Outer Space

One and three, thirteen (BINGO)

2006-09-07T00:46:00.000-07:00

What is it with the numbers 1 and 3 that is giving me so much joy this fine Thursday morning?

I wonder...

My Lampost

2006-06-07T23:10:00.000-07:00

Viva San Cipress...

2006-06-02T01:28:00.000-07:00

Tonight Xtruppaw will release their much anticipated album, and predictably enough, it does not disappoint. In fact, I can say that it surpassed my expectations, particularly in the variety of styles that it covers. Now, I should declare my bias outright and say that not only am I one big Xtruppaw fan, but Jeff is my cousin and I think that these guys are some of the coolest and most friendly people that I know (and not only because of their generosity with the whisky in drunken days past). The Xtruppaw phenomenon has made an instant hit. About a year ago they were playing their first ever gig. Now they have just launched a full length CD. In all honesty, I think that their success is in part directly attributable to their satirical lyrics, entertaining performances and their general fun factor. In this regard, they are by no means pioneers, as others have done these things before. The main difference I think has to do with their solid song-writing backbone. Beneath the crude lyrics, their website and their live performances one finds a treasure of some incredibly infectious tunes, without which Xtruppaw would have never been the phenomenon that they are today. People should not let themselves be distracted by the lyrics at the expense of the music. They are both essential ingredients that make a formula like Xtruppaw work perfectly, the two sides of the Xtruppaw coin if you will. I wanted to make this point clear, as although I will be specifically writing about the lyrics, I don’t think that the lyrics can in actual fact be separated from the music.

Xtruppaw’s single greatest achievement, lyric-wise, is how effortless they manage to articulate the local social reality. Like a series of photos taken on a random day-trip around the island, most of the songs conjure mental images that are genuinely real. The humour is, in general, derived from this authenticity. There is, for example, nothing spectacularly funny about a statue of a lion, but its reference in ‘Rajt ma Rajtx’ is a detail that without much elaboration takes you directly to a Maltese front garden; it is the detail that makes the difference. ‘Nenannana’ should make those who have aesthetics at heart cry, rather than laugh. The smiles, however, come as a result of years of seeing ‘Nenannanas’ running around the island and knowing that you can completely relate to the singing. Similarly, it is not improbable that all listeners have a name and a face to attach to the anti-hero throwing up in a sink in ‘Glorja Tonna’. The satire is fed with observational humour which makes it all the more powerful. ‘Kont ser intajru x’hin gie jghannaq’ is another example. Who hasn’t been assaulted by a drunken friend who, with dark patches under his armpits, feels he needs to demonstrate his love and affection? This is why people relate to the band with particular ease. They bring to the world of music, a collective reality that we constantly share.

In their own way, Xtruppaw document the times we’re living in; which is why they are a milestone in the history of local youth culture. They speak the language of young people and voice their concerns and experiences. ‘Generazzjoni ta’ Meqrudin’, in fact, is something of a youth anthem, a musical middle finger creatively presented to the older generation who judge young people through yesteryear’s spectacles. Those interested in youth in general and youth culture in particular cannot afford to be unaware of this band. Those that do know about Xtruppaw, should listen. Like any good satire, Xtruppaw make a relevant point; tons of them actually. Throughout the album the character, folly and culture of the Maltese people is dissected with clinical precision, and although some references, like the hoffor in ‘Ghanja ta’ l-iXtruppaw’, are a bit of a cliché, they nonetheless reflect the priority they enjoy in the list of local grievances. ‘Is-CD ta’ l-iXtruppaw’ almost makes you grateful for all the annoying things that we must keep up with while living in Malta. So next time you are presented with such a situation, be thankful for it, it just might be the next ‘Xtruppaw’ hit.

And now for something completely boring...

2006-05-09T01:56:00.000-07:00

As you may, or may not, have noticed, I haven’t been blogging regularly these past weeks. I wish I had an interesting story to tell about being abducted by pot-head aliens who play 70s rock, but I don’t. The truth is that I’m, wait for it, busy. Assignment deadlines, prospective heavy workloads, upcoming test and pending recording are all playing liquidiser in my head at the moment. So unfortunately, I have little time left for blogging. Hopefully this corner would resume some time in the beginning of August when I cheekily come to ask you to buy the CD that I would have just finished recording. Until then, I bid you sweet farewell. One last thing before I go, keep your ears open and close to the ground because 'is-CD ta’ l-iXtruppaw' is coming your way soon. And it’s definitely something to text home about.

The Da Vinci load (of ...)

2006-04-28T03:15:00.000-07:00

I was never interested in the Da Vinci Code. I don’t have time for those kinds of books. But I was compelled to take interest after learning that my uncle is spearheading a campaign to ban the movie. I knew him to be a bit of a fanatic, so I can’t say that I was surprised. Within the context of a liberal-democratic society he has all the rights to protest and to try and convince people to not watch it. Asking for a ban is out of the line though. One shouldn’t be able to use democratic means to subvert democracy.

This Da Vinci Code circus has all the characteristics of a moral panic. The reasoning behind this crusade is typical of any moral panic. Something is threatening our social values and we must do everything we could to stop it. Stanley Cohen discusses this in depth in his ‘Folk Devils Devils and Moral Panics’. The only panic that should arise out of this story is a panic about the threat to our little democracy; particularly when one considers that we already don’t have much of it. If the fervent Catholics think that it’s a sin to watch the movie, they just shouldn’t watch it. What you don’t do is call for its ban. What next? Criminalise adultery? Witch-hunt the atheists? Have blasphemy wardens?

What I find irritating in this whole issue is how insulting these Catholic fanatics are to their brethren’s intelligence. They seem to think that people are nincompoops. Are people so gullible that they will be magically brainwashed by a movie? In Malta? The country that wants Christ on its Euro coins? A country where you can spot scores of church domes from any modest hill? The country that teaches Catholicism in schools, forces indoctrination on kids (duttrina) and is pretty much holier than the Vatican? The country that prides itself in an abundance of bare-footed pilgrims? Is Catholic Malta’s faith so weak that a hyped up Hollywood movie is such a threat that it must be banned? Makes you wonder doesn’t it?

Culture Club

2006-04-26T01:22:00.000-07:00

Culture is the buzz word of the Right. They want to preserve, promote and protect it. Or so they say. They’re not racists. They just love their country and their culture (like the Romeo who professes his love for his wife by hating all other women). They don’t hate the foreigners, but they're just a threat to our national identity. Or so they say.

Their analytical naivety is, in my opinion, their fundamental weakness. Yet paradoxically it is what gives them their strength. The strength of mass appeal. It’s easy to rally people around ‘our culture’ without defining what that is. If one asked all the people at the ANR demonstration last October what they understand by the term ‘Maltese culture’ they would have all given a different answer. Culture, as a concept, is a tough nut to crack. I would not burden myself with the difficult task of coming up with a comprehensive definition of such a vast concept. I’ll leave that to professional sociologists. Nobody in their right mind would dream of coming up with an original definition in a short blog entry like this anyway. But that is besides the point. Or is it? I mean, if sociologists struggle to come up with a definition of culture, how are the Right-wingers talking about it as if it’s an uncontested, universally accepted and a uniformly understood concept? What do they understand by culture? L-Ghonnella u l-bigilla? The Maltese language? Or general patterns of behaviour? Speculation gets us nowhere, so for conveniency’s sake I will take up a random definition to work with. Hiller (1933) defined culture as:

The beliefs, system of thought, practical arts, manner of living, customs, tradition, and all socially regularised ways of acting…So defined, culture includes all the activities which develop in the association between persons or which are learned from a social group, but excludes those specific forms of behaviour which are predetermined byinherited nature (Hiller, in Kroeber et al, 1952: 82).

If anything, the first thing that one must acknowledge and which the Right cannot seem to get is that culture is not static. It’s not fixed and unmovable. It’s not a shared mass of patterned behaviour. We’re not lemmings. Within the territorial borders of the Maltese islands we find a kaleidoscopic variety of ‘beliefs, system of thought, practical arts and manner of living’. ‘Customs and traditions’ are not shared either. Not only that but one cannot say that the current patterns of behaviours and lifestyles are intrinsically Maltese either. What is so Maltese about a young person’s weekend routine of partying and eating kebabs for example? How does this ‘Maltese culture’ that the Right speaks about, connect a young rocker from the North of Malta and an old bizzilla woman from a Gozitan village? For all it’s worth, these people are living in different worlds even if they share the same flag and possibly, although not necessarily, the same language. Her traditions are alien to the rocker and you can be sure that he looks at her work with tourist eyes when he’s spending a weekend in Gozo; and I would dance naked in the streets if she can carry a conversation with him about local bands Beheaded and Forsaken.

What does the Right consider as ‘Maltese culture’? What is it that they’re defending exactly? This is something that they never seem to be eager to explain. In my eyes it is obvious why. Why seek to define your concept if you can appeal to more people by being general and vague? That is their strength. They yell ‘Maltese culture’ in the microphones, they write it in the letters to the press and hold it up high as their sacred banner. That way the rocker and the Gozitan woman can equally relate to what they’re saying even if the term ‘Maltese culture’ creates in their heads opposite mental images. This unifying factor is just an imaginary relation. There is no one whole, static ‘Maltese culture’ that connects all the people born under the flag.

Maltese culture is in constant motion and it changes; it evolves. Besides, how the mere presence of other cultures forces people to change their ‘beliefs, systems of thought, manners of living’, without their own consent is a bit perplexing. Of course there will be influence, but that is reciprocal and is not done at gun-point. If culture was indeed the concern of the Right, they should promote it by being active in cultural activities rather than bash and feel threatened by other cultures. If I’m permitted to re-use the previous Romeo analogy, I would say that it is a sign of sheer insecurity if Romeo feels that the presence of other women is enough to interfere with his relationship with Juliet. Food for thought. Local food for thought if you will.

Cyber Monument

2006-04-20T00:49:00.000-07:00

This is a cyber monument dedicated to the brave people below.

Buddy Bell, Fred Brancel, Robert St. Clair Call, Charles Carney, Stephen Clemens, Joanne Cowan, Ken Crowley, Anika Cunningham, Scott Dempsky, Joe DeRaymond, Sam Foster, Christine Gaunt, Michael Gayman, Sarah Harper, Rita Hohenshell, Jane Hosking, John LaForge, Mary Dennis Lentsch PBVM, Robin Lloyd, Linda Mashburn, Don Nelson, Liam O'Reilly, Dorothy Parker, Gail Phares, Jonathan Robert, Judith Ruland, Delmar Schwaller, Cheryl Sommers, Donte Smith, Edward "Naed" Smith, David Sylvester, Priscilla Treska, Fr. Louis Vitale, Jamie Walters, Frank Woolever, Jerome Zawada.

Who are they?

The School of the Americas

2006-04-20T00:24:00.000-07:00

“Babylon system is the vampire

Suckin' the children day by day

Me say de, Babylon system is the vampire, falling empire

Suckin' the blood of the sufferers
Building church and university

Deceiving the people continually

Me say them graduatin' thieves and murderers”

- Babylon System (1979), Bob Marley

Never has a song lyric been so fitting. To all those unfamiliar with the work of the School of the Americas, now renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Co-operation, I suggest you visit this School of Assassins by Jack Nelson Pallmeyer.

Fottie (8)

2006-04-19T23:11:00.000-07:00

Anybody watching the Arsenal – Villareal match yesterday must have been delighted to see that squirrel running around on the pitch. These things are entertaining, and it was probably the best thing I saw all night considering that I was siding with the Spanish side. But it got me thinking. Why wasn’t the squirrel around in the Juve match a couple of weeks ago? Then it hit me. What the hell would a squirrel be doing in a Juventus match? The current Juve team has no fuckin’ nuts!

You've just been Punk'd Profs.

2006-04-07T01:34:00.000-07:00

I often feel that the University of Malta needs some sense of humour. That is why I often dream of a group of jokers who organise themselves and pull stunts in the hope of teaching people to be less stuck up. They could wear masks of the Joker and inject some humour in an otherwise dull environment. Ideas of pranks keep coming to mind that would make University life a little bit more interesting. For example, how about a group of mocking photographers surrounding those students who deludingly think that they’re permanently on a catwalk? Or maybe a warden system that curbs pretension by issuing tickets to the guilty parties? Cream pies in the faces of ministers who come to University to talk down to students aren’t a bad idea either. Fart cushions would be funny too. Imagine the minister’s expression as he shockingly finds that the farting sound commences before he even moves his lips! Lecturers shouldn’t be exempt either. They should all be punk’d. Footage should be shown on big screens. Maybe it would burst those pomposity bubbles called egos that some/most of them have. Sod the Scream magazine. Where are the Communications students? Where is the creativity? Where is the inventiveness? In my dreams. Students couldn’t care less about University life. They only seem to care about parking, shopping and the next open bar party. Excuse me while I take 5 to act bulimic. Not all of them obviously. Heh, you gotta have a disclaimer eh? There are about 50 students (optimistically speaking) whose interests transcend the mundane consumer culture and they’re probably commendably trying to struggle the apathy tsunami, but they will all drown before University becomes a nucleus of any creative activity. Give me one more shop in the student’s house please, and a big sponsor to help me win the election so I can brand the KSU. Then I will take my top-of-the-range mobile phone which I left in my car (anzi I managed to find parking Maddddonna!) and let me tell the whole world how fabulously happy I am. Bleugh.

The students have nothing to lose but their boring educational life, they have a side-splitting laugh out loud marathon to win. Joker-men of all faculties UNITE!

Footie (7)

2006-04-05T23:43:00.000-07:00

Pathetic. That’s all there is to it, and I don’t care what anybody else says. The ‘old lady’ should take some time out to have a long session of thinking. Huge changes are necessary. It’s not a case of sour grapes. It’s just that watching Juve play has become boring. I prefer watching Milan. They attack. They play as a team. Juventus play with 9, as Zlatan and Trez patiently wait for the ball to magically reach their feet. Mostly, they play against 12, because the Swedish ballerina seems to be constantly disoriented and unable to keep a ball. Not to mention that he feels compelled to stop the ball to give his, ahem, opponents the chance to catch up. Zlatan bashing is my new hobby. The guy is an idiot and has done fuck all this season, except getting paid to give his sorry ass performances. The employment agency should have sent him to a circus. At least he’d be good there.

