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Vigil for Justice
Tag: luxembourg
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Constructing Truce
Tourism is not Luxembourg’s main industry. The Duchy is much more renown for its tax haven status than for the busloads of over-nighters visiting its quaint capital and tourism remains low on the priority list for the nation (not that no investment is being made there either). Malta’s politicians, on the other hand, are obliged to give particular attention to the industry that is the bread and butter for so many. Any measure that improves conditions for tourism is surely welcome in Malta.
So it was to my surprise that I was reminded once again of a practice that is peculiar to the construction industry in Luxembourg in the middle of summer (well I say summer but we did wake up to 12 degrees again). The construction industry in the Duchy grinds to a halt on the 31st July and will not resume before the 22nd of August. This happens thanks to a collective leave agreement that applies to 1,452 companies (21 202 employees). Only the most essential of works (renovations in schools for example) remain open during this three week moratorium imposed on construction.
Now imagine that the same happened in Malta. It’s a dream of course. The mighty Malta Developers Association and its chief lobbyist Chetcuti are bound to throw a massive fit claiming that this was an attempt to choke a much needed “industry” on the island. Surely in an island that is desperately in need of 40 storey towers in the middle of Sliema we cannot afford to take a pause and breathe.
Yep, we might as well build ourselves to oblivion.
See L’essentiel: 1452 employees seront en congé collectif cet été
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Luxembourg’s new coat
So the election came and went. Luxembourg’s that is. It came early – some unfathomable scandal to do with phone tapping and the sorts led to the precipitating of ballot consultations – and finished quickly. For southerners like myself who are used to elections being dealt with like some enormous football match complete with hooligan behaviour on the stands, Luxembourg’s national elections was an exercise in sanitised efficiency of the most yawn-inducing kind.
The elections were held on Sunday (yesterday) which also happened to be Mantelsonndag (literally Coat Sunday). Mantelsonndag is the day in which Luxembourgers go out and buy their new winter coat – which means that all the shops have another excuse to open on Sunday. Did this interfere with the fervour of the electoral consultation? Not one bit. Those entitled to vote (it’s less of an entitlement more of an obligation here – you HAVE to vote in Luxembourg) had six hours to go to their allocated booth and pick their candidates of choice in one of four districts (North, South, Centre and East). Polls opened at 8 a.m. and were shut by two in the afternoon, which means you could only just make it for the last order in a restaurant in the city.
With many more parties contesting the elections than in our notoriously bipartisan (+1) home nation you’d expect an interesting level of tension – to say the least. Nothing. At least not outwardly so. Not even the hundreds of billboards (in wood I noticed, très environmentally friendly) with the robotic expressionless faces were subjected to the least of political vandalism. Police on the roads? Are you kidding? People just rushed to the sales in the great shopping centres and forked out some money from Europe’s highest wage packets to update their ski gear and buy the new manteaux. Silence. The four (yes, four) Fiorentina supporters at the Italian joint where we get our weekly fix of calcio probably made the most noise in the whole of Luxembourg on Sunday – and their purple was not for the Pirate Party.
By seven in the evening results started to trickle out and they all but confirmed the predictions with the ruling CSV losing three of its seats in the Luxembourg 60-member parliament and the Greens losing another. The big winners were the Democratic Party who had caused what one of the papers (wort.lu) enthusiastically described as a “wave of blue” (plus four more seats in parliament). Led by the erstwhile Mayor of Luxembour Xavier Bettel the liberal-democrat party made some substantial gains that would give them a strong hand at the negotiating table as Jean-Claude Junker will form a new coalition government – extending his party’s (and his) stay in power beyond the current 18 year record.
The socialist party and left did not make any particular gains while a very interesting development occurred with the newly formed Pirate Party which managed to garner close to 3% of the vote on the first attempt. No seats in parliament for the swashbuckling heroes of liberty but the amount of votes they obtained guarantees them state financing for their next attempt (are you watching Malta?).
