Roamer's Column

So now we have a Consultative Board (CB) chaired by the Tourism Minister to assist and advise the government and the Malta Tourism Authority, whose chairman and recently appointed chief executive officer will be in attendance. Its terms of reference are interesting if a trifle question-begging.

The CB is expected to examine 'objectively' the difficulties facing the industry, draw up concrete action plans that address the situation and bring about immediate growth. More power to their elbow if they can achieve these expectations. The board is made up of at least three seasoned hoteliers and restaurateurs, two of whom, Winston J. Zahra and Michael Zammit Tabona, have often made their views known (the latter, somewhat unnecessarily in the context of his new appointment in last Friday's The Times - and this without diminishing for a moment the validity of his comments).

They hold strong opinions (Mr Zahra asked for the minister's resignation some time back). Convictions are vital in this game so long as they do not lead to the mistaken notion that their every conviction is correct. One assumes that when the board starts to function at the beginning of September, it will do so with the same vigour its members demand of others. It is also hoped that it will take on board, or at least give some credence to, various criticisms of hotel and restaurant operations, from less than first-class service to more than first-class prices, that have been made over the past months in the media.

Former Tourism Minister Karmenu Vella, a Labour MP, declined to sit on the board, quoting a possible conflict of interest. Rum, very rum; this reaction was not entirely unexpected, but Mr Vella does have something to offer and this in the national interest. One would have thought the idea of service would have appealed to him. He could easily declare a specific conflict of interest if this arose and still make a contribution in areas where none existed.

Quite where this CB business leaves the MTA I am not so sure. The impression is that it has been upstaged by this creation. The board has not only been asked to take a hard look at marketing, advertising and selling strategies. It will also be monitoring the response to Government's call by low-cost carriers and to come up with the best mix of these sources in the context of current and future travel trends.

The minister will have to be very careful come next month. The CB kicks off at the same time as the new chairman and CEO of the MTA are similarly easing themselves into their new jobs at MTA. He must not allow the latter's feathers to be ruffled before they even get going. They cannot be made to feel as if they are being edged out of their executive functions.

On the credit side, this new set-up has the considerable advantage of experienced, strong-minded people sitting around a table with two objectives in view. Kicking ass where this is necessary and forging a tourism sector in which all stakeholders, from the taxi and bus driver to the beach and street cleaner to the cash-point girl at the supermarket (who seems to think her job is part service and part gossip with the girl at the next cash-point - 20 parts service, 80 parts gossip or asking for a biro, for a break) to the construction industry to the road building and road management guys to everybody who looks after the welfare of our guests, including hotels and restaurants, to the education, financial, road and resources ministries, for all these to understand, at last, that there is more to their job - and life - than many of them seem to think is the case at this moment in time.

So yes, let the CB and the MTA get cracking by building on what is good (and that exists, too, let us not be unduly churlish), eliminating what is bad, improving what is mediocre and, through a Herculean effort, instilling a mind change in those who do not even know what this is.

We'll talk again in a year's time. By then low-cost carriers will be landing far more often at our airport, road and site management will be under control and civics will no longer be a word in the dictionary.

Who takes care of the children?

Was a time when the answer to this question was easy: their parents first, their grandparents second and the government fourth. Today this is no longer as true as it used to be. A socio-economic ethos that requires more women in the workplace than was the case 40 years ago, early teenage parents, single parents, separated parents, parents in extramarital relationships, internal family break-ups have contributed to throw that answer somewhat out of kilter. Matters will grow worse if the extended family culture that has stood Maltese families so well is weakened further or, worse, disappears altogether.

More and more, the call is for Government to get involved, to provide a range of child care and services to allow mother and father to go off to work. And governments do get involved. More and more, in effect, we are turning our backs on the family. A hundred years ago Chesterton was already writing that "just now there is a tendency to forget that the school is only a preparation for the home, and not the home a mere jumping off place for the school".

His warnings against the State's overwhelming presence in the education and upbringing of children fell on deaf years, of course. He was already fearful, then, of the influence of the State in deciding what children are taught, how they are taught, how the educators are educated into educating the children, and significantly in determining what they are not taught. This makes it difficult for the school to be a second home.

Introduce into the upbringing of our children the media in all its shallowness and, far worse, take a look at the ratings that some films receive (e.g., Miami Vice OK for 12-year-olds; good for Eric German, this newspaper's film critic, for speaking up); see also the irresponsible scheduling of movies by Melita Cable never mind the soft-porn plus channel it offers viewers; consider the poor quality of children's programmes - introduce the media in all its predatory shallowness and I think there is sound cause for worry.

Take the Internet on board (how many PCs are allowed in children's bedrooms with no effort made to guard against indiscriminate surfing, to protect their kids from involving themselves in what could turn out to be Fatal Communications? How many parents even worry that the threat exists? According to a report filed with the Washington Post, "a recent Justice Department study in the United States showed that one in seven children using the Internet has been sexually solicited and one in three has been exposed to unwanted sexual material. One in 11 has been harassed". Take the Internet on board and there is extreme cause for worry.

