Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/975483
Opinion 25 maltatoday SUNDAY 29 APRIL 2018 it seems, has been left to drown in an ocean of suspicion and subversive unrest... with the result that there is simply no single entity of any description that can possibly serve as a rallying banner for national identity. Incredibly, we have now even allowed this canker to infect the arts, too. First, the 'National Orchestra' was booed at and hissed for performing a concert for the Prime Minister – a naff idea to begin with, I'll admit, but still: it's the 'National' orchestra... couldn't we have given our penchant for self- effacement a rest, just this once? Then, it was a no-holds barred attack – again, with a surprising degree of ferocity – against Joseph Calleja, Malta's 'cultural ambassador', for the grave crime of failing to share one subsection of society's deep- seated, obsessive hatred for the prevailing political status quo. Where does that leave us, in terms of things we can all converge upon and say – all together now, in perfect harmony, with no discordant notes – 'this is ours'? I can't see a single thing that might fit that description. Not even one. But I can see several things that all the various subdivisions seem to feel are 'theirs'... but no one else's. Which brings us back to the possessive pronoun in that slogan. When we talk so naively of 'My Malta'... is it an 'exclusive' sort of ownership we're talking about? Is Malta 'mine', in the sense that it's 'private property'? Now, get off 'my' land, before I set my dogs on you...? Sure as hell feels that way nowadays. For let's face it: Malta cannot simultaneously 'belong' to any of its citizens at all (still less all of them at once), when those same citizens are hell- bent on claiming a full-scale monopoly over every last square inch of it, to the exclusion of others who have just as much right to the same identity... the same sense of belonging... the same right of participation and association in all of Malta's cultural, social and political spheres. So, to Nas Daily who came up with the slogan; and to the opposing forces that both appropriated it for entirely dishonest purposes... sorry, but no. This is not 'your' Malta. Nor is it 'mine', 'his', 'hers', 'theirs', or (least of all) 'ours'. This is a Malta that no longer belongs to any of us... because we all willingly relinquished ownership of it years ago. There is simply no single entity of any description that can possibly serve as a rallying banner for national identity