The Malta-Corfu connection

Dr Robert John Muscat was pleasantly surprised with the similarities and the connections between Malta and Corfu:

..From our part, we seem to have left these connections in our history books and totally forgot about them. Everywhere you go one can see some shops bearing “Maltese” surnames, hotels named after Malta or bearing Maltese surnames (Hotel Maltezos and Hotel Debono are only two of many), and tourist guide books proudly stating that some of the main historical buildings on the island were built with Maltese stone by Maltese stone masons.

The new Mayor of Corfu (who was incidentally elected while on our trip on the island and maybe our influence on the electorate contributed to his success!) is of Maltese descent. His name is Sotiris Michalef (Saviour Micallef). Though we could not meet him personally at the time since he was busy after being elected, he is well aware of the new interest being shown by the Maltese in this island and my contacts in Corfu assure me that he is more than willing to further these ties. Local councils please note.

The Catholic Bishop is Iannis Spitieris (John Spiteri). In a country which is almost exclusively Orthodox in religion, the fact that Corfu has a Catholic community, most of whom are descendants of Maltese emigrants, is testimony to the vigour of the ancestral legacy. A look at the history of both islands brings us to a common point of reference – the British, particularly Sir Thomas Maitland. He was the Governor of Malta and was subsequently appointed as the first Lord High Commissioner for the Ionian Islands, including the islands of Cyprus, Corfu, Constantinople and Smyrna. Although the Maltese historical connections with all these islands is very interesting, particularly with Cyprus, I shall limit myself to the island of Corfu..

The historical connection between Malta and Corfu is not the only similarity. Corfu, which is only a one-hour flight away from Malta, is 56km long and 13km wide, making it just over twice the size of Malta. The climate is very similar to ours, with the exception that it is much greener than Malta (having over four million olive trees planted by the Venetians which are protected religiously), has many hills (its highest point is about 900m above sea level). It is surrounded by glorious beaches (31 of which are blue flag) and some of which are only accessible by boat.

Its inhabitants live a slow, relaxed pace of life typified by avro – it can wait until tomorrow (more like Malta some 15 years ago). There exists a café culture and the local people are as friendly and hospitable as the Maltese. Like us they love the outdoor life especially sailing between the islands. The food is also very good. All the above, and more, make the possibility of local council twinning agreements something to look into...

Needy sanctuary

Dog sanctuary in desperate need of volunteers, writes Kenneth Cassar in the Malta Animal Rights blog:

Today's The Times and The Malta Independent report that The Island Sanctuary (a no-kill sanctuary) may have to close down soon due to a lack of volunteers. The sanctuary, which is based at Tas-Silg, cares for 160 dogs and is run by about six volunteers, all women over 40, who dedicate all their free hours to the dogs at the sanctuary. Volunteer Yvonne Aquilina says that at least eight or nine people a day are needed to look after so many dogs. Being old dogs, most of them required medication, a lot of attention and sometimes trips to the vet. Moreover, while dogs were recovering they sometimes needed 24-hour monitoring. Ms Aquilina, a teacher, said that there was more work at the centre in winter but that was when the number of volunteers decreased.

While in the past several students and housewives used to appear at the centre to give a helping hand, these were now finding jobs and making less of an appearance. Ms Aquilina said the centre would have to close down unless the situation was rectified. Claire Gafa' explained that currently there are only two volunteers at the sanctuary to do the morning chores for all the dogs. These chores include food preparation, administering medication, letting dogs out for their half-an-hour to two hours' exercise within the sanctuary's premises, cleaning the pens and washing the plates. "These chores are done by two people and it takes us from 6am to 2pm every day," said Ms Gafa'. "We have now reached the point where we can no longer operate in this manner". Ms Gafa' said that the sanctuary would have to close down unless more volunteers turn up...

Crossing Malta

Buenos Aires based Dan Perlman, who blogs at SaltShaker, explores Malta's culinary traditions with a quote from Roosevelt. From SaltShaker:

It’s amazing, sometimes, how little we know about the world out there. It’s one of the fascinating things about the internet and blogging, that we discover all sorts of tidbits that lead to more information, about one thing or another, somewhere else on the planet. At the same time, to use a medical metaphor, it’s surgical - it’s not systemic - we focus on a particular thing, place, item, person… that catches our attention, and click on links that lead to other links, etc. - you know the drill.

Geography - and I don’t mean that in just the “this country is there and that’s it capital” sense, but including the cultural and political sense, has almost disappeared from our schools. There are constantly little notes in newspapers about how little kids from one country or another know about the rest of the world. I like to think I’m doing my bit by bringing up the food culture of various locales around the world, often that are nearly unknown to most of us. When I posted that last weekend’s Casa S dinner would be celebrating the ancient festival of Mnarja from the islands of Malta, almost everyone making a reservation hesitated and asked something to the effect of “Where is Malta and what’s their food all about?”

..The Mnarja festival is a derivative of the ancient pagan festival of Luminaria, but somewhere along the way got hooked into the festival of saints Peter and Paul - probably when those Knights of Malta came into play in 1530 - the one thing folks seem to know about Malta is either the Cross or the Falcon...On to the food - which seems to be derivative, for the most part, from southern Italy and Sicily, though clearly with influences from some of the other cultures, in particular Moorish, that have occupied the islands, but more, from what I can see, probably by the simple limitations of living on a somewhat isolated archipelago - i.e., many of the recipes tend to use the same few ingredients over and over again in different combinations and proportions, presumably just based on what’s available locally - for example, potatoes and cauliflower are apparently the primary vegetables grown, along with peas and tomatoes, and pop up over and over again.

It made for some interesting “trimming” as I worked with each dish, since I didn’t want them all to taste the same, so I’ve left things out of traditional recipes and reinterpreted them as I went along - but after all, that’s what I tend to do every week - I use the cuisine I’m working with as an inspiration rather than a textbook. The cuisine also seems to lean more on herbs than on spices, perhaps historically there just were not that many available? That part seemed surprising given the Arabic portion of the islands’ history...

