Following years of preparation as Malta waited to assume the presidency of the European Union, this has now come and is practically over.
From what I saw and heard, the island provided good and balanced guidance in managing the Union’s workflow. People who had been sceptical that a small country like ours could carry this out, admitted in my presence that they ended up very satisfied with the outcome. It is a pity that the snap Maltese election served to divert attention away from the continuing work in the Council.
The point remains that any success in running the presidency tends to be forgotten very soon.A fiasco would be remembered.
Malta has emerged from this curious test creditably.
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Otto Warmbier
The news about Otto Warmbier, the young American student who died soon after his “early” release from North Korea, was disgusting. He had spent months in prison having been sentenced to a fifteen year term for committing an “atrocious” crime against the security of the state. He had appropriated a propaganda poster to take it back home as a souvenir.
That the life of a young person is blotted out in this way, simply for having done something foolish (actually insignificant) gives further testimony to how the regime that runs North Korea has turned against all normal sentiment about leading a free, morally self-confident life.
I always felt repelled by the Korean system. In the eighties of the previous century, I considered it a mistake for the then Labour government to appear to be so close to the regime... though this had nothing to do with the so-called defence agreement that the Maltese government had signed with North Korea. The Opposition puffed it up into a highly perilous treaty; in fact it was a farcical arrangement.
Since then, governance in North Korea has lost all bearings, at least by the standards of human decency as generally understood. One can only feel sorry for Otto Warmbier and his family.
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Balzunetta Towers
Most theatrical pieces that I wrote over the years, I pigeonholed in a category called “plays for the drawer”. Some snag would always develop to prevent them from being put on. So, I found the offer to write the script for a “theatrical cabaret” about Balzunetta intriguing. Then I almost declined. If the aim was to produce the text for a musical, I would not be able to deliver. But no, the firm request was for a cabaret style of production... which is not attempted too often in Malta.
The Balzunetta neighbourhood in Floriana has a special history of its own. Yet there would surely be little point in wallowing in nostalgia about a lost past. Dominic Galea who composed the music for the show immediately agreed that though he does feel nostalgia for the old days of Balzunetta (he was born there), we couldn’t simply aim for a production in the style of “Irma la Douce” or “Gigi”.
The Balzunetta story had to remain part of the island’s present and future, without illusions or compromises. After all, this was a nieghbourhood where round the same street corners you could discover the Curia, the police headquarters, wine shops, brothels and the seminary for priests.
All these institutions have had their day. What should be done now with Balzunetta?