Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/451763
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 25 JANUARY 2015 11 TEODOR RELJIC DUTCH anthropologist Jeremy Boissevain, renowned for his land- mark work on Malta, humbly – and thoroughly – admitted that his pre- diction about Maltese festi disap- pearing from the scene altogether was wrong. In his latest collection of essays, 'Factions, Friends and Feasts: An- thropological Perspectives on the Mediterranean', Boissevain adapts a conference paper first presented in Edinburgh in 1990, in which he pub- lically acknowledges that his 1965 prediction about Maltese festi was wrong-headed. But the paper, entitled 'On Predict- ing the Future: Second Thoughts on Feasts and Patrons', also sets about suggesting socio-political factors that may in fact have contributed to the enduring nature of local religious feasts, despite Boissevain's otherwise logical prediction of the opposite. More than anything, the paper sounds a cautionary note to Bois- sevain's fellow anthropologists. 'Be- ware predictions,' he seems to say, 'especially when they appear to align in a perfectly logical rhythm'. To this end, Boissevain outlines his original argument about the decline of feasts – first articulated in 'Saints and Fireworks' (1965) – and it's hard to fault his line of reasoning without the benefit of hindsight. Writing in the mid-sixties, Boisse- vain observed how substantial migra- tion from Malta in the 1950s drained a lot of the manpower necessary for the organisation of feasts, while an improved transport system enabled people to socialise outside their im- mediate village core – which would instantly drain some of the appeal of the local festa. Moreover, Boissevain maintained, the increasing popular- ity of football was drawing young people away from the band club as a social contact point, while public attention was increasingly being di- verted away from entrenched reli- gious traditions, and instead to the machinations of local politicians. 'By the 1970s, however, I became aware that my prophecy had failed,' Boissevain writes. 'Village festi were noisier, more crowded and contested with greater vigour than I had ever seen … What had happened?' In part, Boissevain writes, the very same factors that would appear to have worked against the festi in the first place – such as migration and in- creased social mobility – in fact only ended up reinforcing the importance of religious pageantry among vil- lage communities. Improved public transport and a spike in car owner- ship may have encouraged people to pursue their social and professional lives away from their birthplace, and gentrification of places like Naxxar may have dispersed the traditionally tight-knit village core. But instead of eradicating the need for feasts alto- gether, these factors only served to foment a kind of communal nostal- gia, Boissevain claims. To bolster this claim, Boissevain invokes the work of anthropologist Victor Turner, specifically his no- tion of 'communitas': 'the direct, immediate and total confrontation of human identities which tends to make those experiencing it think of mankind as a homogeneous, un- structured and free community'. 'During these community celebra- tions kin meet up, but so do neigh- bours, ex-villagers who have moved to other parishes, and more distant acquaintances… Community cel- ebrations act to structure and to protect group identity in this small, densely populated and intensely competitive island,' Boissevain writes, adding that this activity in turn spurs other villages on to mark out and celebrate their own terri- tory in the same way – ensuring that a competitive edge is added to the equation. The subsequent sudden increase in tourism is another factor that Bois- sevain failed to take into account during the mid-sixties – and as it happens, it was also a major contrib- uting factor to sustaining the growth of village feasts. 'Because many tour- ists began to watch these colourful events, government (and the angli- canised elite, who had once looked down upon such folk occasions) be- gan to view parish religious pageants as an important cultural resource,' Boissevain writes, commenting on how 'rising prosperity' in the coun- try also put a stop to the heavy mi- gration of the 1960s – once again furnishing villages with able hands to help with festa logistics. There was a political dimension to the 1970s dynamic between Church and State that Boissevain failed to predict, too, and which had a direct impact on feasts. While the Church would previously find it relatively easy to curtail the excesses of the feasts – since they 'diverted atten- tion from the liturgical content of the rituals' – with Labour in power, things were different. Furthermore, Nationalist voters who were irked by Labour's reduction of calendar feasts – and who would usually avoid festi, began to celebrate them as a form of protest. Boissevain adds that the Labour government in the 70s also 'democ- ratised culture'. 'The government promoted popu- lar culture via contests, festivals, brochures and especially, by broad- casting and televising Good Friday processions and festa celebrations. This attention helped to promote them and to make them more ac- ceptable to a wider public and so encouraged the organisers.' Speculating as to why his predic- tions proved to be incorrect, Bois- sevain suggests two main reasons. Apart from the 'rate and complexity of the changes that were to sweep over Malta' – as outlined above – Boissevain also admits that he 'un- derestimated the cultural momen- tum of the Maltese attachment to religious pageantry'. 