Archive for the ‘ Communication ’ Category

HSBC and the Divorce Debate

HSBC – the world’s local bank – has entered the fray in Malta’s 20-year debate on whether to introduce divorce in this crumbling bastion of Christianity. Roadside billboards and posters on the sides of bus stop shelters have gone up around the island, clearly illustrating which side of the fence this bank is setting up its branches.

Take a look at this photo of their advertising campaign and the signs are there for all to see: two separate sets of keys; the key ring split in two; a divided house with one side reserved for the man and the other for the woman, as in the movie War of the Roses.

HSBC and the Divorce Debate

Today, this billboard is ostensiblypromoting their home loan scheme. Tomorrow, they may very well be encouraging us to take out a loan in order to pay for divorce proceedings or meet the financial settlement awarded by the court.

Two blogs

In one corner, we have www.daphnecaruanagalizia.com, the address an obvious reference to the owner of, and contributor to, the site.

She epitomizes the difference between an investigative journalist and a reporter. Unfortunately for our democracy, the latter far outweigh the former. Pick up any local newspaper or tune in to any radio or TV channel and the news is essentially a verbatim repeat of the politician/church leader/business magnate’s words. Interviews turn out to be cafe chats minus the coffee, with the interviewer religiously reading questions off a list. I generalize, but this is only to emphasise why my inbox is updated regularly with Daphne’s posts.

To be hoest, I am being put off by the insults which are now flooding her contributions and which only water down the seriousness of her accusations. This gives opponents of the truth the small arms they need to fend off the charge.

However, it does not detract from the fact that she is still the leading person on this island prepared to unveil the thick layers of hypocrisy which mask our society.

In the other corner, we have the new kid on the block, www.tasteyourownmedicine.com. The soul purpose of this blog is summed up in four words taken from the post of 28th March entitled WARNING!!! and addressed directly to Daphne Caruana Galizia, “You fuck. We fuck.”

I was hoping to find some interesting arguments to counterbalance those raised in Daphne’s blog,  possibly even providing another angle to the Magistrate Scerri Herrera affair or that of Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando (amongst others). Instead, I found myself in a primary school playground with a bunch of kids wild on name calling but nothing much else. The only difference is that the kids here, for all their bravado, prefer to remain hidden behind the swings and the see-saws.

This, more than anything else, is what discredits the site.

A sin against the State

The State first moved against Mark Camilleri, the editor of the student newspaper Ir-Realta’, for publishing a piece of fiction – Li Tkisser Sewwi – deemed injurious to an adult readership.

The State has now gone for the author of the story, Alex Vella Gera, because the explicit language used is apparently considered alien to the Maltese public and corrupts our morals.

The State must now prosecute all those who have read this controversial piece of literature, if only to maintain its credibility as the persecutor of free thought and expression.

In this respect, I confess that I, Sandro Bugeja, holder of ID 0272264M, have voluntarily read the complete story. Furthermore, in connection with the charge of “injuring public morals or decency”, I am ready to take an affidavit confirming that as a member of the public, I did not feel injured in any way after having read it.

(This letter was published in The Times of 22 March 2010)