Life changes so much that the speed of change is barely perceptible unless one sits down to think about it. Many of us have no time to "stand and stare" at the beauty of daffodils "fluttering and dancing in the breeze", because we are so taken up by our cares and needs that we forget that the objective of our toils is to enable us to do precisely that.
As we rapidly approach the end of 2009, many people of my 50-something vintage and more forget that there were times when carrying a little phone in our pocket was sheer science fiction, and when mobile phones looking like black bricks were introduced they were great status symbols. Today, my iPhone, among other things, is my encyclopaedia at the ready! I love it. Having access to all the information I need wherever I am and whenever I want is fascinatingly wonderful.
As I write the great and the good are converging on Copenhagen to try to save the planet. A couple of decades ago one would have thought that "saving the planet" was a title of some sci-fi movie but, no, it is real and it is dire. Prognostications, however, are as black as the ace of spades.
As time marches on we realise that things that had never bothered us before now do so immensely. The perception of animal cruelty is one. My generation was brought up on Enid Blyton's blockbusters that frequently featured things like gypsies and travelling circuses as a background to the adventures of the Famous Five or the Secret Seven. We saw nothing wrong with performing tigers or elephants, seals and horses. Poodles of all types were the ideal circus dogs when not dyed pink and wearing diamond colliers in Via Veneto or Maxim's. This was long before the anti-foxhunting lobby became violently vociferous in England while in Franconian Spain, the bullfight was still to be considered to be the height of barbarism.
I remember being taken to many a circus in my salad days and I was always impressed by the tigers, not just by their astonishing beauty but by the surliness and sullenness of their performance. Yes, tigers are not performers, still less are they gregarious animals and, in all truth, I had always considered their jumping through hoops utterly undignified. Tiger Tiger Burning Bright, by William Blake, has always influenced my admiration for the most beautiful animal in creation.
Today, people involved in animal rights know much more about what goes on in circuses and what it entails to train animals that are naturally unused to humans and even to each other.
David Attenborough has forever changed our perspective of the wonderful natural world and it really gives me no joy to watch animals that should be free in their natural environment performing at Blata l-Bajda.
What's worse is that the organisers of the protest held the week before last were sued by the company that brought the circus to Malta and Moira Delia's assets at the bank were frozen! Now if that had happened in the UK when the protesters were disrupting hunts, like the world famous Beaufort one, there would have been complete mayhem. In Malta, I am ashamed to say nobody has batted an eyelid.
I have read the notice of injunction from the Magistrates' Court served on Ms Delia. The reason is "malafama u libell", which, according to JS Productions Ltd. that represent Circo Fantasy, will equal loss of reputation and, hence, loss of potential revenue. The case is based on the interview Ms Delia gave on PBS on December 8 in which she spoke about the cruel and unacceptable ways in which wild animals are trained to be circus performers. Although she never mentioned Circo Fantasy by name, JS Productions declared that as Circo Fantasy was the only circus in Malta the references made by Ms Delia were directed to the same Circo. They are holding her responsible for any damages, for which read loss of revenue, which could be interpreted as the cost of every empty seat for every performance - at which the mind boggles.
As the protesters in Copenhagen go AWOL, God forbid that each and every protester there should have his or her assets frozen in this way and be sued for speaking his or her mind as long as it is within the boundaries of the law. Surely it should be the PBS news editor and not Ms Delia herself alone who should have been sued.
JS Productions have also sued Michelline Sciberras, the Director of Education, for declaring that a visit to the circus was not educational enough to be the subject of a school outing.
I watched the protest on The Times online and what impressed me most was the average age of the protesters. There were very few of them, if any, over 30, which, Messrs JS Productions, shows the shape of things to come. Give your tigers to the Buddhist monks in Thailand and your elephants to a pachyderm retirement home and stick to clowns and trapeze artists, for there lies your future.
kzt@onvol.net