Miscellaneous blogs (7)

Brian Grech's Blog

Lisa Falzon's Art Journal

Premessa by Vjola in Rome

Interesting Facts by Laser & Lady VAM

Busuttil votes against gay rights

James Attard Blog

Half French Half Gozitan

Julian Buttigieg

Malta property profile

Mostin in Australia

Double Dutch

Charles Flores writes about a Double Dutch connection with Malta. Ruut Veenhoven's research states that Malta is the world leader in happiness while the more conventional Jeremy Boissevain has published extensively on Maltese social characteristics:

..There is a Double Dutch connection with Malta. According to Professor Ruut Veenhoven from Rotterdam’s Erasmus University, Malta is the sole leader in the world happiness stakes...There are people who insist that happiness is the result of being too busy to be miserable, which may be very true of the Maltese people’s present mental state, were the findings of the good professor to be taken any seriously. After all, there are only thousands of Maltese who busily cannot find a job and those who find them, often have to accept the insecurity of part-time status..

In one of the reactions to the grand announcement of our happiness-chart-topping feat, which I read in a popular blog on the Internet, one Mosta psychotherapist attributed it all to “the factor of religion”, adding that “Malta is 97 per cent Catholic and part of our religion says you have to be happy with what you have. So don’t go running after impossible dreams.”

Now that’s a hysterically happy assessment, no doubt. If the Maltese are really this happy with their lot at this moment in time, then their many saints must have had something to do with it. Another studious Dutchman, Prof. Jeremy Boissevain, has long been an avid observer of the social character of the Maltese and his many published works persist as a source of utter wonder for most Maltese mentors. His book “Friends of Friends” (Blackwell), in particular, shows how we have, over the centuries, been happily dividing our village and town societies over saints and sinners...

David of Lanzarote says bloggers are pre-empting discussions at a national level..

Arnold Cassola

David Lindsay spoke to dual citizen and Green politician Arnold Cassola who is standing as a candidate for the Italian Parliament in a new constituency set up in 2001 for Italians living abroad. He will be on the list of Romano Prodi’s multi-party Unione centre-left coalition. Contrary to public perception, he says that he is not turning his back on Maltese politics :

Speaking to The Malta Independent, Prof. Cassola, who is to be the Unione’s only Green party candidate for Europe, explains how diversified the coalition is, gathering under one umbrella parties as diverse as the Christian Democrats, the European Socialists, I Verdi, Democratici di Sinistra, the Di Pietro list, and the Republicans. “The Unione,” he explains, “is an extremely varied coalition made up of 10 parties ranging from those who, in Malta, would be allied with the Nationalist Party, such as the Christian Democrats, to those who would be linked with the Malta Labour Party, such as the European Socialists.”..

Given the sheer breadth of the European constituency, comprising some 1.6 million potential voters, Prof. Cassola expects a good part of his campaign to be carried out by email.“Given the special circumstances of the constituency, you can’t really go on a door-to-door campaign. But remember that there are around 1,150 Italians in Malta, which also forms part of the constituency, who will be able to vote. Since this is the first time the overseas constituency is being contested, we don’t have an indication yet as to how many eligible voters will be casting their votes.”...

Mixing Renaissance with Baroque

Juan Ameen on the last minute push for Maltese Euro coins:

..The top five choices were the Baptism of Christ, Malta’s coat of arms, Fort St Angelo, Mnajdra Temples and the map of Malta...The Akkademja tal-Malti is circulating an e-mail encouraging people to have national poet Dun Karm on the euro coins...By choosing Dun Karm for the Maltese euro, the Maltese are giving a clear signal that they want to be seen as citizens who think, have their own culture and literature and are not simply as inhabitants of a tourist island..

Art expert and university lecturer Dr Keith Sciberras was surprised at the two of the three options put forward classified as Renaissance Malta for the face of the Maltese euro. “I was surprised when I first saw them under this label and thought they had made a mistake,” he said. “As, art-historically speaking, the two items are baroque.” The three choices are the Baptism of Christ in St John’s Co-Cathedral, the portico of the Auberge de Castille and Fort St Angelo.

The statue of the Baptism of Christ is the one of the fullest expression of Baroque sculpture in Malta and dates to 1700, he explained. “The Auberge de Castille is one of Malta’s finest examples of Late Baroque expression dating to the mid-18th Century.” On the other hand, Fort St Angelo has a far more complicated history, probably dating back to the classical period. However it started taking shape as a fort in the medieval period.” It underwent several successive interventions of military engineering and finally took its present shape in the mid-17 century.”..

Dr Sciberras said he was irritated when he saw the picture of the Baptism of Christ used for the publicity campaign. “The statue was restored to its full glory in 2000, yet the photo used and seen by all was taken pre-restoration. The gilt Gloria behind the statue does not show up in the dark picture and all its present restored beauty is lost. Images of such importance should be up-to-date!”...

Camden Kiwi goes to Malta

CamdenLady is a columnist/pundit living in the London Borough of Camden. She blogs about life, public transport, green issues, books, ideas and "anything else that springs to mind". She visited Malta for the weekend and writes that her lasting impressions of Malta are of "excellent food, welcoming people, solid rock built forts, churchs and neolithic ruins, and terrible roads". From Camden Lady:

My favourite client decided I needed to do a site visit to Malta, and as a Kiwi suffering badly from mid-winter sun deprivation, who was I to say no? I stayed on over the weekend, to have a bit of a look around at one of the very few European Mediterranean countries I’ve not been to. It’s always interesting to visit places which attract huge numbers of tourists in the summer during January when its cold and wet, and the tourists few and far between. Malta is an interesting place for a city break though, and by no means reliant on its beaches for its attractions.

