Death of a pioneer

Paul Carachi, who died yesterday aged 80, was a language expert who pioneered popular journalism in Malta. He was given the Gold Award by the Institute of Maltese Journalists last November for revolutionising Maltese journalism introducing tabloid-style journalism and investigative reporting in the 1960's and 1970s. Professor Henry Frendo called him “the giant of Maltese journalism.”

I interviewed Paul Carachi a few months ago for my biographical work about Gerry Zammit. Among those I interviewed or consulted for this project during the past twelve months, he is the fourth person to die following the demise of former parliamentary speaker Joseph Baldacchino, trade unionist JC Saliba and historian Rev Alexander Bonnici. They were all extremely helpful and I will forever be grateful for their advice.

Poor infrastructure

Malta's poor infrastructure may deter investors despite property boom, writes Robert Lee in Tax-News.com:

Despite the island's booming property market, spoiled beaches, poor roads and a bad infrastructure could be costing Malta's economy millions in lost revenue, according to a travel guide for the island. "The lack of investment in Malta tourism and the island's infrastructure is turning investors and tourists away to other destinations," claims the guide. "At a time when many Mediterranean islands are seeing an increase in visitor numbers, Malta has seen a drop of over 2% in the first six months of 2006 compared to 2005, and unless there's a sharp turnaround in Malta's fortunes as a holiday destination the overall figures for the year as a whole could be even worse," it went on to warn.

Property prices in Malta have risen sharply in recent years, partly spurred on by Malta joining the EU in 2004, while recent government figures showed a 16% rise in the year to March 2006. One Malta property company however reports that the demand for property in Malta remains buoyant from the UK, US, Australian and European mainland markets, and predicts a further 10% rise in the coming year. "We normally see a drop off in enquiries a few months before any price levelling," explained a spokesman for Tribune Property. "But demand for Malta this year is every bit as strong as 2005 and at the moment we can only see prices going one way in the short term at least - and that's up," added the spokesman.

The Malta government is expected to allow developers to utilise more land for building, but some property companies see this as a negative rather than a positive move. "Malta is an island with a finite amount of land, and while the Malta government view releasing more land for building, and more properties as the answer to increasing property prices, we believe this is the wrong approach", say Tribune, "and in the end more developments could have an adverse impact on Malta's economy."

"Tourism is an important industry for Malta, and tourists aren't impressed by cranes and construction work while they're trying to relax or go to see Malta's historical sights, and if it's a first visit to the island there's an increased chance that it will be their last, losing the Malta holidays industry repeat business," the company added. News that visitor numbers are falling will be welcomed by islanders struggling to get onto the housing ladder. However, there has been speculation for some time that low cost airlines will soon begin flying into Malta. Such a development could lead to a boost in visitor numbers, putting more pressure on the island's limited housing stock...

Border controls

Italy, Malta, Libya to discuss illegal migration in Malta in light of plans for EU patrols in the Mediterranean, from Reuters:

The interior ministers of Libya, Italy and Malta will meet in Valletta on Sept. 6 to discuss ways of discouraging illegal migration to Europe, Maltese Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said on Wednesday. Borg was speaking at the end of a two-day meeting between Maltese and Italian officials on the details of sea patrols off the Libyan coast intended to stop African illegal migrants from trying to cross the Mediterranean to Malta and Italy.

Borg said he hoped the patrols, organised with the help of Frontex, the EU border agency, would start by the end of September, but said that Libya had not yet agreed to take part. Greece and Germany have said they are willing to contribute to the patrols. Borg said the Sept. 6 talks would be the first time he, Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato and Libyan Public Order Minister Salah Rajab Al-Masmari met specifically to discuss illegal migration. EU Internal Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini may also join the meeting, he said...

EU help with migrants

The European Commission says it will do more to help EU member states handle large flows of migrants, from BBC News:

Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini was replying to a new appeal for help from Spain, which is struggling with an influx by sea from West Africa. The EU launched an operation this month to turn back small boats carrying migrants from Cape Verde, Mauritania and Senegal to the Canary Islands. But Spain says the operation is not big enough and took too long to get going. Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said Spain needed "more boats, more planes, more personnel".

Mr Frattini said he would ask member states to show more solidarity with Spain, to increase the amount of money available for border control, and to strengthen the "operational capacity" of the new EU border agency, Frontex. He also said he would set up a high-level group within the Commission to deal with immigration issues, and would back Spain's request for the Canary Islands operation to be extended from the planned nine weeks to the end of the year. More migrants have arrived on the islands this month than in the whole of 2005. In total, nearly 19,000 migrants have arrived on the islands this year. Estimates of the number that have died en route range from 590 to 3,000. The operation, co-ordinated by Frontex, involves air and sea patrols along the coast of Cape Verde, Mauritania and Senegal.

So far, only one Portuguese ship has joined the Spanish effort. An Italian ship broke down en route, and a Finnish aircraft has yet to arrive. Other countries have provided experts in identification of migrants. A Frontex official said the experts were necessary because migrants tried to avoid repatriation by concealing their nationality. A Spanish government official in the Canary Islands estimated that 5,000 had been repatriated so far this year. The EU is planning a similar operation in the Mediterranean to intercept migrants from North Africa to Italy and Malta...