Kinky Cuisine: Mango Fire's Maltese Pastizzi

Changes at Marsaxlokk

Maltese champions Marsaxlokk FC start their 2007/08 league campaign with coach Brian Talbot still reeling from the big changes that hit the club this summer, writes Domenic Aquilina in UEFA.com:

..The English coach took plaudits for Marsaxlokk's maiden title success last season, but he gave Scriha and general manager Peter Hartshorne credit for assembling the side which did so. "I coached the players and worked with them on a daily basis but all I had to do was prepare them," he said. "Basically, I had the best players available on the island."

The amount of money spent on players has mystified Talbot somewhat since he came to Malta. "Clubs should get their house in order before they spend so much money on players," he said. "Clubs have got to get their facilities correct in terms of grass or artificial pitches, get full-time coaches and try to get their players together every day. Without these concepts it is very hard to improve."

Marsaxlokk, meanwhile, have done their best to rebuild in time for the start of the new campaign. Brazilians André, Renato Conceição and Wendell Gomes have come in along with Birkirkara FC's Willian Camenzuli. Talbot is still hoping to persuade top scorer Bogdanovic to return if he fails to secure his longed-for move to a foreign club. "If he stays in Malta we want to keep him," said Talbot. "I only had him for one season and he got 31 goals, so all I have are words of praise for him. I definitely want him to come to Marsaxlokk. No question - we will welcome him back."

MaltaFootball.com: Marsaxlokk start the season tomorrow

Memories of Tanzania

David Captur kept a diary of his Kilimanjaro Challenge in Tanzania, climbing the highest free-standing mountain in the world, and the highest point in Africa. His diary can be read at Ian's Travels, a travel site kept by Ian Cremona:

..8 months of planning went down the drain when we saw that the road we were supposed to take to reach the first camp was closed down due the mud as a result of the heavy rain on the previous day. We finally got to a rendez-vous point at around 17:30 and walked for 2 hours in cold rain. None of us saw it coming. We were prepared for summer weather...We were all quite miserable, but porters and guides were very nice and helpful and we managed to quite our stuff relatively warm and dry. That night, we ate and slept well...The weather cleared up a bit now, but there are still many clouds anywhere. I have a gut feeling that its going to be raining very much, just my instinct talking to me. Our moods are much better now, also thanks to the incredible scenes we are witnessing here...It is peaceful here, thought-free. The sun has gone down here, but there is still a lot of redness in the sky. Coupled with the scenery around us, it really is a sight.

..So ends this chapter in my life, I guess. The Kilimanjaro Challenge III. I wonder how my life will be now, without this love-hate 8-month story. It has certainly changed me. For starters, I go back home convinced that I am not ordinary, I am special. But I also return home with less angry & irrational pride. You see I needed help at a point in time, on my own, I may well not have made it. That does not diminish what I did in any way, it just makes me smile, because it feels like losing a burden, being able to relax and rely on someone. I guess I finally figured, I don’t have to do it all on my own. It feels good J...

Race for Life

Race For Life girl hits headlines in Malta, by Nicola Fifield in the York Press:

A Mediterranean island has been hit by Race For Life fever - thanks to The Press and a gutsy York teenager. Never in her wildest dreams could Sophie Stockton have imagined the frenzy she was about to create when she arrived in Malta for her family holiday last week. But since touching down, the 13-year-old, of Navigation Road, York, has been turned into a national hero.

After discovering the York Race For Life clashed with her family holiday in Malta, the plucky youngster resolved to complete the five kilometre race on the same day - but in a different country. After a Maltese journalist featured her story in the island's most popular national paper, the nation has gone Race For Life mad. Her uncle, John Stockton, who spoke to Sophie yesterday, said: "Malta has gone bananas. The journalist has set up a bank account for people to sponsor her, and the local authorities have arranged to cordon off the promenade when she does the race on Sunday.

"She has already been interviewed by the Maltese reporter and he's also going to be there with his photographer on Sunday to cover the actual race. "It's staggering the way they have reacted to what she's doing over there. She phoned me to tell me and she was amazed. She said to me she couldn't believe it. "It looks like she's going to raise a lot more money for Cancer Research now, which is fantastic because that's what it's all about." The Maltese paper, L-orizzont, picked up on the story after journalist John Pisani spotted our report online. He was so touched by the determination of Sophie to complete the Race For Life in memory of her grandmother, who died of bowel cancer last year, that he launched a reader appeal to bring in more sponsorship...

Update: The new ITV Local website for Yorkshire, England has just uploaded a video of Sophie Stockton's run which can be seen here by clicking on 'Race For Life - Malta' on the right-hand side.

Otters

Sabine Cassar-Alpert in Gozo blogs about the attempts by Otters Aquatic Sports Club to have a swimming pool constructed in Gozo:

Water polo is a very healthy sport, and if you consider the enormous amounts of sea surrounding the island you’d think it should be “big” in Gozo! Well, for the Otters and their supporters it is pretty big! The Otters A.S.C. (Aquatic Sports Club) has been in existence for 36 years – and it is the only surviving water polo club from a large number that had sprouted in Gozo in the seventies. Not only that, but since 1981 they have participated uninterruptedly in competitions organised on a National basis by the Aquatic Swimming Association of Malta – which is a record participation at this level for a Gozitan sports organisation!

It is a shame that little recognition and even less help is forthcoming from authorities and ministries, who have been dragging their feet over providing the team with proper training facilities. Top priority for the club right now is a pool which would ensure year-round training for the teams; at present training is possible only during the summer months, which obviously puts the Gozitan club at a huge disadvantage vis-a-vis its Maltese rivals who have continuous access to the National Pool, if not their own! But missing out on many months of training is not the only obstacle: For the past three years the occurrence of ever-growing numbers of jellyfish has been wreaking havoc not only with training sessions, but even league matches have had to be postponed.

This year the Otters’ foreign coach, Saso Christovski from Macedonia, visited Gozitan schools where he showed DVDs about water polo and handed out sign-up forms to students, in a bid to attract new talent to the club. The campaign was a success: 35 kids signed up for its water polo school for kids aged 8 to 12. You could also see it this way: 35 youngsters have been given something meaningful, healthy and educational to do in their free time; isn’t that alone a worthy contribution to society, in this day and age of computer-addicted obese children? Unless the club can provide adequate training facilities, there is a good chance for water polo to die a literally painful death in Marsalforn’s jellyfish infested waters within a few years. If giving support to the Otters’ plea does not generate enough votes, then how about thousands of Gozitans who could and probably would make use of such a facility, too?