Valletta must be the smallest capital city in the world, in one of the smallest sovereign nations. The walled city itself is tiny, and full of well-organised streets on a grid rather than the maze similar towns tend to be, and wandering around it in a morning is quite easy. There are plenty of distractions though, particularly the wonderfully Hapsburg Cafe Cordina, with a fabulous range of cakes and pastries, excellent coffees and an elaborately painted ceiling. Avoid the Knights Hospitallier exhibition though, especially in January when there are no other tourists around and its rather creepy down in the tunnels below the old hospital, with dim lighting and graphic diaoramas of the results of late medieval warfare...

The Maltese Cross

Stephan Mifsud can't understand why 'the single most familiar symbol of Malta is not among the options being proposed for voting in connection with the selection of the euro face':

..Somebody could argue that it's a symbol of the Order of St John. But so are the images of St John Baptising Christ , the Auberge de Castille, Fort St Angelo and so on. Research by Michael Foster shows that the Maltese Cross developed its present-day form in Malta during the mid-16th century. The eight-pointed crosses used by the Order of St John before then were somewhat different in shape. In any case, both the Maltese people and Europeans refer to the symbol as the Maltese Cross. In Germany ambulances belonging to the Malteser Hilfdienst bring aid to many. The same happens all over Europe with other charitable organisations. Even the original Order itself is now officially the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

The relationship between Malta and the Maltese Cross is too well known to be dismissed. A coin bearing the symbol will be recognised everywhere as originating from Malta. A European does not have to be an amateur archaeologist or would need a lens to identify the Mdina skyline or a plan of Valletta. Likewise, the Maltese Cross will be instantly recognised and associated with the hospitality Malta is renowned for and the charitable institutions back home. First impressions are important in marketing. What could be better then linking our euro coins to our national airline, to our maritime flag proudly flown on the sterns of luxury yachts and to the logos of many other Maltese institutions? Should this marketing potential be ignored?

And, yes, the coins will be used here in Malta too! I am sure that for us Maltese too the eight-pointed cross on euro coins will remind us of our culture, religion, charity and the pride with which we fought side by side with the knights, defending these islands and emerging victorious. A representation of one of the exquisite crosses to be found in St John's Co-Cathedral would make a fine face on our euro coin.

Choose a Maltese face for the euro; The Maltese Cross - Wikipedia; A sinister design?; A symbol of protection; The cross of Malta

Bloggerija

In a wide ranging blog entry, Antoine Cassar surveys the language traits of the bloggosfera. From Triq il-Maqluba:

Fl-intervista tiegħu mal-Malta Today, il-Prof. Manwel Mifsud saħaq fuq l-importanza tal-kreattività populari fit-tfassil u fl-evoluzzjoni tal-lingwa. Semma per eżempju l-ħolqien tat-terminu karta saħħara, u kif tafu, semma wkoll ir-realtà tal-'bloggin', li l-KNM isegwiha mill-qrib kif ukoll mill-bogħod. Mhux ta' b'xejn, għax il-preżenza tal-Malti (miktub tajjeb) fuq l-eteru għadha limitata, u fejn jidħol l-iskambju ħieles ta' ideat, lil hinn mill-bloggosfera –li André Rizzo darba sejħilha zuntier virtwali– il-panorama tista' tgħid m'hijiex wiesgħa daqskemm wieħed forsi jixtieq..

Skond dan il-glossarju ta' Rebecca Cefai u Immanuel, min jibbloggja huwa bloggej (mhux blog gay !). Il-kelma blogg, bid-doppja, inħolqot minn Mark fl-ewwel bloggata tiegħu, u jekk niftakar sew, kien Pierre li ħareġ bit-terminu bloggata. Id-diversi forom plurali possibbli tal-kelma blogg, kif ukoll il-konjugazzjoni tal-verb (i)bbloggja ddiskutejniehom hawnhekk. Fejn ma tantx kien hemm qbil kien dwar l-użu tal-kelma blogg mal-pronomi mehmużin: Jacques biddel is-sess tiegħu (tal-blogg, mhux tiegħu nnifsu) billi daħħal it-t marbuta u ħoloq il-forma bloggti; kumbinazzjoni nsibu eżempju ieħor fil-blogg ta' Mario...

Festival Golden Cross

The Golden Cross International Singing Festival is a manifestation of local and international talent that is scheduled to take place in Malta on July 24-28 . From OikoTimes:

This event is a Golden opportunity to Maltese and foreign singers coming from different parts of the world to sing songs penned by renowned Maltese and international composers and share their talents with each other. The Festival will not only be entertaining, it will also be a valuable educational experience for all those taking part. The organizing board always retain its policy of investing heavily in singers and members of the jury and will do its utmost to manage to secure the participation of renowned international young singers for each edition. Foreign countries which were represented in the Golden Cross are: UK, Poland, Sicily, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzogovina, Moldovia, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Serbia & Montenegro, Italy, Lithuania and Ukraine...