Juve cannot win a Champions League if they continue to ‘invest’ in old stars with big egos who feel that it is not their job to run and try to win the ball. The team lacks players who play with passion, who play to win, who give their all for jersey. The young players do it. Chiellini, Giannichedda, Balzaretti are all admirable for that, even if they do make mistakes. Buffon, Zambrotta, Cannavaro, Mutu and Del Piero are good at it too. Even Zalayeta. He’s not the best of players but he tries his best. That’s what players ought to do. But instead we get a bunch of ‘I’m-too-good-to-try-and-win-a-ball-and-oh-when-is-my-paycheck-coming’ fairies. As for Nedved, he should go to an anger management class. Great players aren’t made up of that shit. Maybe he should look at Shevchenko for an example.

As for Capello. The don should leave, now. He’s got too big a reputation to lose and little else to gain, which means that he will not take risks. Playing a constant 4-4-2 isn’t really the works of a great tactician is it? Even football management gamers know that. Giving a permanent place in the squad to idiots like Zlatan is not too insightful either. Not to mention the Zebina fetish and the habit of playing players out-of-position. The Juventus bench is weak. In part because of the unashamed selling of players with great potential, but also because rotation is not something that Juve seem to know about. You have to give players the chance to play if you wanted them to become good ones.

This rant could go on and on, and on and on, but I will stop here. While I obviously wished that they’d win the Champions League, I couldn’t say that they deserved it. So that’s all there is to it. Better luck next time. Not that better luck could exist after that keeper blunder against Bremen…

Paint it Black

2006-04-05T08:15:00.000-07:00

And then you go to a funeral of someone who is not close and it’s like a gigantic red light on a zebra crossing. You stop; and when the paintings on the ceiling become boring, you think. You start to remember the names of the ones before: in-Nannu Karlu, in-Nannu Ganni, in-Nanna Mary, Maria, Jason, il-Bomba, Daniel…And it starts kicking in. You slowly but steadily become introspective. You think about your own life and your loved ones. You think about how you should tell your parents you love them more often. You try to picture yourself in the shoes that are standing up front. You think how frivolous everything else is in comparison. You think how superficial the things that occupied your mind before are. You empathise with the bereaved, and get a heavy knot when their relative speaks. You feel the faces walking behind the hearse dampen your expression, painting your spirits black. You feel the gloom throw its arm around you. You wonder how the sun can perfectly compliment such a sombre mood and still be the symbol of beautiful days. Sometime during the service you experience a change in consciousness. You feel changed, for the better.

Still, somewhere in the back of your mind you know that the chances are that you will eventually get over everything. You know that sometime soon, the irrelevant details in your life will regain their priority and the football match will then become more important than existential dilemmas. Just like a drug, an anti-drug if you will, it temporarily alters your state of mind. It alters your mood and gives you a cerebral introspective low, one that shakes you right through and let’s you out slowly. One that helps give you some perspective. One that humbly and quietly asks you, if not forces you, to appreciate the things that matter.

The Ghost of Subject Past

2006-04-04T01:43:00.000-07:00

If a couple of days ago you came up to me and told me that I would one day show an interest in accounting you’d be covered in a shower of spit that is a necessary prerequisite to any decent laughing of an arse off. But strangely enough that’s what happened yesterday. In total defiance of any potential prediction I would have made up till quite recently I went home and dug up my Frank Wood’s. To further wreck havoc on any remaining hope of ever becoming a respectable psychic I found the damn thing interesting! Luckily, even before the seeds of an identity crisis could dream of being sown I knew what the difference between now and my schooling days was. This time around accounting is relevant. I became interested in it only because I am now seriously thinking of becoming a successful accountant. Not! I am interested because I have started to seriously think about tax procedures in connection with the economic activity called Peklectrick. I will be recording soon, after which comes the purchasing of shit, and the stocking of crap; the selling of this, and the drawings of that. So now that accounting became somewhat relevant and that I can relate to it directly the subject has ceased to be the mind numbing school subject which I constantly avoided. It is now a mind numbing necessary evil which I have to face. Still, I enjoyed reading through it. Of course some accounting guru will say ‘wait till you get to do the ___________ [insert tough accounting concept]’. Fair enough, maybe it is because I’m doing the very basics, but I think there is a lesson to be learnt by all educators.

People learn what they think is relevant. So, it is as simple as teaching relevant stuff and teaching it in a relevant manner. For example, Maths beyond the obvious basics isn’t really relevant, is it? Physics, isn’t taught as if it is relevant either, although it could be. Poetry is not generally of any relevance to school kids either. I never liked poetry in secondary school. In fact I hated it, and thought of it as something I had to memorise rather than appreciate. Why not teach more practical things? Teaching first aid, for example, would be more positive than teaching kids to hate dead poets. Kids have a tendency to learn (as opposed to memorise) stuff like that better. Why not have a population that can do something in an emergency while at the same time is not prejudiced against, say, poetry? Why are we ‘educating’ kids to hate things that they might otherwise enjoy? How about history? History is one of the biggest deficits when it comes to our education. In a small country with such an abundant historical legacy within such a small territory teaching history creatively is very practical. Instead we have a historical super 5 where people fire up random numbers to pass their exams, and remember 1565 because it’s a beer they bought on their latest drinking binge.

Of course this is not to say that teachers are the culprits. Some of them are. Others are doing a great job within the suffocating contexts they work in. The problem lies in the education system which is very convenient for the economic one. The weight of the syllabus and the general obsession with exams and grades, particularly from parents who have duly internalised the competition culture of the market, creates the perfect noose by which any dream of having an education system that educates dies a sorry death.

The Right, The Family & Multicultural Paranoia

2006-03-29T04:54:00.000-08:00

I’ve just been to yet another University debate about multiculturalism. Obviously, the usual points never fail to crop up, but I will only speak about two of them: the supposedly obvious failure of anything multicultural, and the lack of migrant integration. I shall start with the former. If I had a Maltese pound (obviously, we’re patriotic ain’t we?) for every time somebody used the Netherlands and France as obvious examples of multiculturalism’s supposed failure, I wouldn’t be writing this article. I would be kicking it on some tropical beach with a massive cocktail in hand.

Unfortunately I don’t get money for stupid arguments, so write a blog I must. I will not go into how conflict between different cultures is usually inspired by structural inequalities, nor would I go into the fact that race and culture are the easiest things around which one can mobilise people. I will only say: if these rightists viewed the slightest of conflict or dysfunction as undeniable proof that something is a complete failure, then we can proclaim the failure of everything from Juventus to the concept of the family. Using the same - pardon me as I use the word – logic, a couple of cases of divorce or separation should be enough to declare the concept of the family dead. Now separations in Malta, and divorce in the rest of the world (yes we’re not retarded civil-liberties-wise, we’re just special) do not amount to just a couple (pun semi-unintended); the number of dysfunctional families is massive, yet ironically enough, not only doesn’t the Right (arse holes) declare the death of the family, they claim that it is, along with the patria (tee-hee-hee), the bulwark of their ideology. Strikes as a little bit odd, doesn’t it? Their methodology (can you call it that?) is just plain retarded. Let’s change context, shall we? I get food poisoning from a restaurant, so obviously, restaurants are a bad idea. Duh! No other explanation possible. I’m telling you man, I went to a restaurant, I got food-poisoning. Isn’t it obvious? Restaurant = baaaaaaad. This pseudo-analysis is obviously flawed from its inception. I don’t think you need a genius to know that if you want to understand multiculturalism (or restaurants), you analyse multiculturalism (or restaurants), not potential conflicts (or food poisoning). But this is pretty basic no? I’m sure you don’t need private lessons from Einstein to figure this one out. So we’ll skip to the next point. Integration.

Now this is a bit tricky. How often have we heard that migrants don’t want to integrate but just want to form their own exclusive ghettos? You wouldn’t be blamed if you think that ghettos are the new penthouses. People are dying to live in them! And since detention centres are sporting 5 starts nowadays, you wouldn’t be wrong to assume that ghettos must be the bee’s knees. But that’s not really relevant so let’s get back on track. This integration business isn’t simple. Integration needs effort from both ways. It’s like a handshake. You can’t shake your hand in the air now can you? But once again the Rightists don’t get it. And neither do I get them, to tell you the truth. They whine about how immigrants form ghettos but they don’t want to integrate with them. They whine about them forming ghettos but they don’t want them next door. Makes no sense.

Through the type of speech that comes out from the mouths of the rightists, the immigrants are turned into a babaw. The babaw who comes here to steal your job, fuck your wife and take your seat on the bus, not to mention blot our pure white (haha) complexion! Consequently people fear them, which means that they would rather not live next to them. The stereotype feeds the discrimination which in turn results in landowners not wanting them as their tenants for such reasons as xenophobia and property value. So what happens when a block of flats is indeed ready to accept everybody? What do you think happens? The normal thing happens! People talk and before you know it those that have not been accepted elsewhere go to live where they are. The result? Ghettos galore. Integration is a handshake. Do you keep putting your hand out to people who have rejected your hand for countless times? I wouldn’t. And probably nobody would. But don’t worry about my absurdities. What the hell do I know? I’m just a radical leftist…

Ironically enough, when the ‘discussion’ at University ended, the organisers of the debate handed out free pizzas, offered to them by their sponsors. It was funny to see the anti-multiculturalists pigging out on the pizzas. What a sight to see! Stupid me. There I was thinking they’d refuse it and call for some bragoli and bigilla…

Footie (5 is it?)

2006-03-28T05:01:00.000-08:00

I have a lecture tonight, and the only ethical issues I will be thinking about will go something like: Is it ethical to dream about a Montero re-call in the hope that he does a Vinnie Jones at Highbury? How many blunders must Zlatan commit before violence against him becomes acceptable? Is it ethical to hold the referees' mother personally responsible for any mistakes (against us obviously) during the match?

I'm too nervous for this match. Let's get it over and done with because the suspense is just killing me. Not too optimistic though.

Topper Headon

2006-03-27T04:37:00.000-08:00

Inspired by Mark's overrated post (pun intended) I decided to dedicate a post to the most underrated drummer ever. Here's to Topper, one of the best drummers ever.

Nostalgia is a bitch...

2006-03-26T23:45:00.000-08:00

This weekend I revisited my old secondary school. What an experience. Students and staff at the Junior Lyceum (Hamrun) have been organising a bicycle marathon for quite some time now. This year, for some reason or the other, I decided that I had to go. It’s ironic to find yourself pulled towards the place that used to push you with unequivocal force around a decade before. But I decided. I had to once again see the trees that used to be our goal posts; the wall I climbed to skip school; the gate where tal-gelati used to park his truck; the bush that was persistently showered with student piss; the long corridors that I walked in everyday and the ground that felt like a stadium during league matches.

Walking in was a shock in itself. It was impressive how contrasting the memory and the place where. The first observation I made was how much the school resembled a hospital. Foucault wasn’t a name I had heard about back then. The school remained the same, bar some structural changes and relocation of some rooms. It was the same place yet it looked completely alien to me. The student volunteers felt at home. It was their place now. I was just a visitor with a temporary pass; a pass which granted me access to the corridors of the Lyceum temporarily called memory lane.

Whilst there, I managed to catch a glimpse of a couple of teachers. My eyes quickly updated out-dated memories, and the black beard of the Maltese teacher suddenly turned white. The hair of the young PE teacher was gone, and the old headmaster was now chubby and smiling. Il-Bobo, the stinky history teacher, however, remained the same.

This little visit, which lasted less than an hour, was impressive in its implications. It made me realise how much of those times I forgot. People I’ve spent hours with are now just names and a distant memory. My class mates are flashbacks with a name and a surname. That’s how we remember them. First name, plus second name. Robert - Massa, Josef - Axisa, Jeffrey -Micallef, Christopher - Spiteri, Jonathan – Azzopardi, Richard – Pace, Oscar - Baldacchino. Some of them, whom I haven’t seen in ten years are still sporting baby faces in my memory. Some have probably lost their hair, grown beards, moustaches or are sporting wedding rings. Some are undoubtedly pushing prams and paying house loans, while others are still getting high and drunk in the weekend. Sometimes I wish I’d meet them again, but I know I would have nothing to say to them. I would have nothing in common with most of them and I would not have time to spare to any of them. But it would probably be nice nonetheless. Catching up is great till it hits you that time is really on amphetamines, and the illusion that it goes slow when you’re at work is just there to mess with you.

The teachers are probably all the same, only older. Most of them, whose job was to provide me with an education, are now distant faces. Some lack a name, others even a surname. Their existence, which was once the source of my frustrations, has no relevance whatsoever now. I can even sympathise with their efforts. They’re not my enemies now, some of them I still despise, even if I can understand that they were, and probably are, just regular Joes trying to earn a living.

I was part of that institution for five years. Not too much, in the scheme of things. Crucial time though. I entered that school as a scared 11 year old and went out as a smoking cocky teenage rocker with no idea of what I wanted to become. Behind the corner was a turning point that was to come in a year’s time, one that would change the course of those ten years in a radical manner. A turning point that leads here. But that’s a different story…

The Don’t Give a Shit Club needs you

2006-03-23T00:23:00.000-08:00

Sometimes blogging just becomes totally irrelevant. It usually happens when there are other important things on my mind. I don’t know how people manage to keep to it. Seriously. Is blogging a hobby? Sometimes I just don’t feel it. It's like: Who cares that I sometimes find the whining girls in my office amusingly pathetic? Who cares that they repeat the same conversations about men every sodding day? Who cares is they are as eloquent as a drunken snail? Who cares if they think that image is of fundamental importance in judging a person’s character? Who cares that I could have taken this idea and expanded on how the age of the image has turned people into objects trying to sell themselves to the world? Who cares about the concept of the ‘attractive-stereotype’? Who cares that this suggests that attractive people are also ‘more sensitive, kind, interesting, strong, poised, modest, sociable, outgoing, exciting, sexually warm and responsive (Asch & Fine, 1998)? Who cares if my co-workers would not date a person because his shoes are not stylish, and then whine about how there are no good single candidates out there? Who cares if they sing loudly to songs whose lyrics they don’t know? Who cares that I could have written a serious post about being stuck for one-third of your day with people you have nothing in common with except the ‘Current Employer’ section on your CV? Who cares if I couldn’t be arsed to write a serious post and instead opted for a bunch of ‘who cares?’ questions? Who cares if I had a shitty day yesterday? Who cares that my cat was wiping his arse across the floor yesterday? Who cares that I hate pulpetti? Who fuckin’ cares? Nobody.

