakistani actors. The 200-million-rupee film, "Kaafila" (Caravan), about one of the worst disasters on the high seas will feature Sunny Deol and popular Pakistani actress Sana Nawaz. Also read: Pakistani actress bats for Bollywood to boost ties

On December 25, 1996, hundreds of illegal immigrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh boarded the "Yiohan" in Malta to travel to Sicily from where they hoped to fan out across western Europe. But the ship sank in stormy waters, killing 289 of the around 450 people aboard. "When I read about the tragedy, I decided to make a film about illegal human trafficking," producer-director Ammtoje Mann said, adding he had met many illegal immigrants who "told me their horror stories."

Mann said he was keeping details of the plot under wraps. But he said it would highlight how many people fleeing poverty die in a quest to make better lives for themselves elsewhere.
The film, expected to hit screens at the end of the year, will mark Sana's Bollywood debut. She is the second well-known actress from Pakistan to work in Indian cinema in the past six months.
Pakistani actress Meera, has just completed shooting a Bollywood suspense thriller, "Nazar" (Sight), set for release this month.

Since India and Pakistan began a formal peace process in early 2004, collaboration has been increasing between Bollywood and Lollywood, as Pakistan's film industry is known. "Illegal migration to Western countries is a serious problem. Many of my countrymen go abroad illegally in search of a better life but get nothing in return," Sana said. Sana plays an Afghan girl who helps the illegal immigrants in their journey to western Europe. Deol, said he was "moved by the script." "The film deals with a serious problem and it wants to educate people about the dangers of illegal immigration," he said. "Many of these people get stranded on foreign soil all their lives with some even landing in jail. We want to tell this story as it's a rampant problem in our region."

Malta Boat tragedy - from Wired Temples

International Policy(5): Why the world is flat

The Foreign Policy Association reviews 'The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century' by Thomas L. Friedman and asks: "When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, and they come to the chapter "Y2K to March 2004," what will they say was the most crucial development? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations, giving them a huge new stake in the success of globalization? And with this "flattening" of the globe, which requires us to run faster in order to stay in place, has the world gotten too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner?". Daniel H.Pink interviews Friedman for Wired:

Friedman's 1999 book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, provided much of the intellectual framework for the debate. "The first big book on globalization that anybody actually read," as Friedman describes it, helped make him a fixture on the Davos-Allen Conference-Renaissance Weekend circuit. But it also made him a lightning rod. He's been accused of "rhetorical hyperventilation" and dismissed as an "apologist" for global capital. The columnist Molly Ivins even dubbed top-tier society's lack of concern for the downsides of globalization "the Tom Friedman Problem."

After 9/11, Friedman says, he paid less attention to globalization. He spent the next three years traveling to the Arab and Muslim world trying to get at the roots of the attack on the US. His columns on the subject earned him his third Pulitzer Prize. But Friedman realized that while he was writing about terrorism, he missed an even bigger story: Globalization had gone into overdrive. So in a three-month burst last year, he wrote The World Is Flat to explain his updated thinking on the subject.

Friedman enlisted some impressive editorial assistance. Bill Gates spent a day with him to critique the theory. Friedman presented sections of the book to the strategic planning unit at IBM and to Michael Dell. But his most important tutors were two Indians: Nandan Nilekani, CEO of Infosys, and Vivek Paul, a top executive at Wipro. "They were the guys who really cracked the code for me." Wired sat down with Friedman in his office at the Times' Washington bureau to discuss the flattening of the world.

WIRED: What do you mean the world is flat?
FRIEDMAN: I was in India interviewing Nandan Nilekani at Infosys. And he said to me, "Tom, the playing field is being leveled." Indians and Chinese were going to compete for work like never before, and Americans weren't ready. I kept chewing over that phrase - the playing field is being leveled - and then it hit me: Holy mackerel, the world is becoming flat. Several technological and political forces have converged, and that has produced a global, Web-enabled playing field that allows for multiple forms of collaboration without regard to geography or distance - or soon, even language.

WIRED: So, we're talking about globalization enhanced by things like the rise of open source?
FRIEDMAN: This is Globalization 3.0. In Globalization 1.0, which began around 1492, the world went from size large to size medium. In Globalization 2.0, the era that introduced us to multinational companies, it went from size medium to size small. And then around 2000 came Globalization 3.0, in which the world went from being small to tiny. There's a difference between being able to make long distance phone calls cheaper on the Internet and walking around Riyadh with a PDA where you can have all of Google in your pocket. It's a difference in degree that's so enormous it becomes a difference in kind....

International Policy 1-4

Julian Manduca

In Valletta's Republic street this evening, as I was chatting with Omar Cutajar from the Malta Business Bureau and environmentalist Charles Grech, Julian Manduca stopped to say hello around 7.15pm. We chatted for a while about a number of issues. He asked me a couple of questions about the EU office in Malta. We shook hands and he went on his way to his Valletta home. In less than an hour he was dead. A text message from a common friend alerted me as I was watching Lou Bondi's talk show on PBS just after 9pm. How could it be possible? Nothing seemed to be wrong and he was in his usual charming and inquisitive mood.

I have known Julian since the eighties having met him for the first time at Sapienza's bookshop where he then worked, and have enjoyed numerous stimulating conversations with him over the years. News of his sudden and fatal heart attack came as a deep shock to everyone. He was a committed journalist, a passionate environmentalist and a devoted theatre producer. He will be sorely missed. I extend my sincere condolences to his family and friends particularly to his wife Irene Christ.


Julian Manduca recalls the EU membership controversy in Malta as reported by Radio Netherlands:

In the run-up to the referendum on EU membership, the two main political parties battled it out with increasingly hysterical propaganda. The ruling Nationalist Party promised a new dawn for Malta, while the opposition Labour party warned Malta would lose every shred of its power, influence, and even dignity. Journalist Julian Manduca recalls a campaign based on emotion, not reason.

"I know many people in Malta who didn't sleep for days on end, who said if it
doesn't go their way, they'll leave the island . . . who were really caught up
in it emotionally. It really became the only topic of conversation for months on
end."

Politics is something the island takes very seriously. Malta is one of the only countries where political parties have their own television stations, their own newspapers, their own radio stations, and even their own bars. Julian Manduca says people feel winning is a question of do or die.

"Unfortunately, we have a situation where the people who support the party who
is not in government feel that their rights are trampled on, that they're having
a terrible time . . . and it's the exact opposite when they're in government!
Then they think they can do as they like, they rule the roost."

"His unflinching commitment to the environment for the past two decades and more was consistently expressed in his life choices and daily practice" - from the MaltaMedia report.

Update: Toni Sant posts his recollections of Julian including the story of how they both campaigned for the installation of controversial vending machines on the university campus. I was also a member of that same KSU executive committee and as far as I can remember that campaign was not successful!

Alex Vella Gera writes about Julian's funeral

Mikiel Galea writes poetry for Julian. Other reactions by Patrick(Peklectrick); Mark Vella; Sharon Spiteri; Kurt(Kurat Gybexi); Antoine Cassar; Jacques Rene Zammit

Distances

The Wait till I tell ye blog, a Northern Irish literary journal of sorts, features Maltese poet Adrian Grima:

Adrian Grima was recently invited to Belfast and Israel to read his poetry at international literary events.....Between the Lines Literary Festival....On Friday 9 April 2005, Adrian Grima read his poetry at the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast as part of the weeklong activities of the Between the Lines International Literary Festival organized by poet John Brown. He performed two of his poems, "Distanzi" and "Il-Forma ta' Mhabbtek," translated into English by Maria Grech Ganado, together with the Maltese percussionist Renzo Spiteri who also gave a well-received solo performance. The other writers on the night were Nora Nadjarian (Cyprus),Frederico Zanatta (Italy) and Pavlina Ferfelli (Greece). All four Mediterranean writers were invited to the Belfast festival after their participation in the Klandestini festival held in Malta in November 2004...

Adrian Grima's influences via LauraHird.com:

"I suppose I'm obsessed with producing things. I want to know that at the end of something I've experienced or worked on there will be some kind of tangible memory that stretches mischievously beyond itself. That's probably why I write. I must say that I'm more interested in why others write than why I write. I don't know why. Perhaps it's got something to do with the fact that I don't feature much in what I write. There's always something more interesting happening elsewhere... But I'm aware of my passion for getting things done and even though I squeeze it into these uncanny time corners, writing literature allows me to produce.
I know I'm influenced by people who want to change the world and do so.

One such person is Tonino Perna. Another is Stephanos Stephanides. But there's also Vince Caruana, Eric Van Monckhoven, Adrian Mamo, Nathalie... The thing is I meet interesting people and fascinating projects all the time. Two of the best critics of what I write have been Marco Galea and Nathalie, my wife; more recently Clare Azzopardi, Stanley Borg and Maria Grech Ganado have been very helpful as well. I like the poetry of Kevin MacNeil and Sinead Morrissey and much of what is produced by the writers within Inizjamed. I really enjoyed reading Zadie Smith's "White Teeth" and love Garcia Marquez, of course."

Il-Jien u lil Hinn Minnu

L-aghma from Zurrieq quotes Malta's national poet, Dun Karm Psaila, in the introduction to his new blog:

Mela t-teknologija moderna taf issawwar drawwiet sbieh ukoll. U taghti nifs lil min ihalli hajtu mgezwra f'karta tleqq tal-ghagla w'aljenazzjoni biex isib dak il-bukkun t'arja tant mehtieg. Nemmen li l-bniedem li jsorr go fih jifga fis-shab li jingemghalu fil-gewwieni, duhhan griz ta dubji, opinjonijiet, ideat egoisti u ghalhekk nishaq bejni u bej ruhi fil-htiega li dak li jkun jiftah imqar toqob t'arja; ghallinqas kemm ma jitnawwarx bit-tikek hodor tal-moffa u hmieg tal-ghajnejn. U jara l-qarsa ta' wicc haddiehor jew tkemmixa tal-hugbej jew sahansitra tbissima.

Hsiebi bhal aghma biex isib it-trejqa
jtektek bl-ghaslug kull pass li jaghti;
jimxi qajl qajl u qatt ma jaf fejn wasal;
dalma kbira tostorlu il-kif u l-ghala
u d-dawl li hu jixtieq qatt ma jiddilu...