Shipwrecked C.S. Laurence

C.S. Laurence, the creator of paintmalta.com, is an"artist bent on perfecting the art of exhibitionism"who landed in Malta when her amphibious sofa shipwrecked. Her new blog Out Loud And Proud is a platform for her musings "on the Pythonesque meaning of life". Her profile suggests that she is still looking for the idyllic island in the sun and is still under self-medication for cranial meltdown. From her first post:

..Lesser mundane issues also merit my valued attention, such as the quality standards of Maltese TV programmes which have collectively proven to be a great cure for insomniacs. Surely this is deserving of an award from the World Health Organisation since sleep deprivation has serious detrimental effects on the human condition such as disorientation, loss of concentration, failure to distinguish between reality and fantasy, delusions of grandeur, incoherence. Clearly members of the Maltese Government dont get much sleep.I must retire now for a short break to refill my IV drip with some more of my home-brewed 100% proof brain fodder....soon to be marketed as DGRD (Dont Give a Rat's Derriere)

Maltese are Such Happy Campers!

From totalitarianism to democracy

Malta's Parliament has unanimously ratified Bulgaria and Romania's EU Accession Treaty, from Sofia News Agency:

Malta's Foreign Minister Michael Frendo pointed out the achievements of the two Balkan countries in their transition from totalitarianism to democracy, Bulgaria's National Radio reported. He also greeted the striving of the two countries to join the EU and achieve economic growth and better living conditions. Bulgaria and Romania's EU Accession Treaty has been ratified by Greece, Estonia, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The two Balkan countries are to join the bloc January 1, 2007.

Minn fomm il-gurnali

In this historical piece about the year 1962, writer and historian Sergio Grech says that newspapers throw important light on the development of Maltese political history:

..l-istampa fl-1962 kienet wahda attiva'ghall-ahhar. F'Novembru'62 bdiet tohrog l-orrizont-propjeta tal-GWU. Din l-istamperija kienet tippubblika wkoll IL-Helsien u It-TorcA. Fl-1962 is-segretarju generali Joe Attard Kingswell kien heggeg lill-haddiema biex fl-elezzjoni jivvuttaw ghal MLP. Minn hawn telqet it-tradizzjoni li l-gazzetti tal-Union Print minkejja l-fatt li l-flus jinhargu mill-GWU taghti support qawwi lill-partit imsemmi. L-istess stamperija fl-1962 wasal xi makkinarju gdid. Il-Partit laburista kien beda jibni stamperija ghalih fil-Marsa fejn ix-xoghol li kien issir il-Hadd ta' fastidju lil Arcipriet ta' Rahal Gdid li kien pront irraporta l-Kurja. Kull nhar ta' Hadd il-Partit Laburista kien johrog The Voice of Malta li kienet edittjata minn Anton Buttigieg.

Il-PN kellu biss Il-Poplu li kienet tigi pprintjata fil-Lux Press fil-Hamrun. Kien biss fl-1971 li l-partit beda jipposjedi stamperija bil-pubblikazzjoni tal-gurnal In-Nazzjon. Mill-PN twieled il-Partit Demokratiku Nazzjonalista mmexxi minn Herbert Ganado. Skond ta' l-ahhar il-partit il-gdid twieled biex jikkonfronta iktar lil Mintoff galadarba Borg Olivier kien mans wisq lejn Mintoff. Il-PDM kien jippubblika l-Malta Taghna. Fl-1961 Toni Pellegrini halla l-Partit tal-Haddiema u hu waqqaf il-Partit tal-Haddiema Nsara-partrit li kien jemmen fil-laburizmu nisrani. Dun Gorg innifsu kellu kliem ta'tifhir ghal din il-konverzjoni li hu stess sejhilha providenzjali...

More history from aboutmalta; Biography of Patri Felicjan Bilocca by Sergio Grech; 20th century newspapers; Sergio Grech's poetry

The Maltese Equation

Reading his series of articles hosted on aboutmalta, it is evident that Joseph Vella in California is fascinated by the contrasts, charm and landscapes of Malta. In this article he describes it as an "intense conglomeration of European history" whose people display black and white attitudes that are "symptomatic of the great divide which pervades the Maltese collective psyche". From The Maltese Equation:

In a land of perpetual sunshine and ready smiles, where every other self-respecting person calls himself a honorific doctor of one kind or another, the charm that is Malta takes on different forms for people of various tastes and inclinations. There is a morsel of exuberance not only in the ways the Maltese see themselves in peacock feathers, but also in the manner others view them. The Maltese are clearly a bundle of contradictions. They are as complex as they are simple, as charming as they are abrupt, as cosmopolitan as they are parochial, all depending on the mood of the moment. As such they are no different than people of other nationalities, yet in a certain narrowly focused aspect their national profile is indeed unique.

It is often remarked by visitors to Malta that the local people are amongst the warmest, most gregarious and cordial, a fortunate stranger can ever run across. Seemingly once a visitor always a friend. Their love of extended family and children is equally legend. Yet Mario Cutajar, an expatriate Maltese, recently wrote an excellent article in an American national travelogue magazine titled "Carved In History", in which he shrewdly concluded that Malta has always had a dual character for him, sheltering and nurturing on the one hand, insular and confining on the other. Indeed Malta afforded the author a sharp study in contrasts...

More people on aboutmalta

Malta film set for Spielberg

All Malta is just one big film-set for Spielberg’s Munich, writes Noel Grima about the controversial film that opens in Malta this week. He says that "speaking nationalistically, whatever award the film gets, it makes us Maltese proud". From TMIS:

Maltese cinemagoers should, and will, flock to it, and with good reason too as the film has mostly been shot on location in Malta. Unlike other blockbusters filmed here, from Gladiator to Troy, this film was not all shot a closed location, but in various identifiable sites around Malta. Right at the very beginning there is a long shot of Eric Bana and another actor walking along the Sliema promenade masquerading as a seaside place in Israel.

