This summer we commemorate the 50th anniversary of what perhaps was the best and most creative era in socio-political history and popular music – the Summer of Love. People of a certain age (snort, snort) will remember it with both affection and, of course, a considerable dose of nostalgia.

Belonging to the Love Generation takes you back to the years 1967-1970 when the world was witnessing a remarkable change in the cultural consciousness of people everywhere, forever changing the way they lived and viewed their lives. The change was breath-taking – Man landed on the Moon, and the new concept of mass gatherings of young people at Woodstock, on the Isle of Wight and at Monterrey, with the Hippies and Flower Power becoming a global phenomenon.

Pop music became an established art form, spearheaded mainly by the Beatles’ “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts’ Club Band”, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, The Who and The Beachboys, and the same was happening in the movie theatres where Hair was turned into a feature film as were the Woodstock, Isle of Wight and Monterrey festivals. This vibrant Love Generation was alive with talk of peace and love – “Ban the Bomb”, “Make Love, Not War”, “Drugs, Sex and Rock & Roll” and “Tune In, Turn On and Drop Out” – mind expansion, and sexual liberation.

The Maltese scene and its young protagonists were no less inspired. A post-independence mentality had settled in, leaving its mark on the arts, music and literature all of which, no doubt, formed the basis for today’s openness to civic rights and equality. There was, as in the rest of the world, a conservative backlash. I remember writing a short poem that carried the interpretational verse “Irridu l-LSD” (We want LSD) and being publicly bombarded in print with condemnations by a host of poison-letter writers, the equivalent of today’s bloggers, after it was published in one of the Maltese Language Sunday newspaper.

But what has all this got to do with Malta of 2017, one is rightly expected to retort in reaction to this psychedelic rambling? Well, so far it has not been a summer of love for the Nationalist Party as it searches for a new leader to replace the hapless Simon Busuttil, has it? While there certainly has not been a scramble to fill the political vacuum by able-bodied exponents within and without the Opposition party, the four contenders have hardly been smooching among themselves.

Calls for a postponement of the event have been made by several interested well-wishers as the party machine is constantly being accused of favouring one candidate. To make matters worse, a TV debate between the four candidates for the poisoned chalice reportedly had to be cancelled and then re-scheduled after one of them, the only contender from outside the legal profession, protested that it did not make sense to have them bantering and duelling on the small screen. Is that not what is expected to happen on the political stage these days?

PN diehards and traditional supporters must be in a quandary. This is what I gather from personal friends who, with their families, have always been PN supporters. Like most political devotees, they want to hear about ideas, about principles and, more important, about vision. Not much of these expectations can be said to have been fulfilled and time is obviously running out.

Summer, this one certainly the hottest in many years both politically and physically, is fast fading away and no love has yet been nurtured within the PN fold. Who will be Mr Tambourine Man? Like the words in that Love Generation’s anthem, there will always be hope:

 

Hey! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me

I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to

Hey! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me

In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you...

 

***

 

Privacy: where do Maltese social media users stand?

There is an understandable and welcome backlash against the power that social media exerts on the average citizen. Some governments have a lot to lose if this new awakening actually succeeds, as it will deny them access, under whichever pretext, into the private lives of their own people, with national security and terrorism being officialdom’s obvious buzzwords for an excuse.

There is growing opposition to the current state of affairs where Big Brother agencies know everything about you, where you are at any given time of the day and free to listen to your conversations with family, friends and foes. In the UK, for example, not a State that usually hesitates prying into one’s private affairs, public pressure has led to a situation where under a new law Google and Facebook could face fines reaching billions of pounds if they breach users’ privacy. The fines are part of the Data Protection Bill which the British government is introducing to give citizens more control and laying down new requirements on companies on how they are allowed to hold or use data of ordinary citizens.

Using people’s data to sell advertisements has become rampant everywhere. On the local front, for example, have you ever wondered how a politician you would never vote for, even if he was the only one on the ballot paper, ever got your details? Or how travel agencies can entice you with exotic holiday offers when you’ve never really been in touch with them let alone voluntarily surrendered your personal contacts?

Yes, most of the stuff you get on your mobile, your i-Pad and PC is innocent fodder, pretty much like the junk mail you get in your traditional pigeon hole. It is the barefaced use of personal details that irks most people who insist they are not interested in getting such messages but somehow still get them. Who is feeding them the information without you knowing it?

It is not easy for regulators to stem the avalanche, but an effort has to be made and digital laws changed in a way to protect the citizen rather than the big-band brothers of trade. Corrective powers, including the option to ban a company from processing data, are needed at first glance, but there are other, no less important requisites to put people’s minds at rest in this digital jungle.

The new UK law proposes that people are allowed the right “to be forgotten” online, to ask social media platforms to delete information they posted when they were children, to seek explicit consent for personal information to be collected online, to ask for personal data held by companies to be deleted, and to make it a criminal offence for organisations to create situations where someone can be identified from anonymised data. No less interesting and required is the definition of personal data which will be expanded to include cookies and IP addresses.

Data protection in Malta has come a long way since its inception and its importance is officially recognised within its solid EU framework. Perhaps it is now time to cement the loopholes to truly enshrine the concept of privacy.