Thusly, without too much of a fuss and without any excessive drama, the Grand Duchy got its new coat. The multi-party politics formula seems to work – and work well – for this tiny nation. Not for them the mass meetings and the carcades… the only time Luxembourg gets to see those is during a World or European cup… then again there’s no Luxembourgers in those carcades – just those noisy southern guests from Portugal, Italy or Greece.
Ah Europe, Unity in Diversity.
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Talking about us
Alex Vella Gera was the guest Maltese author for this year’s Festival des Immigrations. Vella Gera returned to Luxembourg (he has worked here in the past) wearing his new vestiges of notorious author and under the spotlight for his latest work “is-Sriep regġħu saru velenużi”. The Festival des Immigrations is now in its 30th year and is a celebration of all things “foreign” that exist in Luxembourg – an interesting experience for us Maltese to be counted as one of the “others”.
When the chat with Vella Gera ended a group of us gravitated towards the food stalls (sadly bereft of Maltese timpani, pastizi and kinnie) and opted for a Cameroonian mix of meats and fishes for a very tasty (and in some cases hot) bite. On our way out we passed the Amnesty International stand that was highlighting the plight of immigrant communities in the Med – what do you know Malta features as two-way protagonist!
Back to the chat. The interview was expertly conducted in a relaxed atmosphere by Mark Vella. Malta’s participation in the Festival was once again guaranteed thanks to the dedicated campaign of international passport poet Antoine Cassar. Attendance was purely from the Maltese community in Luxembourg (that officially numbers 225 according to the panels in the main Hall – but that does not count the numerous Maltese who opted to live across the border in Germany or Belgium) and this meant that the language of the discussion switched to the vernacular.
Language was an important protagonist in the surgical analysis that turned out to be a voyage of discovery for Vella Gera himself. By the author’s own admission criticism and public reaction to published works is hard to come by and so Vella Gera seemed to thrive and enjoy this moment of exploration and questioning into the reality behind his work. Hollywood gave us the concept of “behind the scenes”, this was “Sriep’s” behind the scenes moment as both Mark Vella and later those present (inevitably including yours truly) questioned motives, choices and narratives behind Vella Gera’s novel.
The whole sessions should have been recorded for YouTube prosperity but apparently the wrong button was pressed on the video cam so only an audio will eventually be available. This point of the YouTube video was a topic that cropped up in the discussion itself. Such moments of analysis could be of more benefit if advantage is taken of modern technology that allows for a wider vision and an expansion of the platform. This could be one way of filling the absence of the critical reaction.
What did happen in that room was a gradual build up of political, social and linguistic analysis of a book that – in my view – is an excellent documentary in the raw of a particular growing up phase of Maltese society. As was remarked by those present it is a pity that such a discussion does not reach a wider audience. Vella Gera’s Sriep does cut into much of the questions afflicting modern society. The use of Minglish or the special patois of code-switching pepe/malti for example is not simply a cultural curiosity but one that exposes the need of a socio-political understanding of whole swathes of Maltese society. Politically speaking the weight carried by social “castes” or classes can be queried – much as the Labour party did in the past campaign with the “Courage to Vote” video.
In other words it was a discussion about a book, it was a discussion about an author’s experience and dealings with his society and whether he was more of a chronicler of the real than an author of the imaginary. It was all that and more. What the meeting with Vella Gera produced though was a surprising realisation that this kind of analysis might be very much lacking in contemporary Maltese society. While we may often complain that the “intellectuals” and “artistic milieu” fail to engage politically we fail to notice that there are few bridges and platforms where their work is given the necessary attention or allowed to provoke the necessary discussions.
Sriep has sold around 1,500 copies. That apparently makes it a best-seller in Malta. Sadly the potential that such a tome has for provoking discussion on so many levels is about to die a quiet death. The main reason is that Vella Gera would not be invited to the the main media programmes and would not be a convenient selling point for papers if he were not embroiled in a Li Tkisser Sewwi style scandal. Ironically while the last campaign was characterised with empty vessel promises about “burying the differences” we have yet to see a conscious effort being made in understanding where they come from in the first place.