Dun Karm Psaila

Digital TV in Malta

C21media reports on Malta's move to digital television:

The Mediterranean island of Malta is becoming the latest territory to take the plunge into digital television.Telecommunications company Maltacom has been granted permission by the island's communications authority to begin the roll out of digital terrestrial television.

The company said it would achieve nationwide coverage within the next 18 months, bringing DTT to all of the republic's 400,000 residents. The Maltese government has set 2010 as the analogue switch-off date and local UGC-owned cable operator Melita has already kicked off the process, becoming the first to offer digital TV in the territory in March this year.

The cathedral of European megalithic culture

Shraddha from Illinois writes about the Tarxien neolithic temples in Malta's southern part. From Archi facts:

These are certainly the most beautifully decorated and the largest temples. These beautiful temples lie in the village of Tarxien not far from the Hypogeum. These temples may be considered as the cathedral of megalithic culture in Europe. Here one sees an almost geometrical pattern. With their beautiful spiral motifs and dot motifs, the Tarxien temples are undoubtedly the most beautifully decorated temples. This monument consists of four buildings. The megalithic remains of Tarxien were discovered in 1914 under one meter of earth, by chance by stone masons. The stone-masons could not dig further and the Museums Department was called in. Excavations started in 1915 by Sir Temi Zammit a Maltese archaeologist...

Items out of burnt loam, flint and stone as well as personal jewelry were found in large quantities in Tarxien. In the upper layer were items from Copper and Bronze Age such as daggers and beautifully decorated urns with dainty dot and zigzag motifs with ashes. The pottery found in Tarxien is also the most beautiful. All these things contribute to the unique beauty and magnificence of these temples and therefore one can say that the Tarxien Temples are the most beautiful prehistoric remains in Europe.


Even the stones will come alive by Sandra Aquilina for the Malta Independent - Interview with
Heritage Malta’s World Heritage Sites curator Reuben Grima and his colleague Katya Stroud about a project 'which will seek to conserve the stone remains and make them come alive to visitors'

Walking against traffic

Jonathan Spelman in Ohio suggests walking on the left side of the road unless you're in Malta. From Conservativation:

Today I was walking down the street with a friend who insisted that it is correct to walk with traffic. However, I am here to tell you not to do that. You should walk against traffic. Here's why:Illinois; New York; Florida; Washington; Wisconsin; Massachusetts; Ohio Revised Code 4511.50

So there, my point has been proven. You would be correct in asserting that pedestrians should walk on the right side of the road only if you lived in Malta or Japan where they drive on the left side :-) I love being right, just not on the right side of the road.

Malta as Ground Zero

Noel Grima, editor of the Malta Independent on Sunday, reviews Raymond John's Malta based thriller - The Cellini Masterpiece:

Malta as the Ground Zero of the Mediterranean. Fanciful? In this day of international terrorism nothing is too fanciful or impossible at all. The Cellini Masterpiece is the title of a new thriller by Raymond John. As should be done with all good thrillers, any undue revelation of details or conclusions will mar the excitement of reading it. But a Maltese reviewer can be pardoned for noticing the details: in this international intrigue there is international terrorism focused on Malta, but there is also a convoluted political scene with the prime minister, Antony Farrugia, who is taken as hostage by the terrorists, the head of the armed forces, Brigadier Borg-Olivier, Cardinal Vella the Bishop of Malta, and scheming nobleman Lorenzo Cornacchia who lives in Borgiswed Palace in Mdina with dungeons and secret passages leading outside the bastions.

There is more, but only this much can be said. Come November a huge part of Mr John’s finale will come alive, hopefully with equally positive outcomes.Raymond John is a historian and a dealer in collectibles. As a retired military intelligence specialist, he is familiar with the strategies and weapons used in the story. His life-long love for Malta grew from a childhood stamp collection and led to research, visits and friendships with many Maltese both in America and in Malta. This has paid off handsomely in the book. The early chapters show a keen ear and eye for what is very normal for us Maltese but completely strange and foreign for foreigners here: the atmosphere in the sleazy one star hotel in Sliema and the strange life specimens that inhabit the environs. Fortunately for the book’s hero, Rick Olsen, and for us Maltese, however, the taxi drivers are not portrayed in a bad light, even if a girl taxi driver (an impossibility in Malta) is the heroine. At the other end of the spectrum, Arabs are everywhere in Malta and no one really knows what they are doing, the book seems to say.

'Enter the streets of Malta with this free chapter of the book'.

Sharon Wheeler says that The Cellini Masterpiece 'binds together art, history and international affairs - and the denouement is reached through intelligence from nearly 600 years ago and from today's cyber age'

Malta folk festival

This new blog has been set up with a view to promoting Maltese music and musical events. One of today's posts refers to the upcoming National festival of Maltese folklore. From the Malta Music blog:

Tickets for the eighth National Folk Singing Festival go on sale tomorrow. The open air festival will be held on Friday 27, Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 May at the Argotti Gardens, Floriana, from 7 to 10.30pm. This year the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts is offering folk music lovers the chance to buy a three-day ticket for the price of Lm3; this includes a special double album CD that features the highlights of last year’s festival free of charge. Alternatively, tickets are sold at Lm1 for each evening concert.

This year’s edition of the National Folk Singing Festival is dedicated to the late Maltese folklorist Guzè Cassar-Pullicino (1921–2005). Seventy Maltese and two groups of foreign performers will be participating. These include folk singers, folk musicians, Andrew Alamango’s Etnika, Ruben Zahra’s acoustic ensemble Nafra, John Tanti’s group Muzifolka, Johnny Saliba’s group, the Sicilian Musicanostra and the Italian duo Valla e Scurati. The festival is sponsored by Cisk Lager.
Malta festivals

Maltese folklore - from aboutmalta

From Monaco to Malta

Aangirfan in Monaco posts this report of a Malta visit. From the pierre joubert blog:

The best thing about any holiday to Malta is meeting the Maltese. Invite yourself into one of their homes. In Rose Marie's home, in a tenement in the dark back streets of Marsa, I supped Hopleaf, admired the plastic flowers and the photos of the Liverpool team, and chatted to the family. The water had been cut off for several days and so washing the baby was a problem. The baby had been to London for treatment for a heart condition. Rose Marie was a sweet Maltese girl. Rose Marie's family took me to their wooden hut in a dark fishing harbour beneath some cliffs. By the light of an oil lamp we dined off pesce spada and local wine."..

In a gloomy flat in dockland I visited an elderly gent called Joseph, a heavy character who claims he once helped to break into the headquarters of a certain political party. Joseph told tales of alleged murders committed by supporters of one party. "I will always support Labour," said Joseph, who was sitting on an old iron bed beneath a picture of Christ. Over thirty years ago, Joseph's Labour comrades suggested he was gay. A nervous breakdown was followed by shock treatment and strong drugs. Joseph was out of work and sick for twenty years..

The landscape (apart from Valletta) is not necessarily world class. It is not in the same league as Capri or Amalfi in nearby Southern Italy. But, Valletta and the Three Cities are rather special. I know of nowhere else in the world to compare with the Grand Harbour in terms of harbours. Rio de Janeiro? Monte Carlo? Then there are the walks and cycle rides along bosky lanes in Spring : poppies, geraniums, anemones, meadow saffron, tamarisks, wild orchids, narcissus... and then a glass of Maltese wine in a little bar called 'England Forever. 'There are dreamlike waterfronts, medieval hill top towns, giant red and golden flags, tall cacti....There are cafes and bars hidden down back streets in remote villages; and there you may find antique juke boxes and cute Catanian girls playing pool...

Religion is on the decline. Sadly. But, the churches still get crowded with people of all ages. The youthful choirs are lyrical! And, there are still some interesting religious festivals. Go to GHAXAQ on Festa night, when all the little hobbity creatures with their white faces and bent backs, and all the beautiful girls in their best dresses, pack the square in front of the baroque church. It grows dark. Suddenly she appears. Mary! Cheers are followed by wild clapping and singing; and deafening fireworks as the statue progresses through the narrow streets...

The Ultimate VE day

In the aftermath of Europe's commemorations of VE day, Timothy Garton Ash - author of Free World, writes that although "our memory wars will never end.. a common future is possible". From the Guardian:

After a continent-wide round of commemorations to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the second world war in Europe, it's clear that the peoples of Europe have a shared past, but not a common one...

On these warring accounts of the past, futures are built. "Who controls the past controls the future" was the Orwellian formula for a totalitarian regime. In Europe, we no longer live in totalitarian times - even in an increasingly undemocratic Russia and the grim dictatorship of Belarus. So today's milder version is "Who shapes our view of the past can influence the future"...

Thirdly, while we will never agree on a single version of the historical truth about these events, we can agree on a lesson from them. This lesson for 2005 is the promise of 1945: Never again! In order to keep that promise to ourselves, we need to shape not a common past but a common future. A Polish student from the town of Oswiecim - that is, Auschwitz - explained on German television the other day, in excellent German, that his Polish-German-Jewish bridge-building work was aimed not at the old-fashioned goal of "reconciliation", but at building a "common future". Exactly so. And that's what we are doing, with the spread of freedom and the enlargement of the European Union.

The trouble is that we Europeans are leaving it to President Bush to tell this story for us. And he spoils it, both because of the crude Manichean tones of his rhetoric, and because his advocacy associates the great story of the spread of freedom in Europe too closely with the policies of a particular US administration. So why don't we tell it for ourselves?

The Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili - leader of his country's "rose revolution" in 2003 - has said we are witnessing a "second wave" of liberation, inside the former Soviet Union, starting with Georgia and Ukraine. Speaking on CNN the other day, he corrected himself, suggesting it was really a "third wave". I make it the fourth. The first wave rolled over western and northern Europe in 1944-45; the second swept through southern Europe, starting in Portugal in 1974; the third liberated central Europe, starting in Poland in 1980 and reaching the Baltic states in 1991; now the fourth wave, if wave it is, may be building in eastern Europe.

I remember seeing in Berlin, the day after the Berlin Wall came down, a fresh graffito: "only today is the war really over". Now we are waiting for the day when we read those same words scrawled on a Moscow wall, in a democratic Russia finally liberated from the weight of the past. That would be the ultimate VE Day.

FreeWorldWeb - 'This website offers an opportunity for readers of Timothy Garton Ash's book Free World and his weekly columns, or anyone else who wishes to join in, to exchange ideas about how we can work towards a free world.'.

