Kenneth Zammit Tabona
Censor me too
A young man called Alex Vella Gera has done the unthinkable. He has written a strongly-graphic short story called Li Tkisser Sewwi in a student magazine called Ir-Realtà, which was subsequently banned by the rector at the instigation of the University chaplain.
What surprises me most about the issue is that people are writing in expressing shock and disbelief that this retrograde action should be allowed to happen in 2009! At the same time I will never cease to be amazed at how confused some people's minds are and how devoid of common sense or logic. I am referring to the recent case in Italy where the crucifixes in state schools have been ordered to be removed by the European Court of Human Rights. A whole palaver has been unleashed: in Malta too where, predictably, fear that the same thing might happen because we are part of the EU has prompted the great and the good to make sanctimonious and glib statements for reasons best known to them.
I am glad that people are taking the time and trouble to express their disapproval; at least it's good to know that some people are still intellectually alive and kicking. However, it is my duty to point out that in both cases our Constitution renders any preoccupation about the removal of crosses in our schools as unnecessary and the banning of a magazine as predictably unavoidable.
The Constitution of Malta states the following: The religion of Malta is the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion. The authorities of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church have the duty and the right to teach which principles are right and which are wrong. Religious teaching of the Roman Catholic Apostolic faith shall be provided in all state schools as part of compulsory education. That cannot be clearer.
People who are afraid that the Italy ruling by the ECHR has set a precedent need not worry one little bit and the editorial board of Ir-Realtà should accept the ban as a matter of course. In case it has slipped past you it also negates any attempt to introduce divorce, abortion, bio-ethics, same-sex marriage or anything that remotely goes against Catholic teaching.
As far as the crucifix issue is concerned, the Vatican is miffed and Curias all over the world are at sixes and sevens as how best to devise a damage-limitation strategy. If Italy is constitutionally secular then I am afraid that the European Court is absolutely correct. This is why Archbishop Paul Cremona's declaration that should the situation arise in Malta one day it will be his duty along with Maltese Christians to see to it that the crucifix retains its "place in public places" (sic) is unnecessary because till our Constitution is changed that issue will never arise and if and when it does it will be a total waste of time as there they will stay till at least two thirds of our parliamentarians decide that independence from Rome is vastly overdue. Not in our lifetime.
The main raison d'être of our University seems to be churning out graduates like a sausage factory. What sort of seat of learning is this where free thought is not encouraged and the KSU has had Graffiti banned from campus because of a technicality? Is there no campus life that germinates original ideas? Are we merely producing conformists in blue jeans? Who is questioning the meaning of life? Where are the dreamers, the poets, the writers, the artists who make any University campus a unique experience; possibly the one time in their future drab and grey John Major-ish lives that they would have really lived life to the full?
University should not just be about books, thesis and lectures but about a meaningful translation of academia into the reality of life. This is the place wherein our future leaders are being educated and prepared for life. Do these students not question their existence? Do they accept the System? I don't at the venerable age of 53 even less than when I was 19. Where are the student protests? Where are the declarations and the demonstrations? Is it possible that there are no angry young men, and women, to shake the place up? Are there no intellectual dreamers to inspire the sensibilities of others to sparkle?
It is a sad day for us all that things like this banning has been allowed to happen and it sets a tremendously dangerous precedent too. What is next? The Inquisition?
Malta is not a secular state, repeat after me: We are not a secular state. Christianity as preached exclusively by the Roman Catholic Church is entrenched in our Constitution as the religion of Malta and there it will stay for many generations to come giving politicos the excuse to do nothing about a great many issues that affect our daily lives whether or not they believe in them.
Ergo there is no case in Malta to remove crucifixes from classrooms in state schools and there they will remain till our Constitution is changed.
Meanwhile, censorship and thought control, whether tacit or outright, will continue to stunt our intellectual development for reasons that have little or nothing to do with Christianity as such.
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Joe Xuereb
Nov 13th 2009, 21:56
@ Alex Vella Gera, Could you be so kind as to send me a copy of the infamous piece. Please do not edit any mistakes. I want the full whack. I am an adult so that's that out of the way. I live alone in a mansarde, and I thank god for that. I make mistakes, many of them, but I do not judge whatever it is I write as any less weighty for that.
This e.mail is not to be abused. You, whoever you may be, must not use it unless you are invited to do so. Thank you.
guzexuereb@hotmail.com
Alex Vella Gera
Nov 13th 2009, 00:28
Abel Abela, could you kindly point out what "mistakes" there are in the story.
