Where are we going?

I suppose I am what some individuals refer to as a culture vulture. Vultures are not tremendously amiable birds, not your average robin redbreast at all, but shaggy feathered, scraggy necked, unmistakably ugly necrophiles with fearsome reputations. Yet, they are an integral part of nature's plan that has been cursed up by civilisation. For millennia these birds have kept the world free of rotting carrion. Along with hyenas and the specialised insects and invertebrates, they have hoovered the dead cleanly and efficiently. The Zoroastrian Parsees still dispose of their dead in this way, however I am now poaching on David Attenborough's stomping ground and digressing as usual.

I am proud of being a culture vulture. It is what enables me to hold my own in the world. Knowledge is power and cultural knowledge is essential in order to similarly enable a nation, no matter how small and insignificant like us, to hold its head up high when sitting among the great and the good of this world. This could not be more appropriate than now that we are full members of the EU, a political and economic empire that has not seen the like since Charles V inherited his vast domains in the 16th century. We Maltese have now turned full circle. From having been awarded, like some bagatelle, to the Knights of St John by the same Charles the V in 1530, we are now sovereign and individual members of the realisation of this ancient imperial dream. That we pulled this off is something which I, for one, am inordinately proud of.

Our culture is unique. Holy Week with all its traditions has just passed. Some are a bit on the grisly side, namely the tendency to emulate the masochistic and sadistic excesses that make the Philippines notorious, but most are age old and symbolise that unbreakable hold that Christianity has had, through thick and thin, on the Maltese psyche. Whether they are just pageants put up to impress tourists, outdo the "other band club" or genuine manifestations of faith, remains to be seen. One cannot be too sure of any of them. It could be a little bit of all three elements. The fact remains that popular culture remains strong. After Holy Week come the village feasts and so on an so forth, therefore I have no worries on that score, apart from the persistent smell of hot dogs and hamburgers that proliferate instead of ftira and bigilla.

So, you may ask, what is a Minister of Culture responsible for? In my opinion, the role is twofold. As the government's appointee, the incumbent must monitor, guide and lead to ensure that a national cultural identity is maintained and preserved. This incorporates language, national monuments and art in all its forms. Any manifestation of thought or expression should be encouraged and subsidised, whether it is a passion play in a village hall or an opera in the national theatre.

The other aspect of a minister's role is to epitomise this culture internationally. We cannot all be Andrè Malraux, De Gaulle's charismatic Minister of Culture who re-identified and rebuilt French culture as a benchmark for all others in the 1950s while Europe was still recovering from the violent convulsions of World War II. We can, however, always try. Therefore, there is no way a minister can be responsible, directly or indirectly, for anything that falls below the standard of High with a capital H.

Mediocrity on the part of the Department of Culture is intolerable and unacceptable, which is why we need a hands-on minister or parliamentary secretary who is unhampered by other concerns to do the job. Priorities change. We have seen departments like the environment and tourism, become, from mere appendages to other established ministries, individual, hugely important and controversial departments in their own right. As a consequence of popular and more widespread education, not to mention exposure to the outside world and easy access to overseas influences as never before, Malta has an evolving nucleus of what may be described as a slightly subversive intellectual class that will never accept mediocrity as a solution. These are, despite the lacunae in education which I dealt with last week, on the increase.

I do feel that it is about time that direct and constant consultations between the ministry and artists of all genres should be established. Just to demonstrate the absurd ideas in the Nationalist Party electoral manifesto, for instance, was a pledge to place us artists in some "artists' village" to produce in some idyllic setting, which for some unnerving reason reminds me of what the Nazis did at Theresienstadt!

A parliamentary secretary working with Minister Dolores Cristina, who presently carries the burden of education and culture, would go a long way to facilitating open dialogue with the entities concerned. After all Mrs Cristina already has Clyde Puli looking after youth and sport so should issues like the long overdue establishment of a Museum of Modern Art be deemed less important? I don't imagine so, which is why I regard the situation as inexplicably irresponsible.

kzt@onvol.net