VE Day? What VE Day? - Daphne Caruana Galizia writes that Malta "ignored the occasion, behaving as though Victory in Europe Day has nothing to do with Malta, or as though we were out of the equation or part of the Axis powers. While all the political and geographical heirs of the Allied Forces celebrated, we watched like mere onlookers."

Who's that next to the Maltese Prime Minister? - from the Guardian

The wine industry and a preference for things foreign!

Conrad de Aenlle wrote this article for the International Herald Tribune last August. He states that, with EU membership, Malta finds it's wine industry under assault. One quirk of the Maltese character which many Maltese lament even as they display it, he observes, is a preference for things foreign:

The Maltese have been successfully repelling foreign invaders since they teamed up with the knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem to turn back the Ottoman Empire's formidable navy in 1565. The latest menace is a deluge of foreign wine, which, while less serious a threat, may prove harder to resist because the European Union has forced the islanders to let their defenses down. Malta's long-cosseted wine industry was given a brutal introduction to free-market economics when Malta entered the EU on May 1. That was also the day the government stopped assessing a levy of 1.5 liri, or $4.31, on each liter of imported wine.

That may be barely noticeable on a 1987 Petrus. But for many shoppers considering an Italian or Spanish alternative to a typical Maltese wine, which retails for about 2 liri, the markup was a deal-breaker. With the tax burden lifted, importers have easily been able to undercut prices on Maltese wines of similar quality, and have sought to press their advantage. It is hard to make it through a Maltese supermarket without being buttonholed by an importer's agent offering foreign wines at deep discounts, even by low post-levy standards. It has not been a difficult sell.

One quirk of the Maltese character, which many Maltese lament even as they display it, is a preference for things foreign ­ except hostile navies. ''You practically have to burn their fingers with a foreign wine before they'll pick up a local one,'' said an executive at one Maltese winery. He declined to be identified for fear of insulting his customers. Despite efforts by major Maltese producers to adjust to the end of the import levy by cutting prices, sales have still fallen. ''People are buying more foreign wine than ever before,'' said Georges Meekers, sales manager at Emmanuel Delicata Winemaker, the country's largest vintner. He declined to say whether sales were down since May, compared with a year earlier, but Tony Cassar, chairman of Marsovin, Delicata's main rival, said Marsovin's sales were down about 25 percent. Cassar may have been less reticent to discuss such a sensitive subject because the company has a division that imports wines: Sales there have been up about 200 percent, he said.

Although the elimination of the levy has given foreign producers a sharp price advantage, they are also competitive with Maltese vintners thanks to economies of scale and superior production technology. Economy of scale is one thing that Malta, the EU's smallest state, will never have: The largest of Malta's three islands is an amoeba-shaped slab of granite and limestone measuring roughly 14 by 27 kilometers, or nine by 17 miles. A mere 320 hectares, or 800 acres, is devoted to growing wine grapes in Malta, a figure that has shrunk over the past several centuries, ever since the knights sampled the local grape varieties, gellewza and ghirgentina. They declared the grapes good for eating ­ but not for wine. The acreage continued to decline under British colonial rule, from the turn of the 19th century until 1964. Many vines were uprooted as the Maltese were encouraged to grow cotton to supply textile mills in England. More recently there was little incentive to plant new vines, even using international grape varieties, because the import levy made it more economical to bring grapes in from abroad. The wine produced from them was cheaper than wine made from locally grown grapes or than heavily taxed foreign wine.

Today 70 percent of Maltese wine is produced from imported grapes. The government hopes to help local producers compete against the cheaper foreign wines by tripling the amount of land used for winemaking in the next few years, to about 1,000 hectares. The task may be difficult to achieve because of an EU regulation limiting the planting of new vineyards, even though Malta was granted a reprieve through 2005. It was also allowed to delay a mandate requiring that wine made from imported grapes be labeled table wine and not the product of a particular variety. Moreover, the government was also permitted by the EU to subsidize new plantings to the tune of $1,000, or $1,220, a hectare, with additional payments permitted for land improvements like irrigation systems.

Such dispensations are common for new EU members, especially to prop up agriculture, said Gabriel Stein, an international economist at Lombard Street Research in London. ''They say, 'Of course we favor free trade but not for this sector,''' Stein said. One exception granted to Malta has infuriated the likes of Mark Miceli-Farrugia, managing director of Meridiana Wine Estate, which produces about 100,000 bottles a year of premium wines from grapes grown in a vineyard in Ta' Qali, a hamlet just below the hilltop town of Mdina, Malta's medieval capital. Malta was also allowed to hang on for a much longer period to subsidies on imported grapes and sugar, which is used to make some lower-quality wines. ''When we joined the EU, we were voting for standards after years of a system that protected everybody as long as they produced locally,'' he said. ''We lived in a fool's paradise.'' Malta's arrangement with the EU ''is giving them an opportunity to make more money and compete against me,'' Miceli-Farrugia said of Marsovin and Delicata. ''I'd be crazy to support it.''

He is taking advantage of the subsidies for new vineyards, though. He said Meridiana hoped to double its fields to about 40 hectares in the next few years. He added that, unlike his rivals Marsovin and Delicata, neither his prices nor sales fell after the import levy was lifted. This is evidence, Miceli-Farrugia argued, that winemakers should focus on quality, not quantity. Cassar, at Marsovin, agrees, although he is hedging his bets. He expects to expand his fields, now about 90 hectares, by 10 to 15 hectares a year to make premium wines. But he suggested he would also respond to EU rules by importing fewer grapes, while raising wine imports under the Marsovin label. ''The right to plant new vines is good,'' he said. ''Whether we're going to produce wines to justify the new plantings is another question. I have my doubts.''

EU-Malta negotiations on Agriculture (including wine industry)

Cross purposes - Simon Jeffery for the Guardian

Who is the oldest?

The HawnXbin site by Lehen Malti in Ontario, Canada, recently invited readers to help create lists of Maltese people who emigrated to North America:

The oldest living Maltese person in North America , Carmela Farrugia, passed away in March 2005 at the age of 106. Recently, Lehen Malti also interviewed Mary Sammut, born in Mellieha, Malta, and immigrated to Canada some 82 years ago at the age of 12. Now we are embarking on a quest to find the list of early Maltese settlers in North America (USA, CANADA). And we need your help. We have three categories and we will compile a top 10 list for each category. We will also write stories about these people and possibly interview them on Lehen Malti.

1. Who is the oldest Maltese person in North America? In this category we are looking for Maltese persons born either in Malta or elsewhere and currently residing in North America. This person could be a relative or a friend. At least one parent must be Maltese.

2. Who has been residing the longest in North America? In this category we are looking for persons born in Malta and currently living in North America and who have been in North America the longest. This could be the same person as category 1.

3. Who is the earliest Maltese immigrant to North America? In this category we are looking for persons deceased or alive who are the earliest settlers in North America. This could be one of your parents, grand or great grand parent.

What to send us:
For each category send us the full name of the person, age (if alive) and the year they immigrated, and where they settled. Please also provide background information to backup your claim (date of birth, birth place, contact information, certificates, etc).

Letters to Lehen Malti

Historic Malta glories in knights' tales - Karen Burshtein writes for National Post, CanWest News Service (via Hawn Xbin)

Any future for our past?

MaltaToday talks to Mario Tabone, the Chairman of the government’s cultural management arm Heritage Malta, about the threats to Malta's cultural heritage:

Ultimately I believe that the security at these sites will largely depend on the sensitivity of the people. The role of the media is of utmost importance, because they have an enormous impact on society, in making the public feel an owner of these sites.“In the last 20 months Heritage Malta made great efforts to sensitise the people about our national treasures. For the people to respect themselves they have to respect their roots. Our cultural icons – the prehistoric temples, our heritage sites and monuments, our customs – these make up our identity; there is something very wrong with those who do not respect them.

Fortunately, although these acts are very serious, they are not very regular. There must be a loud call from all the people against this vandalism – not just Heritage Malta and the media – because the best safeguard to our national heritage is the people themselves. The people must realise this heritage is theirs, that their treasures cannot be violated in this way. If there is anything that should unite us is our heritage, because it’s what makes us Maltese.”..

The list of stolen national cultural artefacts remains, sadly, full of missing items from our museums, from the moon rock donated by US President Richard Nixon in 1973 and stolen last year to the rare 18th century Giuseppe Grech painting of Grand Master de Rohan from the Fine Arts Museum. Is anyone following up these thefts at all? “The Cultural Heritage Superintendent is obliged by law to keep an inventory. From our side, we have our inventories, but we need an exhaustive inventory which is constantly updated and followed up.

The Superintendent should build a national inventory of cultural artefacts … I think he is studying the best way to go about it.“We are also involved in a European programme of digitalising our cultural heritage. This is really fascinating. It is an inventory in itself, but even more, because the data it contains include three-dimensional images and the methodology used for the production of the artefact. It’s a very exciting project because it increases accessibility to the world’s cultural heritage...

Read the full interview here

Watercolour holidays

Charles Flores discusses cultural tourism and the new Malta Art initiative with artist Jeni Caruana. From It-Torca:

“Il-holqien ta’ l-inizjattiva Malta Art,” qaltli Jeni, “kellu l-ghan li waqt li jirrikonoxxi l-attrazzjonijiet naturali ta’ Malta u Ghawdex, jiftah it-triq ghal dawk il-hafna nies li jkunu jixtiequ jitghallmu l-arti tat-tpingija bl-ilwien ta’ l-ilma f’ambjent kwiet u trankwill matul il-btajjel taghhom.” Malta Art hija progett li beda b’success u anke bi ftit tal-fortuna.

“Meta konna qeghdin nahdmu biex naghtuh bidu, giet ghal gharrieda stedina minghand il-BBC biex niehdu sehem f’dokumentarju li kellu l-ghan li jhares lejn tipi differenti ta’ btajjel, u ma nghidlekx x’m’ghamilniex biex insibu bizzejjed studenti halli nkunu f’qaghda li ma nitilfux opportunità tad-deheb bhal dik,” kompliet Jeni bi tbissima ta’ sodisfazzjon hekk kif ftakret kemm hbieb u qraba ntalbu jaghmluha ta’ studenti waqt l-iffilmjar, “u bis-sahha ta’ dak id-dokumentarju bqajna ghal sentejn shah nircievu talbiet minghand nies li xtaqu jiehdu l-lezzjonijiet waqt li jgawdu l-gmiel ta’ dawn il-gzejjer.”

