Confessions of the Outspoken One

Too Many People - Too Big a Problem?

2010-10-05T22:13:00.003+02:00

The blog returns after a hiatus of approximately one month, mainly because there's really been nothing to write about in that past month and, well, blogs always slow down during the summer in any event. Whether I'll continue writing after this remains to be seen, but I might just leave the site so as to occasionally post an item or two. Or twenty, when I'm bored. I know that I can't compete against DCG though!

Well, not many things do often come to my mind that are worth putting fingers to keyboard, but recently, I couldn't help but notice something that a good friend of mine pointed out. Apparently, though I still have to see this confirmed, the law freshers tally the grand amount of over three hundred people this year, something which, if true, stuns me and further reinforces my belief that things have to change before they further spiral out of control. It's useless that we publish course reform reports if any suggestions in such reports will not be taken up by boards that are competent of rectifying such situations, and it's also useless just pointing out the obvious that there are problems in the course without simply proposing solutions for these problems.

The law course reform booklet, which was today published online, highlighted one important thing that really struck me - that many students are of the belief that law has become a dumping ground for those people who have not made it into their first choice courses, mainly due to a lack of sufficient grades to enter such a course. Therefore, with the entry requirements for the law course being banal to say the least, people are applying for this course with the belief that they can still be considered as among the 'elite' group of students at the University. Unfortunately, what these students don't realise is that when more and more apply on a yearly basis, the prestige of the course automatically starts to decline. Again, if true, 300+ students entering the law course this year means that there are at least 115 more people than the amount which entered three years ago, an amount which has subsequently declined to probably just around over 100. There is no chance in hell that in three years time, the mammoth number which has graced the course this year will decrease to a similar number as the current 4th year students.

Sooner rather than later - if it hasn't already, that is - law is going to become yet another B.Com - where people graduate like a tray of pastizzi.

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Of course, the problem isn't only limited to the law course. If it were, then I really do ask someone to pinch me because I'd believe that I'm dreaming. Recently in particular, I've been finding that our Y4J group has been growing exponentially. While reiterating that such a group is by no means exclusive and that this itself is a good thing - a very good thing, believe me - I find that we have to be careful of some drawbacks as well.

Forming part of a tight-knit group of 60 odd people is not easy to say the least, and therefore, all efforts must be made, on a regular basis, to ensure that conflicts do not arise. Of course, there are people who have differing opinions on everything, but we just have to ensure that we are completely tolerant with one another in all circumstances. Such a big grouping means that not everyone is going to know each other inside out, obviously, so being sensitive to one another is more imperative than ever now. In my opinion, as a group grows, then consideration towards other people in general must grow too - the risk of finding someone having a bad day is greater than before, and therefore, one has to be careful of such things happening around them. Acceptance of each other's individual characters needs to be taken notice of.

I know that what I'm saying here might be obvious to many people, but I feel that we need to be aware of it. We're all human and we all make mistakes, after all, so it wouldn't be surprising to find someone not giving a hoot about these things occasionally. We just have to be more careful of the things that we say and more sensitive to people in general.

God Bless You all,

Matti

Explosive in Nature

2010-09-08T00:08:00.004+02:00

The recent fireworks factory blast in Gharb, Gozo, has left a bitter taste in many people's mouths not only with regard to the lack of safety procedures involved which, in all probability, led to the explosion of the factory, but also to the amount of lives that this incident has taken. Unfortunately, in Malta, we seem to have the mentality that something tragic is needed in order for the authorities (if any!) to take due action; and even when this happens, what due action is taken is something that is generally beyond the general public, i.e. it is never reported. We just have to face the reality that we're living in a state where practically everyone covers up for one another at whatever cost, even if it means that the lives of other people are at stake.

Of course, first, second and third come the protection of our personal interests, and then only after that - and there should indeed be a big IF inserted into that equation - come the interests of the public at large and the state in general. Crazy and mentally demented as he might be, perhaps Norman Lowell was right when he recently called the public at large a bunch of sheep - for they generally religiously follow and accept anything that someone with the remotest hint of power says. It's pathetic, to say the least.

That aside, however, I found it blatantly ridiculous - even more so than certain things that occur on these islands - that the Xaghra feast scheduled for today was not cancelled in light of this recent tragedy, the official reason being that those who died did not form part of the Xaghra locality and therefore the village should not be affected by it. The link between the two instances, that being the feast in question and the fireworks factory as mentioned above, was that this factory was actually producing fireworks for the Xaghra feast. I beg to imagine what the hell might have been going through the mind of the parish priest in question when he uttered these comments, and where his Christian roots have gone. The least that the community could have done, as a sign of respect for those people who perished in this blast and their surviving families - and just for the record, this was not the first explosion at this factory, for another such explosion occurred in 2005(!!) - was cancel the feast. But no, and I quote Daphne Caruana Galizia here because I agree with her viewpoint 100% in this instance, the community has just lost thousands of euros worth of fireworks; it would be a shame if the amount of money spent on the village feast had to suffer the same fate!

Honestly, sometimes I wonder how certain people were educated. It's a trait that's becoming all too familiar with time, placing our personal agendas before that which makes sense in the context of things. The shocking thing is that the Xaghra feast continues to be backed by its parish, and that there are also some people who are willing to celebrate the night away, drunk on cheap ass beer and lying down in the middle of Xaghra's main square, while five people who were working on their fireworks are dead. Obviously, thinking that what happened is not tragic and that the show must nonetheless go on. It's one of the biggest paradoxes I could ever imagine - but at the end of the day, the most important thing is that we boast about being a Christian country, isn't it?

God Bless You all,
Matti

And We're Back!

2010-08-18T16:42:00.003+02:00

There is no doubting my mind that Soul Survivor is just a wonderful experience no matter how many times one ends up by going to England.

While this year's trip marked my second time in going up to Shepton Mallet, I really felt that this time I went up knowing that I shouldn't really be in line for any unpleasant surprises or difficult times and that I could see this trip as an opportunity to just relax, forget about all my worries and just receive instead of serve, which is the position that I willingly find myself positioned in all too often while in Malta. I knew how Soul Survivor worked now, as opposed to having to venture into the unknown two years ago; and therefore, could see this as a different experience to that which I passed through back in 2008, which was primarily an experience of healing and confirmation.

And indeed, for the most part, my thoughts above were confirmed. Having said that, however, nothing is ever plain sailing and of course, there indeed had to be a hitch or two along the way just so that I would have endured a test. However, I found that even though some of these 'tests' did initially worry me, keeping a calm head - something which I don't think I would have even been able to envisage around a year ago now - managed to help me plough through them with flying colours. Being sick for the majority of the trip, for example, was something that I found immensely frustrating, especially when this culminated in me not being able to speak for most of the second day, all of the third day and part of the fourth. However, especially during the praise and worship sessions, this made me realise that you don't necessarily need a voice to worship Him - if you just keep focus in your heart, it's more than enough and just as effective.

Sickness and poor health aside, however, I found that the biggest test was not having my best friend there for a week. It made me realise a couple of things in particular - primarily, while Mark and I still communicated on a daily basis, it meant that personally, I had to make it my mission to ensure that I could just 'let go' and rely on other people; and secondly, it also allowed me to form some bonds with people that I would not have previously imagined I would indeed 'bond' with. I'm obviously not speaking about the obvious culprits, people who besides Mark, I can always be found with; but people that I was friends with before but I now feel that I've brought back to Malta a stronger friendship. The experience really served well for that purpose.

Also equally amazing, and I say this being an older member of the group, is the maturity levels that the majority of the younger members of the group have. While I already knew this, I really found Soul Survivor to be a confirmation of it, and a real fantastic way to find out about these people's characters. A lot of those who are four or five years younger than people like myself have their heads screwed on really well and they really do have their priorities set straight. That aside, they are also exceptionally intellectual and caring people, and I believe that the majority of them indeed do display a maturity that belies their age. I know that when I was 16/17, acting like this was more of the exception rather than the norm. Now, I can only see it from the opposite perspective, which in my eyes, is encouraging. The best thing about it all though is that such maturity is not being achieved at the expense of having fun and not enjoying teenage life - these people just have enough in them to go and find a balance in this regard. Kudos.

Perhaps I might not be as charged up as I wanted to be coming back from Soul Survivor, but I do understand and appreciate that the experience served me in good stead and that I would have no regrets in going up again. And again. And again. It's just something out of this world, outstanding, titanic; something that cannot be missed. Indeed, for me, just being one of out 12,700 other people who are there for the same reason is humbling and overwhelming enough.

God Bless You all!
Matti

Plastic Christianity

2010-07-30T19:37:00.004+02:00

Malta is renowned for being a devout Christian country that is the beacon of moral values, which is fine by many people's standards. However, shrouded in the midst of this nation's values is an air of hypocrisy that is so vast and so explicit; a hypocrisy that even shames the majority of us from being called Catholics and practicing this religion. Mhux l-aqwa li nmorru l-quddies nhar il-Hadd, hux?

Here, I'm not speaking about the major topic of the day, i.e. the possible introduction of divorce legislation in Malta - that is something on which another blog could possibly be dedicated to and something that I have my own viewpoint on - but speaking about the public's attitude at large to other people. If Malta was the true beacon of Christianity and Catholicism, then I'm almost certain that we wouldn't be seeing Cikku and Peppu swearing at every corner in Valletta, or fights breaking out in the middle of Paceville almost every Friday. I'm not saying that we would be perfect either - no one is - but surely if those practicing people, the people who are allegedly holier than thou for the best part of 45 minutes on a Saturday evening or a Sunday morning, stuck to their apparent values during the week, when out, when at work - wherever - then we would be a lot better for it all.

Just because you play a game of football and you make a mistake, it doesn't mean that you have to go swearing in the direction of God and blame Him for your troubles. Just because something doesn't go right when you're doing a chore or have an errand to do, it doesn't mean that we have to curse until we feel better. Just because someone teases and bullies another person, it doesn't mean that such a person has to go on a subsequent rampage. If there's anything about this in particular worth highlighting, I would know - I've been down this route and for practically ten months now, I've managed to 'reform' my character accordingly. On a personal level, when compared to the past, I do not lose my temper as much as I used to and I do not descend into such vulgarities so easily, as was the case back then.

However, if you do something that allegedly offends our morals, as seen in today's online edition of the Times, where two youths decided to sunbathe in the middle of Valletta as part of a sketch designed to make the hits on YouTube, then we very ironically hit back at such people by reoffending our morals and swearing the hell at them. I don't care if these people were wrong and acting contrary to the law - although, quite frankly, I don't see anything offensive in sunbathing in the middle of Palace Square or in front of the Law Courts (if people do so on the beach, which is a public place, then what's the difference?) - that's not the point. Perhaps those institutions of our country need to be mocked, anyway. The point is that the people who passed by these youths, disgusted at them and swearing away just to prove their point, are probably people who are such alleged practicing Christians. Of course, being a Christian only counts for that amount of time on Saturday or Sunday, as I mentioned above. It doesn't count for the rest of the week. It doesn't count in every second that passes during the day. Or so we think.

This is not to mention that people in this country perhaps do need to get their act together and start thinking as if we're in 2010, soon to be 2011 - and not stuck in the 1950's, or, God forbid, the 1970's - taht il-gvern soppressiv ta' Mintoff. In addition to living the values that we Maltese allegedly promote, we also have to move with the times and realise that it is time to catch up with modern-day Europe, and stop acting like a third way country or a dictatorship. But it's easier said than done for this is Malta, after all.

God Bless You all!
Matti

It's One Thing When You're Here!

2010-07-14T19:46:00.003+02:00

As many of you know, I'm back at EF this summer and am (finally) happily teaching Upper Intermediates. Although all my students are Spanish, something which generally poses a problem because such students often speak between themselves in their native tongue, the majority of those that I'm teaching are relatively well-versed in the language and therefore, conversing in English is relatively straightforward with them; this as opposed to last year, when I just had Elementary students - a downright 'mare for someone who struggles to write in simple English, let alone speak it.

Anyway, following last Monday's attempted intimidation/assault/call it what you wish by the hamalla from the depths of God knows where (I still insist, had that bitch or her son/boyfriend/brother/whatever ogre he might have been as much as laid a finger on me, I would have beaten them to a pulp), the last thing I perhaps wanted on a Tuesday morning is school at 8 a.m. Of course, my sleep had been massively disturbed due to this... incident. But yet, I had to live with this, for this is what happened. It's useless crying over spilt milk.

Anyway, all zombified, I walked into class that morning and all was fine. The first lesson actually went to plan and without any hitches. As is the norm with this group of students that I have, they were cooperative and willing to work, and actually seem to enjoy the lessons. Fantastic. However, two particular incidents straight after this lesson (which did not involve my students) - please note that my students' brains were meant to be fully functioning yet mine was still completely... asleep - then jolted me into action for the rest of the day. Perhaps, with hindsight, thank God they occurred!

The first was actually a bit absurd, but I believe that I was in the right. Some idiot was sitting on the porch that leads to the school building and had a tissue in hand. He was wearing a cap and looked like a rapper, with the only difference that he was caucasian - rappers, normally, are not. Anyway, our coolio friend decided that he didn't want to hold the tissue in his hand any longer and threw it into the road. I caught the fool red-handed. Being the dedicated corrector of people that I am employed to be, I decided to approach this student and told him that he had thrown the tissue onto the pavement. He vehemently disagreed with me, protesting his case in a not too dissimilar manner to a chihuahua. Seeing his non-compliance with my telling him that that he did, I ordered that he go and pick up the tissue. The student once again refused, and actually told me to tell him to 'say please' (yes, I quote). Say please? Bloody hell, I'm a teacher and he's a student; if I told him to pick up the wretched tissue because he actually threw it on the floor, then he sure is going to pick it up! Eventually, after I showed him that I wasn't going to budge and that I was boss here, he got off the porch, picked it up and threw it in the bin in a similar way to how Joris Mathijsen slammed a football into the ground after disapproving of a decision made by the referee in the World Cup Final last Sunday; this to the tune of me telling the student, "We do not litter our country!" Well, we do, but I can't accept these tourists doing so - they can do what they wish in Spain, but here, it's another thing altogether.

If the first incident perhaps merited attention and me remembering what happened, the second incident, which occurred straight after the break finished, was just plain farcical. Some student came to school - he must have been drunk - at half past 9, when in reality, his lesson was at half past 4 in the afternoon. It transpired that he thought that yesterday was Wednesday. Anyway, our friend found me and asked where his lesson was, and I kindly indicated that it's in the afternoon. Fine. He then asked if I was his teacher, even though his sheet said "Michelle Borg" on it and did not indicate my name. Yet again, I replied that I wasn't his teacher. The boy kept on insisting that I was his teacher, and I told him that Michelle is a girl's name. I then asked him whether I looked like a female or not to him - you know; shaved hair, growing stubble, deep voice... these characteristics should have all given it away. In truly idiotic fashion, this student replied in the affirmative and said that I WAS a female. (I hate using 'emoticons' in blogs, but this really merits a '-_-'... big time.) I was shocked that he did not know/notice the difference between a man and a woman. And please note, the reason why I was shocked was because his timetable indicated that he was an Intermediate student!! Someone, evidently, guessed his way through the placement test...

Oh well, any other crazy adventures from work will be posted here in due course! What a wacky world us teachers have to put up with...

God Bless You All!
Matti

1966, Revisited

2010-06-27T22:52:00.005+02:00

Seldom do I write blogs about football, but when the World Cup comes along, I can't not help myself to a couple of posts about the beautiful game. Furthermore, in addition to my appearance on Kick Off last Thursday, I sincerely believe that any footballing analysis that I make is better than the tripe that they say on TV, thereby giving me the divine right to comment accordingly. A case in point is when the presenter asking me questions during my interview mistakenly asked what I would do if I were in Capello's shoes during the Italy game vis-a-vis half-time substitutions - of course, the Italian coach, at the time, was Marcello Lippi.

Anyway, today saw England face off against Germany, in what was undoubtedly meant to be one of the ties of the round of last 16. Instead, however, it transpired that Germany were in inspired form and England were rather pants, resulting in a 4-1 defeat for the English and yet another four years without winning the World Cup. By the time Brazil 2014 comes, they wouldn't have lifted the trophy (the real one, and not any replicas one might see) for 48 years, a streak which will almost certainly be extended considering who the hosts of the World Cup and automatic favourites for their 6th or 7th world titles are going to be. Despite the mauling, however, there was a massively controversial moment in the first half where a ball hit by Frank Lampard actually crossed the line (for once) by a good couple of feet, only for the linesman not to award the goal for some strange reason. Had it been allowed, the teams would have, perhaps undeservedly, gone in for the break at 2-2, and a different game would have been on our hands.

I will now proceed to analyse this incident both subjectively (simply because that perspective is fun) and objectively, and look at the overall impact that the incident had on the game and England's now-defunct World Cup chances.

The Subjective Perspective

For the Italian-supporting Maltese population, this disallowed goal will be seen as justice served for England. Not only have they been punished for being poor in the group stage - no matter how so much poorer Italy was, in all fairness - but there is always some form of delight at seeing one's bitter rivals being bruised, battered, hurt and destroyed. Justice will also be seen as served vis-a-vis the goal that never was in 1966, when, ironically, a goal that didn't cross the line was awarded to Geoff Hurst and gave England a 3-2 lead against West Germany in the World Cup final. That match ended up finishing 4-2 to England, which should have been the score this afternoon too.

This was one hell of a humiliation. Seeing defending as poor as that out there, where even a schoolboy would have been able to do a better job, is practically laughable. Critics and the media will be absolutely justified in criticising and smashing Capello and his team - the fact of the matter is that while there is no shame in losing to Germany, losing 4-1 is firstly embarrassing; and secondly, this was also done solely out of England's own ineptness. In a group containing Slovenia, Algeria and the USA, they should have finished comfortably top of the pile. Had they done so, they would be facing the likes of Ghana in the round of 16, and Uruguay in the quarter-finals, instead of a route to the final consisting of Germany, Argentina, Spain and Brazil. Hardly an impossible route to being among the best four teams in the world.

Yeah, on a personal level, I just can't stop smiling.

The Objective Perspective

Let's be honest with ourselves now - the ball DID indeed cross the line, and this was about as clear a goal as one would have seen throughout the tournament. I think there should be no dispute about this point, and indeed, perhaps, there should have been nothing controversial whatsoever about it.

Inevitably, arguments have come about over how this would have changed the landscape of the game. At the time the incident occurred, England were losing 2-1, which would have obviously meant that had the goal stood, they would have pulled level, no matter how much Germany had dominated the game up to that point in time and no matter how much England wouldn't have deserved it. However, the fact of the matter is what happened, well, happened; and nothing can be done about it.

Would it have raised England's morale and deflated Germany? Would we be seeing England in the quarter-finals instead of the aformentioned Germans? This is all part and parcel of the game - and indeed, no football game in history has been devoid of its what ifs. By the same token, one could ask what if that the goal that never was indeed did not stand in 1966 - would Germany have another world title to their name? What if Italy weren't awarded that penalty that sent them to the quarter-finals in 2006 against Australia - would they have become champions of the world? What if Thierry Henry didn't shield the ball with his left hand three times in the playoff against Ireland? What if Diego Maradona didn't score the "hand of God" goal? What if Ronaldo hadn't mysteriously fallen ill before the 1998 World Cup final? The list is endless for any competition, not just the World Cup.

The disallowed goal however beggars belief as to what the linesman was doing at that time. As mentioned before, the ball was at least two feet over the line, which in ordinary terms means that anyone would have been able to see it in the net. I just wonder whether the linesman was either extremely badly positioned, or rather whether his vision was obstructed in some way or another. Either way, in reality, there should have been no excuse - the goal was there to stand. One however cannot really blame the referee, who was probably too far back to determine whether the ball had indeed crossed the line or not.

This also once again reopens the debate vis-a-vis goal line technology. This afternoon's shot was so glaringly obvious that technology, per se, would not have been needed, but with the linesman on Mars, perhaps it might have indeed been useful. In a day and age where technology is so advanced and yet the football the best players in the world are using at these finals is so crap, it has already been proven to not be impossible to insert a microchip into the ball which would determine whether such a ball has fully crossed the goal line or not. It would also put those lovely big screens that many stadia have in this day and age to good use.

Other sports have progressed and embraced technology readily, even if some players aren't too happy about it. Tennis, for instance, has adopted hawk-eye technology, which determines whether a ball has clipped the line or not, rendering it 'in' or 'out' for that point. While an identical concept wouldn't be ideal for football, something along these lines could be conjured up and modified accordingly so as to avoid such incidents in the future. Another solution that would have undoubtedly been beneficial in today's match is UEFA's famed goal line assistants - someone placed on the goal line obviously would not have missed this incident.

But thereagain, what is the beautiful game without controversy?

God Bless You all!
Matti

The Joys and Hurts of the World Cup

2010-06-21T10:33:00.005+02:00

It only comes about once every four years, but when it does, a football feast and fan frenzy obviously ensues. The World Cup has, over the years, provided its fair share of frills, spills, drama and excitement, and the South African edition of this seems to be no different - not for the abundance (read: 'lack') of goals that its producing, as a general rule, but because of the various storylines developing both on and off the field.

Of course, while the French continue to hog the headlines for being the most dysfunctional team of the whole tournament (judging by the way things are going at the moment, coach Raymond Domenech won't have any players at his disposal for the match against South Africa and have to play himself in the match!), English and Italian supporters have also had their fair share of heart attacks till now, and if recent form is anything to go by, then they might be going back home quicker than they expected. Both sides were expected to stroll through their groups, but both sides are massively struggling and can't hit the back of the net to save their lives. England, for all the hype surrounding Wayne Rooney's fantastic season, haven't seen their strikers hit the target yet; while Italy have fared precious little better - they've scored two goals in total, one of which was a penalty (and no matter how soft it was, it indeed WAS a penalty, just as much as New Zealand's goal was offside - stop whining about it!!)

While the English have looked toothless all over the pitch, as well as relatively uninterested in troubling the opposition; the Italians have at least attacked with some intent but have the worst bunch of strikers ever taken by their national team in World Cup history, which obviously doesn't help their cause one bit. Indeed, something positive to draw from the Italian performances is that they've showed some form of resilience in both of their games so far in order to come back from losing positions. The English, on the other hand, relied on a customary goalkeeper howler to let the USA back into their first match, and parked the bus in front of the Algerian assault on goal. Perhaps Don Fabio wasn't exactly the saviour that the English were hoping for - so far. In any event, both teams still know that in reality, due to the equally appalling performances of the other teams in their groups, they still have their fate in their own hands - win their matches and they get through to the last 16. But that too might be too much of an ask for these nations in their current form. And that's obviously not to speak of Capello's confident admission that England would reach the final of the tournament.

Having however seen some big nations falter, it's been the World Cup of the underdog so far. Shock results have been recorded pretty much across the board - Italy's draw with New Zealand, England's draw with Algeria, Germany's loss to Serbia and Spain's loss to Switzerland have all been unexpected, to say the least. That's not to say that each of these nations will now go on to win the World Cup - on a personal level, I still believe that the Spanish suffered a minor setback in that game against the Swiss and have the talent and the overall team to win the title - but at least, we're seeing that the minor nations of the tournament have managed to really close the gap on these superpowers. A group comprising England, the USA, Slovenia and Algeria definitely does not send any shivers down one's spine, but look at the position England are in at the moment, despite being predicted to steamroller one of the weakest groups, on paper, of the tournament.

The problem is that the superpowers have also underestimated their opponents. It's clear that a laissez-faire attitude is unacceptable in tournaments like these, where anything can pretty much happen. It also means that teams must be willing to go out there, fight for every ball and not enter each match thinking that they've won it from the start. Teams have become plucky over the years and are no longer willing to just roll over because the likes of Italy, Argentina, Brazil, France and England have come to town. Actually, for them, it's an opportunity to create a shockwave that the rest of the world will get to know about and even justify their places at the tournament. Perhaps it is for this reason, for the sheer unpredictability of it all, that this World Cup could be classed among the greatest at the moment.

God Bless You all!
Matti

It's Time to Set the Record Straight

2010-06-17T22:33:00.008+02:00

It's ironic that a year ago to the day, I wrote a blog about the very same topic that I'll be writing about this evening but alas, nothing has changed since that very day and with the way things are indeed going, it doesn't seem as if anything is improving either! Of course, a small blog like this read by a select bunch of readers is obviously going to have anything but an influence on either the public policy as pursued by our government, but using this medium as a method of venting against the inadequacies that a system currently presents will never do anyone any harm.

In recent days - scrap that, since around the beginning of the year, actually - Malta has been having various power cuts that are actually more reminiscent of a country such as Mugabe's Zimbabwe than a Member State of the European Union. Worryingly, there have been three blackouts on the island (of course, the glorious PL decided to compare this to one of Malta's most shameful days in history, Black Monday, by calling it Blackout Monday) since Tonio Fenech took over the electricity portfolio from Austin Gatt, something which is unacceptable in this day and age. Too many faults have developed at the Marsa Power Station, which subsequently sends the Delimara Power Station into overload and makes that collapse as well, meaning that Malta then has no electricity for it is not yet connected to the European grid. But while there are problems with the country's electricity supplier, there are also major problems with the policy that Malta has adopted over the years and seems to not be willing to change.

This problem is that there is a monopoly of electricity supply, meaning that Enemalta, for all their "negotiating skills" when it comes to buying oil and fuels, have the right to charge whatever rates they want to their customers because obviously, Malta cannot choose between different providers of fuel and electricity. And then you wonder why our electricity bills are among the highest in Europe. This leads to an inadequate service overall - bills aren't sent on time (many a time, actually), customer care is among the worst on the island (they probably top the list, with Melita a close second) and rates are sky high. The problem however accentuates when you realise that Malta is currently entirely fossil fuel dependent*, and therefore having another electricity provider would also mean having the accompanying industry surrounding it - something which Malta's size cannot possibly permit because it would mean the further industrialisation of the little land that we have left, something which the country cannot afford. Furthermore, putting another power station down in the South would only serve to irk such people on even more than they currently are, confirming their thoughts that they are treated like second class citizens.

Therefore, as the expansion to the Delimara Power Station might indeed not be the way forward, what is the solution? I'm by no means an economist or an energy expert, but I believe that the first thing that the government should do is continue to look at connecting Malta to the European grid. This will help eliminate all those extra power cuts that we've been having of late and ensure a constant supply of energy. Automatically, I believe, the government should also look to liberalise this sector of the economy in order to allow foreign companies access into the local market by means of stations that are set up on mainland Europe, this by means of another connection from the European grid towards Malta. This would allow Italian electricity companies to supply electricity to Malta, for example, and be in competition with Enemalta. It is only then that Enemalta would no longer be able to abuse of their dominant position in the relevant market and subsequently be forced to lower their prices accordingly, as otherwise they would lose their clients faster than the credibility that they've already lost.

We'll see if come June 17, 2011, I'll have to write yet another entry about the pitiful state that we're currently facing.

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It's great to see my writings having a bit of an effect, albeit minimal.

Today, I was approached on Facebook by a Masters student, who asked me if a blog that I had written on The Times about the Presidency of Malta, in early 2009, was my own work and whether it could possibly be used to form part of the content of his thesis. I was also asked if there was any other information which could be found on the President, but unfortunately, I could not help him in that regard.

It may be something small, but it sure did make me feel smart for a little while.

God Bless You all!
Matti

*Not taking into account any electricity produced by solar panels, which is minimal.

The End of a Journey

2010-06-15T10:04:00.004+02:00

So yesterday afternoon, we finally realised a dream when we came to the end of what has been a long, winding road. A journey that has had its ups and downs, its good times and bad times, but a journey that has probably made most of us better and more mature men and women.

When we entered the law course the best part of three years ago, we all were thrown in at the deep end, right into the unknown. Some of us didn't even know each other. However, we all knew that there were tough times that did lie ahead, but obviously, we didn't know how tough they would be until we encountered them ourselves. "Obligations" was merely a subject we had heard about, and occasionally told about how difficult a subject it could indeed be. But as first years, our worry was not about Obligations; it was about the likes of Constitutional Law, Roman Law and Philosophy of Law - all 'failing subjects' back in the day, and probably still no different now. That tag was indeed justified - by the end of first year, a course that initially started out with 185 prospective lawyers had whittled down to around 115 by the start of second year. The decrease was just extraordinary. Some couldn't handle the pressures that the course presented and called it a day, others decided to seek pastures new either abroad or in another course, and others, unfortunately, just failed and didn't make it. Perhaps they tried again and succeeded; perhaps they tried again and once again, sadly, didn't pass.

What I found strikingly accurate is that the advice that people who had passed through the course before us would present. A good friend of mine told me that Family Law aside, second year would be a breeze and indeed, nearly everyone would get through it with flying colours, which was nothing less than the truth. Indeed, Family Law was one of those subjects, alongside Roman Law and Obligations this year, which completely did not merit the accreditation given to it. When you have tons of information piled up that necessitates hours on end of studying for the end of year exam, giving such subjects a value of 6, 6 and 8 credits respectively is criminal. Moreover, the swearing that goes on when indeed studying away for these subjects probably merits at least 2 credits in each case! Which brings me to a point aside - what is it with Civil Law exams being so underrated?

And this brings me to third year. Second years who might read this please note, this one is for you in particular. Everyone knows that this is the year where you go to hell and beyond when you enter the course, but yet again, on a personal level, I thought this was all the hype, at least initially. How wrong I was. The content that had to be studied was probably around four times the amount we had in second year - no joke - with Obligations constituting the biggest chunk in this increase of material. Indeed, while we were all encouraged to work and study throughout the year, never before had I imagined that I had to start studying things properly so well in advance in my life. Indeed, had I not done the wise thing, I think it would be safe to say that I'd be in a hell of a lot more trouble than I probably am at the moment! Each subject in third year is demanding beyond belief - even Commercial Law, for example, sees a massive increase in the amount of material when comparing it to what was done in second year (and please note, both years are awarded the same accreditation!!). Each subject demands a particular amount of time and attention as otherwise, one might find it very difficult to get through. On a personal level yet again, though, having had to encounter the above with the constant chasing of bricks and absurd noises coming out of the construction site next door for the past year or so, I feel I'm prepared for anything that might be thrown my way in the future!

