This has to be a quick one because Blogger has been playing up this weekend.
1) To gybexi who wanted a weather report - Bnazzi, xemxi, rih hafif mit-tramuntana (ara ritratt fuq)
2) I've been listening to Belgian alternative rock band Vive la Fete's latest album all weekend. Described by one magazine as "sexy, fun, un groupe qui ne se prend pas trop au serieux". Cool stuff, eccentric and very hot vocals.
3) Just Chill in Brussels, episode 4 is out courtesy of Malta's own restaurant critic, columnist and general bon viveur. The jolly man took the trouble to inform us that he was in Brussels for an exhibition of (politically-backed) Maltese art, going on to describe one of his customary culinary romps. Problem being that he couldn't be arsed to remember the name of the restaurant, let alone the exact dish consumed. He even managed to get the name of the district severely bollocksed. But cheers for the info anyway. In these times of renewed socio-linguistic tension, I look forward to the interpretations on this gentleman's slips.
4) It seems that bloggers are pre-empting certain discussions at a national level. Or, at least, simply getting there before the rest of the punters. This 'unusual' article by Charles Flores (who also mentions a 'popular blog' (probably Robert's?) here) made me wonder. Maybe Toni's right. ¶ 11:30 AM 7 comments
Juventus 2 - Roma 3
This win was sweet. But it could have been much sweeter. Leading 0-3 and completely outplaying i campioni d'Italia is always great fun. Incidentally, for those of you who bothered to follow the post-match interviews, Roma's bald coach Luciano Spalletti reminded me very much of Arnoldo Cassola. His incazzato attitude, tone of voice and very visible amarezza.
¶ 12:38 AM 4 comments
Meta mmur sas-suq tal-Gare du Midi, niehu gost inkellem lill-bejjiegha Gharab bil-Malti. Il-Hadd li ghadda hadt gost aktar meta smajt il-kliem "uro", "uro", "uro". Ghax indunajt li dawn ghandhom il-mod taghhom kif jghidu "euro". Mhux ezatt bhall-Francizi, bl-"eu" ftit twila u nazali u bl-"o" ta' l-ahhar qasira. Imma bl-ewwel "u" qasira daqs l-"o" ta' l-ahhar. Ma nafx ghaliex imma ghogbitni. U l-"w" lanqas hossha. Hadt gost ukoll ghax Muhammed ikollu hafna frott bnin.
¶ 10:36 AM 1 comments
Let's get together, right now, in sweet harmony... ¶ 2:40 AM 5 comments
(Din ta' hawn taht ghandha tittiehed bic-cajt biss parzjalment)
George Cross? Mhux George Cross? Widnet il-bahar? L-iehor hasibha bajtra tax-xewk. Anzi, kaktus. Ewro jew euro? Tghid nzeffnu lil Kristu fin-nofs u nuruwwhom li AHNA l-valuri ma nehduhomx bin-nejs. Ghidilhom Dun Brendan. Ghax wara kollox ahna Nsara. Mela nghidilkom x'naghmlu. Lil dawk il-qlafat Danizi nehdulhom il-bandiera. Dik minn dejjem taghna kienet u, nghiduha kif inhi, izjed TIXIRQILNA. Huma izjed xi disko jew xi gay jixirqilhom. Mela qatt ma rajtuha tperper kburija fil-festa? Simbolu ta' poplu Nisrani, maghqud u kburi. U nkunu roddejnilu salib ghal rasu lill-George Cross. U fl-ahhar inkunu sincieri maghna nfusna. The Catholic Republic of Malta. Capcaplu survey ras.
¶ 9:25 AM 2 comments
Mario Costa, who, I believe, is Malta's man in Moscow (and not the bloke in the picture) has written a letter to The Independent about the language question. His letter is spot-on.
Ok, it does rub shoulders with this. But they do say that variety's the spice of life.
Essentially, Costa's letter makes sense because it simply shows that the man is, thanks to his experience, capable of thinking outside the box. And by box I mean the narrow Anglo-Italo-Malti one which even intelligent people like Daphne are clearly caught up in. The Malta l-ewwel u qabel kollox syndrome is paralysing but the Anglo-Italo-Malti mind-set can be fairly constraining too. It also keeps the artificial "dik tal-pepe"/"ma, what a hamallu" shebang going strong.
Na zdrowie Doktorze Costa!
Instead of investing all their energy into building property empires or getting involved in constructive things like local politics, Malta's young people are just hell-bent on getting a couple of cheap kicks. But, you'll see kids, ecstasy and alcohol don't mix well. And, hey, you can always discover Jesus when it all goes tits up.
What a load of Jackson.
But I'm going to throw my two ewros worth into the sorry story anyway because I don't want to let 'pillars of society' like Frank accuse me of being complacent.