Il-gwarnic kien tlesta, u Malta issa ilha ghal diversi snin tospita gruppi varji ta’ barranin li jigu biex jitghallmu l-arti sabiha tal-water colours u fl-istess hin ikattru dejjem ahjar l-immagini ta’ Malta turistika.“Waqt il-lezzjonijiet taghna nzuru hafna postijiet differenti f’Malta u Ghawdex,” spjegatli Jeni, “u ghalhekk dawn it-turisti specjali jaraw hafna mill-attrazzjonijiet kemm naturali kif ukoll kulturali.

Per ezempju nhobb hafna nohodhom ipingu t-tempji neolitici ta’ Malta u Ghawdex. Kif jistghu ma jintlaqtux mill-gmiel ta’ dawk il-binjiet unici li huma eqdem mill-piramidi ta’ l-Egittu u minn Stonhenge fl-Ingilterra? Izda nohodhom ukoll f’inhawi fejn it-turisti li jfittxu l-bahar u x-xemx mhux dejjem izuruhom, bhall-Fawwara, certi zoni fil-Kottonera u triqat u sqaqien partikolari fl-irhula u bliet taghna.”

Staqsejtha dwar l-uzu tal-kelma taghna. “Iva, taghna, ghax jien illum nikkunsidra lili nnifsi Maltija u kburija b’dan,” wegbitni bil-hegga, “u ma naranix nghix band’ohra. Mhux qed nghid li hawn il-perfezzjoni, izda hawn dak li tfittex artista mara: it-trankwillità u s-sens ta’ sigurtà li thoss kull hin tal-gurnata. Jien toghgobni wisq l-idea li tkun fejn tkun hemm cans li tiltaqa’ ma’ xi hadd li tafu. F’pajjizi kbar u fejn il-problemi bilfors li jkunu ikbar, din il-haga ma tigrix u sikwit thossok wahdek u maqtugha minn kulhadd.”Jeni Caruana – kunjom xbubitha kien Paine – sa minn twelidha fl-Ingilterra kellha konnessjoni Maltija. Dan ghaliex missierha Dennis kien twieled hawn (fl-isptar ta’ l-Imtarfa) meta missieru, li kien fl-Armata Ingliza, u ommu kienu qeghdin jghixu stazzjonati hawn ghal xi zmien...

Ghal Jeni Caruana l-artista, membru tal-British Residents’ Association kif ukoll ta’ l-International Wives’ Association, dawn il-gzejjer saru l-art li fuqhom rat l-gheruq taghha jinbtu u jissudaw. Hajjitha ta’ kuljum illum hija msejsa fuq it-taghlim ta’ dik l-istess arti li permezz taghha holqot gwarnic specjali ghal Malta. Ezempju haj ta’ kif l-industrija tat-turizmu taghna tista’ qajl qajl tibdel il-karattru taghha li minnu nnifsu jkattar sfidi u ambizzjonijiet godda ghal gensna.

Malta Art targeting a niche market - from MaltaToday

Miscellanous blogs

Yannig Le Saint - Alone in a Maltese marina

Tlablib il-mohh - Nostalgic Andre Rizzo in Brussels

Malta photos - Check the Malta photo album by RPM girl in the Netherlands

Ta'barra mod iehor - Sandro Zerafa, a guitarist in Paris

Malta Collect - Photos byAlbert Yao from China

bhhdshge - Anonymous 'habitually misunderstood' blogger in South East England

Aaron F - Economics graduate Aaron Farrugia

Teaching practice - Josmar Borg in the classroom

Mill-hsibijiet ta' Kola Xkembri - Nicholas, a student from Siggiewi

How many countries are there?

Alex Zimmerman in London blogs about the number of countries in existence. From This end up:

I was asked this again today. It seems to happen about once a day; I'm not sure why everybody's so curious. I assume they all ask me because I know the name of every country and its capital, a feat which invariably impresses people out of all proportion to the amount of effort it actually takes -- especially considering that these people are all at a university dedicated to studying the less familiar bits of the world. Strictly speaking, there are 191 full members of the United Nations plus the Holy See, which really shouldn't be a country but is anyway.

One could fairly add those states which are recognized by at least one other state but have not gained full international recognition, meaning the Western Sahara, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which is kind of like the Elks Club except they print their own passports.Taiwan presents a slightly different problem, since it is recognized by several states (although fewer than the Sovereign Military Order of Malta), but no state recognizes both it and the PRC -- that is, if Taiwan counts, China doesn't, and vice versa.

The same situation applies to Palestine and Israel.Completely unrecognized states are by their nature uncountable, but those with control over their own territory include Transnistria, Somaliland, Nagorno-Karabach and to some degree Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Of territories that are legally part of another state but have some degree of self-determination, Niue is the closest to being independent. Kosovo is administered by the United Nations but will hopefully become independent soon.And for the last time, Wales is not a country. Nor is Puerto Rico, for that matter

Maltese reflections from Australia

Stuart Fenech, who blogs in Queensland - Australia and to whom I linked in March, has posted some fascinating reflections about his Maltese identity and the story of his family's emigration fifty years ago. From Suburban crawl:

..It is a little difficult to gauge how much of the Maltese culture lives on in the family, fifty years after the original immigration. I am personally a fairly 'typical' Australian in appearance, speech and behaviour. I have brown eyes, brown hair and olive skin, but do not get enough sun for the olive skin to darken. I have many behavioural attributes common to the family, but I am not sure if these are characteristics of the family or the Maltese.

All of the original family immigrants can decipher Maltese but I am not sure if they can fluently speak the language. Only a limited amount of the 'traditional' food survives, with a very heavy beautiful pasta bake being very popular. Most of us love a good piece of Halva, which you can find hidden away in some local stores. The food we enjoy now is significantly healthier than the food Grandma used to cook, in that we use less oil and fat.

We all have Maltese crosses around somewhere, in the form of clocks, placemats, tables and necklaces. At the recent family gathering, my cousin John and his wife arrived in a car with an Australian flag on one side and a Maltese cross flag on the other. My father engraved a Maltese cross into one of his most treasured possessions, his letterbox..

The initial years in Australia were difficult as the family struggled to work in with a new country. Kind Australians helped out immeasurably in integrating the family Australian culture. Some initial racism faded remarkably as time went by and views modernised. The family has done fairly well, as have most hardworking immigrant families from the post World War 2 immigration boom.

In 2006 I hope to spend some time in Malta, along with a strong contingent of family. I have never been to Malta and look forward to it, particularly to meet distant relatives and soak in the local culture. I think it is then that I will get a true feeling for how much of the Maltese culture has survived. I wonder if the Maltese in general are energetic, excitable, lively and opinionated yet open minded, like the Australian Maltese I have known...

Read the whole posting here

Stones of the Gods

Numerous articles and features written by Victor Paul Borg, author of the Malta Guide in the Lonely Planet series, can be accessed on his website here. It also includes his travel writing, essays and fiction. In this piece he discusses the enchanting attributes of the Neolithic temples. From Stones of the Gods:

These days there is no rest for Malta's Neolithic temples. An increasing number of pilgrims - hundreds if not thousands - travel halfway across the globe to experience the orbit of energy in the temples. Linda C Eneix, a tour operator for American pilgrims, said: "I get a real buzz in the temples. I have to get quiet first, then it's like all the molecules in my body start moving faster and something goes zipping up and down and all around." Danica Anderson, an American psychotherapist, recounted, "When we chanted in the Hypogeum, the voices accentuated the energy and the sound moved through our bodies. In Ggantija I felt as though I was pregnant..

What is sure is that Malta's Neolithic Culture has sprung some deep puzzles and mysteries. Malta, one half the size of London, has more major Neolithic shrines than the rest of Europe combined - twenty three major temples and two underground burial shrines: the oldest built structures in the world, pre-dating the Egyptian pyramids by 1,000 years...

What does the German artist Ebba von Fersen Balzan expect to paint anew after eleven years painting the temples? "I feel the energy in the temples tremendously," she said, "and I try to express their secret, sacred spaces." Her paintings are bold brushstrokes of reds, purples, dirty browns, blacks, but she tenderly expresses the curvaceous qualities, the megaliths overlapping one another like folds leading deeper into some living organ. There is no pattern, just a sense of marching drama and mystery. Even the skies are red..

Later, inspecting Balzan's paintings, I recognized the same elements that imprint her temple paintings. "Why is red so prevalent?" "Red is a vibrant colour," she explained. "But red somehow feels natural in the temples. It's like I felt that the colour of the temples should be red, and recently, to my surprise, I read that the temples' interior was in fact red." It's these little, intuitive mysteries, coupled with our sense of wonder and our tireless search for spiritual bearings, what makes the temples so infectious. Balzan's early temple paintings redefined her inner landscape and her art, and set her path. She said: "I can't stop working on the temples. I'm hooked."


Sacred Sights - Four artists living in Malta. Originally from Sri Lanka, England, Germany and South Africa working and exhibiting together for many years concentrating mostly on Malta's Neolithic temples

Will it be finished on time?

Heads of State, Presidents and Prime Ministers from 53 Commonwealth countries from around the world including Queen Elisabeth II will be attending the 2005 CommonWealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Summit in Malta under the theme “Networking the Commonwealth for Development”. The venue that has been chosen for the gathering is the luxurious Radisson SAS Golden Sands Resort and Spa in Ghajn Tuffieha. The hotel is actually still under construction and the owners say they are 'confident' it will be finished by summer. PR Web's emediawire reports:

The event, which is due to take place between Friday 25th and Sunday 27th November 2005, is a chance for the leaders of these countries to meet and discuss issues relevant to them all. The resulting programmes and schemes are designed to benefit the people who live in the diverse member countries of the Commonwealth. This international forum is, according to CHOGM 2005 Task Force, underpinned with the fundamental objective of “reaching common positions through consensus as equals. Democracy, racial equality, the disparity in technology between rich and poor countries, conflict resolution, cultural diversity, education, economic growth, scientific development and access to modern technology generally lie at the heart of the discussions and a communiqué of mandates and policies is issued at the end of each CHOGM."

The host country, Malta, is said to be delighted with the decision to hold the Summit there and the Secretary-General announced that the Commonwealth Secretariat is working closely with the Maltese Government to ensure the event runs smoothly and successfully: “I am confident that this meeting will be another historic Commonwealth event. It will be 12 years since a small state last hosted a CHOGM and I am looking forward to a Summit which delivers concrete outcomes for all Commonwealth citizens."..