So that's that, and hopefully, following yesterday's horror show, LL.B. is over. It's been a long journey, but it's been a colourful one. It's a been tough but together, we've managed to get through it. So people like Stef, Carla, Mickey, Gerd, Dalli, Stefan, Andrew, Hannah, Kurt, Nicola, Felicity, Krista (both of you), Emma, David, Clement... the list goes on, but last and definitely not least, of course, I'd have to mention you, Mark; thank you for the memories and thank you for helping me get through it just as much as, I hope, I helped you get through as well.

We'll hopefully all see each other in LL.D... will it be the beginning of a new journey together?

God Bless You all!
Matti

The (Real) Final Stretch

2010-06-10T22:25:00.008+02:00

Four exams down, one to go. And it's only the toughest one left... I'm however glad that they're nearly over, I think this has been the most hellish year at University by far. So far I believe I've done alright for myself, especially considering the criminal lack of studying I put into certain subjects. I don't want to predict my grades though because what generally happens is that I end up by predicting wrongly and thereby disappoint myself when I see my confirmed grade! Having said that, I had a study plan, which I decided to implement, and I believe that for the most part, it paid off.

Certain papers have been more difficult than others; a case in point being the International Law exam (surprisingly!!) yesterday and our Economics exam (not so surprisingly!!) today; the latter especially being hard on us law students for a multitude of reasons. One, we only really had half a day and a bit of the morning (unless someone did an all-nighter) to study for the subject, considering that there was International Law - which had a minimum content of 100 pages worth of notes - to do the day before it. Two, with all due respect to the EDRC, its staff and its students, it was our (final?) subsidiary exam and therefore did not merit half the amount of attention that our law examinations required. Three, the majority of us were clueless on the subject. Four, and perhaps most critically, the majority of us also couldn't give two hoots about it, knowing that a Compensated Pass would be enough for us to get through!

And so it boils down to the famed Obligations. Weirdly enough, it's the exam that I'm the most unmotivated for at the moment, despite it being the make or break scenario, the subject which has given many students many a sleepless night. No wonder, what with those 120 odd cases to study by heart! And then, following that, comes the reward of summer - at long last - until I start working, yet again, at EF. I prefer calling it Oestrogen Central, due to the overwhelming female teacher ratio vis-a-vis males, but nothing can be done about that! In any event, it's been a long road this year, but one that's been travelled full speed ahead. If only this theme could be repeated until Monday, I will be forever grateful!

Till Monday, 12.15pm: Obligations... "Till Death do us Part."

God Bless You all!
Matti

The Cardinal Sins of Facebook

2010-06-04T23:31:00.004+02:00

Facebook. Oh Facebook, what a worldwide phenomenon it has become. It is practically an indispensable tool in everyone's life now, with over 400 million people worldwide (putting it into perspective, that's 80% of all of the EU's population and nearly one-twelfth of the global population) subscribed to the website. But for all its positives and its universal approach, Facebook can be the source of all things massively annoying as well. Or just plain lame. Hereunder, I've decided to list what I believe are the ten most annoying things that one can find happening on "FB" on a daily basis...

10. Photos
Let's face it, whenever one is randomly snapping away with a camera, there's always the odd photo which would have transpired to be extremely... horrible. And yet, you could be morphing your facial features into something resembling a dog and the photo will still find its way onto Facebook. When it's there and you're dissatisfied with it, and subsequently ask for it to be removed, your lovely friends will not remove it, even if it means them parting with their lives in the process. Untagging such photos is just as useless though, because such photos obviously are still uploaded... and will remain so until the person who put them up decides to either delete the blessed photo... or leave Facebook (though technically speaking, one can never leave the website when their account is activated).

9. Advertisements
Ok, so any advert on Facebook isn't, in all fairness, really an in-your-face kind of thing, but still - the persistent presence of those adverts that I'd rather not see on the side of my screen, with sponsors trying to milk money from search engines and the like by means of the views they collect from such clicks is just downright irritating. This can be excusable to a certain extent as Facebook is free of charge to all those who subscribe to the site. However, what makes this notion even worse is the fact that one can 'like' these adverts. So yes, I have the option to like being ripped off by someone... how lovely.

8. Liking One's Own Profile Picture
Isn't it obvious that there's no need to like your own profile picture... if you put it there in the first place? I mean, come on - doesn't that tacitly imply that you think that the photo is a good one in the first place, or do you need to reaffirm this by clicking that wretched 'like' button? (And hoping that others like it for you too?)

7. Notifications
This would have been ranked higher in the list had there not been the facility to disable the function of receiving emails for every little event that happens on Facebook. Nonetheless, even if you do opt not to receive such emails, you could find yourself filtering out the various things that people have done to you over the last second, minute, hour, day or week. Or God forbid, if you don't use the site often enough, over the last year. Every little activity that happens on your profile is accounted for and you are duly told about it, whether you like it or not. Now lump with it, dear.

6. Suggestions
"You and [person X] have 123 friends in common." Just because of the high number of mutual friends, it by no way means that I know the person who Facebook is suggesting I connect with. Furthermore, I don't need Facebook to suggest who I should become friends with, thank you very much - if anything, first I'll meet the person physically and then add him/her as a friend, or vice-versa. Facebook is a great way of maintaining communication, but shouldn't be a way of initiating it.

5. Applications (in General)
"Which political guru are you?", "Who do you resemble most?", "Pick Who" etc... what a waste of time. Useful in times such as these, when entertaining oneself is at an all time low level, but quizzes and applications such as these spring out of nowhere one day, are the latest trend for a week or so, and then become as dormant as anything. 'Who has the Biggest Brain' is now history, 'Pet Society' was popular back in 2008 and has now also been confined to the dustbin, while 'Farmville' seems to have lived its time in the spotlight as well. For the most part, that is, for I know of someone who has actually messaged his parents - while out - to cultivate his crops. Oh dear.

4. "Become a Fan"
Or, so that I live with the times, I should entitle this bit 'like'. Pages, as such, are useful on Facebook - they can be an excellent source of promoting business, seeing how many fans a particular artiste might have, etc. However, liking such pages, as it is now called, is a downright nuisance. Why should I see, on my live news feed, that person X likes ABC Ltd? Is this person X an affiliate of the company? A shareholder? Does the person have a vested interest in it? What has the company done to person X so that he/she repays the favour by liking it? It's all a bit senseless, don't you think...

3. Liking One's Own Status
Perhaps this is more of a cardinal sin than liking one's own profile picture, simply because everyone sees this event happening. On the other hand, not everyone sees the former event. Liking one's own status and whatever is written in it follows from the principle in point #8: if you wrote it, you're bound to like it. You're not going to write down something that you disagree with. You're not going to write down something that isn't of significance to you. But pressing that button after doing this is just wrong, and indeed, is the epitome of lame. "Person X is on summer holidays but can't wait for his friends to finish!" Like. Just... no.

2. Top Friends
Shamelessly stolen from a video clip that I once saw on Youtube, loads of people have this little box showing their top friends in some corner of their profile. However, many - probably including myself - take this as a ranking system for our friends, in what way we rate our friends depending on how close they are to us or we to them. And furthermore, if a friend really pisses you off or is unpopular in your books at a point in time, then you open the application and start shuffling around and rearranging your friends, in terms of the scale you want to place them. Come on, admit it, you've done it at a point in time in the past. I sure have.

And finally... *drumroll*...

1. Poking
The creme de la creme of Facebook cardinal sins however is this. Indeed, this is so pointless, so useless and so annoying that it practically merits a category on its own, over and above this list. What is the point for 'poking' people...? Firstly, you're not physically poking them and secondly, all you see is a tiny notification on the side of your page stating "Person X poked you. Poke back?" "You're about to poke Person X back." And that didn't hurt one bit, but consumed fifteen seconds of your time that you will never get back. Just over two ridiculous clicks which really didn't even have a purpose in the first place. Well done.

God Bless You all!
Matti

Earn Your Stripes

2010-06-03T23:16:00.006+02:00

Nothing's ever easy in life, and as time passes by, I'm starting to realise this more and more.

There was a time when education was easy, where one would have to learn the basic principles of long multiplication and that would come out in an exam; or where one would read 'My Family and Other Animals' as a form of English literature. Those were the days, although in all fairness, at the time these things seemed hard too, in their context.

I look at where I was 10 years ago - that's really far back but, at the same time, not - and look at where I am now, and I notice two things in particular: how quickly those 10 years have passed and how much nothing learnt back then really applies to what I'm learning now. Hell, nothing that I learnt in Sixth Form even applies to what I'm doing now. So has my education, till University level, just been a waste of time, although it's often stated that whatever is learnt never goes to waste?

To reach University, we've all had to earn our stripes, but in a course such as law, with the (lack of) entry requirements being a haven for countless people and countless idiots to enter the course accordingly (especially if such people did not attain sufficient grades to get into medicine and did not want to resit their exams, and hence opted for law as their 'drop-out' option), haven't our stripes been earned for pretty much nothing? So what if I have a certificate stating that I got a 'C' in English and French that enabled me to commence my tertiary education... what use does that have now? At least, for those people studying Biology A Level, their knowledge will be built upon at University when doing a course such as Medicine, Pharmacy or BSc Biology and Chemistry.

Something like this, in my opinion, really defies logic. Education is meant to be a building up process in one's life; and till Sixth Form, it indeed was. But the discrepancy between post-secondary education and education at tertiary level is enormous, and has (perhaps justifiably) led me to think that prior to reaching law school, I just wasted 18 years of my life beating around the bush and satisfying the authorities to get there. Certain things have to be learnt, naturally, as otherwise we would all be unknowledgeable at the very most, but I find myself much more likely doing certain basic additions now than using Pythagoras' Theorem anytime soon; and much more likely trying to converse in Maltese as opposed to learning the latest poems as written by Ruzar Briffa or Dun Karm Psaila. Or, god forbid, Mario Azzopardi - the morbid creature.

God Bless You all!
Matti

It is Done

2010-05-23T00:44:00.007+02:00

Incredible, just incredible. Words could not describe the sensations felt at the final whistle, or even when Inter scored the goals that secured the Champions League for the third time in its history.

It just goes to prove that Italian football is anything BUT dead and buried. It just goes to prove that Inter have managed to get the European monkey off their back and bury 45 years of hurt right in the sand. It goes to prove that when you're hungry for success, goals can be achieved if you're willing to sacrifice yourselves for the greater good.

This cannot be proven more than by the way Inter's talismanic captain Javier Zanetti has played throughout the years. Be it at right-back, left-back or in midfield, the 37-year-old Argentine has defied the years and often played as if he's 10 years his junior. He is a true embodiment of there not being an 'I' in 'team', and putting the notion of the collective good ahead of individual honours.

This is however a team that, strictly speaking, is composed of a bunch of rejects. Samuel Eto'o left Barcelona an unwanted figure, despite being hugely popular with the fans. Wesley Sneijder was forced out of Real Madrid. Esteban Cambiasso was discarded as someone talentless some six years ago. Tonight's goalscorer, Milito, hadn't played for a top European club until this year. Goran Pandev left Lazio amid much legal wrangling. Lucio was thrown out by Bayern Munich for turning up late to training. Walter Samuel is another Real Madrid reject. And the list goes on. Tonight, this team of rejects played to prove to the world that it could achieve the greatest prize in club football, and prove it... it sure did.

Jose Mourinho has managed to achieve something that no other manager has achieved in Inter's history. He has managed to win the League, the national cup and Champions League in one season. He has won the treble.

He's almost certain to leave, but unlike his departure from Chelsea, this time he leaves on his own terms. He leaves the club a winner and not a discarded figure (too), he leaves the club having managed to win it all within the space of two years. Granted, there is the matter of the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup as well, but those trophies aren't important to him. What is important are those records that look destined to be broken sometime in the future. But again, unlike how he left Chelsea, this time Mourinho leaves with a star placed firmly above his head.

Good luck at Real Madrid Jose, your biggest challenge yet. Us interisti will miss you, but you'll remain in our hearts forever.

FC Internazionale Milano: 2009-2010 UEFA Champions League winning squad: 1. Francesco Toldo; 2. Ivan Ramiro Cordoba; 4. Javier Zanetti (C); 5. Dejan Stankovic; 6. Lucimar Ferreira da Silva; 7. Ricardo Quaresma; 8. Thiago Motta; 9. Samuel Eto'o; 10. Wesley Sneijder; 11. Sulley Ali Muntari; 12. Julio Cesar Soares de Espindola; 13. Maicon Douglas Sisenando; 15. Rene Krhin; 17. MacDonald Mariga; 19. Esteban Cambiasso; 21. Paolo Orlandoni; 22. Diego Milito; 23. Marco Materazzi; 27. Goran Pandev; 39. Davide Santon; 45. Mario Balotelli; 89. Marko Arnatauovic; Coach: Jose Mourinho

God Bless You all!

Matti

Parliamentary Games

2010-05-13T13:21:00.007+02:00

*Sorry for the length... I got carried away!*

Break time! Not that I really busted my chops this morning, but anyway...

In the last few days, as the Brits were debating and negotiating over how their hung Parliament should eventually convene, with 'Tories leader David Cameron and Lib-Dems Leader Nick Clegg eventually agreeing to a coalition which will almost certainly collapse in the future (it would seriously be a miracle if Cameron manages to last his entire mandate, what with the instability that coalitions bring about); the Maltese parliamentarians decided that it was time for some fun and games and subsequently made a mockery out of the highest institution of the land, i.e. Parliament.

Yes, you read me correctly, they indeed made a mockery out of it. And believe me, the purpose of this blog is not to defend the Nationalists, but what Labour has been doing is completely out of order, and is unbecoming on so many levels. They're the prime cause for this fracas that Maltese politics is currently facing, and they seem to think that by acting in such a manner, they're going to turn more people against the current administration and further endear themselves to the public. In my opinion, if that's their strategy, then they're completely off the mark.

For those who aren't quite up to speed with the local political scenario, I'll write down a quick gap-filler here. Basically, to cut an extremely long story short, when the Nationalists were re-elected in 2008, they were admitted to Parliament with a majority of votes nationwide, but a minority of seats obtained in all the electoral districts (31-34; the same thing effectively happened when Labour claimed victory in 1981, but that time, it was the majority of seats gathered that won the election as opposed to the majority of votes obtained). In order for the PN to govern by virtue of the majority of votes they had, they were 'granted' four extra seats in Parliament, to which four originally unelected members were co-opted. Therefore, as we speak, the PN has a wafer-thin one seat majority in Parliament, something that obviously creates problems in general, especially if one of the government parliamentarians is sick or abroad and hence cannot attend a sitting.

The whole fracas vis-a-vis Parliamentary affairs started a week ago today, when both the Government and the Opposition were voting on a motion as put forward by the Opposition regarding the extension of the power station at Delimara. Nationalist MP Mario Galea mistakenly voted in favour of the Opposition motion, before hastily retracting his vote in order to support the Government. The result? The usual mud-slinging by Labour - if someone voted 'yes', then the vote should not have been retracted and Labour's motion would have therefore passed, etc. In brief, Labour claimed that they won the vote with regards their motion, when in reality, the mistake that occurred was retracted and Galea voted in favour of Government rejecting the motion. Over and above that, there was another fracas involving Justyne Caruana's vote, as certain Government MPs claimed that she voted in favour of the Government. In any event, without going into too much useless detail, Labour stormed out of Parliament and claimed that the PN were, as usual, being undemocratic in their ways and means and that this was essentially a weak, unstable and failed government. Yeah, pull the other one Joseph, before you go crying on Super One again - we've heard the same repetitive moaning and groaning ten thousand times.

Fast forward to yesterday's debate, which regarded a MEPA Reform Bill amendment, for which Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando was absent due to business outside our shores. From independent reports being stipulated, Labour seemed to initially have a gentlemen's agreement with the PN vis-a-vis voting on this matter, primarily due to Pullicino Orlando's absence. However, pulling the other one, Labour thought that this too would be a good opportunity to, using the Maltese expression, try as hard as possible 'biex jaqa' l-Gvern', and therefore went against their prior agreement and insisted on a vote on the matter, knowing fully well that the PN was missing one of its MPs. Of course, with the result tied, the Speaker had to intervene and use his casting vote as done in accordance with Parliamentary procedure, for which he voted in favour of the Government so that the institution would not descend into (further) chaos. Cue Joseph Muscat, yet again, speaking the same old drab and useless stuff that we have now heard for the ten thousand and first time.

It's clear from both scenarios that the institution of Parliament has been made a mockery out of, and that Labour's main aim is just to criticise the government as much as possible without backing up such criticism with viable alternatives. I know that this has also been repeated countless times, but they've had the best part of 23 years to come up with something, and yet they've still failed to do so. It's incredible, incredulous and speaks volumes, unfortunately, about the Opposition's sheer incompetence when compared to the current Government. Granted, the PN may not be perfect (far from!), but they must be doing something right if they've been in power this long... or else the lack of competition has just been so immense that the people feel that there's been no other alternative to them. And who can blame them - this is the 'movement' (to use their progressive and liberal terminology) that appointed a blinker-eyed journalist as their 'Mexxej' as opposed to a successful lawyer with prior experience in politics, a genuine person who could have been of great use towards a better Parliament and a viable alternative come 2013.

Having said that, perhaps it's time for some kind of change in Parliament. Per se, the current electoral system does allow third parties to be elected to Parliament, obviously provided that a prospective candidate has enough votes. Therefore, it is not impossible to envisage a scenario where, if Daphne Caruana Galizia, for instance, opted to run for Parliament as an independent candidate, she would get elected. Therefore, if the proportional representation system isn't at fault, then what is? Perhaps unrealistically, I think the solution lies within the dynamics of the aforementioned system, which would require a tweak or two. The Constitution reads:

52.(1) Such members shall be elected in the manner provided by or under any law for the time being in force in Malta in equal proportions from the electoral divisions referred to in article 56 of this Constitution, each division returning such number of members, being not less than five and not more than seven as Parliament shall from time to time by law determine...

56.(1) The members of the House of Representatives shall be elected upon the principle of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote from such number of electoral divisions, being an odd number and not less than nine and not more than fifteen, as Parliament shall from time to time determine.

Therefore, one can have between five to seven MPs being elected from nine, eleven, thirteen (the current amount) or fifteen electoral districts. Hence, theoretically, if one had to have the maximum amount of MPs elected in the maximum amount of districts, then it is possible that Parliament would end up consisting of 105 members. If Parliament had to make such an adjustment where there would be more members than the current amount, then the probability is that such situations would not continue to occur, and that as a result, there would be the more 'stable' Parliament that Muscat has been rooting for since the day he assumed a seat in Parliament. It would also decrease the possibility of the government having a simple one seat majority (although that would have been doubtful in this legislature, based on the results of the last election) and help many citizens' concerns be heard more effectively. On the downside, however, it would also be more than possible where one would end up with a coalition scenario, as seen in Britain, with the third party elected assuming the role of 'kingmaker'.

To conclude, many people have seemed to be unimpressed by the 'strategy' that Muscat and his cohorts have recently embarked on, and I'm one of them. It's instances like these which keep on confirming for me that no matter how many 'earthquakes' that Muscat has promised will come our way, it's still inevitable that none of my foundations will be shaken to the core, due to their hollowness. I believe that it's inevitable that in the current scenario, I'll just continue having to vote Nationalist - especially so that Labour are not elected to govern this country; and subsequently govern in a manner which will only run us to the ground.

God Bless You all!
Matti

The Master of Procrastination

2010-05-06T21:07:00.004+02:00

At the time I started writing this, my computer clock read 21:09. I'm on page 28 out of 33 of the notes on Company Law that I have to study and won't, in all probability, finish them tonight. The reason? I, like the majority of my peers at this moment in time, are the masters of time wasting and procrastination.

And the worrying thing is that I'm even willing to blog tonight and there's like... er... I think 25 days left until my first exam; and 27 days left until the exam that I'm currently studying for is also done and dusted. I should really get a move on, but there's no desire - at least at the moment, and, in all fairness, probably until the end of the evening too - to do so.

This is just horrible and it's starting to play on my head. Whenever I meet up with friends, all that's coming to the fore, at the moment, is how far we've got in our studies. Apart from people starting to sweat, naturally; myself included. It's getting hot, it both a literal and metaphorical (I actually lost my train of thought here, and was going to initially write 'not-so-literal' instead) sense. We got that update yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that too. And I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but we're going to get it tomorrow too. At least the day after that is Saturday, so that's two days of not hearing a comparative analysis of studying. Or is it? The curiosity is practically too much to handle, and invariably, a problem will arise for one of us (knowing my luck, it'll be me obviously) and we'll be back to square one when we phone up each other to get to the root of the above-mentioned problem!

This afternoon, our disdain towards the horror topic took a new twist though, one that I suppose would want to make you cringe. The question that arose was which of the case studies that we have already done strikes us as our favourite and why. It just took my depression levels to a whole new (low) level, but invariably, simultaneously, I can't help but laugh about it. Our heads are so programmed in this manner at the moment that we are actually trying to find alternate ways of humoring ourselves vis-a-vis the work we have done. For good measure, after a little bit of thought, I opted to go for a case that involved some Arab dude purchasing a piece of furniture that was advertised as being made of oak when it wasn't. He only realised this was the case when he had taken it home. What was the furniture made of, might you ask? Chipwood. Yes, some fool couldn't recognise the difference between oak and chipwood. The best thing about this all is that his action for damages was not upheld by the court, and he was asked to pay the defendant company the remainder of the balance on the piece purchased.

And then they say Americans are stupid. Which they are, just for the record. Some answers they provided in a questionnaire asking the most basic of question produced the following results:

- A triangle has four sides;
- The currency of the United Kingdom is the 'Queen Elizabeth money';
- Iran is an island that is in the perceived South-Eastern part of the globe, i.e. it's a nation that is actually on a continent called Australia;
- There are ten Eiffel Towers in Paris;
- The non-knowledge of the name of a country beginning with the letter 'U'.

I wanted to cry, but instead, I just found myself laughing. And laughing. And laughing. It's when you actually do laugh at such stupidities that you realise that exam stress, perhaps, has finally taken over.

It is now 21:28. 19 minutes wasted on blogging, not bad. Time to get back to the black and white sheets that I don't really feel like seeing.

God Bless You all!
Matti

The Month of Desperation

2010-04-30T22:40:00.005+02:00

Incredibly so, we're already moving into the final stretch. Time has flown by so quickly and third year, in my case, is practically over!

It was around this time last year that I remember blog frequency increasing to the extent that sometimes, people were posting a blog a day so as to alleviate themselves from the boredom that studying emitted. I somewhat see the same thing happening sometime soon - indeed, it always seems to be that when May comes about, and us students' desperation increases day after day, so too do the amount of writings increase.

The horrible thing about this all is that this year especially, I really shouldn't have the time to stay writing away, yet I come back and time after time I stay rambling on about different things. It's like an addiction or something... at least though it's not one that's detrimental to my health! It's something worse than that... it's detrimental to my time!

So onto the month of May we go, that wretched month of desperation, where among the features I seem to expect Lanf's blog/vlog to resurrect, Matt to remain silent in an attempt to read as much information as that brain of his can absorb, Bettina to post more music, Krissie to not blog - as she tries to get out of touch with the world of technology* and Zoe to keep on worrying a bit too much about A Levels!

May. You've just got to love it. For its procrastination and desperation, and for its ability to post some utterly ridiculous things on Facebook (such as the group I created yesterday afternoon against those promoters placed at University, and the Law Restaurant menu this time last year).

God Bless You all!
Matti

*Thank God you don't use Windows 7 then (see Facebook group for further details).

We. Did. It.

2010-04-28T22:43:00.002+02:00

38 years of hurt. 38 years of continental underachievement. They're OVER.

We suffered, we played with 10 men for over an hour, but WE DID IT. WE BEAT BARCELONA and WE'RE GOING TO MADRID!!!

In-bloody-credible... words cannot describe this moment!!

VAI NERAZZURRI!! So proud to be an Inter supporter today... Jose Mourinho, you are a GENIUS!!

God Bless You all,
Matti

The Expert Analysis of... Live Commentary

2010-04-21T21:03:00.022+02:00

I'm currently watching Bayern Munich vs. Lyon, this evening's feature semi-final from the UEFA Champions League, which also features the most horrendous commentary I have ever experienced. Hereunder I am going to underline the most ridiculous things that the commentator is saying, or has said, over the course of the 90 minutes of play...

(Please note that I switched on the TV after 10 minutes of play)

11 minutes: The commentator, working for Melita Sports, has a Scottish accent. I didn't know Melita had it's own version of Andy Gray - you know, the Scottish chap who commentates on FIFA '10.

13 minutes: He mentions that Hugo Lloris is France's number one goalkeeper. Fair enough.

15 minutes: Corner to Bayern Munich. Ribery (his name pronounced wrongly) whips the ball in and Lloris pushes it over for a corner again. Cue the commentator, "that's why he's France's number one goalkeeper". It was a routine save.

16 minutes: Commentator mentions how Bayern goalkeeper Butt, who has played 10 matches in this competition, has conceded just one goal and has a great defence in front of him. So where did the four goals conceded against Fiorentina and Manchester United go? Towards Mars?

17 minutes: Of course, Lloris needs another mention. He's miraculously conceded... wait for it... NO GOALS in this year's Champions League!! That's why he's France's number one, yet again. Anyway, yes, Lyon's defensive record is the best in the competition, but again... what about the goals conceded against Bordeaux? These went to Venus instead?

19 minutes: Bayern have a header that "hits the post!" Indeed, it was a country mile wide. Nice try.

21 minutes: Ivica Olic, scorer of Bayern's first goal at Old Trafford, is clear on goal. Commentator is saying that it's a definite goal... and the ball is skied over the bar.

24 minutes: Of course, commentating wouldn't be complete without mentioning the 800km journey that Lyon had to endure to get to Munich... by coach. But the commentator believes they're not tired as they had a whole day to adjust to life in Germany! Oh well...

27 minutes: Lyon are walking a tightrope and will have a thin-looking squad for the second leg, he says. Of course, they need loads of bookings for that to happen.

30 minutes: The commentator reminds us that the score is 0-0 and we're watching the game on Melita Sports. Kudos to you.

32 minutes: The commentator likes Robben and Ribery as players. They're "like little ferrets... you can't get rid of them."

33 minutes: Lyon are seven times French champions, so they're no slouches when playing football. No duh, that's why they have some of the better players in the world.

36 minutes: Ribery red card. Commentator is amazed and he doesn't know what it's for. Er, if your studs are up, it is a striaght red. Sorry mate. Obviously, Lisandro is injured, vindicating the referee's decision. Finally, Bayern have something that's gone against them in this competition! By the way, we just got rid of Ribery... we got rid of one of those damned ferrets!

38 minutes: Mr. Brains of the Year decides to give the fact that no team has managed to defend the Champions League in its current format, and that Barcelona are the current champions. Well done for stating the obvious... but wait...

40 minutes: Bayern Munich are now defending champions. The guy must have had something to drink before heading to the booth tonight.

43 minutes: The definition of 'shot on target' is given: "that was going into the back of the net". Butt makes a good save from a fierce Lyon shot that was going into the top left corner of his net.

44 minutes: The first half has just whizzed by. Of course it has, I'm enjoying taking the piss out of this guy's commentary so much that 45 minutes seem like 10 minutes ago. By the way, Ribery, sent off, was also playing for Lyon in this minute.

Half Time: Score is still 0-0. Live from the "Munich Stadium". And of course, live on Melita Sports. I think it's obligatory to mention that this is the channel showing the match around once every ten minutes, even though the ordinary reasonable man should know what TV channel he's watching at a moment in time!

2nd Half: Bayern substitution - Tymoshchuk is on to add some strength in midfield. His name is mispronounced, but you can't fault the commentator here. It's difficult to get right. Anyway, we're back on Melita Sports, just for good measure.

47 minutes: Reveillere's surname is also pronounced wrongly. Now that one is just unforgivable... it's not difficult at all.

49 minutes: "Lyon: they've already knocked out Liverpool... can they do it against Bayern Munich tonight?" Erm... Liverpool were not knocked out by Lyon, but lost out in the group stages of the competition; and what about Real Madrid and Bordeaux (yet again?) And something tells me that Bayern can only be knocked out, as such, in next week's return leg. Definitely not tonight.

52 minutes: He could have practically sworn that Muller was going to score. Commentator argues that the player has tied his shoelaces up wrongly!

53 minutes: Jeremy Toulalan is sent off for Lyon - it's now 10 men vs. 10. The commentator says that Claude Puel, Lyon's manager, will be livid. You got that one right mate - Lyon probably just blew their (remote) chances of winning this match.

55 minutes: Jean II Makoun is only "25/26 from Cameroon". That's the commentator's admission that the age of African players can be debated.

56 minutes: Now we're speaking about tattoos. They're in fashion with the players. You find them on the players' necks, arms, legs, backs... and anything else. Oh please.

60 minutes: The Allianz Arena is now referred to as the "Football Arena Stadium". Does the guy have any idea of what this sport is about?

64 minutes: Bayern Munich are apparently playing the first leg of the "UEFA Cup, Champions League even". Which competition are we seeing now... all together please? Also, Bayern will have a "busy month in May" if they get through to the final of this competition. Oh, Einstein himself couldn't have put it better.

68 minutes: The term "commentator's curse" is coming to the fore, but this commentator doesn't believe that he'll brings this about. For once, he's right - Bayern Munich have just taken the lead from out of nothing! As usual, it's Robben with his trusty left boot. A tremendous strike from around 30 metres out!

71 minutes: As Bayern lead 1-0, "European football on Melita Sports - it doesn't get much better, does it?" Erm, if you hadn't lost the majority of your rights to GO and I wouldn't have to spend around €250 out of my own cash to see Inter and English teams play next year, then maybe I wouldn't dispute this argument.

75 minutes: Bayern are "smelling blood" as they look for the second goal. Wouldn't the term "looking menacing" or "attacking with purpose" be more appropriate?

79 minutes: Referee Roberto Rosetti won't be getting too many Christmas cards from Bayern Munich and Lyon, says Einstein. I say he's right, unless they're red of course. Having said that, do you think these supporters will remember Rosetti's performance in 8 months?