We're looking in all the wrong places for the culprit guys. I mean, isn't it clear? If you're really damn serious, put your money where your mouth is. Stamp out language schools! Now! If you think sex, booze and hedonism are going to wreck Malta's future generations, you've got to close down EF. Just close the tap on them loose Scandinavians. And French. And Czechs. And the Italians too. I won't even mention the Russians. Come on what're you waiting for? What? Francis Zammit Dimech won't like your plan? Easy, convince him that cultural tourism's the future. But what about the 500,000 beer-guzzling Brits who just love our Costa Del Fifty Quid? Bollocks to them. They can go to Ayia Napa.
Glossary: Jackson (slang): Jackson Pollock: Bollocks ¶ 8:34 AM 0 comments
Just got back from the cinema. If you fancy a film which gives you a lion that talks like Liam Neeson (I was sure the animal was going to order a Guinness), several shots of Busietta Gardens and a ditty sung by Alanis Morrissette (both towards the end of the movie), scramble to get your tickets. ¶ 3:34 PM 0 comments
I’ve come to the conclusion that there are three ways to cope with the onslaught of hysteria, evangelical dribble and plain pomposity that flows unabated into the Maltese public space.
And that does not include picking an argument with the authors of the cack, for purveyors of this sort of nonsense are invariably armed with a book of readily packaged quotes or platitudes. Certain reactions also lead me to lose hope that the “reasonable politics” approach, supported by people like him, will get us very far (truth be told, he too has a sense of humour).
The three options?
1) One of these is to simply ignore the cack, or to pretend that it doesn’t exist at all. I know many people who’ve chosen this path. But it appears to me that only the very thick-skinned or the incredibly pragmatic can get away with this approach successfully. And let’s face it, it does take a certain “I couldn’t give a flying fuck” attitude to pull that one off and ignore anything that’s happening outside your cosy niche. Even the Maltin ta’ barra can’t seem to make this work for them.
2) Another way, I suppose, is to fling your laptop, television or newspaper out of the window.
3) The way forward, I think is humour. As Vlad shows, the pages of Malta’s favourite daily offer a gold-mine of opportunity for anyone who’s willing to wade through the mass of nonsense and pomposity. For the problem isn’t that Xarabank is still chugging along or that The Sunday Times will soon complete its transformation into L’Osservatore Romano. Or even that the ANR exists, I hazard to add. Arguing that it’s bad TV or bad journalism or bad politics won’t get us far and can be just as pedantic and boring.
What we really need is Les Guignols de l’Info, the cult puppet-show on Canal Plus in which talk-show hosts, politicians, pundits, sportsmen, TV presenters, singers and ‘the general public’ are given a daily run for their money. When I lived in Rennes, the French even had the Journal de Moustique which was a send-up of the news in which France became a tiny country called le Groeland. A bit like Not the Nine O’Clock News in the UK.
I’m not sure that arguments are always enough. Humour just might be. And it will certainly be worth the ride.
Oh. And while the beginner navigates the slopes and he downs the Black Gold we hope to have a good laugh at everyone's expense from our rainy outpost.
Reading the papers since that fatal accident on New Year's Eve, you'd think that Malta's young people were running amok. Several other bloggers have commented on the hyperbolic reaction in the print media. Paceville has actually been described by one pundit as "a red light district". Ok, it was Adrian Vassallo. But even 'lefty' Evarist Bartolo talks excitedly of a "so called 'park' in St Julians" where groups of young people gather "to drink wine, whisky and vodka brought from nearby shops and poured out of glass bottles into plastic ones. They then move onto Paceville to continue drinking heavily and behaving stupidly."
There's never a dull moment and sometimes it never rains but it pours. The buzz words in the past week have been:
I love this picture which was taken on the set of the film Munich which I plan to see this week. There's something tense but very happy about the atmosphere. And I can't figure out what exactly.
Which brings me to the Veenhoven happiness index. My first reaction was to write an email to several friends to see what they thought. Here's the exchange:
My email: Tal-ostra kieku. Imma kif kulhadd gej l-hawn mela? Avukati, media gurus, kittieba, muzicisti, drammatugi, gurnalisti u sahansitra newscasters….boqq! David
One reply: interessanti din ghalkemm jien suspettuz immens (tafni int) minn dawn it-tip ta studji li jkejlu il kuntentizza…kollox madonna jridu jkejlu u dejjem ikollok xi gustuz johrog b'xi teorija tal-kejl preciz.
Anyway, for the sake of the argument, the lower the expectations the happier you are, that's one possible interpretation… my other interpretation is that we are all a deluded lot, influenced in our conception of happiness by older generations - ie married, with children and a house, and a deep belief in the afterlife provide the delusion of happiness. … what a joke!
Anyway, this is a bit of a stupid exercise, not surprised we came first in an exercise that is absurd from the very start. And having said that, people moving here is not necessarily a sign of unhappiness elsewhere. Many are coming for the money and see their stay as transitory…. And it's not a bad life in malta either mate…
What I find interesting in all this is our almost immediate reaction of disbelief and our attempt to find a loophole in the results of this survey. Here's another reaction which reveals some astonishment. It's as if our own experience, our conversations with people and friends over the years and, (in our generation's case) the quite widespread "kemm nixtieq nitlaq" statement, all point in the opposite direction. In spite of the good weather, the sea and the close family ties.
