Posts Tagged ‘ Malta ’
The paralysing influence that the dictatorial North Korean leadership has on its people and country also extends to the Malta-Korea Friendship Association. For the evidence, just take a look at the “activities” page of its website and you’ll see that the most recent update is way back in June 2007; the one before that is May 2006. Morbidly enough, these two “activities” are in fact obituaries. More of the North Korean joie de vivre rubbing off here?
A premature greeting, is it not? What with the summer not having melted away completely and another two months before that December day. However, springing up from the turfed roundabouts are the decorations heralding the Christmas season. Why such an early blossoming of baubles?
Commerce is probably the main factor because, as economists and politicians like to emphasis, spending stimulates the economy. Since childhood, our minds have been trained to equate Christmas with gift giving and consequently these traffic island embellishments are actually a diversion to the shops and malls. Physically we might be driving home or to work but mentally we have been detoured into drawing up our shopping lists.
There could be a religious dimension to the matter of course, especially in view of developments in neighbouring Libya. Last Sunday, National Transitional Council leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said that Islamic Sharia law would be the main source of legislation in the country. Many on this island shuddered upon hearing the words “Islam” and “sharia”, immediately fearing that Maltese Catholicism was facing a new threat. The Church, which has recently lost its battle against the introduction of divorce in Malta, may now be girding its loins for another holy war. This early erection of Christmas symbols in public places is proof of Malta’s preparedness to become Europe’s bulwark against the spread of Islam once again. I ask, is it mere coincidence or prescience that the government has been repairing the formidable bastions which protected us from the infidel in the past?
A merry Christmas to all.
Is eating an “ghadam tal-mejtin” (aka “ossa dei morti” or “bones of the dead” – a bone-shaped pastry filled with almond paste and covered in icing) in early October, nearly a full month before All Saints Day and All Souls Day, disrespectful?
Is eating an “ghadam tal-mejtin” in a confectionery across the road from where a light mahogany-coloured coffin is being carried on heavy shoulders down the town’s thoroughfare, disrespectful?
Is eating an “ghadam tal-mejtin” while watching a gaggle of giggling schoolchildren visit the church where, only half-an-hour earlier, sorrow was being shed in tears during a funerary mass, disrespectful?
Quotes from the Latvia – Malta match commentary on Eurosport.com
Pre-match comment:
Match comments:
This island is small but these comments, factual as they may be, make me feel even smaller.