Where Colombian openness to nudity as a form of expression is seen from the perspective of Malta’s new Committee of the Wise Committed to Assessing the Obscene in the Name of the Hoi Polloi.A Colombian magazine (SoHo – adult image warning) has started a promotional awareness campaign in Bogotà in support of the freedom of expression. The ad campaign involves sending a topless model into the streets (covered in body paint). This modern Lady Godiva seems to have immediately attracted the attention of passers by and that of the military police. Rather than arresting the senora desnudada, the police are seen taking commemorative snapshots of this wondrous occasion.
Elsewhere in a parallel universe, the Maltese government announced yesterday evening that it would be convening a parliamentary committee to discuss the definition of obscenities and pornography, as well as ways to control racism and xenophobia. The Committee will be set up in accordance to the provisions of the Criminal Code following a suggestion by Labour MP Owen Bonnici.
Dr Bonnici noted that the only time that regulations defining obscenities had been published in Malta was on July 15, 1975. Since then, there had been a whole series of judgements by the European Court on Human Rights which defined what constituted pornography, even in the context of freedom of expression and artistic freedom. Malta, Dr Bonnici said, needed to review the freedoms of expression as soon as possible. (Times)
Also according to the Criminal Code provisions, this committee will be chaired by none other than Malta’s very own conservative guru, Minister for Justice Carm Mifsud Bonnici. Malta’s equivalent of phronmoi and spoudaioi (my (guessed) plurals of spoudaios and phronimos) will be trying hard to establish the common standards of morality and decency against which obscenity is to be measured. It is ironic that this kind of exercise follows an election in which voters were often asked to form their choices on the basis of “taste” – that which they feel happy to consume (albeit metaphorically). Kafkesque it may be but the Hobson’s Choice in taste that was foisted upon electors by the rules favouring a two-party system now translates into a committee of (self-appointed) “Wise men” who are supposedly able to decide for you and me whether the (political) action of la senora desnuda in Bogota would find a similar welcoming reaction on the Republic Street.
Somehow I doubt whether most of our spoudaioi would reach for their cameras to commemorate such occasions.
GLOSSARY:
hoi polloi: the majority, the many
spoudaios: is the man who has maximally actualized the potentialities of human nature, who has formed his character into habitual actualization of the dianoetic and ethical virtues, the man who at the fullest of his development is capable of the bios theoretikos. Hence, the science of ethics in the Aristotelian sense is a type study of the spoudaios (link) (or Aquinas – spoudaios = person of good character)
phronimos: prudent, wise man
11 replies on “Expresión”
might as well have asked a Taleban to man the committee *sigh*
And what makes CMB a “conservative guru”?
(Apart from, of course, that you buy into Joseph Muscat’s view that “liberal” and “conservative” are shorthand in the same vein as “Four legs good, two legs bad”).
Very Daphne-ite as a reaction Faust. Are we discussing whether I think CMB is conservative or whether I am like the nasty monster that is being created to haunt the nationalist psyche?
Feel free to believe that CMB is not conservative. (And that the pope smokes dope).
No. Noticed that CMB got described as a “conservative guru” while a newly found poster boy gets portrayed as leading an imaginary “reformist” movement, his opinions notwithstanding.
I don’t need to believe the CMB is “not conservative”. Easy labels are not my thing. I just need to remind himself how he held his ground with dignity and tact last summer in the diplomatic crisis with Italy with Maroni smearing Malta’s name (he later ended up changing his mind and referring to CMB as “esteemed colleague”) and Muscat making political capital asking that international law be broken with the Greens cheering the proposal from the sidelines.
And in the news today: the US Supreme Court has rejected campaign-spending limits as they are “a form of censorship”.
The US supreme Court rejected limits on the amounts that can be donated by one company to a party and not campaign-spending limits (I guess the BBC title was misleading).
I’d love to see this one work in Malta: The Supreme Court also said that any campaign adverts that were not paid for by the candidate or their party must be clearly marked with the name of the sponsor.
Just to be clear “campaign-spending limits” does seem to imply a cap on how much a party can spend. This was not the case but rather what the Supreme Court rejected was caps on how much companies can donate to parties WHILE ALSO RULING THAT SUCH SPONSORSHIPS SHOULD BE TRANSPARENT.
How does holding his ground with Maroni stop him from being conservative? CMB was conservative before Muscat made liberal look uncool. I’d use the term preservative but (a) it does not exist in this context and (b) it has the kind of connotations that CMB would not like.
Well, I thought the issue was whether CMB as chair can ensure something that’s fair and reasonable. Seems like “conservative” or “not conservative” is more important (here only; not in the case of Franco Debono, the hope of the “silent reformist movement”).
Oh how about calling CMB a “Christian Democrat”? That’d make you bedfellows, however strange.
Meanwhile in avant-garde island of Gozo:
– Bishop calls for “Precautionary principle” to be adopted
“Society should have the power to intervene to curb what could be damaging to an individual’s educational process on the basis of the principle of precaution.”
Condoms ???
Good Jacques. (Apart from the linguistic mishmash)