Ps. Germany won…

No rest for the wicked

2006-03-20T01:56:00.000-08:00

I make it a point to not do anything stressful in the weekend. I try to take everything at my own leisure. The weekend before I spent it in Gozo and this weekend I tried to relax by writing a song. Unfortunately I am finding that the weekend is not serving its function. I'm not resting. It's probably because I'm mentally tired rather than physically. I need more than two days to switch off, which is why I am looking forward to this summer. During summer I will have one month of total chillage. July is recording month. August is the real break. I am planning on going to a festival. September is dissertation proposal month. I'm looking forward to all of them. Wont' start a countdown because I'll get distracted. But anyway, just a small post to keep this blog active.

2006-03-17T01:29:00.000-08:00

All Work & No Play...

2006-03-15T06:53:00.000-08:00

Hi I’m the boy known as dull Jack. I could have been an extra in Shaun of the Dead. I could have done an excellent job walking in the street with my hands up in the air and a blank expression on a face that is slightly tilted to the left (Obviously - It’s gotta be the Left right?). But I did not apply for that post. I applied for a part-time degree. It’s not that I don’t like it. In fact I find it very interesting, but three consecutive lectures per week seems a bit excessive don’t you think? But hey, you signed the dotted line mate, you do the fucking time. And while you do it, do everybody a favour and stop moaning ye freakin’ sod.

Fair enough. I tell you this however, early to bed and early to rise has nothing to do with health and wealth, and much less with wisdom. It’s just there to turn you into a boring git; a role I am currently filling in an impeccable manner. Would I have a blog if I weren’t? *Ref whistle* Ohra u barra zepp!

In-Nar li Jkesshek

2006-03-14T00:22:00.000-08:00

The Jesuit’s have had 7 vehicles burnt down. This is the second attack in less than six months, the first being last November. According to Fr. Paul Chetcuti both attacks occurred after press conferences against racism and xenophobia. Another arson attack, although not widely reported, has also been carried out on the property of other people who have spoken against intolerance. It leaves little to the imagination about who is behind these sick and cowardly attacks. The self-declared Romeos of the patria (read the rightist wankers) have welcomed such vandalism. It was expected. Their democratic credentials are as evident as their intellect, which is not surprising as the two are usually quite proportional.

These attacks are intended to intimidate. They are intended to destroy our democracy. They are intended to strike fear. The self-declared defenders of Europe (read the rightists pissheads), who bounced off erratically from their high horses during the French riots a few months back, have resorted to the same tactics. They want to attempt to silence all people who speak against racism and xenophobia. These are the ones who go to extreme lengths and conjure up phantom euphemisms to convince us that they’re not racist. They might have a point. They don’t hate on the basis of race. They hate on the basis of difference. Anybody who is not like them will be subject to their tantrums.

These self-declared defenders of Malta (read the rightist sodding nincompoops) are a threat to democracy. They’re a threat to us all. They first rejected human rights. Now they reject democracy. It should now be crystal clear to even the stubborn cynics, that Graffitti were right all along. The real threat is not race, but racism. The real threat is not the immigrant, but the immigrant haters. The real threat is not those who advocate tolerance, but intolerance. The real threat is not diversity, but the lack of it. The real threat is not the sinking boats, but the burning cars. The real threat is not in the closed centres but in the closed minds. The real threat comes not from abroad, but is home grown. The real threat is not those who speak of fundamental rights. It’s the fundamentalist Right.

Lost in the Supermarket

2006-03-13T01:08:00.000-08:00

Jerry Seinfeld had a skit about supermarkets. He basically makes comedy out of the fact that people go into a supermarket with a fixed mission: get the stuff and get out. Once they’re between the aisles however, they get lost. Metaphorically of course, although not exclusively. The supermarket takes over individuals and all of a sudden they’re holding on to the trolley scratching their heads and looking at jars of pickles like they’re the most interesting thing in the world.

This happened to me this weekend when my girlfriend and I went to the sister island for a relaxing weekend. We weren’t cooking so we didn’t need to buy much. Just minor things like booze, yoghurt, butter, snacks, orange juice and booze. Still, the supermarket effect got to us. Almost. That’s what happens. You start picking things that all of a sudden become indispensable. You’re seriously considering buying everything. Once outside however the reason for buying useless items escapes you completely. Why the hell did I buy the biggest bag of dog food? I don’t even own a sodding dog! It’s ridiculous. Lucky for us, we got back to our senses before we got to the cash counter. People must have wondered why we were putting all the stuff back.

The reason for this ‘useless shopping syndrome’ could have something to do with one simple thing: shopping just sucks.

– One minute silence while shopaholics have a heart attack –.

Grocery shopping sucks that little bit more because it’s compulsory. So basically once you find yourself between those aisles and behind the shopping cart you tend to let your imagination come up with all worst-case-scenarios to justify buying everything. In case. In case of what? In case you end up without sweet and sour sauce? A jar of guacamole dip? An exotic cheese that tastes like crap? Gee. I don’t think the scouts had this in mind when they came up with their motto. The worst thing that could happen is spending a day without your missing item; which couldn’t be that essential if you forgot it now could it? Either that or you’ll have to go back. Shock & horror!!! Now that shit is truly scary. But does that justify behaving like Cetta l-Maltija in the wake of the first Gulf War? Irrespective of how much you think it is; there really is no need for clearing the shelves. Supermarkets turn us into idiots: the ideal consumer.

Having said that I must admit: that huge jar of Gozo cheese should have stayed in the bag…

My Blog's birthday

2006-03-09T23:30:00.000-08:00

It's been a year already. Wow.

Can't really say i've been blogging for a year because my blogging hasn't really been consistent, has it? I've had my fair share of breaks, hiatuses and intervals. The longest being around 2 months I think. But I'm back and I've even impressed myself this time around. I'm blogging at a consistent rate now. I can say that I am a blogger again. Another piece in the Peklectrick identity puzzle. My guess is that my enthusiasm with blogging owes itself to the need for expression in a time when circumstances have drastically limited my expressive outlets. Either way I'm loving it. And this has nothing to do with McBurgers. So I'll end this post by thanking all those poor sods who dedicate (or waste) their time to read my rants. Yes, all three of you. Cheers.

Youth Work

2006-03-09T00:39:00.000-08:00

A youth worker? What do youth workers do? Do they work with problematic youth? Take care of young people with a disability? Drug users? Juvenile delinquents? Are they something similar to social workers? Do they work with unemployed young people?

These are the questions that generally go through people’s minds when you mention 'youth work'. The answer to those questions is not as straightforward as I wish it is when these questions arise. Yes, they do work with the people mentioned above; but not exclusively. The job of a youth is to work with young people. Not because they have problems but because they’re young people. What does working with young people mean? What do they work in? Well, in practice, youth workers fill a myriad of roles but they are first and foremost educators. They’re not part of the formal education system. They work informally. Although they can work in schools, their work transcends the traditional educational institutions and can occur in any setting. Youth workers provide informal and non-formal personal, social and political education. Education in youth work comes in many forms: informal conversation, non-formal exercises, discussion of local issues, outdoor education, projects, cultural exchanges, community involvement etc.

Unfortunately, the concept of ‘youth worker’ is not widely used in Malta. It is understood even less. The idea that a youth worker could be a professional is in fact still somewhat unimaginable to the general public. Not that we don’t have people working with young people; but such work is generally expected to be voluntary. How do you sell the idea that youth work should be a profession when its educational value, due to its informal nature, is not directly measurable? It is even more of a mammoth task when the prevalent mentality is one which necessitates economical justification for everything. Fortunately, the youth-work-as-a-profession mentality is starting to slowly creep in the local consciousness. Some part-time posts are popping up sporadically in places like the youth empowerment centres. This is a great step and it is to be commended. However, like everything else, there is much more to be done. There are a lot of Youth and Community Studies graduates. The problem is that most of them already have steady jobs. Since the course is offered in the evening, youth work students are already gainfully employed. Would anybody leave a secure full-time job for a part-time post in youth work? I think not. But hopefully we’ll get full-time posts someday.

Youth work is a liberatory form of education. That’s why I find it appealing. Youth work could be the other side of the educational coin. In the words of Freire:

"Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world."

While the formal education system is generally interested in the former function of education, youth work can provide the service for the latter. The lack of formality gives youth workers the space to engage and encourage young people to question and challenge the dominant ideologies, structures and complementing myths and promote participation in the transformation of the community, country, continent and the world. Youth work is thus an anti-oppressive practice. Like everything else, it's not neutral. Unlike most other institutions, however, it does not side with the powerful. It is where education regains its true meaning: liberation. In a time when our education system feels like a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode, it is time to explore and give more importance to new methods of education, particularly that in the form of youth work.

Danke

2006-03-07T23:09:00.000-08:00

It must have been my decision to not blog before the match. Or perhaps j'accuse's crossed fingers. Could have been that the fella above wanted to have a match to remember (which he will). Or may-be - just maybe - it was the Juve supporter at the New 31 bar who brought Juve luck twice when taking a piss. Either way there's a lesson learnt. If you're a keeper, keep it. If you have the ball in your hand, don't waste precious Juve time by falling to the ground because if it's not Trezeguet who's in the right place at the right time, it's gotta be the Puma.

Either way, I'd like to take this opportunity to ask all you Juventus fans out there to stand up on your chair, do a silly dance and in that famous tune of Mick 'n' Keif, sing:

I know, it's only a lucky goal but I liked it
I know, it's only a lucky goal but I liked it
I know, it's only a lucky goal but I liked it, liked it, yes I did...

I blog therefore I am _________

2006-03-07T05:19:00.000-08:00

I have a blog because I write.
Or do I write because I have a blog?

I have a blog because I think I’m cool.
Or do I think I’m cool because I have a blog?

I have a blog because I have an ego.
Or do I have an ego because of a little blog?

I have a blog because it’s trendy.
Or is it because I am trendy?

I have a blog because I read blogs.
Or do I read blogs because I have a blog?

I have a blog because I should be read.
Or am I read because I have a blog?

I have a blog because it is important.
Or is it important because I have a blog?

I have a blog because I’m pretentious.
Or am I pretentious because I have a blog?

I have a blog because I'm a philosopher.
Or am I a philosopher because I have a blog?

Hoss ta bassa.

Footie (5)

2006-03-06T23:44:00.000-08:00

The match is on tonight...

Monday Blues

2006-03-05T23:19:00.000-08:00

Pardon my lack of enthusiasm this morning but I'm sure you can empathise with my morning blues. Qed inhossni imzelleg bil-Malti. I don't feel like blogging but I have promised myself to keep updating this thing so I'll make that extra effort. I think I'll go for a brief weekend review. Yeah. That's it. Topic chosen. That's what I love about blogging. You start with an idea (or in this case, no idea) which then takes a life of its own during the writing process. Posts have the ability to direct themselves to unpredictable directions. So anyways, on to the weekend.

-royal trumpets playing-

Nothing much. Went to the comics thingy organised by Something Wicked. It was a great initiative. Although I went at a bad time (people were taking their siesta), I still managed to catch up with a friend of mine whom I hadn't seen in a while. Unfortunately, I missed the opportunity to meet gybexi. Apparently by a few minutes. Damn. Wanted to see that funky Chinaman from Brussels.

I Watched The Producers on Saturday. Zzzzzz. That thing is bo-ring (Put on Sacred Heart accent for added effect). I don't recommend it. In fact I recommend against it. Got too much singing and dancing for my liking. To be fair, the bits without the singing where ok. Sometimes even good. But before you manage to start enjoying it, another song kicks in. Yawn.

I admit I'm biased against musicals. There are some musicals that I love. Like this one. The Producers is nothing like it. The songs are not catchy. They're long. And they're as entertaining as a sodding bookmark. But enough about my bad movie decisions. The Producers doesn't deserve this much space. And I won't even mention that I could have stayed watching the Juventus match instead. Being a good boyfriend and an ex-Juve supporter made passing on the match an easy decision. The frustration at having done so only materialised during the second half of that piece of rotten dog shit.

I also had some time to catch up on some song-writing. Found the time to work on a couple of future songs and I'm very happy with the way they're sounding. Did some practicing for recording too which is always a plus, even if mind numbingly boring. I also managed to watch the episode of CSI directed by the master and got to rewatch Shaun of the Dead. All in all a good weekend. Taqta dak iz-zobb ta' Producers.

Reggae 'n' Blues

2006-03-02T23:22:00.000-08:00

- Six strings and the truth is what you need to play the reggae 'n' blues.

That's Peklectrick for you. I find both genres absolutely fascinating. Not least because they're both very expressive and feel soul authentic. Dats a muusik camin' fram tha roots mon! It tha swingin soun of tha soul mon! Enough with the Jamaican patois already. What's cool about RnB (reggae 'n' blues) is that apart from the afore mentioned perks you have the added bonus of being able to add the words 'reggae', 'dub' and 'blues' to any song title and make it sound that little bit more interesting. For example, a song called 'Tortellini' would simply suck sausages. A song called 'Tortellini reggae' on the other hand, becomes intriguing. Much like: 'Fruit and Vegetable Dub', 'Reggae inna Office' and 'The blogosphere blues' for example. They sound quite catchy, don't you think?

You know, I must admit that my exploration of blues is still in it's infancy. I've been into reggae for at least 7 years now and that chopped skanking still gets me pogoing like an infantile buffoon. The blues, on the other hand, is a taste I'm still in the process of acquiring. In small doses of course. I'm not the type of person to go out and try to explore a whole genre in a couple of days. I like to get to know the artists well before I move on to the next food stand. Quality over quantity I guess. At the moment I'm exploring the playing of Albert King. God that sound pretentious! Exploring the playing of Albert King are we? Wooooooo!

"Oh, I say, we are grand, aren't we? (imitating posh accent) 'Oh, oh, no more buttered scones for me, mater. I'm off to play the grand piano'. 'Pardon me while I explore Albert King's playing.'