80 minutes: Once again, the commentator reminds us we're on Melita Sports. He also reminds us that both teams are playing with 10 men each... because each one got a player sent off. This for the benefit of those "just joining us". Who on earth would put a match on when it's 80 minutes old?

91 minutes: Incredibly, nothing overly stupid has been said in the last 10 minutes. While the commentator... oh wait! He's outdone himself!! This year's final of the Champions League is to be held in Hamburg (so they've moved it from Madrid today?) and Bayern are looking to become the first team to retain the Champions League!! I really suggest he does a bit of research on Wikipedia before commentating on the return leg next Tuesday. Seriously.

Full Time: It ends Bayern Munich 1-0 Lyon. Thank you for joining us on Melita Sports.

The commentator who has been appallingly poor, by the way, is Bernard Lynch. Ok, so he might be Scottish. But he's crap, that's for sure!

God Bless You all!
Matti

A Blog Straight From the Classroom

2010-04-15T08:35:00.004+02:00

Following last night's (shock) panic attack - see Facebook for weird typing pattern details - I now find myself in a classroom enduring the week's most boring lecture. Of course, it's none other than Economics. Wahey.

Typing something in here once every 7-10 minutes is not the ideal way to accumulate information in a blog, but I believe that it's the only thing I can do right now!

The classroom that I'm currently in is rather small and the lecturer is pacing not-so-frantically up and down the middle of the classroom; an empty, barren space. He's speaking about the concept of infant industries, and quite frankly, I don't really care about it. I'm writing down his notes, which are badly projected onto the whiteboard 5 metres away, and trying to concentrate - but I've realised that concentration, here, is nigh on impossible. To be honest, I also don't really care if he realises that I'm typing a blog. Well, obviously he isn't (duh) because as long as I'm typing, it's as if I'm paying attention to his relatively useless blah.

*5 minute break - which will almost certainly turn into 15 as people constantly walk in late from his break. I believe he doesn't have too much control over this class, even though, for the most part, people are remaining silent in his lecture. Only a slight murmur is being heard at the back and the lecturer isn't even paying attention to it*...

And we're back.

I don't see why this subject was made compulsory for us, but in any event, it's there, and it's something that has to be studied and hopefully not failed! It's unfortunate that certain subjects are made compulsory especially when it is common belief that as a future lawyer, unless one is going into banking law, such a knowledge of economics is not needed. Oh well, I guess that's a bit of a downfall with the education system in general - in trying to achieve something, some form of an holistic education must be attained. Another example that springs to mind is the study of Shakespeare while sitting for an English A Level, and, conversely, studying Maltese poetry. It's not like I use these nowadays, or will ever use them, but they're there to instill some form of culture into us as well as just continue to burden our plate with more useless things.

Anyway, lecture over. What a senseless post!

Oh wait, he's giving us 'a bad news'. Didn't apply to us. Ok!

God Bless You all!
Matti

Cheesecakes for Sale! Going for Free!

2010-04-14T21:30:00.006+02:00

I have just finished the best part of an hour and a half's work at one stretch, which, in normal terms, would be great - especially by my rather hopeless working standards where even the mere sight of my (non-working, dead battery) clock, which looks like a brake disc from a Formula 1 car, would generally distract me.

The only thing is that this last hour and a half has, when you look at it in personal terms, been wasted. This statement, on the facet of things, is rather contradictory especially considering what I have just said in the paragraph above. But I know for a fact that I have not lost my mind and that I still am indeed sane, despite the work constantly piling up at now alarming levels (don't we nonetheless always get through this all in the end?).

The fact of the matter is that for this last hour and a half, I have been organising many series of notes for others to enjoy and study from in the forthcoming exams. To use the Maltese expression, I feel like "qed nbigh turtiera pastizzi". Of course, there is a wee bit of a personal gain here as well as this organisation of notes and insertion of missing lecture notes into their proper places has obviously put me on track to just study everything in an apparent plain-sailing fashion, but I don't think much from that which I read has really entered my head at the moment, which is a tad worrying!

But I don't mind doing this. I'm not saying I enjoy it, but I don't mind it; and I don't mind it simply because I'm a Christian and because I'm being there for other people by doing this. It's not easy for me to give out my notes practically all the time, but who said being a Christian is easy? I do this because even though I try not to believe it, I do know deep down that it is a way of bringing out the Christian in me at the end of the day. I don't grumble when giving out these notes, and I never will - and indeed, this is not a grumble, but just a statement. Being a Christian, I don't expect anything in return for what I'm doing.

At least my life is serving a useful purpose, apart from stirring up debates, now that being a 'taxi driver' no longer really happens any longer.

God Bless You all,
Matti

Some More Poetry

2010-04-11T11:35:00.005+02:00

So last night, slightly ironically during a worship session and during a talk, I felt inspired and decided to write a couple of poems... and I thought I'd share them here.

One World

How we take things...

All things, for granted.

We're here, sitting, living;

While there are others out there

Who struggle to put a roof above their heads.

We can sing hymns of praise freely to You

Without being persecuted.

Yet there are others out there who can't even

Pray to You out of fear of condemnation...

And being bruised, beaten and battered.

It's hypocritical that we live in a world

Overall praised for its liberal values, and freedom;

While there are those out there

Whose such values are not even respected.

Yet, Lord, I know and believe that You -

You, Lord - will call us one day to be part

Of Your world, Your one world.

You will not leave one soul behind,

Not one soul who has prayed, asked for forgiveness,

Or worshipped You,

Will be forgotten by You.

We will all be part of Your Paradise.

Till then, however, we're stuck here,

In this, our one world,

Shrouded in anything but the harmony that You possess.

And we'll continue taking all things for granted.

Yes, we will.

---------

Who Cares?

When you sit there, alone, desolate, hopeless -

The first thing that might come to mind is

Who cares?

You don't want to be a burden to society,

To your friends, to your parents, to everyone.

So yeah, you say and say again

Who cares?

When there's nothing to cling onto

And you believe there's no hope left,

Time and time again, you say

Who cares?

But lest do you know that there is someone

Right out there

Who does indeed care.

He's not a phone call away, nor a flight to

The next country away,

But He's there, right beside you,

Here, there, everywhere, tomorrow and today.

So before you say and ask who cares again,

Take the time to realise

That Jesus cares.

He will pick you up from the bottom of bottoms,

The pits of pits,

And restore you, just because He cares.

His unconditional love for us - Yes,

Jesus cares.

God Bless You all!

Matti

Malta: The Nation of Second Class Citizens

2010-04-10T12:47:00.007+02:00

It had to take the Pope to come to Malta for us to resemble something like an EU member state.

It just had to take the Pope. Oh, and CHOGM, back in 2005.

The recent roadworks and embellishment to the island that has been going on has been welcomed, I would hope, by the majority of citizens, but nonetheless, at the same time, condemned and criticised. Why? Because this has confirmed that when it comes to having a commodity such as drivable roads, we need a major dignitary to set foot on the island - even if it is just for 36 hours, such as in His Holiness' case - for the situation to improve tenfold.

Simultaneously, the Government has argued that the majority - if not all - of the roadworks were scheduled to take place later on in the year, irrespective of whether the Pope was coming to Malta or not. Whether this is true or not, that's all the Government can indeed do to really save face at the moment. While such upgrades have been welcomed, the underlying tone seems to be as if the country can continue to procrastinate and live in mediocrity (with regards to this sector) until some fine day comes along whereby a certain road is targetted for repairs. In other words, us Maltese, who use these roads daily, are second class citizens.

It's not like local dignitaries have tried to even hide this fact too, with one comment being that "Malta needs to look its best" for occasions such as these. Unfortunately, I know that this is making me sound like some ignorant Labourite (stuck in the Mintoffian and KMB eras) commenting on the Times of Malta's website, but this is nothing other than the truth. Would I, as a driver, be able to drive along Naxxar Road, San Gwann, or the road up to Rabat for that matter, without feeling my car jolting along the way if Benedict XVI was not coming next week, right up until the end of the year? I sincerely doubt this is the case.

Oh well, amid the lack of excitement surrounding the Pope's visit, at least we've managed to garner this one positive thing out of it.

God Bless You all!
Matti

Time to Shut Down?

2010-03-31T23:15:00.004+02:00

Well, I noticed that I've been losing out to Daphne Caruana Galizia of late with regards my blog, which seem to be getting less and less feedback as time goes by. Particularly disappointing was my last blog regarding the electoral system at University, which I actually thought would stir a debate because of two schools of thought attacking and defending the system accordingly. But alas, just as student apathy came to the forefront in the recent KSU elections, it once again came about in this situation. No one really does care.

Time to shut down the blog for good? I'll think about it, but it's a distinct possibility when you know that readership is almost certainly at an all-time low.

Or maybe my penchant for writing is finally gone.

God Bless You all,
Matti

Why the PR system wouldn't work at the UoM

2010-03-23T22:59:00.006+01:00

First things first, before I commence my arguments, I need to set a few things straight. While writing this blog, I am by no means representing SDM or any other organisation on Campus, but am writing in my own personal capacity. Secondly, this is what I am led to believe based on a period of study and a certain application of sense, and my text has therefore in no way been influenced by anyone in particular. Thirdly, I believe that all this bickering for a different electoral system - and subsequent counter-arguments in favour of the current system - are childish and unbecoming of students at tertiary level. However, that argument could be left for another time, if needed. Anyway, anyone who does not understand and grasp these points before reading is suggested to close this window/tab at this very point.

And now, onto the substance of my argument. In my honest opinion, it doesn't take much of a genius to figure out why the Proportional Representation (PR) system that PULSE proposed to introduce vis-a-vis the KSU elections will not work - only a basic knowledge of Constitutional Law is needed. Thereagain, this automatically makes me wonder if the organisation proposing the system even has law students in it and, if it does, whether the most supreme law of the land is an alien concept to them. Just like it is to Charlon Gouder, of course.

In law, the basis of the PR system is that one has a certain amount of candidates contesting an election with the aim of being elected to Parliament. Such candidates are elected according to preferences (in the form of numbers) given out by the electorate. This generally occurs via districts that are divided accordingly by the electoral commission of the day. Therefore, automatically, one already can see that the system, if it were to be applied to KSU elections, would be massively flawed. These elections are contested on an individual basis - granted, the majority of the time when the places are contested, they all end up by going to one party in particular - but the fact of the matter is that the parties present one candidate per post within KSU, whereby it is then up to the electorate to decide whether that candidate is suitable for election. This therefore means that one can have even four or five parties contesting the post of, for example, President.

Introducing the PR system would present immense logistical problems to all concerned. First and foremost, the parties would not be able to announce whether a person in particular would be given a particular role within KSU. It would be fine to determine that the person who gets the most votes becomes KSU President, and the second most votes Vice-President; but how the other roles within KSU would be filled remains a mystery. How would the election of, for example, a financial officer take place - would the person with the fifth highest amount of votes be elected, or something along those lines? And if that were the case, and the fifth person (for instance) elected were a medicine student, then how would he/she be competent enough to be in line for something like the financial officer of KSU, where a knowledge of accounts is needed - as implied by the job title. Going into an election, there would be no certainty and peace of mind vis-a-vis who would be assuming which role when elected. Or would it be the case that the first two positions would be contested via PR, while the rest of the positions would be determined by means of the current First Past the Post (FPTP) system?

As mentioned above, implementing a system whereby PR would be used as a mode of election doesn't make sense in the KSU context. When electing representatives to Parliament once every five years, one does not vote for a person on the basis that he or she will become a minister, if elected. Representatives in Parliament are elected on the basis that the electorate believes that they can do the best job possible for the country, but not on the basis of having a specific role. The KSU system presents candidates to be elected on the basis of a specific role, which is the main reason why the FPTP system has to be maintained. It ensures that if a person is best suited to his or her role within KSU, and the electorate think that that is the case, then that person will assume 'office'. From my studies, I can safely conclude that FPTP does not ensure, in any way, that bloc votes occur - such bloc votes only happen because the electorate happens to be sympathetic to a particular party or thinks that people presented by a party in particular are best suited for the post. By the same logic, when it comes to general elections, the majority of people vote either completely in favour of the PN or the PL; it is only a small percentage of votes that will be mixed.

Therefore, to conclude, I really think that there should be no debate - no matter how childish - on such a matter. If PULSE feel that the system at hand is anti-democratic because their members never get elected into KSU, then I believe that they should be looking at fielding better candidates for the KSU elections; candidates that can sway the University population to vote for them and make them a part of KSU. Until then, whining away will not do anything to improve their chances. Having said that, despite the fact that they're an independent organisation, it really does remind me strongly of a particular party and a particular individual in the local political scene. The only difference? At least PULSE actually had the decency to propose something, even though it is clearly flawed. That's much more than the above-mentioned party and individual can muster.

God Bless You all!
Matti

Paceville: Is it Dead?

2010-03-21T22:12:00.005+01:00

How times change. (?)

Last Friday, I decided to head off to Paceville in what was probably the first time in an eternity. A real eternity - so much so, I don't even remember the time that I last went, prior to last Friday. It's no secret that Paceville and I really don't click, as a general rule - I don't like the clubbing scene and the clubbing scene doesn't like me either (due to my relatively low energy levels), so actually finding myself there, having arrived at 1am, was already a considerable achievement for me. Of course, this was all reliant on finding a parking space as close to the centre of Paceville as possible, as I sure wasn't up for a walk down to the St. Julian's Church car park afterwards; but having completed this task, I set out thinking that with quite a few friends there, the night should be okay, if not fun. Furthermore, I expected the place to be bustling with people, just like how it was in the olden times.

How wrong I was.

What I found in front of me - at a relatively late part of the night, as this wasn't 9pm! - was central Paceville about as barren as it would be during the day. Okay, granted, there were a few people here and there, but for the most part, the square was empty. Such a sight actually amazed me, as I wasn't expecting it in the least, especially on a Friday - and a public holiday, to boot. To my knowledge, there weren't any parties in particular on that day either, so that left me even more at odds as to how this could be explained.

This actually led me to question whether I'm so out of tune and outdated that Paceville, which was definitely the in-thing when I was in my late teens, has passed its expiry date. To see clubs such as Sabor - which was a Saturday must when at SAC - empty and shutting down operations at half 1 in the morning left me bewildered and flabbergasted to say the least. Needless to say, bars such as Republik were also as lifeless as anything. Peppermint Park was hardly bustling either. There seem to be two possible answers to all of this - either my above-mentioned query is indeed correct, or else crowds seem to favour things happening in a different part of Paceville. Comments in this regard would be appreciated, principally to appease my curiosity.

In any event, how things change in such a short space of time.

God Bless You all!
Matti

The Joke that is Real Madrid

2010-03-11T11:33:00.008+01:00

Cristiano Ronaldo: €94 million
Kaka: €65 million
Xabi Alonso: €40 million
Karim Benzema: €35 million
Raul Albiol: €15 million
Alvaro Arbeloa: €5 million
Manuel Pellegrini: €4 million
Real Madrid getting knocked out of the Champions League: PRICELESS.

I'd be lying if I say I didn't predict that Real Madrid would not make it past the last 16 of the Champions League for the sixth year in a row. And the best thing about it is that this year, more than ever, it feels so good to see Los Blancos out of the competition, proving to the world over that money does not necessarily buy you instantaneous success. Due to their own shortcomings, Madrid's plan to start paying off their debts by reaching the latter stages of the money pot that is the Champions League has to at least be put off by another year.

To all intents and purposes, Madrid conducted a perfect transfer market last summer. Following the turmoil under Ramon Calderon, Florentino Perez went unopposed to claim the Presidential seat at the "White House" and promised a revolution. A revolution is indeed what Madrid and the rest of the world got. Transfer targets that were previously seen as insurmountable suddenly became reality. Before we knew it, Kaka was gone for a then world record fee of €65 million - this after having rejected a €108 million bid from Manchester City in January - and shortly after, Madrid once again caused shockwaves by announcing the signing of Ronaldo from Manchester United. Perez also addressed defensive concerns by bringing in Valencia centre-back Raul Albiol, thereby seemingly not repeating the same mistake from his first tenure at the club - the constant purchase of world class attacking talent coupled with the neglect of his team's defensive unit, to the extent that it became weak and frail. In addition to this, the poaching of coach Manuel Pellegrini from Villarreal was seen as an astute move as Madrid had decided to entrust this mega-project to a tried and tested coach, one who has worked in Spain for many years on a shoestring budget and simultaneously produced miracles, including a 2nd place La Liga finish in 2008.

Granted, over the last half a year, a marked improvement has already been seen. Madrid are currently top of La Liga, have scored a whopping 67 goals in 25 matches and have shipped in only 20 - the second best defensive unit in the league following that of arch-rivals Barcelona. But with the players at Madrid's disposal, you'd expect them to be there or thereabouts - and furthermore, this is a league where competition doesn't really extend beyond these teams. Indeed, the last team outside of Madrid or Barcelona to win the league title was Valencia in 2001 and 2004, and prior to that, Deportivo La Coruna in 2000. However, the cracks in Madrid's armour already began to show way back in October, in the now infamous 4-0 Copa del Rey defeat to previously little-known Alcorcon. Following the humiliation, rumours were already rife that Pellegrini was to be shown the door but Madrid were confident that they would get their shot at redemption in the return leg at the Bernabeu. They didn't - they won 1-0 and were swaggeringly knocked out of the competition 4-1 on aggregate. The possibility of equalling Barcelona's "triplete" season in 2008-09 was already over, and not even a quarter of the season had passed.

With all the money spent, it was all too easy to point fingers at Real and criticise their lavish spending. And justifiably so, because this group had been reduced to nothing but a joke - after all, Alcorcon are a team playing their football in the third tier of Spanish football and not challenging for the top spots in Spain, like Madrid. However, Madrid's reaction to this was positive enough, as the team went on a run of good results that culminated in them topping La Liga for the first time since November last weekend, with a 3-2 win over Sevilla. Furthermore, in between, they had managed to top their Champions League group - despite a home setback against a then underachieving (and now seemingly overachieving) AC Milan and get a favourable draw in the form of an Olympique Lyon side that is no longer the dominant side in France, having lost their mantle to Bordeaux last season.

But fast forward to the last 16 of the Champions League, where Madrid once again came up short last night by losing 2-1 to Lyon on aggregate (0-1 in France, 1-1 in Madrid) , leaving their season pretty much in tatters. Once again, criticism has rightly come Madrid's way, for results and statistics show that the sum in excess of €250 million spent last summer was, in a way, spent for nothing. Of course, media pressure has been a crucial influence in Madrid's performances, but the players out there should have been at least willing to justify their incredibly hefty price tags. Their over-reliance on Cristiano Ronaldo - despite him being nearly the only player to justify the price paid for him, as their best buy, Alvaro Arbeloa, is playing more like a €20 million man than a €5 million one(!!) - reeks of lack of tactical identity and ideas within what is meant to mirror Barcelona in terms of creativity; and gives the ordinary spectator the impression that Real Madrid have become last year's Manchester United. It has been proven time and time again this season - take Ronaldo out of the team, and the rest of the side is the human equivalent of a bunch of headless chickens.

On the other hand, at least Barcelona are a side that back up whatever money they might spend with outstanding results, on the whole. Six trophies out of a possible six last year is testament to that. Oh, and there's also the small matter of their star of star players, a certain chap named Lionel Messi, not costing them a cent.

Madrid now must win La Liga this season if they are to salvage any form of pride, if possible, as otherwise, this could be a team labelled as the most expensive bunch of flops in the history of football. And it would be deserved - Real Madrid is nothing more than a joke.

God Bless You all!

Matti

If I Died Today...

2010-02-23T12:18:00.003+01:00

Late last night, while reflecting away in bed having been woken up by the computer restarting itself at half 3, thoughts of what would happen if I died suddenly today or in the near future passed through my head. Why, I don't know; and quite frankly, I'm hoping that I won't be passing away anytime soon(!), but it just happened. I thought about what kind of 'legacy' I would have left behind me in the event that this happened, but to be quite honest, I didn't really think much further than that because the subject was too sordid and it was not exactly the appropriate time to do so either.

Now is the time to reflect about this slightly - I'll leave the rest to whoever feels like commenting afterwards (if any person does, that is). One thing for certain, I believe, is that I would have left behind a cloud of controversy in my wake. I've never been the most uncontroversial person around and indeed, have always seen myself as trying to push certain borders and boundaries in order to either prove a point or get my way, no matter how correct or incorrect I was. However, in light of the controversial nature, I think that over the last couple of years or so, I have become a better person overall, compared to what I used to be. Granted, I was never one who would go out every Friday night, or any other night for that matter, and get stoned out of my head or dangerously high, but I believe I have become a better person in the sense that nowadays I see myself as a less egotistical figure and someone who is more willing to bend over backwards to not only accomodate other people, but to help them out to the best of my abilities, where possible. In other words, the humanitarian within me, I feel, has emerged more over recent years.

Of course, what is sure to draw some form of criticism from my readers, as is generally the case (but I will never back down about this, no matter how many sticks, stones and derogatory terms are thrown at me) is the fact that another 'legacy' that I would have left behind me is that of getting closer to God and, in this light, hopefully being an example for others to follow. Perhaps it's coincidence, but the above point vis-a-vis my (willing and not enforced) humanitarian nature coincided with the same time that I made God a part of my life. Of course, various people will or might disagree on this point completely, and I wouldn't be surprised if they do, but I believe that God's presence in my life has made a hell of a big difference with regards to the way I live. With Him in my life, I feel fulfilled and I feel a sense of protection that I previously didn't feel.

Would I have achieved everything that I set out to achieve in life? Definitely not, but if I had to go sometime soon, then for the most part, I feel that I would have left a general positive impact on people's lives, even though certain people obviously wouldn't see this and believe that my effect in life has probably been the total opposite.

And now, if you wish, over to you. (Any derogatory comments posted will either be ignored completely or be subject to deletion.)

God Bless You all!
Matti

Bureaucratic Processes at the University of Malta

2010-02-21T15:41:00.007+01:00

I'm still debating whether to publish my opinions vis-a-vis this subject in the Times in the form of a letter; principally because I am somewhat fearful of obtaining some kind of negative 'label' from lecturers (despite my common name, and all) and hence influencing my exam grades in some manner. However, basically, the point behind this written below is a complaint about how long it takes for exam results to be published at University.

While I can understand that lecturers lead a busy life and that they tend to many students, I think that it is particularly shameful that a month has passed since our first January exam and no results have yet come out. The point behind this is that foreign counterparts at foreign Universities are given a specific timeframe in which to have the students' results at least preliminarily published, i.e. indicating what grading bracket the student would fall into, but in Malta, the truth is that students are faced with the opposite scenario altogether.

Us students have come to accept the fact that results do take a bit of time to come out, especially if there are many people sitting for a subject; and that as a general rule, one shouldn't expect anything to emerge within at least two and a half weeks from the date of the examination. However, I find it downright irresponsible and unprofessional on behalf of the lecturers who correct our papers - if they even do correct thoroughly, that is - that they continue to procrastinate accordingly, causing agony to the student, who would generally be keen to find out how he or she fared within the exam that he or she sat for. A pristine example is what happened to me last year, in a credit in which there were not more than 40 students sitting for final assessment. The lectures took place over a weekend in February, following which the lecturer had informed us that we would be given a 1,500 word assignment on the subject that was due for April 1. One would estimate that at most, the result would come out around a three weeks later - but no, the result actually came out in June 30, i.e. three full months after the due date. I don't know if there is a certain criteria preventing results from being published in the middle of a semester, but I find this shameful, to say the least.

As stated above, in almost all Universities abroad, lecturers are given a timeframe in which they must correct their students' exam papers and publish results, and, unpredictably, this is adhered to in practically all circumstances (barring exceptional ones). Here in Malta, last year, it was suggested that if six weeks (from the time of the examination) had passed whereby the result of a subject hadn't been received, we should send an email to the KSU Education Commission, who would then investigate the matter accordingly and get back to us after supposedly putting pressure on the lecturers to deliver the results. I have personally had mixed experiences with this system, because while I did get a prompt answer in relation to, if I remember correctly, my Family Law exam back in March 2009; I did not get any answer whatsoever from the Commission vis-a-vis Administrative Law exam in July 2009. Needless to say, the result for Administrative Law came out on July 23 - the exam was held on June 4. Therefore, seven weeks passed before we received any confirmation of our results. In itself, this also brings up a criticism of KSU, who, in defending the rights of the students, should have at least had the decency to answer my email accordingly, even if the answer that I would have received would have been something to the effect that they had no idea when the result would be coming out. Alas, perhaps a member of the Education Commission was on holiday at the time - or received her results already - and therefore the need to tend to my request was deemed unimportant.

To conclude with my arguments, here's my personal suggestion to lecturers. Last year, they had made a whole fuss because their collective agreement had expired and that their pay was measly. They justified this argument by stating that they should be receiving the same salaries as their European counterparts (for people who are meant to be pioneers in their field of research, I find this argument extremely flawed because none of the lecturers seemed to take into account that the cost and standard of living in Malta is lower than that in Europe - someone with even half a brain would had been able to successfully argue that). Well, following a lot of hassling, a new collective agreement was reached. However, if they really did want to be paid like their European counterparts, then why don't they start acting like their European counterparts too? This includes not skipping lectures without prior notice, using the proper media to deliver lectures, actually delivering lectures properly and not giving (sometimes) conflicting information, and, finally, correcting those wretched exam papers within a stipulated period of time and publishing the results as soon as possible! Until then, such lecturers should firmly put their money where their mouth is.

God Bless You all!
Matti

The Tales of Maltese Roads: Vol 1,000,001

2010-02-18T15:30:00.004+01:00

I know so many blogs, articles, columns and probably theses have been written about the mediocrity of the Maltese roads, but I guess another one to add to never-ending list wouldn't really do any harm. And with due reason this is the case, because driving on this island is increasingly becoming even more of a nightmare with time - too many cars in too little space, and an undoubted hierarchy among drivers within the system, with especially bus and taxi drivers assuming that they are kings of the road and hence rule the roost over mere 'peasants', i.e. the normal, everyday driver.

I'd be lying if I said that all Maltese drivers are not of an adequate standard, because undoubtedly, there are some drivers who take pride in exercising an element of caution when moving around and follow every rule by the book. However, I would also be lying if I said that all Maltese drivers are disciplined, good-natured and of an excellent standard, as demonstrated by a little experience that I passed through while driving earlier on this afternoon, and probably as demonstrated by many other drivers in the past.

On my way down to Sliema, I had to pass through a narrow road (which is a two-way street), through which a bus was coming. Obviously, with the road being too narrow for both my car and the bus to pass, I stopped by the side, giving what I deemed enough room for the bus to pass. To cut a long story short, the bus driver decided that he couldn't pass without hitting my car and told me - or more like demanded - that I must reverse so that his royal arse could pass. The only problem was that there was another car on my tail, making it a bit impossible to, well, reverse without hitting it (eventually the woman behind me did reverse herself, hence allowing me to move). Now, I would have been fine with all of this happening, especially if the bus couldn't indeed pass, but why the bus driver's demands had to include a multitude of swear words and blaming everything on God, in Maltese naturally so that it sounded even more uncivilised and primitive, is beyond me. As did the jibe that he passed afterwards, "Fejn iz-**** tghallimt issuq?", which actually did make me snap a bit because my only alternative, before the woman reversed, was to drive into the wall so that the bus could pass. Honestly, if these are the kind of people that are going to be heading the new Public Transport system when it comes into force, then please, for the love of God, kill me now.

It seems as if one only sees this ridiculous hierarchy more in Malta than anywhere else in the world. When I visited Italy, which isn't exactly the most renowned place for safe driving, the taxi driver/s that I had rode with were actually courteous, polite and, most important, drove safely and didn't overcharge us, as his passengers. In Malta, it's the complete opposite, as the country seems to thrive on negligent thugs who believe that the road is owned by the them, and God forbid you defy this for them in any way, means or form because they'll actually be hunting for your blood - just ask Austin Gatt, when he took the decision to liberalise the Public Transport, Taxi and Hearse markets. Sometimes, it actually makes you wonder if Malta is indeed part of 21st Century Europe; as well as how much progress has been made by the Maltese people overall since when Hagar Qim Temples were built.

Unfortunately, the problem doesn't seem to be getting better either. As time goes by, more and more people will start driving and more and more cars will be on the road, making it inevitable that such instances will continuously occur and tempers will famously flare up all too often. Add this to a lack of proper education vis-a-vis driving skills by most instructors, who are either interested in having a coffee or biting their nails while their students waste their petrol (while obviously charging extremely high rates for doing so) and you have a continued recipe for disaster. Only when the current generation of bad crops passes away and these are replaced by people who have been properly taught how to drive will we have peace on the roads of Malta. In other words, this should read that it's never going to happen.

God Bless You all!
Matti

"Front Kontra c-Censura"

2010-02-08T08:04:00.005+01:00

The latest attempt to regulate the state has ended up with a hell of a lot of rotten eggs on the faces of the ever-so-competent Maltese police force as now, prior to the Nadur Carnival, the aforementioned police are demanding to look at the lyrics of each song being played by rock bands to eliminate, or, essentially, censor, any possible vulgarities that there might be. Needless to say, this is yet another absolutely pathetic attempt at making Malta about as forward thinking as the 1960's.

I know that I have often criticised Joseph Muscat for his 'progressive' approach, and I still do believe that it is indeed nothing more than a bunch of unquantified bullshit, but I honestly do believe that Maltese society cannot remain stuck in the Middle Ages and must move on with the times. Such things do not happen in continental states, such as Germany; and while our country is indeed rooted in tradition and culture, does such tradition and culture have to be totally and completely embraced to the core? Furthermore, how can Malta be respected as a country on the international plane if it continues to insist with censorship laws that about as outdated as our great grandparents?

People and/or entities such as Teresa Friggieri, the Maltese Police Force and the University Rector have to stop choking Malta in this sense. The country already takes an age vis-a-vis its European counterparts to progress accordingly, so why should such personalities continue to stifle the country with their antiquated methods of thinking?

