Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/941670
maltatoday WEDNESDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2018 17 Events Crane Currency launches Malta facility micro-site CRANE Currency, a Crane Co. company and a fully integrat- ed supplier of secure, durable and well-designed banknotes for central banks all over the world, will officially open its print and production wings at the Malta facility this month and has just launched a new micro website for the facility in Malta. "Our main aim is to attain a long term means of communi- cation with the local and inter- national business community. Through our dedicated micro website we will be able to offer them a platform to see that the most modern banknote pro- duction facility is up and run- ning, and to communicate im- portant milestones such as the construction of the world class Customer Experience Cen- tre," said Craig Conrad, Di- rector of Communications at Crane Currency. "These are very exciting times for us. The plant will be the first commercial banknote printing facility to be built in several decades and is a state- of-the art centre that will offer the latest in printing equip- ment and technology to sup- port the most demanding cus- tomer requirements." The new micro website will offer easier and quicker access to essential information about the facility, with a clear visual element of works in progress of the site and the project itself. The website will also include latest news about the company, media releases, job postings and detailed information and trivia on the project itself. The newly-designed mico- site can be accessed through http://malta.cranecurrency. com/ TIA RELJIC AN exhibition of photographs by Sebio Aquilina at the Hal Ghaxaq Band Club through funds by Creative Communi- ties and the Malta Arts Council showcases photographs which depict the vibrant action and emotions as the action happens in the main square or in the old streets around the village during carnival. "The images become witness to rituals repeated throughout the centuries, as the photographs embrace scenes which appear stolen from this small village's history, and still remaining ex- traordinarily contemporary," John Agius, the general secre- tary of the band club, said. The exhibition is divided in two parts, one which showcases photographs from the sponta- neous Hal Ghaxaq carnival, and one which depicts the village procession some days after car- nival, commonly known as Tar- Redentur. This brings out the contrast between the sacred and the profane, while highlighting a very folkloristic tradition which is unique to the village. The exhibition is the second part of a larger project by the Hal Ghaxaq Band Club. The first phase of the project was ac- tually two seminars on photog- raphy - the first of which was primarily aimed at adolescents to offer a course in basic pho- tographic skills, with the aim of encouraging them to remain open to opportunities. "It is a small community with a few social problems such as drug taking, alcohol abuse, un- certainty about the future and early school-leaving among youths," Agius said, explaining that the club sought to provide something which was approach- able to youths beyond the festa. "Seminars of this type help young people interact with their environment and do things be- yond social media." The aspect of providing a type of social service is part and par- cel of being eligible for funding from the creative community. Merging the cultural value to- gether with the community one is one of the reasons they were given the funds in the first place. The second seminar which took place in January had target- ed older people, for a very differ- ent reason. "We wished to include people who had a certain memory of what used to happen before in their village. This way, we would gather as much information and memories as possible on the car- nival and the Randan festa, since our carnival is very authentic and has very old roots which are not mentioned very much at all." In fact, he said that the only evidence we could find is let- ters to the editor in old Maltese newspapers, or chronicles kept by police in their headquarters of disturbances which would have been taking place during carnival. From the memories shared by the second group – some of which date back to the post-war period of the 50s – Agius says that ironically, very little has changed. "If you remove the organised part that the council organises such as music and lights, you have the same criteria; dressing up and the secrecy of it, as well as having lots of women dress- ing up, which is typical of our village." In a sense, everything is built on collective memory. The exhibition is the third phase, for which the band club commissioned Aquilina to pro- duce photographs for the band club's publication. "Here we also try to open our horizons and not just focus on the festa. The quality of what Aquilina produced is very good, and it was a shame to use it only in a book. We picked some of the best, and made a sample of photographs which best encom- passed all the different styles that can be found, and we pre- sented it in the exhibition." The grotesque and macabre el- ement is still very strong in the spontaneous carnival in Ghax- aq, with the theme of death dominating the most. "My personal interpretation is that this came about due to the fascination with the after- life, and the fact that due to the hard times in the past, death was a very common event which touched many young people," he said, adding that the life expec- tancy was around middle age. "The theme remained, as today we can see a lot of grotesque im- agery such as skulls and devils. It's very interesting to do it be- cause otherwise organising the festa becomes routine. I think this is going one step further and that a lot of good comes out of it. I much liked the fact that you had people in a group in- teracting and sharing between themselves. The exhibition will be dismantled in a few days, but the experiences of these people will remain, especially since they have been documented." Ghost carnival is real Photography exhibition provides evidence of a rarely documented but long-standing tradition of the spontaneous carnival in Hal Ghaxaq OVER €1m in funds will be al- located to improve the qual- ity of soil and encourage or- ganic farming as part of new schemes to incentivise farmers to make the switch. The announcement was made at Vincent's Eco-Farm in Zeb- biegh, Mgarr, by parliamentary secretary for Agriculture Clint Camilleri and parliamentary secretary for EU funds Aaron Farrugia. Under this measure, farmers can benefit from €213.75 per year for each tumolo, for a peri- od of five years, as long as a plan of gestation and soil conserva- tion is implemented, Camilleri said. The primary aim for the measure is to incentivise farm- ers to improve the quality of soil in their fields. Around 500 farmers can ben- efit, totalling to around one mil- lion euro, Farrugia said. The application closes on Feb- ruary 23. Another measure related to or- ganic farming is also being im- plemented, Farrugia said, add- ing that the practice of organic farming has a number of bene- fits for the environment and also public health. The measure will help farmers who wish to con- vert at least part of their produc- tion to organic. Farmers will be provided with €135 per tumolo in aid for their initial 2-3 years of implementing the change, Camilleri said. Un- der this measure, about €170k is co-financed by EU funds, and applications will be received in the front office at Ghammieri in the following weeks, Farrugia explained. These measures, Farrugia said, came as a response to an increase in public awareness in regards to quality produce. "I have no doubt that this aid will result in heightened com- petitiveness, hence improving both the quality and the price of the product." Incentives target organic farming, quality of soil