A few days ago I posted the attached video on my blog without adding any additional comments. A fellow blogger from Malta had drawn my attention to the documentary that I believe was made by a danish guy or guys eager to unravel the mysteries of the island that is second only to the Vatican in the very special Euro-Catholic results table. At least according to the myth or stereotype that is. For in the simplistic world of polish plumbers, Italian pizzas, French strikes and German sturmtruppen (did I mention the war?) that can only serve to feed semi-artistic works like Entropa, the Maltese come out as being quite the Jesus-addicts – you know… them who can’t bear to be seen without a cross or two.
The Danish producer must have been interested in uncovering the layers beneath the outer mask of knights, churches and festas that is presented to the world at large and ended up discovering an interesting segment of Maltese society. The main themes running through the documentary are divorce and abortion – two subjects that are unfortunately oftenthrown together in the discussion notwithstanding the fact that they are as similar as day is to night. We are introduced to two persons presented as mavericks of an almost inexistent “liberal” sub-culture who are fighting their war against the opressive forces of church and conservative government.
The mavericks lend themselves to this “Don Camillo and Peppone” scenario and their vocabulary hints not so subtlely to an all out war replete with bombs, attacks and whatsnot. I am not sure what condititioned the choice of “opinionists” interviewed by the producers of the documentary but these too lend a surreal tinge to an already surreal subject. The snippet of Daphne Caruana Galizia commenting on abortion would let an outsider believe that Malta regularly witnesses Salem like witch-hunts with women who slipped abroad for an unfortunate abortion burnt at the stake. I am sure it was not Daphne’s intention to portray that image but cut to Paul Vincenti the erstwhile defender of the Gift of Life and you may be forgiven for thinking that Malta is a hive for raving lunatics – still incapable of understanding the basic tenets of a working democracy.
“She would be welcome here – but not her ideas” – that is Vincenti speaking of Dr Gompaerts, the woman who exports abortion to the high seas. Vincenti is blissfully unaware of how ridiculous his Catholic fatwa on people thinking different sounds. He is not only unaware but he is proud of it. Snap back to John Zammit and Emmy Bezzina, the two politicians interviewed for the greater part of this documentary. On paper Bezzina and Zammit are the faces of liberal democracy in Malta. In fact they would better fit a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party than anything else. In Malta nobody with his head in place dares make a strong argument in favour of the right to choose – not the right to abort mind you, but simply the right to be able to choose to do so. So it is left to the court jesters who form parties with weird names like Liberal-Democrat Alliance and Alpha Liberals to fill the gap miserably. Daphne is polite when she calls them eccentric. They are mad.
What does that say about Malta then? Will EP elections bring something new? The case for divorce seems to have made a few babysteps in the right direction – the right direction being consideration and discussion among politicians. It has been discussed in bars and cafes for ages but finally the leader of the opposition seems to be willing to say that time has come for politicians to take a vote on it. That is one babystep… clearly freeing marriage and divorce from the monofocal lense of catholic binds will be another.
I believe Peppi Azzopardi, another interviewee on the documentary, got it right when he said that the majority of Maltese still disagree with the right to choose. Malta is far from introducing legislation in favour of the right to choose and this in a more democratic manner than the divorce issue. The issue only risks permeating into the public arena whenever European scaremongerers threaten that introducing the right to abort is part of the Euro agenda.
The EP elections will not be about divorce or abortion. They cannot be because both subjects are beyond the remit of the European Union. However, as happens at the Eurovision Song Contest, at times of greatest public exposure some countries tend to expose the quirkiest, weirdest and eccentric elements of them all. John Zammit is Malta’s answer to Plastic Bertrand… get it?