Caravaggio`s anchor

In a guest column in the Indian Business Standard, Mukul Pal from New Delhi, who heads a global alternative research company, takes inspiration from Caravaggio in Malta to compare art with the stock markets:

Investors not only use psychological anchors to price assets but they also overestimate individual capabilities. Standing at the cathedral of Saint John?s at Valletta in Malta, I was watching Caravaggio's masterpiece, 'The Beheading of St John the Baptist'. The painting is considered the first modern tragedy painting. The 16th century artist was lost in notoriety till the time he was recognised 300 years later in 1920s. Standing there thinking about art, expression, poverty of an artist and the economics around it left me a bit confused. Dying in poverty and being worth millions in an after-life can only happen in this modern world.

Pricing an art work or a stock is similar. Markets work on pricing anchors on both individual and group levels. And recent studies have come to the conclusion that anchors are psychological biases, which are more inaccurate than accurate. We as a group and individual have a strong tendency to price assets on pre-conceived basis. In short, pricing is always more sentimental than rational. Daniel Kahneman, the father of behavioural finance, talks about anchors in his award-winning work. Anchoring according to him is a cognitive bias that describes the common human tendency to rely too heavily, or "anchor" on one trait or piece of information when making decisions...

Amnesty in Malta

Amnesty International's Malta branch will not actively advocate abortion, by Steven Ertelt in LifeNews.com in Canada:

Amnesty International's recent decision to endorse abortion for victims of sexual abuse put some of its local chapters in nations that prohibit abortion in a quandary. On Thursday, the Malta AI affiliate said it would not join its international parent in actively campaigning for abortion. The decision puts AI Malta in league with its Ireland counterpart, which has also indicated it will not actively promote overturning the pro-life laws of the western European nation.

Like Ireland, Malta is one of the few European nations to make abortion illegal and AI Malta’s spokesperson Jean Pierre Gauci indicated the human rights group's decision to endorse abortion will not change the way the Malta group operates. He told the Malta Today newspaper that Amnesty doesn't expect his group to push to overturn the pro-life laws of the tiny island country. “The decision was motivated by the situation in countries like Sudan, where women are systematically raped by militias and face death by stoning if they commit adultery,” Gauci said.

Gauci made it clear that the group would also not push for any new law in Malta allowing abortions in cases of rape or incest. According to the newspaper, AI Malta did not participate in last week's international conference in Mexico City where national chapters voted to reaffirm the pro-abortion position the group's executive committee adopted in April. Because it has only been active for a few years, AI Malta did not have a vote there. Amnesty International's Ireland affiliate is the only other group to indicate it would go a slightly different direction from its parent group.

While the parent group and other national chapters may actively promote abortion in their nations or in other countries, Ireland's chapter will not push abortion there. The group will remain affiliated with Amnesty International and provide funding and support for it and its other programs.

AI Malta report 2007

Private islands

Anonymous Lucky, who blogs here, is an private island specialist who works for an international real estate broker. This post describes Gozo as a mythological island of seduction:

Set off of the rocky Maltan coast, the isle of Gozo is shrouded in myths of bewitching nymphs, captivated warriors and promises of eternal youth. With stunning rock formations, caves, and sparkling lagoons, the beauty of Gozo is captured by Homer's description of the isle as "a spot where even immortal visitors must pause and gaze in delight." It was at the mouth of one such cave that the hero Odysseus washed ashore and into the arms of the nymph Calypso, who offered him everlasting youth in exchange for his devotion. For seven years he was held on Gozo, until his painful longing for his family made the gods take pity, and release him from the nymph's hold. Taken metaphorically, the exotic myth becomes a morality play for an all too common reality. How many men of a certain age contemplate their graying reflection, and long for the illusion of immortality bestowed by the love of a young beauty... whatever sacrifices may be required.

From Miami Herald: Gozo, Mythical island of Odysseus offers timeless feel; Private Islands blog; Islands magazine.

Boost for tradition

Charmaine Camilleri in Australia writes in the Moone Valley Community News about plans announced by the visiting prime minister to keep cultural and linguistic links alive:

In a speech given at a conference in Melbourne's Maltese Consulate last Monday, Dr Gonzi spoke passionately about his hopes to preserve Malta's rich culture and traditions through second and third generations. A major plan is the setting up of a specialist unit of up to five teachers based in Malta to teach Maltese via advanced technology. ''The Maltese living in Australia - not just the first generation but the second and third generations - want us to help out in strengthening the links with their country of origin and we are responding to that,'' Dr Gonzi said. ''I believe we are not using the technology that exists today to make life easier. ''I want to see larger number of Maltese learning their language.''

Thousands of Maltese left their country in search of a better life after World War II, but this older generation is now declining. Though the language has been taught at the Maltese Community Council of Victoria in Parkville for more than 20 years, there has been a lack of interest among young Maltese-Australians, said Brian Zammit of the Maltese Historical Association. ''This is inevitable given assimilatory pressures among second and third generation Maltese-Australians and this is a problem that confronts, to one extent or another, all migrant communities,'' he said.

''This initiative ... is, I believe, long overdue.'' Dr Gonzi also announced reforms to the dual citizenship law, which entitles children of Maltese citizens to acquire Maltese, and effectively European Union, citizenship. From this month, second and third generations will also be eligible, given they can prove their ancestors were born in Malta. Gioconda Schembri, of the Maltese Consulate, welcomed the changes. ''It guarantees that Maltese culture remains alive outside of Malta. "There is also the benefit of being a citizen of the European Union, because Malta is in the EU, and that opens so many opportunities." Ms Schembri said at 320 square-kilometres, Malta was 25 times smaller than Melbourne yet attracted more than 1.5 million tourists per year. ''What it will attract is more interest among young people of Maltese background to visit Malta and see with their own eyes the land of their ancestors.''...