Joe Xuereb
Nov 12th 2009, 19:29
Mr. Zammit Tabona - I won't call you by your first name because as we say in our culture, 'I never ate/partook tripe with your mother - meaning, 'qatt ma kilt kirxa m'ommok' (ie for the uninitiated, we are not on familiar terms) - what you've just said brings to mind one of my favourite quips. Fasten your seat-belts everyone else, it's gonna be a bumpy ride. Namely, people get the government that they deserve. Oh dear, what have I started?!
Kenneth Zammit Tabona
Nov 11th 2009, 13:52
As there has not been one squeak of protest from all those thousands of students at University maybe the Rector and the chaplain are right to treat them like little kids................how soul-destroyingly sad!
Joe Xuereb
Nov 11th 2009, 11:48
Thank you Christine Xuereb (a cousin twice removed?). I go one further. I am an atheist. At least you and I could communicate at some level. A rare instance that.
Abel Abela
Nov 11th 2009, 09:58
Writer AVG may or may not have intended to provoke this sort of reaction, and his obscene scribblings may be the sort of disgusting rubbish few people with kids would like to take home. It's not even written well. It's full of mistakes. I can say that because I read it. Nobody forced me to. Why shouldn't you?
The University's censorship is completely unacceptable. University students are voters. Cannot they be trusted to choose what to read, and make up their own minds?
Censorship has now given value to what was initially without any literary value, because the country's top educational institution is treating its students like little kids.
And AVG and the editors of this student newspaper have managed to show the state this country is in.
Joe Xuereb
Nov 11th 2009, 00:46
So Malta defines itself largely by its belief-system. Largely because there is not much else about Malta that can be so described. A veritable bind. And yet, and typically, when it comes to the removal of crucifixes, in nies 'ga` qed jorbtu rashom qabel ma qasmuha' (literally, people are already bandaging their head when there is no injury to their cranium, jumping the gun when it's not necessary).
The banning of the piece of literature in Realta` is interesting but hardly surprising. As with the Vodafone/condom saga, many young students were no less censorious than their grandparents would be or even would have been at their age. These things do not change by much in dear old ever-so-pious Malta. Adherence to one's indoctrination stars early and it seems, some seem to be destined to take its unquestioned acceptance to their grave. It is primitive. It is tribal. One does not remove oneself from one's tribe without paying the price. Quite a bind, that.
Christine Xuereb
Nov 11th 2009, 00:05
As much as i do not wish Malta to end up being a secular country, I also wish people to not just follow whatever was thought to them but to create their own thoughts.
For instance ,i follow the Pentecostal church services. One of my duties as a Christian is to spread God's word as it is written in the Bible. When someone tells me they follow a certain faith for some reason of thought , i feel glad they at least they feel it in their heart to do so. But ignorance gets many saying ' i follow Roman Catholicism because this is what i was taught ', or 'your Bible is different to mine' , or ' i know the truth because this is what the priest says at mass'.
Food for thought : Matthew 23:8-10 ''And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven."
Many wouldn't dare offend a priest but see it ok to swear at God.
For those of you saying that homosexuality is a forbidden sin, it is as equal to telling a lie - stop condemning others!
The cross is just an ornament !
Bill Khan
Nov 10th 2009, 18:33
The [problem is now that malta is a full member of the EU, does it listen to and abide by the EU directives or the papal ones?
EU agenda is to do away religiousities of asny kind, be it the crucifix or whatever.
Such short stories albeit by a student are not written without an agenda. Malta may be a catholic country by large majority now but believe me it will be, bit by bit forced to become secular more in line with EU wishes.
m.portelli
Nov 10th 2009, 17:57
KZT hits the nail on the head once again This piece highlights a modus operandi that expects citizens to come to an early conclusion that things never change in Malta, therefore one's only option is to disengage, consequently reinforcing the status quo. It also puts our political class in the hot seat as the people's representatives. MPs are either in total agreement and therefore have no will to change anything but rather are committed to upholding the status quo or are impotent to do so because like most citizens (literati included) they have disengaged long ago. They believe change is impossible! How would you otherwise explain the great reluctance to change arbitrary laws in our constitution that belittle the democratic principle? Courageously, Edward Debono last week called for creative thinking to become part of educational curricula. Though an interesting suggestion, that is bound to fail, you see Malta doesn't want citizens capable of creative or God forbid critical thinking. Malta just needs them to be malleable enough to whip up in a frenzy of righteous indignation every now and then. Malta genuflects deeply to stagnation, infantilisation and that most virtuous of cognitive activity, the unconditional disengagement from critical thinking!