Ultimately, to conclude this brief argument, I have to say that I do agree with a certain amount of censorship in the sense that if there are obscene vulgarities that will, in all probability, cause offence to the majority of people, then such things should give due warnings due to their vulgarities. However, if the authorities responsible still do want to make their event/occasion available to the public, despite this, adults who believe that they will not feel offended by such events should still be given the opportunity to go ahead and watch accordingly. Of course, when it comes to minors under the age of 18 in terms of the law, the situation should be different and age restrictions, as there already are, should be enforced. However, it is grossly unfair that certain people should indeed regulate that which the public at large is allowed to see or not see, especially as perspectives differ from person to person and the element of subjectivity is therefore ripe.

But anyway, till now, "Big Brother is watching you."

God Bless You all!
Matti

End of Exams... Soon

2010-02-02T23:08:00.003+01:00

Finally, in 17 hours from the time that this has been written, exams will, at long last, be over. Until the end of May, but still.

The last week and a half or so has been relatively hectic for more than one reason, the principal one being trying to cram in every single bit of information possible into that relatively stubborn cranium of mine with mixed success. I always hate the period that ensues after exams, that lengthy bit of time that it takes to wait for results accordingly. People are all too often so curious to see how they've fared and whether they got the grades that they really desired and/or deserved after putting in a substantial effort into a particular subject. I believe I fall into that category. Others, of course, are quite nonchalant about this but to each his own, I guess.

So far, third year has been more pressured than last year, but I know all too well that the worst is still to come. As the second semester approaches, so too do 120 cases to remember solely in Contract Law (God help me, I was already struggling - relatively - to remember around 15 for our January test!!), another unspecified amount in Tort Law, more precious time (wasted) with everyone's favourite lecturer in Señor Quintano, and the horrors from hell at the end of May, all probably condensed into one week of sheer wrist-slitting. Something to really look forward to; it really makes me appreciate what former students have passed through, practically sweating blood to make it. At least if we're going to get our LL.B.'s, we sure as hell are going to earn them.

It just makes me want to go back to the January 2009 session of examinations and do Family Law all over again. And I thought that was bad... how wrong I was.

And on a completely unrelated note, I will conclude here with a powerful Bible verse that I came across...

"My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in. (Proverbs 3:11-12)

God Bless You all!
Matti

I'm Getting Old(er)

2010-01-27T20:25:00.005+01:00

White chest hairs - and some on my beard as well - were confirmation last year that I'm starting to age. In a month, this will be confirmed as I hit the big 21.

It's known that puberty isn't meant to last longer than when us males are, at most, 18 years old, but this onset of losing hair colour has made me think that I'm already starting to suffer the effects of the 'other' puberty at quite an early stage! I have no idea as to why this is so - maybe it's University stress (yeah right, this semester was already quite bad, so what's going to happen next semester!?!) or maybe it's because intrinsically, I get agitated quickly on quite a few occasions...? I struggle for answers in this regard.

I'm kind of looking forward to being 21. It actually means that God willing, and depending how much studying I put in - which, judging by the looks of things currently doesn't seem too over the top considering that I'm updating this blog (but what can you do if most of the work you have to do is already prepared; how much can you actually revise and re-revise things?) - I'll be looking at the best part of my first degree, which although means nought in today's society, nonetheless gives me three letters behind my name. It's something to be proud of, something to look forward to, a goal to achieve. The first step towards, hopefully, bigger and greater things.

It also means that my licence is no longer on 'probation' period and will be turned into a permanent one, renewable every 10 years. Yes, I already got the ADT form for its renewal despite some people evidently believing that I should have no place on the road at all! But wow, looking at this again, now, that's really something minor. Well, I think practically anything is vis-a-vis this age after all. What's the big hype about being 21... it's just a number, after all. 18 is probably more significant as it marks the start of adulthood and, consequently, more independence than one could have ever imagined.

But perhaps it just means that it is the beginning of a new year with new adventures ahead. Perhaps it's nothing more than just that. It should maybe mark the year when more maturity starts to settle into our systems, but I feel I've passed the potential threshold for that. Long ago, might I add; perhaps too long ago. That is, however, subjective. I always felt I was the one to be less 'fun'; to be more of a 'fatherly figure'; to be someone to lean on and keep things in check; to, 99% of the time, have the calm head when so required. Maybe it's the events that have marked my life that have driven me to turn out like this. Maybe it's the way how I would see things around me that would make me not want to emulate people's mistakes. Maybe it's because I'm just the type of person who doesn't settle for anything other than this character that I've developed.

So yes, I'm getting older, but it's just a number for me. For others, it might be something more significant than that. For some, it might mark the turning point in their lives. But for certain, we just never know what the future will confirmedly hold for us in terms of who we are and what we do. We can plan our lives and plan our events accordingly, but whether these will be fulfilled is something out of our hands, out of our control.

Nobody knows.

God Bless You all,
Matti

Reflections of when You're Bored Stiff

2010-01-24T18:41:00.004+01:00

It's that time of year, isn't it... The time of year where exams come along once again. And, as usual, an element of unproductivity has come about, especially for the last hour and a half or so, as I haven't been able to concentrate to save my life and have hence resorted to the evil machine that is called my laptop. Unlike in May last year, where blogs seemed to become everyone's common factor because everyone seemed to post something due to exam stress, this time about, minimal posts have sprouted up and indeed, reading and delving in other texts has been rare at most. Oh well. At least the headache is nonetheless finally subsiding and I believe that I should soon be able to (unfortunately) get back to the books.

Time for a period of self-examination, methinks. (Thanks Krissie, by the way, for kind of confirming that I had to write this after reading your blog!)

Yesterday I was reflecting about life had treated me over the last few years while have a couple of drinks with some friends of mine, and it dwelled on me that I have been truly lucky and blessed to have a life that really never has a dull moment. I looked back at the relatively recent past and saw that I have had people around me who have really been a positive influence on my life, and for this I am really thankful. I'm so glad that I didn't go down any path that could have resulted in having severe consequences in my life and so thankful that I wasn't brought up in that manner either. It felt so liberating to confirmedly know that when walking back to my car, I was walking in the company of people with a similar upbringing to mine and that such people would never try to explicitly take advantage of me or influence me to do something that I would regret in the future. To the contrary, if I were to do something of the sort, I believe that such people would actually persuade me to not carry out such an activity and try knock some sense into my admittedly hard head.

Then, when I got home, I turned the spotlight onto myself for a few minutes - literally, as this was rather late at night - and looked at how I saw myself in the light of other people. Weirdly enough, I realised a couple of paradoxes vis-a-vis what I said in the above paragraph. Firstly, I noticed that for all the positivities that I outlined above, I didn't warm up to the people I was surrounded by - with the possible exception of a few - with immediate effect, and had to actually 'gel' with such people before being myself with them. I've realised this on countless occasions, that being the fact that initially, I'm quite cold with people, and will continue to be unless I really get speaking to someone or finally learn how to appreciate and understand them. Secondly, and perhaps this is where I was a bit shocked, I felt that in quite a few circumstances, when I did indeed warm up to those people, I've been a better friend to them than they have to me. Rarely have my friends been entirely mutual, in the sense that giving and taking was equal among both people involved. It's a weird scenario and one that perplexed me, and still does, in all fairness. I tried putting my finger around it and put it down to perhaps being someone that people look up to, a role model of some type, but I believe that that's being rather boastful of myself and so I am more than willing to discard this theory. The case in point is though that often, I feel that it's other people that throw sticks and stones at me first for some odd reason, when I wouldn't have done anything of the sort to them. And other things, obviously. I'd really like to be enlightened on something like this, though, because it did play on my head and indeed, still is.

But overall, I can't complain. Things have really fallen into place for me over time and I believe will continue to do so in the future. I know about, and am conscious of, my various faults and indeed, am constantly trying to make an effort to improve them; but I am only human at the end of the day, and us humans err.

And on a side note, as for the recent derogatory remarks that have been sprouting up, with the perpetrator obviously hiding behind an anonymous mask due to extreme cowardice... Get a life. It's my blog so the posts that go up are what I want to write - if you don't like whatever is posted, you don't have to read it and furthermore uselessly comment on it.

God Bless You all,
Matti

I Think...

2010-01-14T22:19:00.003+01:00

Happy New Year, guys!

So, for the first blog of 2010, I decided to share a few thoughts that have been going through my head... and while they're not penned down yet (indeed, this is the first time I'm actually going to be writing them down and seeing them face me), they're going to assume some kind of poetic form. I would hope. Enjoy.

I Think...

I think about those times

Where I am lonely,

No one to turn to,

Nothing to say;

I think about those times

Where all is well,

Those times where I look forward

To every brand new day.

I think about life

Its ups and downs,

Topsy-turvy moments

Many smiles and, indeed, frowns;

I think about it more

How lucky we are,

To be here, living comfortably

No problems, by far.

And yet, despite all this,

You, God, I think about last,

The One I should be most grateful to

For all: future, present and past;

I never mean to do so

But us humans err,

We know you should be at the forefront

But none of us dare

To even say "Thank You"

For all that you've done,

For coming here to save us

By sending your son.

All that I've seen

And all that I will go through,

Pales in comparison

To what's been done by You;

You're there for us always

In good times and bad,

To put us back on track

With Your comforting hand.

So God, while I'm thinking

Forgive me, please do,

For making you secondary

To the things that I do.

God Bless You all!
Matti

The Final Countdown

2009-12-29T16:53:00.002+01:00

I guess I abandoned my attempt of creating a 'year review', in part because it wasn't exactly coming good and in part because I didn't feel like typing up everything that happened this year... once again. And also in part because I answered some questions on Facebook that took up the best part of an hour or so and generally encompassed what 2009 was really like! So this short blog is going to be used to take the opportunity to wish all of you a fantastic Christmas and a great 2010! Enjoy your new year's eves and don't drink and drive :p

If 2009 was a positive year overall for you, then may 2010 be even better!

God Bless You all,
Matti

Recess! Recess!

2009-12-17T21:11:00.005+01:00

What a way to celebrate your fiftieth blog post! The Christmas holidays are finally upon us... well, effective 9 am tomorrow, anyway; and those two weeks of rest and, well, extra hours in studying, are so dearly needed.

Whilst I've just squeezed a pimple to the extent that it is now bleeding - smart move, I guess - it's time to celebrate and take a well-deserved break from the hecticness that University life provides us with.

I suppose it's been a half-decent first term - as usual, it's one that has flown by as quickly as anything but one that, of course, you see as rather long and drawn out when the scholastic year begins in October. Weirdly enough, January exams are already on our doorstep and before we know it, we'll once again be out of our winter clothing and back in t-shirts before heading off for summer holidays! Okay, that might be a bit premature, but summer is now only the best part of six (long) months away... that's always better than the "Nine Months to go" sign that we see at the end of each summer!

I'm also happy to say that, barring any major catastrophes or the introduction of a Secret Santa, my Christmas shopping is also finally done! I do have to buy my grandmother something still, but I've left that to my mother, who, quite disappointingly, has found absolutely nothing yet! Furthermore, my presents also all wrapped up - barring one which seems to be impossible to wrap so, yet again, I'm leaving it in mum's capable hands (thank goodness it isn't her present!) - so I'm pretty much sorted. And all my shopping was done in three excursions only. If that's not efficiency at its best, then I don't know what is!

The Christmas season really and truly does kick off tomorrow evening with the Christmas Ball! I'm actually looking forward to it; last year it was an absolute blast and everyone had enjoyed themselves, but tomorrow, what with a new venue *cough* in the middle of nowhere *cough* and all, it's going to be something completely different to what we're used to. It promises to be a good one nonetheless though!

I don't think this will be my last blog before Christmas - I still have my annual 'Year Review' to share, even though this year wasn't half as eventful as 2008 - but if it is, I'd like to wish you, my readers, the best Christmas ever; and may the birth of Jesus Christ bring everlasting joy and peace into your lives. :)

God Bless You all!
Matti

The Land of Hypocrisy

2009-12-14T19:13:00.004+01:00

A short blog to just, well, make a point. It really makes my face light up with an incomparable amount of joy when certain things do indeed happen.

Apparently, today at Junior College, Pulse (read: lowlife rogues), representing KSJC I guess, decided to throw eggs and beer at students, presumably as a mode of celebration for winning last Friday's student council elections for the third year running. Of course, that is an immensely dignified way of celebrating, especially with it coming hot on the heels of a barrage of complaints from the school vis-a-vis University graduates.

Therefore, I wonder where my good friend, Charles Caruana Carabez, a.k.a. the wet blanket, is now. Probably defending these actions, I guess, as they occurred by the College's own students. Or maybe just silent on the matter, even if he wasn't able to give lessons today due to these people's actions.

As much as the place has a number of nice people, Junior College is indeed the land of hypocrisy. If the shoe doesn't fit, hell, it seems as if a large number of people still wear it, presumably because they can get away with it all, no? I'd just love to know what University students think about this. And of course, feedback from JC students, including people at Pulse if they wish (but I don't believe I do know people from there) would be appreciated.

God Bless You all,
Matti

Don't Forget To Call Future Professionists Idiots

2009-12-08T15:57:00.012+01:00

Before reading this blog, I encourage you to read the following linked article:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20091208/letters/graduation-glee-horrors-at-junior-college

I didn't intend to write a blog for a short period of time now, but events today have left me with no choice but to do otherwise. Needless to say, such events are stimulated by a controversial incident that would not have been brought up had a certain Charles Caruana Carabez not mentioned it on the local newspapers in the first place.

Mr. Caruana Carabez (herein referred to as CCC), who was perhaps slightly in the right regarding the circumstances which he criticised, wrote a letter to the newspaper regarding the unruly behaviour of certain students during graduation. Up to there, I'll give the author a certain amount of credit, as more often than not, things do get out of control sufficiently enough to cause chaos and public disorder, something which is not right at all. Indeed, I do not condone such behaviour. However, what was stated by CCC after this general notion was, I felt, demeaning to all University students and extremely out of place. Basically, CCC labelled such graduates 'louts' and 'idiots', among other terms; a generalisation of sorts that was completely uncalled for and strongly downplayed the University graduates' successes. Yeah, it's always smart to call those people that you're going to have to rely on in the future; all those lawyers, teachers, accountants, architectures and doctors, among others, idiots.

What initially struck me was that CCC wrote his letter in the belief that this only happens at Junior College, whereas in reality, this also takes place at St. Aloysius' College and De La Salle College. And, in the case of the law students, in front of the Law Courts as well. Anyway, the only difference is that till now, both SAC and DLS have not issued a complaint of any sorts. Indeed, it is well-known that at SAC, the graduates are allowed to enter the building (although requested to leave any alcohol external to the premises) and celebrate among the Sixth Form students accordingly before proceeding to their next destination. Obviously, CCC seems to be oblivious to the fact that Junior College is not the only institution that is affected accordingly by a bunch of graduates celebrating.

The coup de grace in CCC's letter came about when he stated that "[he is] not a spoilsport, nor a wet blanket" but was totally against this "hedonism". With all due respect to the author, taking away the buscades for graduates as a mode of celebration could readily compare to him having his English Literature books stolen and him not being able to read them accordingly and teach them to his pupils. The fact that CCC also claims that "there will be a court case" vis-a-vis loss of earnings, noise pollution etc. in relation to such buscades can only make one laugh out loud at what has degenerated from a solid, initial argument to one that is impertinently stupid.

Of course, however, the best is reserved till last... Comments about the letter obviously show both sides to the story, with some Junior College students defending the lecturer and labelling these actions as ridiculous as well; and University students defending their right to enjoy their graduation and not be muted by a select few that think that such actions are not apt of graduates. Perhaps, for the lecturers, their University days were back in time immemorial; while for the students, this reeks of irony as in a few years up the road, the current crop of JC students will be graduating for the first time and going on a buscade of their own! I highly doubt that they'd then be defending the College... they don't know what they are yet to face when they reach their tertiary education years, poor souls. Furthermore, certain comments went down to the level of personal insults, one of which was directed towards me. Of course, the Times now refuse to answer emails regarding the original commenter... I'd love to have his email in hand so that I give him a piece of my mind and tell him who was brought up badly and whose family should be insulted.

It may be "degrading" for some, but I, for one, am looking forward to next year's buscade. Where I think having a go at CCC would only be a justified reaction for the ton of tripe that he wrote and the ton of insults that he directed towards us. And yes, the buscade is definitely happening, now, irrespective of the public transport reform.

Furthermore, I obviously have nothing against Junior College, but please don't play the victims and act as if you're the only ones that are affected on an annual basis by this as you're not!!

And don't forget to call your future professionists idiots.

God Bless You all!
Matti

Let's GO, Melita!

2009-12-04T14:13:00.006+01:00

Finally, something actually worthwhile that I can write about.

I have to admit, when reading the recent news that Melita had lost the rights to transmit Barclays Premier League matches from season 2010/11 through to season 2012/13 to GO plc, I was extremely shocked. To say the least. This means that a large chunk of sporting action that I see on the weekends would indeed be gone from my very eyes, provided that I remain with Melita for the next three odd years. Which, judging by the way how it's going downhill, I don't think will really be the case, but anyway. Anyhow, as a response to this, Melita claimed that they are still the leaders in providing sports to local households, and they also still retained exclusive rights in items such as the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, Serie A and the Bundesliga.

So far, all is fine and dandy. It was the typical response that I expected from Melita, one which obviously tried to make them look in as little a bad light as possible while, at the same time, promoting the programmes which they show. Of course, they did forget to mention that Saturday afternoons will probably be spent, after August 2010, with replays of old Italian and German football matches being shown on their (now excessive) eight different channels dedicated to sport; these interspersed with everyone's favourite show, a bout of horse racing from Sweden. Naturally, I'm hoping you're noting the sarcastic tone here. Furthermore, they also conveniently forgot to tell us customers that the price of the sports package will probably still be going up due to some fabricated administrative cost, or something of the sort. In brief, Melita will indeed become more pathetic than they already are come the end of Summer 2010.

However, while thinking over it, I ended up by coming to another conclusion vis-a-vis what is happening with GO and Melita. Perhaps it is a bit far-fetched, but I think it's worth stating it nonetheless. I noticed a trend in Melita's declining sporting list year after year: in 2007, GO announced that they would be transmitting Wimbledon from 2008 onwards; in 2008, GO announced that they had managed to obtain the exclusive rights to transmit Formula 1 from 2009 onwards; and now, in 2009 GO announced that they will be transmitting the Premier League from 2010. (Of course, Melita's prices never decreased despite the fact that two major sporting events were not transmitted over the last two years; and I fully expect this trend to continue come 2010, hence the reasoning for my logic above). Coincidence? I think not.

My belief is that both Melita and GO are currently in breach of the law. To be more specific, I think that these two companies are breaching Articles 5 and 9 of the Competition Act (in Malta), or Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU, the ex-EC Treaty), i.e. there is collusion going on between both Melita and GO with regard their television services, meaning that there is the notion of market distortion in this sector and abuse of a dominant position. I will start with the latter point though, as this seems to be easier to tackle.

For a start, with regards abuse of a dominant position, there must be two criteria satisfied; i.e. dominant position in the relevant market and abuse. It can clearly be argued that combined, both Melita and GO have got a majority share in the television market, especially with regard to the relevant product market (sporting events), as both providers show pretty much everything, be it football, Formula 1 or wrestling. The geographical and temporal markets do not have any relevance in this circumstance. Secondary to this, there must be abuse. Now, while this is not a notion that us students have exactly tackled just yet, I can understand that there is the potential for the constant switching of services from one provider to another to be classified as abuse. Both providers may indeed be doing this to simultaneously increase their shares in the market relating to sporting events, and hence increase clientele and profits accordingly. If this is proven, and of course, it is obviously much more difficult to do so other than just stating that which I am currently stating, then there already is a breach of Article 9 of the Competition Act or Article 102 of the TFEU.

This brings me to my second point. Is there collusion going on between Melita and GO, which are, for the purposes of the law, classified as two undertakings? If I had to apply my theory, as I briefly outlined in bold above, then one could argue that there is a horizontal agreement between both television providers. However, such a horizontal agreement would have to be proven by means of oral or written communication; and quite frankly, I doubt both companies would do something as stupid and as ridiculous as that; and is hence extremely difficult to prove. Prima facie, one might also argue that this could fall under the heading of a concerted practice between undertakings, but upon further examination of this notion, one must realise and understand that this is "a form of coordination between undertakings which, without having reached the stage where an agreement properly so called has been concluded, knowingly substitutes practical cooperation between them for the risks of competition". Therefore, one cannot classify that happening between both companies as such a concerted practice, for the purposes of Competition Law.

The second part of Article 5(1) speaks of market distortion. The law states that "any agreement between undertakings... having the object or effect of preventing, restricting or distorting competition" is prohibited. It is necessary to look at the conjunction 'or' over here, as this means that not both the object and effect must be proven, but if one is proven, then it is enough. One could seriously argue that both undertakings' actions are currently having the desired effect. But do these actions fall under the exceptions to the articles in question? After analysing the law accordingly, I cannot see how the exceptions as outlined in Article 5(3) or 101(3) apply to absolve both companies of colluding to distort competition. However, it must be noted that this line of attack, I believe, is significantly weaker than that found in Article 9/Article 102.

Of course, being just a student, I could be wrong in both circumstances. Indeed, after theorising a bit too much about it, I'm starting to doubt the validity of these arguments myself. But I'll leave it to anyone else with proper judgement to go ahead and comment on the situation at hand; even though I still believe that something fishy is going on between these two major players within the Maltese communications market.

God Bless You all!
Matti

It's All About Christmas

2009-11-28T11:18:00.004+01:00

I should be studying, but I don't feel like at the moment. So I'll blog. Or attempt to, at least, following the recent debacle where I wrote about nothingness.

Indeed, not much - if anything at all - has happened since then, but the clock continues ticking down towards Christmas. I need it to tick down a wee bit faster though, I'm really looking forward to the holidays so that I can, well, study even more, I guess; but without the added stress of having to go to University every day.

I'm no fan of Christmas. Far from it, actually, I think it's one of the most overrated times of the year; and indeed, sometimes the only reason why I really do embrace it is to wind down a little bit and be slightly less stressed out than usual. I understand and fully appreciate that within the Church, it is possibly the second most important feast after Easter (or maybe even on a par with it), and that with the birth of Jesus, there should be the subsequent rebirth of joy in our lives, but Christmas has long lost its true, significant meaning. Christmas has become, over the years, a commercialised scam. Of course, this is not the only reason why I don't like Christmas much, there are other reasons which I will not delve into. But this is among the main ones.

Christmas is no longer, unfortunately, a time of joy and peace, but a time of giving and receiving presents (be them wanted or unwanted), a time of political discussions at family lunches, a time of 'reuniting' with family members who you haven't seen since the previous Christmas and probably won't see until the next one. Perhaps these situations are a generalisation of sorts, but hasn't anyone ever felt this way before? It has become very much artificial, in many circumstances, and as time goes by, one tends to wonder whether the true meaning of Christmas will indeed ever be recuperated. Don't get me wrong though on the above point. Realistically, I think giving is one of the best things about Christmas, and at least, it is something that is being passed on from generation to generation without any qualms.

Perhaps, ultimately, I'm seeing everything a bit too pessimistically, but having reached an age where my brain thinks for itself and is not strongly influenced by the views of others, unless they are unilaterally correct and I hence agree with them in totality, I struggle to see where this realistic joy, peace and love emerges from over this period. Perhaps my viewpoints, in all fairness, will change when (if) I'm happily married and have children, but till then, I can only see it as another 'event' in my calendar.

God Bless You all,
Matti

About Nothing

2009-11-25T20:41:00.003+01:00

Long time no blog. And that's simply because there hasn't been much to blog about, apart from developments in the footballing world, for which one could easily tune into a website that readily sells sports news in order to read up upon. And furthermore, that's also because the roller coaster nature of life has just kept swaying along as if nothing noteworthy has happened. Which it hasn't, apart from in the judicial and political arena, of which I'm not too concerned with, to be honest with you.

So currently, it's official - the world is about as boring a git place as old me. No random adventures, no nothing - it's just plain sailing. I guess you tend to appreciate those topsy-turvy moments when life is actually exciting, when there's absolutely nothing special going on! I could speak for hours at length about University and how it's becoming a little bit more of a headache day after day, and week after week, but that would once again be stating the obvious now, wouldn't it?

This element of 'nothingness' is typified by the fact that blog updates are currently few and far between, and also by that when one opens the newspaper in the morning, nothing more than the same regurgitated crap is being spit out on a daily basis. Wow. As future lawyers, we yearn for those days where we can actually see a talking point being brought up; those days where debating something interesting is possible; those days where we can actually speak our minds about something of relative importance! But alas, it's just not happening at the moment.

What a damned short blog.

Oh well. One month to Christmas. The joy.

God Bless You all,
Matti

Crucifixion of the Highest (Legal) Order

2009-11-03T21:47:00.007+01:00

This evening, I read with great shock the news that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled against Italy in a case regarding the placement of crucifixes in school classrooms. Without going into the merits of the case and how the final judgement was reached, I found this to be a particularly shocking conclusion from the Court, especially considering that Italy is predominantly a Catholic country with Christian values. Furthermore, it also sets a precedent for other countries that subscribe to the European Charter of Fundamental Human Rights, i.e. any citizen who should appeal against the presence of the crucifix in a class or, indeed, in a public place, will have such a prior judgement to fall back upon and strengthen his or her argument. However, in what position does this leave us as European citizens?

Almost undoubtedly, the notion of having secular member states of the European Union is the first thing that comes to mind. It is clear that religion no longer has a strong foothold in society as it did in the past; this can be seen through the liberal way how people think and people act in this day and age. Half a century ago, for instance, it would potentially be considered a grave sin to have sex before marriage, while nowadays it's pretty much the opposite - it is a grave sin if you don't have sex before marriage. People have moved with the times and do not want to be 'controlled by the Church', to use the commonly coined phrase. And fair enough - after all, everyone is entitled to live their lives in the way that they wish. However, this judgement seems to imply that not even young students may allow Christianity to form part of their morals and culture now, because otherwise we might offend minority groups in society that don't really give two hoots about the religion that the majority follow. Hence, the judgement automatically implies that although religion, and the crucifix in particular, currently forms an intrinsic part of Italian morals and culture, such a part of the Italian way of life must be eliminated with immediate effect.

The second point that therefore comes to mind is the respect for minority rights. Undoubtedly, society cannot afford to exclude minority groups as that would infringe the basic principles of democracy and, indeed, a basic fundamental Human Right. However, is it fair to say that on the basis of this judgement, the minority is essentially ruling against the majority? After all, in such a case, aren't Muslims the ones who are supposed to integrate into Italian culture, and not make it entirely their own? What in the world happened to the well-known idiom "When in Rome, do what the Romans do"? In defence, it is evident that some Muslims do not really care about the presence of the crucifix in a classroom; it does not perturb them. To quote from the aforementioned article that broke the news about this judgement, "If the crucifix is there and I am a Muslim I will continue to respect my religion. Jesus in the classroom doesn't bother me." This was stated by an Egyptian 14-year-old. Shouldn't that be the approach of the minority groups that the Muslims form within countries such as Italy?

Over and above that, it seems as if the ECHR has admitted, hands up and all, that we live in a Europe so diverse now that all forms of culture must be accepted and not discriminated against at whatever cost. Fair enough, but isn't that contradictory in itself; in the sense that if all forms of culture must be accepted, then the Court is automatically eliminating a form of culture, at least in Italian eyes, by removing the crucifix from classrooms? Although technically the wrong approach to this argument, I would not have been shocked had this judgement been against France, for instance, where it is known that a large amount of the population are practicing Muslims. However, for the judgement to emanate against a member state where 85% of its citizens are practicing Roman Catholics (and hence, Christians) is just absurd. Such a judgement also threatens countries with an even higher percentage of practicing Christians - remember, Malta is hovering around the 96% mark. What will happen if a Muslim citizen living in Malta issues such a complaint against the ECHR? Surely, as mentioned before, the notion of precedent would set in and Malta would have to follow in Italy's suit...

One of the comforting aspects of the judgement, however, is that it has put Italy's politicians on red alert and caused a major outrage throughout the country. Indeed, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has labelled the judgement as "mortal blow to a Europe of values and rights." Italy has already confirmed that it will seek to appeal the judgement via the European Court of Justice (ECJ); whether the ECJ appeal will be successful or not though is another story altogether. On the other hand, however, there is another (potentially final) worrying aspect to the entire judgement - the reaction of the Maltese people. On timesofmalta.com, comments have already started to emerge in praise of the judgement. One such author wrote that "Religion is a private matter and that's how it should be. It has no place in our classrooms", while another argued that it is a "Good decision when considering schools need to encourage high IQ attitudes." Such comments, unfortunately, only reflect the ignorant nature of certain people and, indeed, can only be condemned.

And while it is evident from this post that I am completely against this judgement and the notion on which it was decided; and in particular the country which it was decided against, we can only wait for the ECJ judgement in this regard... and see. Having said that, however, there could really be worrying times ahead in this regard, especially if the ECHR's judgement is confirmed.

God Bless You all!
Matti

N.B. Fortunately, since the time of writing, more comments have appeared on the Times' website, most of which seem to be against the judgement. Definitely a positive step.

Radical Reform (not) Guaranteed

2009-10-20T11:09:00.003+02:00

It’s fair to say that public transport is currently in shambles. Many people would rather travel with their own car to get from place to place than use the bus. This is simply because buses, for the most part, are either run down, filthy or (and this is my personal favourite) they constantly belch black smoke from their exhausts, leaving others struggling and scrambling to find a nearby patch of clean air before it’s too late. Furthermore, the service, at this moment in time, is occasionally so unreliable that you could end up waiting for at least an hour for a bus that should be passing at least once every half-hour.

Therefore, at this moment in time, you couldn’t really blame the commuter for wanting to use his or her own car as opposed to public transport. Currently, it’s much better than the service provided in all aspects. Hence, in this light, much has been made about the radical reform that public transport will be facing in the current months in order to get Malta up to (the all-too-often used quote) “European standards”. However, while the infrastructure will be upgraded in practically all aspects, there’s one factor that’s going to almost certainly keep Malta lagging behind its European neighbours – our drivers.

