Thursday, 13th August 2009
THE SEA, THAT GIVES LIFE
This is such a Catholic country that the famous convoy that gave us a lifeline just when the country was at the end of its tether was immediately dubbed the "Santa Marija Convoy".
Virtually everything that is done here seems to be done in the name of some saint or other, or someone even more senior in the religious hierarchy, and the social fabric is held together by constant references to religious icons and symbols. Even that which is negative finds echoes in religion, with every possible combination of blasphemous characterisation used to emphasise a point being made.
We rend the sky with blasts in honour of some saint or other, we mess the streets up with the flotsam and jetsam of quasi-idolatrous celebration and we go about our daily business secure in the knowledge that God is in His Heaven and everything is peachy.
I suppose we should be thankful that our religious types don't go to the lengths that others do, such as flying above the country blowing their Horns to ward off swine flu, but we still have our own levels of "we've the best religion there is, so there".
To be fair, it's not a bad religion, really, there could be a worse set of maxims to live by than "do unto others" and "love thine enemy".
That's until someone sticks his or her oar in and disturbs our smug complacency, challenging our secure and serene existences with reminders that there's a bigger world out there. Then out of the window go all these cosy notions of love for our fellow man.
I'm not talking about the tremors that go through society when the received wisdom shows its cracks. The idea that Malta is special and that divorce has absolutely no place in the regulation of the civil contract of marriage is one that many people seem to accept is a valid one. Clerical gentlemen, who must know better (really, they must) stand up at their altars and continue to propagate the myth that in Malta Cattolicissima, marriage is for ever, and ever, and ever.
What the pseudo-deluded don't admit, of course, is that for most of us, if needs must, a solution is found and we make accommodations. I haven't had to, though all I can say is "yet" (and I hope I don't have to, in case ‘er is reading this!) but many have and they're not any the less for it.
But that's not what I'm referring to when I describe our Christianity going out of the window as soon as it's challenged.
No, all you need to do is take a look at the comments below the story last Wednesday about the airlift of the new born and its immigrant mother to Malta - and then tell me whether this country really deserves to be called Christian.
Or even human.
I know it's all the usual suspects, with their revolting sanctimony and "send them back" theories, and I know (hope?) that most of us would not subscribe to the inhumanity of the theories these thinly-disguised racists espouse, but even a few such specimens are enough to make me ashamed and there are more than a few.
I have no doubt, and the comments that will spawn below will prove it, that I will be called all manner of names because of this.
I also have no doubt that many of these crypto-fascists will wrap themselves in the flag and claim that all they want is for the law to be obeyed.
Most of them couldn't spell the words humane justice if they were asked to, and an equal number probably don't care that they haven't the most basic of basic grasps of what it means to be so desperate to try to get a better life (yes, and if that means they're economic migrants, so what?) that someone will take risks the smug and the comfortable can't even begin to contemplate.
I'm not pointing fingers: they'll identify themselves by their own words, as they have already, so many times.
RSS
Comments
@ J Martinelli:
I was merely standing in for you
As a matter of fact, three days ago I wrote to welcome back Peter Prictoe since I hadn't seen any comments from him lately. Since my comment did not appear, I wrote the Moderator who graciously informed me that there are no pending postings of mine on ABC's blog. So, somewhere between my computer and The Times, my posting was swallowed. Actually the same fate happened to my second posting on this blog in response to Ivan Attard re: No Martinelli - No Party here. Can't figure this one out, either.
So, there you are, party or no party I did welcome back Peter even if, just to be himself, he sometimes sounds like a crusty old Brit but with a lot of admiration (sometimes) for the Maltese folks.
You didn't have to wait long for 'whazz his name'. Sorry though, for putting you through such a needless anxiety.
Fret not you great defender of the forlorn human masses - another 115 have arrived to be given the warm welcome you expect of your compatriots! They may as well bask in the 'humane' glow of compassion you so readily offer them - only on your blog while detached in your summer retreat on Gozo.