Kenneth Zammit Tabona
Nov 10th 2009, 16:52
Frans
That is not the point.
I am convinced that the story is utterly horrific and disgusting which is precisely what Mr Vella gera wished to convey.
What is wrong is that someone in the establishment took the decision to suppress this "filth with a purpose" which in a free society he had no right to do.
If I do not like something or disapprove of it i have no right to decide about other people's moral sucseptibilities.
The students at Tal Qroqq need to be jolted out of their complacency and realise that there's a raw world out there where people die of hunger, are raped, are tortured, where children toil like slaves and others die after a few hours of their birth.
Like Siddaharta they need to break out of their chrysalis and realise what exists beyond the palace walls.
There are plenty of works of art and literature where the viewer7 reader is jolted out of his comfort zone. I imagine that Mr V Gs story must be something like that. Not for the fainthearted!
Mr Karl Vella makes University sound like a refuge for fledgling Neros, fiddling while Rome burns!
Frans Sammut
Nov 10th 2009, 16:38
Ken, I am tempted to surmise you have not read the so-called short story. Please do and come back.
Should you reaffirm the same view we will have to discuss the criteria that go to make a great difference between sheer unadulterated pornography and literature proper. Over a cup of coffee if you wish.
I am inviting you to reconsider because I presume you would not classify me as a "fundamental Catholic", hopefully as only a lover of the arts.
Karl Vella
Nov 10th 2009, 16:23
@Kenneth Zammit Tabona
The reason why University students are so passive and lack initiative to bring up new ideas, is because most of these students have already been conditioned in primary and secondary schools to accept whatever the authorities tell them do to. They always need that someone to tell them what to do. Leave them without authority and they'll get confused and even worried! There are a few exceptions like Mr. Vella Gera and others who voice themselves openly. But they do so at a great cost to themselves. In addition, most of these students live very comfortable lives, and they're too busy boozing and drinking to think about new ideas. They are happy as they are, drinking and boozing and getting on with life while the country rots.
Bernard Galea
Nov 10th 2009, 16:21
The way the Church in Malta is reacting to this and the furore in general is almost comical. The removal or otherwise of crucixes is a triviality. It can hardly be said that it is going to affect anyone in any material manner.
I agree with Kenneth. The real issues that are symptomatic of the conservative society that is Malta, and the accompanying problems are much larger than a debate on whether a crucifix should remain affixed in the school classroom and other public places.
Kenneth Zammit Tabona
Nov 10th 2009, 16:01
Mr Sant and Mr Pesci
You have missed the entire point. We are in practice a Catholic Fundamentalist state and because of that there is no way any social reforms tat people are clamouring for will be enacted. The crucifix issue is a symptom of this state of affairs. Read the article again.....................carefully
K.Pesci
Nov 10th 2009, 15:47
@Steve Sant
Why is the removal of crucifixes in public places always associated with Muslims and their country. Have we never thought that some maltese born nationals are not Roman catholic? Why should a minority of non catholic maltese nationals have to have crucifixes in public places? Shouldn't it be the same for all, irrispective of what religious believes one has?
Steve Sant
Nov 10th 2009, 15:23
You know, noone asked gere to send her son to that school. If I don't like the Catholic teachings in Malta, I am not forced to send my son elsewhere. If I go to an Arab country or for that matter a Muslim or Buddhist country, and send my son or daughter to their school, would I have a right to say anything critical. An old saying goes, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". I think a lot of this is brought about by too much freedom for the wrong reason. We are now in a world where everything must be questioned and answered as we wish it to be. Dare I say, we brought it upon ourselves??!
Eric Soames
Nov 10th 2009, 15:16
Terrible. An iron grip as potentially restricting as that of any intolerant regime you care to compare it to. That it is, for the main part, benevolent does not make it any easier to accept. I speak as a Christian but I believe our Creator imbued us with a free will that even He respects.
Kenneth Zammit Tabona
Nov 10th 2009, 14:02
Overboard??? Why? I am merely outlining a logical conclusion to an age old dilemma
William P Flynn
Nov 10th 2009, 11:14
If Malta is content with designating itself by a religion it is a Fundamentalist State. However I doubt if a parent didn't want a child to be instructed in the catholic faith, the child will be compelled. Surely there must be parents already who would have signified their disapproval of their children being taught catholic doctrine.
Have you gone overboard a bit?
The catholic church would be the last religion to teach right and wrong especially at university level.