Provided that the current crop of drivers will be retained, Malta is going to still encounter major problems vis-à-vis the reform. While there are drivers out there who deserve to be kept within the system, as they are courteous, polite and have respect not only for their commuters, but also for other drivers on the road, we can unfortunately say that these are very much in the minority. Instead, the most frequent sight when one embarks on a bus trip is seeing a bus driver with his shirt half opened and several chest hairs popping out, incessant swearing and a total lack of consideration for everyone, in particular other road users; as such people believe that the road belongs to them and them only. It’s an attitude that’s beset Malta for way too long now, and it’s one that has to change with immediate effect.

One such solution driven towards such change would be to pass all current drivers through a “fit and proper person test”. Drivers should be tested for the most basic of things that one would expect in a person providing a service as important as public transport – basic manners, proper driving, cleanliness, and a proper uniform are the first things that come to mind. The drivers would be examined by bus conductors living in countries where public transport is already of a high standard, such as the United Kingdom, France or Germany. If the candidate drivers fail the test, they would be given four weeks to up their act and sit for the test again, only this time, failure is not an option. Those who pass first time would be retained with immediate effect. In this manner, one would already start filtering out the rotten apples from the good ones.

To ensure that this test would not descend into a farce (as some drivers might potentially be exemplary during this ‘screening’ phase and then back to their old ways when providing the service), random checks would be performed on the drivers operating the different routes. If any such driver were not to comply with the standards as set out in the test, then they would be slapped with a warning or a sanction. If the offenders persist, then this would eventually result in their sacking from the transport company. Such a system would ensure firstly that every driver complies to the rules as the consequences could be severe, and secondly ensure that a new influx of drivers better than the previous crop would eventually emerge.

But we can only dream about such a system being implemented before the actual reform does start, can we now, Austin? If we’re going to have a reform, then let’s do it properly with immediate effect and sort this problem out before it’s too late.

God Bless You all!
Matti

The Condom Machine on Campus Debate (?)

2009-10-10T13:49:00.007+02:00

There's nothing better than to get the new University scholastic year off to a controversial start by yet again bringing up the debate about whether a condom machine should find its place on Campus. This discussion was entirely prevalent towards the end of the last scholastic year, especially when KSU elections came about, and since then, talk about it hasn't died down. Indeed, companies like Vodafone only added fuel to the debate throughout Freshers' Week when they were seen distributing free condoms with their promotions in order to entice more customers to join them. However, the reality of the situation is that despite Vodafone's best efforts, we're still no closer to ending this age-long debate and finally finding a solution to this 'problem'.

But is it a problem in the first place? Why is University focusing on the installation of a condom machine on Campus when there are so many other things that need to be tackled with instantaneous effect; so many other things that are incredibly important and yet are not given priority? I'm relating to the perennial horror of horrors that us students have to face week in, week out - day in, day out actually, with the infamous parking problem that plagues the University grounds.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that for a population of 10,000 students, with them possibly rising to 11,000 in the near future and only on the up from year to year, 645 odd parking spaces to share are never going to be enough for them to cope with. Indeed, a look at the big car park near Gateway Building would often show many cars parked illegally on white lines or near the designated blue boxes that they're allowed to be parked in, to the extent that this car park is taking around 50 to 75 more cars than it should be occupying. The result: Chaos, confusion galore, and a lot of swearing from the frustrated student drivers trying to find the holy grail of a parking space. Students have also started looking towards using a rocky piece of land behind the Agriculture Institute, that resembles more of Cart Ruts rather than a parking area, to park their cars. The net result of this all is that if you're unlucky enough to have a lecture starting at 9, you still have to be at University by 8 o'clock as otherwise you'll have nowhere to park. Meanwhile, just beyond the concrete barrier that separates the students' part of the car park from the administration's side of it, one will be delighted to find at least half of the spaces empty, all available for parking. Unfortunately, not for students though - if a student does attempt to park his/her car, then the likelihood is that he/she will be greeted by a clamp and a €23 fine on his/her return. If your name is Jonathan Tonna, however, you'll be able to dispose of it quite easily!

Numerous letters have been written to the newspaper and complaints issued, but all have been to no avail so far. Last year's KSU did nothing to improve the situation for students, to the extent that the current administration has to sort out the mess of the previous administration and try and find some kind of solution to the problem. This attitude could be contrasted easily to the 2007/08 administration, where at one point in time, the then-President David Herrera ordered that students park wherever they want on a particular day so that they would make a statement to increase the parking spaces available. That worked back then, so why won't something to that extent work now? KSU have promised us a feasibility study into the possibility of making the big car park multi-storey, but this will be done, according to reports, by the end of this administration's term in office. Therefore, the earliest we would be able to see construction works start would be the beginning of the 2010/11 scholastic year, until which there will certainly be another massive influx of new cars, new drivers and new problems.

It's time to act on this situation and improve on the mess that we currently face as it's now, finally, got out of control! The only thing we're going to be seeing from that car park is a series of bashed up cars soon... and something in my head tells me that only if it is one of the KSU's members cars will we then start to see some form of action taken. A bit of an attitude like our current Government's... an attitude that I hope won't be resorted to.

God Bless You all!
Matti

Fanaticism - or Fans - at their Best

2009-09-19T11:37:00.008+02:00

Last Wednesday, around two hours before heading off to see the Inter vs. Barcelona game, I was speaking to a friend of mine (ahem, before she rudely abandoned me in mid-conversation!) who asked me if I was going to the Red Carpet Event later on that evening. I promptly replied that I had opted to see the match instead and while she seemed to be a bit disappointed that I was going to watch football instead of spending a night out with friends, she then pondered why it is fine for someone to be a football fanatic and not fine for them to be a God fanatic. This got me thinking a bit.

First, however, before moving onto my arguments, I would like to set the record straight slightly. This argument, I believe, was not intended for me but was very much a generalisation. I believe that in such scenarios, we have to distinguish fully between events that are completely intended for God, such as Youth Meetings and the Mass, and social events that are designed to spend time amongst your friends, even if the majority of these form part of a community. In the case presented here, we are clearly speaking about the latter. It is clearly wrong and irresponsible, especially if you are building up a relationship with God, to abandon Him to watch a football match or do some sort of social activity that would overlap one's participation in getting closer to Him. It goes against the grain of making God the centre-focus of one's life; by doing something such as the above, one is simply placing materialistic items before God. Furthermore, to also close a point that has been lingering on for quite a while, not going a community-based social event does not mean that you are choosing other things, such as football, over Jesus. While the latter point was not a problem with my friend, who didn't even bring this argument up, I have heard it one too many times from certain people in the past to not mention it; so doing so now will indefinitely clear things up.

Having said that (and that indeed was an argument in itself, and probably part of my argument too for that matter), I will tackle the argument of fanaticism. For a start, I'm not of the school of thought that fanaticism, is positive. Fanaticism shows that something is needed in excess; you cannot live without this something in life; it leads you to do things that you might not even want to do. Of course, there is something that we cannot live without in life, and that thing is God. Actually, the word 'thing', I believe, is incorrectly used - I'd rather use the term 'entity' instead. Anyway, some people, in all fairness, opt to do so and survive accordingly, but as practicing Christians, we cannot live without God at any moment in our lives because otherwise our lives will be empty and void. Our lives, in a nutshell, would not be worth living at any moment, any time, and any day. Hence, by elimination, we can say that being a football fanatic is something that is not even a tenth as critical as being a fan of God*. Indeed, nothing is as critical as that.

Therefore, why do we seem to be fine with being football fanatics and not fine with being fans of God? It ultimately boils down to the same issue as always - God seems to be a taboo among people in general, and when people openly admit that they are Christians and that they love living in the Christian way because they really do experience God fully, then they get condemned, criticised and often emarginated for it. Placing football ahead of God is ultimately that that I mentioned earlier - giving an increased level of importance to something materialistic as opposed to giving that increased level of importance to Him. It seems as if for the most part, the general societal perception is that God is not 'cool' enough for such people, and hence society finds it easy to take the mickey out of the segment of society that really does make an effort to be better Christians and incorporate Him more in their lives. While this isn't right, it's unfortunately reality - and as we all know, reality is something that we have to live with.

We, as Christians, must try to change this perception as much as we can; but while it isn't impossible (as nothing is impossible for God), we have to acknowledge fully that we have a major battle on our hands to do so.

God Bless You all!
Matti

*Following an important distinction between 'fanaticism' and 'fan', it is important to realise that I have been referring to the latter all throughout. The context has been edited to reflect this.

Back to Reality...

2009-09-16T23:20:00.005+02:00

Summer is finally coming to an end, and that means that winter is going to start rearing its relatively ugly head sooner rather than later. Special times lie ahead for us all as the majority of us start another scholastic year, about to venture into the unknown with regards what our new - or old - subjects will consist of. Us law students, for instance, have the horror of having to endure the Law of Obligations (which is a fancy term for Contract Law) and the difficulties associated with the subject; while others, for example those doing European Studies or History of Art as their principal area of study, have to write their thesis with a view to graduating at the end of 2010. We too will graduate, but our degree sadly counts for nothing in today's world.

I can't deny that overall, barring a couple of blips here and there, it has been an outstanding summer for myself. This has been pretty much the first summer ever where I could do what I feel like doing and not be judged for it; it has been a summer which has practically always been surrounded by many a friend. Adventures here and there, a trip abroad at the end of June, two weekends in Gozo... that's just a taster of what it's been like. It's pretty much been better than I expected. I've been able to overcome a barrier that I built up about being extremely conscious of my image and bulging stomach and start going to the beach with more regularity; I managed to get out of the house on a daily basis to go and work and get some hard-earned cash; I managed to understand the true meaning of combining work with leisure. It's been a summer of experiences, of which I do not regret any one bit.

At the same time, I also believe I managed to maintain my relationship with God and not abandon it, as it would have been mightily easy to do so with such a packed timetable. Having friends that bathe in His presence all the time has also managed to help me fulfil this. Also fantastic is the fact that the older youths from the Marana Tha' Community and us youths from Y4J have grown closer as time passed by; to the extent that we're now practically always with one another constantly. This can also be seen through the fact that these people are now coming to Y4J meetings on a regular basis; indeed, I feel the need to reciprocate and start going to Marana Tha' as well in order to experience how they experience God over there, and to try and grow further closer not only to them, but also to Him.

But now, it's almost time to get back to the reality of things - not seeing one another and being in each other's company on a daily basis, not doing what we want to do... just getting back into hardcore study mode. And boy is it needed this year, of all years. It's been great while it lasted though... and as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end!

God Bless You all!
Matti

Just Feel Sorry!

2009-09-06T10:21:00.004+02:00

In football, we often say that own goals are an unfortunate circumstance. They're things that don't happen extremely often, but when they do, they leave the culprit very much embarrassed, having in no uncertain manner helped the opposing team towards a (more) positive result.

The most sinking feeling, though, is when an own goal leads your opponents to victory. You feel completely at fault for your team's loss, are vilified in the press afterwards and probably grilled by the team coach for being so lacklustre. You know that had you not intervened at that particular moment, then you wouldn't be faced with such problems; although you might be criticised for slackness in defence, letting your marker free etc - all the technical details behind a game of football.

So imagine how Kakhaber Kaladze is currently feeling after scoring not just one, but TWO own goals in Italy's 2-0 win over Georgia. Both were rather aesthetically pleasing goals too, might I add - the first being a bullet header into the roof of the net, while the second was a sliced half-volley which the keeper could not parry due to him in part being crap and in part being stunned at the howler that his team captain was having.

Rumour now has it that AC Milan patron Silvio Berlusconi is thinking of awarding Kaladze with an honorary Italian citizenship for his exploits and telling his coach Leonardo to play him in his preferred position of central defence for the rest of the season. If he continues like this, the next time Inter and Milan meet in the derby, the nerazzurri will probably run out 6-0 winners!

God Bless You all!
Matti

Stop, Think and Write

2009-09-02T10:17:00.002+02:00

The weird thing about of all this is that when I update my blog, I normally have something to blog about. By elimination of all the logical things that you would associate with blogs, that would probably be THE most logical. Alas, this is a time where logic doesn't really fall into place, as it's one of those times where I really don't have anything in particular to write about. Indeed, at the moment, I'm writing just to say that I'm writing something; for no reason other than that. I don't need to write, I just want to write. I don't need to update my blog, I just feel the need to - even if it is with some useless crap such as this.

Anyway, I'm realising that as time goes by, I'm perhaps becoming more and more impatient and also more easily irritable as a person. It's as if 'old age syndrome' has really set in on me, judging on the way that I'm talking at the moment! I don't know why, it's one of those mysteries of life, I suppose. Patience is a virtue, my mother always tells me, and it's something that I tend to lack. I'm finding myself getting more and more ticked off at when people, including myself, make ridiculously stupid mistakes, for example. Not that I was ever patient in that regard, but anyway.

As contradictory as this sounds though, this summer has taught me, to a certain extent, to control my 'impatience' levels. You see, when you're teaching students who, for the most part, do not know a word of English, you really do have to be patient as the probability is that you'll have to explain various points twice, thrice, four times or even five times until they remotely understand it. I suppose that that patience arises from the fact that 99% of the time, such students didn't know any better - after all, they were here to learn the language and not irritate me with their visible lack of knowledge of it. That's not to say that I lost my temper once or twice with some of my classes this summer, especially with those at Spanish School, who sometimes seemed as willing to learn as much as a wooden spoon would.

It's obvious that it's not the above that bugs me, as otherwise I wouldn't have taken up the job in the first place. It's obvious now that it's something more along the lines of grossly stupid comments or a grossly irritable character that sends me driving up the four walls of my room. And unfortunately, there are so many of these people that it isn't even funny. Granted, you have to grant concessions and be lenient as occasionally, stupidities emerge from all of our mouths; but when these are constant, you have to wonder whether the IQ of the person in question even surpasses a measly 80 or is on the level of George W. Bush.

The solution to all this? There isn't really. I suppose the best thing would be to try and avoid these people at all costs, before I explode into a million smithereens. Anyway, rant over.

God Bless You all!
Matti

The Story Behind My Brothers and Sisters

2009-08-19T21:14:00.004+02:00

You know, being an only child has its pros and its cons. And being in that position that not too many seem to experience nowadays, I feel a comment coming from me on something like this is only apt.

It certainly makes you think. That is why, being in such a position that I am, I often crave for brothers and sisters now. I always ask the question "What if?" and always consider how I would have developed as an individual had I directly had other people around me. I definitely consider the fact that I wouldn't be half as fortunate as I am today, what with my situation and all, but also consider the fact that being there, alone, without company... many a time, it just sucks.

That's why I feel the need to be so close to my friends. The friends that I crave so badly. That's why, I guess, there were moments when I really felt lonely when I wasn't - and everyone else was - at Soul Survivor. You see, when you're an only (I can't believe that that was initially typed as 'old'!!) child, friends become such an integral part of your life to the extent that you can't live without them. Practically ever. I suppose that's exactly the reason why I consider a select group of my friends like my brothers and my sisters. Take note though, there's a difference in calling them brother and sister as opposed to brethren. By virtue of the way how I see things, at least - even though I may not be right in thinking in this manner - brethren are our brothers and sisters in Christ, while brothers and sisters are those people that you can rely on in thick and thin and keep close to your heart at all times. They are our pillars of strength.

Missing Soul Survivor did indeed teach me one thing though - always continue looking for such brothers and sisters, because you can practically never have enough of them. Over the course of the last week, despite the fact that I could have occasionally died of boredom, I'm pleased to say that I managed to find another person who I can add to this list; a person who I've been very fond and held in high regard for quite a while now (and vice-versa), despite our differences. So yeah, welcome to my 'family'. It's not exactly a big one, but slowly slowly, and very selectively, it is growing... though sometimes, you might also have to temporarily or permanently chuck out some members so that you make sure you're always surrounded by the right crowd.

Sorry if this didn't make any sense, I just needed to get it off my chest. And on a side note, thank goodness - THEY'RE BACK! (even though its now been two days and hence this blog is, I guess two days late in its publication.)

God Bless You all!
Matti

And that Time has come Again...

2009-08-11T19:54:00.003+02:00

Please note that this blog might indeed not make sense. It isn't being written to do so. It's being written to vent, as a form of frustration, as a means of wanting to cry.

It's August 11. Tomorrow morning, as I'm waking up at 7.25, preparing for work, I should in reality be at the airport awaiting a flight to England. Indeed though, I'm not. It's that time of year where Soul Survivor is back upon us. It's that time of year where this website will nearly celebrate its one year anniversary - this blog was created post-SS so that I could relate to how pepped up and how charged with God's energy I came back from Shepton Mallet last year. Alas though, as I said, this year... it's just not to be.

And boy oh boy does the night before the majority of your friends going up to feeling that whole amazingness of God stink. Granted, not being with a lot of my friends for a week is something hard to cope with, but one that I'll get over as I'm that kind of person. I can live by myself, without any qualms. It's the fact that God's incredible power is felt so much at SS and that I won't be able to be part of it and feel it in the same manner that I did last year that is the real let down. At first, I was living with it, I was coping with it, I felt I could manage to conceal it in the same way that I conceal a lot of the other things that go on in my life. In a nutshell, I managed to tolerate it. At the pre-SS party, I was starting to get a bit nostalgic about it all, but still managing - perhaps admirably - to fend off any emotion. But now, I just can't any longer. Seriously. It's like I'm a time bomb that has just exploded.

But you know, there is a positive to all this. It really shows how much closer I've become to God over the last year or so. I don't think I would have ever even envisaged writing such a piece one and a half years ago, and yet, look at me today. I believe that this shows that I cannot do without being close to God; without God. And you know, this whole issue might just make me pray more over the course of the week and make me all the stronger by the end of it all.

So bye to all those going up tomorrow morning - Mark, Jeremy, Lanfranco, Mike, Matt, Bettina, Achie, Krissie, Becky, Nicola... all of you, insomma - and really place your energy and your prayers, especially for the first-timers, into getting further close to God. It's something that works and something that is seriously irreplaceable. And while you're there, pray that I don't melt in the sweltering heat that one of my buildings at work possesses because fuses randomly go off in the middle of the day, leaving the place devoid of electricity.

God Bless You all!
Matti

And the Hypocrite of the Year Award goes to...

2009-08-08T18:21:00.006+02:00

... The Maltese Local Wardens for the theme of "Law Enforcement" vis-a-vis the example that they themselves promote. In this case, the warden would be liable for three offences - parking on a double yellow line, parking too close to the corner of another road and not parking within one of the designated white parking bays found in the street.

This photo was taken in Howard Street, Sliema (ok, yes, while driving) as the wardens in question were having a coke and a relaxing chat with a man who owns a greengrocer van.

God Bless You all!
Matti

Lamentations of a Sick Person

2009-08-04T22:35:00.003+02:00

Slightly blocked nose, sleepy eyes and the occasional irritable cough. An exterior facet of myself at the moment would simply lead you to believe that I have slight version of the common cold, which develops around four times faster than my resistance to it does, judging on how many times a year I fall ill with one of these perpetual pests. Yet, ridiculously, this hullabaloo has descended into my chest and as a result of this, I'm on antibiotics to solve/cure/remedy the problem. Fantastic, just what on earth you want to face during the summer months.

Well, it gives me time to update my blog because people currently naturally don't want me around them. I always felt that was the case, but anyway. I can understand the whole notion of being in isolation but anyway, I think it would have made more sense had it applied to everyone as basically, around 50% of the people that I know have some kind of a cold. I guess it's that kind of season in Malta, then. Now I'll be looking into whether I'll be "banned" from going out tomorrow (Wednesday) as well. The stupid thing is that I know I'm not going to feel any better by staying inside, as I'm just mixing existing germs with new found ones. Anyway, needless to say, I'm not one to be given orders and will not stand for any crap that people proclaim. Basically, I'm going to do what I want to do. Hence, even next Sunday for example, if I want to come to the pre-Soul Survivor party just to spite (a) certain individual(s), then I jolly well am going to do so. You know, it's actually good to be an asshole in certain circumstances.

Otherwise, life isn't too bad at the moment. Obviously, me being sick has resulted in me staying here and not going to work in order to not spread the germs to my co-workers; I have to take them into consideration and not the students who I'd be teaching as the latter didn't exactly show much consideration towards me when they were sick for the majority of their three week stay on the island! I'm actually stunned at how long it took for me to get sick, considering the rather terrible immune system that I possess. Trying to incorporate a social life into a working one has, however, been a major challenge for me, one which I feel that so far has worked quite well. Although more often than not I've had to leave places relatively early so as to be at work on time and intact the next morning, which can be irritating, I feel that being able to incorporate both spheres of work and leisure into my life has made me become a more complete person and even appreciate further the time that I have with my friends, time which I now cannot take for granted as much as I used to before.

And to keep the blog rather short, I will sign off here. A final word of thought goes out to the Psaila family, in particular Simon, whose mother passed away this morning. Knowing first hand what it is like to lose a dear, loved one, you are constantly in my thoughts and prayers through this difficult time, but you will ultimately find solace in God.

God Bless You all!
Matti

Heal the World...

2009-07-12T20:26:00.003+02:00

Make it a better place
For you and for me
And the entire human race
There are people dying
If you care enough
For the living
Make a better place
For you and for me

Finally, the blog I've been waiting to write for a rather lengthy period of time!

Perhaps a positive thing to come out of Michael Jackson's life was this song. The lyrics to it are amazing beyond belief and can be interpreted on so many different levels, as well as can be applied to anything and everything. However, the main message behind it all is that the world is currently in a state of degeneration and that we have to act before it is way too late for us to do so. And believe it or not, Michael Jackson is right.

Take it from an environmental level, for example. Jackson said that if we care enough for the living, then we should make [the world] a better place for you and for me. Yes, we have EU-set targets regarding pollution, carbon emissions and other things so that the world can eventually be a better, more sustainable place for our children and our children's children to live in, but unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that we continue to pollute and harm the environment more and more day after day. Myself included, unfortunately (switches off air-conditioning). How will out current activities haphazardly affect future generations? And looking even at our lives, are our own actions as well as those of our predecessors going to really be costly when we approach the latter stages of life?

What about the level of poverty? We all know that there are many families in the world struggling to make ends meet in many circumstances, so should we, as developed countries, continue to increase such a burden on the citizens of these countries as well? Humanitarian aid is undoubtedly needed here; and furthermore, I believe that such aid would also be part of a major solution to problems such as illegal immigration. Part of the EU's budget allegedly goes to such third world countries in order to help them fund solutions to the problems that they face. But giving money is simply not enough - it's useless having money if you don't know how to spend it. Hence, the money should be invested not only in the basic necessities such as housing and clean water for everybody, but also education for younger and older generations so that they learn how things should be done. Of course, much of this is idealistic (in terms of how such things can be implemented), and unfortunately, will probably remain this way for many a year to come.

However, my main thought about how the world could be healed and made a better place is through Jesus. It is of great concern that there are many people who are now converting to the Muslim religion and that this is growing and slowly becoming a stronger world influence. Nowadays, for example, 16% of the French population is Muslim. If numbers remained at those levels, then it would (kind of) be fine, but the reality is that everything in this regard is on the increase. Proof of this is not just shown via the conversion rate, but also by the marked lack of Christian births vis-a-vis Muslim births. There is a strong need for evangelisation to take place, for us Christians to spread Jesus' word for the word that it is and make this world a better and righteous place. This is not to say that I am condemning other religions, but the main purpose behind this message is to continue to ensure that people know that Jesus died for them on the Cross.

Recently, I was told a story that regarded a conversion of faith. One person constantly kept on telling the head of a gang that Jesus loved them; eventually, this person was threatened with death if he said the phrase "Jesus loves you" one more time. This individual told the gang leader that even if he cut him up into 1,000 pieces, each piece would still say that "Jesus loves you". The gang leader then converted. As difficult as it may be, we have to have blind faith in Jesus and His mission for us all - no matter how different that may be - as well his plan for the world. We have to believe that as Jesus' representatives on earth, we are called by Him to indeed make that world a better place, for you and for me and the entire human race. We have to stomp out the deaths of Christianity, i.e. eliminate those conversions from Christianity to another religion, and really proclaim that which He told us. We also have to stop turning away from Jesus and moving towards deviant things, as unfortunately often happens especially during teenage; and stick by his side through thick and thin. Having said that, there is no doubt that even if we do walk away from Jesus, He still loves us so much that He will welcome us back with open arms at any time, just like the father did in the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

I will conclude here, but remember - we're here to make the world a better place! Like what is often done in scouts, one's motto in life should be to leave a place better than how one found it at the beginning of something. Why can't we invest some time into something that is so precious not just to use, but also to future generations?

Heal the World guys.

God Bless You all!
Matti

A Major Downfall in our Lives

2009-06-20T12:24:00.006+02:00

This is STILL not the topic that I wanted to blog about; indeed, I believe that I will be blogging about that topic come July, after my trip to Strasbourg and Brussels. Or I'll just continue procrastinating in that regard until I really do feel like sitting down and writing a lengthy essay/argumentation on that topic in particular. Rest assured though readers, whoever you may be, I haven't forgotten what I want to write about.

Today's blog, however, takes me to something that I believe is quite important, yet there mightn't be too much to talk about. It's about the notion of peer pressure. It's a notion that, in my opinion, kills others. It's a notion that stinks. And yet, it's a notion that many a time, we subscribe to because we're either not mentally strong enough to resist it and/or so that we prove that we can be like other people as well. Of course, not everything amounts to peer pressure - far from it - but one might be surprised at how many times we do come across this in our lives.

One clear example that affected me personally was the ticket sale for the upcoming Ministry of Sound Festival, for which quite a few of my friends were selling tickets. Apart from the fact that I'm off abroad tomorrow and hence wouldn't have been able to make it anyway, I stated, from the offset, that I didn't want to go to it. As many people know, I'm not a party animal in the least - whether that's to my detriment or advantage, I'm yet to find out - and so when things like this crop up, I either very very rarely go along to such parties or just skip out on them altogether. I simply do not enjoy them, there is no other explanation for it.

As I mentioned, some of my friends were selling such tickets. Indeed, their marketing ploys were quite ingenious, if I say so myself, and I don't blame them - after all, they're probably earning commission on these tickets, and the more they sell, the more people come and the more commission they get. So initially, I was asked whether I intended to attend tonight's festival, to which I gave a prompt 'no' as a reply. Once. Twice. Thrice. Four times. By the fourth time, it was evident enough that I was trying to be forced into attending this party - reasons used to try and convince me were that there were going to be many of my friends there and that the party would be attended by eight international DJs. All fine and dandy, but I stuck to my guns and continued to refuse to purchase a ticket, citing it to be a waste of money for myself. Of course, even that statement was used against me, as I was told that I was generalising by saying that like that, everyone was wasting their money when it wasn't the case, and that it was "my loss" if I didn't attend. I was even offered a complimentary ticket and I also turned it down. To put it in a short sentence, I rejected everyone's offers and ploys. And as a consequence, I didn't succumb to peer pressure.

Another such example of peer pressure stems from something so common to many of us as well - attending Y4J or Community. It's no secret that every move that we make and every action that we do is scrutinised much more than that of the ordinary reasonable man in the street, as we are meant to be the people giving out positive messages and examples to society. Indeed, it comes as no surprise to me that teenagers who are just starting to go out to Paceville on Friday evenings are either pressured into drinking excessively with their friends in order to not feel left out of the crowd or in order to match such friends' exploits, for instance. However, this doesn't mean that one shouldn't go out, have a couple of drinks and not enjoy himself or herself. On the contrary, pleasure is an important aspect of people's lives - the most important thing though is that people know their limitations and don't succumb to doing anything stupid. On the other hand, it also comes as no surprise to me when such friends try to convince you to do otherwise with your life; more often that not leading these people down the wrong paths. It's part of a vicious life cycle; it happens; it is present among us. In my opinion, we have to be mentally strong to reject these overtures that other people offer us, because while they might initially look fantastic to the eye; in reality, it's far from the case.

I'm in no way condemning anything or anyone here, but the message behind this is that if you don't want to go to something, no matter how much people believe otherwise and try and convince you to the contrary, then follow what your head and heart say, and not what other people's heads and hearts believe. Sometimes it actually takes a hard-headed individual to stand up for his or her own beliefs in life and not succumb to peer pressure and, indeed, perhaps I am such a hard-headed individual. However, if through my head-headedness I can give an example of how to lead a better life, then so be it; perhaps God is using one of my generally negative tools for good to be done!

God Bless You all!
Matti

Electric Shock

2009-06-17T13:58:00.004+02:00

Well, I was going to write a blog about something else today, or sometime in the future, as my next blog, but I think I'll put that on hold as I don't really feel like thinking at the moment and I also don't exactly have the time to do so. So I think I'll talk electricals instead.

Yesterday was a bit of a pants day to say the least as the uber-competent staff at Enemalta ensured that there was not just one fault, but two major faults that occurred within the same day, hence rendering the island completely devoid of electricity, unless one was the owner of a generator (which would have definitely come in useful). I'm generally not one to complain about Malta, unless it comes to the pitiful state of our roads, but I felt that yesterday was a bit way over the top. Thank goodness I was driving around with the Air Conditioning on 90% of the time, as otherwise I would have boiled myself to death.

Blackouts do occur from time to time but you do expect workers to be able to fix any potential faults within the next hour, and not take a total of four or five hours per fault to restore electricity to the island, as like what happened yesterday. At my house, for instance, the lights didn't come on before midnight, which is downright shameful. The overall result of this is that there is a loss of commerce, a loss of patience and plenty more hot-heads than we already have roaming the island.

Yesterday's events and their subsequent consequences got me thinking that it's high time that Enemalta were rid of the monopoly that they have over the water and electricity supply on the island(s) and some competition was introduced. First and foremost, we would be seeing the end of the sky high bills that come once bimonthly, as prices would be reduced drastically due to the fact that Enemalta would be competing against another company, or other companies. Secondly, this would also ensure that the arrogance within the corporation itself - starting from their Chairman, Ing. Alexander Tranter - is eliminated. During a recent speech, for instance, Ing. Tranter claimed at how dedicated Enemalta are to giving the best service to all Maltese by focusing on various projects; something which, if you had to ask me, is a bunch of bull because seeing that they're the only provider on the island, they can continue doing that that they are currently doing, i.e. charging exorbitant rates for an inadequate (and that's putting it mildly!) service. Thirdly, this would also provide the Maltese with another electricity grid to fall back upon if such another power fault crops up. Such a power company does not have to be based in Malta; indeed, it can be based in Sicily and be linked to Malta via an underwater cable. The only snag is that Enemalta are also embarking on this project to connect the islands to the European grid.