The Radisson SAS Golden Sands Resort and Spa is due to open in the next few months and this contract is felt to be a major coup for the Islands Hotels Group. The resort consists of three towers which have already taken shape – Sunset Tower is complete and one story every four weeks is being added to the remaining two. Director of Operations, Winston J Zahra, is confident that the development will be ready for the coming summer. Accommodation at the hotel will be the most luxurious in Malta, consisting mainly of suites and penthouses, offering stunning views over Golden Sands, Ghajn Tuffieha and across the hills of the countryside beyond. “The view is arguably the most breathtaking in Malta. It showcases the best of Maltese landscape”, Mr Zahra enthused...

The commonwealth in Malta

Betfair in Malta

One of Britain's leading online betting exchanges, Betfair, is considering relocating its operations to Malta to avoid punitive new tax laws being introduced by the UK government. James Bennett reports for Accountancy Age:

Betfair currently pays about 15% of its gross revenue from commissions to the Treasury but, according to the Guardian, is fearful of a more punitive tax regime, and an offshore location would considerably cut costs. The company has received a licence to operate in Malta. The move would be relatively simple, as Malta is a member of the EU and there would be no need to restrict its advertising and sponsorship in the UK. It would also be easy to move and host its computer servers offshore while maintaining a head office in the UK.

In March 2004, chancellor Gordon Brown ordered a review of the tax treatment of betting exchanges and their clients, and this review is now thought to be close to completion. Traditional bookmakers view as unfair the current system by which exchanges' duty obligations are assessed. They have also said that many betting exchange clients use sites such as Betfair to operate as bookmakers, but without paying the taxes that are normally due. However, in their defence, betting exchanges say that they are themselves the primary bookmaker, in that they ultimately accept bets placed by the public and ensure that the winners are paid out.

Online Gaming in Europe - Wired Temples

Words on the line

Philip Vassallo, a communication and education consultant based in New Jersey, discusses the pluses and the minuses of distance learning. From Words on the line:

As an in-person as well as an online instructor, I enthusiastically endorse either mode of education. One of the best ways to decide on whether to enroll in an online (distance learning) course is to ask someone who has already taken one. Here is a vote for distance learning from Anna Dalli, Administration Coordinator at Public Broadcasting Services Limited, Malta, who received a Master of Training and Human Resource Management degree through the distance learning program from the Centre for Labour Market Studies at the University of Leicester, Great Britain. This is what she wrote about the experience:

Like anything else distance learning has its advantages and
disadvantages. Students do not have to be physically present at a specific place
at a particular time. This is a great advantage for non-traditional students
especially adult learners who are working and cannot attend University at
regular times. Although not everyone is suited for this type of learning, adults
are the more likely to achieve success with this method of learning. … The
student has to have a number of characteristics such as tolerance of ambiguity,
a need for autonomy and an ability to be flexible. Compared to face-to-face
learning environments, distance learning requires students to be more focused,
better time managers, and to be able to work independently. … Distance learners
are different from traditional undergraduates in that they are already in
professions. They have well defined goals and are more motivated. One might say
that since there is no face-to-face contact with the lecturer, the students may
have problems in self-evaluation. … Separation of student and tutor imposed by
distance removes a vital link of communication between these two parties.
However, from my own experience I can vouch that this was not the case,
primarily because I was motivated, had all the support from Centre for Labour
Market Studies and the agent in Malta, the Foundation for Human Resource
Development.

I agree with Dalli's fair assessment of the situation, and I would add one more plus: Distance-learning environments often compel students to write much more than they would in a traditional classroom. For this reason alone, I support it as a good means of cultivating writing skills.

The spoken word

In today's Times of Malta Rosanne Zammit talks to the former president of L-akkademja tal-Malti Charles Briffa about the challenges of the Maltese language as an official EU language. He proposes the creation of an industry of translation even in literature. "Maltese authors can then write in Maltese and this industry will help export their work to the continent." From the Times:

The next time you're in a restaurant and the waiter asks: "How would you like your meat to be cooked?" try answering in Maltese and see the reaction. Asked this question Dr Briffa's automatic reply was: "Imsajjar tajjeb". The waiter looked at him and asked: "Well done?"
In a recent interview, Dr Briffa said certain aspects of a language that stopped being used died unless they continued to be needed in literature. Referring to the restaurant incident, the fact that the waiter had to translate into English to make sure he had understood correctly showed that the Maltese language of the kitchen was slowly being lost. So in this regard the language was getting poorer because the Maltese words for rare, medium and well done did exist. One should say bid-demm, kemm taqtaghlu d-demm and msajjar tajjeb, respectively.

But overall, Dr Briffa believed that Maltese is still alive and very much so. "Presently, Maltese is spoken in all the Maltese islands and among emigrants, who love to boast about how well they can speak their mother tongue." Written Maltese was very much alive. It was used continuously in newspapers and magazines. Recently, there had also been the Kullana Kulturali experiment - an encyclopaedia covering a wide range of subjects, including ones never before discussed in Maltese. Although 60 books had been planned for the encyclopaedia, the number has been extended to 72. Maltese, Dr Briffa added, had never been in danger of extinction. It was a language which had been developing for at least 1,000 years. One now also had the option to study the language up to doctorate level.

It was very difficult for the people to stop using the language especially since the national minimum curriculum permitted certain subjects to be taught in both English and Maltese, strengthening the bilingual aspect. This did not mean that the language was not being faced with huge challenges. Fresh challenges, for example, have even been created with the recognition of Maltese as an official language of the European Union. "One of the challenges Malta is facing in the EU is the export of the language to the continent." A year after membership, many publications were still unavailable in Maltese and the number of interpreters was nowhere near that required. But for the first time in Malta's history, Maltese was important not just to the people who spoke it but also to a whole continent. The fact that it had grown so much in importance presented new challenges especially since the EU was an entity of continuous change.

The biggest challenge ahead, Dr Briffa said, was to keep up to date with all that was happening. There were other challenges, however, such as that the Maltese had to start thinking on a continental level. Agriculture and fisheries, for example, were biedja and sajd in Maltese. But what about forestry? What should be done about this word, which the Maltese language had had no use for in the past? This posed a challenge and a solution had to be found. Malta had either to import the word or try to create another out of the words it had in a way which would satisfy the authorities. "The translation of advisory bodies into igsma tal-pariri, for example, was scandalous and the kind of translation we should avoid even if just to show that we are capable. There has to be an element of self-pride."

Some had argued, Dr Briffa, said, that had it not been for The Times, no one that mattered would have known about the mistake and that The Times should not have publicised the issue telling outsiders about it. Such attitude, he said, should not be. One could not be careful in the use of a foreign language and then pay little attention to one's own. There was also the issue of human resources. How were enough people to be trained in order to take up the work brought about as a result of the responsibility of the recognition of Maltese? For many years the aspect of translation had been ignored in a country with a tradition of translation. The Government Gazette, for example, has been published in Maltese and English since the 19th century.

Translation was no longer an obligatory part of the teaching of the language. Now, because of the EU, the people were realising that translation is a money earner. A part-time post-graduate diploma course in translation studies is being organised by the university. The course is in its second year and is being attended by 80 students. The diploma will be followed by a Master's degree. Dr Briffa pointed out that there were many different bodies and individuals doing translation and offering translation services and they needed to unite their efforts to avoid coining different terms.

Asked whether Malta should be able to choose which EU publications to translate, Dr Briffa said that if the country were given this option, it should take it by all means. But on the other hand, why shouldn't a Maltese fisherman, for example, be able to read in Maltese what measures were being taken in the North Sea? Young people had to realise that there were careers to be made in translation. Optimistically, he said, Malta would get there eventually but needed time. One, had to be careful on how to bring about change. Change was positive when it was necessary and when it was used to introduce innovative concepts. But it was negative to introduce change merely to demonstrate pomposity or be snobbish.

For example, it did not make sense for one to say Ha niftah il-window instead of it-tieqa but it was all right to say Ha niftah il-blinds. It was damaging to use non-Maltese words when these were available in Maltese. Changes had to be profitable and help the language continue to advance. A classical word adapted into Maltese by Il-Berqa in the 1960s and which is now commonly used was futbol. Asked whether words imported into Maltese should be spelt in a Maltese way or whether the spelling of the traditional language should be retained, Dr Briffa said that if it was easy for a word to fit into Maltese orthography, it should be spelt in Maltese. A case in point was kompjuter. From this international word, which the Maltese started spelling in Maltese, came several derivatives such as ikkompjuterizzajnihomlom - a whole sentence in English which could be said in just one word in Maltese. This showed the strength of the Semitic concept in Maltese language.

When changes were comfortable for Maltese orthography, they should be made. Such were lekcer and mowbajl, for example. In Maltese one also said qed jillekcerja bhalissa, creating a verb out of the word lekcer. This showed that there were derivatives that required the Maltese form of spelling. In such instances it was important to have the spelling in Maltese. There was then the category of words that would look problematic spelt in Maltese and so should be left in their original spelling, such as fashion show. A language reflected the changing needs of society. Like fashion, language had to reflect the people's tastes. The spoken language changed much faster than the written form. It was acceptable for one to say ghandi karozza bomba, for example, but this was not acceptable if it is written because it would be considered sub-standard.

Dr Briffa said that in saying all this he was taking a risk for there were those who argued differently. But more often than not, the nitpickers were people who never studied the language.

One had to realise, that for certain conclusions to be reached there had to be reasons. On the other hand, it was also positive that such reactions were created because they reflected a love for the language. Dr Briffa's pleaded for people to respect Maltese books and their authors. An EU challenge, he said, was by way of the policy of diversity. "What does this mean for an author who wishes to write a novel in Maltese but wants it read in the EU? The author can decide to write his book in English. But there is another solution. We can form an industry of translation even in literature. Maltese authors can then write in Maltese and this industry will help export their work to the continent."