- see the Flying Lessons sketch in episode 16 of this.

What I meant was that I'll be ripping off some of Albert King's licks and passing them off as my own to impress my girlfriend. You gotta admire my honesty eh? It's the least you can do if you can't hear my playing. Pretentious git.

Footie (4)

2006-03-01T23:08:00.000-08:00

Evidently, every time I publish a post about a favourite football team, they go out and lose. The bastards do it to spite me, I know. 4 -1 this time (3-2 last time...do i see a trend here?). Against Italy. At least it was a friendly. But that is as comforting to moi as a healthy salad is to a fat-ass.

When your team concedes two goals in the first seven minutes of play, you know something is rotten in Deutschland. It's the defense stupiden. Or lackthereof. The defense is more shaky than San Andreas Fault. In fact its not San Andrea's fault. It's San Klinsmann's fault. Klinsmann must have been reading too many superhero comics to keep playing with three, ahem, defenders after the instant shock that were the first two goals. It took a third one to change his mind. Hopefully he learnt his lesson.

The only star in this German team is Lahm. He is true to the spirit of that great Brehme guy. Let's hope he's not injured for the World Cup. Ballack? Bollocks. Frinks and Klose? They only play well against Juventus. And Lehmann? He must have an ego the size of Antartica to think he is better than Khan. But let's stop at that. It's just the morning-after effect. Being a wannabe optimist I think that I can see an improvement from Voller's team. But that's not saying much is it?

But in all honesty it's not really their fault. This is just a case of what psychologists would call transference (or something). It's all my fault. In the wise words of Mr. White "I swear to God I'm fucking jinxed!". I've got to be. This bad luck trend, of publishing a fottie post before a game, has got to stop here, or at least be positively channeled somwhere else. For this reason I declare that from now on (till next week that is) I am an ardent Werder Bremen fan. Let's hope for the best in Turin...

Footie (3)

2006-03-01T03:49:00.000-08:00

People don’t usually understand how I can side with an Italian club and then support Germany’s national football team. But that’s me. I’m weird. It’s similar to me thinking London Calling is the Clash’s best album but having Sandinista as my favourite one.
But anyway, here’s how I came to support Germany.
It was 1990, just a few weeks before the start of that year’s World Cup. I was at my uncle’s house, an England supporter and an avid Chelsea fan. Till that point I was an automatic supporter of Italy. You know the logic of a nine year old boy: My brother and my father have the same surname as me, so I must support the same team as them. It didn’t figure as a choice in my mind. That is, until my uncle decided to put a stop to the madness.
“You have to choose your own favourite team” he ordered me. I was 9 years old for crying out loud. It didn’t occur to me that I could tell him to back the fuck off. So I didn’t.
He picked up his copy of the World Cup album and handed me the choice. Don’t know how many teams he pointed out but there must have been around 5 I think.
“One of these teams will win the cup” he said prophetically. “Choose!”
England, Brazil and Germany are the ones I clearly remember. So without realizing the lifelong consequences of such an important decision, I picked Germany.
They went on to win the cup that year. And the European Cup six years later; which means I’ve seen them win both the World cup and the European Cup and end up finalists in both of the competitions. Something no Italy fan my age or any England supporter can say. Not bad I think, for a hasty decision I took when I was 9 years old. I think you’ll agree…

Lock, Stock

2006-02-28T04:50:00.000-08:00

Reading J’accuse’s ‘It’s been emotional’ post got me thinking. It seems like ages since my obsession with that movie started. I can still remember, some time in 1998 I think it was, when a friend of mine, Leon, came raving about this movie that another friend, had just given him after a trip to England.

“He’s exaggerating. As usual” I thought.
But he made me sit through it there and then. He was that impressed with the movie. I, on the other hand, wasn’t. To tell you the truth I couldn’t figure out what the hell was happening. The faces looked pretty much the same to me and I couldn’t grasp that accent.

So not two seconds after Tom vanishes from the screen he asks me what I thought.
“Nothing special” I muttered.
“Rate it” he retorted after pulling one hell of a weird expression.
“Maybe an 8” I said unconvincingly, after some thinking.
“And how many 8 out of 10 movies have you seen recently, eh?”
The gentleman had a point and it ended there.

Until I watched it the second time that is. It must have been at our rehearsal place. Back then, when we were the equivalent of bums, we had the habit of killing time (along with brain cells, livers and lungs) by watching films at the garage. The complex storyline was starting to make more sense.
“This is truly a great movie!” I thought. But this was just the appreciation phase. The obsession would only begin once I got it on video and watched it for the third time. KABOOM! It felt like something out of a comic book. Light came out of the TV set and I became the Lock, Stock guy.
From then on the streets of Paceville would be tormented on a weekly basis by the drunken citations of entire conversations from the movie. To all the victims, I apologise. I can now understand why you hate the movie.
I was even watching the movie when the rest of the planet was celebrating the coming of the new millennium.
“New Year’s Eve 1999, what were you doing Pat?”
“Watching Lock, Stock mate!”

Now hold on a minute. This isn’t as nerdy as it sounds. I was unable to go out due to a sodding ear infection. I would not have passed on an occasion to party my backside off. But once locked, stuck and barred from going out, there wasn’t any questions as to what I will be doing that night.
Anyways, eventually Snatch came out and it was good. Not as good, obviously. Too Holywood. Something my friends who watched Lock, Stock after Snatch could never understand or appreciate. And that was it. Eventually the obsession started to dwindle and I am now an ex-Lock, Stock obsessive. Of course, this does not mean that you can watch the movie with me without hearing the dialogue in bad surround…

Tick Tock (2)

2006-02-27T06:47:00.000-08:00

Meeting Toni Sant

2006-02-27T04:40:00.000-08:00

I knew Toni Sant was going to be giving lectures today. Didn't know that I would end up meeting him. I knew I would meet il-Fre. Didn't know he would be meeting Toni. And so the story goes.

Fre wasn't much wiser about the meeting. He just got a message from Toni requesting a meeting. The reason was a mystery. We decided that Toni wants to overthrow the system and was enlisting the charming guy with the hat for this endeavor. There were no two ways about it. I would have to join the uprising. The force might not be strong with me but I can always act like a wookie, especially when drunk.

So along I went with il-Fre u il-mara tieghu to room 255. Toni was still going on with the lecture and this worried me.

"Could the uprising afford losing nine minutes?" I wondered.

Before I had time to decide, a head popped out of the door. It was Toni's; and it was floating in mid air like a meditating guru on acid. He looked left and right for a couple of times, verging on the speed of sound, and then decided that we're the rebels he was looking for. He asked us to give him a minute and soon enough he was standing next to us.

What followed was a brief but very interesting conversation; mainly with il-Fre. The contents of which is not really any of your business, just as it isn't any of mine. All I can say, however, is that to my disappointment there was no talk of any uprising.

Toni was full of energy and enthusiasm. He was somewhat different to what I expected. The photo on his blog had deceived me. In it he looks like he's going to break your neck twice. And that's scary. In person, however, he was friendly, funny and oozing enthusiasm, something I admire.

All in all an extremely interesting encounter, even though very brief. So I'll leave it at that, cause I'm beginning to sound too much like Guze...

The Euro

2006-02-26T23:26:00.000-08:00

Since everybody seems to be feeling the need to discuss the images on the euro, I thought I'd publish my zewg centezmi. I am not the conservative type but I think that the national symbol would go nice on the euro. It gives us our national identity. It represents who we are as a nation. It's the one thing that any Maltese, irrespective of what party they support, can identify with. It's the first thing that tourists see when visiting Malta. It is the root and the locomotive of our political world. It is the reason behind our, ahem, ideology. It is what keeps our economy alive (ahem, ahem). It is what gave us our pride and joy that is our first and only mountain. It is our heart and soul (cliches anyone?). Our bread and butter, if you will. Even Bon Jovi knows it. It is the symbol of our skyline. It is us: Malta.

Besides, don't you think that a crane would look good on a coin?

Gramsci's mum was a bitch

2006-02-24T01:52:00.000-08:00

Reading Mark's post and the mentioning of Gramsci reminded me of an episode of Spaced, the coolest comedy series I've seen in these last couple of years. In this episode, from the first series, Tim tells the story of a 'class war' type guy who had a dog called Gramsci. This name stems from the dog's ability to sniff out well-off people and attack them. Pretty neat, methinks. Anyway, one day this class war chap buys a scratch ticket and, wonder of all wonder, wins! It is then that Gramsci (the dog of course) leaps at him and bites his sodding knee off causing the rebel to eventually part with his cash in exchange for a prosthetic leg. If watching this doesn't make you burst out with laughter you probably watch Eileen Montesin shows, in which case you shouldn't even be here.

Disclaimer.

The author reserves the right to like and be inspired by Gramsci. (yes, both of them)

Shut your t(r)ap!

2006-02-23T23:17:00.000-08:00

After a pretty long day at work and a longer lecture, I am usually too exhausted to do anything more than play numbers with the remote control. Passivity is nice, sometimes.

That's what I was doing yesterday when I flicked the channel on Net TV.

After recovering from my aesthetic shock of watching Joe Grima on TV, I attempted to guess what the wide presenter was on about. Shock number two. George Pullicino on. The topic, it seems, was the environment. Words of wisdom were brushing the minister's moustache and gracing us with oracle truths . He was illuminating us with the information he got from a flier that he picked up while abroad on one of his frugal ministerial visits. He explained how we, as a people, can save the environment with a change in culture, daily actions and lifestyle. He seemed genuine enough. Then he gave us an example: "...if people close the tap while brushing their teeth in the morning..."

CUT! (*squeaking gibberish of the rewind button*) Come again Georgie? What was that? Sounds like you're asking me to close the tap. Close the tap? At that time of day, the only things I can convincingly close are my eyelids. It's fair enough I guess. I can understand that. I mean, a little effort from Joe public in the hope of cutting water consumption isn't the end of the word is it? It's even a good idea. But - and this is an even bigger butt than the one Grima was balancing on-asking me to save up on water when your own government is proposing two golf sodding courses?!?!? You must be out of your fucking mind! Either that or you are a botanical enthusiast who munched on the wrong type of mushrooms before the program. On second thoughts, that sounds rock n roll. No. I think you're just a wanker. A wanker with his own ministry.

A Headline that made my day

2006-02-23T00:30:00.000-08:00

Walking to the office with a toxic combination of football blues, morning blues and work/course blues made me feel like a sad smurf from New Orleans. I had pretty much given up on it being a good day; and I hadn't even given my routine autograph to the persistent fans at the Personnel office yet.

The weather didn't help either. Rih isfel iboss; kif tghid il-kollega. The newspaper, however, did. It had a different opinion about the appropriate mood of the day. Now, I'm not the type of person to laugh out loud easily but I just couldn't contain myself. Of course I understand that the headline on the internet is less effective but hopefully you'll catch my drift. I opened the paper and found this: click here.

Footie (2)

2006-02-22T23:05:00.000-08:00

Set menu for the day

Fresh lemon juice Lm1-0

Chicken breast with lemon sauce. Lm1-20

A generous portion of humble pie. Lm2-20

A slice of lemon meringue. Lm 3-20

A middle finger for Zlatan. A sympathetic pat on the back for Buffon and a 'stupidity medal' for Vieira for that yellow card. Cheers for Nedved and Trezeguet for giving us hope. Two away goals aren't that bad.

Some Favourite Albums

2006-02-22T07:41:00.000-08:00

Drum and Bass Strip to the Bone
-Sly & Robbie

The In Sound From Way Out

- Beastie Boys

Survival

-Bob Marley & the Wailers

Rage Against the Machine

- Rage Against the Machine

Clandestino

- Manu Chao

Chill Out

-Black Uhuru

Footie

2006-02-22T01:25:00.000-08:00

When life hands you lemons it means your favourite football team lost a match the night before. Luckily, I seldom receive the gift of bitter flavor. In part, because I have a solid alliance of work collegues who have at least made one good decision in their lives (choosing a good team) but more importantly because my favourite team aren't Alfred Sant. They just don't lose that often.

Now I'm not really obsessive about football although I have recently promoted this interest to a mild passion, which along with my other passions (ie. music, hating Man. Utd and sarcasm) keep me great company during these hectic times. Having said this I sincerely hope that my eating habits would go unchanged tomorrow. Eating humble pie is not my idea of culinary greatness. So let's hope for the best in Bremen.

il-Beaker

2006-02-21T07:34:00.000-08:00

I was recently asked, during a lecture, to look back on my education life. It was emphasized that we should take this exercise seriously. I didn't. Neither did I look at my past. I looked at my watch instead. In all honesty, I did try to walk down that lane but my memory was throwing RTOs* at me. I have a hard time with this memory thing. So I just bluffed my way out of the exercise...

Recently, however, I remembered something from school. I was taken back to the science lab during one lesson with Fester, my ex- science teacher dude. An ex-teacher and an ex-dude too I believe (God rest his soul). But anyway, he was teaching us gits about lab instruments. Not that I cared. Or anybody else, for that matter. I mean what twelve year old kid with an allergy for science would ever imagine that they will find any of that shit practical and useful? I tell you what kid: A short-sighted one. Here's why.

It was only last week, during a conversation about creative insults with il-Fre and another bloke, that the insight and long-term vision of our education system manifested itself. There, out of the blue, springing from my subconscious mind like Mr. Hanky the xmas poo; with no warning whatsoever and with the force of explosive diarrhoea, the Beaker popped in my head and without even a chance to pat myself on the back, out of my mouth. "Beaker hara!" I uttered, with the satisfaction and smile of a twelve year old boy who just realised how useful science is.

I don't know what it is but there's just something about that image that works. It's what could be refered to as a scientific insult. In fact it's my new insult of choice. "Ja beaker hara!" I will yell out of the window when road rage pays me a visit. Feel free to use it too. Just handle it with care. It's fragile and can make a mess out of your day.

* Ask any local rambler about this.

Tick tock

2006-02-21T05:41:00.000-08:00

Like a ticking time bomb I sometimes find myself on the very verge of explosion. My work collegues play the irritating breeze that lures the flaming fuse further to the big black bomb. I always manage to keep my cool. But a first time for everything I heard them say there surely is. And I seriously feel this blast is on its way...