Ambassador resigns

The Irish Times reports the news of the resignation of Malta's ambassador to Ireland, after allegations were made against his son:

Mr Muscat submitted a letter of resignation to his government after he said he was wrongly accused of claiming diplomatic immunity after a member of his family was accused of assaulting a female student in Dublin. Mr Muscat's son was arrested in connection with attacks on two women but has not been charged. However, his father - and solicitors acting for the family - have denied his diplomatic status was ever used to save his son from charges after his arrest. The ambassador stressed justice had been left to proceed in the normal way.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern revealed the Maltese authorities have confirmed diplomatic immunity will not apply. But Richard Muscat maintains his 35-year-old son is innocent and the allegations are wholly unfounded. He said his son suffered from a medical condition. The Times of Malta reported earlier that Maltese foreign affairs minister Michael Frendo accepted Mr Muscat's resignation yesterday.
In his letter of resignation, Mr Muscat - the Maltese ambassador for eight years - also blamed a section of the media for making what he called 'unfounded and defamatory' allegations against his son...

More from The Irish Examiner

New joint ventures

Miller Developments is continuing its expansion in Europe with £60 million of investment and new joint ventures in Malta and Germany, writes Lianne Gutcher in Scotland's Sunday Herald:

The commercial development arm of The Miller Group, the UK's largest privately owned property developer, has agreed a £46m deal to develop a 173,654sqft shopping centre in Malta and a £13.5m contract to create an 86,114sqft retail park in Hassloch, Germany. In Malta, The Point Shopping Centre will be located in Sliema, near Valletta, and will be developed with local partner, the Midi Consortium. The three-level centre will include a department store, a supermarket, a cinema complex and about 40 shop units. The department store has been pre-let to Debenhams.

The centre forms part of a mixed-use scheme called Tigné Point, which is one of the most ambitious development projects to be undertaken in Malta. As well as the shopping centre, Tigné Point will have offices, hotels, restaurants and bars and approximately 500 luxury apartments. In Hassloch, to the west of Heidelberg in Germany, Miller Developments has secured a 6.2 acre site for a new retail park. Miller has entered into a joint venture with local developer Prebag for an 86,114sqft project which will have an end value of more than £13.5m. Until now, Miller Developments has focused on buying investment properties in Germany..

..Phil Miller, chief executive of Miller Developments, said: "Following its entry to the EU, Malta is rapidly emerging as a popular business destination on the back of a pool of multilingual graduates, a modern telecommunications structure and air connections with all the major European cities and North Africa. With the arrival of low-cost carriers we also expect substantial growth in tourism over the next few years."...In Malta, work on site has now started with completion scheduled for June 2009. In Germany, Miller and Prebag will submit a planning application for the Hassloch site within the next three months.

Open door policy

Malta's ambassador to Denmark proves diplomacy can be spontaneous and off-the-cuff, writes The Copenhagen Post:

..During the dog days of summer, finding a story for the diplomatic page can be somewhat challenging: embassy hours are shortened, ambassadors are vacationing abroad and official events are rare.With no interview set up for this week?s issue and no invitation to a national holiday reception, we decided to create a journalistic challenge: Take a walk down embassy row on Ameliagade and find out how long it takes to meet an ambassador without scheduling a prior appointment..

..On to the next embassy, the Mediterranean nation of Malta, which opened its Copenhagen office in 2002 during the run-up to its EU accession. The embassy's sign stated they were closed during lunch hours, but we decided to walk up the stairs anyway. Luckily, two men were moving a leather sofa into the office and we slipped in and presented ourselves to Paul Radmilli, the deputy head of the diplomatic mission...Within a few minutes, the doors to Ambassador Noel Buttigieg-Scicluna burst open and we were welcomed into his office.

I was wondering when The Copenhagen Post would be along to interview me, he laughed. I was beginning to think there was something wrong. But I guess you saved the best for last.? In the ensuing 20-minute interview, the ambassador shared his impressions of diplomatic life in Denmark, discussed his passion for antique collecting, and managed to make a sales pitch for visiting Malta - even though the meeting was unscheduled and his secretary was on holiday. The ambassador himself had just returned from two weeks of holiday in his homeland, where life settles down to a relaxing pace in the summer and the Maltese enjoy the sun, the sea and eating long dinners together.

Maltese people are lovers of their homes. They inherit this from their families, he says. To decorate his residence in Denmark, the ambassador has taken up antique collecting. He confesses a passion for potting around to various markets looking for interesting products of a lost age. In this world of mass production, it's a pleasure to appreciate pieces which people have poured their mastery and insight into. We are losing that workmanship today...

Melodrama

Bethan Jenkins, who has a blog here, is a Plaid Cymru Assembly Member for South Wales West. In this entry, she writes about a recent holiday in Malta which turned sour:

I am back from my holiday in Malta. The island is lovely, and the weather was just right for the time I was there( it wasn't so hot that I couldn't walk around without feeling faint due to the heat, anyway) But I must say that I wasn't pleased with the hotel or the delayed flights.

I spent a few hours at the beginning of the holiday negotiating, and finally got a room that didn't look like it was trashed by a failing rock band. However, doom set in when we realised that there is a general water shortage in Malta so we couldn't access water in our room most of the time, and we were not informed of an excruciatingly out of tune cabaret couple who ruined some of my favourite 60's tunes outside the hotel EVERY night. I was greated by a flat rendition of 'The Green green grass of home' EVERY night by a man resembling Pavarotti, but who should have been told years ago that he,unfortunately, cannot sing. The food at the Hotel was a disaster also! I hope you get the picutre...

As you may have guessed I will be writing a letter of complaint to the company. I am bemused that Hotels can get away with advertising themselves as being of a certain standard in the starring system when the quality of services and the general standard does not reflect this one bit. I will be booking with caution next year, that's for sure.