Click here to see the routes taken by African migrants

Changing abortion laws

Pro-life group wants to strengthen Malta's pro-life laws on abortion, writes Steven Ertelt for LifeNews in Canada:

Malta is one of the few European nations to make abortion illegal and the pro-life group wants to enshrine the law in the nation's constitution and make it more difficult to overturn it. Gift of Life has launched an online petition calling for the right to life starting at conception to become a part of the constitution. The proposal would also make it so the parliament in the largely Catholic nation would need a two-thirds votes, instead of a majority, to overturn the country's pro-life laws and legalize abortions. The group plans on presenting the signatures it gathers when the parliament returns from its summer break.

According to the group, residents of Malta can sign the petition, but so can anyone who holds a Maltese identification card or passport. "Following the public consultation by the Government in 2005 on how to best protect Malta against abortion, a year later, the unborn child in Malta is still not adequately protected from the possibility of abortion being introduced in the future. We are lobbying to give the unborn child the right to life through our Constitution," the organization says. "There are some who are working so that Malta will have abortion introduced. In a recent visit by a foreign abortionist brought over by these individuals, free abortions were offered to Maltese women," the group added..

Maltese bishops criticized a document released by a UN committee urging the nation to consider allowing abortions in cases of rape or incest or supposedly to protect the health of the mother. In a statement, the bishops called the recommendation "objectionable" and "unacceptable" and urged Malta residents to continue protecting the right to life of unborn children from conception...The United Nations Human Rights Committee placed Malta and other pro-life nations on a "hit list" of countries that would be subjected to intense lobbying to alter their abortion statutes. Ironically, Malta has a representative on this UN committee..

Background reading here, from MaltaMedia

Smuggling via ferry

British drug smuggler used Malta-Sicily ferry, by MaltaMedia:

A 40-year-old Briton, who could be imprisoned for 20 years after his involvement in a cocaine deal worth Lm 950,000 (€2.2 million, US$2.8 million), was arrested in Sicily after arriving there on a ferry which departed from Malta. Richard Craston from Beaconsfield, Bucks, was arrested by Italian police after being caught with four kilograms of cocaine hidden in his car. According to www.ThePeople.co.uk, suspicious customs officials had been observing the man for a long while and had tailed Craston movements to and forth between Italy to Malta and back as part of an international drug smuggling probe. This is not the first time the Maltese-Sicilian ferry is used for purposes of drug smuggling. In July a 45-year-old man was caught with 50,000 ecstasy pills by Maltese Customs Officers. The man, a Briton identified as Steven Marsden was caught after traveling back to Malta from Sicily on a catamaran trip...

Boring summer

Angelo Chetcuti who blogs from Luxembourg explains why summer is boring for football enthusiasts:

For the football fan, especially in world cup years (after a month-long indigestion), summer is the most boring time of the year. Not only because no (real) football is played, but especially because of the truckloads of rubbish we have to endure on all kinds of sports media who just spread news for the sake of filling their pages or websites or whatever. I personally end up following Intertoto matches, all kinds of European competition preliminaries (where you get to brush up your georgraphy, especially that of Eastern post-1989 Europe as you try to figure out who the hell Hafnarfjördur are), and ...erm I admit..even the Norwegian League (well, they at least have their league in its most interesting stages, and I can say I have been to one match this year in Lillestrom to watch my compatriot Michael Mifsud - by the way, he might be on his way to a better club elsewhere...). The rest is crap: judiciary proceedings in Italy, lambasting Cristiano Ronaldo in England, and all the transfer news imaginable linked to Real Madrid and Inter (they might take me up for a trial as well in the end).

Expensive

Tracy Morgan, an American living in Mineo - province of Catania - blogs about her stay in Malta:

I have to start off by saying Malta was not at all what I expected. We stayed at the Intercontinental Malta located in St. Julian's on the east coast. It was in a really good location. You could walk to the beach just down the hill or across the street to the mall, and there was a lot of night life right around the corner. There was also a movie theater right next door. Everything was soooooo expensive! The exchange rate was 1 Maltese Lira for every $3.11. WOW! Needless to say, I'm glad we went but we won't be going back. The Maltese have beautiful glasswork, in fact, they are known for it. We bought a beautiful glass vase there. We took a bus across the island to the ferry which took us to the Blue Lagoon on the island of Camino which was beautiful. The water was completely clear, birght blue and surrounded by rocky terrain. It was completely sheltered from the sea which was very rough that day...

Interception

Matthew Vella's story about a major Israeli telecommunications company that will provide the Malta Security Services (MSS) the technology for its controversial interception system, is published by Oracle Syndicate:

A major Israeli telecommunications company is to provide the Malta Security Services (MSS) the technology for its lawful interception system, in a controversial contract award which has landed the Malta Communications Authority in court. New York-based Verint Systems, a subsidiary of Comverse Technology, was chosen late December 2005 by the MCA to provide an interception system for the MSS.

Concerns over the choice of Verint have sparked alarm over its parent company’s notorious link to a major espionage investigation after the September 11 attacks, raising eyebrows over the company that will have its eyes and ears on practically all Malta’s emails, and mobile telephony and VoIP exchanges. Rival bidder RCS, which presented the cheapest offer, is suing the MCA for having refused it an appeal on the contract decision. RCS’s interception equipment has been previously used in uncovering the recent Calciopoli fraud scandal which rocked Italy’s football scene...

