Malta's Culture in FluxNegotiating the Mediterranean and the EU Anna Zammit |
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In a referendum held on Saturday, 8 March, 2003, Malta voted in favour of joining the European Union. Of the 270,650 people, or 91% of the eligible voters, who voted, 53.6% were in favour of membership and 46.4% were against. 1.44% of the votes were invalid. In a surprise announcement, Dr. Alfred Sant, the leader of the Opposition Labour Party which campaigned against Malta joining the EU, claimed that the Yes campaign had lost because only 48% of all eligible voters were in favour of membership.
The Referendum law approved by both major parties in Parliament six months ago states that the winner is the side that receives the majority of the valid votes cast in the referendum. The issue will probably be resolved once and for all on April 12, 2003, when a general election will be held. The situation is complex because the Yes campaign was supported by Alternattiva Demokratika – The Green Party, which is fielding its own candidates in the forthcoming election and because it is clear that a number of Labour Party supporters were in favour of membership in the EU and a number of supporters of the Conservative Party (Partit Nazzjonalista) were against. (Adrian Grima)
The issue of Mediterranean Malta and its prospects of joining the EU gives rise to a number of questions that need to be asked by all those observing this major event in Malta’s contemporary political history. The questions refer to a number of dimensions that are always relevant in the context of social change: mainly culture, economy, the political sphere, as well as every aspect that has an impact on society. The following are some reflections on the concept of culture and its implications for Malta as a Mediterranean island that has applied for and been offered membership of the European Union.
Language
Malta is undoubtedly Mediterranean, not merely because of its geographical location but also because of the various Siculo-Arabic influences that pervade its culture. Malta was colonized by various powers ranging from the Phoenicians to the Arabs and the Europeans. The Maltese are Roman Catholics and on the islands there are many churches designed in a European style. When they were built, these churches stood out in contrast with the ordinary and simple village dwellings because of their size and architectural elaboration. The various phases in Maltese history have left their mark on the development of Maltese culture. The Maltese speak a language with a predominantly Arabic grammar. Many place-names are of Arabic origin, although the vocabulary is a mixture of words of Arabic, Romance and English origin. The calligraphy is based on the Roman script. The language indicates that Malta has a strong Mediterranean influence that is mixed with that of Europe. Some insist on preserving Maltese in its ‘pure’ form by insisting on the use of words and constructions of purely Arabic origin. However, it is highly questionable whether such a thing as a ‘pure’ language can exist anywhere in the world.
To some extent, the debate on the Maltese language is related to the debate on whether Malta should remain politically ‘pure’ in terms of maintaining ‘absolute’ sovereignty, or whether it should become a full member of a federal Europe and thus renounce a degree of political independence. Some of those objecting to Malta’s application to join the EU, including important sections of the Labour Party, claim that membership will result in Malta losing of its Mediterranean character, and that this is one of the reasons why Malta should not join. Malta is ‘too Mediterranean’ to join and it needs to maintain its Mediterranean identity. By joining the EU, Malta risks being taken over by the European giant that will bulldoze its Mediterranean culture.
A number of questions about culture in general and Maltese culture in particular arise in this context. What effect is exposure to Europe going to have on Maltese culture? To what extent can and should a culture be protected from foreign influences? To what extent does Malta’s prospectively closer contact with Europe speed up such ‘foreign’ influences? What do these questions and their implications say about Maltese culture?
Language is only one factor, albeit an important one, in a culture. Culture is a complex social phenomenon; there is indeed no society without culture. Culture and society are two closely related concepts. Culture refers to ideas and core values, and how these mould the people’s way of life. Culture includes a material and a non-material dimension: material culture refers to all the physical objects that people create and give meaning to, while non-material culture includes the abstract dimension of human creation, such as language, ideas, philosophies, beliefs, customs and political systems (Robertson 1977). Moreover, culture is a relative notion in terms of time and space. For instance the notion of beauty is culturally specific, it differs from one culture to another and it changes over time. Cultural changes seem to affect material culture first, while non-material culture takes longer to infiltrate a culture.
Invasion and Subjugation
Cultural change also relates to three different processes, namely discovery, invention and diffusion. Members of a society may be aware of the fact that the human being has a heart, but it takes a conscious discovery to establish the exact manner by which a heart functions. Inventions refer to the novel use or combination of existing knowledge, which includes anything from a new musical style to the setting up of the United Nations. Diffusion refers to the spread of one culture to another. For example, Christianity was taken to Africa from Europe and opera was taken from Italy to the United States of America. Infiltration may occur either gradually and subtly or by the use of force. Thus, the way in which the white colonisers forced Aboriginal societies to abandon their own culture and adopt that of Anglo-Saxon society was an exercise of invasion and subjugation. When this type of invasion takes place, the very existence of indigenous culture is jeopardized.
An outright attack on Maltese culture occurred during the Napoleonic invasion of Malta and the attack on Maltese churches which enraged the Maltese because, for them, churches symbolised the heart of Maltese society, namely the Catholic religion. The British were more tactful when confronting religion in Malta. From the British, the Maltese inherited the Christmas cake, the Christmas tree but not Protestantism. In other words, they accepted the material aspects of English culture but not the non-material aspects of religion. They did, however, inherit the educational, legal and political systems from Britain, although these aspects of Malta’s non-material culture did not start with the English administration in Malta. Malta had already had foundational elements of a legal framework and an educational programme which the British could build upon.