Bethan Jenkins interviewed about politics and blogging

A horse called Malta

Jockey John Powell guided a horse called Malta to victory at Eagle Farm. Bart Sinclair writes in the Australian Courier Mail:

Trainer Robbie Heathcote made a wise move when he elected to aim for a post-winter peak from his old warrior Malta. Heathcote's careful planning reaped a win with Malta ($6.50) who appreciated the easier opposition in yesterday's Toohey's Extra Dry Handicap over 1500m at Eagle Farm. When he was setting goals for Malta this preparation Heathcote urged Sydney owners Wilf Mula and Arnold House to set their sights lower than the feature races over the big winter meetings. "I was able to hold him back a month and gradually he has raced himself into fitness and form," Heathcote said.

"But the big thing for him has been getting to a bit easier type of race. A few things went wrong for him in a couple of his races but I thought his last start third showed he was ready to break through again. "And it looked a race today where the leader Omnitrader might be put under more pressure. That's how it worked out and it suited Malta to sit off them and have the last shot." It was a good day for the in-form Heathcote and Malta's rider John Powell, who combined for an earlier victory with Notre Amour ($10) in the unchartered.com.au Handicap...

Temi Zammit Foundation

The Fondazzjoni Temi Zammit (FTZ) is a Maltese non-profit foundation 'drawing key stakeholders together in a strategic partnership to boost regional development':

..Realizing that a highly-competitive economy can only be achieved if public, private and voluntary organisations join forces to attain the critical mass of resources needed, several local leading players have set up FTZ as an inclusive platform to undertake projects which build on the traditional strengths of Malta’s workforce – a spirit of creativity, enterprise and a rich knowledge base.

Acting as an umbrella organisation, FTZ seeks to maximize the experience gained through its participation in regional development projects, ensuring that the benefits are multiplied across its membership. It strives to capture and further build on its involvement in transnational projects through the production of knowledge resources for lifelong and flexible learning. In this way, it supports human capital investments and addresses the clear need for open learning opportunities expressed by the local community. In particular, the Foundation hopes to accelerate the adoption of ICT-assisted learning, exploiting for educational purposes the full potential of the new technologies and creating in the process a critical mass of knowledge resources to be shared by all its members.

The Foundation’s vision is painted upon the premise that knowledge is the “essential enabler” around which the new economy revolves. Besides supporting the development of learning organisations, it also intends to promote a favourable environment for research and innovation to help equip our society to face the challenges of the present and the future...

From Tunisia to Malta

The widow of the late Yasser Arafat has lost her Tunisian citizenship and, according to international press reports, she is currently residing in Malta. From the International Herald Tribune:

Tunisia has stripped the widow of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat of Tunisian citizenship, officials said Tuesday. A formal decree published Aug. 2 in Tunisia's official register indicated that 44-year-old Suha Arafat, who was born in Jerusalem and became a naturalized Tunisian last year, had lost her citizenship. No explanation was provided, nor was any reference made to the Arafats' 12-year-old daughter, Zahwa, who became a Tunisian citizen the same day as her mother.

Suha Arafat was believed to have left Tunisia, and news reports suggested she was in Malta. She had lived in Tunisia since Yasser Arafat died at a suburban Paris hospital in November 2004. In an interview published Tuesday in the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, Suha Arafat refused to comment. The daily said she was reached from Valletta, where her brother Ghabi al-Taweel is serving as Palestinian ambassador...

Sunday profile

In an interview with ABC Radio in Australia Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi tells Monica Attard that the immigration situation is creating ethnic tension in Malta:

Tonight, a chat with the Prime Minister of Malta, Dr Lawrence Gonzi. He's here to promote trade relations with Australia and to encourage Maltese Australians to sign up for Maltese citizenship. For a small island nation physically cut off from the rest of the European continent, Malta's cultural heritage spreads far and wide. In Australia alone, there are more Maltese than in Malta itself and as Dr Gonzi observes, he runs into his fellow citizens wherever he goes in the world. The newest member of the European Union, Malta is experiencing an illegal immigration problem. It's at a record high and there's a hint also of ethnic tensions that Prime Minister Gonzi finds disturbing. Dr Gonzi also denies there's evidence that Malta is a staging post for terrorists seeking to infiltrate Europe, though the EU is spending millions on bolstering its border controls...

Read the interview transcript

Wet Mediterranean doors

Africans and more 'rap on wet Mediterranean doors', Camelia Paraschiv in Bucharest writes in CafeBabel.com:

..With 400, 000 inhabitants and one of the highest population densities in the world (with 1, 271 people per square kilometres, it comes seventh in the world), Malta has received about 5, 000 illegal immigrants since 2000. More than 1, 000 arrived since the beginning of 2007, a figure that is continuously on the rise. They come through the same Libyan traffic networks, but instead of reaching their intended destination in Italy, they mistakenly dock on Maltese shores, or shipwreck in Maltese waters.

Malta’s reaction to a lack of funds and EU support has been to develop a reluctant policy of refusal to rescue shipwrecked illegal immigrants when they're not in Maltese waters. This has led to shocking treatment (or lack thereof) of immigrants by the authorities. For example, 27 ship-wrecked immigrants were found clinging to a Maltese-owned tuna pen on 23 June, 60 miles from Libya. They were denied rescue by the Maltese authorities for three days, and finally an Italian boat intervened in their favour. In a similar case a week earlier, Malta did not take responsibility for 51 Africans ship-wrecked in their waters, and this time it was a Spanish trailer that finally came to their rescue...

'Not another Nordic Malta - yet'

Maltese rambling

Although the Rambling Association of Malta came into being only at the start of 2005, organised rambling in Malta started over 130 years ago, Lino Bugeja writes:

Rambling was in fact recommended as a means to improve the quality of life of British servicemen and interested Maltese in 1871. That year the Methodist Church in Malta, mainly through the good services of Rev. John Laverack (1848-1926), a devoted and assiduous missionary, invited the Blue Ribbon branch of the British Temperance Movement to Malta to serve as "a counteractive to the wine shops and low houses of entertainment in which the neighbourhood abounds" - the locality being the Cottonera and Floriana areas where there was a concentration of troops.

The strategy adopted favoured the introduction of physical recreation in the form of rambling, cycling and football - activities associated with the Muscular Christianity Movement, whose mission statement was the promotion of Christianity through sport.

