The ‘jablo’ statues that stole the scene from all other V18 activities, at least for the past two weeks, have certainly contributed to a lively national discussion.

I must say that I quite like the idea of putting a face to proverbs and other sayings. One of my favourite things when I was still an idealistic youngster was translating proverbs or sayings literally or phonetically from one language to another. I thought the end result was fascinating.

However, my enthusiasm used to be quickly dampened when I would realise that none of my friends or acquaintances would appreciate, or even laugh, at my uttering of “Porsche la misoir” (Porca Miseria), “In the mouth of the wolf” (In bocca al lupo) or “The chemist, of what he has, he gives you” (L-ispiżjar milli jkollu jtik). This put a stop to what I used to think were ingenious utterances.

Therefore, I must admit openly that I laud the artist for having had the creative urge to come up with and concretise his idea. Having said this, one should be left free to express one’s evaluation of the end product.

As for myself, I have had mixed reactions: I really found appropriate and pleasant the “Minn widna jidħol u mill-oħra joħroġ” (entering one ear and going out of the other) statue. On the other hand, I consider the “Il-baqra tinbiegħ kollha” (literally translated as ‘every part of the cow can be sold’) presentation to be totally irrelevant, with no relation at all to the original proverb, and even aesthetically offputting.

The “L-ewwel ma tiekol l-għajn” (first im­pressions count) effigy I consider to be quite witty: the artist is not representing the proverb’s meaning at all, but is actually its literal translation. As for the “onion” pro­verb, to be honest on first seeing the statue my thoughts went to another legume, the potato, in relation to the saying that begins with the words “Go and take it...”.

What I indeed find shocking is the ‘shocked’ reaction of the politically appointed V18 chairman, Jason Micallef

Whatever I may think, it is important that people are allowed the freedom to vent whatever they feel about this, or any other, artistic (or pseudo-artistic, depending on tastes) expression. So while disagreeing with my colleague Mark Anthony Falzon’s tongue-in-cheek “invitation” (‘Jablo Junk no more’, The Sunday Times of Malta, February 11) to vandalise the statues (not everyone understands witty statements), I fully defend his right to express his disgust at such works. What I indeed find shocking is the “shocked” reaction of the politically appointed V18 chairman, Jason Micallef.

In his reaction to Falzon’s article, Micallef chastised him for “having rejoiced at the vandalism and having thanked the vandals that last week vandalised the installations at Valletta 2018, and encouraged them to vandalise the rest”.

Now I do not blame Micallef for this assertion. Falzon’s mistake is believing that all  readers of The Sunday Times of Malta can read between the lines and see through his irony and wit. Unfortunately, this is not the case in real life. As I realised in my youth, very few people would appreciate what I would have thought was a really ingenious “Porsche la misoir”! Most readers, instead, take words at their face value and just interpret them literally.

Which means that Micallef is not to blame for interpreting Falzon’s message literally, and that, when embarking on his writings, Falzon should be a bit more considerate towards the majority of readers who are not necessarily trained to appreciate wit.

What I do, however, take umbrage to is Micallef’s threatening rhetorical question: “Is this the message a professor at the University of Malta gives to Maltese youths during lessons?”

My answer to Micallef is very clear: I sincerely hope that, as I do in my lessons at University, starting off from the texts he is discussing with his students, Prof. Falzon instils in his students strong principles whereby they respect authority on the one hand but stand up to it as soon as they realise they are being fed drivel by the powers-that-be; that they always look at things with a critical mind and that they behave with the dignity and self-respect that any human being deserves.

It is only in this way, dear Jason, that Maltese future generations can grow into mature and responsible citizens, who can work for the good of their country, without having to resort to the fawning bootlicking of the respective “mexxej” or “kap” in order to achieve some position in life.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.