There is a curious story within a story here that gives it an ironic twist, for right opposite the place where they are walking, in front of the Diplomat Hotel, that the leader of Hamas, Fathi Shqaqi was murdered by the Mossad some years ago. This is the real world, not cinema. The curious, mysterious relationship between Malta and the Middle East has never been so obvious.

Next we get a shot of Queen’s Square in Valletta as an Italian piazza, somewhat difficult to do with the statue of Queen Victoria in the middle, and the square in Rabat in front of the church, yet another one turned into an Italian piazza. Then the hotel in Bugibba in its role as a hotel in Cyprus, complete with the terrible explosion that blows out the windows and balconies of the same hotel. That hotel should market its Munich connection for all it’s worth: it should be a kick to stay at the hotel ‘blown up’ in Munich.

Also the other ‘hotel’ on top of Victoria Gate in Valletta – only this is not a real hotel at all but a series of Maltese houses with the traditional typical balconies that get blown up too. There is here yet another instant of the curious juxtaposition of fact and fiction. I know from sources, who are usually reliable, that the Mossad team which came to Malta to murder Shqaqi, masqueraded as an Israeli family here on holiday grandparents and all, and resided in a house in St Ursula Street, just round the corner from the ‘hotel’ where a Palestinian terrorist was blown up together with half the house, supposedly in Athens..

I very much believe Maltese audiences must insist with cinema owners to run the credits right to the very end, for it is right at the end, as the haunting music comes to a crescendo, that the ‘Malta team’ is listed with the names of the many Maltese who took part in the production of the film...

Definitely Guze Stagno

In this interview with Corazon Mizzi that has just been posted on Xemx, Wisq Sabiha, Guze Stagno the writer meditates on life, love, Mintoff and literature:

Twenty-nine year old Guze’ Stagno is the author of two novels: Nbid ta’ Kuljum and Xemx, Wisq Sabiha. Both works were runners-up for the National Literary Prize in 2001 and 2003 respectively, the former also winning a MAPA award. Xemx, Wisq Sabiha will soon come to life on the silver screen, after being adapted by Guze’ himself. He is also a contributor to the latest Inzjamed anthology, Ktieb ghall-Hruq. Tired of what he terms ‘half-baked interviews’, Guze’ started interviewing local bands and artists in his own fashion. Certainly not one for inferiority complexes, he also contemplated writing this interview himself, but on second thoughts decided to ask me to do the job. Naturally, that was before he realised the implications of being interviewed by someone who knew his work... perhaps too well?...

Gierku Ma Jmut Qatt

Gierku Ma Jmut Qatt is the new book by Charles Flores published by PEG Publications. It contains fourteen short stories that are "bound to ring a bell in the national psyche". From the Malta Independent:

In their quiet little village in an undisclosed part of Malta, Gierku and his gang of friends live the same life as that of thousands of other fellow Maltese. It is a life based on keeping up with favourite pastimes and coping with the everyday crises and situations that occur in most towns and villages all over the Maltese Islands.

Somewhere, somehow, in this collection of inter-connected short stories written in Maltese the reader is bound to recognise him or herself. You could be the irresponsible hunter or the conscientious one, the village constable or the kind-hearted mother, the wisecracker or the fisherman, the fireworks enthusiast or the teacher, the parish-priest or the mayor.

In Gierku ma jmut qatt, Flores covers many of the favourite subjects of discussion in Maltese society, from the on-going debate about hunting and the environment, to converted farmhouses, fireworks factory explosions, politics and the adoption of Romanian babies...

Miscellaneous blogs (6)

An Estonian in Scotland cooking Gozo cheese

Trisa's Netball Blog

A black Ferrari Marinello in Malta

Malta cruising on the RPhurst

Italians holidaying in Malta

Oriella on Ocean Governance

Mill-Art blog

Welsh lamb a hit in Malta

Christina in Malta

The Best Blonde Joke Ever

Growing Up Pains

In this interview for MaltaToday, the president of the national language council tells James Debono that the Maltese language is "suffering the growing pains". Prof Manwel Mifsud recognises the efforts made by bloggers writing in Maltese. From MaltaToday:

..According to Mifsud the National Council is far from cut off from modern realities. It is even sensitive to the new reality of bloggers or “bloggin” who are making an effort to coin new Maltese words in the Internet. Mifsud himself takes credit for coining the word “ittre” for email, mimicking the terminology centres round the use of the letter e, as used in e-government. “I asked myself should we simply borrow these foreign terms?”

But the coining of new Maltese words is often met with laughter and derision. Mifsud considers this as a sign of lack of national pride. “When students do not know an English word they are ashamed and immediately go home to look it up in the dictionary, but when they do not know a Maltese word they flaunt their lack of knowledge.” While it may be easy to laugh at the word ittre, few of us laugh at the words space shuttle or mouse. “Just imagine the reaction to someone referring to the shuttle as ‘mekkuk spazzjali’ or to the computer mouse as ‘gurdien’.”

As the Maltese language grapples with these new realities, it also faces the challenges brought on by EU membership, where translation of laws and resolutions means a new terminology has to be created. And coupled to this new challenge is the brain drain of linguists and technical experts who have flown out of the island to work as translators. The EU has become a double-edged sword for the Maltese language. According to Mifsud EU membership is the third stage in the evolution of the Maltese language. First it was a spoken language addressing the daily and personal realities of the Maltese. When Malta became a nation, the Maltese language had to penetrate other spheres like the legal, scientific and economic spheres. But even before penetrating these spheres, the Maltese language found itself an official European language...