'More historically oriented research has subsequently shown me that the expansion of festa and Good Friday celebrations was of long standing and, especially since the beginning of the nineteenth century, had been growing rapidly. The developments since 1970 merely continued this pattern. Seen in historical perspec- tive, the decline I observed and ex- trapolated was a momentary hiccup in a long-term trend,' Boissevain writes. Boissevain confesses that part of his misguided attempts at predicting the future socio-political scenario of Malta were down to an infatuation with developments in the present, without taking a fuller historical context into account, citing it as a characteristic of his 'generation of anthropologists – especially of those trained in Great Britain'. 'In part, neglect of the past also re- flects the arrogance of field research- ers who believe that the events that occur during the short time that they are there to observe them are of major significance'. DANIEL MIZZI THE threat of eviction for tenants in houses whose rental contracts were converted under a 1979 law from what was a temporary em- phyteusis, is becoming real. With a European Court of Human Rights ruling confirming that Mal- ta's law in 1979, which converted all temporary leases on houses to per- manent rental contracts, breaches landlords' right to property, the Maltese courts are following suit with similar pronouncements. In a landmark decision clinched by lawyers Michael Camilleri and Cedric Mifsud in October, 2013, the Constitutional Court of Appeal confirmed that tenants could no longer seek the protection of the 1979 amendment to the Housing Decontrol Ordinance, which guar- anteed leaseholders permanence under rental contracts. In comments to MaltaToday, Ce- dric Mifsud said that once the high- est courts had confirmed that the law was illegal, his clients would be seeking the eviction of the current tenants of their property. "My clients did not intend filing the constitutional application for compensation, but rather, for the court to declare that their rights have been violated. Now, buoyed the court's decision, my clients have filed civil proceedings to evict the sitting tenant from their prop- erty," he said. In its decision, the Court of Con- stitutional Appeal ruled that Arti- cle 12(2) of the Housing Decontrol Ordinance – which allows a tempo- rary emphyteusis to be converted into a permanent rental agreement – is "inconsistent with the Europe- an Convention of Human Rights." Originally, the law was initially keen on averting homelessness, but it forced landlords' hands by forbidding them from refusing to renew leases, raise their rent, or impose new conditions on renew- al, unless authorised by the Rent Regulation Board. Effectively, all pre-1979 emphyteuta won the right to have their temporary leases con- verted into permanent rental agree- ments, with limited increases on their original rent. However, 30 years down the line, the law has come under increasing fire by both the Maltese courts as well as the European Court of Hu- man Rights in Strasbourg. "The current situation is preju- dicing the landlord because it does not give him the right to enjoy the property. Rather, the sitting ten- ant is granted more rights than the landlord," Mifsud explained. His clients have already won thou- sands in compensation from the government due to the unfair law. In addition, Mifsud explained that unless the government changes the rent laws and allows property own- ers to take just compensation or to take control of their property, granting compensation would be- come a "recurring theme". Speaking to MaltaToday, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici explained that following the judgment, a number of amendments to the law have been drafted with the purpose of bringing the law into line with the Maltese and Strasbourg judg- ments. Asked how the government would protect the tenant in the case of the eviction and whether he would agree with such a ruling, a cautious Bonnici argued that the amend- ments will seek to strike a balance between the social impact and the landlords' rights. In the meantime, while tenants face the threat of eviction, politi- cal parties retain a classic omnipo- tence on the rest of society. Politi- cal clubs regulated under changes to the Civil Code last year have been allowed to benefit from con- trolled rents, but must forward part of their commercial proceeds to the landlord. The 2009 rent law amendments had left the provision regulating clubs virtually untouched in so far as clubs maintain security of ten- ure, forbidding landowners from reclaiming their property in the near future. All contracts of lease entered into by clubs prior to June 1, 1995 are still subject to the pre- 1995 laws. The only amendments to the provisions regulating clubs is that from time to time, the minister may issue regulations regarding the conditions of lease of clubs – one of which is the conditions regulat- ing the leases of Clubs Regulations 2014. This states that as from January 1, 2014 the rent due shall increase by 10% every year until 2016 and by 5% between 2017 and 2023. How- ever, with respect to eviction there is nothing – only a fixed increase in rent, which would still leave the landlord getting the short end of the stick. Why the Maltese festa survived the seventies Eviction threat is real for tenants on controlled rents News When Dutch anthropologist Jeremy Boissevain predicted Maltese village feasts wouldn't last into the 1970s, he had no way of foretelling the dramatic social and cultural changes that would sweep over the island during that crucial decade as he confesses in a new book Boissevain – the Labour government in the 70s 'democratised culture'