More here and here

Blogging and the Net

Speaking at a symposium in Melbourne on 'Media and Government: A Changing Relationship in Uncertain Times', John Lloyd of The Financial Times said the "great blogging phenomenon" had given "real and substantial meaning to the aspiration for, and the commitment to, freedom of speech". From Australian IT News:

Lloyd is contributing editor of the Financial Times, founding editor of FT magazine and author of What the Media are Doing to Our Politics and Media Power: Telling Truths to Ourselves. "This (blogging) is an extraordinary publishing phenomenon," he said. He said every generation was becoming increasingly active in blogging. According to the website Technorati, two new blogs are created every second. Their number is doubling every six months and stands at 50 million, of which about one-third to one-half are in English. "Maybe few will pay attention to most of these 50 million, but freedom of speech never did carry with it the right to have an audience supplied," he said.

Lloyd said blogs had allowed uncompromising views to flourish and usually sought to attract "like hearts and minds" through a strong expression of a point of view rather than "judicious weighing of argument". "Much blogging is little removed from abuse," he said. "It has encouraged, though presumably not created, an increasing polarisation in (US) politics, sometimes a puzzle to outsiders."

As with Dionne, Lloyd sees the proliferation of the 'bloggerati' as an opportunity. "The internet and the blogosphere may be the greatest boost to activism of any communications medium since the spread of literacy met the invention of printing," he said. "I think this aspect of the net and blogs is understressed. But what has been oversold ... is that they are shouldering ... the mainstream media to the side. They are not doing anything like the job good reporting does. And while there is no reason in principle why the net should not be the medium for this - and it is becoming so (with established media organisations) - it has not yet evolved a business model to support the expense of extensive reporting."

Lloyd said a senior BBC executive had told him recently that by 2010, the BBC will have shifted from being "largely a broadcasting organisation to largely a website". "The same will be true all over the world, at different, but not too different, speeds," he said. "Newspapers are already partly websites."

Articles by John Lloyd for Prospect magazine

EPOKA

The EPOKA festival celebrating Maltese roots and organised by Synergix starts this evening at the Valletta Waterfront:

..In a global world where most things commonly used today are the same to many nations, than our Heritage and traditions stand to bursts out as a an important factor. This festival will highlight such richness and gives the public a taste of all these traditions, products, exhibitions, Music and dance performances, and a novelty children's Festival where these young participants will interpret an old Maltese song.

Young Moroccans in Malta

Morocco youth benefit from cultural stay in Malta, from The Morocco Times:

Some 20 young Moroccan men benefited from a summer cultural stay in Malta, as part of the two countries' programme to favour cultural exchange, reported MAP news agency. This visit allowed the young Moroccans to discover the culture and civilization of Malta through visiting historical monuments and tourist sites.

Organised by the State Secretariat in charge of youth, the 10-day stay was an opportunity for these young men to promote and contribute to the application of values of tolerance, respect and understanding, said a communiqué from the State Secretariat. This visit allowed the young Moroccans to discover the culture and civilization of Malta through visiting historical monuments and tourist sites.

Youth from Malta had visited Morocco in April 2006 to participate in cultural, artistic, sporting and tourist activities in different cities, namely Rabat, Casablanca, Mohammadia and Marrakech.

Elvis Presley´s Maltese Cross

Linda Thompson returned to Graceland last week and spoke about a Maltese Cross she had designed as a gift for her former partner Elvis Presley. From Warner Brothers Studio Extra:

The 29th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death was August 16, 2006, and thousands gathered outside Graceland to pay their respects, but only "Extra's" Carlos Diaz went behind the gates with the ultimate Elvis expert, Linda Thompson. "For the first time in too many years, I'm back at Graceland where Elvis lived and ultimately died 29 years ago this week," Linda said.

Linda and Elvis were together for four and a half years and lived together at Graceland during that time. However, she moved out about eight months before his tragic death. "To the world he was The King," Linda said. "To me he was the sweet southern gentleman who swept me off my feet back in 1972." "In Memphis for Elvis Week I got to meet with fans, fanatics and old friends, who I haven't seen in many years who gathered to honor his memory," Linda added.

Linda gave "Extra" a tour of Graceland, including the famous Jungle room. "Elvis and I actually went shopping, and we picked out all this furniture together, so I helped him decorate this room," Linda said. "Please keep in mind that it was his taste I was deferring to." Linda also showed us a piece of jewelry she gave Elvis as a Christmas gift one year. "I designed this Maltese cross for him with our birthstones, each heart, intertwined and brought together by a single diamond," Linda shared. "So many memories, so little time."

Milan Ilnyckyj´s Malta

Milan Ilnyckyj is a Canadian graduate student at Oxford who blogs at A sibilant intake of breath. He visited Malta for a week in Spring and blogged about it here:

..Malta has the overall look of a Mediterranean country, with rough stone walls separating terraces and rows of somewhat parched hills extending down into bays. I expect that it will be a pleasant place to spend a week...The climate here is cooler than I expected, but certainly very sunny. After a few straight hours of walking in the sun, my brain felt positively cooked. I will probably need to regulate the temperature with some Maltese lager before I turn to my qualifying test notes. Surprisingly, the main local brew tastes a great deal like Sleeman’s Cream Ale, from back in Canada.

On one of today’s hilltops, we stopped to watch people arriving at a wedding reception. Between the appearance of the building - which declared itself to be a ducal villa - the stream of shiny black Mercedes automobiles, and the security men in suits around the perimeter, the whole affair had quite a godfather feel to it. Aside from some ludicrously dressed trumpeters, who looked as though they came from a bad imitation medieval restaurant in Tallinn, it certainly seemed a very classy affair. My pity goes out to all the foxes that died to adorn the necks of women standing in the hot sun...

