We need a real Mediterranean Union

Much enjoyed reading the article in the Malta Times written by US Conflict Resolution Professor Richard Rubinstein on his swim with former Maltese Premier Dom Mintoff; particularly for what he said about Mintoff's prophetic insight that one day Germany and the other North European nations would try to use their economic muscle to dominate and cow Southern Europe into submission. Incidentally, I can confirm this as I met Prof. Rubinstein during a visit to his University in the mid-nineties and he told me that he had met Mintoff, adding that he did not think much about his ideas as: "it was all about the need for Mediterranean countries to unite in order to counter the North Europeans". Clearly Prof. Rubinstein has had to rethink his opinion since then...as indeed we all have.

I also liked his comprehensive description of Mintoff's vision for the Mediterranean, which was shared by his principal ideological opponent in Malta: Prof. Peter Serracino Inglott. If only the rebels for democracy in the Arab world were to find common cause with the growing opposition to financial capitalism in Southern Europe! How I resent the obstacles which have been imposed to prevent this from happening, not least through the manipulation of our common Judeo-Christian-Islamic religious heritage. 

Imagine what a fantastic civilization could be developed here.

Here is a lengthy quote from this article, which I found particularly inspiring: 'After a while, we changed into dry clothes, and he led me up to a high ridge commanding a spectacular view of the ocean. For more than an hour, as we walked the ridge, Mintoff talked. He did not speak about America, Europe, the Middle East, or even Maltese politics. Nor did he tell stories about Malta’s past or his own career. Looking out at the blue-green sea, Dom talked knowledgably and with searing passion about the Mediterranean region. He painted a picture of a vast, multi-cultural, society encompassing North Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, and southern Europe, dedicated to peaceful co-operation and social justice.

“The Mediterranean must become a nuclear-free zone,” he said (or, perhaps, prophesied). It must also become a clean air and clean water zone, a women’s rights/ human rights zone, a zone of economic equality, and a zone of peace." “You are talking about very different civilisations cooperating, aren’t you?” I asked. “What would Sam Huntington say?” (Samuel Huntington’s famous article predicting an inevitable ‘clash of civilisations’ had been published months earlier and was being talked about everywhere.) “Yes,” he replied, “that’s exactly what I’m talking about. Huntington is wrong. This was once part of a great Mediterranean civilization,” he said, waving at the invisible lands across the sea. “It can be again.”

A Woman can be Interested in both Mascara and International Monetary Policy

Quite so as musician Jocelyn Pook (above) makes clear in the composition below, which is assembled by gathering together article headlines from women's magazines. This act of bricolage fits perfectly with the rubbish assembling theme of this blog:

I also love her composition "Hellfire and Damnation", which was used to provide a musical backdrop to the orgy scene and trial in Eyes Wide Shut. Although it is very dark music, it has fantastic vibes and the effect is how I imagine an incantation should be. Incidentally, as my friend Reuben Grima once observed, the word "enchant" points precisely to this power of musical chanting to trap the hearer in a separate world, suspending ordinary space-time. I believe Pook (her surname means fairy in Celtic) succeeds in doing this in the clip below:

Finally another of my favourites is her soundtrack for the "Naval Officer" theme in Eyes Wide Shut. The music really conveys a strong sense of the tense dangerous allure of betrayal and seduction. I can almost imagine it playing in the background of the Garden of Eden as Eve approached the fatal apple tree:

The Wicker Man Cometh to Malta

The Celtic Wicker-Man Human Sacrifice Ritual

According to the Times of Malta this morning, somebody has just invented a Man on Fire ritual in order to raise funds for a local charity. Apparently a giant wooden statue of a man was set on fire and the burning celebrated by a troupe of female dancing fire jugglers. This seems to confirm the observations made by many anthropologists that rites generally precede beliefs. The ritual is done simply because it feels fun and mythic explanations are invented after the fact to justify it. While the ritual may not have a belief system pegged on to it, this does not make it meaningless. G K Chesterton observed that the decline in organised religion is usually accompanied by a rise in pagan superstition, so this new ritual may say a lot about secularisation in Malta. It will be interesting to see if there will be anything like the same level of outrage on the Times comments board that aspects of local festas seem to provoke. Although this is admittedly a far less noisy ritual, the message it sends is honestly barbaric and clearly conforms to a re-enactment of human sacrifice, which the literary theorist Rene Girard places at the foundation of pre-Christian human civilizations. The man on fire is a phallic figure, standing tall and erect. This festival is emerging at a time when many feel the Summer is drawing to a close and just after the demise of Malta's political giant: Dom Mintoff. Could this also herald the establishment of a New Age feminine orientated spirituality? And is Maltese religiosity shifting from Apollonian Control to Dionysian Delirium?  

Fairouz Interview

I came across the following interview with the famous Lebanese singer Fairouz (pictured above). It seems it's the first she gave for 17 years and it reads as a very honest and direct expression of her thoughts about the most important things in her life:

Fairouz First Interview in 17 years.

Fairouz's last interview was in 1990 with Al Shabaka magazine. But now she speaks again in this interview with a Greek newspaper.

Journalist:

Do you miss the old Beirut?

FAIROUZ:

Of course I do, I miss a lot.

Journalist:

What do you miss about it?

FAIROUZ:

The peace, the beauty -in every level-the calmness. Things that you could see everywhere around you but don’t exist anymore. Life was pleasant, happy and full of simple things that you can’t determine or explain, because you live them just like your breath. You can only feel some things not describe them.

Journalist:

Why do you think the western elements that you added in Anatolian music were so much appreciated and accepted?

FAIROUZ:

Cause my people are very open to all nations and all civilizations and artistic beauty have many faces, not just one.

Journalist:

What I feel as a Greek is a deep and intense melancholy in your voice-even in your patriotic songs. Is it true or I just don’t understand?

FAIROUZ:

It is true, you are absolutely right.

Journalist:

Why is that?

FAIROUZ:

The pick of happiness is sorrow. Its something I believe deeply and it comes out when I sing. My song doesn’t describe the beauty I was talking about before. The country I loved exists only in my songs; it has nothing to do with the reality I live in.

Click here to read the rest of the Interview 



It's interesting how important prayer is to Fairouz and also how she links sorrow and happiness. How would one translate: "the pick of happiness is sorrow"? Whatever the precise meaning, it rings profoundly true. I'm surprised so few Maltese know about her as her music, the cadences, the rhythms, the words are the closest foreign analogue to traditional Maltese singing I have ever come across:

Listening to her is profoundly therapeutic to me and feels like recovering the neglected Levantine foundation of my identity. Now if only she could be persuaded to come and sing in Malta. She made her reputation singing in the Phoenician temple of Baalbeck. Imagine how beautiful a night time concert of hers in the Ggantija temples would be?