Mind (y)our language

Vampires, bones and executioners. Guts, gore and ghouls. Witches, bats and burlesque. Halloween is all this, and more. And less, too.

It’s not that people’s Maltese is getting worse because their English is getting better- Tanja Cilia

Little wonder, then, that one of the best programmes on Radju Malta – L-Istampa Kollha, as well as many others, took time out to discuss it last week. This might have happened because only one parish priest, Fr Kalċidon Vassallo, thought it expedient to warn his flock that the whole caboodle is not merely another Carnival, but has a dark side.

Those who gloss over the inherent evil of Halloween, either because they are not religious or downright irreligious, made fun of Fr Vassallo’s letter. Others, including panel members and call­ers, intimated they would prefer not to commit themselves either way.

The only person who spoke her mind was Alison Bezzina – who said something good did once come from Halloween – because Hallmark had donated the proceeds to a charity NGO.

Be that as it may, even the producers of formula milk donate their products to Third World countries for their own ends. And despite all the to-do about how more of us ought to breastfeed, I’ve lost count of the number of logo-bearing cutie baby posters hanging in clinics; talk about brand placement.

• Gaia Cauchi, 8, from Mġarr is the latest child to represent Malta in an international venue. She was given an extra 15 minutes of fame in Ti Lascio Una Canzone (www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZoKr-vFdWQ) by being asked to sing a solo act.

• Chris and Maurice Micallef have increased their cache of awards for The Phoenicians. It won the Silver Haze Award – Documentary cate­gory at the Humboldt International Film Competition, and the accolade “outstanding and stands above other productions”.

Tal-Qadi Stone won them the Platinum Reel Award in the Nevada Film Festival; the judges concluded it “demonstrated standout filmmaking and is deserving of special recognition.”

• The consultative document on the use of the Maltese language in the broadcasting (sic) media (April 16, 2001) makes interesting reading – not least because it shows that most people in the Maltese media never bothered to read it, let alone think that the phrase ‘gradual deterioration’ might in some way refer to the way they mangle the vernacular.

Although the document was intended to reconcile the ‘language of the people’ with the buzz-term ‘globalisation’, the fact remains that broadcasters and their guests still assume that presence is more impor­tant than a sound knowledge of Maltese when they face a microphone or a camera.

There is the perennial excuse that in a live programme you cannot stop and search for the correct word – and so you ‘have’ to say it in a foreign language. But this problem would not have arisen if the person had a thorough knowledge of Maltese.

The document cites figures of speech, idioms and literal translations as “causes for concern” – as well it might. If people who have lived in an English-speaking country return to Malta after 40 years speaking perfect Maltese, why can’t local broadcasters do likewise?

Alas, it’s not that people’s Maltese is getting worse because their English is getting better; the hodgepodge currently obtaining indicates that both are going to the dogs.

• Eurovision fever is with us again. PBS has announced that it received a total of 161 tracks in the two days it allowed for the Eurovision selection.

I am told most entries were received towards the end of the period open for applications – as if someone or something was holding the applicants back, and then gave the go-ahead, or each individual had a change of heart simultaneously with his peers.

The change of rules allows international composers to submit lyrics; however, the lead singer of the songs must hold Maltese citizenship; or, if he has dual citizenship, one of them must be Maltese.

The semi-finals of the contest will be on January 27, and the finals will be the following day. The jury will listen to recordings and select the better entries for the second round, in which singers will be asked to perform live so that a selection of the best 24 songs for the semi-finals is made. Thence, 16 songs will proceed to the finals, as chosen by a six-member jury and televoting (the equivalent of two more jurors).

Another new rule bars the last five winners of the local contest, namely Olivia Lewis, Morena, Chiara, Thea Abela Garrett and Glen Vella, from taking part.

• Many moons ago, Peppi Azzopardi held a protest because the Broadcasting Authority wanted to vet his programmes before they went on air. The idea had been to pre-empt ‘infringements’ made by people who would be in a villa debating the EU issue, which the Labour Party, then still the MLP, were sure would occur.

At the time, Ivan Bartolo was editor of Fuq ix-Xarabank, which we would sometimes find in the eponymous place should we have wanted to peruse it.

All this, of course, was carried out ‘as a matter of principle’, because the BA itself had twice awarded Where’s Everybody, specifically Xarabank, trophies for it being the best discussion programme on local television.

The BA had limply countered that the format was unlike the ordinary run of programmes, and the series would be inserted in an already-approved PBS schedule. Plus ça change…

• Not one presenter has realised that the question about television sets in the house in the forthcoming national census is extraneous. Most people these days watch television – and listen to radio – on their computer monitors and speakers.

television@timesofmalta.com