Il-Malti tal-futur - Sergio Grech interviews the current President of the Akkademja, Bernard Micallef

Lingwa Maltija -Wikipedia

Island that launched a thousand scripts

In this article published 28 Aug 2003 on The Mail on Sunday Sarah Hartley tracks the Brad Pitt experience in Malta and goes on to review Malta's status as a film location as well as the reasons why foreign buyers (including stars such as Billy Connoly, Gary Neville and Cameron Mackintosh) continue to purchase property in Malta:

The truculent Achilles in Homer's Iliad was forever storming off to his tent in a huff and letting the Trojans run amok in the Greeks' camp. Brad Pitt, who plays the semi-mortal hero in the forthcoming blockbuster Troy, had rather more creature comforts awaiting him if he ever came over prima donna-ish during filming in Malta: a stunning villa, with swimming pool, four bedrooms, staff quarters and even stabling for 12 polo ponies. For two months earlier this year, home for Brad was the Villa Pespes, at Maghtab, a small village overlooking the sea, five miles from Valletta on the north-east coast of the island. In the car port, gym equipment was specially brought in for the star so that he could hone his thighs to muscular, waxed perfection.

And with his wife Jennifer Aniston - pictured with him on our cover - paying only a brief visit to the island during filming, Brad's closest companion was Brendan, the Mizzi family's dog which still wears the black studded collar Brad gave him. 'Brad was charming,' says Desmond Mizzi, an antiques dealer whose property was 'househunted' for the star. 'He stayed in the main bedroom for hours studying the 700-page script, rode the polo ponies and worked out in the gym.' Mizzi and his estate agents reckon the villa's brush with stardom is too good an opportunity to miss and have now offered it for sale at [pounds sterling]3million. It might be an idea, however, to remove the heap of dismembered bodies stacked against an outbuilding. Shockingly lifelike, these latex stunt dummies were fallen warriors, discarded after the filming of Troy.

Whether any buyer will be prepared to pay such a price for the villa - in spite of the lure of sleeping in the same bedroom as Brad, with a bath big enough for two and a loo with uninterrupted sea views - remains to be seen. Locals are surprisingly blase about the influx of celebrities to Malta, which has quietly become the movie capital of the Mediterranean. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Cutthroat Island, Gladiator and a host of other films have been made there, attracted by the mild climate, the dramatic shoreline and the thoughtful encouragement of the Maltese government. The film industry has contributed more than [pounds sterling]100million to Malta's economy over the past four years, and stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Sharon Stone have been spotted shopping in the streets of Valletta.

Yet, in spite of its recent starry influx, Malta remains a restrained and conservative corner of the Med. Whereas in other resorts the British can be the object of dread - think Faliraki on Rhodes - in Malta they are genuinely welcomed, with older Maltese recalling the Royal Navy's 164-year occupation of the island and the heroic siege of the Second World War. Desmond and his wife Sheila bought their villa, then a humble farmhouse, ten years ago and transformed it into a miniature luxury estate. The polo ponies, shipped from southern France for the winter, echo the days when thousands of British soldiers - pre-stardom David Niven one of them - were based on the strategic island which controlled the central Mediterranean and the routes to Suez and the Empire.

The villa's key assets, according to estate agent Grahame Salt, as well as the uninterrupted view to the sea, are its three acres of land. Malta is only 16 miles long, yet has 400,000 inhabitants. 'It's the amount of land that gives a house an increased value,' explains Salt, who - inevitably - was an extra on Gladiator and used to work out beside Russell Crowe at his local gym. 'For a farmhouse or older property, you're looking at a starting price of [pounds sterling]100,000 but more likely [pounds sterling]350,000 if there is a pool and some land.' With daily flights from London, Malta is fast being seen as an ideal place for a holiday home, or as a warm climate in which to retire. Crime is low, healthcare excellent and the sea and beaches are clean.

The nightlife of, say, St Julians and Sliema has none of the gross excesses of the Costas, and Malta does not have the get-rich-quick cowboys seen in southern Spain's development boom. Despite its lack of space, Malta and its neighbouring island of Gozo, where Billy Connolly owns a palazzo, have also become quietly fashionable. Musical impresario Cameron Mackintosh owns an old townhouse in Valletta and footballer Gary Neville has two apartments in Portomaso, an upmarket waterfront resort in St Julians. It is in these new developments where many international buyers choose to invest. More than 70 per cent of foreign sales in Malta are to the British - around 20,000 have second homes on the island - although they make up only one per cent of the permanent residents. There are attractive tax incentives for foreigners who pay only 15 per cent income tax - local Maltese can pay up to 35 per cent, and capital gains is not charged on property that has been a foreigner's principal residence for three years.

There are caveats though. Foreigners cannot own more than one property-except in designated areas such as a development like Portomaso. And a peculiar rule says you cannot spend less than approximately [pounds sterling]48,000 for an apartment or [pounds sterling]80,000 for a house unless you buy somewhere that requires renovation. Exactly a year ago, Londoner Magdalene Tayyar bought a spacious three-bedroom apartment in Portomaso which has a large balcony where she and her two small children eat their meals overlooking the expensive yachts in the marina. 'I'd been living in a flat in the Barbican for 15 years,' says Magdalene, 'and was getting fed up with London and service charges that were running into thousands of pounds. I wanted to settle in Malta, mainly because it's somewhere great for the children to grow up.' Here the service charge on her three-bedroom apartment is [pounds sterling]500 per year. With underground parking, restaurants and supermarkets to hand, plus inclusive membership of the adjacent Hilton hotel pools and gym, as a fulltime mother Magdalene couldn't be happier. 'The schools are fantastic here,' she says. 'Education and healthcare are so important and Malta gets it right. It's also incredibly safe. I feel the children can run around happily, whereas in London I was constantly looking over my shoulder.'

Strict planning regulations are preventing the rash of ugly high-rises seen elsewhere in the Mediterranean, and car-free zones are planned for new developments. Tigne Point, on the waterfront between Sliema and Valletta, was once a British barracks and stood derelict for some years. A former British army chapel, now the [pounds sterling]40million development's sales office, stands surrounded by cranes and diggers. When the project is complete, there will be 400 apartments, boutiques, shops, restaurants and swimming pools. Only four remain from the first phase of 200 apartments on sale - around 30 sold to the British - for between [pounds sterling]200,000 and [pounds sterling]400,000.

Not everyone seeks out modern waterfront properties. For the past three years Diane Moore and husband Peter, chief executive of the Malta Shipyards, have been living in the village of St Julians in a converted farmhouse. Now they are selling to move to something larger. 'We've liked its cosiness,' says Diane, pointing to the small interior courtyard that she says has been perfect for entertaining. 'But it's time to move - as I really want more room for my dogs and cats and somewhere with open views.' Outside, the walled garden, pool, patio and outdoor shower make the price of [pounds sterling]460,000 seem reasonable. 'I do love it out here,' says Diane, who is originally from Yorkshire. 'I can walk anywhere day or night and feel comfortable. But when I go back home to Leeds or Sheffield, I'm forever wondering where I should park or who is walking behind me.'

One person who recognises the negative aspects of a sought-after location is Lisa Grech, the publisher of the Definitive(ly) Good Guide to Restaurants in Malta and Gozo. Her mother is English and her father Maltese, and Lisa has spent the past 13 years living in an historic two-bedroom house in the medieval citadel of Mdina, known as 'the silent city'. Despite its having only 400 inhabitants, Lisa found Mdina's peaceful alleys were increasingly teeming with tourists. Two weeks ago, Lisa sold the house to a couple from Essex for [pounds sterling]142,000 - only [pounds sterling]1,000 less than the asking price. Her new home is in Vittoriosa, one of the 'three cities' that jut out into the Grand Harbour of Valletta.

Today, the once working-class district of the dry docks is deserted. However, the quiet streets and dusty squares are about to be rejuvenated with the Cottonera development, which includes a luxury apartment complex, a five-star hotel, casino, marina, bars and restaurants. Lisa believes this is a prime area in which to invest and has bought a former nunnery that had stood empty for 20 years. Complete renovation will cost around [pounds sterling]48,000 to create a three-bedroom house. The site - a few feet away from the historic Inquisitor's Palace - is excellent. 'It was on the market for [pounds sterling]130,000 but I bought it for [pounds sterling]118,000,' she says. 'Prices around here are already rising. But I think if I'd bought a couple of years ago, I could have acquired this place for about [pounds sterling]45,000.'

Perched on the waterfront, next to the formidable looking Fort St Angelo where the Knights of Malta still meet, there are only 25 three-bedroom apartments, costing upwards of [pounds sterling]165,000, left at Cottonera - and that is despite the development not being due for completion for another four months. Stepping over concrete rubble at the unfinished apartments, the views from balconies across to the Grand Harbour and Kalkara Creek are stunning. As Grahame says: 'You could easily fish straight from your balcony.'


Malta and Gozo Guide - by Conde Nast Traveller

Byron in Malta

Michael Whelan in Las Vegas blogs about Lord Byron's Mediterranean tour. From My view from Las Vegas:

On this day in 1810 Lord Byron swam the Hellespont, in emulation of Leander's legendary swims to visit his beloved Hero. Byron was twenty-two, and ten months into his two-year tour of the Mediterranean. He was not yet famous for his poetry or his profligacy, although he had just finished the first draft of Childe Harold, and had just ended, while in Malta, his first serious affair. This was with Constance Spencer Smith, a twenty-six-year-old married woman who was no Hero, but who had dazzled Byron with her beauty, mystery and unattainability. She had once been arrested on orders of Napoleon (for unclear reasons), and had escaped from prison by way of another enflamed twenty-two-year-old nobleman (plus a rope ladder, a boy's costume, a carriage and a boat). Byron at one point attempted to defend her honor in a sunrise duel. Notwithstanding, the poem Byron wrote after the Hellespont swim shows him capable of poking fun at not only Romanticism but himself...

The Life of Lord Byron by John Galt

Byron came to Malta and met a married woman..

Byron the movie filmed in Malta

An open economy

The Political Economy of Poverty, Equity and Growth: Five Small Open Economies was published by the World Bank and Oxford University Press in the nineties. The book edited by Ronald Findlay and Stanislaw Wellisz included an interesting assessment of the politics and economics of Malta. Although clearly overtaken by events, it is an interesting historical perspective on Malta's economic development pre-European Union. The following are the conclusions reached by the authors:

During the long rule of the Labour party, Malta’s economic record was one of successful export-oriented growth in manufacturing and tourism, which allowed the country to create a strong welfare state. Although statistics are meager, Malta seems to have had a remarkably equitable income distribution, with no visible signs of either luxury or poverty. In the export industries, Maltese entrepreneurs collaborated easily with international corporations.