The Carnival

2006-02-21T04:50:00.000-08:00

Is it just me or has the Nadur carnival become the most popular three hills offering since il-bott il-blu? Am I the only one with a feeling that it has become more mainstream than Fab Fanny? I mean, I've been hearing so many people planning for this event that I can hardly get myself to refer to it as the spontaneous carnival without snickering.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not the type to mourn the carnival's 'purity' or any of that sort of hogwash. In fact I have never been to the carnival. I have been meaning to go for years but unfortunately I find that I am much, much better at procrastinating than I am at doing. Either way, going to Gozo and finding Malta is not my cup of whisky. So I'll leave all the veteran fans and all the newbies to enjoy indulging in grotesque masks and surreal partying. Hopefully we'll get to read some stories on a couple of local blogs. Like the one that inspired my train of thought.

Saturday Night Live

2006-02-19T23:21:00.000-08:00

Being a stand up comedy fan (yeah, local politics is a blast) I was thrilled to learn that Ed Byrne was going to perform in Malta. I had watched bits and pieces of his act on TV and was blown away by one skit he had about Alanis Morissette. Click here.

So off I went to Qawra with a bag of anticipation and a pocketful of expectations. Both the compere and the first act were good. Nothing you'd write home about though. Just a bit on your blog would be enough. Glenn Wool was funny although I think his style of comedy was not fully appreciated by the Maltese audience (excluding of course any mention of Arabs. Something that is guaranteed to go down pretty well with the locals). He was fun though ("Don't mix acid with cocaine. The last thing you'll need when having hallucinations is confidence..."). Unfortunately I couldn't fully get what he was on about. Whether this was due to his drunken-like mumbling or his accent I am not quite sure . Having said that I think that all in all he was the perfect warm up for the comedy master.

Not really too much to say about Ed Byrne. All the press quotes on his website are pretty spot on and the title of 'comedy master' doesn't in anyway feel like an exaggeration. Don't really wish to hype him up too much but what the heck, the bloke deserves it. His unpretentiousness is enchantingly charming and his material is sure to instantly win over the king of cynics. Those of you who missed it, well, tough shit. Your loss folks, wait for his DVD.

Obviously these type of articles usually end up with the obligatory thanking of the sponsors, the cheers to the organisers for a fun night etc. I won't do it. To tell you the truth I think that irrespective of how great a night it was, LM9.50 is a bit expensive for less than 3 hours worth of entertainment. The organisers are sure to be milking this niche market (made up of a majority of yuppies) and we live-comedy-deprived lot pay for it. So although theoretically I think it's expensive; in practice, I think I would pay again to see comic acts of Ed's caliber. It's not like I can catch a plane and go to London whenever I'm in need of comedy now can I? The departure tax would square it up, wouldn't it?

Ghosts of Merton

2006-02-16T23:17:00.000-08:00

Three fifth form students were caught stealing exam papers. Allegedly. Of Geography.

I was starting to sarcastically wonder why, when suddenly, as if like a genie, **ppuufff** Robert Merton popped up in my head.

"Oh hi Merton..." I muttered without any hint of enthusiasm whatsoever.
"Not pleased to see me I see" he replied.
"Not really. Was kind of expecting you to pop up actually. You always do"
"Am I that predictable?"
"Not much a matter of predictability as much as it is a case of being spot on" I retorted.
"Anomie and Social Structure' again, is it? You're becoming obsessed Pat"
I stop and think for a couple of seconds before I start my defense,
"I might be Bob. I might be. But irrespective of the bulk of curses sociology students throw at you for adding 'the adaptations' to their 'things to memorise' list, I really think you're right. I mean, why would those fifth formers go to the trouble of stealing the exam paper if not because of the permanent pressue to pass their exams."

I went on:

"Would anybody risk it if exams where not such an important yardstick in a student's life? Would they have done it if learning was emphasized rather than making it past the pass mark?"
"Mmmm. But; but if you've read my magnum opus you'd know I never spoke about exams at school..."
"Like I care! It's still the same principle. It's just a smaller and different context innit?"

But before he could reply to my question he disappeared like that paper from the office. I kept wondering whether Bob was offended by my "like I care" comment or maybe he went about rewriting bits from 'Social Structure and Anomie'...

Beep, Beep, Beep

2006-02-16T01:04:00.000-08:00

Rudely awakened digitally. Alarm clock's mocks in ecstasy. Mental whispers : wakey wake, wake, wake. Muahahaha. Rolling around in search of a truce: AHA! The snooze! Now there's an excuse that sends the morning blues to hell. For a minute or ten. Wakey wake. Grrrrr. My mind is evil. Much like that bloody clock there. Wakey wake. Ok. I get it. Point fucking taken. But do I have to go to work?* How far away is Friday then? Wait. Is that a sore throat I feel? Not quite sure. Is it too mild? Is it even there? Damn. My sick bag is empty. It's set then. Up, up, up. But do I have to go? And for that matter do I have to hum this infectious, obnoxious, some-other-oxious tune? Haven't heard this song in years. Gloom. Where did it come from? The tune I mean. Just a regular disc in my bad subconscious jukebox. Apparently. Wakey wake. Stop that shit. I'm awake for fuck's sake!

Think I'll take dump. Ahhhhhh. A nice way for a shite morning. Next step. Breakfuckinfast. Door closes. Off to work. 23.5 hours for rematch. Ding!

*Topic for another blog entry.

Lame post

2006-02-15T23:39:00.000-08:00

Have you ever hurt your leg so bad that you're unable to walk properly? It's shit innit? Going from a room to the next makes you feel like Frodo on his way to 'Maghtab'. A never ending journey with evil encounters. Taking a piss becomes an adventure in itself and climbing the stairs a practical impossibility. Going out of the house is even worse. It feels like the world is constantly throwing gambetti at you. The pavement is suddenly a liliput bastion and all the normally quasi-tolerated potholes become conspiracy theories. If luck is on your side a low-floor bus comes your way. But then again, you realise you don't really fit in the seat. Walking takes longer and doing 'normal' activities suddenly becomes more complex. And it's not the injury that pisses you off most. It's just that the infrastructure is created with a lot of stereotypes and assumptions in mind that make no sense whatsoever when you don't fit in them. What's the use of a high pavement if you can't bend your sodding leg? Of what use is a staircase if you can't go up?

Life is shit when you're not completely mobile. And it's frustrating when you're temporarily unable to move. Freedom of movement on a micro level becomes a farce. That's the permanent reality of the physically impaired. That's the permanent reality of the socially disabled.

Mark Barnsley

2006-02-15T05:17:00.000-08:00

"id-Dripht li kellhom id-diska Mark Barnsley?" he uttered.
..."X'sar minnu? Ilni ftit ma niktiblu".

While I always hoped that my lyrics would communicate a message, I never thought that anyone would actually be touched so much as to personally write to Mark Barnsley after listening to said song. So you can image the multiple tons of bricks that smashed my head as I learned that a lecturer of mine did exactly that. If I could explain in words the feeling I got from learning this, I'd be a writer. High is the word that comes to mind. Its a sense of achievment that no playlist or perspex stars can ever dream or hope of giving. Expression and communication are the key concepts in music. If both are present it's an explosion. One that should worry any oppressor.

Il-Fre ghandu Blog

2006-02-15T04:50:00.000-08:00

Yeah! Fre has a blog. So go check it out. I know Joseph advertised it already but another ad for something like this is ok. This ain't Nike. Watching Fre with his enthusiasm towards his blog got me wondering why I can't keep this up. Why do I get bored after a couple of posts? Why can't I be arsed to keep it up? Beats me.

It's probably because it feels like nobody is reading. But I can't really blame anybody for that when I shave my head more often than I update this thing. Either way. Just another rant.

And now for something completely different...It's!

Was going to type something about how divorce could help increase vacant buildings in the long term but I decided not to. So i'll let you figure it out.

The Enlightened

2006-01-24T01:52:00.000-08:00

Isn't it frustrating when the electricity goes off? Isn't it frustrating when the electricity goes off for six straight hours? Isn't it frustrating when the electricity goes off for six straight hours during the only free time you have? If you answered yes to all the above you're sodding right but you'll win nothing.

I always get the urge to quote in a loud manner Guido's 'Gvern tal-kastig' speech when this happens. And I always do.

Thanks Gonz. If time is money...you owe me big time.

Bingo Binge

2006-01-19T05:52:00.000-08:00

It's always like that. Somebody dies and we feel the need to start a moral panic. A young lady died during an Open Bar party in New Year's Eve and suddenly open bars are a menace to society. Letters start flooding the press and Taliban-like speeches are made by moral ministers. Opinion polls are flung about like they're the epitome of scientific studies and we panic and start behaving like drunks: confusing things, proposing stupid shit and burping gibberish. Dolores: open bars are a menace to sobriety but not the devil incarnate. They exist because people love to drink. Thinking that open bars turn people to booze is insulting our intelligence. Yes, Malta has an alarmingly high rate of young people who abuse alcohol. But let's get some friggin' perspective here shall we? Turning hysterical is as much a good idea as sitting near a fire to dry yourself from a gasoline shower.

Of course, laws regarding under-age drinking should be improved and enforcement introduced. What you don't do is crusade against open-bar parties. What is causing young people to get wasted every weekend? This should be the question that we should be asking. And that is where the answer lies. As Joe Stummer amply put it: "48 hours need 48 thrills". The weekend is the time when young people take their middle finger out and parade it for the benefit of all those forces that oppress them. Be it boring mind numbing work, lectures on irrelevant shit or an education system that provides them with more crap than life-skills. Alcohol abuse is serious. And so should be its discussion. Pretending a ban on open bars is the way to go is pathetic. Apparently this is not the immigrants season. Let's find another scapegoat shall we?

Disclaimer: I am in no way involved in the organisation of open bar parties. To tell you the truth I think these parties are nothing but glamorous rip-offs and I think that they're more full of hype than booze.

I'm back. (not really)

2006-01-19T05:06:00.000-08:00

After a couple of months hiatus, I'm back. Probably not for good. But just to type some shit and make it seem like I'm blogging again. It's tough to keep a blog. I don't really like to write. Not as much as I hate the Right, but that's another story. A story I'm not too arsed with at the moment. Although maybe I should be. But I'm busy. This year, 2006 (yeah all the best to you lot), is hopefully recording year. This is when Peklectrick ceases to be merely a forsaken blogger and a difficult word to spell. Unfortunately due to unforseen circumstances I had to push the recording plans to July instead of April. Boo hoo. Maybe for the better.

Yeah, like I said, I'm busy. Lectures will soon increase from two days to three days. The full time job is ready with an unwanted busy shedule and I need to start practicing my songs. Crap. God knows what chord I did in that bit and how the hell did I come up with that sound? To top it all off I have to work on my dissertation proposal...anybody of you know anything about Tan-Numri? Jew iz-zghazagh ta taht l-art?

Anyways, don't really know why the hell i'm bothering to write this. Nobody is reading. And I'm sure those that might have started it couldn't be bothered with finishing it. So there.

Unpublished Letter

2005-10-20T00:06:00.000-07:00

This was sent to the editor three weeks ago. I think I'm correct in assuming that he won't be publishing it...

Inconsistancies Galore!

The Independent reported that in a press conference, dealing with irregular immigration, an ANR spokesperson said that “Some of these people are truly persecuted but others are simply victims of circumstance”. If, as this statement implies, the ANR views circumstances as totally irrelevant, then why does this organisation embrace a whole ideology whose main principle is founded in accidental circumstance? Has anybody, anywhere ever had any sort of say in deciding their own place of birth? Is it to the ANR’s merit that their members were presumably born on Maltese soil to Maltese parents rather than somewhere else? No it is not. But of course, like any extreme rightist organisation - irrespective of what pompous euphemism they use to project themselves in an acceptable light - the ANR would probably dish out some cheap ‘forefathers rhetoric’ to justify maltreatment of others and assert their privilege. This, however, does not solve their contradictions and inconsistencies.

Not only does the ANR hold inconsistent views as to when circumstances are or are not important, they are also highly selective in their acceptance of Catholic dogma. For example, this organisation is attempting to mobilize the local population against the foreign babaw. How this is reconciled with their supposedly catholic values is truly mind boggling. Maybe their version of the Bible has some sort of secret footnote that specifies that ‘loving your neighbour’ only applies if they are of the same nationality, skin colour or culture as yourself.

Furthermore, in a cheap attempt at selling shameless xenophobia the ANR point at countries like the UK, Germany and Holland. Their vision suddenly shifts from the national to the international. What the ANR fail to address is how their fear of foreigners, rooted in their twisted ideology, can ever help avoid racial hatred and create harmony and integration between cultures. How is extreme nationalism helping to avoid clashes between different nationalities and cultures? These self-declared bearers of ‘common sense’ seem to conveniently ignore what history repeatedly teaches us. Hate keeps generating more hate and justice is a necessary precondition for peace. There is no justice where human rights are not respected. The concepts of dignity, solidarity and justice transcend man-made national borders and so do human rights. Hysterical patriotism, paranoid politics and talk of a bogus ‘national interest’ are threats to the afore-mentioned concepts. After all, as George Bernard Shaw aptly put it ‘Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it’.

Rage against those who criticise me...

2005-10-13T02:55:00.000-07:00

Every time somebody dares criticise the defenders of all things democratic (the ANR) they can expect that in a matter of days their names will appear on their website with bitter attacks and pseudo-humor whose sole purpose is but a cheap attempt to ridicule.

Quite amateurish, for a group that pathetically begs to be taken seriously. It's quite obvious to me that anybody who makes the conscious decision of going in the public spotlight will be criticised. And rightly so. It's a damn shame that these right-wingers can't take any form of criticism. They get hot-under the collar every time somebody dares disagree with them. They don't counter arguments with arguments but with ridicule and grand statements that are doing nothing but exposing their true colours. 'My way or the highway' seems to be the message. Oh how democratic of them...

