While TIME magazine has made a big hue and cry about the Web 2.0 internet revolution - going as far as to confer its annual Person Of The Year award to bloggers and YouTubers worldwide - blogging has, until now, received scant attention in Malta. The people you'd expect to enjoy this sort of thing - the small battalion of local media pundits - have barely acknowledged that it's happening at all. And those of them who constantly complain about the stagnation of Maltese life and politics, haven't exactly embraced the injection of new, mostly fresh (and young) new voices. This might change this year as politicians and priests have recently joined in the blogging fun, surely to be followed by a faithful, and numerous, following.
The Big Issues of 2006 have been tackled in this blog and by several of our favourite bloggers (see the list on the right). Whether it was the ugly rise of racist spiel, Christ on Malta's euro coins, the Eurovision song contest or the Gift of Life campaign, bloggers have written about it, had a crack at the usual pundits' take on things, laughed at it and fed into the raging debate. But while the rise and rise of racist talk on the net rightly got plenty of media coverage, the voices for tolerance and the campaigns by Maltese bloggers like Xifer, J'Accuse and Lanzarote got scant attention. But we predict that this will change. As Harry Vassallo's article in last Sunday's Independent shows, people might be starting to pay a bit more attention. We'll see what 2007 has in store.
A Happy New Year to you all!
- 1 Harry Vassallo article in last Sunday's Indy which might well indicate that Maltese political blogging can have an impact. This is arguably the first time bloggers have been directly 'challenged' on substance and I'm pleased to say that it's an interesting, mature debate. (More on this later, see our post 'Partit Liberali Malti', check out Fausto's blogpost and a nod in Raphael Vassallo's direction in case he's reading this).
- 1 short story from Pierre direct from Gozo (subsequently revoked before I had time to translate it for Anna)
- 1 blog post from j'accuse announcing his departure for the East Coast (We look forward to exchanging notes. After our own trip to the West Coast a couple of years ago, we're sure our freshly knighted fellow pundit will return to base with a more nuanced view of the US and A)
¶ 5:40 AM 0 comments
I've already got visions of Labour's die-hards holding up placards saying "Vote Fredu, Get Segolene" come election time. Now that would really be something.
One of the lawyers was also heard saying that he was asking the questions to determine "the seriousness of this comedy".
(Matthew Xuereb, The Malta Independent, 13/12/2006)
No doubt, the cocky lawyer in question was referring to the poor police officers who, on cross-examination, admitted that they had been ordered to arrest the '35 women' for 'dancing while scantily dressed', sporting 'a thong in public' and for 'wearing shorts tighter than those of a gymnast'. Thank God they weren't men with a penchant for fluorecent bathing suits. J'accuse has taken some time off from desperatley trying to rehabilitate La Vecchia Ladrona and has also joined in the mirth.
I can see the funny side but I also think it's about time someone stood up and pointed out that the "seriousness of the comedy" lies elsewhere. Here we are in 2006 and 30 Maltese MPs from across the political divide sign the Gift of Life petition. Harry Vassallo signs it too (justifying his capitulation with a legalism) rather than telling Vincenti to go and water the turf at the Marsa sportsground. Salvu Balzan meekly says that: "The Gift of Life promoter, a certain Vincenti, has basically cornered politicians and asked them to sign his petition. It calls for the inclusion of a no abortion clause in the Constitution. By refusing to sign, it could infer that they are not against abortion. It is an unfair way of campaigning". Poor, helpless politicians, held to ransom by mighty Paul W. Vincenti! Varist Bartolo, that beacon of left-wing politics, brushes off Vincenti's crusade as a "red herring" but signs it anyway.
I prefer to see the Gift of Life phenomenon and the lapdancers saga as a beautiful experiment in converting the largely unchallenged, constant and inescapable moral discourse into brass tacks. How long can a nation put up with a waterfall of vague notions about 'moral lassitude', 'unchristian values', 'unprecedented assaults' and 'rampant relativism' before it decides to do something 'real' and 'concrete' about it? I mean what are these assaults if not decadence-related.
Forgetting the legalisms and 'thongs in public' for a moment, let's face it - there's one hell of a leap between The Sunday Times/Osservatore Romano take on life (which, to a large extent still represents 'official Malta' and which, as I have said, goes largely unchallenged) and a Hungarian bird in Victoria's Secret lingerie gyrating her pelvis in Qawra to the sound of George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou). If the latter isn't a prime example of 'moral lassitude', I don't know what is. And I don't mean George Michael.
What Malta needs, and hasn't had, is a truly liberal party that isn't afraid to call a spade a spade. If not we're condemned to repeating things like Salvu Balzan does from time to time: "In a country that expects to be treated like a secular European Union state, the actions of people like Paul Vincenti should be taken for what they are. They are outdated, out of synch and a throwback to the past".
But would a liberal party, a true Partit Liberali Malti, ever stand a chance at the polls? Now there lies the real question.
*****
Elle: Mais on est toujours decus. Il y en a marre d'etre decu. Les politiciens sont tous les memes.
Moi: Sur ce point, je serais d'accord avec vous si vous etiez allee plus loin en disant: "Les politiciens sont tous les memes que nous."
Elle: Comment cela?
Moi: Eh bien, ou croyez-vous que l'on deniche nos candidats, nos represantants, nos presidents, nos ministres? Sur la planete Mars? Sortent-ils d'un laboratoire specialise dans la fabrication de responsables politiques? Non. Ils sont nes, comme nous, de la fecondation d'un ovule par un spermatozoide plus ou moins desiree par deux etres humains...
(From Les Potirons de gauche et de droite sont-ils tous pourris, Charlie Hebdo, Mercredi 15 novembre 2006)
*****
Updates:
Ranier Fsadni: prefers the 'militant political centre' (i.e. the comfy status quo)
Ajjut! Ajjut! : boils it down to 'pajjiz faccjol'.
Kim Bah Lee: a lapdancing enthusiast brandishes the Taleban insult and a threat.
Gift of Life: bare their teeth and (with plenty of wind in their sails) rev it up a notch.
I.M. Beck: Gosh, he dislikes fundies.
L-orizzont: a case of purification by fire?
