Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/540322
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 12 JULY 2015 Opinion 20 W ell, what do you know? One headline reads 'Sex shops to be allowed in Malta'… and bang, crash, tinkle. Out come all the indefatigable custodians of public morality, weeping and gnashing their teeth at the ongoing decline and fall of the Maltese moral empire. Thank goodness, I'm so relieved. I was starting to get a little worried. When was the next morality crisis going to hit the Maltese islands, anyway? Isn't it a little overdue? Up until fairly recently there was one or two (or five or six) every other week: plays banned for 'offending public morals'; authors prosecuted for writing short stories about sex; billboards featuring Jesus Christ warning us all about the evils of divorce… outrage about civil unions… indignation about unknown fathers… uproar about people going to carnival parties dressed as priests and nuns… the chorus of moral 'tut-tutting' just never stopped. Then, suddenly, silence. Not a squeak from the morality brigade in months. Could it be that we've now grown so squalid and depraved as a nation that there is simply nothing left of our former identity to even cling to? Or did it finally dawn on us that… well, maybe it's a little late to be decrying the erosion of our country's moral fabric, when we've already consciously transformed Malta into a lucrative European hub for adult entertainment anyway. Whatever the reason, the silence was becoming eerily uncomfortable. Life is, let's face it, so much less colourful without a good old-fashioned moral controversy to keep us all fired up from time to time. But then… yay! Somebody at the Justice Ministry must have tapped Owen Bonnici on the shoulder, gently reminding him that he was a little behind schedule in producing an apocalyptic omen for the rest of the country to howl about. And what better issue to suddenly pull out of a hat, too, than a law that would allow the proliferation of sex shops – Sex! The dreaded word itself! Aaargh! - in every nook and cranny of this blessed island? Genius, I say. And just look at the effect. Life is immediately back to its usual, entertaining, hysterical old self. We're no longer discussing boring issues like ODZ development, or the imminent collapse of the eurozone with all its consequences for Malta. No, we're right back to doing what we do best: working ourselves into a tizzy about the 'introduction' of something that has actually existed all around us for years. 'Sex shops to be allowed in Malta', did I say earlier? Erm… what do they mean, exactly, by 'to be allowed'? Sex shops are already allowed in Malta. In fact the entire island is fast becoming one great big ('big' in relative terms, naturally) adult entertainment outlet in its own right. OK, you can't walk into a shop on the high street, and walk out again with half a dozen pornos and maybe a double-pronged dildo under your arm (as you can in every other civilised and enlightened European member state)… but when it comes to permitting the sex industry to actually operate here, there are few places in the world that have proved quite as liberal and permissive as good old 'moral Malta'. Oh, wait… I forgot. The average moral torchbearer in this country probably doesn't go to Paceville very often: which might explain why so many of the people commenting have clearly failed to realise that their worst fears have already long come true. As it happens, I don't go to Paceville very often myself either… there is nothing I can think of that can entice me there, except maybe a film at the cinema (which was, in fact, the reason for my last visit)… but when I do go, I can't help noticing… ah, how can I put this?... a certain steady metamorphosis going on discreetly in the background. Or perhaps not that discreetly. When I say 'I can't help noticing'…. I mean that literally. It is kind of difficult not to notice these changes, when so many of them physically pounce out at you from every street corner, take you in their arms and drag you kicking and screaming all the way to the nearest 'gentleman's club' (which, as a rule, will never be more than five paces away). My last visit proved a little educational in this sense. When I eventually found a parking place (after around 45 minutes) it was close to the site of the old Misfits venue… which, for those unfamiliar with the place, means that to reach the cinema I had to walk up to the main square, then down the steps towards Bay Street… and of course, back again the same way some two hours later. I tried counting the number of times I was approached, if not downright accosted, by women of various nationalities on both trajectories… only to lose count after around the second dozen, both ways. By my calculation, any adult male who is visibly above the age of (say) 30, can't actually walk more than three paces in Paceville without at least one of these women (usually three or four) latching herself onto his arm, and artfully swivelling his centre of balance so that he suddenly, unaccountably, finds himself heading in the direction of some steamy-named strip-club or other. Though I admit this might be an illusion, because any direction you choose to walk in that place will lead you to one sooner or later. They do, after all, Malta? It's one massiv Raphael Vassallo I would like to receive the newspaper MaltaToday for a period of one year. Name & Surname.................................................................. Telephone: ........................................ Address ...................................................................................... E-mail: ........................................ FOR €67 YO FOR €67 YO FOR €67 Y U CAN RECEIVE THE MALTATO ECEIVE THE MALTATO ECEIVE THE MALTA DAY, FOR A PERIOD OF ONE YEAR. Send a cheque payable to MediaToday to: Subscriptions, MediaToday, Vjal il-Rihan, San Gwann, SGN 9016 The newspapers are delivered by post and therefore subject to the usual postal timings. Normally, MaltaToday should arrive on Monday. SUBSCRIPTION FORM