Democracy and Human Rights

2005-10-12T00:34:00.000-07:00

The biggest test that our democratic principles face is in practice. It lies in how we would want to treat those that do not agree with us. More specifically, it lies in how we would want to treat those people we hate. This is surely no original idea. But I think it is a question worth asking, especially considering the climate in Malta at the moment. Would we find excuses to justify harming our opponents or would we defend their human rights? Personally I am somewhat worried about the type of talk we've been hearing lately. Suspension of human rights? For whom? How can I ever be sure that my human rights won't be suspended next? Few people seem to realise how dangerous talk of suspending human rights to accommodate some bogus national interest is.

What is this national interest really? We've heard it tons of times. We never heard a detailed description of what it is. Is the nation any better off now that the self-declared defenders of this so-called national interest have taken to the streets? Is the nation more serene? Less racist? Or more united?

Judging by the right-wings ideology and their tonality I find it impossible to believe that my human rights would ever be respected should they have anything to do with it. How about your human rights?

Listen to the Fascist sing...

2005-10-10T04:44:00.000-07:00

"Take hope here
War is elsewhere
You were chosen
This is Gods land
Soon we'll be free
Of blot and mixture
Seeds planted by our Forefathers hand"

-Zack de la Rocha

Rings a bell doesn't it?

ANR deception?

2005-10-10T02:25:00.000-07:00

The ANR is spreading the allegation that the anti-fascist protestors at the ANR demonstration were breaking the law because they assembled without the necessary permit.

The Public Meetings Ordinance states that:

"meeting" or "public meeting" means any gathering of more than
twenty persons assembled for the public discussion of any matter,
in any public street, square or open space and includes a
demonstration;

Thus, in my amateur interpretation it means that Graffitti and Fr. Mark did not necessitate a permit for their demonstration because as even the ANR acknowledges they were less then 20. Why is ANR mentioning the figure of 10 persons? Whence did they get the number from?

They probably got it from Article 68 of the Criminal Code, which states:

Whosoever shall take an active part in an assembly of ten or
more persons for the purpose of committing an offence, although
the said assembly may not have been incited by any one in
particular, shall, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment for a term
from three days to three months or to a fine (multa).

The problem lies here. Are the ANR saying that Graffitti and Fr. Mark were committing an offence by being expressing their disapproval? Or are they implying that it should be?

Thanks goes to a good friend of mine for help with this entry. Thanks mate.

Worrying

2005-10-10T01:03:00.000-07:00

Philip Beattie can make grandiose declarations about the ANR not being racist for the rest of his life. I don't believe it and never have. But let's give him and his buddies the benefit of the doubt. Can he ever deny that they're appealing to the most shallow of human emotions? Can he deny that the majority of the crowd present for the demonstration were there out of racial hate? Can he deny that his 'toilet of the Mediterranean' comment is racist in tonality? Can he deny that the ANRs demonstrations, statements and press conferences are not helping to defeat racism but are fueling it?

The ANR, in a demonstration of political opportunism, are milking the current situation in Malta to promote their twisted ideology which is shockingly reminiscent of fascism.

Of course, the ANR will deny everything. The facts, however, are far more credible than anything the ANR says. Click here.

Still waiting...

2005-08-25T04:06:00.000-07:00

I, like all those who cherish human rights, am still waiting for the outcome of the enquiry into the shameful Safi incidents of 13th January...

Follow Up

2005-08-22T09:53:00.000-07:00

With reference to my post about Jean Charles de Menezes, I thought that this article is worth reading.

Immigrants from the North

2005-07-27T23:25:00.000-07:00

I sometimes wonder what the radical right's reaction would be if boatloads of Scandinavian blondes with very little clothing start reaching our shores on a regular basis.

Would they let the 'poor ladies' rot in detention camps or would they queue to host them in their homes? Would the country be able to afford taking care of them or would they be deemed as the ultimate national burden?

I wonder...

...Of course the Right would say that it would make no difference. I don't really believe it though. Do you?

License to Kill

2005-07-26T02:00:00.000-07:00

Police in England have the right to shoot and kill on suspicion. If in the head of an armed officer you are a terrorist you risk to get a bullet in yours. The case of Jean Charles de Menezes is deeply disturbing. Not least because of the calm and relative business-as-usual that seems to cloud the whole case. Citizens become collateral damage in the so call war on terror.

I don't know about you but I find it very hard to believe that 8 shots were necessary to stop a suspected terrorist. Especially when reports said the he was lying on the ground at the time [source].

Bliar said he was sorry [?] but defended the brutal action.

So now the official policy is that the deaths of innocent civilians is an ok way to further 'our' cause? How is that different from extremists who use indiscriminate violence to further their own cause?

'Our cause is justified' yells the kid at the back of the class.

I'm sure that fighting terrorism is a noble cause. But I am also sure that the extremists think the same of their cause.

This sad case goes to prove that the state has the monopoly on violence. It can carry it out without repercussions. It also has the means to convince the world that it's a different type of violence. It's a necessary violence. It convinces us that it's OK to kill if you've got a license.

Terror reigns in England. People are afraid. If I was there I'd be afraid too. I'd be constantly afraid that some maniac will come and blow me away with a home made bomb. I'd be constantly afraid that I might look like a terrorist in the imagination of one of them license holders.

I take comfort in the fact that at least I know that should the latter be the case, Mr. Bliar will be deeply sorry...

The Land Of the Free

2005-07-25T02:21:00.000-07:00

Click here.

Sunday 17th

2005-07-18T23:33:00.000-07:00

I keep cursing myself for not making sure I had a camera with me last Sunday.

Around 100 people, ranging from environmentalists, politicians, residents and ramblers joined forces to take a short walk around the area that the government decided would be better off serving the needs of a small group of golfers.

I had never been to ix-Xaghra l-Hamra. My first impression was how huge the stretch of land was. I always knew that a golf course would use up a lot of space but being there rendered all the figures on paper superficial.

We took off. Step after step we were swallowed by a sea of garigue. The smell of saghtar flirted with my nostrils and I couldn’t help think that this might eventually become a mere slide show at the ex-Malta Experience.

We walked towards the cliffs and we waited for the sun to set. How many sunsets left till the bulldozers parade? How many sunsets left till it becomes a club members-only area? I invite all those who consider the golf course to be a good idea or a necessary evil to spend some time around the place. I invite them to learn about the rich flora and fauna of the area. I also invite them to walk up to Malta’s children and tell them that they have to sacrifice such beauty and space; that they have to sacrifice such experiences and sunsets; that they must be the lamb offering for the mighty god, the universal pimp.

Comments

2005-07-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

Ehm ehm. Being the lazy sod that I am (nothing new there), I never bothered to go through the options of this blog properly. I wasn't aware that I could change the comments settings. Well, after a good friend (or Fre-end) of mine informed me of this well kept state secret, I browsed my ass down here and changed the settings. So there you have it. Another thing off the 'to do' list...

19 Holes

2005-07-13T00:36:00.000-07:00

Some time ago the PM decided, in an authoritarian manner, that this country needs a golf course.

The opposition agreed.

The rhetoric started flying in all directions: "Tourism, jobs, economy, environment, scenery, bullshit, lies, bullshit and crap".

Now the site has been proposed: ix-Xaghra l-Hamra is to be turned into a golf course. If the loonies get their way that is.

I for one hope they don't. A lot of people agree. Some don't. The Times even made a 'mistake' with figures and gave the impression that this is a popular idea.

The idea that Malta's tourism or economic problems will be saved by a golf course is ridiculous and dangerous. I am against golf courses in Malta on principle. Irrespective of the site chosen. Malta cannot afford to lose such a big stretch of land. We are already living in a concrete jungle, where open space is only available if one looks up (not in St. Julians). Do we really afford to turn open spaces into exclusive zones for golf players? It's already bad that we have RTOs written wherever there is a little greenery. Land is scarce and the powers that be want to give a whole chunk of it away. A whole chunk that belongs to everybody. How long will it be ours?

What about water? Do the authorities know the amount of water needed to sustain a friggin golf course? Probably not. They only understand the champagne language. Water is scarce and the government, along with the opposition want to waste several thousand cubic meters of water so that the grass is nice and green for the few who play golf.

The pro-golf lobby goes on ad nauseum that a golf course would generate jobs, increase tourism etc yawn etc...Why would tourists come to Malta when there are bigger and better golf course all around the Mediterranean? If Malta wants to attract tourists it should get its act together and take a good look at the derelict state it is in. It should market itself in a unique manner and promote that which others lack. Malta has huge cultural and historical heritage. It should make good use of it. It should protect it and exploit it for the benefit of the whole population. Eco-tourism is also an area that the government seems to have by-passed in its blind and obsessive drive to give away land for a golf course.

This is a very serious threat. We should all act collectively to save the little open areas still available for public use. The 18 holes should not be left to materialise. The holes should be left to fill space in that thick file, labelled 'Governmental Stupid Ideas' that graces an office in Valletta. If we don't stop these holes our collective back hole would suffer an arrogant and intrusive force that would leave Malta walking in a funny way for a long way to come.

Freedom of Speech

2005-07-11T23:17:00.000-07:00

This is what the right-wing fanatics yell when somebody like Lowell is taken to court for inciting racial hatred. That is the card they strategically play. They fill the victim role with a freedom of speech script. It is nothing but an attempt at winning sympathy and gathering support for their wicked ideas. All of a sudden they become the defenders of democracy and all its characteristics. It's not important that they do not believe in it or even believe it.

Freedom of speech is meant to be a tool for expression not a weapon to attack people. Freedom of speech is not absolute. When people are defamed on the media the law comes in to protect the victims. I have never met anybody who considers the libel laws as stifling freedom of speech. On the contrary, the libel laws are welcomed as protection against unfounded allegations and lies. Having lies about you printed and circulated goes against the fundamental human right of security of the person (Article 3 UN Declaration).

Why is racial hatred any different? It is not. Having somebody express (and potentially inciting) hate towards people of particular colour/race/creed is as threatening to the security of the person as lies. It is in fact more serious than spouting lies about one person. With racial hatred, one is shifting the focus from the particular to the general thus involving whole groups of peoples. A general verbal attack against black people is a personal attack on every black individual. The colour of the skin is a general characteristic. It is similar to a guy (or a girl...Life of Brian anyone?) spreading hate against fat people, people with glasses, people with long hair or people who own cars. How would you feel if people were given the liberty to generate hateful sentiment against you? How would you feel if you were being hated for something you are (as opposed to something you have done)? Would you want the law to protect the perpetrator or the victim?

Of course the right-wingers would dismiss the idea that somebody could incite hate crimes. As recent reports show this phenomenon is unfortunately starting to rear its ugly head in Malta. The law should therefore protect the potential victims not the perpetrators. Of course, people have every right to speak about what they want. They have all the rights to discuss the issues that they deem fit. That right, however, should not be turned into the right to trample on the rights of other people. Open discussion should be in the heart of any democratic society. Hate should not.

Terror in Europe

2005-07-08T00:09:00.000-07:00

It was sad to hear about the news of the London blasts. The somber aura surrounding the horrific blast reminded me of Sep-11. The reactions of people I've met were similar. Shock and horror. This, in general is the reaction when terrorism rases its ugly head. Yet I always get the impression that the lives of white people are more precious than those of others. It's interesting to see the reaction and anger (verging on fanaticism) of those around you when the blow is dealt to Europe. Nevermind that for a large section of humanity death, misery, poverty and war are their real life situations. Of course their realities are mere news items for us. A snippet between the local news and the sports updates.

Iraq has been under attack for more than two years now. The scenes of death and devastation have been a daily occurrence to the Iraqis. The smell of death greats them every morning. The body count of civilians is at least 22, 500, possibly as much as 25,800. Smart bombs in dumb people's hands is a lethal cocktail. We're so accustomed to being the bullies rather than the bullied that we have no clue about the misery that comes with war and death. Only when something like this happens do we start to feel the pain and the misery. How often do we stop to think that this is a way of life for a huge chunk of the human race?

Having said that I am in no way advocating, justifying or making excuses for terrorism. I think that terrorist acts are as bad as the wars carried out by power hungry bully nations. Any form of attack that targets civilians should be condemned unconditionally irrespective of who carries it and against whom it is carried.

The Zapatistas

2005-07-06T23:27:00.000-07:00

The Zapatistas, who emerged on the world scene on New Year's Day of 1994 have managed to repeatedly capture the imagination of many people, not least yours truly. They are a source of inspiration and a living example of the dignity that comes with active resistance (as oppossed to passive acceptance). They represent the global struggle of humanity against neo-liberalism. They do so in a humble and magical manner. Maybe the image of the Zapatistas is sometimes romanticised yet the words of hope and dignity that come out of the Mexican Southeast through the Communiques of Subcommandante Marcos are a welcome alternative to the bullshit that we're fed through the corporate media and the political puppets.

The Zapatistas have recently declared a Red Alert. They have retreated to the jungle and have now emerged with the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle. Read the text here.

Live 8

2005-07-06T03:16:00.000-07:00

To avoid becoming a dabbler in the blog world (see Toni Sant's post here), I decided to type something.

I watched parts of Live 8 last Saturday. While I appreciate that Sir Bob and Bono have attempted to steer away from charity and try to put pressure I was somewhat disappointed about the whole deal. The more celebrities I heard speak the more cynical I became. They were all repeating the same three concepts: "Trade Justice, Aid, Drop the Debt" (in different order of course!). The more they repeated them the more irrelevant they became.

From the looks of it, few celebrities seemed to have a clue about what they were on about and some spoke in a pathetic manner. It felt refreshing to see that amidst the chorus of parrot-like repetition of 'Trade justice, Drop the Debt, blah blah", Tom Morello came on TV and actually questioned the idea that the richest countries should meet to decide the fate of the world as if by divine right. Needless to say his interview on MTV lasted about 15 seconds. Maybe others did actually question the fact that irrespective of the pressure put on the G8 there is no guarantee that they will listen. If they did I didn't see them. If they did they were few. If the structures were truly democratic, measures would be put in place to ensure that the demands made by a majority are in fact met. But what Bono and Geldof seem to happily accept is that such a decision is the G8's prerogative. In reality it is up to them to decide. But it shouldn't be. And few celebrities were questioning that.

It's true that the issue of world poverty has been put on the agenda but should the G8 decide to do fuck all about world poverty the repercussions could be serious. What I mean is this: If the G8 decide to not change a thing, the morale of the masses is likely to drop. This would pave the way for the 'If Live 8 was ineffective, everything else will be' attitude. It would inject further apathy in the population, trickling down that feeling of powerlessness against a mighty structure.