Oh well, how you wish things could sometimes change.

God Bless You all!
Matti

Summer, Summer and more of Summer

2009-06-13T09:21:00.005+02:00

It's good to be free! And might I add, with nothing to do and, furthermore, nothing to write, this blog will once again depart my normal writing style...

Summer officially commenced the best part of 46.5 hours ago, at the time of writing, and although my first day off was weird to say the least, mainly because I came home to sleep after Criminal Law and I was just drained from all the studying! As I initially couldn't grasp what to do with, well, nothing to do, things have now started falling into place slowly slowly and the routine of having full days without studying is sinking in.

Surprisingly, I haven't been waking up half as late as I expected to be up. In all fairness, I found it easier to procrastinate in bed and get back to sleep when I needed to study as opposed to doing that now - no matter how early or how late I'm sleeping! The mind boggles, I guess...

I'm a tad disappointed because I got my official start date for work yesterday afternoon, and I end up by starting on July 14! That's a month from now... oh well, blame it on the credit crunch, I guess. This is what happens when you need cash so much because, well, you're so devoid of it... dramatic irony to say the least!

Yesterday was fantastic :) Got myself out of the messy, rugged look that I had with a three-week old beard and hair that hadn't been cut for two months, so now I'm once again a skin head and clean shaven. You could say that I look like a normal potato as opposed to a hairy potato now :) Then went to Lanf for a while because Lanf is Lanf and it's always worth going to his place :) and then headed off to Ghadira in the afternoon for some fun in the sun with friends! Needless to say; actually, as is always the case, I had to encounter some kind of adventure while on the road and yesterday was no exception - traffic in Salina at the weirdest of times, 10 past 2 in the afternoon, as well as me allegedly nearly crashing into Drea's mother. I'll say this for the 5th or 6th time now, when you're turning a roundabout - and I was when Drea's mother was driving up to it - then it the car who is turning the roundabout who has the right of way! The drive home from Ghadira was also a class act ;) And everyone seems to agree with me on this apart from Drea :p And insomma, then Nicola's 18th in the evening was superb, thanks Nic :)

Before I go, a shout out to Becky from here as she's either just off or about to jet off to Cambridge as I type :) Enjoy it and make the most of it Bec!

I now know what I will be writing about in my next blog; a more serious topic naturally, but I will not reveal until I start writing!

God Bless You all!
Matti

A Lack of Reflection

2009-06-05T22:21:00.003+02:00

Well, it's been practically a whole week since my last blog, which generated quite a debate to say the least; a debate that I was very pleased about. In the meantime, a whole host of students have finished their exams and are already enjoying the fruits of not doing anything academically-related for a while as their summer has started, and that also means that my entertainment during these dragging times, such as Lanfranco's vlogs, will probably be no more as of the latest installment today... Anyway, as of the time of writing, 5 days, 12 hours and 35 minutes are left until I too can start to enjoy my freedom!

Tomorrow is the day where, according to estimates, around 62% of eligible voters will head to the polls for the second time in 15 months, this time to determine who will be representing Malta in the European Parliament. And while today we're meant to be "reflecting" on how the electoral campaigns have developed and who should be getting our votes, I'm still blogging about it because I don't abide by the rules. Oh, and by the way, some of us - myself included - have Local Council Elections to contend with as well, but I'm not very bothered about those because Councils do jack. When the Council magazine pops into my mailbox once every two months and I open it up to see what projects the Council has undertaken in this period of time, I practically want to start crying when, for instance, they say that they created a "traffic management" scheme in Triq Salvu Bonanno by literally painting a white oval line in the middle of a massively asphalted area. Pathetic.

So, back to my point. Tomorrow, we will be voting for five candidates who we believe are ideal to represent us in the European Parliament for the next 5 years. Or, alternatively, for any amount of time as they may wish, provided an opportunity to become Leader of one of Malta's main political parties arises due to death or simply the incapability of those running the show at either end of the political spectrum at the moment in time. I'm not one to normally show political apathy, but in this case, I can't help but do so. The Nationalist Party know that they're heading for a heavy defeat at tomorrow's polls, and the Labour Party know that they're heading for a landslide victory, just as they did in 2004.

And quite frankly, I couldn't care less. All we've heard - generally - is that these candidates, be it from whatever political tendencies that they might have, are definitely the best to represent us in Europe because of a plethora of reasons, some of which don't even have anything to do with the European Union. My opinion is that all these candidates are going to be there to represent the best interests of their pockets come the full implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, which will see the five (six) elected representatives pocket a cool €400,000 a year, excluding all the perks, expenses, accommodation etc. That works out to a salary of €8,333.33 a week; you could be mistaken that these people would be playing football for a professional club with such wages. So yes, we're essentially voting, first and foremost, for these people to pick up a big pay cheque.

I don't really see the European Parliament as an institution that works. Fine, its power will be increasing with the ratification of Lisbon, but what has really affected Malta via the European Parliament since our entry into the EU? Simon Busuttil might have presented an incredibly important report on irregular immigration, but Frontex has hardly helped solved our problems. On the contrary, they seemed to increase. Italy, on the other hand, seem to have really got the message across by sending boatloads of immigrants back to source, because unless I'm living in dreamland, I haven't really heard of any incidents involving the arrival of such immigrants since the last boat that was sent back to Africa. Further to that, the only important piece of news is that Busuttil was the most active MEP, and David Casa attended most plenary sessions. Otherwise though, there's practically no news regarding Malta that comes out of the European Parliament, whose function, it seems, is just to give their assent to newly-promulgated European Law and approve the European budget.

To conclude, as I don't want this blog to be too long, I'll just say that I will nonetheless be voting tomorrow despite these factors that I've mentioned, added to the fact that these people are going to be elected nonetheless even if I don't vote, so I might as well have my say as long as democracy permits me to do so. Furthermore, despite how arrogant the Government has become and how lacklustre the last 15 months have been for Malta overall, I will still be voting for the Nationalist candidates based on their European track record over the last 5 years, and nothing more than that. It's been difficult for me to consider European issues over national ones, but that's exactly what has to be done in such a circumstance. While the EP is a bit of a big joke, at least the PN seem to treat less as such as opposed to the PL. And I'm not even going into the merits of whether they are still anti-EU or not, I think that now this is a consideration that should be dropped once and for all, albeit still valid in a sense. Anyway, as long as idiots like Glenn Bedingfield don't get elected once again...

God Bless You all!
Matti

Community, in Every Sense of the Word

2009-05-31T01:48:00.005+02:00

Good morning, everyone.

On the drive home last night, I realised that sometimes there is nothing better than having a one-to-one conversation with the sole passenger in your car. Which, naturally, I duly did when I took Ivan home after hanging out, yet again (though less successfully than last week, if you catch my drift!) at Surfside. Now, while generally our conversations border on the utterly ridiculous, mimicking one another over Concrete, Fluid Mechanics, Structures, Commercial Law and Administrative Law, among other crazy topics, this time we actually decided to talk serious. We decided to talk about the Pentecost Vigil that we had both attended at St. Paul's Bay earlier on in the evening.

We both agreed wholeheartedly that it was probably one of the most boring things that we had ever attended, as a community, in our lives. It isn't inaccurate to say that the Vigil was dragging in nature, more dragging than that that we expected, to be quite honest. The nature of the whole ceremony made many a person, ourselves included, incredibly impatient and frustrated. And it was the same kind of frustration that the general public would feel whenever Mourinho would give some sort of a speech, so that definitely wasn't good at all. We also both agreed that maybe we shouldn't have gone to the Vigil because of these reasons.

However, Ivan then brought up a very valid point. He said that at Y4J, we tend to put the fun into worshipping God, and that's a big reason why people continue to come back and worship, and subsequently build a relationship with God. Which is fine, naturally, because it's as if you're "killing two birds with one stone". After doing it for the first time, however, and getting used to it, it practically becomes easy to do this. He continued by saying that this can be fully contrasted to the ceremony that we just attended, which was drab, dragging and boring to say the least. Due to our popular notion of praising God in a 'cool way', we tend to forget that there are other ways of praising God and indeed being in His presence as well, such as this. The reality is that the Church, in Malta at least, isn't like Y4J or Community, with live worship to indeed help people feel God's presence, but is totally different and sticks to more traditional notions; notions which us, as youths and teenagers, seem to commonly forget. As a result, if we don't integrate ourselves into the Church, then we will simply remain a bubble extraneous to it, so maybe in that sense, we do need to change.

Continuing on the notion of the Church, I then commented that the Church in Malta however does not have a mentality worthy of the year 2009, but one that is 30 to 40 years in the past. There is no sense of modernisation or reform happening in the Church in order to keep up with the times, it is essentially just stuck in the times when Vatican II emerged, i.e. the times when John XXIII was Pope. Granted, this is a massive improvement from hearing Mass in Latin (God forbid!) and priests not facing the crowd when saying their homilies, to quote Ivan, but these are reforms that happened donkeys years ago now. Sometimes, I believe that the Mass, albeit extremely significant, is intangible and incommunicable with the current times. And unfortunately, such reform cannot simply start from the priests themselves, or from the people - although they must all play a part - but from the Pope. There seems to be a drastic need for a Vatican III to emerge; something which, however, both Ivan and I were of the belief that it might have happened under John Paul II, God bless his soul, but will definitely not happen under Benedict XVI.

The Church really has to be the ultimate meeting point for a community, in every sense of the word. At the moment, while it is trying to promote this notion, I believe that it is unfortunately failing at this and is actually driving away more people from the Church instead of drawing them towards this.

I hope you understood my points outlined above; I'm sorry if they're slightly incoherent but I needed to get this off my chest and placed in writing before I forget it upon waking up tomorrow morning and not even having time to blog due to studies.

God Bless You all!
Matti

Of Countdowns and Observations

2009-05-28T23:13:00.004+02:00

While the build up on my MSN nickname has been intense as ever in the last 14 odd days, today, the official countdown to the end of exams - and eventual promotion to LL.B. III (already!) - has now started with the completion of exam one out of four. At the time of writing, us law students are precisely 1 week, 6 days, 11 hours and 45 minutes away from freedom! Anyway, I'm happy to announce that Commercial Law remained as predictable as the past papers indicated it would be, and I'm also happy to announce that that will probably be the easiest 10 credit exam that I sat for in my life. Seriously. Let's now hope that the Commercial honchos aren't the worst or strictest of markers out there, to the extent that they have to get off their high horses to appreciate that with studying, the student can produce some good answers in an exam.

Onto this afternoon's happenings, where I was drafted into EF for Teaching Observation. To be honest, I didn't go in with many high hopes because I thought it would be a waste of time, but I actually ended up by realising how much one can learn from others with a certain amount of experience, no matter how short the sessions at hand are. This doesn't mean that I will not be adopting my own teaching style come when I settle into the job at the end of June, despite my inexperience, but it did help calm my fears about teaching being a real hard ordeal. When one has textbooks at his disposal, the ordeal automatically becomes a hell of a lot easier, and then it's simply up to the teacher to be in control of the class. At least, that's how I felt it.

And in a blog that is bereft of ideas, I might as well fill up another mini-paragraph with one common sentiment: for the one time that I went there to study; last Thursday, to be precise, because of the presence of the maid at home; I actually miss Room 101! Okay, maybe not the room itself, but the company that is associated with it. Seeing that I feel capable of getting more content done at home, this has kind of left people like myself a bit socially deprived during the week due to the fact that, well, I'm staying indoors! On the other end of the scale, however, I really am thanking God that I didn't take Architecture as a course at University... while I, and other law students, might be going bonkers over Administrative and Criminal Law now, our 'bonkers' is simply nothing compared to that suffered in Architecture. I actually pity the people there... and a clear example of what they're passing through can be seen and illustrated clearly by none other than the ever-increasingly popular Lanf! ;)

God Bless You all!
Matti

Nous sommes Francais, et nous buvons trop ce soir.

2009-05-24T22:03:00.006+02:00

What better way to spend your evening on a beach, with one too many guitars playing away, in the midst of exam time just before summer?

Well, post-Y4J, that's what we did last night. And while I was seeing both this and my pizza from Surfside, which cost me the best part of a tasteless €7.50, as slightly extra at around 11pm, I can now safely look back and say that you should have no regrets about what you do in life. Whether you sing to your heart's content, whether you die swimming with sharks, whether you kill someone in a car accident... ok, yes, maybe you should live to regret the latter. But you get my point, it turned out being one quite enjoyable night by the end of it all.

It's a pity that some people weren't there, as they missed the humorous bit of it all. After the majority left, to the extent that we were a group of around 12 people, we had an adoring audience looking down at us from the Tower Road promenade above. They were French. And while we initially thought that they would just peer and move on, like many other people did, these decided to come down and listen to us play and sing away. And poor Matt just had to get the worst bit of it all, with these three French women all looking on in awe at him. Poor chap, I actually pitied him - if they were somewhat attractive, I don't think I'd be writing in this manner, but calling him one lucky chap instead.

Well, naturally, for them not to be disappointed, and to be at least slightly courteous on our behalf, we tried seeing which songs we could either play or sing along to that they also knew about. In their alcohol-induced state. Obviously, what with the difference in cultures, finding common ground was about as common as finding a pothole in our roads. Two, three, possibly four songs later - we had exhausted our list and them seemingly theirs - we just resorted to playing our own thing, and went to worship songs. And this was after we played Mike's 'wildcard' song, James Blunt's "Beautiful", to them as well. Anyhow, while this makes us people - me excluded - dance sometimes out of the grace of God, this actually started to make some of them dance as if there were dancing to some form of tango. Weird.

The worst bit though was that the more we wanted them to leave - which they finally did, at around 1am - the more they actually stayed on (adoring Matt and staring at the stars in awe)! This, we could see, was interspersed with the occasional cigarette, drink, and piss further down the beach for a couple of this group. How touching. The cherry on the cake is when they finally left though, and they thought that we were performing for them, as they asked poor Mike now (yes, poor Mike) for his mobile number so that they find out when we would next be on the beach. (I'm sorry, I still can't resist the laughs right now!) Yes, of course, any number was taken down out of common courtesy, but I'm 150% sure that we aren't giving these people a call before our next "gig".

The motto of this story? "Nous sommes Francais, et nous buvons trop ce soir."

Au revoir, and God Bless You all!
Matti

Random (Miscellaneous) Occurrences

2009-05-19T23:12:00.005+02:00

I think I'll fit in a short blog from the comfort of my bed before I get under the sheet and into my dreams. I'm also already half-asleep as it stands so please forgive me if there are any typos or any form of poor English. It happens when you're tired.

Today was an eventful yet uneventful day. Of course, it consisted in the normal amount of study time - today was my second scheduled day in which to study, and conclude, the notions of rape. I ably managed to do so by 5 p.m.; I feel that that was quite an achievement. I think tomorrow I'll study about managers in Commercial Law in order to vary the different topics that I have. I've been doing Criminal for around the last 5 days or so now and, to be honest, it's starting to get a bit annoying looking at the same provisions of the law day in, day out. So there's no better solution to that other than by looking at different laws instead! Oh well, on this point, I will cheer up, for surely anything is better than studying concrete or fluid mechanics...

Good old QIQ. It always has some kind of new problem, the poor car that has been through so much under my totalitarian regime. Today's episode was a slow puncture, or so I believed. So I decided to be a smart guy this morning and drive on it down to the nearest tyre guy. Luckily for me, after a thorough check, it turns out there was no slow puncture at all, and the tyre just needed to be inflated. Oh well, I'm not one who likes to get my hands messy in this regard and I'll be the first to say that I haven't checked my tires in kingdom come. Or around 2 months. But at least only the right indicator remains problematic at this stage in time.

Today I took to the football pitch for what I believe has got to be the final game of the season. At least pre-exams. And I realised that as soon as you take a week off, due to the flu in my case, you suddenly lose match fitness in the blink of an eye. True, we didn't play for that long today - an hour and ten minutes to be precise, of which 45 of them must have been in goal - but I felt rather exhausted by the end of it all. Not even the sudden downpour of Gatorade into my body straight afterwards could really revitalise and reenergise me. It must also be due to the heat; summer really and truly is on us now. Or if it's not, it's just around the corner. For those who are interested in the game, there were around a million goals scored at either end, so it was a rather open match.

And I will conclude on that note, as well as a personal thank you to Krissie once again (this is what, around the fifth time I'm saying this tonight?) on teaching me how to print screen on the MacBook. The thing is that I desperately wanted a photo of myself (you can see on my Facebook profile picture if interested) but there was no way to just right click and save, because the photographer is kindly asking for the grand total of €6 for a print. Meaning that supposedly, it's not even obtainable in electronic format. Anyhow, I obviously (embarrassingly) didn't know how to do the wretched thing, but now I've learnt how and I've actually just been asked by another MacBook user how to do it. I've related the command successfully. Ah, you learn something new everyday. :)

God Bless You all!
Matti

I'm in Love With a Fairytale...

2009-05-18T23:05:00.004+02:00

... even though it hurts! Boy, is that song sticking in my head. It's got something to it which cheers me up whenever I attempt singing it, such as when writing notes. I just smile at it. Ah, well, weird.

Anyway, in what is rapidly becoming as addictive as Facebook, another post comes by your way today. And this time, it's about my poor self. As today, I decided to subject myself to studying what is almost definitely one of the most gruesome and descriptive topics in Criminal Law, that being the topic of rape.

Yes, us second year law students learn about rape. Needless to say, my volumes of notes on the topic are quite graphic, giving us poor souls plenty of ideas about how rape occurs, the different ways of it occurring, and other things. I don't think I really want to go into further detail than that, not because it's not apt (which it most certainly is not), but simply because I don't think it's right to start remembering that that I wrote during the day at around 10 past 11 at night.

These series of days leading up to my (our) final examinations are going to be uneventful to say the least. They mostly consist of waking up in the morning, having breakfast, studying, having lunch, studying, having dinner, possibly some more studying, free time on the computer and sleep. Subject to interspersed breaks during the study periods, as well as a final football game of the season (I managed to get myself fit just in time for the match due to me suffering from the flu last week) tomorrow evening.

This evening that plan was disrupted slightly as, seeing that I study in the kitchen and the living room is adjacent to it, and my mother wanted to see her favourite programme Days of Our Lives at quarter past 6, I had to retire for the day, especially considering that afterwards, I had to start getting ready for a family dinner. Normally, I don't enjoy these that much. You can understand why - I'm the youngest in the entire family and I'm 20. My eldest cousin is 31. HUGE gap. Oh well, in all fairness, time passed by quite quickly today and I actually didn't mind it at all, for a change. I guess it's nice to get together with the whole family sometimes just to be with them, even though my mouth, for once, didn't do much of the talking as I was stuffing it with spare ribs and, subsequently, After Eight ice-cream.

I think that's it for today. I don't really have much more to add on... I don't care if I lose my mind... I'm already cursed...

And yes, I acknowledge that the title of this blog, for once, has nothing to do with its content. :)

God Bless You all!
Matti

Take Three vs. Three, Two and Twenty-Two

2009-05-17T18:50:00.005+02:00

Something other than Sexual Offences in Criminal Law must be really stimulating me to write, as I can't believe that I'm blogging for the third time this week. And this time, it's an attempt at a reduced amount of words because everyone seems to like reading my blogs but then can't get past the halfway mark because they're simply too long! And I know that this little statement isn't exactly helping my cause, but anyway...

Well, this is kind of going to be a continuation of my previous blog. Because I'm simply too smug to let sleeping dogs lie.

I told you so. (And yes, that did need to be bolded and italicised.)

In my last entry, I mentioned - in a nutshell - that Chiara's third participation in the Eurovision was likely to be her downfall. And I was right. Despite giving what was, in my opinion, an extremely strong rendition of What if We, she only managed to garner a massively disappointing 31 points and finish 4th from last. In other words, in 22nd place. And this was something that Valerie, commenting uselessly on TVM, managed to describe as an 'achievement' for us because we actually reached the final. As soon as she said that, I was about to bang my head on the closest thing that was near me. Thank goodness I didn't, because poor Jeremy or Paul wouldn't have been feeling too great this morning.

Malta thought that the tried and tested formula for Eurovision success would once again work, even though the competition was at its strongest for the last few years. Europe thought otherwise. Truth be told, Malta did not deserve to finish 22nd and, based on her semi-final performance, Chiara should have actually been placing somewhere between 12th and 15th spot. Her song was definitely better than some of the trash that was placed on display last night. Alas, it was not to be. Furthermore, the introduction of national juries ended up by having little or no impact whatsoever on the 'neighbourly voting' scheme, as we saw the douze points go to Spain from Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina from Montenegro and, the surprise of the night, Greece from Cyprus.

So yes, the Eurovision was once again a great show, it provided us with laughter aplenty, and was dubbed an entertainment contest for all. And, in the true Eastern European spirit of the contest, it also had an Asian country, in Azerbaijan, placing 3rd overall. Though the song wasn't all too bad.

And to conclude a slimmed-down, shorter post (yay, I managed!), I also feel that Norway fully deserved their victory. A catchy song that really did capture Europe and Western Asia's imagination, the indication of this being not only the various amount of 12 point votes that they got from participating countries; but also the massive gap between its entry and that of the 2nd-placed nation, Iceland.

God Bless You all!
Matti

Eurovision Fever(?)

2009-05-15T23:56:00.007+02:00

Ah, it's 5 minutes to midnight on a Friday evening as I start writing this, and I'm actually surprised that I have something to write about after a rather barren spell of late and a blog earlier on in the week. It's a bit like a striker who doesn't score goals for a while in football actually: once he hits the back of the net, most times, he continues scoring freely as that goal has given him the required necessary confidence to do what he does best. So this means that I should be flowing with ideas shortly, if you had to apply the same logic to my blogs, I guess.

Well, tomorrow (read: tonight) is Eurovision night. And for the first time in the last three attempts, Malta has actually made it to the final 25 entries. And, to put the record straight, it isn't down to televoting and all the Eastern bloc hullabaloo that normally surrounds the Eurovision Song Contest. It's down to Malta's star on the stage, Chiara, who I really wish the best of luck to from here. I sincerely hope that she will do well once again, and also make Malta, as a nation, even prouder of her. But while Chiara's entry draws plenty of positives and strikes the neutral as potentially being among a very select bunch of true songs where the singer and his/her voice is the focal point of the whole performance, it also brings about a couple of negative points.

For a start, from Malta's perspective, this is the third time that she will represent us at the contest, having managed third place in 1998 with The One that I Love and second place in 2005 with Angel. Both times she has been very unfortunate not to win those contests, so one might argue that this could be third time lucky for her. I think it's a bit different though. Chiara's participation does not augur well for the Maltese Islands in general, which is probably being perceived by its fellow European countries as not having talent other than Chiara herself. And while this is not true because there are plenty of capable people on our shores, they might have a point. Chiara obviously sets a massively high standard when it comes to the contest which practically nobody - barring Ira Losco, when she performed admirably in 2002 (having yet another potential victory from Malta robbed from her grasp) - can match. Truth be told, Morena was a flop last year, Olivia Lewis should have never competed in the first place and Fabrizio is simply... Fabrizio; the less said about him the better. Malta needs to develop its talent better for the big occasion if it is indeed to successfully continue competing in the Eurovision Song Contest, because otherwise it is just a waste of people's time, money and resources.

Secondly, while this entry obviously does not do the following, Malta has tried and failed at sending attempted copies of the previous year's winning entry to the contest. Unfortunately in this regard, Malta lacks creativity and originality except in the field of ballads, which is a restricted field anyway. A quick analysis of things would show that last year, Malta tried appealing to Eastern Europe with a song entitled Vodka, even though Maltese delegates were at pains to stress that this was not the case. The 2007 entry Vertigo was also, in its own weird way, a poor attempt at imitating Ruslana's 2004 winning entry, what with the gong songs being played at sporadic intervals and Lewis trying to sing like the famed Ukrainian. Malta has to come to the reality that unless a ballad is entered by the public into the contest, they have to find ways to be original in this sense. The Eurovision Song Contest, in this regard, has actually become the Eurovision Entertainment Contest, and it is true to say that rarely do we see performances that do not include some kind of dance, or a load of performing males or females in the background, winning in this day and age.

Truth be told though, I did not mention one condition that I think is going to be a bit of a wildcard come the finals. This is the fact that Chiara is actually known around Europe, having taken part - successfully - twice in the past. European viewers have heard of her before, recognise her voice and actually appreciate her, as stated even by her fellow peers. Apart from the flops that Holland produced this year, who actually ridiculed her for being fat. Apparently, she has also been very popular during her stay in Russia. This popularity could obviously backfire into overconfidence and one of the worst performances of her life, God forbid, but I believe it will have a positive outcome on the votes. Furthermore, Chiara's voice is one that actually sticks in the memory of people, due to it being so powerful and even potentially overwhelming, so the voters aren't going to forget about her like they would for an ordinary performer.

To conclude, while the effect of neighbourly voting - a factor that needs no mentioning or introduction - is finally going to be minimised this year with the re-introduction of the jury to the contest, actually giving some countries an outside chance of doing well, Malta has to be aware of the facts that it faces as well. Second best may indeed be as good as it gets. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to predicting which neighbours will be giving our dear friends Greece 12 points this year. [sarcasm]I'm placing my money on the Turks.[/sarcasm]

Best of luck, however, Chiara. If you're to win, you're downright going to need it.

God Bless You all!
Matti

I Look into the Sky Above and Wonder how my Life has Changed

2009-05-12T00:01:00.003+02:00

Thanking Krissie for the inspiration. I actually realised that MSN sub-nicks actually do have a use from time to time, other than promoting junk that us lawyers think of as a result of our course!

Ok, so, I wasn't really going to blog, especially as it's just past midnight as I've typed the first few words into this space, but why not while I'm still awake and not too too tired. Especially after I haven't really blogged in a good while, properly that is, after the last blog was one that was more a case of venting frustrations out in public. Which, I guess, I shouldn't have; but anyway.

Well, there isn't too much to say and there isn't too much that is exciting, unfortunately, at this point of my life. The year 1991 is halfway, or thereabouts, through its A Levels, and the year 1990 and before are preparing for the dreaded end of year exams that University throw up from the depths of Room 223, Faculty of Laws. So with nothing exciting apart from telling you how much case law I've studied per day, I decided to reflect a little bit on the past year and what's really changed since then; once again because a certain sub-nick on MSN inspired me to do so.

Looking back to around this time last year I can safely say that my group of friends were different to those that I stay with today. Granted, I'm not saying that those friends that I used to hang out with are not my friends any longer - far from it, actually - but I feel more comfortable staying with the Y4J and Community group now, as opposed to them. I actually, for the most part, feel a part of this group and feel appreciated for who I am, even if I might have differing views to other people, occasionally, due to my rather obstinate nature. Whereas prior to staying with this new (if you can now call it that) group of people, I would constantly have to be on my guard out of fear of someone taking advantage of me or ready to take the piss out of me, I now feel that it isn't the case. The people who I'm staying with - you all know who you are - are, to me, now like a family. We have our differences and we have our disagreements, but at the end of the day, we're all there for one another and love each other like brothers and sisters. And that's exactly how it should be with everyone - after all, God told us to love your neighbour as yourself.

This may be a repetitive point from prior statements or prior blogs, but the entry of God into my life has also been a significant change over the last year. Whereas before I was a Christian but pretty much agnostic, now I believe things to the contrary. Obviously, with this, unfortunately, comes a lot of criticism from those who aren't living the same lifestyle as you. Make one slip up and you're criticised, or say something that might not tickle someone else's fancy and you get slated for it. But thereagain, that's what living Christians do, don't they? They spread the Word at whatever cost possible and live for God and, as discussed at our D-Group meeting last Sunday, try to make their actions speak louder than words. Sometimes, words are not effective enough - you could tell a million people about Jesus, how great He is and what He has done for us - but none might believe you. However, if you perform some kind of act through which Jesus' love and spirit really emerges, then someone might indeed believe you. There again, as also stated in the same D-Group meeting, this is quite a subjective thing to go on about.

Perhaps this is the least evident of the changes that I've undergone in the last year or so, but I believe that now - contrary to that period a year ago - I am a bit more of a tolerant person, even though my best friend thinks I've become worse! I've learnt how to snap less at other people and actually be more patient with others. I think I've seen this develop mainly through my leadership skills, and the various things that I've organised, taken part in or coordinated over the last year. If I had to do the same things one year back, I don't think I would have been able to cope in any way possible. Having said that, I admit that this is still a segment of my character that I definitely have to work upon, for I still do have the tendency to blow up at flick of a finger, as quite a few people who have seen me will testify!

And then there's the final aspect of this rather condensed version of how my life has changed, and that is how I've managed to cope with a bunch of my friends going abroad to study on a permanent or temporary basis. It just goes to show that things can change really quickly, and that the situation that you're faced with one day is not always the situation that you're going to be faced with the next. The worst bit is when your friends come here for a while - in some instances, as short as a weekend break - and then are off for the next few months, ensuring that communication with them is rather limited till when they get back. You learn how to live with it, however. Initially, I saw this as a real uphill struggle but then tried to take the positives out of it, in the sense that not only are my friends doing something that is beneficial for them and furthering their education outside our shores, but it would also help to further develop me as an individual and perhaps not rely on them as heavily as I used to; even though the latter doesn't exactly apply to one of the people in question. It really does help matters when you see that God uses each and every situation - be it positive or negative - to try teach you an important, valuable life lesson from it.

And with that I will conclude. I could have blogged for much longer, and about much more, and politically, for that matter; but opted not to. I think this will be a bit more pleasant to the eye anyway, instead of ranting on about ongoings on a small rock in the Mediterranean.

P.S. I realised that loads of people are 'refreshing' their blog skins... I know mine looks bland, but I must say, it ties in beautifully with the morose nature of examinations!