The ethos of Muscular Christianity is excellently evinced in the exquisite film 'Chariots of Fire' portraying the Puritan beliefs of Eric Liddell, the Scottish athlete who refused to run the 100 meters in the Paris Olympics (1924) because the event was scheduled for a Sunday. The film is interspersed with spiritual quotations like "God made me fast, when I run I feel His pleasure" or " to run is to honour Him"

The Temperance Society took no time in setting up a Soldiers' and Sailors' Home in Piazza Maggiore in Floriana, a progressive organisation intent to formulate "a framework of respectable leisure activities for British servicemen and interested Maltese." In 1882 the Temperance Movement set up a second home in a rented house in the vicinity of the Naval Dockyard, which then moved to extensive premises on Margherita Square in Cospicua, popularly known until today as 'Ir-Rest' and until recently the official premises of St. George's Football team, which also owes its origins to this early British connection.

Interest in rambling in Cottonera lingered on until the pre-war years and I vividly recall the organisation of 'marching-outs' (rambles) by British expats residing in Birgu or by bar-owners to the expansive countryside outside the Cottonera Lines leading to Rinella, St Leonard, Xghajra, Marsascala, St. Thomas Bay and beyond.

Behind the scenes

Behind the scenes in Malta with Coronation Street, from Corrie's Blog:

There’s a good behind the scenes look at fiming in Malta which was shown on ITV’s This Morning programme. The video is hosted here under the title of A Maltese Special on the itv.com website. It’s a lovely little video and well worth a look as you get to see how they did the Coronation Street filming in the staggering 108 degrees heat with Sue Cleaver (Eileen) and Simon Gregson (Steve) on the Maltese island of Gozo. And if you haven’t seen it already, this is the hotel they used for filming out there.

Update: Malta gets Street Cred

Wooing technology wanderers

Malta's ancient defences no longer deter outside interests, says BBC business reporter Michael Dempsey. From BBC News:

Keyboards click away as a small team of software programmers devise intricate lines of code that will create another computer code for far-flung clients in the global economy. The digital world may have banished geographical boundaries, but not all outsourcing projects are located thousands of miles from Europe. The work that will allow Lloyds Register to sell on a new maritime maintenance service is being carried out in Malta, an island nation of 400,000 people that joined the EU in 20204 - and is winning work due to corporate disillusionment with the trend towards outsourcing such projects to Asia....Mr Macleod's decision to move work to Malta was based on an equation of time and quality. Money matters, but a cheaper location can cost more in the long-term..

Farming work out to locations on the edge of the EU has generated a new piece of business jargon, "near sourcing". "Malta is not cheaper than the Philippines, but here we have complete predictability. And if a project slows up because we cannot communicate properly with staff in Manila then it can cost us more anyway," says Mr Macleod. The high retention rates of businesses on an island with a limited number of high-tech employers also appealed to Lloyds. And having one of the world's biggest natural harbours at hand matters if you're in the shipping business.

Other UK technology companies are now following suit. The Indian technology boom had prompted Crimsonwing to move a chunk of its business to Chennai (formerly known as Madras). David Walsh was won over by Malta's ambience...Mr Walsh admits that his criteria for selecting Malta was not the stuff of business school MBA courses. "I didn't do a massive exercise in analysis; it was a decision that came from the heart. The labour rates here are one third of the UK, there is a keen workforce and it's three hours from London," he says...Walsh's employees are a mix of native Maltese and British IT staff lured by a Mediterranean lifestyle...

Healthcare information

ACS signs $21 million contract with Malta to implement integrated health information systems, from CNN Money in Dallas:

Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. announced today that it has signed a seven-year, $21 million contract with the Government of Malta to improve the delivery of healthcare to patients and improve the accuracy of their healthcare information. The new agreement -- a key component of the Government of Malta's program to attain the highest quality of patient care for all Maltese citizens -- is the first phase of the Government's Integrated Health Information System (IHIS), which aims to improve the management of healthcare records and to integrate state-of-the-art digital medical equipment in Malta's 850-bed Mater Dei Hospital, the nation's largest healthcare facility.

"This is another milestone reached by the government in its endeavour to give the Maltese people the best in healthcare," said Frank Mifsud, Malta's Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, the Elderly and Community Care. "These integrated healthcare information systems should put our patients' minds at rest that their medical care is being dealt with effectively and in the most professional way. These systems will also open avenues for the planned future expansion of our healthcare network."

ACS will provide the hardware, software, and expertise needed to maintain laboratory information systems, radiology information systems, picture archiving, and communications systems. The company will integrate these products and systems with the systems currently used in the management of Mater Dei Hospital. Through this new agreement, ACS will provide products and services to aid in reaching more precise diagnoses of patient conditions. In addition, the agreement supplies physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals with the latest in healthcare technology, meeting and exceeding standards existing elsewhere in the world...

Bridgewater and Marsa

Bridgwater, a town in Somerset, is twinned with Malta's port town Marsa. Dan Sales writes in The Bridgewater Mercury:

Bridgewater has made headline news in a Maltese paper thanks to its historical links to Marsa. The story was discovered by twinning association members Pat and Steve Morgan after leafing through a copy of the L-Orizzont given to them by the Mayor Francis Debono, during their visit to the area. In the middle two pages there was a large story about Bridgwater and how it became linked with the town. Twinning association spokesman Pat Morgan said: "We met up with various people from Marsa and visited the 1st Marsa summer scout camp near Marsaxlokk.

"As the article was written in Maltese the paper was brought back to Bridgwater for Joan Gill, the wife of our chairman who comes from Siggiewi in Malta, to translate for us." The Bridgwater association now says it is looking forward to the visit next week of the mayor, his family and Councillor Mary Rose Dalli. And on September 15 it is holding a Maltese Evening at the Wellworthy Club - more details at www.bridgwater-marsa.webeden.co.uk.

Relations with Turkey

A Turkish-Malta Business Council will soon be set up, from The New Anatolian in Ankara:

Turkish Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) will set up a Turkey-Malta Business Council and hold introductory campaigns for Turkey before the soccer match to be played between the teams of two countries, DEIK announced on Wednesday. When Turkey-Malta Business Council is formed, Turkey will have business councils with all EU members countries, except the Greek Cypriot administration. During introductory campaigns --planned to be held between September 6 and 9-- founding agreement of Turkey-Malta Business Council will also be signed.