State enterprise in Malta consists, on the one hand, of banking, transport, and public utilities that manage to be profitable because of their monopolistic position and, on the other hand, of capital-intensive projects heavily cofinanced by foreign partners, mainly Libya. As a consequence, these low-yielding ventures are a great drain on local resources, at least in the short run. Joint Maltese–Libyan companies have been formed for the express purpose of supplying the Libyan market. Libya is now Malta’s fourth largest customer (after Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy) and is the only country with which Malta has a large positive trade balance. At least up to now, Malta has been able to generate business for such ventures as shipbuilding by astutely exploiting political rivalries among world powers.

The fact remains, however, that during the years of Labour rule Malta was highly dependent on donor aid and on economic contracts granted for political reasons—as in the case of its contracts with Libya. Moreover, Malta’s restrictive trade policy was a serious obstacle to a sustained increase in prosperity. Instead of attempting to make the island the Mediterranean marketplace at the crossroads between North Africa and southern Europe, Maltese citizens did as much shopping as they could in Sicily, which was also the source of much smuggling to Malta. Exports of services and higher value added manufactures were also hindered by this policy.

The Nationalist government that took office in 1987 is cautiously moving toward a freer, more open economy and plans to make Malta into a center of offshore business. New incentives to attract foreign investment have been put into place. But controls have been difficult to remove, for over the years vested interests have grown up around trade restraints and internal regulations.

The Economy of Malta - Wikipedia

Do you come here often?

Rhodri Marsden from the UK is currently in Malta and blogging about it:

Two companies have an exceedingly firm grip on the Maltese. HSBC attempt to sponsor everything in sight – including windscreen-sized bits of card that you shove inside your car to stop the sun roasting the front seats – and when you've succumbed, and finally opened your account with the former Midland Bank, Rothmans are on hand to persuade you to invest heavily in hundreds of packets of fags. In a walk around the largely deserted capital city of Valletta last night, the most eye-catching attraction was am enormous, luminous, inflatable tent in the main square, provided by the EU, plastered with images of cigarettes snapped into two and erected in an attempt to wean the Maltese off their beloved Rothmans. It was massive. People wandered by, en route to a stall selling Rothmans. Brussels is going to have to try a bit harder.

Before reaching Valletta we went on another unpredictable drive across the island. On the first day here I bought a 1:45000 scale map (if I've got that the wrong way round, I'd like to reassure you that the map is not 45,000 times as big as Malta) which I've been trying to use to guide us around. But so rabid is the road building over here that it bears little relation to reality, with major arterial routes in and out of, er, Ghajn Tuffieha snaking through enormous areas of dusty rubble, with nothing to guide us through save for a solitary parked-up pick-up truck with 3 men inside, swigging beer and grinning. After not inconsiderable cursing, we finally ended up in Bugibba. A waiter, on hearing we were British (although he could easily have predicted that, with several pasty fat men in England football shirts wandering around the resort for 9 months of the year) reminded us that it was election day in the UK, before shaking his head, sadly. "I've been looking at the news just now," he said. "Oh ,right... and?" "Well, you know, they are only exit polls, you know, but still," he said, continuing to shake his head. "Right, and what's the news?" "Well, it's not good, you know," he said, still shaking his head. Jenny's patience boiled over slightly. "TELL US!" she said in a high pitched voice. "Oh, Labour are ahead." We both breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks."...

Qormi anytime

Fortune and glory

Chris Cantwell recalls his screen writing assignment in Malta. From Fortune and glory:

In July of '03, I got my first professional writing gig. The European co-producer of TROY (the Brad Pitt shit-fest), ended up hiring me to write a feature adaptation of the Great Siege of the Mediterranean island of Malta in 1565 by the Ottoman Turks. I'm not making this up, I know, it sounds bizarre even to me as I type it out. I didn't really get paid much, but in December of '03, I ended flying out to this tiny island, which is right off the coast of Sicily, and spent two weeks there, all expenses paid, researching this film. The script (a whopping 162 pages) went before Warner Brothers, Sam Mendes, and even Roman Polanksi, but in the end, nothing happened. It's on the producer's shelf back in Europe...

Knights of Malta on hold - Wired Temples

On genius

Dick Richards, author of Is Your Genius at Work? (coming in November 2005) blogs here and owns the website onGenius.com with an intent to extend a methodology to enable people to recognize their own genius and unique natural power. Malta is one of the places around the world where he has sensed 'genious loci':

The way that I use the term genius, as distinguished from its popular meanings of intellectual ability or extraordinary creative achievement, is also alive in a branch of architecture known as environmental design or ecological design. Designers such as Jim Cutler and those at the Knossus Project know the concept as genius loci, the “presiding spirit” of a place. D.H. Lawrence described it like this: “Different places on the face of the earth have different vital effluence, different vibration, different chemical exhalation, different polarity with different stars: call it what you like. But the spirit of place is a great reality.” (as quoted by James Irish)

I feel certain that you have sensed a genius loci somewhere. I have; on a ridge overlooking the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania, at the edge of the Grand Canyon, on a large rock at the coast of Malta, at various places in and around Sedona. Sometimes even in my back yard.
Genius loci is described by some architects as the guardian spirit of a place or as its spiritual force. These designers create architecture that makes use of what a place wants to be—its genius loci...

Worth a Troy

Kerry McCarthy wrote this piece in January for the British Sunday newspaper The People:

Mediterranean - Malta's worth a Troy!

Top stars like Brad Pitt in the film Troy and Colin Farrell in the Alexander movie have been sampling the delights of Malta. So I jumped on a plane to find out what all the fuss is about. Three hours later and I was there. No sign of Brad, so I thought I should explore the island which, until recently, was better known as a kiss-me-quick holiday destination. Thanks to epics like Gladiator, also shot on the island, Malta is now a Mediterranean honeypot for Hollywood film-makers and has long ago left behind its bucket-and-spade image.

My first stop was the neighbouring island of Gozo. With some friends, I joined a jeep safari trip. Our driver was more than happy to fill us in on the history of the place during our bumpy and fairly rustic ride. A few short stops to take in the fishing bay of Dahlet Qorrot, the red sand beach at Ramla Bay and the impressive salt pans at Marsalforn Bay came before a relaxing catamaran trip to the island of Comino. A chance to snorkel and swim, not to mention snooze on board the boat, was welcome. Unfortunately, probably thanks to all alcohol being free, the long trip back to dry land resembled an 18-30s initiation ritual.

One of the best things about Malta is the food. If you're a seafood lover, you'll be in heaven. The harbours are host to restaurants stuffed full with fresh catch of the day. And there's nowhere better to sample fishermen's fare than La Dolce Vita restaurant in St Julian's. It's a favourite with visiting celebrities and its walls are adorned with the faces of the rich and famous. Brad was still proving elusive, but the superb food, bustling atmosphere and excellent staff made it a night for my stomach to remember.

After a dubious encounter with the St Julian's night life - think Irish- themed karaoke bars - we woke to a tour of capital city, Valletta. A guided half-day tour takes in the impressive Barraca Gardens, from which you'll get superb views of the Grand Harbour featured in upcoming blockbuster Alexander. After visiting various churches and other points of natural beauty, our tour guide was reluctant, despite our pleas, to take us to the bar where Oliver Reed is said to have dropped dead after an epic drinking binge while filming Gladiator. But we did persuade him.

Make sure you book a tour or buy a good guide book. There's lots to see, so it's a good idea to know what ancient building you're looking at. And take some ear plugs, if you're a light sleeper. As everything is within walking distance, even the most exclusive hotels are just a stone's throw from noisy night clubs. Despite its undoubted charms, Malta still is a bit brash, so I would prefer it as a short-break holiday destination, to grab some Mediterranean sun and escape the
everyday cares of home. Unless you spot Brad Pitt, right, in which case I might even consider moving there.

Shan's Malta blog

Back in Germany, Shan writes about his ten day trip to Malta that combined hip hop dancing in Paceville with a visit to Calypso’s cave, "a small cave on one of the beaches which they say was where Homer was held hostage for 7 years by a nymph in the odyssey". In this excerpt he writes about the Maltese bus system. From Shan's travel blog:

Malta is bloody small, something like 250 km2 and I had 3 hours so should be a piece of cake right? Well, it ended taking me 3 hours to get to the damn apartment!! The bus system on malta is like nothing I’ve ever seen, they have all these old-skool buses that are privately owned (and sometimes decorated!) by the drivers. They describe the bus system in lonely planet as ‘inexpenisve but inefficient’ and it fits perfectly. Three bloody hours to get about 50 kms!! The main bus terminal is outside the gates of the capital city Valetta, and it is absolute mayhem.

There are all these bright orange buses going everywhere, the stops (apart from the signs being lower than the bus roofs so you can’t actually read them) aren’t in any kind of order so trying to find my number was not as easy as you’d think!! For all my bitching though I thought the buses were pretty cool, the individually decorated interiors, names like easy rider, the gamble of whether your driver loves his job or has decided he hates the world, and the ‘I’m bigger than you so you have to give way to me’ mentality of the roads. Made it feel like an adventure...


Iraqi bus or Maltese bus?

Malta Pictures by Jonathan from The B in Subtle

Four figure tables

Three old friends of mine have come together on a joint artistic venture. Bernard Bonnici, Rupert Cefai and Gordon Pace Flores are exhibiting their photography, paintings and calligraphy inspired by the mathematical 'Four Figure Tables'. The exhibition opens on the 12th of May at the Manoel Theatre Café in Valletta. The artists were interviewed by Artissa.com:

(gpf) Seeing symbols which can be deciphered into sound, then possibly meaning compels me to read them. No, not just books - I read notices, graffiti, the notes people write on their hands ... Yes, I am one of those who do read the small print in legal documents. The paradox of using letters not to represent what the sound they encrypt means, but for their shape, texture, weight and feel fascinates me. In a certain sense this is the opposite of the way we process colour. We see a painting, and consiously we see the image. Unless we force it into our consious level, we only process the symbolism of the colours subconsiously. Conversely, in my paintings, one automatically tries to read and process the letters as symbols in a text, and only processes the painting as a whole at a subconsious level. It is only by stepping back, and forcing oneself to switch off the brain from the automatic reading mode that the whole picture starts to emerge. This paradox is right at the heart of the work I am exhibiting...