Milans´Malta photos + more trip photos here and here; On Valletta and Jeffrey Sachs; Gozo visit; Final post from Malta

When branding was not necessary

Charles Flores writes about authors and artists who chose to work or live in Malta in the 1960s and 1970s "when no one seemed to mind us as a people, let alone branding us":

..I, for one, was frequently involved with the almost daily chore of carrying a not-so-sober Ernle Bradford from our favourite watering hole to his home and bed, much to the relief of his sweet wife. He was not the only author around. There was Hugh Atkinson and his wife Phoebe who enjoyed flying her private aircraft. One day I was crazy enough to accept her offer of a ride. “I’m sure you’d like to see Kalkara Strand from the air,” she had told me invitingly. As a long sufferer from vertigo, I still get stomach-aches just by reliving the memory.

Derek Maitland was yet another author who made Kalkara his home after having retired from a few years working as a journalist for Australian news sources in Vietnam. His book The Only War We’ve Got was mostly written in his Kalkara home, in between our daily wine-and-pizza bouts of the period..

This same scenario occurred in other towns and villages all over Malta and Gozo. Lija had Desmond Morris. Gudja had Frederic Mullally. Gozo had Nicholas Monsarrat. There were other writers, painters, architects, sculptors and plain old six-penny settlers who chose Malta when they could have had Spain or Cyprus and other sunny spots.

At Kalkara, we also had the fortune to mix with several film stars who happened to be involved in productions taking place at the nearby film facilities in Rinella. And they too seemed to find absolutely nothing wrong with most Maltese they met and, surprise, surprise, drank with in the same village corner pub.

The most popular with the local lads, no doubt, was Lee Marvin who walked all the way to the Strand daily and immediately ordered beer for everyone in sight. The ale kept flowing late into the night when the guy “born under a wandering star” finally hailed a taxi back to his camper in Rinella. There are still pictures, treasured in some Kalkara households, of the many dishevelled youngsters and their famous foreign pursers of those wild nights.

Roger Moore was less eager to follow the beer trail, but having met him one morning while a couple of friends and I idled our time in the vicinity of the huge cannon at Fort Rinella, then in complete and utter neglect, it turned out that he too found us Maltese easy-going enough for company. He wanted to know about the cannon and the fort, about the nearby Wied Ghammieq cemetery… information we gave only too willingly, if somewhat exaggeratedly. For a whole fortnight after, I bought and took him a copy of the old Malta News, which he seemed to enjoy reading with two or three UK papers of the day...

Advertising in disguise

The brand strategy experts at Whisper suggested months ago that the Malta brand campaign is "meaningless white noises" and that the MTA should rethink its approach:

The Malta Tourism Authority, or MTA, has for months engaged in a branding effort. According to The Times of Malta: "Diversity, heritage, and hospitality have been chosen as core values that will make up the Malta brand for tourism purposes under the vision Enriching Your Life." What is being passed off as a brand for Malta tourism is instead an advertising campaign, forcing Malta to explain itself rather than demonstrate their key difference. Which is fine if the MTA has an annual advertising budget of a Fortune 500. But the reality is this: Solutions presented as a brand outside of a competitive context set up a country for large year-over-year advertising spends with little hope of success.

The reason? Diversity, heritage and hospitality are core values that apply equally to any number of destination tourism brands, such as Croatia, or Cyprus, or Catalina. A brand vision such as Enriching Your Life is meaningless white noise; inane cheerleader pap that sounds good to Malta insiders, but is irrelevant to the external audiences Malta seeks to influence. What is it about Malta that separates the Malta experience from other tourism alternatives? How does Malta fulfill a passion not satisfied elsewhere?

The MTA project thus far fails to provide answers. But, these are the exact questions a good brand strategy should answer. Branding is smarter than advertising. Understanding the difference is crucial to any tourism destination attempting to drive tourist visits on a 6.2 million Maltese Lira advertising budget. For example, effective brand strategy substantially decreases advertising expense. Just ask Alaska. Tourism branding is competitive sport. Malta should rethink its approach to get in the game.

Euro myths

European Commissioner Margot Wallstrom writes in her blog about how "Euro myths" are turned into facts by British tabloids:

It seems that some journalists have little better to do these days than make up stories about the EU. The Sun recently published an article entitled ‘EU Twits to rename Bombay mix‘. “Nutty EU officials“, it said, wanted to rename the Indian snack Mumbai mix to be more politically correct and were expected to “rule on this by the end of the year“. The article included a quote from the UK‘s Shadow Europe Minister Graham Brady who described it as “the kind of ludicrous regulation that gives Brussels a bad name”. The Sun also claimed that the EU wanted to change Persian rug to Iranian rug, Siamese twins to Thai twins, Peking Duck to Beijing Duck and Lancashire Hotpot to Greater Manchester Hotpot. All of this under the heading ‘You Couldn‘t Make it Up‘. The problem is, they did make it up. Completely. Sometimes these ‘euromyths‘ have at least a grain of truth somewhere, even if is because someone has misunderstood a regulation, if not wilfully misinterpreted it. In this case, I am indebted to David Rennie of the Telegraph who got to the bottom of the story in his blog...

..Harmless fun, you might think, but The Sun and The Mirror published the piece as fact (and The Sun even embellished it by adding more fiction) and no doubt their millions of readers believe every word. I have also seen the piece reproduced in Yahoo News and in numerous blogs, websites, discussion forums and newspapers from India to Canada where it is reported as fact. There‘s an entertaining selection of other ‘Euromyths‘ on the Commission's website.

Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel writes as a guest blogger about the CAP

Costly tourism

Malta to have third most costly tourist packages, by MaltaMedia News:

In 2007 Malta is forecasted to have the third most expensive tourist packages from Britain from all its competitors in the region, according to a British survey. Maltese prices will only be beat by those Cypriot and Egyptian. The average package price of a British holiday to Malta is expected to cost around Lm 331 (£523, €771). While Cyprus and Egypt package prices are expected to be even higher than those Maltese at Lm 452 (£715, €1,054) and Lm 433 (£685, €1,010) respectively, destinations such as Spain, Portugal and Greece could be considered as an alternative option to Malta because of their relatively cheaper prices.

Data from a British survey by AC Nielsen revealed how as of June 2006, Cyprus had the most expensive tourist packages from the UK from all its competitors in the region except Egypt, a survey in Britain reveals. Cyprus Mail reported that this year, Portugal ranked as the third most expensive but its prices are still around Lm63 cheaper than those of Cyprus and Egypt. Next year it is forecasted that while from Britain an average tourist package price to Spain, Portugal or Greece will cost Lm 304 (£481, €709), Lm 305 (£483, €712) and Lm 311(£492, €725), the average package to Malta will cost anything between Lm20 and Lm 27 more.

This might not be good news for the Maltese tourism scene, especially after Maltese tourism figures dwindled by 4.6% in June 2006 in a year-by-year comparison issued by the National Statistics Office (NSO). Earlier this week, data published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism also revealed that the typical Mediterranean heat could have an adverse effect on number of tourists arriving in Malta.

Malta tourism in freefall, from Presse Mitteilung in Germany

Missing tourism targets

The UK's SB Wire comments on the Malta Tourism Authority's record of missed targets:

The Malta holiday industry has received the latest target set by the island's tourism authority with more than a little sceptism after an announcement that a target of a million and half visitors a year to the island could be achieved in three years time. The Malta Tourist Authority has consistently set targets in the past that have failed to be met, and early signs for this year indicate a stagnation if not a dip in tourists visiting Malta.

Part of a new plan to increase tourism in Malta is to include promoting the neighbouring and quieter island of Gozo as a holiday destination and to increase accessibility to Malta. Commenting on the new targets, one independent Malta's travel guide say that there is nothing new or innovative in the tourist authority's plans that would make an increase in tourism likely to happen in itself.

'Unfortunately the Malta Tourist Authority to us sometimes resembles a planning office in the old Soviet bureauracy. Good at producing statistics, excellent at identify problems and what the future needs, but failing miserably to deliver anything like the targets they set. We feel that it is the private rather than the public sector that is more likely to increase tourist numbers to Malta, as they have a direct interest in seeing their plans work, while the tourist authority bureaucrats will still be drawing their salaries and annual leave whether or not the targets they set are met.'

One example the travel guide gives for poor Malta tourist figures is the delay in the introduction of low cost airlines to Malta and the possibility from that of an increase in tourist numbers. With official figures showing worrying signs that the number of tourists for 2006 visiting Malta could be similar, or perhaps even down from 2005, the opportunity for the island to have low cost flights operating from the UK appears to have slipped by for the all important summer season...

Blog based theatre

Emma John discusses how blogging is being adapted for theatre productions:

No fewer than four shows based on blogs are appearing at this year's Fringe, including Girl Blog From Iraq: Baghdad Burning, taken from the writings of 27-year-old "Riverbend", who records daily life in Iraq. But what's surprising is that the wave of blog-inspired theatre has been so long in coming; after all, it's the world's fastest-growing genre of writing. (As Adam notes at one point, there are 80,000 new blogs created every day in the UK alone.) And with the increasing appetite for verbatim theatre that tells life like it is, blogs offer an apparently limitless source of material.

But does it work? The whole point of a blog is that it's formless and personal. Do the random musings of someone at their computer keyboard really make good theatre? Mann, who devised, compiled and directed Bloggers, was sure enough about the possibilities to give up his producing job at ITV and spend two months sifting through 10,000 blogs for stageworthy stories...

Combating human trafficking

EU launches first immigration border patrols, writes Lucia Kubosova for EUObserver.com:

The EU has launched its first joint border patrol aimed at stopping illegal immigrants coming to the Canary Islands from Africa, with Brussels denying that it is building a "fortress Europe". Announcing the move on Friday (10 August), EU justice and home affairs commissioner Franco Frattini said the operation would have "a humanitarian character" as it would combine "saving lives at sea, as well as reducing illegal immigration and combating trafficking in human beings."

"This is the 'solidarity in action' I promised to the government and citizens of Spain, and those of the Canary Islands in particular, and this is the kind of support the governments and citizens from Malta and Italy also receive in addressing their specific migration pressures," Mr Frattini added in a statement. "This is truly a historic moment in the history of EU immigration policies and a very tangible expression of EU solidarity amongst member states," he added.

The Canary Islands mission, dubbed Hera II, is expected to last nine weeks and is covered by an EU budget of €3.2 million, with Spain co-financing the project. It will be carried out by two naval vessels from Italy and Portugal and supported in aerial surveillance by military planes from Italy and Finland in addition to Spanish military vessels and helicopters operating in the area, The Times of Malta reported.

EU officials hope to boost control of the waters off western Africa and divert ships heading for Europe, said Frontex, the EU's external border security agency which conducts the operation. "The ultimate aim is to prevent these ships from setting off on the dangerous journey," said the Frontex spokeswoman Daniela Munzbergova.