The soccer match between Turkish and Maltese teams will be played on September 8. DEIK stated that Turks can invest in developing tourism sector in Malta. Other possible cooperation areas can be banking and finance, production industry and maritime.

The trouble with Malta

Bleungberg, a blog conceived on the autobahn in Germany, posts a dispatch from Malta despite the difficulties of finding wi-fi hotspots:

..I’m mildly enjoying Malta, having now switched hotel to a more comfortable one. Not that I hated the first one – it had a great view of the Mediterranean - but it was just rather too basic to my liking. Plus I didn’t feel particular safe in it – not for my possessions anyway. Now, I’m staying right by the sea and with a harbour view of Valetta which is pretty nice. It also has a tv which was lacking in the first one. I never thought a TV would be so important to me in a hotel room – not for watching but a bit of background noise to keep me company.

Malta’s a strange place. People speak Malti, but I don’t really see it anywhere – on buses or in shops. Everyone seems to speak English pretty darn well which certainly helps. And that makes me wonder why not more tourists from England come here – they speak the language, the weather is superb, beaches (or at least ones with rocks) and resorts are plentiful. Plus, due to colonial legacy, they use three-headed plugs and drive on the left, like the UK and Cyprus. So, how did I manage to find an empty room in a seaside hotel for the whole week so easily, or why check-in with Air Malta at Heathrow took 5 minutes, with the plane only 60% full? (Its food was superb, by the way)...There are enough quirky stuff to amuse people and the food is very much to the taste of the easily-homesick Brits. They’re missing out.

Then again, I am here to work so I guess I have enough to keep me going. But by taking a long walk around the harbour to the capital Valetta and a bus-ride to the ancient city of Mdina suggest that one can easily spend four days living well here. In addition, one can now boast to have visited Europe’s second-smallest capital city (after Vaduz) and the spookiness of Mdina. The latter had virtually no tourists and was like a 9th century ghost town – which it was...

What if Malta had fallen?

Brian Blouet, author of The Story Of Malta, speculates on what Europe would be like 'had Malta surrendered during the second siege in World War II', from The Times:

Prof. Blouet is in Malta finalising a new book - The Story Of Valletta, A History And A Guide - to be published by Progress Press later this year. His Story of Malta has been reprinted 11 times. "It is remarkable how this little island withstood such heavy bombings. Had Malta fallen in 1942, Rommel would have probably won the North Africa campaign, the war would have dragged on and the Red Army would have reached the Rhine. Some historians believe that to end the war, the atom bomb would have had to be dropped on Germany and one could only imagine what the consequence of such a disastrous affair would have had on the geo-strategic relations and on the unification of Europe later," Prof. Blouet said.

"While the Maltese were hungry at the time, little did they know that Italians were in a worse situation than they and there were bread riots during the war, so the possibility of having more food if the Italians came to Malta was even more remote. "The importance of Malta can be seen by the fact that Churchill was prepared to risk losing whole fleets to try and get a ship or two with supplies to Malta."

Prof. Blouet's Ph.D. was about how the landscape in Malta changed during the Knights of St John. "It's remarkable how the demography in Malta changed under the Knights. Whole towns were built and the population increased from an estimated 20,000 to around 100,000 in under 300 years. "Research in parish registers shows that the raid by the Ottomans in 1551 had a bigger impact on the population than the siege.My research showed that there were very few births for a long time after the 1551 raid, which denuded Gozo of its population. But the impact was felt in many Maltese villages as the birth rate dropped and remained low for many years," he said. Putting the finishing touches to the manuscript of his new book on Valletta, Prof. Blouet has been around the city "typescript in hand to make sure that anyone using it would be well guided by what I wrote".

Marble graves

The marble graves of Valletta, by Petra Bianchi:

In his fascinating book ‘Memento Mori’, the researcher Dane Munro has painstakingly translated the inscriptions of the tombstones of the Knights into English, offering contemporary readers who are not familiar with Latin a unique insight into the thoughts, fears and aspirations of the Knights. Munro’s text is accompanied by beautiful photographs by Maurizio Urso, and is published by MJ Publications. Spread over the grand floor of St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta (see picture), the rich designs, colours, textures and exquisite veining of marble ledger stones create the effect of a painting. The church is lavishly paved with the finely crafted tombstones of high-ranking Knights of the Order of St. John, who lived and died in Malta during the Order’s reign over the island from the 16th to the 18th century.

Many of these decorated marble ledger stones were commissioned by the deceased themselves well before their death, to ensure that their place in the church, as well as in the after-life, would be secure and also fitting to their rank in the social hierarchy. The elaborate designs and inscriptions were usually executed to their own specifications, which was common practice at that time. In his well-known poem ‘The Bishop orders his Tomb at St Praxed’s Church’ (1845), Robert Browning satirised his Renaissance Bishop’s desire to plan his tomb to outshine that of his rival Gandolf, who has “paltry onion stone”, an inferior type of marble that flakes, on his grave in the same church.

The Bishop warns and begs his illegitimate sons not to trick him and use “beggar’s mouldy travertine” on his grave once he is dead; instead he desires them to place a lump of stunning blue lapis lazuli in his hands, and to use “peach-blossom marble … rosy and flawless”, dazzling jasper, and a bronze frieze in bas-relief to contrast with deep black marble above. The Knights of St. John commissioned famous and established architects and artists, such as Romano Carapecchia and Francesco Zahra, to design their own tombstones. A sketch of the design would first be drawn out and then modified and approved by the Knight himself, with the marbles to be used, mostly imported from Italy, carefully chosen for their hues and textures...

'Woken By British Newspapers'

Writing in the American Chronicle of Beverly Hills, California, Roger Munns says that the revival in Malta's tourism fortunes is partly triggered by media reports in the British press:

Going through some years of a declining tourist market, the Mediterranean island of Malta is now seeing a revival in her fortunes as a mainstream tourist destination. The prospects for the island have improved dramatically over the last year. At one point in 2006 there was speculation that a major British tour operator was considering taking the holiday island out of its brochures, but this year, having stared at the possibility of slipping to a niche travel destination, Malta is enjoying an upswing in visitor numbers..