Having said this it would be great if improvements are secured through this campaign. I doubt it, but it would be great. But does anybody really think that the powerful would ever give away their power that easily? Would they put the interests of Africa's population before their corporate buddies, just like that? Would they suddenly have a change of heart (after a history of plunder and exploitation) by merely listening to Sir McCarthny and Bono sing Sgt. Pepper's? Yes it's a great song but it's not that great...

Live 8 was great as an awareness campaign. But that was about all that it was. I think it's highly naive to ever assume that a white band and an afternoon of rock 'n' roll are enough to dismantle the powerful global financial institutions and democratise the world.

Ashes in the Fall

2005-06-22T02:45:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you hear a song that you've heard a million times and it hits you like it never did before. This happened to me recently while listening to 'The Battle of Los Angeles'. The song came along and it gave me goosebumps. I think 'The Battle of Los Angeles' has some of Zack's best lyrics to ever grace Rage songs. Click here.

Traffic Diversion

2005-06-21T02:44:00.000-07:00

My lack of inspiration turned into a muse today. As a result I decided that whenever I have nothing to write about I'll just direct you folks to some things that I think are worth reading. These would obviously be stuff that I find of interest. Hopefully you will find them interesting too.

My first post of the sort will take you here.

Uninspired

2005-06-17T01:07:00.000-07:00

Those of you who still bother to check in here every once in a while have propably noticed that I haven't posted in a while. The reason is simple. I'm not inspired. This is not a conscious Stagno-like decision to concentrate on other creative stuff. It's just that unlike Guze, I'm not a writer. I write when I fell like. At the moment I don't. So please bear with me. Keep checking this site out for eventually the muse will pay a little visit.

Xtruppaw (3)

2005-06-08T01:01:00.000-07:00

You have probably come to expect me to rave about Xtruppaw. I'm sure those who were present at last Monday's Festahwid would not blame me for this. It was such a great performance that I am compelled to dedicate a post to it.

The place was full of expectations. Xtruppaw have only been on the scene for a couple of weeks but the anticipation of this 5 piece act was reaching uncontrollable proportions. And then the moment arrived. The Xtruppaw people took to the stage and the place started to fill up. A couple of strums later and the place was packed.

The crowd was enjoying their set and then it happened. After a couple of songs, including one 'ghana' type chilled out song (in which Dino got a deserving round of applause half way through the song) the first chords of their now hit song 'Malta' blasted out. Unexpectedly a spontaneous wave of energy swept over the mosh pit and the crowd, like a switch, went beserk. Beer, people and accessories flew in all directions, engaged in what looked like a peaceful world war. This was nothing short of amazing. The detonating fuse for this sudden burst of immense positive energy was nothing but the grooves and tunes coming off the stage.

The applause after each song was solid and sometimes deafening. I never witnessed anything like this. The show was truly an entertaining experience. It was cleverly planned and each song was placed in the right place. Just when you thought that you've witnessed the climax of the show the Xtruppawers dug their hands deep into their bag of tricks and came out with an ingenious twist that pushed their show to just keep getting better and better.

Well done guys. You deserved the reception you got on Monday. I, like all the people present on Monday, am eagerly waiting for the next one.

On a side note, I'd like to congratulate Dripht for successfully tackling the hurdle thrown at them of having to play after such a mind blowing performance by Xtruppaw. It's not an easy task but they did it well. Well done to Dripht too.

Are you a traitor?

2005-05-30T23:30:00.000-07:00

Adrian Grima's brilliant interview in the Independent has caused quite a stir with Malta's Radical Right. For those of you who are unaware the Radical Right's job is to call anybody who does not agree with their vision of things a traitor. Do you have a different opinion? TRAITOR!!!! YOU'RE BETRAYING YOUR PATRIA!!!! YOU'RE THE ENEMY!!!!

It kind of reminds me of that scene from the Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the people are desperately trying to prove that one woman is a witch. Yes folks. It's that ridiculous. Yet its comic effect can become serious. God forbid these Radical Right would ever have access to power. The witch hunt would be truly on then. And that's not funny. Shunning discussion and resorting to attacking people, using 'Traitor' as the all-time buzzword is not only not funny, it's a threat to democracy. Kind of the same thing the government is up to in the abortion/constitution business.

Witch hunts should be left for the history books. Those that cherish democratic values please take not. Better still, take action.

Adrian Grima on Racism

2005-05-30T01:58:00.000-07:00

Check out Adrian Grima's comments on racism in an interview published on The Independent on Sunday. Click here. A very interesting read.

Imposed Break

2005-05-29T23:57:00.000-07:00

Just to let you lot know that I won't be posting much for the coming weeks. I'm buried in work. As you can probably imagine there is no smile gracing my face as I type this. I'll just turn myself into a zombie and just eat, sleep and work.

When you mention the word overtime most people's eyes transform toLM symbols. Not me. Even though I need money to release a CD, I still see more work as waste of more time. It irks me badly that I have to sell a third of my day so that I can live the rest. My guess is that I'm not the only one. Yet we tend to find individual solutions ( or adaptations) to a collective problem.

Anyone up for a revolution?

Xtruppaw (2)

2005-05-24T23:48:00.000-07:00

Xtruppaw website is now online. Take a look at it here.

The Market

2005-05-22T23:51:00.000-07:00

The invisible hand of the market will control everything. Or so they say. The market does magic and it gives us bliss. It regulates itself and the less interference, the better it will function. We're meant to believe that the market acts independently of any decisions taken by conscious human beings. Yet what is the result?

We have excess of food and hungry people. Clothes in the shops and people in rags. There's a scarcity of water and drunken binges. Books on sale and illiterate people. There are obese people in a world of malnutrition. Shops full of products and empty pockets. Smiles on adverts and miserable lives. We're led by lifestyles instead of leading lives. We have cool ACs and global warming. We have poison smoke coming out of hospital chimneys. We have free movement of capital but not of humans. We have homeless people and empty houses. We build stations in space and destroy forests on earth. We have limited resources and unlimited weapons. We have colour TVs but black and white visions. We talk of liberty but live in chains. We speak of democracy in authoritarian lives. We live in dreams and dream of lives. We satisfy wants not unfulfilled needs.

The market rules! Our world that is. Three cheers for the jolly sod. Hip hype, hooray! Hip hype, hooray! Hip hype, hooray!

Julian

2005-05-18T00:06:00.000-07:00

I was watching Bondi+ last night when, at the end of the programme, Lou shocked Malta with the news that activist and journalist Julian Manduca has passed away. It was just shocking. The last time I felt something similar was when a friend of mine died in 2000. No other way to describe it. It was a truly shocking experience. My body frooze and I suddenly found my heart beat increasing. For a few seconds, possibly verging on minutes I kept staring at the TV screen in total disbelief. The sad news kept bouncing in my head. Did I hear right? How could this have happened? There must be some mistake.

From what I found out this morning many people felt this way. I can understand why. I did not know Julian too well. He was an acquaintance that I got to know through my involvement on environmental issues. Yet although I never got to know him as close as I probably should have, he always struck me as a humble and genuine charming man. He was one of the most inspiring activists I have had the privilege to meet. His non-stop work on environmental issues is nothing short of a great thunderbolt of inspiration that serves as an example of what committed citizens should be all about. No amount of words can ever do justice to the tireless work carried out by Julian. His memory will keep on living in every action taken by us in our attempts to carry on Julian's work. It is our duty to take the torch from Julian's hand and carry it forward. That is how he would have wanted it to be.

Condolences to Julian's wife, Irene and all his family and friends.

Rest in peace Julian.

Xtruppaw

2005-05-17T03:11:00.000-07:00

Just heard a couple of songs by a new local band called Xtruppaw. Now I may be biased in my perception and opinion of the band because the guy behind the lyrics and the music is my cousin. Not only that but the band members are all great people who used to give me whiskey when I used to hang around them (Cheers guys).

Having declared my bias I will now start raving about them.

They're just great. Lyrics in Maltese, ironic and hilarious. Xtruppaw are a middle finger to straight moralistic Malta. It's not that there haven't been bands that tried to do this sort of thing before but the difference between Xtruppaw and others is that Xtruppaw do it with so much style that they're bound to be remembered in the history of local underground culture. I'm convinced their songs will become cult classics. I also heard that their website, which isn't up yet, will be something to look out for. More about that in the coming weeks...

In the meantime, here are the lyrics to the song 'Malta'. You can download the song from the Reciprocal Records website. Xtruppaw will be making their debut live appearance in the upcoming Festahwid. More info here.

MALTA

Kemm ahna tan-nejk f’dan il-pajjiz

Kulhadd dejjaq, vergni u qaddis

Festi ta’ ipokrizija

L-ewwel jien u l-partit

L-aqwa li b’zaqqna mimlija

Imma jekk tibkilna xi naqra ngibuk

Fuq Tista Tkun Int!

Inkantaw

Malta - gbejniet u bigilla

Malta - fazola u bizzilla

Malta - fuq Xarabank

Malta - pastizz tal-pizelli

Malta - suf bit-tarzanelli

Malta - u qassatat

U Kinnie kiesah… oh oh …inkantaw

Dil-gzira z-zibga tal-Meditterran

Dhalna fl-Ewropa u kulhadd ferhan

Nghidu viva il-ministri

Il-qhab tas-socjeta

Ftakar li gejt habbatlek

U sahansitra tajtek keychain

U issa anke qed nibnulek sptar

Nivvotaw

Malta - min blu u min ahmar

Malta - u daqsxejn zghira ahdar

Malta - jew nifflowtjaw?

Malta - kunsilli lokali

Malta - elezzjoni generali

Malta - niccelebraw

U l-Eurovision… oh oh …nivvotaw

Naqra xita u ngherqu f’dik l-injoranza

Nimlew il-hofor bic-citazzjonijiet

Trabi bil-mobile ta’ l-gholi tal-hajja

Ha nnaqsu dak id-defisit…li writt

Malta - gwardjani lokali

Malta - emmigranti illegali

Malta - u traffic lights

Malta - demokrazija

Malta - tghidx erezija

Malta - iddejquli l-bajd

Malta - gbejniet u bigilla

Malta - fazola u bizzilla

Malta - fuq Xarabank

Malta - pastizz tal-pizelli

Malta - suf bit-tarzanelli

Malta - u qassatat

U Kinnie kiesah… oh oh …inkantaw

World Fest 2005

2005-05-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I popped by to the Upper Barrakka to take a look around at the World Fest organised by the Third World Group and Koperattiva Kummerc Gust. Three Cheers for the organisers. It's such a great initiative and an enjoyable experience too. I admire all the activist who spent their day lending a hand so that this activity would be possible. Their actions are appreciated. Keep up the good work folks and keep the Fair Trade banner up high.

Urged

2005-05-12T23:32:00.000-07:00

In the last couple of days I went back to listen to Norm Rejection's first album: Deconform. I've been familiar with this album since 1997 or 1998, when soon after it was recorded, I got a tape copy of the album from the band's drummer Mike. How the tape is still in one piece is quite a mystery. It's one of those tapes that I used to listen to over and over, and over and over. It's a great album, although it may sound a bit dated today. Still some tracks are classics. 6479, Caged and Urged were, in my opinion the stand out tracks of the album.

The reason I'm writing today is to pay tribute to one of the said songs: Urged. As I was listening to it again yesterday it hit me once more why Norm Rejection were one of the most important bands ever to be part of the local scene. The musicianship on the song is nothing but great. The mood is haunting, moving and emotional. It makes you feel the misery of oppression yet simultaneously fills one with hope. A hope of a different world order. Not to mention those Che Guevera samples that fit in the song just perfectly (kudos to David Vella). The song is so captivating that it was only yesterday that I realised that the song is actually close to the 7 min mark. My ignorance probably stems from the fact that the song never gets boring and every note within it serves a definite purpose. Every note is like a sonic unreported bit of news that just found a release from the bondage of corporate media.

Listening to Norm Rejection brought back some nostalgia. Norm, as they were known by their followers, are sorely missed. They were a very influential band in the 90's local scene, not least on yours truly who was a dedicated fan. They were revolutionary in all senses of the word. Lyric-wise they were a fist in the face of structural oppression and musically they stretched the boundaries of local music, paving the way for many acts that sprung out in the new millennium.

Today most of the members of what was Norm Rejection are busy with their other projects. Mike has Dripht who will be releasing a 5 track ep in the coming months; Jo Kerr is busy touring Europe with Slit and Sean is full of activity with his various musical endeavors (Forsaken, Stonefall and others). I wish good luck to all of them. But still, maybe a one-off Norm Rejection reunion concert wouldn't be such a bad idea. In fact, it's a pretty good one methinks. What say you Norm?

The trilogy

2005-05-11T01:29:00.000-07:00

As all of you know, the real Star Wars comprises three movies. So this Stagno banter will end here. I am now off to do some reading. Probably Xemx Wisq Sabiha or Inbid ta Kuljum. It will help me remind myself why the guy is such an important writer in Maltese literature. Waiting for your next one Guz...

Return of the Jedi

2005-05-10T23:31:00.000-07:00

Blame it on boredom or whatever but I thought some points in Joseph's reply should be mentioned.

"Like every self-respectig liberal, Patrick is in favour of free speech.
So much so that he gets terribly annoyed every time I happen to mention
immigrants."

Lesson 1 in freedom of speech. It is not absolute, as the libel laws aptly demonstrate. Secondly, it is funny how freedom of speech seems to merely exist only for Guze to dish out his I-look-cool-by-being-racist rants. He gets terribly annoyed when others are terribly annoyed at what he writes terribly to annoy. Guzi, I have all the rights in the world to be annoyed and you can't complain in the same instance when championing freedom of speech. Once again a little degree of consistency would do wonders. Unfortunately the only consistency you're displaying involves a tiny village next to Lija and Attard and technological communication instruments, which I hate to mention again but am compelled to out of a lack of other examples.

"No one is perfect. Malta is full of racist people; most of them keep their
mouth shut to avoid being labeled racist fucks. Me, I don't care of course...
it doesn't make me less of a human being."