Over the weekend, around 46 migrants died on their way from west Africa to Canary Islands - with survivors claiming the Spanish police prevented them from reaching the island so they had to sail back and died from lack of food and water, according to press reports. The patrolling operation follows an earlier phase of the mission - Hera I - which involved a group of experts from various EU member states going to the Canary Islands to help the Spanish authorities with the identification of migrants.

Joint border controls are also projected for the coast of Malta, with Frontex officials still going through the final details with their counterparts in Malta, Italy and Greece. Earlier this summer, the EU asked Libya to open its territorial waters for a surveillance mission off the Maltese coasts but it still has not responded. The Europeans decided to carry out the operation just a few metres away from the Libyan sea borders anyway.

Ben Darmanin live

Ben Darmanin returns to Malta this month to perform live at St James Cavalier:

..Ben graduated last month and is now looking forward to the next challenge: a much coveted place at the Royal Academy of Music to study musical theatre. This performance is one of the fund-raising events being organised to raise funds to cover his £18,000 bill over the next year.

With him for A Musical Theatre Journey, Ben brings three West End stars - Jane Webster (Phantom of the Opera and The Sound of Music) who will direct, musical director James Draisey (Saturday Night Fever and Fame) and dancer Heidi Ashton (Saturday Night Fever and Aida) – as well as two of his peers, dancer Dorian Mallia and singer Sarah Jane Attard. “It is absolutely fantastic to be performing back home and to be part of a collaboration between West End performers and Maltese talent. I hope it inspires other people to follow their dreams,” says Ben.

“I am now looking forward to mastering what we like to call the triple threat: acting, singing and dancing, the three skills which form the essence of musical theatre.” The programme at St James Cavalier on August 22 and 23 showcases a collection of musical theatre numbers which represent landmark moments in Ben’s career to date and will include numbers from contemporary musicals as well as shows going back to the 1940s, including Guys and Dolls, My Fair Lady, Fame, West Side Story and Thoroughly Modern Millie...

The George Cross

Daphne Caruana Galizia responds to those who suggest removing the George Cross from the Maltese flag:

..Madam, the George Cross is not the symbol of “King George of England”. It is the symbol of an award which takes the concrete form of a citation and a real cross, and which is named after the sovereign who created it, King George VI, to acknowledge “acts of the greatest heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger”. Though he has long since died – 54 years ago, and not “about 60” – the George Cross is still awarded. It was awarded only a few years ago to the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and the extensive newspaper coverage of this in the national newspapers of Britain pointed out that the only other time the George Cross was awarded collectively, rather than to an individual, was to the people of Malta. The man from L-Iklin needs to have it pointed out to him that the George Cross is not a “reminder of a foreign king, a foreign country and a foreign person”, but a reminder that we were once, if not now, brave, stalwart and heroic. We need all such reminders that we can get...

Bloggers meeting

Reesa writes about the latest bloggers meeting in Balzan organised by G:

The bloggers meeting last Thursday at Balzan Band Club was a great success. I won't go on about it too much as it has already been blogged brilliantly by Maltagirl and Coemgen. Suffice to say that we all had a great time (although I may have blabbed on a little too much - wow, I do let my tongue run free when I am in company I enjoy hehehe!) and it was nice seeing people such as Toni whom I didn't know was still on the island and Hsejjes who is an absolute hoot and definately not related to anyone famous (in-joke)! Add the regal presence of Queen P (get thyself to a blog, woman!), as well as Kenneth and his other half, and my other half too, and you've got yourself a really fun evening...

Confession by curious Hsejjes

Translating English into Maltese

The first online automatic English to Maltese translator programmed by Ian Vella is located here. More on the Maltese language at Wikipedia:

..It is estimated that 60% of the vocabulary is Semitic, the rest being Romance. Zammit (2000) found that 40% of a sample of 1,820 Quranic Arabic roots were found in Maltese (a lower percentage than found in Moroccan (58%) and Syrian Arabic (72%)). Usually words expressing basic concepts and ideas are of Arabic origin, whereas more 'learned' words, having to do with new ideas, objects, government, law, education, art, literature, and general learning, are derived from Sicilian. (These learned Sicilian words are usually identical or very similar to their Standard Italian counterparts, with minor differences such as unstressed u and i instead of o and e.) Thus words like raġel man, mara woman, tifel child, dar house, xemx sun, sajf summer, are of Arabic origin, while words like skola school, gvern government, repubblika republic, re king, natura nature, pulizija police, ċentru center, teatru theater, differenza difference, are derived from Sicilian.

The perverse result of this highly uneven distribution of loanwords throughout the language is that a speaker of the loanword-source language (in this case Romance language speakers) can understand, for instance, the main page of the Maltese Wikipedia or know the subject of a newspaper article, but cannot understand even such basic things as The man is in the house. This situation resembles that of a monolingual English speaker, who will often be able to guess the content of something in French if it's formal, academic writing but not understand much simpler sentences...

English - Maltese translator

Joint sea operations

Joint sea operation on migration flows by FRONTEX ready to be launched in the Mediterranean, by MaltaMedia News:

In a statement released by the European Commission, Vice President Franco Frattini stated that the joint sea operation on tackling migration flows to the Canary Islands, HERA-II, is ready to be launched. No specific dates have yet been confirmed on when the patrols in Maltese waters are due to begin. The operations will be co-ordinated by FRONTEX, the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union.

