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Admin Travel

Back

It’s not thanks to Delta Airlines but I’m back in Europe. Yes. Europe. There’s nothing better than a trip to the States to make “European” feel like more than a catchword. Where are you from? I’m European. That became my standard answer after giving up on explaining that Malta is not really that close to Papua New Guinea. (If you are wondering how it is that they know about Papua but not about Malta then join the club). I’m still sleeping off the jet lag after an extraordinarily long return trip (made long because we were “bumped” onto the next plane after some sorry excuse by the overbooking Delta guys – at least we got a first class upgrade for the hassle). “J’accuse – the banana republic” will be back by tomorrow. Thank you for your patience.

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Arts Travel

Hiatus

You’d have thought (like Chris) that J’accuse would be gearing up for the orgy of football over the coming month. We are. There is however something else that is distracting us from the main world event. We are off to NY city baby! Departure is 6am tomorrow Lux time and for the duration of our stay in the city that never speaks blogging will be rather sporadic. We will fly the Brasilian flag in any case and will try to keep in touch over twitter (jacqueszammit).

Be good. And be nice to each other.

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Sport

Proper Priorities

Joseph might still be trying to get Dolores to resign, Tonio might have woken up and sniffed the coffee regarding VAT and vehicles but hey there is only one country that gets its priorities right. They may form part of the world economic slump and many financial eyes may be pointed at developments in their electoral back yard but hey the nation of the pentacampeon cannot really be so bothered with this political and economic nonsense.

J’accuse’s man in Brasil reports the following news from Brasilia:

Comunque qui sono tutti impazziti per la Coppa. Ad esempio:
1-Banche e uffici pubblici resteranno CHIUSI nei giorni delle partite del Brasile
2-I produttori di birra sono in crisi; non riescono a trovare abbastanza lattine e bottiglie per soddisfare la domanda dei torceadores brasileiros
3-Hanno montato un palco di mezzo chilometro sulla spiaggia di Copacabana
4-La campagna elettorale é sospesa fino al giorno della finale

That translates basically to: (1) shops close on the day of Brasil’s matches (and presumably no €700 payment to open); (2) the most worrying crisis at thsi time is the beer shortage; (3) Copacabana will be the place to dance samba in June (nothing changes there) and finally (4) NO ELECTION CAMPAIGN TILL AFTER THE FINAL. This is the country whose greatest depression was NOT economically related. It was that damnèd day back in 1950 where Varela’s Uruguay sent a whole nation in mourning.

With values like these I’d love to be able to cry out: Eu também sou brasileiro!
(two brazil drink ads: Skol & Guarana Antartica)

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Rubriques

K&T: Baba O'Riley

Tirritorna ir-rubrika Kinnie & Twistees fuq j’accuse (ghax iddum inqas ittellaghha hawn milli toqghod ittella’ ohra fil-blogg l-iehor). Erba’ kelmiet bejn haga ohra dwar dak li qed jigri go Lussemburgu, gewwa Malta u fl-Ewropa. K&T – ikel u xorb ghal generazzjoni X.

Bhalissa li kelli naghzel soundtrack ghall-pass kwazi frenetiku li ghaddejjin bih hawn kieku naqla’ din id-diska mill-kaxxi tal-memorja ta’ generazzjoni ohra. The Who ikantaw Baba O’Riley dwar s-suldati mohlija fil-Vietnam. Taqra’ l-ahbarijiet ta’ llum minn fuq l-internet, il-gazzetti jew TV u tibqa’ b’dik it-toghma ossimoronika – qarsa u helwa fl-istess hin. Id-dipressjoni ekonomika ghadha bilkemm bdiet tinhass kif suppost. S’issa smajna il-garr imma il-mizerja ghadha ma hix maghna. Filwaqt li tajjeb li tittama li l-mizerja ma tasal qatt ma tistax ma tikkuntemplax il-possibilità li l-materjalizmu li drajna fis-snin disghin u fil-bidu ta’ dan is-seklu ser ikollna niccahdu ftit minnu ghal xi zmien.

Fl-istess waqt li d-dipressjoni tispira l-arti u l-muzika b’injezzjoni ta’ kreattività ddisprata it-teknologija tibqa’ ghaddejja bir-ritmu mghaggel u inkredibbli. L-izvilupp u l-progress qed jaghmel tieghu. Il-Golf tal-Messiku mghedded bl-ikreh capep ta’ zjut – frott ta’ kilba ghall-ahhar qtar tad-deheb l-iswed. Is-sistema kapitalista splodiet il-gewwa (implodiet?) minhabba ukoll riskji u nfieq bla razan. Ma hix l-ahhar tad-dinja imma anki l-kalendarju Majan li jieqaf fis-sena 2012 ihassbek ftit mhux hazin.

Stramba – il-progress jibqa’ ghaddej – johrog l-iphone il-gdid, il-generazzjonijiet tal-majkrocipps u kompjuters jitwieldu meta dawk ta’ qabilhom ikunu lanqas biss ghadhom indraw. Issa studji ricenti qed jistaqsu x’effetti ser ikollu l-izvilupp teknologiku fuq l-imhuh. Il-progress teknologiku ser ifisser rigressjoni mentali? U l-arti u l-muza tista’ tissupera din il-biza?

Interessanti. Merhba lura ghal Kinnie u Twistees.

Categories
iTech

4

Not fair. There’s 1,000,000 reasons why the word “upgrade” should be declared illegal. They’ll probably sell in one week in the US starting 24th June.

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Admin

Sette Giugno

If you’re a shopowner and you’re reading this from your workplace while waiting for the first customers to walk into the shop on this public holiday then congrats for paying €700 for the right to display full confidence in the love of commerce of the average Maltese shopper. I wonder whether shopping centres such as Plaza, Bay Street or the Point get to pay €700 once for the whole establishment or whether each outlet in the centres has to pay individually.

If the pay once for a centre rule applies then I wonder if it would work for agglomerations of shops such as the one set up for shops in Republic Street. I’m still not convinced about all this fuss with shops opening on public holidays. As I have said before my only concern would be the employees – then again if replacements are found for Sundays and Public Holidays then blessed is the free market.

It’s the seventh june and there is not much to report from Luxembourg on this Maltese public holiday. Just a little note – I am ‘blaming’ our little post on Israel and Death in the Med for the sudden otherwise inexplicable hike in readership with over 2,500 readers per day for two consecutive days. Either that or Antoine Vella is desperate for reading material on the net given the partial demise of his pink read.

Blog readership is about to go into the notorious usual period of summer slump (probably exacerbated by the World Cup) – unless iphones and ipads at the beach give us a new surprise. Expect J’accuse to adapt accordingly.

Happy Sette Giugno to all you revellers out there…. and to Twanny V.