I'm not convinced that this survey's all cack but can't quite bring myself to describe Malta as a shiny happy place either.
Maybe the clue lies in the generation gap. What do you think?
Ewro... icceduhiex!
minn Charles Flores
Hafna nies qabel ir-referendum u l-elezzjoni ta’ l-2003 ma riedux jemmnu – u ghalhekk ivvutaw kif ivvutaw – li bid-dhul ta’ Malta fl-Unjoni Ewropea hafna hwejjeg li ahna bhala nazzjon hieles u demokratiku konna kmand taghhom kienu se jghaddu awtomatikament f’idejn l-ihirsa ta’ Brussel.
¶ 5:39 AM 0 comments
Thanks to people like her, we had a ten-year scrap about l-Ewropa. Geez, thanks Sharon Ellul Bonici. Great to know we can call ourselves euro-realists (should we choose to) thanks to your post-lunch tete-a-tete with your French friend in the European Parliament. And while you're at it, cut out the moralising crap for fuck's sake. Which reminds me. How about banning hypocrite politicians from pasting photos of themselves shaking JPII's hand in those kitch pre-election leaflets? Especially the Socialists. And then she wonders (again) why divorce hasn't been introduced in Malta. It will, it will...
But back to the ewro. Zemploid thinks that we should get real, while Twanny and the Kunsill Nazzjonali believe there's a linguistic reason for insisting we should spell it 'ewro'. I'm sure there is but I always thought that the rules on spelling cowboy/kowboj, union/unjin and dish-washer/dixx-waxxer (or is it magna ghall-hasil tal-platti?) were not YET set in stone. At least, that's my impression. So why INSIST on euro?
And by the way. We still say 1o pounds when we mean 1o Maltese liri. Don't we? Bloody Brits. ¶ 6:49 AM 2 comments
A few months ago I read a brilliant article in the FT magazine which compared the insults traded between the erudite contributors of The New York Review of Books with the dissing which rap artists love to indulge in. I think it was called The Egos have Landed.
While new blogger Vlad thinks that Kenneth Wain and Jojo Mifsud Bonnici having a scrap about Natural Law and constitutional entrenchment is a pretty pathetic spectacle, I prefer to see this sort of exchange as a fairly healthy type of debate in Xarabankland.
But I must admit that I did have visions of Wain rushing on stage (sporting a bandana and kilt) screaming "Whaz so natural 'bout law anyway?". To which Jojo (draped in Maltese flag) would reply "Get in the ring, mother f***** and I'll kick your bitchy little ass!"
(title dedicated to XXXifer Vella)
In my last post of 2005, I asked whether blogs are being read. Of course I meant Maltese blogs. Everyone knows that the best US, UK, French (and Iranian, and Iraqi) blogs have a massive following. But what about the Maltese scene?
When I started blogging last summer I thought that blogs could have a disproportionate impact in a small island like Malta. In fact, I often tell people who ask me why I do it that if I were anything but Maltese, I probably wouldn't bother. A fresh medium in a country crying out for new voices. But more importantly the very simple question of size.
In this angry interview (also reviewed by Xifer Vella), Mario l-Mulej told Malta Today that "if there is a voice, it can be isolated and put in a niche...If there are 20 such voices, they cannot isolate them. If there are 40, they cannot be ignored at all." He went on to lament that there is, however, no intellectual lobby while pointing out that the independent press (by which, I guess he meant Malta Today itself) is a pace setter in this respect. But il-Mulej, who I take it, owns a computer and is wired to the net, didn't mention the blogosphere AT ALL. We must ask why. Because he thinks it's a load of bollocks which doesn't even warrant a mention? Because he is not, in fact, aware of the scene? These two hypotheses don't convince me. After all, he mentioned a lot of other examples of "unfettered mediocrity" throughout the exchange and I can't believe that Christ Himself has not heard of the word "blog". So why? Of course, I bother asking the question at all because I do believe that there are 10 (maybe 15, cheers Toni) bloggers who're asking interesting questions, who write well (in whatever language) and who are seriously giving local journalists and writers a good run for their money.
During a night out in Brussels, Pierre assured me that Maltese blogs are being read and provided me with some convincing anecdotes. Positive gybexi points out that we are making an impact. Which brings me to Jacques. The man himself has (indirectly) admitted that his popularity is making him feel lonely. A bit like King Kong at the top of the Empire State Building (although Kong did have Naomi Watts for company)? Or Kim Jong Il's exquisite character in one of the best movies I watched in 2005? It's called Team America (go to clips, then film clips, then click on I'm so Lonely).
For now I'm enjoying the ride but do wonder from time to time whether our readership is less or more than that of Lehen is-Sewwa.
Let's see what 2006 has in store.
(in the meantime, I've decided to use 'Naomi Watts' as a title - that should attract a few hits!) ¶ 4:25 AM 9 comments