I kind of miss him in a way!
@ I Dingli reference Lawrence Zammit and mention of Mr Martinelli, have patience young man for he will be here eventually.
@ Ivan Attard. No Party can be without him
It is said that great minds consider ideas whilst middling minds deal with events and small minds chatter about people.
Revnons a nos moutons however and mind the words of our leader concerning religion - and some trite phraes he mongers such as do unto others and love thine enemy. Almost all Christian sects would amen them and they are not peculiar to The Old Faith as it was once known in England.
It's raining here in South Yorkshire and I would sooner be sitting at the Upper Baracca looking out over to Cottonera that is the real Malta.The Zabbar church dome peeps over the Cottonera Lines near my old school on the St Clement's Retrenchment above Verdala barracks.
@ I. Camilleri: Thanks for reply.
It is my opinion that people are much the same the world over but the culture varies.
I did not say that Malta is a rich or poor country. I wrote that it is not poverty stricken.
In London you find beggars living in cardboard boxes.
Concerning cars, a much greater ownership of cars is obvious in Malta than in Britain. That you have no place to park them and little need or possibilty to travel far is another matter.
Google " cost of living Malta" and you will get some surprising results.
I want to discuss what Andrew has posted-not personalities but I echo your
comment to I.M. Dingli.
In Ukland as in Malta the cost of living depends on your life style and location whilst my grandchildren at university do not get a salary but run up enormous debts.
Just a few comments whilst we await "You know who" and some other regulars
As regards the swearing part I agree with you. Swearing may classify you as a bad Christian, but doesn’t reflect a person’s true self. I know lots of blasphemers who do tons of good.
@I M Dingli, exactly my point.
Most surnames in these comments seem to be non-Maltese native, so it’s hard to comprehend the situation. In Malta everything is either black or white, the shades of grey becoming ever so faint. What I am trying to say is that the lower class is increasing and so is poverty.
Now, I am not trying to defend the Maltese, as I do believe that there are other areas where large sums of money are being ‘spent’ inappropriately, but undeniably illegal immigration is a grave issue.
Also, as Mr. Wismayer pointed out, there are not many countries in the world that has free medical care. With that reasoning half of the world should migrate to Malta….
Maltese do not want to be racist, they just want a better standard of living, the proof is in fund-raising activities and the charity Maltese do. I may only imagine most of your comments, but if one strongly disagrees with what I said, remember, charity starts at home and most natives are in serious need of it.
Does nothing to convince me from thinking that divorce will simply turn marriage into a quick get-rich money making scheme.
@ Robert Scullion
Indeed so, indeed so. You might have thought that the Maltese, having endured centuries of domination by foreign powers, would be the most tolerant of folk.
Then again it surely behoves the powers of Europe to give every support to its isolated and exposed southern frontier outpost.
Peter, writing from Barnsley, possibly the most pro-BNP town of the UK.
Indeed it takes all sorts.
If only people in power (or opposition even) came out and spoke as ABC is then perhaps this nasty foreigner attitude can be tackled.
Human rights .. some of the critics can't even be called human
Another day another homily and before the usual suspects weigh in with their oars (I am
pleased to know that Malta is not up the proverbial creek without a paddle) I would murmur that Malta is in the centre of the Mediterranean and so its populace have the same vices and virtues as other states around that sea. We barbarians from the north recognise that fact and some of us simply accept it.
Berlusconi for instance has long been accepted in Italy but the natives are beginning to get restless of late and he would be perfectly acceptable in Valletta.
I was given the grace to become a Catholic in early middle age despite my Protestant childhood in Malta and my religion sits lightly on me.
Yes I recall Operation Pedestal and at the end of the war I saw that battered tanker beached at Rinella Bay where I had lived for nearly four years in the thirties. It was being used as a barracks for Yugoslav troops and not knowing its significance I took no photo of it though I did of my bombed married quarters a few yards up the hill.
Old men remember and age brings understanding.