What does the above mean? Is Guze actually admitting that being racist is a fault? Where has all the justifications gone? This is a let down. Of course Guze, you're not less of a human. But the same applies to your other buddies, the junkies, the single mothers and the bums. Not quoting the Nazarene today?

"Cos I am the cunt who has to pay so that single mothers keep getting their
allowance and maybe a government apartment to boot [...]The one who pays is the one who tries to do something constructive with his life. And the ones who are
careless with their birth control, the lazy bums, the junkies... they get all
the benefits."

Yes you are a cunt. But not for the reason you mentioned. You're a cunt because you can't decide what you want. If you don't want the government to pay for irregular immigrant's deportation, campaign to let them stay. If you don't want the government to pay for detention centres, campaign to let them free. Simple. And if you're so sick and tired of paying for other people's problems, stop working. Go on. If life as a bum is so attractive, easy and peachy I wonder what's stopping you from adopting it. Is it really the loan? Or is it a deep understanding that such life is not as easy as you say it is?

"If you happen to be someone like me and my partner, who hold steady jobs and
who don't have any way of not declaring our income... bad luck eh... someone has
to pay the taxes..."

Guz, this may come as news to you: most of us pay taxes too. It's not a big deal either. Stop making an event out of the whole thing. What's next a Monty Pythonesque press conference? I can see the headlines: Guze Stagno pays taxes! Wooooooo. Big deal aqqanna (to quote LasPalmas). Why not concentrate on tax evaders instead of welfare recipients. Strong with the weak eh? Bully.

Till Guze's next blog entry...

Disclaimer

The writer of this blog reserves the right to like Guze Stagno and his work (as indeed he does).

Guzempire strikes back

2005-05-10T23:20:00.000-07:00

Here is Joseph Stagno's reply to the previous blog entry. It's here. He's struck me down (With a white [power] saber and all).

Political Pop

2005-05-09T00:45:00.000-07:00

"I don't like when you mix music with politics" says Ray Gange to Joe Strummer in Rude Boy, the documentary about the Clash's roadie.

Mixing radical and rebellious issues with music seems to irritate some people. It raises questions of 'why?' and makes people uncomfortable that music is used as a weapon of resistance.

Yet do these people object when music is used to reinforce the dominant values and ideas in our society? I, personally have found few people that do. It's normal, so it must be ok. Singing about the bling bling, money, the American dream and constant consumption is acceptable. Who will question that? Seeing Madonna and Missy Elliot promote sweatshops through their endorsements is not really mixing music with politics. It's just the way things are, right? Wrong. Such actions are as political as any song by Rage Against the Machine. Like Bob Dylan sang "you've got to serve somebody". Madonna, Elliot etc are serving a different master. But serving they are. Like RATM they are highly political, albeit in a disguised way. Whether it's the Game & 50 cent promoting the myth of social mobility through "the underdog's on top" phrase or hip-hop's general misogynistic and materialistic messages, music, as part of culture either promotes or rejects particular values. MTV is like a global shopping catalogue selling cool. How much more political can you get?

Vandalism?

2005-05-08T23:33:00.000-07:00

So some folks with vested interests attempted to lead us to believe that the Portes De Bombes vandalism and writing on billboards are somewhat similar, if not one and the same thing. Ha! Stupid fuckin parrot dropping gits.

It's oh so opportunistic. The Bombi thing and spraying on billboards have as much to do with each other as Maggie soddin' Thatchter (or Twatcher) and worker's rights. This spraying on billboards thingy isn't even vandalism. It's merely a part of the democratic process.

Did anybody ever ask to see billboards. Did anybody ever ask to have a rectangle like area invade our view? Did anybody ever ask to have political (or otherwise) slogans shoved down our throat every 100 meters or so? I don't think that they have. At least, I don't remember ever filling applications and giving approval to seeing such messages. Unlike election time, I don't remember people knocking on my door asking for my opinion on the whole thing.

So these eye-sores are put there without citizen's permission. I don't ask to see burgers the size of the Mosta dome, happy people smiling with products in their hands or messages attempting to convince me that the government is up to something. Do you?

We didn't ask to see them, yet see them we must. It's very difficult to avoid them, so it's only logical that people should be able to answer them. Now as you're aware, generally speaking, people don't afford to have their own billboards so the only way to question, counter and reject these methods is through guerilla-type strategy. Spray cans are convenient. They're easily available and effective. So if questioning what is imposed on us is vandalism we're as democratic as Stalin with PMS.

Besides, why does the government feel the need to make an event out of what is obviously their job? Why do they want to let us know through billboards that they're doing things? Isn't it like their job? Shouldn't we kind of know about these things through experiencing them? Once again, the mind boggles.

Idiocy Personified

2005-05-04T02:51:00.000-07:00

Somebody threw burnt engine oil on Portes De Bombes (il-Bombi). -insert expression of disbelief with hand scratching head here-

This country has its fair share of idiots. Granted. But this type of idiocy is absurd. It never fails to amaze me how backward some people can get. Remember Imnajdra a couple of years ago? Whatever happened to that case? Is it still pending or what? If any people were arraigned and found guilty I don't remember reading about it (not surprising: my memory is crap).

What motive could anybody have to vandalise a restored Portes De Bombes? Really. What could inspire such action? Did the culprit(s) have some argument with the arches? Where the arches mischievously narrowing themselves when the culprit tried to pass through them? Did they do something to piss him/her off? What exactly? If that was the case it would be somewhat understandable. You know, people get angry when provoked. They may also resort to the 'do- stupid-things tactic'.

That would be kind of understandable, if only it could in any way possible be true. I, like most of the people, have no reason to doubt Mr. De Bombes' good behaviour. He has quite a good reputation. In fact the only thing he's famous for is for sitting there doing fuck all, minding his own damn business, passively inhaling exhaust and welcoming people to Floriana. What could cause a bully to pick on such a nice guy? The mind boggles.

Peklectrick

2005-05-02T06:08:00.000-07:00

What's with this Peklectrick thing anyway?

I have had this blog for a while now but I have never bothered to explain what this kleptic thing is all about.

Nothing complex. It's just the name I use in my musical endeavors. It's basically a combination of Patrick (my name) and Eclectic (what I hope to be). The name came about when, after leaving dripht, I was forced to think of a name under which I would release material. A friend of mine (Chico) used to call me Paaktrick, so Peklectrick kinda evolved from there. Nothing to it. I love the fact that few people manage to spell it though. Hell, sometimes I find myself struggling.

At the moment I'm still working on my demos. Hopefully I will record some in a year's time...

Anyway, this is just the fruit of boredom. So I'll stop here.

Celebrity Consciousness

2005-05-02T01:12:00.000-07:00

A while ago I wrote about the lack of campaigns on MTV about issues that are not safe. Well what do you know, a couple of days ago I saw an endless list of celebrities calling for an end to poverty. Interesting. Very interesting.

I went on their website. Surprise, surprise. They're calling for a 1% increase in aid. Aid. For fuck's sake aid. Aid. Aid. Aid. What good has aid done in the last 40 years or so? Fuck all. Why? Aid perpetuates dependency. Of course these celebrities would never want to challenge the structures that cause poverty. They're part of it. It benefits them. Will they bite the hand that feeds them all their luxuries?

Check out these facts:

20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the worlds goods.

The combined wealth of the world's 200 richest people hit $1 trillion in 1999; the combined incomes of the 582 million people living in the 43 least developed countries is $146 billion.

A few hundred millionaires now own as much wealth as the world's poorest 2.5 billion people.

The richest 50 million people in Europe and North America have the same income as 2.7 billion poor people. The slice of the cake taken by 1% is the same size as that handed to the poorest 57%.

A mere 12 percent of the world's population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World.

for more facts click here.

Poverty does not exist because their is not enough aid. Poverty exist because of uneven distribution of wealth, unjust economic systems and undemocratic international structures. These do-gooding celebrities want you to think that they care. They do a 1 minute advert and then go chill in their multi-million dollar Hollywood villages, drive one of their scores of cars and consume as much resources as possible in the shortest time possible. After which they'll go do a commercial for sweatshop commissioning multinational brands. Hollywood is revolutionary. Yeah right.

I'm still alive

2005-04-25T06:34:00.000-07:00

For those of you who come in here every now and again (I like to think that people like this exist) please note that I'm still alive. I'm not writing much lately because I'm very busy. I'm such a procrastinator that I always live to regret it. I end up with a lot of work to do with little time to spare. It's frustrating because life is throwing at me things that I have to do which I don't particularly enjoy doing. What a waste of time I hear you say. I partially agree. I'd love it if I could just play music. Write and record songs and destroy my own voice in a vain attempt of doing something that resembles singing. But oh well. I'll be better in four years time. But that's such a long time.

Food for thought

2005-04-14T23:45:00.000-07:00

“A Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt about a tragedy. He said, ‘I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one.’ The grandson asked him, ‘Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?’ The grandfather answered, ‘The one I feed.’”

— a native American Indian story

I read the above quote on a website a couple of months ago. It somehow popped in my head again yesterday and so I went to read it again. I think it's great food for thought. Not much commentary necessary with it. So i'll leave it at that. Buon apetit.

John Paul & Barabbas

2005-04-11T00:56:00.000-07:00

Anybody who is not in a coma knows that last week has seen the death of the Pope. It's obvious that this man has left an impact on many people around the world, not least in Malta. Images of grieving people have flooded our screens and papers. Malta is no exception. People on the streets, are still talking about the way the Pope affected them and about the greatness of John Paul II. I don't want to go into the merit of whether John Paul was or wasn't a great man, that is up to the interpretation of each individual. What I want to focus on is the reaction of the people.

Pardon my cynicism but I feel uneasy when people conveniently become profoundly religious after the death of a leader. It reminds me of the hysteria in Beatles and Michael Jackson concerts. A type of hysteria in which any criticism of the Pope or his policies become a no-no. And all those who dare are deemed as blasphemous.

It would be interesting to ask all those who suddenly became the holiest of all holy, what they think about our detention centers. What is their opinion? What do they think about those who have to endure life inside them? What do they think about the prisoners? What do they think about the gay community? And what about the junkies? What do they think about the excluded and the emarginated, the downtrodden and the weak? What is their life like when there is no funeral in the Vatican? Is this a genuine commitment to Christ's teaching or a media charade?

According to the bible, Christ made it abundantly clear what a Christian life is all about. In no unclear terms he says:

"I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me water; I was a stranger and you invited me into your homes; naked and you clothed me; sick and in prison and you visited me"

To keep with the Christian frame of reference, will these people be yelling "Barabbas, Barabbas" in a couple of days time?

The Age Of Consent

2005-04-04T23:42:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I got hold of George Monbiot's book 'The Age of Consent'. Although I enjoy reading, I'm not the type to be obsessive about it as I can be easily distracted. But this book I couldn't let down. I ended it on Sunday.

That's quite a feat considering I've got other pressing reading priorities at hand, namely a research project for a Diploma, the deadline of which (29th April) keeps haunting me in my dreams (not really). I'm just as relaxed as I was a couple of months ago. Still waiting for the day when it finally hits me really hard in the face and I realise that I have only two days left to finish it.

But anyway, that's not the point. The point I was trying to get to is simple: read this book, now. Especially if you're interested in the Global Justice Movement. This book, although at times a bit opstimistic in its proposals, does just that. It offers proposals. And they're concrete albeit not without flaws. But as the author keeps insisting, anybody who has better ideas should propose them. Criticism without constructive proposals is irrelevant at best and idiotic at worst. It is vividly explained and quite convincing in it's argumentation. It also offers a way of action that the world (meaning its people) can use to change the balance of power. This book should be stuffed in the face of anybody who comments that the Global Justice Movement is just a bunch of idealistic freaks who overdose on utopia. This is the first step to an open debate about concrete alternatives to world structures. Do you want to be involved?

I'm back...(woo hoo)

2005-04-04T23:18:00.000-07:00

After a couple of week of absence (I'm sure nobody realised) I'm back filling this space with rants and thoughts. The reason behind my inconspicuous absence was that I decided to take a needed break and catch up on some stuff that needed catching up on. The break, I took (I'm quite good at this sort of thing you know). The catching up? Well, let's just say I still have to do most of it...

But anyway, to all those who bother coming in and actually do some reading (definitely not Silvan) I'm back...(zut!)

Authoritarian Democracy

2005-03-17T02:30:00.000-08:00

We live in a democratic society.

I wake up in the morning and go to work. I follow orders or get sacked. I obey. I don't ask. I need money to buy life. I can't afford to question.

We live in a democratic society.

For the lucky ones who have a job, half of their awake-time is spent in an authoritarian institution where you do as somebody else says or else lose the source of a dignified life.

We live in a democratic society.

We have choices. Not free choices. Choices that are marked by a constant threat of a life of poverty. A guy with a gun to his head can choose to die. But he has the choice. That is the logic we're offered.

We live in a democratic society.

Yet all around us, life is managed by authoritarian methods. Companies, stores and offices. Where is the democracy? We have democracy on our books. Authoritarianism in our lives. Democracy every 5 years. Authoritarianism for the rest of the time.

We live in a democratic society.

We don't live democracy.

Britney Aguilera did it...

2005-03-17T00:21:00.000-08:00

If the seas between Malta and Gozo were shark infested, and if speed boats were constantly crossing by, and if crossing the sea would give you all the prestige and power in the world, would you try and swim across? And if for every person that manages to cross it, a million get killed, injured or paralysed in the way, would you say you have a good chance of making it? Would you take comfort in the fact that it is possible? How realistic would you say your chances are? Slim? Next to nothing? One in a million? Would you be part of such a charade? Would you waste your life trying to get there? Would hard work and commitment be a shield against jaws? Would persistence block any passing boats? Would self-assurance be your dingy? Would it be reasonable to have the one in a million who somehow manages to make it parading as the symbol of a great opportunity? Wouldn't looking at the others who worked hard but didn't make it be the reality check you'd need?

What is the point of all this, you may be asking? Simple. Just because Britney Aguilera did it, doesn't mean that you can. Just because Justin Williams did it doesn't mean that everybody can. Equal Opportunity is next to Santa Clause in a pot of lovely myths that keep us hoping and hierarchy-happy. How long would you play a game with rigged rules?