Top blogs writing in Maltese: Ajjut! Ajjut!; Erezija; Il-Blobb tas-Sibt fil-Għaxija; Ħġejjeġ; Ħsibijiet; Il-Bollettino (Maltese only in spirit!);
Inutile de Déjeuner; Lentille; L-Istordut Kroniku; Mistoqsija; Pierre J. Mejlak; Podcasts in Maltese; Ta' Barra Mod Ieħor; Triq il-Maqluba; Xemx; Xemx u Xita; Xifer

Czech Fitzel

The appointment of Malta's new Czech coach for the national team was reported by Fifa.com a week before an official announcement was made this week by the national football association. From Reuters:

Malta have named Czech Dusan Fitzel as their new coach to lead the national side through qualification for the 2008 European championship. Fitzel, 42, succeeds German Horst Heese whose contract expired at the end of last year. He will coach the national team as well as becoming technical director for the Malta FA, the FA said.

"I'm taking up this job with an open mind," Fitzel, who appointment was announced late on Monday, told reporters. "It's my wish to have a fair and open relationship with the players and the media. I promise to carry out my duties to the best of my abilities." Fitzel, who played for Czech and Cypriot clubs, occupied various coaching posts within the youth sector of the Czech FA for the last eight years. He was assistant coach when the Czechs won the European under-21 championship in 2002.

Dusan Fitzel's CV

An omelette and an anthem

Writing for the Ashland Daily Tidings, Jeff Cheek calls Malta the 'island of sunshine and history' and says that it had a huge impact on world history. In his piece, he brings together history, a recipe for a lenten omelette and a translation of Malta's national anthem:

The island is tiny by world standards, just 17 miles long and 9 at its widest point. How can such a small island have a major role in world history ? The answer is two words: strategic location. Malta is 58 miles south of Sicily and 163 miles north of Africa. It was the crossroads of the Mediterranean. Whoever controlled Malta and her deepwater ports dominated shipping in this vast and turbulent sea. Archeological evidence suggests that the island has been inhabited for at least 7,000 years..

Both Maltese and English were designated as their official national languages. They already had a national anthem, adopted in 1923. The music was composed by Dr. Robert Samut; the lyrics by Dun Karm Psaila, a well known priest and poet. Dun Karm was later named Malta’s national poet. He wrote words that he hoped would bridge the gap between political factions and appeal to both religious and patriotic sentiment...

Sidelining the Ewro

The UK's Daily Mail reports on the public consultation that has been launched in Malta to choose the face of the Maltese euro coins. It mentions Malta's coat of arms, images of the island's prehistoric temples and the Valletta peninsula as potential designs. The report suggests that the national authorities are inclined to sideline the Maltese 'Ewro' spelling:

..Members of the public have until January 29 to vote by SMS on the preferred theme to appear on the national side of the euro coins, officials from Malta's National Euro Changeover Committee and the Central Bank said. Malta joined the EU in May 2004 with nine other countries and hopes to adopt the euro on January 1, 2008.

"We have an opportunity to brand Malta through our euro coin set," Tonio Fenech, junior minister for finance said. The themes suggested are prehistoric Malta, renaissance Malta, the Maltese archipelago and the Maltese identity. Fenech said the Cabinet would decide whether Malta would call the currency 'euro' or 'ewro' in Maltese, but hinted that the former was the preferred choice, despite some lobbying from Maltese linguists

More from MaltaMedia and Malta Independent; Spelling Euro-WiredTemples; In favour of 'Ewro' - The National Council for the Maltese Language; The official Euro site - Malta's National Euro Changeover Committee.

Finnish presidential elections move to second round

To finish off this short visit at the Wired Temples I thought I'd take a very short look into the current events of Finland, digressing from the main theme of Maltese events and culture.

Today was the day of the Finnish presidential elections. The president is elected in a direct vote, in two rounds, if necessary. About an hour and a half ago (at 10 p.m. Finnish time) the official count of the first round of voting was released. Out of eight presidential candidates no one got over 50 % of the votes, and the Finns will now prepare for a second round of voting in just two weeks' time.

The two remaining candidates are the current president, Tarja Halonen (46,3 % of the votes on the first round) and as her opponent mr. Sauli Niinistö (24,1 % of the votes), who is currently the vice-president of the European Investment Bank. I don't think this was much of a surprise, although I had sort of hoped for a historical first round election win for president Halonen. The other two "main candidates", mr. Niinistö and our prime minister Matti Vanhanen (18,6 % of votes) weren't really threatening her lead in the opinion polls and because the Finnish presidential elections are very dominantly personal elections instead of party elections, I thought tonight would've been the first time in Finnish history when there was no need for a second round. However, I do think this second round of campaigning will bring more clarity and depth into the discussions - debates with eight candidates tend to be a bit awkward.

In other words, current events in Finland will for the next two weeks involve a lot of discussions about the role of Finland in Nato, about the constitution of EU, about social welfare, about the role of the president in both foreign and national politics and so on. Luckily we here in Finland don't get those smut-campaigns that are so familiar from for example the US elections (for further interesting comparisons of the American and Finnish presidential elections, you can go here). I'm expecting a very civilised and tough second round, although I do still hope that two weeks from now, the result will be clear...

Anyway, I know I could go on about this topic for quite some time, but my time's running up. It's time for me to thank you all for reading my scribbles and most importantly, I have to thank Robert for having me as a visitor. Thank you ever so much, it was an honour!