Meanwhile our new Minister for Culture is determined to invest in popular culture – investing in Carnival and investing in local festi because that is how we understand where our differences lie, isn’t it?
P.S. And after the talk I also bought two cd’s by those paradoxes of Maltese social commentary.
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Poussins et Ours (au Stade Josy Barthel)
Chez nous on nous apprend dès l’enfance à ne jamais compter les poussins avant que tous les œufs ne soient éclos. Cela n’est sans doute pas le cas partout – les équipes de foot ont d’ailleurs aussi de petites nuances. Chez vous il faudrait semble-t-il apprendre à ne jamais vendre la peau de l’ours avant de l’avoir tué.
Nous voilà alors à l’entrée du stade, quelque deux cent supporters de “l’une des plus mauvaises sélections européennes” (merci L’essentiel de nous le rappeler), vêtus de couleurs rouge, blanc et noir (rouge et blanc hérités des Normands francophones et la couleur noire, symbole de l’âge de chevalerie lorsque nous étions chargés de protéger l’Europe contre la menace étrangère).
Pleinement conscients de nos limites, nous chantons, fiers, l’hymne national. La fin de notre prière à Dieu céda la place à des cris et des hurlements de soutien. Nous sommes là à espérer l’éclosion des œufs … On ne sait jamais !!!
Les chasseurs d’ours sont là aussi. Ils sont censés être favoris dans ce combat Lilliputien. Et ils jouent chez eux, ne l’oublions pas ! Au classement FIFA l’équipe Maltaise figure 31 places en dessous de l’équipe luxembourgeoise, c’est l’“une des plus mauvaises sélections européennes”. A force de nous rappeler notre incompétence, ils risquent de réveiller l’ours qui dort en nous. Trente et un, c’est aussi la température moyenne à Malte. C’est chaud !
C’est tellement chaud que les œufs commencent à éclore sous nos yeux. Et c’est le But! Notre moustique fantastique trouve l’entrée. Les chasseurs en perdent leur tête. Avant la mi-temps ils ne sont plus qu’à dix sur le terrain. Sans chef – pas question de tuer l’ours. Pour nous c’est le délire total. Et voilà que naquit un nouveau poussin. But! Encore Mifsud. C’est le tueur en série des chasseurs d’ours.
On y a cru, on a espéré mais il a fallu attendre que les œufs éclorent. Qui l’eût cru ? Nous, “l’une des plus mauvaises sélections européennes”, nous étions là à fêter la naissance de nos poussins. Et quand advient-il des chasseurs repartis bredouilles ? Pas de victoire, pas de peau !!! Sans doute doivent-ils rembourser tous ces malheureux qui ont payé avant d’obtenir la peau.
À nous les poussins ! C’est l’essentiel…..
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Snow (mobile report)
It’s been an incredible night. At around 1700 hours yesterday an incessant fall of snow started to cover the Grand Duchy. Within an hour it was absolute chaos. I could follow it from my vantage point in my office in Kirchberg which overlooks a main artery of the rush-hour traffic. My colleagues and I were blocked in the office till we ventured out at around 2200 hour and managed to get home safely.
What has been impressive is not the ten centimetres of snow that have coated the country and paralysed transport to and from Luxembourg (trains still working though) but the sight of hundreds of people walking with one arm raised and a mobile device in their hands happily snapping away at the event. On such occasions, as Malta has shown with its recent floods, the nation becomes one whole mobile reporter. This photo of mine of a bus in distress blocking the main road made it to L’essentiel.
It took my dad (over to Luxembourg for a short visit) two and a half hours to fly to Frankfurt from Malta and nine hours of bus to get to Luxembourg. That’s 2010’s White Christmas for you.
