Opinion | Sunday, 11 April 2010

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National pilgrimages and self-imposed exile

On Tuesday 6 April, The Times ran a story under the title ‘National pilgrimage in preparation for the Papal visit’. Quick on the draw, a friend who shall go unnamed published a sarcastic status update on Facebook warning friends and acquaintances to avoid the pilgrims’ stomping ground on the big day and throwing in the ‘din kien jonqosna! (that’s all we needed!)’ quip for good measure. That expression has become something of a Maltese speciality over the years, a sort of resigned way of coming to terms with the absurdity that surrounds us. But there is more to this sarcastic stance than meets the eye. Here I’ll focus on the religious aspect of life in this country and how a section of our population is engaging with it. First, because a Papal visit makes it very topical and in-your-face. Second, because religious matters still occupy reams and reams of newsprint and appear to exercise the minds of our online commentators like no other subject under the sun (compare the heated discussions provoked by the Reverend Joe Borg’s The Times blog and the virtual sound of silence which accompanies an article on architecture or ‘kulcher’ by, say, Ranier Fsadni or Mark-Anthony Falzon). Back to sarcasm and its relationship with religion. Facebook is proving to be the favourite medium for what I call the rivoluzzjoni soft. From ephemeral groups of the ‘I am Maltese and agree with divorce’ ilk to here-today-gone-tomorrow petitions and anti-establishment status updates, Malta Facebook is awash with a certain brand of sarcasm and indignation as the younger generation gets to grips with the fact that it is living a weird paradox: connected to and aware of the outside world like never before in virtual terms, yet still physically residing in a very real, tangible place which often sounds, feels and behaves like an extension of Vatican City.
So how do these Maltese people deal with the paradox? I have identified three methods. The first consists in totally switching off, the second in being sarcastic about events as they unfold, the third a mix of both in which the subject has generally switched off only to gingerly pop back into public discourse (generally with a horrified comment or cry of disbelief) when things touch a personal raw nerve, as happened with the Vella Gera and Nadur carnival episodes.
But where does that leave us? As a society and a nation all this sarcasm leaves us very much at square one. For while being ironic and cracking a few jokes about the Pope’s visit might give us the impression that we are thereby distancing ourselves from the national hysteria, the fact remains that it all remains very ‘national’. Since terminology is crucial, and to bring this back to The Times’ headline, herein lies the real problem with religion, the Church and politics in Malta.
If a pilgrimage before the Pope’s visit becomes ‘national’, if the Archbishop addresses the nation on Independence Day, if the Prime Minister identifies the canonisation of a Maltese priest as a prime example of national unity, if in a very relevant interview with this paper a Gozitan Labour candidate states that she will vote against a divorce bill because it ‘goes against her values’ and the President of the Republic conflates Catholic values with Maltese values, where does that leave non-Catholics in this country? Let’s not beat around this bush for too long. The truth is that non-Catholics in Malta are – culturally – second-class citizens and most would agree that (with the EU question out of the way?) the situation has degenerated in the last five years or so. At best, non-Catholics in Malta are self-imposed exiles in their own country, ‘getting on’ with their private lives while attempting to block out the very public manifestations of the ‘national’ ethos. Indeed, thousands of people in Malta inhabit a sort of parallel universe, at best pretending that things aren’t happening or trying their best to ignore them. While it is quintessentially Maltese to pragmatically tend to one’s own patch and do one’s own thing – l-aqwa li ma jindahalli hadd u li ndawwar lira – at least the people who care enough to be sarcastic about it should, at some point, crank up the engine a notch. And by that I mean getting involved in the only places where voices really matter: in the media and in politics.
Inkella ser nibqghu fejn konna.

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