My best wishes to all the readers of Wired Temples from the Northern city of Turku!

History teachers to meet in Malta

As a history teacher I’m definitely not objective when I say that history is (or at least should be) a very important part of any child’s education. It’s a subject that teaches thinking, promotes healthy criticism towards all sources of information and gives the student, whether he be a school kid or an aging professor, endless possibilities to dig deep into the lives of past generations and to understand the man (or the woman) of the past.

History also is a tool for building national identities and strengthening ties between nations. This is the reason why the European Standing Conference of History Teachers’ Associations, EUROCLIO, was established in 1993. It’s an organisation which aims to support the learning and teaching of history by sharing and exchanging knowledge and professional experience.

As a member of the Finnish History Teachers’ Association I got a newsletter some time ago, mentioning that the next annual EUROCLIO conference would this time be held in Malta. On March 20-26^th 2006 history teachers from around Europe will meet in Dolmen Hotel (which, if I’m allowed to say this, looks stunningly beautiful!) and under the topic of Using History Skills and Concepts to Promote an Awareness of European Citizenship will participate in different workshops and visit schools, among other things.

All in all, the draft program of the conference looks very interesting. From my point of view the most interesting program items are the ones that deal with teaching history in Malta. After reading Mr. Leonard Grech’s short article on the matter, I suspect the values and ideas of teaching history are about the same as in Finland. However, it’d be professionally quite enlightening to discuss the differences and similarities of teaching in two such different cultures. (On the other hand, Finland and Malta do share some aspects of history, both having a position between the Western European tradition and a strong other power – for Finland the position between Europe and Russia has always been central, and I suppose for Malta the same would be the position between Europe and the Islamic world.)

In addition, such a conference would probably help in creating contacts between different schools. In the senior high school where I work, for example, there has been an interest in getting some sort of international cooperation programs going on. One idea was to combine three small EU-countries and work in a wide variety of topics (including languages, history, geography and so on). My suggestion was that these three countries should be Finland, Ireland and Malta. So far finding appropriate schools to participate in the possible project has been a bit difficult, because we’re trying to find partner schools from outside programs like Comenius, which usually concentrate on the learning of languages.

Having said all this, it’s clear that attending the conference in Malta would be very interesting, both in a personal and professional sense. However, I don’t think I can participate this time around. Unfortunate, but such is life sometimes. In any case, I still have plenty of professional years to look forward to and I’m sure I’ll be able to attend one of the EUROCLIO conferences in the future (and visit Malta another time).

Knights of fiction

Since I’m obviously very much into crusader history and the history of the Order of Malta, I have to quickly mention a couple of my favorite fictional Knights, too.

I met both of these fictional Knights of Malta (or Hospitallers) last year. First of them was David Thewlis’s character, simply known as the Hospitaller, from one of my last year’s favorite movies, Kingdom of Heaven. Not a big role, but he was still my favorite character of the movie, right after Balian. He was a philosopher and a warrior monk, who I (knowing the history behind the movie) wished wouldn’t have participated in the battle of Hattin as he finally did. I posted quite a lot about the movie in my own blog, so if you are interested, you can see why I thought the movie was good in here and in here.

The second fictional Knight of the Order I met last year was one named Sir Graham Reid Mallett (or Gabriel), from Dorothy Dunnett’s brilliant Lymond Chronicles. He’s a Knight of the Grand Cross, angelic and powerful. Or so it seems. In the novel Disorderly Knights Dunnett lets her hero, Francis Crawford of Lymond, get involved in the history of the Order quite heavily and he meets Gabriel in Malta. In order to avoid spoiling the possible reading experience, I won’t tell you more. I’ll just say that all six Lymond novels are historical fiction at its most enjoyable form, and I warmly recommend them to anyone, who’s into European 16^th century history and well-written fiction.

The Order of my life

I think the first time I really woke up to the fact that there is such a place in this world as Malta was way back in junior high, when one of my close friends took a summer language course which was held in Malta. After he came home, he couldn’t stop enthusing about the place. I envied him and wanted to see the island he was so in love with.

Second time Malta and my life crossed paths was when my brother went there for a training camp for competition swimmers. He was quite young then and didn’t get to see anything except the hotel and the pool, but I still envied him. At least he understood that it’d be wise to bring some souvenirs to his stuck-in-Finland big sister. He brought me a nice little Maltese cross necklace and I still wear it occasionally.

Years went by and during my second year of studying history at the University of Turku I happened to bump into the most interesting history course I could imagine. A course on the history of chivalric orders. I drank up the history of the different orders of merit, orders of chivalry and most of all, such religious military orders as the Templars and the Hospitallers like a thirsty plant. During the course I also learned that the lecturer, the Italian professor Luigi de Anna, was a Knight of the Order of Malta himself. How cool was that?

He was the one who suggested to me that I should consider writing my thesis on the topic of Knights of Malta. Sure enough I did end up formulating a topic that involves the 900-year old order. So, at the moment, I’m working on my thesis, which will concentrate on the Order of St. John’s existence in late 15th and early 16th century England, in other words around the time the main body and hq of the Order had settled in Malta.

It’s not an easy topic to study, especially when one cannot afford a trip to three separate archives, one in London, one in Rome and one in Malta (or any one archive, for that matter). But the reason I want to stick to my challenging topic is the fact that the Order is a complex, fascinating organisation and has been that for centuries. There are plenty of points of interest for a historian to delve into. The role of the Order in England is a less researched topic and considering that the Knights were usually quite influential people and Henry VIII actually had separate plans for the future of the Order during the early stages of his reformation, I think I have a fairly solid ground for my research.