God Bless You all!
Matti

Flaming Arsonists

2009-04-17T10:32:00.002+02:00

Before you start reading, please be warned that this is not going to be one of my traditional blogs, where you could be rest assured that I will check everything out to the last word in order to ensure that my English, in all senses, is up to standard. On the contrary, this blog is one driven out of pure emotion - so please excuse me if any of my arguments are not coherent or there is a constant repetition of some words here and there.

Anyhow, I must admit that until now, I have pretty much dismissed all forms of arson attacks that have occurred on the island. They might have become more frequent, especially in the last year or so, but I just continued disregarding them as objects of petulant ignorance and stupidity. However, like most things, when something pretty much affects you in a direct manner, it is only then that you stand up and take notice.

This is the reason why I can't get last night's arson attack on Lija mayor Ian Castaldi Paris' house go unnoticed. I am not a friend of Mr. Castaldi Paris - in all fairness, I don't even know the person, but simply know who he is - but what I do know is that he has a neighbour, who lives two doors down from him, who indeed is very close to my heart. I'm referring to my uncle and aunt, whose house was unfortunately affected adversely by the attacks in the sense that half of their facade is burnt. Hence, this is the reason why I'm claiming that I was directly affected by these attacks, as part of my family was unfortunately a major victim of them.

Luckily, both my uncle and aunt, as well as their dog, were not injured or killed by the attacks. Luckily, my uncle and aunt can afford to fix the damage done to their house. Luckily, they're safe and sound at the moment. For I cannot simply imagine what I would be thinking and/or writing at the moment if the situation was different to that that they currently face.

Now I am praying that the perpetrator will be caught - and the police should have an easier task of this time around at least, for he was apparently captured on CCTV and his clothes apparently also caught fire while he was in the midst of the attack. This may not be thinking in the Christian way, but he sure deserved to get burnt - alive, if needs be - for the wrong act that he committed. Such people who commit such attacks are nothing more than the scum of society, and they should be brought to justice with immediate effect. These people have no right whatsoever to live among decent, civilised individuals if their aim is to cause harm to others and their homes by trying to 'prove' a point: their place is behind bars for they are criminals. Especially in such circumstances, when particular homes are targeted, such as those of mayor Castaldi Paris, these criminals undoubtedly have the will and understanding to commit such deplorable acts, and hence must be punished.

I will conclude this blog by criticising Article 316 of the Criminal Code - the section that deals with arson. The Code states:

316. Whosoever shall wilfully set fire to any house, warehouse, shop, dwelling-house, vessel, dock or any building, shed or other place whatsoever, any person being therein at the time of the setting on fire, shall, on conviction, be liable to the punishment of imprisonment for life:
Provided that if no person shall perish, the offender shall be liable -
(a) if he could have foreseen that any person was actually in the place, to imprisonment for a term from nine to twelve years;
(b) otherwise, to imprisonment for a term from five to nine years.

Hence, if caught, the arsonist should be held liable under Article 316(a) - imprisonment for 9 to 12 years. A pathetic sentence if you had to ask me, for various reasons. Firstly, by means of such an attack, it wasn't just a house that was targeted, but a person, his family and the various families living in that area too. The danger was to the whole community. That should already be punishable in itself. Secondly, the Code only gives life imprisonment to the arsonist provided that one's life shall 'perish'. While I commend the fact that the offence is obviously greater if someone is killed, isn't there still attempted homicide of a person/various persons if no one dies? Shouldn't that be punished by means of the Criminal Code? And what about the discrepancy between one punishment meted out and the other - is it fair or unfair? Finally, does our Criminal Code, by means of this provision, seek that justice is done and not just sought to be done? Such a provision leaves so many questions unanswered.

God Bless You all,
Matti

Jade Goody: The Pros and the Cons

2009-03-23T17:53:00.004+01:00

I am by no means a biographer, a critic, nor a fan of the recently deceased Jade Goody. Nor do I care too much, in all honesty. However, I am writing this blog not as a means of celebrating her very controversial life, but as a means of bringing to light what is ultimately the end of a massively overcooked, if not roasted, media frenzy that has surrounded the woman since she found out that she had terminal cervical cancer. Make no mistake about it, her efforts in battling the disease were commendable, but this is finally one topic that will soon be laid to rest for good.

It's no secret that Goody was constantly seen in the public eye since she first participated in the popular Big Brother series back in 2002. She was loathed by the general public for her apparent lack of general knowledge, to the extent that she even called East Anglia, a region in Eastern England, East Angular; and also questioned whether the place was in England or not. Since then, she never looked back and went from strength to strength, despite being a controversial figure due to the fact that she would also come up with the occasional petulant or insulting remark. In 2007, for instance, on Celebrity Big Brother, she racially insulted a famous Indian personality, something that she was much criticised for.

Therefore, what was all the hype about this woman? One didn't have to be a genius to figure that she had a poor upbringing and was grossly uneducated in many a sense. Perhaps the only reason why this person became a sensation in the United Kingdom was because it gave other people hope that they too could achieve fame and fortune and make it to the top, and become a 'success story' like Jade. Uneducated she might have been though, but stupid she sure wasn't - riding on the waves of her ever-growing popularity, Jade essentially sold the rights to her life to Living TV, who had permission to film her and her daily doings at all times. From nothing, the woman became a reality TV star. A decent way of making a living, but the whole thing stank of intellectual prostitution. From a woman who wasn't really affecting anyone's lives, we now had a woman who was forced on the TV at Prime Time hours, hence making people see what she's really about. And that was a massive turn off.

That's probably the reason why not everyone was entirely sympathetic when the world found out that she had cervical cancer. The fact that she continued filming her reality TV series despite the illness reeked of trying to get the most money possible before she passed away, and she didn't deny this, stating that it was all for her children, and so that they would have a better upbringing than she did. Fair enough, but was she actually considering her children before this ordeal actually occurred, or did they only come into mind when she found out that her cancer was at an advanced stage? I'm of the latter school of thought, to be quite honest. At a tangent, as well, while she wanted to marry the love of her life, Jack Tweed, before she passed away, was his criminal record a consideration when one considers the children's upbringing - because although they were fathered by a different man, Tweed would invariably still form part of their formation years, one would think. If this case happened in Malta, under Article 67 of the Civil Code, he would certainly have to - for the husband is presumed to be the father of his wife's children.

The fact that she continued to pose for photographs and film while she was dying was a definite moral wrong. Exploiting such pain and suffering to the public was only done to make people express sympathy at, and empathise with, Jade's grave situation. And while although I never did watch an episode from Jade's elaborate life, and never too do I intend to do so for that matter, I can only imagine that it did not make suitable watching for all ages - adults included. Indeed, it was only towards the very end, when she knew that her death was near, that she finally decided to call it a day and stop all the filming. I, and many others too, I feel, would have done so much earlier provided we were in such a situation - God forbid it ever happened.

There were a couple of positives that came out of Goody's life, however, before she passed away yesterday. First and foremost, cancer awareness in the UK was raised, bucking the trend of it being on the decline. In fact, 20% more women than prior to Jade finding out she had cervical cancer are now doing smear tests, and the Government is considering revising its laws banning smear tests on women aged 25 and under. Indeed, prevention is better than cure and undoubtedly, Goody was a massive ambassador in raising awareness on the matter. The second commendable thing that she did, a few days before she died, was that she and her sons became Christians. It was a refreshing thing to see a reality TV star welcome the Lord our God into her life with open arms and to help her overcome her struggles and carry her cross. There is no doubt that now, despite her controversial nature, she is being welcomed into the hands of the Lord as you read this.

To conclude, while her death was welcome in the sense that her pain and suffering were finally finished, it also helped close a chapter that started to rule people's lives in Britain and worldwide. There is no doubt that this woman had some kind of an impact on society in general, which subsequently led to a media frenzy covering all aspects of her life from A to Z. It was something that might have given people hope to aspire for great things, but it was also something that was totally immoral and was over-publicised, especially in the days leading up to her death, where she should have received the most privacy. Ultimately, Jade Goody was a media magnet, and now, undoubtedly, there will be a lull in the press until they find another one.

God Bless You all!
Matti

The End of an Era?

2009-03-13T13:37:00.005+01:00

It's my first blog in over a month, and in typical me style, it's not going to be a thrilling, happy one to say the least. Actually, it's going to be one that takes a rather morose note, because the end of an era might have truly come - as of a couple of days ago. For Italian football, at least. Never have I witnessed such a disastrous campaign in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup combined, to the extent that Italy's only representative in any European competition is now Udinese, And even they, I believe, will soon witness the end of their (honourable) run in Europe, as they will face Zenit St. Petersburg, who are the defending champions, in the last 16 of the UEFA Cup, despite winning 2-0 yesterday.

When the draws for the Champions League were made in December, Inter boss Jose Mourinho stated that his team deserved the best as a punishment for finishing 2nd in the weakest group of all in the initial stage of the Champions League. And he got what he asked for, for his side drew Manchester United in the last 16. A few years back, I wouldn't have complained one bit because United were never really European challengers, just like Inter, but these last few years it has been a different story - in the last two years, they've reached a semi-final and won the competition. And, just for the record, this is possibly the best United side of all time that Inter had to face. Far from easy, I would say, and in fact, I feared for the worst from the outset. My fears were correct - Inter went on to lose 2-0 overall, although they were unlucky to say the least after playing well at Old Trafford and hitting the woodwork twice.

Juventus also showed that they lacked a certain European pedigree when they lost out to Chelsea. There's no doubt in my mind that injuries almost certainly played a big part in Juve's defeat to the Blues, and that they too were unlucky to not score at Stamford Bridge; but they eventually lost out to a Chelsea side that has looked reinvented under Guus Hiddink. I believe that had Big Phil Scolari still been there, Chelsea might have been sent crashing out of the competition, but alas - it was not to be. The returning Michael Essien's goal was the sucker punch for the Old Lady, as with that goal, they really needed to go out and chase the game down in order to progress. Over and above that, Chiellini's red card was harshly given after he got the ball before the player, something which disadvantaged Juve further. Personally, I thought that Belletti's handling of the ball in the box was more worthy of a booking - be it yellow or red - rather than Chiellini's tackle.

It was then left for Roma to pick up the bits and restore some of Italy's pride, and even though they too didn't manage, they were the closest to progressing from the Italian trio. Managing to score early against Arsenal due to Juan's goal, i Lupi could and should have had more goals to their name, but didn't manage. Extra time - which would have been fatal for the Capital side had it conceded a goal, as then Arsenal would have had the away goal and Roma would have had to score two to win - couldn't separate the two sides, and so it came down to the penalty shootout. Surprisingly, the people who normally score their penalties were the ones who initially missed - Eduardo and Vucinic. The latter in particular needs to be taught something about penalties from youth level, I believe, for his strike was the poorest penalty I have ever seen in my life. Ultimately, Roma lost the tie after Max Tonetto skied the last shot well over the bar, en route to Venus. However, yet again, credit must be given to Roma, who managed to outrun and outshine the Gunners despite having an injury-ravaged squad.

Which brings me to my initial question - is this the end of an era for Italy? I believe that disappointment obviously reigns supreme at the moment, but the Italian era is not yet over. It is a fact that the Premier League trounced Serie A 3-0, but it is also a fact that in each of these games, all Premier League sides were run mightily close by their Italian counterparts. In Inter's case, losing 2-0 to the World, European and Premiership champions isn't shameful in the least, especially after creating a multitude of chances that were begging to be converted. The English media might be saying that United dominated the nerazzurri, but witnessing the game from an Italian perspective certain derives different answers. Juventus and Roma, on the other hand, also firmly give it their all and were ultimately just unlucky at the end of the day - be it with injuries, decisions given against them or not converting their chances. It is clear that these sides just need one or two more quality signings to compete with the best. So yes, it might have been 3-0 to the Premier League, but it could have just as easily been 3-0 to Serie A.

Also, something that might be worth noting is that the Italian culture is slowly changing and evolving, as more and more teams - barring Milan, generally - are employing youthful players on the pitch. Juventus in particular have been advocators of this approach, as can be seen through exciting talents such as De Ceglie, Giovinco and Chiellini; and sides such as Inter - with Santon and Balotelli in particular - and Roma - with established talents from their own youth system, like De Rossi and Aquilani - are following suit. This wasn't the case until a few years ago. On the other hand, the Premier League is now so money-orientated that teams are simply buying the best players or talents from anywhere around the globe in order to try and attain instant success. One doesn't have to look further than Manchester City for such an example. Hence, at the end of the day, such an era might be coming, or has come, to a close; but a new, bright one is almost certainly on the horizon if that's the case.

God Bless You all!
Matti

Around the World in 3½ Hours

2009-02-09T22:47:00.005+01:00

I'll never forget the days I was at Sixth Form. There was always this rivalry between SAC, DLS and JC (which, naturally, still exists today) over their Soiree's, and the quality of show that they produce. Naturally, each school hypes up its own performance, billing it as the best around - undoubtedly, in a biased fashion. On the other hand, I'll also always regret taking part in Soiree, so this is the reason why I'm writing this blog - as an (independent) observer of the things that happened at the SAC Soiree this year.

You could be forgiven, at first glance, for thinking that the Soiree's main theme was a feeble attempt at providing an outreach to foreigners hailing from all corners of the world. Indeed, it would have been apt to encompass the entire Soiree in the title Around the World in 3½ Hours - such was the nature of the comperes this year, starting from Malta but depicted travelling across the world while presenting the various acts in the show. I have to admit that for a Soiree that has come under plenty of criticism in the past for being too formal in its presentation, this was a welcome change to the audience. The comperes were lively, cracking jokes all the time, and it was obvious that that recited was only lightly scripted, leaving the four presenters to present the show according to the way how they felt they should present it. While it's obvious that there is still room for improvement in this department, it was definitely a major plus over previous Soiree editions.

The opening was also nothing short of magnificent, incredibly original and totally unexpected. Composed by Y4J's very own Peter Naudi, the tribal music performed was not only superb but was also a joy to behold. So too did the dancing (when it eventually started) blend in perfectly with the entire act, but gave it a new dimension altogether. In the various Soirees that I have gone to watch, this has undoubtedly been the most impressive opening that I have ever witnessed. It left not only myself but many other people (probably with the exception of the La Sallians) gasping in awe and also believing that this was a sign of things to come.

However, it must be said that every show has its highs and lows, and the lows promptly followed this incredible high with what were probably the two weakest acts on the night. The Maltese play was humorous many a time but one really could only appreciate it if he/she were a fluent, native Maltese speaker and/or had an ear for political jokes, which were quite abundant throughout the course of the play. The 'narrator' also didn't seem to really fit into the story and the entire sketch ended on a bland, confusing note. This was a tremendous let down from the opening and if the writer had made the sketch a bit more accessible to all age groups, it might have been better. Following that came what was - no offence meant to Tara over here - the worst dance of the night. I'm no dance critic in the least, because I for one can't even dance for a start, but I do realise that, while appreciating the difficulty in it all, a dance isn't up to standard when its dancers are not synchronised for most of the dance. The other dances, Disturbia and El Fuego Bailante, were better performed and delivered. Perhaps slightly disappointing as well was the band, Ink. The instrumentals were very good throughout, admittedly so, but I believe that they needed a more powerful singer to compliment the songs they interpreted.

Sandwiched between the three dances were two sketches of the highest quality; something that, in my opinion, really gave the Soiree bonus points this year. The Maniscalco cousins' sketch It-Televixin was nothing short of a class act, often leaving the crowd in fits with the humorous goings on while watching television. What was best about this was the simplicity of it all - the majority of the sketch took place behind a sheet which, with the lights set appropriately, allowed the characters' shadows to be produced on this sheet. Hence, it was easy for the actors 'behind the scenes' to perform that seen on various programmes ranging on various channels - from horse racing on TVM, to Looney Tunes on Cartoon Network, to a fully fledged operation on the Discovery Channel.

Martina Farrugia's English play Disney's Got Problems was also brilliant, to say the least. This sketch depicted various characters from famous Disney films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella and Aladdin, all appearing on the popular Maury show to relate their problems - and hopefully find some form of solution - to Maury Povich, the presenter. Such Amercian shows are typically filled with trash, to the extent that they're often labelled as 'Trash TV', and the writer ensured that this point was fully reproduced when writing the script. The infamous 'running off the stage in shame', chav mentality, notion of 'I'm 1000% sure that you're my baby daddy!' and 'You are NOT the father' - among others - were all present throughout and well incorporated into the scheme of things. It was a well executed piece to say the least, and something that the crowd fully appreciated and enjoyed as deemed by their reaction after the sketch had concluded.

And this finally brings me to the focal point of the entire show - the musical, Mamma Mia. Directed by the aforementioned Martina Farrugia, along with Lisa Zammit Endrich, Tara Giacchino, Daniel Warrington and Julian Caruana, the 45 minute condensed version of the 2008 hit was probably one of the best performed SAC Soiree musicals in recent times. Perhaps surprisingly, none of the directors really played a major role throughout the course of the musical, contrary to previous years, leaving other talents to shine on stage. Particularly impressive were Christabelle, who is already well known on the local scene - perhaps not surprisingly - and the girl who played the part of Sophie. Also, a big congratulations goes out to Paul Gatt - who played the part of Harry in a manner that had the crowd laughing hard most of the time due to his immense mannerisms. They actually resembled him acting like Mr. Bean at particular points in time!

All in all, I believe that despite the obvious flaws, which will continue to emerge from year to year, this was one of the best Soirees that SAC have managed to produce in recent history. The show was well prepared and the hours of practice that went into everything before being shown as the final product on stage really told. It was obvious that every single person who was out there gave his or her 120% when performing, which, at the end of the day, led to a quite outstanding show overall. Bring on Soiree 2010!

God Bless You All!

Matti

Rattling a Nation

2009-01-30T16:49:00.001+01:00

Many times, I thank God for how lucky I am. I’ve lived a comfortable life to date, have visited a substantial number of foreign countries, and have been privileged enough to live my life on two different continents. Each time I visit a foreign country, I am amazed at how advanced the infrastructure and road systems of such a country are. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about our islands, which seem to be moving rapidly from bad to worse in this regard.

If the much-famed public transport strike last July was farcical enough, then the state of our roads almost certainly is up there with it. With the recent rain showers, Malta has degenerated from a network of roads full of potholes to a network of roads filled with craters that could rival those on the moon. And I’m not saying this to jump on the recent press bandwagon about the roads’ appalling state, but I’m saying this from first hand experience as a driver with nearly two years under his belt.

Take a trip to Sliema Road, San Gwann, for instance. This road is used by thousands of vehicles on a daily basis and is one of the most important junctions in Malta as it links the Regional Road roundabout to San Gwann, and also Mater Dei Hospital. Recently, The Times reported that this stretch of road has over 124 potholes in 500 metres. Going up or down this road resembles one taking part in a slalom ski race; such is the nature of cars swerving from left to right on a frequent basis in order to avoid these deadly craters. Pass over one deep hole and you’ve simply had it – you’ll be footing the bill for a tow truck, a new tyre and possibly even a new rim. And it’s not even your fault. With such roads to navigate, it’s no surprise that I hear a new rattle on my poor car every day of the week.

Another class act of a road is Ganu Street, Birkirkara (the road going down towards Birkirkara from the Vodafone roundabout). This road also resembles a fully-fledged slalom and is more disastrous than the days America was under the Bush Administration. On a recent venture to this street, I had the pleasure of braking around 3 times in order to swerve my car and avoid this series of potholes, and, when I thought that I had evaded all of them, I ended up crashing into one nonetheless. Honestly, sometimes I wonder whether its best to crash one’s car into another while avoiding the pothole or simply driving through the potholes themselves, hoping for the best while at it.

Of course, these are only two examples taken from routes that I use frequently, as there are many other roads that are in such dire need of repair that I could simply name from memory. The shocking thing about it all is that while there are groups of people out there performing maintenance on these roads, the work is of a shoddy nature to say the least, to the extent that by the next rainfall, all the potholes would be uncovered once again and hence, we’re back to square one!

I may not be the Minister for Infrastructure, Technology and Communications but I believe that action has to be taken to rectify these ridiculous problems with immediate effect. If the local contractors being assigned such jobs to fix our roads are performing work that even a bunch of chimpanzees could do better, then why don’t we employ people from abroad in this regard? I’m sure that there are workers out there, in the EU, who would do the job at double the standards but for half the price that we’re currently paying. Maybe then we’d have a road system to brag about.

This situation has reached the extent where the nation should be declared in a state of emergency, with the only difference being that the emergency is to repair the terrible stuff that we drivers face day after day. After all, we’re paying hundreds of Euros per year in road tax – with hundreds of thousands of cars on the roads, where is all the money going? I can’t answer that one myself, but I can definitely affirm that it isn’t going towards the quality, EU-standard road system that we sorely need.

Google Verb Meme... THE latest craze, it seems!

2009-01-25T23:02:00.002+01:00

So, carrying on from seeing Achie's blog, I have also decided to attempt this Google Verb meme (pronounced meem) to humour myself in these times of doom, gloom and the doldrums, due to our lovely University exams. For those who don't know what a meme is, it is something passed around the internet that one tags people in for them to carry it on.

The questions are the following:

Q: Type in "[your name] needs" in the Google search.
Q: Type in "[your name] looks like" in Google search.
Q: Type in "[your name] says" in Google search.
Q: Type in "[your name] wants" in Google search.
Q: Type in "[your name] does" in Google search.
Q: Type in "[your name] hates" in Google search.
Q: Type in "[your name] asks" in Google search.
Q: Type in "[your name] likes " in Google search.
Q: Type in "[your name] eats " in Google search.
Q: Type in "[your name] wears " in Google search.
Q: Type in "[your name] was arrested for" in Google Search.
Q: Type in "[your name] loves" in Google Search.

Here are my answers:

A: Matthew needs to bring sexy back. [I found this disturbing enough, but I'll link you to something that I found when I attempted to do this with both my name and surname at the bottom of the blog!]
A: Matthew looks like one of those one of those football guys with a 3 month pregnant belly. [So true!]
A: Matthew says... after bedtime prayers tonight.
A: Matthew wants to know why a girl is answering his friend's phone.
A: Matthew does devilstick.
A: Matthew hates the fail whale! [If that's when you fail an exam, you're spot on, buster!]
A: Matthew asks two questions. [That's all? I thought I ask many, many more!]
A: Matthew likes to hump. [LOL!!!!]
A: Matthew eats his first cereal. [What, 20 years ago now?]
A: Matthew wears shirt by Flickr.
A: Matthew was arrested for sexual assault stop teacher sex abuse.
A: Matthew loves. Abbie says. [Ok...]

As for that link that I promised, well, this came up when I typed in "Matthew Borg needs"...
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/jacksonville-fl/TF86T7R1TCO6MEUA7. How ironic!

I'm tagging the following people to do this:

Mark Galea
Lanfranco
Nicola Jaccarini
Andrew Bajada
Becky Abela

... and, if she sees this blog, Nadya!

Enjoy, and God Bless to all! :)
Matti

The Highlights of 2008

2009-01-01T21:29:00.013+01:00

2008 has come and passed fast enough, and 2009 is already upon us. Stating the obvious, true, but it's a fact that has to be acknowledged - 365 days may seem like a huge number, but in reality, they zip by with the blink of an eye. And there's no doubt that this will, once again, be the case in 2009.

2008 has, however, been a year with its typical ups and recessions (no pun intended). In a similar method to that that The Times adopted recently, I will be using seven key words to really summarise the events of 2008 - both positive and negative, and both my own and that that happened on the national and international scenes. After all, simply including everything would be too lengthy to write and too impossible to remember.

Elections - 2008 was without doubt a year determined by elections both on a local and international level. In Malta, a relative majority (49.14%) of the public reconfirmed their faith in the Partit Nazzjonalista (PN) and their leader Lawrence Gonzi for another five year term in Government, condemning the Partit Laburista (PL) and their leader Dr. Alfred Sant to their third successive electoral defeat, and fourth in total if one considered the referendum result in 2003. This was the catalyst for a real bidu gdid within the PL, as Dr. Sant 'irrevocably resigned' from his post after the PN victory was confirmed and MEP Dr. Joseph Muscat, only 34, was elected in his place. Subsequently, Muscat has revamped the PL administration from head to toe, with Anglu Farrugia and Toni Abela now his deputies, but despite rumours of conflict and an ultimatum issued, Jason Micallef still holds the coveted General Secretary position. America also saw the battle for the White House, which was a three-way tie between Hillary Rodham Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama in the preliminary stages. McCain and Obama eventually won the Republican and Democrat nominations respectively, and Obama comfortably went on to defeat McCain on the November 4 election. He will assume office, and become the country's first ever black President, on January 20.

Recession - An economic clout has been upon the world's doorstep for the last three months, all instigated by the collapse of financial giant Lehman Brothers in September. The bankruptcy of the company led to many countries becoming victims of the credit crunch, especially because assets shared were now lost and hence money went down the drain. Particularly badly affected were the USA and Iceland, who, prior to this, had a stable financial backing. Iceland are now seriously considering joining the EU in order for the ECB to help out in their crisis. Meanwhile, Malta was minimally affected by the entire scenario, with some assets that the Bank of Valletta had being lost, but retained a relatively stable economy throughout. However, people are now spending their money more carefully and in fact, this Christmas, businesses did not sell as much as in 2007.

Sports - The international sporting world saw a load of firsts in 2008. In football, Manchester United and Chelsea contested the first all-English Champions League final... in Moscow. After a game that didn't disappoint, albeit the 1-1 final score, the penalty shootout that ensued provided tension and drama as never seen before. The reaction of John Terry, after his missed penalty, still lives in the minds of many Chelsea supporters as that converted spot kick would have given the Blues their first Champions League title. However, United went on to win the shootout 6-5 and become champions for the third time. They backed this up with their first World Club Championship, beating South American champions LDU Quito 1-0 in the final in Yokohama. Spain also won their first trophy in 44 years after winning the EURO 2008 tournament in Switzerland and Austria, beating Germany 1-0 in the final and hence finally shedding their tag of perennial underachievers. Rafael Nadal became the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win both Wimbledon and the French Open in the same year, and subsequently became the first person to defeat the all-conquering Roger Federer in over 60 matches on grass. Nadal finally became World Number 1 - at Federer's expense - in August. The Olympics in Beijing also took place and were heralded as the best Olympics ever. Both Usain Bolt (athletics) and Michael Phelps (swimming) enthralled the world of sport here in different ways. Bolt won the 100m and 200m finals comfortably, breaking the World Record in both instances, and Phelps won an unprecedented 8 gold medals in the swimming pool, becoming the most successful Olympian of all time. Finally, Lewis Hamilton became Formula 1's youngest ever World Champion, and the first black person to do so, after finishing 5th in Brazil, which was enough to win the title by a single point from Ferrari's Felipe Massa. In the most enthralling finish to a title race in years, Hamilton overtook Toyota's Timo Glock at the final corner in Interlagos to deny Massa, who had already won the race, the title. Had Hamilton remained behind Glock, both he and Massa would have finished level on 97 points but the title would have gone to the Brazilian based on more race wins within a season.

Euro - The beginning of a new financial era for Malta began effective January 1, 2008, with the introduction of the Euro instead of the Maltese lira. Upon entry into the EU in 2004, Malta was forced to adopt the Maastricht criteria that stated that new member states must eventually join the Eurozone. Malta was praised by the EU for its effective and efficient awareness campaign - no doubt aided substantially by the FAIR campaign - as well its smooth transition period, both widely considered to be among the best Europe has seen to date. Compulsory dual pricing came into effect July 1, 2007 and ended June 30, 2008, allowing the Maltese a period of one year to get used to the exact exchange rate between the lira and the Euro. However, a recent poll on the Times of Malta website has shown that the majority of the public - from the sample who voted - still seem to translate prices listed in the Euro to the Maltese lira before buying a product.

BOOM! - 2008 was also a tragic year for many Maltese families, as various accidents and murders took the lives of a substantial amount of people nationwide. A few days after the General Elections, Malta was plunged into mourning after fireworks stored in a garage in Naxxar exploded, destroying 3 houses and killing two people, including a 33-year old mother of two children. The dust had barely settled on that tragedy when another one struck the islands this summer, as four people aboard the now infamous fishing boat Simshar were killed following an explosion on the boat that destroyed it completely. Only one of the crew members survived the ordeal - barely alive - after being found following a week out at sea. There were also various murders throughout the year. Among the most controversial was a mother being killed by her 15-year old daughter in Mensija, San Gwann, on February 26, this following an alleged argument between the two after the mother asked her daughter to get some drugs. There were also two murders in Qormi within the space of two months and another murder in Xemxija between those two events. Finally, there was also the attempted murder of 20 people at a PN club in Mqabba, which left no people killed but some injured. It seems as if criminality in Malta is on the rise.

University - Life at University was full of controversy this year too. The much talked about Debate on Campus proved to be a hit from many a student's perspective, but also proved to be a massive talking point in the media. The PL apologists brought Insite's independence as a student media organisation into question by stating that the debate was an organised Nationalist Mass Meeting, while the PN claimed that this debate really showed the leader that the majority of the students were backing. This once again led to damaging claims being thrown by members of the opposition, who went to the extreme of labelling students as marmalja and hmieg, and also led to some sectors of the public questioning the true quality of individuals that the highest educational institution of the land produces. Insite were not reported to have taken legal action against any entity in terms of damage of reputation. Meanwhile, no elections to elect a new KSU office were held after Pulse withdrew from the running and no independent organisation opted to contest. Hence, SDM were reconfirmed in office, and Roberta Avellino took over from David Herrera as President. Finally, the University welcomed its new batch of students - the majority of which born in 1990 - amidst a construction site; after the administration decided to undertake renovation work on the Library and extend the Administration building over the course of summer.

