Category: Articles

Where J’accuse turns out to be quite out of sync thanks to a fruitless trip to Milan that only served to sour our appreciation of “portatori di scudetti altrui”.

In which J’accuse discusses Saints Cyrus and Juventius, censorship home and abroad and the committee of obscenities.

The latest fare from today’s J’accuse column in The Malta Independent on Sunday. In which we discuss Dalli, Debono, Camilleri and Avatar.

The Luxembourg Energy Office, known affectionately to the denizens of this city where I live as LEO, has invested in an information campaign intended to illuminate (pardon the pun) anybody who is willing to listen about the future of utility prices in the city. The international cost of acquiring the energy is such, we are told, as to permit LEO to reduce the price of electricity in 2010 by an average of 12 per cent per household.

Yes, it seems that the euro price per kWh is going down from €0.1380 to €0.1215 and this was a direct result of the lowering of prices on the international market (always according to the advert I saw at the cinema today). I do hope that you believe me when I tell you that this bit of relatively trivial information (at least from an islander’s point of view) is not being brought to you in order to make your hairs stand on end with anger at the energy situation in Malta.

I am fully aware that the utilities bill business will not be fading away any time soon back home, but at the same time I did find that the justification for the price cuts did raise a question or two about whether or not we are buying from the same vendors at the international souk. One must add, for fairness’ sake, that LEO has recently been exposed to local competition – a new entry on the market trying to poach away clients of its own from the electricity grid.

This year’s fireworks heralding the New Year in Luxembourg kicked off fifteen minutes too early. I don’t know whether it was the rush to end a not so glamorous 365 days or a simple lack of communication between the two main squares in the Duchy that precipitated the early launching of the firework bonanza but whatever the case, we found ourselves looking up in awe at the multicoloured frozen spectacle much before the conventional ten seconds to midnight.

The extended family affair is almost over as I type and it has been an exhausting whirlwind tour of the Greater Region in subzero temperatures compounded by excess humidity and strong winds. We spent most of the last day of 2009 driving back to Luxembourg from the lowlands of Belgian Flanders and the Nord-Pas de Calais – only to just make it for the very Mitteleuropean style booze up in Place d’Armes. It’s not exactly Time Square or the London eye set ablaze but Luxembourg City’s gambit on extending the Christmas market’s stay in the main squares until the 3rd of January did reap its profits.

Ever the eager party-lovers we got to the center of town around an hour before “Heure-H”. After an early reconnoissance mission I concluded that this would probably be an assembly of misfits, passers-through and hangers on. Let’s face it – up until last night I do not think anyone must have put spending New Year’s Eve in Luxembourg high on their agenda. Still we soldiered on. It would be a warm up of mulled wine, raclette, fondue and the regionally ubiquitous “spaetzle mitt lardons” (it’s pasta Jean-Luc, but not as we know it) that would have to serve as the run up to the fateful countdown. Numerous checks and counterchecks on Tourist Board websites had provided the reassuring information that a “firework display” of some sort would be heralding the anno novo in the smallest European member state this side of Calabria.

There really was no need to worry whether this Christmas would be a white one or not. At least for the inhabitants of the Grand Duchy and their guests. It was the whole of Europe actually that got covered in a white mantle and experienced sub-zero temperatures of the coldest order. Chaos ensued as the trans-continental flight system was submerged in a flurry of delays and cancellations and some airports succumbed to Jack Frost by closing their doors completely.

Baggages and luggages got lost, misplaced and/or temporarily misdirected and more often than not holiday plans had to be redrafted. There is nothing worse than finally making it to your winter holiday destination and discovering that your luggage has not managed to stay the whole ride with you. Actually there is. It’s when you finally make it to your holiday destination sans valises and discover that the weather outside averages minus nine and there are seven inches of snow on every pavement.

It ain’t no laughing matter when you are obliged to navigate through the white, cold stuff wearing nothing more than what you chose to don before you left sunny Malta.