I’ve lost count, however, of the times I’ve been asked why I’m not studying the Templar order instead of the Order of St. John (or Malta). People tend to know (or think they know) more about the Templars than about the Hospitallers, but that’s exactly why I wanted to delve into the history of the less well known Order. Members of both orders have had the dual role of “warrior monks”, but only the Order of St. John has survived to see the 21st century. The Order’s continuous history is therefore one reason for my interest. I find it amazing that the Johanniter Ambulance that drives quite often by my place is in a way connected to the serving brothers who worked in the Hospital of the Order in Jerusalem during the crusades. The ambulance driver or his patients probably aren’t constantly aware of it, but the historian (and romantic!) in me never fails to ponder about it.

The Finnish – Maltese connection?

I seem to be such an unlikely guest here at the Wired Temples. I’m Finnish, first of all. I live in a country that is about as far away from Malta as a country within the EU can be. I’ve never been to Malta (yet), I only know three people who have visited the island and there’s only one Maltese person I know. (And that would be Robert, naturally.)

And yet he seems to think I might have something Malta-related to say. I may not be able to comment on current Maltese affairs, but if I bend the rules of WT a bit (with Robert’s permission, of course), I can indeed fit my Finnish – Maltese connections into such frames that it (hopefully) won’t be too far fetched to post about them on WT. In other words, I hope you’ll enjoy this little less traditional and distinctively Finnish weekend here at the Temples.

Guest blogging by Johanna Ahonen

28 year old Johanna Ahonen from Finland is guest blogging at Wired Temples this weekend. Johanna is a history graduate of the University of Turku and has been blogging at Pool of Thought - Shallow End since September 2004. She is an enthusiast of history, which she teaches, but also of movies, literature, science fiction and anything medieval. She is particularly interested in the Knights of Malta which she is researching for her graduate work. Johanna is the editor of Spin, the oldest Finnish science fiction magazine and chaired Finncon X - Eurocon 2003, a European sf-convention that attracted over 4000 participants. My warmest welcome to Johanna to the WT pages.

Blogging about blogs

In reflective mode, Toni Sant discusses the state of the Maltese blogosphere and his pioneering work at MaltaMedia. Who else is better placed to give an authoritive overview of online Malta?

..In some ways it's fair to say that it all started with a rather simple question from David Friggieri in his last post for 2005. He asked (Maltese) bloggers, "are we being read?" An understandable question for anyone who, unlike author Ġużé Stagno, sees blogging as a worthy creative avenue. For those who have truly understood the nature of blogging, like author Immanuel Mifsud, staying away from blogging is probably harder than can be explained in just a few words. Why else would Immanuel start a new blog when he clearly (unlike Stagno) has so many other worthy things to spend his time on?..

Readership of Maltese websites in general, not just blogs, is something I've had a keen interest in since 1996 when I created visitmalta.com for the National Tourism Organisation of Malta. Two years later (without any support from or association with the National Tourism Organisation) I started the MaltaMedia Online Network from Ray Bajada's farmhouse in Gozo and my apartment on the lower east side of New York, after a brainstorming session with Ray over coffee at Xlendi Bay in the summer of 1998. MMON now enjoys an overall average monthly readership of 300,000. Mind you, these are not hits. If we're counting hits, than it should be said that the MaltaMedia Online Network receives about 6 million hits from over 2 million monthly page views every month. This means that during 2005 we saw a total of about 3.5 million visits, which generated about 75 million hits...

Empowering migrants

Sicilian migration expert Katia Amore of Migration Island recently returned to Malta for the Eurofor conference. She writes about the two panels on Malta and the trip to the Marsa Open Centre:

Last December, the Eurofor conference in Malta was interesting. A variety of papers on different subjects were presented. This gave me a good chance to hear about areas of research in migration studies which are not directly linked to mine, moreover, I had the opportunity to meet a few friends and other researchers. Of particular importance to me the two panels on Malta and a trip to the Marsa Open Centre where successful refuge claimants and people with humanitarian protection are accommodated upon release from detention.

Terry Gosden’s presentation, during one of the panels on Malta, and the following debate gave us a first introduction to the issue. He explained what the centre is, how it works, who the residents are and what they do. He talked about the severe psychological conditions in which people arrive at the centre, traumatised by a conflict in the country of origin, a terrible journey to arrive to Malta and the previous experience in the close detention centres. Then he focused on the way in which he manages the centre and tries to motivate people to regain their agency through self and group empowerment. He stressed the point that they “are not a charity!”, the centre provides people with accommodation and other basic needs, and with guidance for self-organisation encouraging them to pursue certain initiatives as setting up “ethnic restaurants” for residents or buying a TV, or organising prayer groups, etc...

Previously on WT

Fool's Cap

Vlad of Fool's cap takes a cue from the letter pages of The Times in his latest entry:

From time to time, the Maltese simpleton is treated most generously to the wit and wisdom of a enlightened foreigner, more often than not an English pensioner from Blackburn. Occasionally, the topic of their letters to the Times will have something to do with Malta, though this is hardly mandatory. Indeed, the letters page of the Times is usually is a surrogate for their own British newspapers, which would not dream of printing these senile ramblings. On Thursday, Gerry Cowie from Surrey wrote in on the flimsy pretext of having recently visited Malta to rail against the evil of political correctness..