Religion is still a core issue in Malta and it is used by politicians to gain support for their cause, particularly during election campaigns. This was evident during the campaign on the referendum on EU membership, in which the Nationalist Party claimed that membership was the best option, and the Labour party insisted that a partnership agreement would be more beneficial. Within this context, both parties highlighted the abortion issue. The Nationalist Party assured the Maltese public that joining the EU would not affect Malta’s stand on this issue at all, whereas the Labour Party claimed that Malta would eventually be pressured to adopt abortion if it joined the EU.
An important aspect of culture is nutrition. The Maltese imported the idea of the roast meat dishes and this challenged the previously mainly vegetable diet. Now, they are being told by the Health department that they must ‘go back’ to a Mediterranean diet consisting mainly of fish, vegetables and fruit. To take an example, the daily diet in Charens, in the French Provence region consists mainly of vegetarian dishes, especially because of an abundance of vegetables in the region. This topic of nutrition is particularly controversial in Malta because of the way in which the agriculture and fisheries industries have been mismanaged by various governments, with the result that there is very little agriculture and fishing going on the island.
The building industry has expanded at the expense of the environment in general, and the agricultural land in particular. The Labour Party encouraged the building industry to expand haphazardly in the 1970s and 1980s, and the Nationalist Government seems to ignore this industry almost completely, and is not interested in controlling its activities. Ironically, if it were not for Malta’s application to join the European Union, the Nationalists may not have bothered to take agriculture seriously. Even more ironically, the anti-EU movement, including the Labour party, is now afraid that Malta’s membership of the EU will ultimately destroy the agriculture and fishing industries altogether. Whether Malta joins the EU or not, the Mediterranean diet which is being encouraged in Malta may not be supplied by locally grown products, unless agriculture and fishing gain considerable more attention. Indeed, the Maltese government should help to promote local, typically Mediterranean products for both local and foreign markets. Wine, capers, olives, tomatoes, and potatoes as well as summer fruits are all products that seem to flourish in our weather. However, apart from potatoes, no government or business person has ever seen an economic advantage in investing in these primary industries.
Testing our Mediterranean Identity
Malta and its Mediterranean identity, which includes a European dimension, are now being tested. Can those who believe that Malta is primarily Mediterranean, whatever that means, think that it will remain to be so for ever? Does joining the EU seriously threaten this identity? What if various changes and influences, whether they are coming from Europe or elsewhere, are already impinging on Maltese society anyway, and are difficult to control. And also, is there such a thing as a united Europe anyway?
The EU referendum campaign was approached in a very ‘Mediterranean’, that is highly emotional, manner. Although Malta’s major political parties both have their own T.V. channels and their own radio stations, they still resort to public mass rallies on the eve of elections. This, I believe is a Mediterranean trait: it is politics that invites people to be close to their fellow party supporters in an activity that heightens their emotions and demands full allegiance to the political party they support, and to their leaders. The leader of the opposition writes a book in which he claims that he feels culturally close to Europe, but that, at the same time, he does not believe that Malta needs to join the EU, a political and economic entity which has the unity of Europe as one of its central aims. This same person tries to attract a substantial section within the Labour Party that is attracted by the buzz of mass meetings and rallies. Therefore, he offers a typically Mediterranean, emotional approach to the masses, while projecting a more reserved, controlled and intellectual stance to the media. In his own way, the Prime Minister, and leader of the Nationalist Party, also harbours two different personas: the family man and intellectual, the fighter and populist. It seems that both the emotional, Mediterranean attitudes and the rational, distant, European approach coexist in local politics.
The issues of religion and the political style show that, whenever the Maltese value something strongly, it remains an important element of their culture for a long time. Furthermore, it is difficult for a new culture to diffuse a feature that is highly valued in Malta, particularly if it is an aspect of non-material culture. In other words, it very much depends on Maltese society to protect aspects that are highly valued by Maltese culture. If some Maltese look up to European culture in a Eurocentric manner that assumes that this is the only legitimate culture in the world, such attitudes will probably hasten the process of diminishing Maltese culture as it is today. On the other hand, those who want to protect Maltese culture in a manner that views this culture as being superior to other cultures risk encouraging an ethnocentric attitude amongst the Maltese. After all, there are other cultures, such as African and Asian, that need to be equally respected.
Anna Zammit, 37, is a full-time assistant lecturer in Sociology and the Junior College of the University of Malta. In her B.A. dissertation, she analysed how women in professional work combine their public and domestic spheres. In her MA dissertation, she has studied “Attitudes to the Environment” with a special focus on local councils. She was previously active in Alternattiva Demokratika, The Green Party of Malta. She is one of the founding members of the mediterranean cultural organization Inizjamed and now acts as one of the organization’s advisors on issues such as gender, the environment and culture.
This article first appeared on Babelmed on 15 March, 2003 |
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