FRONTEX has recently sent six experts from different Member States to assist the Immigration Police section in the fight against illegal immigration particularly during the Summer months. These experts are already in Malta and are helping the police in identifying the nationality of the illegal immigrants disembarking in Malta. FRONTEX high officials have already visited Malta on three occasions in the past three months to set up a plan for assistance. Following these three visits they went for the first time in Lampedusa, another place particularly affected by the influx if illegal immigrants landing on its shores...

Franco Frattini

Probing .eu watchdog

The .eu watchdog is investigating evidence of breaches of its registration rules by Malta since the launch of the top level domain (TLD) in April. From e-consultancy:

..After confiscating over 70,000 Cyprus-based domain names last month, EURid said it is "looking into" relatively high numbers of registrations in other European countries such as Malta and Luxembourg. Analysts say this could indicate registrars have set up phantom businesses in these countries to 'warehouse' domain names and sell them on at a profit, which would break EURid rules. "We are looking into anything that looks strange," said the group's spokesperson Patrik Linden. "It might just be someone with a lot of domain names but we have a team studying it."

A report by internet monitoring group Ipwalk published earlier this week showed that Malta holds the most .eu domain names per citizen in Europe. It also has many more .eu registrations than those of generic top-level domain names such as .com and .net, which have been available for a longer period of time. Ipwalk said this could suggest that many more .eu domain names are being stockpiled by registrars in breach of EURid's rules...

Soldier stories

WW2 People's War is an archive of World War 2 memories written by the public and gathered by the BBC. This piece tells the story of Henry Dickens in Malta:

..During this time my father met a local girl who come from Sliema, her name was Jessie and her father was the manager of the local Blue Label beer factory – was it the chance of free beer or her beauty that attracted him to her – I will never know as my father refuses to tell me but he still has a glint in his eye and a smile on his face when he talks of her now even though he is now aged 87(more later). As the year move into August so the blockade of the Island increased with the view that enemy would starve Malta into submission. How near it cam to achieving this is known now by only a few, but all who were there will never forget the grimness of the lean months, which followed the blitz. The loss of the convoys up to August were a bitter blow, fourteen ships had sailed from Gibraltar and fourteen had sailed from Alexandria, only two ships made it to the Island, with all the while the amount of air attacks and their frequency steadily increasing, the knock on effect was that men were suffering as well as the population who had their ration levels reduced again to quite severe levels...

List of Malta War Stories

Alternative Malta

Get your copy of the first ever alternative malta music compilation. The following is the tracklist:

01. lumière - remembrance of lovers past
02. bni - inertia
03. beangrowers - i like you
04. adolf - is this the end
05. spooky monkey - supersonic warfare
06. xtruppaw - diska cool ghar-radio
07. hunters palace - mr uncertain
08. dripht - guy on tv
09. john IQ and fuse - glory
10. end of john - ditties for sissies
11. andre camilleri - emily
12. corkskrew - blind spot
13. iskandal - como estas
14. particle blue - weekend
15. shostakovich's nightmare - el hombre
16. treeears - she must understand
17. stilair - push
18. christian galea - curtain falls
20. the suburbanite - uncle bob

Hyper-violence, misogyny and brand-names

The Observer's Rachel Aspden is 'less than impressed' with The Religion by Tim Willcocks, a new novel set in 16th century Malta. From Guardian Unlimited:

Heraldic kitsch and really big swords hold a fatal allure for the kind of men who also like Napalm Death, monster trucks and the gorier bits of Grand Theft Auto. Tim Willocks, a Hollywood screenwriter and author of the violent thrillers Green River Rising and Bad City Blues, clearly knows his market. Set in Malta in 1565, with the Ottoman army besieging the Knights of St John in their fortress of Sant'Angelo, The Religion is the tale of Mattias Tannhauser, an Aryan alpha male who can't get up from a chair without looking 'like a wolf roused from some primal dream'. After witnessing the rape and murder of his mother (lovingly described by Willocks in the 10-page gore-fest that opens the book), serving 15 years as a janissary and escaping to become an opium trader, he is lured into joining the defence of Malta by, what else, a beautiful woman searching for the long-lost son she bore to a dastardly Franciscan, now the Grand Inquisitor...

Willocks is no stranger to Dan Brown-style cliche: his 'tall and austere' warrior monks bear titles such as 'Lieutenant Turcopolier of the English Langue', while the evil Inquisitor is 'lean as a whip and dressed in a fine black doublet'. But The Religion is Tennent's Super to The Da Vinci Code's Bud Lite. Unlike Brown, Willocks's selfless pursuit of verite doesn't stop at a few baroque titles and hints of corruption in Mother Church (he asserts, weirdly, that Rome's 16th-century churches were 'theatres of bath-house art where the genitals and arses of leering pederasts were plastered over every wall'). His monks, soldiers and servants continually 'piss' and 'shit' themselves when threatened, gang-raped, hanged, tortured, disembowelled, blinded or simply preparing for battle. In Willocks's Malta, 'I've shat myself for less' is the standard, and wholly unmetaphorical, expression of friendly approval...

Beating superspies and girl germs

Luise Hoffmann writes about Deborah Abela's fictional character Max Remy who goes spying in Malta. From ABC North Coast NSW:

It's complicated being a kid - there's all that usual stuff you have to worry about, like girl germs and running with scissors, and then on top of that, every now and again, you have to run off and save the planet.

That's how it is for Deborah Abela's character Max Remy, anyway. Superspy Max has to keep dashing off to save the world, in between worrying about how to keep her spy-identity a secret from her mum. "It is a bit tricky being a spy, and an 11-year-old spy," explains Abela, "because you can't tell mum or dad. You can't tell anyone who's not a spy that you are a spy. It's got to be very top secret."