Sadly for Mr. Cowie, this sits uncomfortably with a more sensible, if overlong, letter from Stephen Farrugia, who lives in Ilmspan, Germany. Farrugia discusses what he perceives to be the growing scourge of racism on the island. It is sad that it has taken Lowell and his pathetic band of eunuchs for the Maltese to come to terms with the latent racism that has always existed in the country. I cannot imagine that there is a single person in Malta who has not at some time or other witnessed or taken part in a base display of xenophobic contempt towards some unfortunate Libyan, most of whom are respectable law-abiding people.

A Maltese Polly Filler

Days in Gozo

The author of GozoPlus has just started to blog from Gharb in Gozo. In her first blog entry Sabine explains why:

Been sitting at my desk since about 7 am, with very few interruptions for food & drink. That's just over 9 hours - with very little to show for it. So perhaps that's what I subconsciously need the blog for: so people can see that I'm not totally unproductive! On the other hand I wonder who would want to read this! It's been raining in what they call "sunny Gozo" almost non-stop since Friday, that's four days of water coming down on us! Meanwhile, Kathy in Texas is praying for even just a little shower. Crazy world!

Malta Number 1 Internet User?

Malta is the most internet connected country in the world, according to 'unsourced statistics' from an internet monitoring and marketing company. New Zealand is second. From New Zealand's National Business Review:

A website called internetworldstats, which is one of a series of websites produced by Bogota, Columbia-based Miniwatts International, LLC, generated a flurry of stories this week by ranking 233 countries to show internet penetration by population and producing some unlikely results in the process. The Malta Independent, reporting from the homeland of the most connected place on the planet, noted the results with some surprise, but went on to list many of the rankings, noting that they showed Malta had "beat off competition from powerhouse countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and other industrialised nations." ..The problem is, the data behind these stories paint a picture of use in which almost every person in Malta and New Zealand over the age of ten is connected to the internet with a personal account.

Malta, with 301,000 internet users in a population of 384,594 edges New Zealand out with a user percentage of 78.3 per cent and a 2000-2005 growth rate of 652.5 per cent. Almost 18 per cent of the people in Malta are 14 or younger, by the way, and another 13.6 per cent are over 65 -- age groups not well known for deep internet penetration..Another among the problems with the data involved is that the active user base in any country is typically far below the number of people who could use an internet account to go online if they wanted to..

More, some of the numbers are wildly different to other datasets. ClickZ, a well-known provider of internet marketing intelligence, draws from NN and the Computer Industry Almanac, among other documented sources, for its estimates of the global internet population. According to its latest data set (November 2005), New Zealand has 2,340,000 internet users -- and Malta has 59,000. Those are considerable disparities -- but the oddest dispartity of all comes in the total number of internet users reckoned by internetworldstats. The Computer Industry Almanac -- for years taken as the most definitive source in a universe of conflicting numbers -- says there were 1.8 billion internet users in the world in 2005, while internetworldstats pegs the global figure at only half that, or 972,828,001. Go figure.

World's Happiest People

Last year, Malta was joint first with the Danes in the annual World Database of Happiness compiled by Prof Ruut Veenhoven from Erasmus University. This time, Malta is the sole leader in the world happiness stakes. The research was published this month in the Journal of Happiness Studies. Writing in today's Guardian, Oliver Burkeman says that the news that Maltese people are the happiest in the world was greeted in Malta with 'cheerful incredulity':

According to the World Database of Happiness, compiled by Professor Ruut Veenhoven, of Rotterdam's Erasmus University, the 400,000 residents of this rocky Mediterranean archipelago are the most likely to describe themselves as happy - 74% did so - with Denmark, Switzerland and Colombia close behind. (The US is at 16, the UK at 21; Zimbabwe, Moldova and Ukraine came last.) Clearly, the Maltese know something we don't, and it's a testament to their sunny disposition that none of them swore and hung up the phone when a journalist interrupted their day to try to find out what it was..

The low-expectations explanation for Maltese happiness seems a little defeatist, but there may be something to it. Perhaps modest levels of ambition (along with a small population) is one of the reasons for the fact that there are - and I'm just going to go out on a limb and say this - only two living Maltese people famous outside Malta: the lateral thinker Edward de Bono and the cartoonist Joe Sacco.

That certainly seemed to be the view of Rosalba Axiak, a gestalt psychotherapist working in Mosta. "You should consider the factor of religion," she said. Malta is 97% Catholic - "and part of our religion says you have to be happy with what you have. Don't go running after impossible dreams."

Personally, I find this all rather dispiriting, but that's not the way they see it in Malta. Of course, its people have their fair share of problems - Axiak's clients mainly have relationship issues - and, she said frankly, "it wouldn't be the ideal scenario" for a psychotherapist if they didn't. But the Maltese, cross? Far from it.

Dorothy Wade reports on the new science of happiness; Abi Daruvalla talks to Prof Ruut Veenhoven; Steven Swinford writes on the good times, with comments by Maltese diplomat; More from J'Accuse and Lanzarote and Reesa.

Adopted Zachie

In this fascinating submission for toowrite.com, Sarah Puntan-Galea writes a personal account of Zachary Street calling it an "amazing and hidden Valletta gem, a slice of true Valletta life":

..And it’s this which encompasses everything that our capital city represents. It’s not just about shopping – although in Zachary Street you can buy anything you need, and everything your heart desires from make-up to holidays and books to lottery tickets – its about being part of a community. A community of proud people who would do anything to help anyone, enjoy life to the full and are looking forwa