Rupert Cefai's new blog

From the periphery to the centre

Immanuel Mifsud's new collection of travel poems, km, is being published by Klabb Kotba Maltin with a launch at the University of Malta in two weeks time. Not to be missed. From Immanuel's blog:

This book was inspired by the kilometres I travelled through ten European countries: the Czech Republic, France, Finland, Spain, Poland, Slovakia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria. The poems range from personal documents to my reactions to some of the most significant historical events of these different places, such as the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution, the disitegration of Yugoslavia, the Polish scar of the Holocaust, and the diverse experiences of Communist regimes in these countries. Published by Klabb Kotba Maltin a year after Malta joined the European Union, km documents my voyage as a writer who sets sail from the periphery to the centre of a continent with a troubled history of empires, blood and iron curtains...

Tenor Joseph Calleja

Ctindel in Munich was impressed by the performance of Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja. From Day of my life:

I went to see the Munich Symphony (Muncher Symphoniker) last night at the Residenz (Royal Palace). The pieces performed were mostly overtures or songs from various Operas and Ballets. There were 14 pieces listed in the program, 8 of which featured Joseph Calleja, a tenor from Malta. Mr. Calleja is an excellent singer, and projected his voice into this huge hall without any microphones.

People here in Munich loved him. After each piece that he performed people were still going nuts, and he had to come back out for more bows. On 8 pieces. And as the concert was over, people were going nuts for about 5 minutes, and then he performed 2 encores. This was an excellent, 2.5 hour concert. The man sitting behind me was from England, and his wife is German. They are here visiting her sister, so they decided to come see this guy perform because they had seen him perform in London just a few weeks ago.

Today I am taking a train to Augsburg to see the Augsburg Philharmonisches Orchester, who are performing Mahler's 8th Symphony. I plan on doing some sight-seeing as well, but yahoo weather shows rain there, so we'll see how it goes.


Joseph Calleja will perform La Boheme at the Astra theatre in Gozo this October. Calleja made his debut at the same theatre in 1997.

Maria and Joseph Calleja - Wired Temples

New blogs

The Mole Movement - 16 year old Justin's deliberations on Love, Life & Literature

Naieth's grove - Helga from Tarxien studies archeology at University

Bertu ta' l-Angli - New blog by artist Rupert Cefai

Supreme Dragon Soul - a student and goalie's nightmare

Malta poem by meroWingerA's blog

Malta 2020 Racism Alert by Matthew Mizzi - Youth Empower Society

A Japanese guy in Malta

Vagabond Jess goes camping

Jess, who toured Europe over xmas, is recording her year of studies at the university of Malta on this blog. This past weekend she joined her friends for a camping and hiking trip to Gozo. From Maltese Vagabond:

Gozo is a lot more rural than malta and there were bird hunters out starting fires in the bushes and hiding in their stands, kind of like walking through a war zone. there were farm fields everywhere and they were all really small fields and it was really really cool. it was beautiful. Then, saturday night we sat on the roof and watched the fireworks in Valletta. They were celebrating the one year anniversary of being accepted in to the EU and it was a tourism thing kicking off fireworks season. Sunday we went on a hike with Receptionist Ray and he got us lost and we had to climb up some pretty steep cliffs and then climb down them. unfortunatly i ran out of space on my memory card so i can't show you what we were climbing... hopefully someone else has pictures. we walked past a nude beach from waaaaay up on a cliff. everyone was pretty amused by it...

Lori, another North American student in Malta, describes the Grand Harbour fireworks display here

Magro Economics

Teacher Jeffrey Magro has set up a blog as a reference point for his economics students at De La salle College. From Magro Economics:

The Central Bank of Malta (CBM) published its Annual Report for 2004 on the 12th of April 2005. In addition to the Governor's annual statement (which I suggest you read carefully) and an analysis of economic and financial developments in Malta and abroad, the Report includes the Bank's financial statements and a review of its policies and operations during the year.
Download free from here: http://www.centralbankmalta.com/site/publications2.asp

Fantasy football

Thomas Cassar Desain is a hat trick player for the Maltese National Team and Jeffrey XI in Ireland:

I have only been at this club for 10 days, and have only played 2 games if you count the walkover we won last Sunday, but I must admit I am really enjoying my time here. Particularly, I feel I am learning alot from my new manager (see photo below). He is a very calm but methodical person, and we know exactly what he wants from us in every game. I am hoping I can continue to build my experience here, and Magro has promised me a few cup games next season. Of course I cannot yet compare myself to the likes of Thurman J Shaughnessy and Abdellah Masruq, because they are top strikers, but I feel I can learn a lot here.

This weekend we host Hanover Harps, but it seems as if this game will be yet another walkover win for us. It should effectively seal our automatic promotion to the Irish Premier. I really feel I belong here. Dublin is a nice city and whenever we travel to other regions, the beauty is unbelievable. Don't get me wrong, I love Malta, but Ireland is such a nice country.

Magic Malta

In their bilingual blog, Kevin and Solene recount their journey around the Mediterranean. They are currently in Malta where they are hosted by friends who got married last week. Join them in their drive around Malta and in their Gozo walks as they reflect on minimalist wedding cakes, roadworks, hunting and on becoming knights. From Fragrant vagrants:

So here we are in wonderful Malta, the island off the coast of everywhere else. It is a completely unique place, one of the most densely populated places on the planet, with an almost arabic/north african feel to the language and alleyed towns outside of Valletta, yet still an absoutely baroque and catholic country. We've been to Paris, Strasbourg, Marseille, Corsica, Rome, Napoli, Salerno/Amalfi Coast, Sicily/Siracusa and now Malta. So we have more than a few blanks to fill in...I am going to start from here and work backwards (and forwards) with the blog as things can be funnier when they are fresher!

I'll be using Fragrant Vagrants for general observations and happenings, and using the 'Vague Rants' blog for little nuggets of detail on people and thoughts and happenings. Anyway, Malta has to be one of the friendliest places on the planet. We are lucky of course that we are being hosted with old friends of mine. They also happened to be getting married last weekend and we were allowed to witness the event - which was pretty incredible.

The wedding was in fort St. Angelo near Vittoriosa, one of the Three Cities east of the Grand Harbour overlooked by Valletta. (Valletta is a Baroque City and a World heritage site, one of the earliest examples of urban planning when layed out by the Knights of St.John in the late 16th Century as a celebration of the defeat of the Ottoman Turks)...

My Top Ten Maltese blog entries - April 2005

- in alphabetical order -

Birthday: Toni Sant looks back on a year of personal blogging

Holy Week: The Aftermath: Easter week in Malta with Athena

I can't wait....for the weekend to begin: Jacques writes about the violation of safety measures

Il-Kunsill Nazzjonali ghall-Ilsien Malti: Cartoonist Mikiel Galea on the Maltese language

Maltese views on church and papacy: Majistral questions the Guardian's take on Maltese Catholicism

Malti fl-Ilsien, fil-Qalb, u fl-Unjoni Ewropea: Antoine Cassar on language planning with inspiration from the Smiths. Antoine coined 'L-Imqades Imqabbda' as a Maltese translation of 'Wired Temples'

Post-scriptum għal post-scriptum: Mark Vella on Morrissey, Toni Sant and love for all things Italian

Serendipity and a whirlwind tour of the pad: Discovering Sharon's home in Scotland

Should we blame MTV?: Immanuel Mifsud says youth delinquency predates MTV

The fat lady of Malta: Boston writer Lori Hein describes her Malta experience


A special mention goes to the following blog entries:

Carpe Diem: Pierre J.Mejlak questions a Cardinal's visit to a Carnival event in Gozo
Flight Sim: Ramon Mangion writes about his passion for real and simulated flights
Gieli kilt hobz tal-Malti biz-zejt wara xi avventura: Arcibald on the influential author Trevor Zahra
I love Malta! Google got hax0red. lmao: Kenneth tells the story of the Maltese Google prank
l-hawnropa u post l-imperu ottoman fiha: Kurat Gybexi on Europe and the Istanbul drift
Jum il-ktieb: Roderick Mallia on books, culture and Inizjamed
Mort in Sunbury: Owen Cutajar on Terry Pratchett
Mort nara lil siehbi l-isptar: Mark Tanti/Fup on life and art
National Identity and Maltese music: Culture blog asks if the young can promote change
Reasons why I am a failed writer: Vella Gera wearing his heart on his sleeve with Stagno response
The Age of Consent: Peklectrick on the Global Justice Movement
Why Malta?: Winifred writes about her Malta connection
World Book Day: Guze Stagno returns on the blog - this time in English

Sam Ernesto meets Eddie and wife!

Byline is the satirical take on media through the eyes of Sam Ernesto and his crew of international misfit correspondents. In this piece he interviews the President of Malta:

Anyway, but that time I’d had enough of the Gulf States and the Swiss so I hoped on another plane to try to meet up with German Herm in France, but I got a call, on my business line from Malta. Apparently, the President’s wife came down with a toothache, and they had heard of the work I’d done for Pope John Paul II a few years back while they were in Vatican City (perhaps tipped off by Roy Viceroy?). I arrive, turns out no big deal, she took the nitrous oxide well, and I was able to essentially do a little crown work for her, and you know she’s very brave and a very nice woman, funny, and asked me about the camel racing, and man on the nitrous she thought Qatar sounded like a pretty funny place. Anyway I was able to see the President, who insists on being called Eddie. Excerpts follow...

Joining the European currency

The decision by Malta (along with Latvia and Cyprus) to take a step closer to joining the Euro, the European common currency, has been noticed by the international media. From Bloomberg to Gulf news, it was reported that Malta joined the exchange-rate mechanism that requires each country to keep its currency within 15 percent of a central rate to the Euro for two years without a devaluation. From Gulf Daily News:

Malta hopes to switch its currency from the lira to the euro in 2008, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said in Valletta yesterday. The European Union said on Friday that the Mediterranean archipelago would enter the European Exchange Mechanism (ERM-2) tomorrow, with Cyprus and Latvia, as a first step to the planned adoption of the single European currency. Gonzi told reporters the decision by the EU to accept Malta into ERM-2 was a vote of confidence that its economic policy was bearing results..

Malta's Central Bank governor Michael Bonello said the decision to join ERM-2 was taken following extensive studies by the bank. "We have to continue moving according to the Covergence Plan so that Malta will take the advantages and move towards the EU average by 2007," said Bonello. "We have to meet our financial targets, lower production costs, fix wage increases to productivity and cut beaurocracy in government administration," he said.
The government will introduce a dual-pricing system with values in Maltese lira and in euro.

The Euro decision - Malta Independent on Sunday

Decisjoni riskjuza aktar milli ta' kuragg - It-Torca

Malta celebrates first year as European Union member