The extra visitor numbers are being boosted by more media coverage in Malta's traditional core market of the United Kingdom, with daily and Sunday newspapers featuring Malta more as a suggested location for a holiday...'Malta seems to have come back on travel writers' radar', they say, 'We've been pleasantly surprised at the number of national newspapers asking us for quotes. The same has happened with journalist enquiries for property in Malta, showing perhaps that increased media interest for Malta holidays is no coincidence.'..

'If Malta can achieve more frequent mentions in the UK national press, travel programmes and other media it will influence the buying public when it comes to deciding where to go on holiday. The more Malta is mentioned the more likely it is that the island will be considered. We don't expect Malta to start reaching top ten favourite destination polls, or to become as related to holidays as Majorca is for example - but to get somewhere close to what Cyprus has achieved could be an achievable aim, and should be.'...

Coronation Street episode update

The latest Malta Eurobarometer

The latest Eurobarometer survey measuring public opinion in Malta was launched yesterday at the European Commission office in Ta'Xbiex. These are the titles in today's newspapers and news sites - Times of Malta: Maltese trust EU more than government or Parliament; Malta Independent: Rising prices concern ‘may be partly related to euro adoption’; MaltaMedia: 64% of Maltese favour island's euro adoption; Maltastar: More Maltese get worried on inflation; Maltarightnow: Erba' minn kull ħames Maltin sodisfatti bil-ħajja li qed jgħixu; L-Orizzont: X’jinkwieta l-aktar lill-Maltin skond l-Ewrobarometru: L-Gholi tal-Hajja + Il-Maltin iridu lill-UE tishaq aktar fuq l-immigrazzjoni.

Tourism rumours

Holidays in Malta could be off the list of destinations offered by major tour operators from next summer, according to press reports quoted in Editors Choice:

..Malta has been struggling for some years to adapt to the modern traveller, but government figures released for March showed a year on year drop in tourists of nearly 10 per cent, and most worrying of all was that the number of tourists arriving from the UK, Malta's main market, fell by over 13 per cent, and visitors from Italy, a market the Tourist Office had been trying to cultivate also fell..

In addition to lower property prices, YourMalta feel that projections of a collapse in the island's holiday market if tour operators did withdraw could be exaggerated. 'While the loss of the tour operators bringing tourists to the island is significant, in time the island will be less reliant on their business as more and more people make independent travel plans through the internet, and book their flights and hotels in Malta independently of traditional holiday companies.

Malta tends to attract the older tourist, so it might take longer than somewhere like Ibiza for example which attracts a younger visitor who as a group are more internet friendly', states Managing Director Roger Munns, 'but in time when the internet is seen as the primary source of booking a holiday across the age range, Malta will stand as much chance as anywhere of attracting tourists.

There has been speculation for some time now that low cost airlines are going to start offering flights to Malta, and this will help the Malta hotels and holiday market as more people consider three and four day breaks instead of the traditional week or fortnight, boosting the overall number of visitors, especially if Air Malta and the low cost airlines bring the cost of Malta flights to levels seen for the Spanish islands. With an ineffective promotions board there is plenty of hope still for the holiday market in Malta, despite and not because of the Malta Tourist Authority, who are failing to promote Malta in the UK in any meaningful way.'

Hot enough to make Maltese cross

Carolyn Hitt escaped Britain's extreme weather and ended up 'being microwaved' in Malta. She discusesses historical meteorological precedents in the Welsh Western Mail:

Life's a beach and then you fry. Apologies to those who spent last week bog-snorkelling through the Royal Welsh car park, watching the monsoon lash the office windows or queuing for an uncontaminated bowser, but some of us were lying on Mediterranean sands. Before you feel like battering us with a damp sandbag, this wasn’t quite as idyllic as it sounds. Reader, it was boiling, blistering, scarily hot. Malta is the filling in the sea sandwich between Sicily and North Africa, so it was never going to be just pleasantly warm. But this was the kind of heat that makes you wonder if your internal organs are being microwaved..

While the dedicated tanorexics continued to grill themselves, I retreated under the umbrella with a kaftan that could have accommodated Demis Roussos and Nana Mouskouri. But even in the shade, there is no escape for the bits of you that hang off the end of the lounger. My first step on the cooling tarmac of Bristol Airport was made by feet covered in a prickly heat rash and several blisters.

Even the natives, who usually chuckle at the inability of lobster-hued Brits to cope when the mercury rises, were getting hot under the collar. It’s making the Maltese cross. One local shopkeeper was feeling distinctly sunsick: “We now get this 10 months of the year,” he sighed, mopping a glistening brow. “I only got to wear my fleece once in December.” Unlike Greece, at least Malta wasn’t literally burning. And the poor folk of Tewkesbury would no doubt swap weeks of wading through sewage water for a Mediterranean heat wave. But there comes a point when you realise that despite all the technological advancements of the 21st century, we are completely at the mercy of the elements..

But it’s worth giving divine intervention a go as the weather now seems to get in the way of simple things like, well, living. Those who think climate change is a myth point to the illuminated weather reports of 13th-century monks. A Benedictine called Matthew Paris – who lived 750 years before his political namesake – seems to prove global warming was a habit we were acquiring in the 1230s and 1240s. He described the summers of 1236 and 1241 as “unbearably hot”; 1237 saw hurricanes wild enough to knock down buildings, while high winds sank 20 ships off Portsmouth the following year. Then came the rain. Three incessant months of flooding but with surfing serfs rather than the obligatory television news reporter in waders saying, “As you can see Sophie, I’m up to my waist in water...”

But they can throw all the meteorological precedents at us they like. The scary fantasy of extreme weather thriller The Day After Tomorrow may be getting closer to today. It still feels weird to have autumn storms as the norm; spend barely any winter mornings scraping frost of the car; and endure summers that veer between last year’s flaming June and this year’s flooded July. My abiding memory of this summer will be a mini-break in Pembrokeshire in which Narbeth resembled Mumbai in the monsoon season and feeling microwaved on the Med...