Ode to the book

When I close a book/I open life... No book has been able/to wrap me in paper,/to fill me up/with typography,/with heavenly imprints/ or was ever able/to bind my eyes ... I don't come out/of collected works,/ my poems have not eaten poems/they devour/exciting happenings,/feed on rough weather,/and dig their food/out of earth and men./I'm on my way/with dust in my shoes/free of mythology:/send books back to their shelves,/I'm going down into the streets./I learned about life/from life itself/love I learned in a single kiss/and could teach no one anything/except that I have lived/with something in common among men,/when fighting with them,/when saying all their say in my song." This is one of my favourite poems by my favourite poet Pablo Neruda; it expresses such a healthy relationship between books and life.

I am always encouraging people to read, not as a flight from life, but to understand the world better and be able to take part in the hard task of making things better. We still do not read enough in Malta and Gozo and a comprehensive and ongoing national effort is needed to spread the culture of reading among our young. Our children need to read a lot more in different languages to be able to acquire the necessary skills and competencies they need to succeed in life and be self-fulfilled persons. Many of their essays in different languages are inadequate simply because they do not read enough to have something substantial to say in an effective style.

For a country that can only survive by trading with other countries we need to take our language teaching much more seriously than we are doing. We still lack clear language teaching strategies that should run from kindergarten to secondary schools and beyond. We improve our competitive abilities if we develop a strong multilingual workforce and community and we can only do that if we read more.

We need Maltese to celebrate our identity. We need English to participate fully in the globalised world. We need other languages like Italian, German, French, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese to enable us to talk to the people around us and beyond.

The Book Fair being held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre from Wednesday to Sunday is an opportunity to go as a family and explore the literature that is being created today in Malta and the world at large. The organisers do not see it "as a book bazaar but as a small window onto the world literature that trickles to us only in tiny drops."

Some 25,000 usually visit this fair organised by the National Book Council which is responsible for promoting book culture in our islands, the importance of reading and the love of books. One of its future projects is a website on the way that will house an archive of all Maltese books in print.

Other initiatives include a projected production manual for writers and publishers of Maltese books being prepared by a committee comprising some of the most important publishers, writers, librarians and booksellers; as well as a projected networking of schools in an effort to invoke activities that promote books, and local councils, with the intention of helping with efforts to put books on the national agenda.

During the Book Fair, over 20 local publishers will be exhibiting their books. Several events will take place. These involve book launches, literary evenings, activities for children and discussions about Maltese books with their authors present. A unique activity is surely the meeting with English writer Annie Dalton.

We should all visit the Book Fair, take our children and participate in the events being organised. If we simply complain that the children do not read enough or that they are not interested at all in cultural activities we should have the honesty to admit that we are to blame if we do not support actively good initiatives like the Book Fair.

Underage drinking

The penalties laid down in a new law against underage drinking are not a strong enough deterrent for those who sell alcohol to minors. Repeat offenders should be liable to lose their licence. The government bill presented in parliament sets the minimum alcohol drinking age at 16. The penalties laid down in the Bill are a fine of between Lm100 and Lm500 for a first conviction and a fine of between Lm500 and Lm1,000 for subsequent convictions.

It should not be taken as inevitable and a sign of the times that young people will drink, and they will drink excessively for instant gratification. It is not true that there is a global trend for young people to drink more. In the last five years in Malta the drink problem among teenagers has deteriorated sharply. The 2006 Health Behaviour of School-Aged Children Study shows that 21.5 per cent and 15.3 per cent of 13-year-old boys and girls respectively got drunk in the month prior to the study survey - nearly three times as many as four years ago. Binge drinkers are getting younger: 9.7 per cent and 4.9 per cent of 11-year-old boys and girls respectively got drunk in the month before being surveyed.

This problem is not shared by Malta's Mediterranean and Southern European neighbours. The situation here is more similar to the Nordic countries. Most other countries have realized that passing and enforcing legislation against under-age drinking is not enough. Other countries who tackle this problem seriously have employed national strategies including the education, medical and social sectors as well as policing, to stop the problem from developing and deteriorating. Malta only has piecemeal initiatives which lack co-ordination and so it is no surprise that the situation continues to deteriorate.

We are all in favour of this new law, but the urgent need for a co-ordinated strategic plan to tackle this emergency remains. Politicians, parents, the Church and other protagonists have collectively failed in not acting before. This legislation alone will not solve anything. It should not even ease the conscience of the politicians.

What is happening in Malta is not only a result of the lack of a coordinated plan, but also because young people have not been given alternatives on how to have a fulfilling leisure time. The social, cultural and moral formation of the young has gone backwards - the education system only focuses on academic results and drilling for exams. Far too few young people take part in cultural, sports or other activities other than work or school.

The penalties contemplated for those who sell alcohol to minors are not enough to serve as a deterrent. An establishment can lose its licence for playing loud music well into the night. Why not extend that for repeat offenders convicted of selling alcohol to children? There is a need for political commitment to mobilise and engage the whole country in a strategy to counter under-age drinking and to help the young say no to alcohol and yes to a fulfilling life.

evaristbartolo@hotmail.com