Author: Jacques René Zammit

At the beginning of the 20th century, Eastman Kodak introduced the Brownie camera in an effort to encourage families and consumers to “capture moments in time” without being too concerned with the amateurishness of their photographic efforts. The “kodak moment” was the photographic equivalent of carpe diem and had that kind of breakthrough effect on consumers as happened with such historic products as the Model T and the iPod. With an eye through the viewfinder and a click of the index finger, the user would capture an image that would last forever – and the camera for the masses was born.

The iPod, iPhone and iPad have been charting a new path in consumer trends for some time now, as homo sapiens makes the best use of his opposable thumb and index finger to feed on the benefits of mass communication. With a tap, a swipe or pincer movement, the news of the world is at your fingertips. It’s not just that, the idea of “Apps” – versatile applications that can do anything from convert units to replacing a spirit level to identify songs by just “listening to them” – has revolutionised the potential of the homo sapiens’ pocket. The iPhone is Apple’s answer to Baden Powell’s “Be Prepared” and MacGyver rolled into one.

And boy, has Apple begun to reap the rewards. It was announced this week that Apple is officially bigger than Microsoft. The Apple Revolution, masterminded by the prophet Steve Jobs, has now reached a very particular milestone for a company that was on the verge of shutting down and bankruptcy less than 20 years ago. They may be slightly elitist in their outlook (their philosophy is not to sell cheap but to sell desirable) but hey… to paraphrase the man from Apple Studios (no particular relation)… Apple is now more popular than Jesus.

Jesus Saves

Apple was still 10 years from being established and England were fresh World Cup winners when John Lennon sparked what came to be dubbed “The Jesus Controversy” when he observed that the Beatles had become “more popular than Jesus”. His declaration provoked the usual hysteric effect on the more religious members of the global community, who engaged in anti-Beatle protests, much vinyl burning and even the issuing of physical threats. Ever since the times of Cyril of Alexandria and the Christianisation of the Roman Empire, an angry Christian crowd has never been the most ‘Christian’ of customers.

We witnessed some hysteria of our own in the flaming controversy regarding cohabiting couples and communion. Frankly, the biggest lesson to be had from this controversy is that the lessons in religious doctrine are not exactly having the expected effects. Any self-respecting Roman Catholic should know the dos and don’ts of the sacrament of the Eucharist. The moment someone pointed out that cohabiting couples do not qualify so easily for communion should not have been a eureka moment but rather a simple reminder.

It’s not like the man formerly known as Saul never came to our islands. Admittedly, he never wrote any letters to us in the same way he wrote to the learned peoples of Corinth, but that does not mean that we can overlook their content. It was in a letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 11: 27-29) that Paul wrote: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.”

Now there goes that conscience bit again. It’s quite important methinks, as the Catholic Church does not employ bouncers and lie detectors to patrol its aisles in search of the unworthy sinner for whom communion is not kosher. The Catholic Church explains its precepts and then leaves it up to you and the Jiminy Cricket in your head to work out the maths (erm, OK – metaphysics). Which is why all the protests are in vain. If the protesters so disagree with the Church’s disdain of a life outside matrimony or homosexuality (when practised) and more, then they are cordially invited to look elsewhere for their spiritual fulfilment. Others have been there before them – notably a certain Martin Luther way back in the 16th century – and it could spare them the hassle of having to reason with modern day Cyrils who believe they have some direct exclusive tap for the love of God.

Smile – through gritted teeth

A remark left on my blog this week pointed out that while there is a rather daunting economic crisis out there, “ Malta can afford to discuss communion to cohabitants, hypothetical coalitions, Daphne Caruana Galizia, Lou Bondi and whether secularism is a disease.” And Fausto has a point. It is true that Malta’s most talked about blog has retreated to the Lilliputian disquisitions as to the proper pronunciation of the Maltese word for ricotta (I say rikotta, you say irkotta) and that our talk show hosts are known to shy away from taking the proverbial bull by the horns (do check out this week’s Dissett though – it’s all about the humungous cock-up on student funds: you can bet on Mr Bugeja asking the pertinent questions) but there’s a world outside waiting to be discovered.

Cheesy issues apart, there really is a dark cloud still assembling out there and I don’t mean Eyjafjallajokull’s latest tantrum. For the life of me I still cannot figure out what part of the Vision 2015 is a tangible project and not simply a label to slap onto any idea that looks vaguely promising, but my biggest worry is that the dark cloud will hit Malta with the fury of a Eurovision contestant scorned and it will not be good. Austerity measures are the vogue all over Europe and they too might not be enough. Only yesterday, news was out that credit agency Fitch had devalued Spain’s credit rating, notwithstanding its €15 billion worth of budget measures.

Spain joins Portugal at the AA+ level (down from AAA – credit ratings sound suspiciously like battery types) and this was not good news for the Iberian strugglers fiercely battling the economic downturn. A brilliant write up on Gavin Hewitt’s Europe blog (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/gavinhewitt/) describes the “battle of ideas” that Europe might be facing: governments introducing the necessary austerity measures and unions raring for strikes and countermeasures. Spain, Italy and France all face potential general strikes to battle the reform plans and we all know of Angela Merkel’s woes. Meanwhile, at eurobase, Manoel Barroso has hooked onto the idea that this is Europe’s existential moment – do or die. It is not just the euro that is in peril but the whole project, as the mantra of “integration or bust” is put firmly to the test. What of the battle between “national interest” and “solidarity”? Will populism finally trump the lot? And will our leaders – actual or potential – fall from the clouds and get cracking?

Snapshots

This is really a time to have information at your fingertips and the iPad has just landed in Europe and promises to do just that and more. This week I witnessed the fascinating transformation of the UK Times portal and the aggressive marketing that the iPad got simply by having pages and pages of print in different papers vying to explain to their clients how they will be accessible on the new technology too. Is the iPad a crystallisation of the Kodak moment? Is the iPaper the 21st century’s answer to the Kodak moment?

The answer might (hopefully) not lie solely in the hands of the Apple church and its prophets. The democratisation of the technology might be faster this time around and I am quite sure Apple knows that too. The habits will be here to stay though – and the news industry is among the first to take note. Expect experimentation with fees for online reading very soon after the initial honeymoon. You will get addicted to scrolling down your iScreen to read the latest edition of your paper and then you will be charged for the service. As it should be after all… for your conscience should be enough to tell you that one does not feed from the altar of information without paying a price.

So long as you don’t sell your soul to the devil, I’d say it’s all kosher. Now… stand still and say “irkotta”…

www.akkuza.com has cameras on its mind this week. Come take a few (snap)shots and capture the moment – warm refreshments will be provided.