Abela is willing to let one top secret secret slip, though. "The secret that's about to come out is, Max is actually based on me as a kid," she whispers. "Now as a kid, I was a terribly grumpy thing. You known when you get up in the morning and you just feel grumpy. Maybe you've had a bad dream, maybe you just wake up grumpy. I think I was like that a lot as a kid, I don't know why.

"I didn't like being told what to do, I loved going on adventures and I loved imagining myself going on great adventures all over the world." When Abela grew older, she did go on adventures around the world, being thrown in jail, and contracting malaria and dysentery along the way. Now she's sending Max on her own adventures to exotic, spy-friendly locations like Malta and Venice, with a variety of mind-boggling gadgets...

Objects found or lost?

Toni Sant is in Malta to present a collaborative research project called “Objects Found or Lost?” this Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 August at the MITP Theatre at 9pm. This is being held in conjunction with SUPA 2006 and is part of the Malta Arts Festival – Summer 2006 organised by the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts. More details here:

..The collaborative work will explore the use of found objects in digital art through both a theoretical approach and live performance work. The project interrogates the value of the right to use, convert, transfer, alter or modify any sort of ‘found object’ on the web as source material for performance.

“How do concepts surrounding the use of found objects in 20th century art (following Marcel Duchamp’s style) inform creative work with found objects in digital media arts practice? How does the creative process change when working in the found objects tradition within a digital media environment?” asks Toni Sant. “In dealing with these questions, we pay particular attention to the difference between works that highlight the creative process and the productions created through artistic process,”..

The performers are Christophe Alix, Lucille Calmel, and Toni Sant in association with the University of Hull, Scarborough Campus, UK. Neill Warhurst and Saviour Zammit are the production managers. The live encounter at MITP Theatre involves online collaborators who interact within the collaborative creative process either in real time or through contributions made to the project via the website..

The audience will also be able to contribute “found objects” from digital media they happen to have with them, such as CDs, portable memory devices (disc on key or MP3 players etc), digital cameras and /or PDAs. The audience is encouraged to take CDs, USB drives and other similar devices with to the event...

Project Research Blog; BOV supports the Summer University of Performing Arts 2006

Diving holiday tragedy

An investigation is under way into how a father and his 16-year-old son drowned on a family scuba-diving holiday in Malta. From BBC News:

..Richard Avent, 58, and son Rhydian got into difficulties about 50ft (15m) down on a dive off Gozo island, near Malta. His wife, Dr Sian Rees, was also on the dive and helped with attempts to resuscitate them. Mr Avent, was chief inspector of the assembly government's ancient monuments and historic buildings body Cadw. The family, from Raglan, Monmouthshire, have two older children who were not on the holiday with them. Dr Rees, also a senior official with Cadw, is believed to have been planning the holiday with her husband for the past two years. She is reported to be an experienced diver, but Mr Avent and Rhydian were both novices..

Welsh assembly First Minister Rhodri Morgan said he was "shocked and saddened" at the news. He said: "Richard Avent made a massive contribution to the protection and conservation of Wales' most treasured historic sites and buildings. Sian and Richard were very popular in the village and this tragedy is devastating for everyone. "His achievements over the past 30 years in the field of archaeology and the historic environment were enormous and he earned an international reputation for his expertise as a champion of Welsh castles.

Internet use

46% of Maltese households use the internet, by MaltaMedia News:

Nearly all Maltese households at 98 % have television with 69 % saying that they have cable television and some 26 % having an analogue service. A National Statistics Office (NSO) report based on 2005, revealed that 80 % of Maltese households had at least one mobile phone while the proportion of household with internet access stood at 46 %.

With regards to internet, 49% of households stated that they did not have a connection because they felt no need for it. A sizable proportion of respondent households at 23 % gave a lack of related skills as their reason for not installing internet.

The vast majority of households with home internet use a desktop computer to access the internet while 15 % use a portable computer. The survey data indicate that the use of ultra-new internet searching devices such as games consoles and TV sets that include an internet facility is still minimal. On the other hand, 61 % of households responded that they have a broadband connection against 39 % with a narrowband connection at the time of interviewing.

While computer use seems to be more or less evenly distributed between the sexes the proportion of men who had recently accessed the internet at the time of the survey surpassed that of women by some 9 % at 42 % against 33 %. This difference is corroborated by the proportion of female respondents who said that they had never made use of the medium, a figure which is eight percentage points higher than its main counterpart...

Read NSO report here

Blogging from prison

The Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark - a regular visitor to Malta - stated that blogging from prison has 'raised a new set of issues'.

A prisoner's ability to post letters on a website has raised a new set of issues, Prime Minister Helen Clark said today. Political activist Tim Selwyn is using a current affairs website to describe life behind bars in Mt Eden Prison, and the Corrections Department says he has not acted illegally.

Selwyn was jailed for two months on a sedition charge following his involvement in an axe attack on Miss Clark's electorate office. He has published accounts of violence in the prison yard, criticised the judge who sentenced him and argued that the foreshore and seabed legislation is illegal on www.tumeke.blogspot.com

Miss Clark said his actions raised questions. "It used to be that when you were put away, you were put away from society," she said on NewstalkZB. "With the Internet, you send your letters off electronically and then someone else can very easily put them on a blog. It raises a whole new set of issues."...

New York Magazine: Blogs to Riches