This makes it difficult for the home to be the first church. It was, as adults know from their own mistakes, always difficult. It has become infinitely more so.

That there are adults, married and unmarried, who go out of their way in search of porn, is something else again. Their failure to grow up is not the reason behind this piece, but it all adds up to an environment that is running the danger of losing its basis in Christianity and creating mindsets that may be contributing to the latest figures on Sunday Mass attendance.

Sunday Mass

This, according to Discern, the Institute for Research on the Signs of the Times, has dropped to 52.6%. The drop seems to start after the age of 14 and is highest among the 15-24 age group (the next highest are the 25-49s). Refreshingly, because these have the greatest opportunity to coax their children into returning to Mass, married couples register the highest percentage of attendance. The number of those who form part of Catholic organisations also provides a source of hope. If pastoralisation is to work, parish priests need to understand that the contribution of these lay groups could be, will be significant as new structures of faith are built to deal with new situations.

The reaction of many to the census will be to remark about the poor standard of the homily and certainly there are homilies that are less than inspiring, that leave congregations unedified to put it no more strongly. This is a pity because the preaching of the Word is a vital preparation for the central element in the Mass, that is, the Eucharistic prayer. It is for this that Mass is celebrated at all. Were there no Eucharist there would be no need for Mass.

Any emphasis on pastoral evangelisation, at home, at school, at church itself, must be based on the truth and the sharing of the truth that the day before He suffered He took bread in His sacred hands... broke the bread, gave it to His disciples and said: "Take this all of you and eat it..."

The Archbishop was understandably "worried by the situation" but expressed the opinion that "52.6% is still good, especially in the light of what Churches in Europe are experiencing. While Sunday Mass is at the core of Christianity, this does not mean people have lost their faith and many are still presenting their children to receive the Sacraments". True, but if the core of Christianity risks being ignored by nearly 48% of the people, the threat to faith is clearly great.

He was on far safer ground when he acknowledged that this is "the time for pastoral people to be convinced of the urgent need of evangelisation and catechism (sic) especially among adolescents and young people". Where are these pastoral people?

In the priesthood to start with and in those lay organisations that have made Christ their centre. Many priests are obviously aware of the current decline; a number of them seem not to know how to stem it. Evangelisation, I imagine, must start with them, teaching them how to address a situation they find difficult to cope with. Sermons alone, and certainly not overlong sermons, will not suffice.

Their first reaction ought to be that those Catholics who sometimes miss out on attending Mass remain Catholic and, therefore, a part of their parish, more important, of their ministry. Their second should be to avoid the temptation to harangue their congregation (after all, they are there) about Mass attendance; instead they should encourage those who are sitting in front of them to persuade their friends not to short-change Mass for some other activity. This naturally requires a massive pastoral undertaking to explain the relevance of the Eucharist and the central position it holds in shared communal belief and worship.

The first source of evangelisation remains the home, with all the problems that this is encountering as a social unit, followed by instruction by qualified teachers in our schools, followed by an understanding of the Christian's need and requirement to attend the Lord's Last Supper on Sunday (or Saturday evening). Against this are arrayed the forces of secularisation and relativism. The first zealously shunts Christianity to the wings, the second invites the Christian to a whole new world where it is not only Sunday Mass that is relativised but pretty well everything else.

Ich habe Sorgen

Perhaps I should know the answer and there is nothing to worry about, after all. But I don't know and I am worried about a development at the recently tailored Cottonera Waterfront. There, the entire space along the yacht marina, which I understand is fully booked, has been upgraded and retail outlets have opened. The regeneration of Cottonera goes on apace and for the most part the pace is heartening. Sadly, one obscenity in the shape of modern apartments that disgrace the marina was committed a few years ago. My Sorgen is that there may be another unless, as I have already indicated, my worries are misplaced.

The company that runs the reopened Casinò di Venezia has indicated it intends to build a hotel next door. What is an unknown as far as the general public is concerned is just what that building is going to look like. A repetition of, or even the slightest resemblance to those infamous apartments will be a disaster. The hauntingly beautiful façade of the Birgu Marina will cry out for vengeance if such is the case and the ghosts of Buonamici, Blondel and Gafà will surely conjure up a shark or two and feed the architect to both.

MEPA beware; again I say to you, beware.

Quote...

The gallows in my garden, people say,
Is new and neat and adequately tall.
I tie the noose on in a knowing way
As one that knots his necktie for a ball;
But just as all the neighbours - on the wall -
Are drawing a long breath to shout "Hurray!"
The strangest whim has seized me... After all
I think I will not hang myself today.

(A Ballad of Suicide; quoted in Lessons from Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist)

(I have decided on this poem because it is one I learned at school. I came across it during the voyage of rediscovery I recently embarked upon - in search of G.K. Chesterton. Ominously, my computer rustled up a wiggly red underline to indicate it had never heard of one of the greatest English writers of the 20th century. I wonder if anybody under 30 is as ignorant of this, his most popular poem, as my soulless machine is of its author? There would be quite a message if our under-30s have not come across it during their studies.)

The Donkey
When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.
With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings
The devil's walking parody
On all four-footed things.
The tattered outlaw of the earth
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.
Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.