Y4J - Finally, ending on a personal note, and probably saving the best till last. 2008 was finally the year where I felt that I did something worthwhile, and substantive, with my life. Joining Y4J was undoubtedly one of the best moves I could have ever made, because it has allowed me to make a whole host of new friends, become closer to others who I already remotely knew, and, most importantly, allow God to enter into my life. If I had to describe anything else pertinent to this, I could simply go on forever. The times we have shared together, from meetings, to Soul Survivor, to Stronger, and the moral support that we have established for one another is something incredible. It's made me believe that there is a tangible God out there, contrary to me previously thinking that God was simply an entity, and made me change my perspective of religion almost entirely. Praising God and becoming Jesus' friend is cool! However, unfortunately, opinions differ greatly, and I've come to realise that the good that one does for himself may often be shot down and ridiculed by other people. I'm just hoping that come the New Year, come a new attitude by such people.

God Bless You all - and may everyone have a super 2009!
Matti

The reply from the Northeast

2008-12-17T13:07:00.004+01:00

After writing a letter of application for the vacant manager's job at Sunderland A.F.C. 13 days ago, and not receiving any communication from the club since then, I thought that Sunderland really would treat my application as the hoax that it really was and that there would be no chance in a million years that I would even get a reply from them. To my utmost surprise, this wasn't the case and today, I received a reply from Sunderland in the post! Obviously, I haven't been considered as an a genuine applicant for the job but I'm extremely happy that the club took the time to reply to that email that I sent them. Hereunder is a reproduction of what the letter stated:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Private and Confidential
Address Only

(My address)

10th December 2008

Dear Matthew,

Thank you for your recent letter regarding the vacant managerial role at Sunderland.

The number and calibre of candidates for the role has been very high and unfortunately will be unable to progress your application further on this occasion.

Thank you for your interest and may we take this opportunity to wish you every success in your career in the future.

Yours sincerely,

Sunderland AFC
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If there was only one thing that I had to complain about though it would be the fact that my letter has not been signed by anybody! However, I know that it is official because it was printed on a paper demonstrating the Sunderland club emblem at the top, and the club sponsors and address of the club at the bottom. Further to that, the envelope was stamped by Sunderland A.F.C., fully affixed with a return address, and the letter left the UK via the Royal Mail office, fully paid airmail, at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne on the 12th December.

Thank you Sunderland - even though the expected reply came along, you definitely made my day by acknowledging that that I wrote!

God Bless You all,
Matti

Matti applies for a Job (at long last!)

2008-12-04T21:21:00.010+01:00

... and believe me guys, you're not really going to believe the job that I did apply for...

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(My address... don't want it to show here, do I?)

The Sunderland Stadium of Light,
Sunderland,
SR5 1SU,
UNITED KINGDOM.

To whom it may concern:

My name is Matthew Borg. I am a 19-year-old second year law student at the University of Malta, and I am interested in applying for the current vacant managerial post at Sunderland A.F.C. following the resignation of former boss Roy Keane.

I believe that I am a suitable candidate for the post having had three years of experience managing my school team in my homeland of Malta, to which I managed to lead my side to an inter-college tournament final in 2006 (which my side lost 5-4 on penalties after a 0-0 draw), this apart from countless hours of playing the acclaimed game Football Manager, which has given me a deep insight with regards the tactical side of the game. Indeed, my resume with whatever team I have managed within the game has always been impressive. I consider my greatest achievements to be winning league championships and UEFA Champions Leagues with Inter Milan (Italy) and Paris Saint-Germain (France), as well as winning the Barclays Premier League with Everton and taking them to the Champions League final, shamelessly losing to Chelsea on penalties. While at these clubs, I also have developed an eye for young talent, who, with the right nurturing, became superstars for my clubs. Among these players one can find Sherman Cardenas, Nicolas Millan and Jose Luis Silva, among others.

I believe that the current crop of players at Sunderland are of a very good nature, but understand that if I am appointed as manager of the team, I will need to work hard to command their respect. I feel that the side's most identifiable players are Djibril Cisse, El-Hadji Diouf, Kenwyne Jones, Steed Malbranque and Kieran Richardson, and that these players can propel the team to survival this term and to greater things in the future. Such players must be considered as an investment for Sunderland, as the team can continue to build around them in order to strengthen the team considerably in the remaining departments. I also believe that the current weak-link within the squad is its defence. The team's best defender being Anton Ferdinand, I am of the opinion that he needs a quality fellow centre-half to accompany him. Perhaps, in the short term, I would look to loan out Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic, who is well down the pecking order at Stamford Bridge when first team defenders Ricardo Carvalho and John Terry are fully fit. Apart from investment in this area, I feel that Sunderland also need a classic right winger to provide crosses for the likes of Cisse and Jones. In this regard, a move for Liverpool's Jermaine Pennant might be realistic for the team. He seems to thrive when given the opportunity to play regular first-team football, as his season with Birmingham in 2005-2006 showed, and a move to Sunderland could suit him greatly in order for him to rediscover his potential and become, once again, a well-established player within the Barclays Premier League.

With regards tactics, I am a firm believer in the classic 4-4-2 approach, with two attacking wingers and two midfielders, one in the holding role and one given the liberty to attack defences and open up and create spaces for the attackers. I believe that this tactic, when employed, gives stability at the back as well as allows the team to liberally attack. Of course, such a tactic can easily be adapted to a 4-4-2 diamond shape, for instance, with Dwight Yorke being used as a defensive midfielder (in order to bridge the gap between defence and midfield) and Malbranque being used as an attacking midfielder. While I believe that defending is important within a game, I am also very much in favour of attacking football, and placing constant pressure on the opposing teams' defences. In my opinion, players should be ready to adapt to whatever the coach and his staff believes is the best method to attain the best results possible.

I hope that this letter finds you in good stead and that you will consider my application for the vacant managerial post. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Kind regards,

Matthew Borg.

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And just for the record, I did send this in to Sunderland A.F.C. Now, in all fairness, I know I'm not going to become their manager, but even if I get a reply from them, I'll be delighted! I'll keep you updated with any communication from the club...

God Bless You all!
Matti

The Lyons of Change

2008-11-18T21:39:00.005+01:00

France may have reached the World Cup Final in 2006 but since then they have been in decline. Their league is even worse. Matthew Borg reports

If one had to look at the list of past champions within the French Ligue 1, one would see that Saint-Etienne are the most successful club in the country, with 10 league titles to their name. Marseille and FC Nantes Atlantique are joint-second on 8 titles, while next up are Olympique Lyon on 7. With the French football league running since the 1932/33 season, it would be suffice to reason that Lyon are amongst a host of clubs within the league that are steeped in history, be it past or present. Alas, that isn't the case; as all of Lyon's 7 titles have come, admittedly remarkably so, in the last 7 years.

It could have been worse, as Lyon could have also won the title in 2000/01, but finished 2nd in the title race to Nantes, losing out by just 4 points. And yet, it probably will become so by the end of the 2008/09 season, as Lyon are currently - ominously - 7 points ahead of their nearest rivals, Marseille, after just over a third of the season gone. If we take this into consideration, then Lyon would have won an even-more remarkable and unprecedented 8 consecutive league titles; a feat that has almost certainly never been matched in any European league, at least for a long time.

This is therefore a team that has dominated the French league to an unparalled extent for nearly the last decade. And, to make matters worse, this is often done with considerate ease; and an occasional change of coach does nothing to destablise the rhythm of the team. Lyon are so good that they even managed to win the league last season with possibly the worst coach in their history - the unfancied Alain Perrin, who had a terrible spell at Portsmouth FC in England in 2006, and often seemed clueless and fazed by the big occasion. Indeed, nearest rivals Bordeaux did make a title race last to the final day of the season, but then also capitulated when it mattered, losing their final match in order to give the league to Lyon on a silver plate (and a little bit more).

Lyon's success means that they are constantly in a league of their own when it comes to everything - competitions, players, youths; the works. A testament to their success comes in the form of selling off some of their best ever players to massive European clubs. Michael Essien left Lyon for Chelsea in 2005 for €40 million; Mohamadou Diarra headed to Real Madrid in a €26 million deal in 2006; Florent Malouda and Eric Abidal moved to Chelsea and Barcelona for €20 million and €15 million respectively in 2007. And who's not to say that French starlet Karim Benzema won't be on his way to Madrid or Barcelona for a similar fee come 2009? All Lyon will then have to do is find another starlet with bundles of potential - Kim Kallstrom being a great example - and subsequently nurture him until he becomes a superstar. They've done it before, and it's reaped it's rewards, and they'll do it again.

These sales have hence left Lyon in a stable financial situation; as they also know that they don't really have to break the bank in order to ensure that they win their league. However, when it comes to the Champions League, one believes that this is the case. But what already-established superstar would want to move to Lyon in order to play in a league that, year after year, sees the odds on who is going to win the league at the beginning of the season tumble even further? This is the reason why Lyon will never really seem to be a credible Champions League outfit. Indeed, however, Lyon might be dominating this era, and their domination - based on financial stability - could see them further dominate the French game for years to come.

God Bless You all!
Matti

Change

2008-11-09T21:39:00.004+01:00

Many a time, it's those singular words that mean so much to a multitude of people. One word can potentially have a thousand definitions - for example, to us, God is the ultimate, everlasting authority in our lives, but to other people, God might be a deity, a Buddha, or, indeed, before I discovered Him, even Jose Mourinho (scarily enough). It's a case of words being subject to interpretation in all cases.

Hence the reason why I think 'change' can also fall into this category. In our everyday lives, when we speak of change, we often refer to receiving the remnants of the money that we regularly spend, or even giving away these remnants simply because they're a massive inconvenience. Most of us think in that manner as it is the most easily applicable theory. Many also see 'change' as a political slogan, such as that that US President-elect Barack Obama used in the recent White House elections, as well as that that the Malta Labour Party is currently promoting itself under. However, how many people have ever thought of the concept of change in terms of ourselves and our attitudes towards God and our faith? What can we do if the way how we perceive our relationship with the living Christ is stale, or if we feel distant from God?

The answer is simple: we have to pray. Through this, the following will happen, as listed in the Scripture:

The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. - 1 Samuel 10:6

One might easily state that it's simple to pray to the Lord: just say an Our Father, a Hail Mary and an occasional Glory Be, and everything is done and dusted. However, although God hears all prayers, no matter how short, quick or detailed they might be, I feel that there has to be a certain purpose within that prayer itself for it to be truly effective. One cannot pray just for the sake of praying, as that defeats the purpose of entering into communication with God in the first place. One might also argue that if his/her relationship with God is stale, or if they feel distant from God, then how can they take heed of such advice, i.e. simply to pray? Here, I believe that personal experiences from other people should also come into play - testimonies could be used to show that the power of prayer does indeed change people into different ones to the ones that they previously were.

The Bible also tells us that if we constantly sin, then it is also best that we change our ways, for there could be severe consequences:

Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings the darkness, before your feet stumble on the darkening hills. You hope for light, but he will turn it to thick darkness and change it to deep gloom. - Jeremiah 13:16

No one is perfect in life, and, indeed, we all do sin, but we have to be man enough to realise that when we do so, we should own up and confess that that we did. If we don't, we will continue to stumble, as it states in Jeremiah, to the point where there literally will be no return. If we continue to sin but realise that it is too late to rectify that that we've done, then we will continue to fall into the abyss. However, this doesn't mean that the 'deep gloom' that we will pass through cannot be forgiven, for our God is an ever-forgiving God and an ever-loving God, and welcomes back everyone into His Kingdom with open arms, even though He doesn't need to. Therefore, this is another reason why we need to take the notion of change seriously, as otherwise, there is a real possibility that we will not end up in God's Kingdom at the end of the day, and that will definitely be the point of no return.

The notion of change is something that is therefore omnipresent. We have to subject ourselves to change in order to understand and appreciate the full glory of God, and perhaps, even more difficult than this, we have to be ready to subject ourselves to this change if we want to enter into a meaningful and blossoming relationship with the Father. The road towards salvation is never a straight path, but it is tight and twisty, narrow and often very bumpy. This is what models us into becoming good Christians.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. - Matthew 7:13-14

God Bless You All!
Matti

P.S. Would those who read this blog and have Blogspot kindly subscribe to my blog by clicking 'Follow this Blog' on the right hand toolbar - I want to have a general idea of who reads this. Thank you!

ELSA Goes to Sicily - A review, an overview, my thoughts

2008-10-27T12:35:00.002+01:00

Before I start, I just want to categorically state that I will, or am, by no means going to defend any actions that went on during the course of the weekend in Sicily. It is clear that certain elements of the trip could be very controversial in their nature, and hence I will not defend the actions of anyone who was subject to such controversy. Having said that, I will try and make sure that such controversies are not mentioned in this blog.

Relax u ek™
Needless to say, there were a host of protagonists throughout the course of the trip, but perhaps there were none bigger than Alex. Hell, when you have a t-shirt dedicated to yourself spanning across no less than 12 people (10 when you consider that two didn’t make the trip to Sicily), you know that you’ve reached a certain level of fame in the group. Alex, you see, is the epitome of ‘relax’. He is about as happy-go-lucky a character that one can have amongst them, and one that seems to be ready to attempt anything. Well done to him, then.

Most of the ‘relax u ek’ ideology came through the massive consumption of alcohol that occurred during the weekend. ELSA is synonymous with its drinking feats throughout the course of the three days in Sicily, with some people even sticking to a strict diet of alcohol for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Most times, this was combined with a delicious side plate of puke. Or, in Analise’s case, a piss in poor Mark’s hard-hat.

International Law… u ek
Of course, Sicily isn’t all just about the alcohol. It’s about the educational aspect as well. Which is the reason why the Government – yes, I did vote PN – were big enough suckers to pay for this trip out of their own coiffeurs via the Smart Card (and most people accepted this gift gratefully), all simply because we paid a visit to Catania University for a 20-minute lecture on International Law. Now, if I was the University, I would use the term ‘law’ in conjunction with ‘lecture’ very lightly, because this was anything but that. Speaking about Model United Nations, with a flyer being distributed in Italian, may cover the international foyer, but it certainly does not give an outlook to any legal spheres whatsoever. Indeed, I’d rather class this as a comfortable sit down in order to give the government a good reason to pay for this trip. Brilliant.

Sightseeing
Perhaps we were chicken enough not to rent a car between us, especially after we found out that Krista and co managed this feat quite comfortably. Indeed, maybe only Mickey and myself were really up to the task of driving on the horrendously congested Sicilian roads, other than the girls who rented out a vehicle, but the end result remains that we still didn’t even try getting one. Perhaps it’s just as well, as apart from the roads being congested, the drivers there are worse than Malta. I swear.

Well, the sightseeing journey was not plentiful, primarily because we only visited three places in total – Catania, Acitrezza and Taormina – and secondly because the majority of us were too pissed to realise what was going on most of the time. However, a brief outlook on all three would not go to waste. The centre of Catania is a joy to behold with its historical buildings, long roads and numerous fashion establishments. However, there are a couple of downsides to this – there are quite a few pesky beggars, obviously wanting money. When we were having lunch on Friday afternoon, we must have had at least three different people coming up to us all and asking us for money. And needless to say, they get quite angry if they don’t get what they want – just ask Mark, who had a knife pointed at his throat by this brat of an (approximately) 8 year old child, just because none of us gave him what he wanted. Throughout the course of the day, we must have encountered such people at least 6 times. An answer to this? Do what Stefan was doing – offer them a cigarette, and they’ll go away with immediate effect.

Acitrezza, on the other hand, is the place where we were staying, and is a 15-20 minute drive from Catania. It’s a relatively small and peaceful fishing village, and here I’ll just give a small bit of credit to our hotel manager, who, despite providing us with two rather inadequate meals for dinner on Thursday and Friday, was very patient with us all as many held after-parties going on till even half 6 in the morning. And of course, a brief word on Taormina is also due – it’s a beautiful place perched on the top of a hill; a very picturesque pedestrianised place that gives beautiful views of not only the underlying sea but also of the historical landmarks situated within the town.

Strut your stuff
Of course, another integral part of ELSA is none other than the parties. And, to my great despair, I have to say that these were a disappointment, for the most part. I’m not saying that our first night was bad, or anything of the sort, but when you pay €27 to enter a place that should house at least 600 people, and then leave at half 12(!!!), then you have to be slightly disappointed at the very least. Perhaps even worse was the fact that we got lost on the way due to the sheer inadequacy of one of the bus drivers (not Luca) – it permitted many of us to end up by questioning what on earth was going on, and sobered many people up!

A word has to go to poor Stefan here though, who really managed to strut his stuff after getting out of the shower. His clothes stolen, he had to emerge from the bathroom with a towel covering himself and looking very much like a prima donna. Needless to say, the very notion of himself coming out of the bathroom, naked, with this towel just covering him, was hilarious. I’m just wondering at which point he thought it was a good idea to come out of the bathroom in this manner, not rinsed (he still had soap on him), with all his friends waiting for him(!!!)…

My thoughts on Smoking
As the majority already know – word spreads and photos on Facebook never do anyone justice – I was subject to having a couple of cigarettes while in Sicily, something that seems to have become quite a talking point among many of my friends. Firstly, I would like to clarify the situation – what happens in Sicily stays in Sicily – it has been done, and I cannot revoke that that has been done. Secondly, I am not going to be taking up the habit of smoking – I know what type of a person I am and I know that it is not in my character to do so. Thirdly, I feel that such ‘condemnation’ over this topic is unjustified, undue and unjust – as it says in the Bible, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her" (John 8:7). No one is perfect in life, and neither am I. So that’s that aspect all cleared up, I hope.

Final Thought
So as to not make this blog too lengthy, I have decided to conclude here. Most of that that I said has covered the duration of the trip, anyway. All in all, Sicily was a pleasant experience spent with some good friends. Without going into the merits of the case, I believe that there could have been aspects of the trip that could have been better than those that evolved throughout the duration of the three days, but overall, it was a better and more worthwhile trip than last year’s. However, a trip to Sicily next year could verge on the repetitive – indeed, I strongly suggest to the organisers to find another place next year.

God Bless and Take Care,
Matti

If Only I Had Some Thoughts...

2008-10-09T22:28:00.007+02:00

Well, go figure. I, prime thinker, have nothing to think about. So, well, I decided that now is an opportune time to think about God's love for us. I actually have something of the like on my laptop, which I might upload later if I deem it appropriate, as it was essentially a doodling of my thoughts during my quiet time at STRONGER. The reason is that because it was a 'doodle', it won't make much sense. And that's exactly the opposite of what the aim of my blog really is... I don't want to lead my readers into thinking that I'm just a bullshitter par excellence. Which I am, anyway.

Well, I decided to Google (!! - yes, I was feeling lazy and tired when writing this!) some Bible quotes with regards God's love for us, as I felt that these could really be attributed to STRONGER (for those reading who don't know what it was, it was Y4J's recent weekend live-in). Anyhow, in my opinion, this was the strongest verse that emerged of all:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." - John 3:16

This quote managed to make me further reconfirm the love that God has for us all. God has no plans to abandon us when the going isn't good, because He knows that He can pull us through the hard times. God loves each and everyone of us so much that He gave us His only Son, who then subsequently died for us in the ultimate form of suffering - on the Cross. God loves us so much that we will be saved simply by believing in Him, nothing more, nothing less. He promises everlasting life to all of those who do so, it says it clearly in the Scripture! STRONGER was an opportunity for us all to reconfirm our belief in the Lord, and hence quantify not only our love for Him, but also His love for us.

Then I came across another quote that I thought was really applicable to the weekend as well:

"The LORD opens the eyes of the blind: the LORD raises them that are bowed down: the LORD loves the righteous." - Psalm 146:8

I thought that prior to STRONGER, we might have perhaps been blinded by circumstances that took priority in our lives. I'm not perfect, and based on personal experience, I was definitely one of these people as well. Times would pass where I wouldn't pray or spend some quiet time with God, and hence, start to become 'blind' once again. On the other hand, our faith might have grown stagnant and hence we might have needed to 'recharge our batteries'. This is what STRONGER enabled us to do as a group - it enabled us to realise that living in God's light, or, to use Andrew Consiglio's term, boarding and being part of the "ark", was the righteous thing. I felt that this weekend really helped a lot of people, myself included, to see this once again, and to get back on track with God firmly rooted in my life. Once again, I stress though, I'm not perfect... and indeed, there have been times this week where I have slipped back into being blind! However, I believe that living in this light is a growing process that one has to evolve through with time. Which brings me to wrap up this section with a verse from Deuteronomy, and is the reason why I believe in such a God...

"He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He." - Deuteronomy 32:4

Moving on now. Something of a landmark (I was really going to say the word 'judgement' after 'landmark', seeing how many times I've heard it during law lectures!!) nature also happened for the first time in a long time at STRONGER... I went to Confession. Only God knows how long I hadn't gone prior to last weekend, and judging on my calculations, it must have been around 4-5 years ago. (EDIT: It was actually around 2 years ago. Honestly.) While I don't think I had anything in particular to confess about, I did somehow feel as if I had managed to take a huge weight off my chest after this happened. Now, suddenly, while browsing through other websites, I came across this and understood why fully...

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1:9

The priest that I confessed to then told me that as a penance, I should look at Psalm 23 and reflect on it. I decided that to do such an 'analysis', I should write down what I think about it on a piece of paper (as I didn't have my laptop with me at the time). Needless to say, I found Verses 3 and 4 of particular inspiration, and the following is what I wrote regarding this:

"You guide me along the right path for the sake of your name. Even when I walk through a dark valley, I fear no harm for you are at my side; your rod and staff give me courage." - Psalm 23:3-4

There are many periods in life where we encounter walking through such dark valleys. Most times we know about them and are conscious of the wrong that we are doing, but sometimes we slip into such darkness subconsciously, without knowing it's there. It could be for various reasons, which need not be mentioned. In such circumstances, we have to try and realise the wrong that we are doing - as difficult as it may be - and rectify that wrong. (Knowing that we have the Lord by our side, in all circumstances, whatever the situation may be, makes us stronger.)

I think that's all I have to say... I'm sorry if my post has, for one, not come across in a clear and structured manner and secondly not made sense at all, and can hence be classified as bullshit! Ironic now, isn't it, that the title of this blog is If Only I Had Some Thoughts...

God Bless You all!
Matti

Where it All Stemmed From

2008-10-02T19:51:00.005+02:00

The inspiration for this blog comes from a simple phrase - 'Thank you'.

Well, as I've written what is now around 6 blogs on this site (either I have, or haven't, or don't feel like counting the amount written!), I think it's finally time for me to give (part of) my testimony. It's taken me some time to actually get down to writing this, but I think that it should now be out in the open, once and for all.

In my previous blog, I wrote a few 'character profiles' for a select group of people who come to Y4J. As I mentioned, or more like as she mentioned(!!), I was requested to do this by Bettina and, over and above that, well, an angry mob of people who threatened to kill me if I didn't do so! (I joke). However, what I didn't mention was the fact that I placed my best friend Mark at the top of the list for a reason. It wasn't a case of favouritism - those who know me well know that I don't give preferential treatment to practically anyone (though I'm sure that it has happened in the past and will happen again, in some form, in the future). It wasn't a case of further proclaiming that Mark is my best friend. Indeed, that would be taking the easy way out, wouldn't it?

Of course, the latter is invariably linked to what I'm going to say, but I believe that he is someone who has managed to change my life for the better. I'm saying this because Mark was the person who brought me, and hence introduced me, to Y4J. Unfortunately, I tried finding the message that he sent me, which was around two days prior to the Lenten talks, to no avail, as otherwise I would have quoted it here. However, it roughly stated that it was an invitation - directly to me - to attend these talks as they might be good for myself. At first, I was extremely dismissive of the message, and in fact I remember asking Mark why on earth he had bothered sending it to me, stating that he knew I wouldn't come because I wasn't into these things and that it was a waste of 5 Euro cents. He responded in a similar fashion to "We [at Y4J] were told to send this message to people who don't attend and maybe don't believe... Cu there" (loosely quoted).

To cut a long story short, I had nothing to do the following Monday evening, and decided to head off to these Lenten talks, simply to see what they were about. However, I first checked whether any of my friends were going - to be honest, I wouldn't have dared to go had I been alone. Initially, like everyone else, I'm presuming, I needed that support and that encouragement to keep on going to the talks and indeed, later on, even Y4J meetings. Now, 8 months down the road, I obviously don't need this assistance any longer as I'm confident that I'm doing the right thing, but primarily, I'm now confident in my faith. Such a confidence and such a belief was lacking back in February; I can't say that it's lacking now.

So as the first line of this blog states - The inspiration for this blog comes from a simple phrase - 'Thank you'. Yes, thank you to everyone for being by my side when I needed it the most; but more specifically, thank you to Mark for making me believe once again. Without that SMS that he sent, I wouldn't be the person I am today. I may have already told him this a few nights ago when online, in a rather random statement, but I felt that it needed to be made public.

To conclude, I chose two quotes - one from Romans and one from the great philosopher St. Augustine - to show us how even though we might drift away from the Lord, He is always willing to welcome us back with open arms.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8

"God loves each of us as if there were only one of us." - St. Augustine

God Bless You All & Take Care,
Matti

Character Profiles (as Requested!)

2008-09-27T23:03:00.020+02:00

After being asked by my Y4J group of friends to resurrect my infamous character profiles - not that the majority of them knew they existed in the first place, but anyhow - I have finally decided to do so, simply because right now, I have absolutely nothing to do. For those who don't know what I'm on about, these are essentially 'snippets' of what I think about various people that there are within a certain group. Back in the days when I was at St. Aloysius, this was seen as a pristine opportunity to either really boost somebody's morale by me telling them what a great person they are, or else the total opposite - me giving a fully-fledged attack on a specific person's character, and subsequently, most of the time, getting a lot of stick for it. Well, without further ado, I shall do the same here... but will, in all fairness, keep it as 'nice' as possible.

Please note that some of the people who I have listed here - principally the first few - are those that I have known for quite a while, but still form part of Y4J.

Mark - Words can't describe how great this guy is. I've now known Mark (Mose) for 3 years and I'm proud to say that he's my best friend, and an irreplaceable one for that matter. He is one of the most patient, genuine and caring people that I have ever had the privilege of knowing and spending my time with, and I often consider him as the brother that I never had. I have never come across a person who has had a bad word to say about Mark and rightly so - while everybody has their faults, it is almost impossible to find faults within him. A great friend not just for me, but for everybody.

Jaccarini - Over the couple of years that we have known each other, Jaccarini and I have become very good friends. Always someone who you can count on, no matter the circumstance, she is the kind of person that you simply can't dislike due to her bubbly and warm personality. She's also of the belief that Liverpool - be it the city, be it the football club - is the best thing that has happened to the world since it's creation. If she could marry the city, she would - that's how much she's in love with it! On a more serious note, I'm very much honoured to have someone like Jaccarini form an important part of my life - as Mark is like the brother I never had, then she is like my sister.

Lanfranco - Having known him for around 2 years now, and always been very good friends with him, it's no surprise that I feel that he is one of my most trusted friends at Y4J. He is one of the people who I feel I can confide myself in, and has a heart of gold as he is willing to help people out whenever possible. He also does like to go with the flow sometimes, but is not afraid to be a leader in certain situations and help point people in the right direction. He does, however, have a tendency of becoming slightly agitated occasionally.

Sam - Once again, Sam is a person who I've known for 2 years but contrary to Lanfy, prior to Y4J, I didn't know him all that well. It's only through this that I've come to realise what a great person he is. When you need a shoulder to cry on or some consoling in one way or another, he's there, conscious of that fact and understanding towards it. He is very much a person who demonstrates excellent leadership qualities throughout and also has a humorous and even daredevilish side to him.

Stephie - Like Sam, Stephie is a person who I've known for quite a while yet hadn't really made friends properly with her till I started coming to Y4J and, in particular, went to Soul Survivor. She's also a person who demonstrates very good leadership qualities - she directed Hairspray at SAC Soiree 2008 - and, in my opinion, is someone who is constantly sensitive to many others' needs.

Analise - Even though many of those born in 1990 have become my friends, it was almost inevitable that (due to Mark) Analise would also be one of them. A caring, loving character with an impressive voice that could potentially shatter your glass windows, Analise may come across as being slightly bossy at first sight, but when you get to know her, you realise what a great person she is. She too is a person who you can thoroughly rely on when something is going wrong, provided she doesn't have any problems herself at the time!

Paul - Y4J's resident goofball is one of those people who can crack you up in an instant with his polar opposite character(s). At one moment in time, Paul can be the most serious individual in the house but then, at the flick of a finger, he can throw people into hysteria. A downside to him though is that he has the tendency to whine quite a bit, as illustrated quite aptly when we were filming our skit for the Talent Show! However, this does not take away anything from the fact that he is a great person with excellent values.

Bettina - Sam's sister, Ms. Goldilocks is the epitome of Jesus shining through her. She never has a bad word to say against anyone, no matter who it is, and is an immensely talented and intelligent individual. She has the tendency to 'act blonde' sometimes(!!) but that's a small price to pay for her caring and loving character. She is a genuine person who ultimately has a heart of gold.

Achie - It's hard to use relatively simple terms to describe this girl. You see, she's a bit like me in the sense that she doesn't know how to not complicate matters in the way that she portrays her (rather theological and sometimes philosophical) ideas. In my opinion, she possesses an intelligence that belies her age, as often illustrated by her argumentation. She's also not afraid to answer back - in particular with me - whenever someone challenges her viewpoints. This often leads to a long and tiring debate and heated discussion. She's a very nice person, but here's a tip - stay out of any debates with her! (For her sake, I really hope she takes part in Mini EU next year.)

Rob - Having known Rob for the best part of 8-10 years now (I honestly forgot when I first met him, but I remember it was at scouts!), and not having spoken to him in such a lengthy time, he and I have been reunited as friends at Y4J. A computing guru and around 4 years more mature than when I last met him, Rob has grown by keeping his head on a solid pair of shoulders via the various experiences he has passed through. He is very passionate about Y4J and, more importantly, praising Jesus.

Ok, I've really had enough of writing. Many apologies if your name wasn't 'listed' here, but I chose to do the first ones that came to mind and, well, I can't keep on writing for eternity! This doesn't mean, in any way, means or form that this is some kind of 'elite group' of people - I think that everyone knows that in one way or another, they are all special, and that they are also my friends.

And now, for the talking point... after I've written about you, what do you think about me!? Leave comments (if you want) in the comments form below.

God Bless You all and Take Care... the blog will return next month!
Matti

Is the World at a Standstill?

2008-09-19T19:48:00.006+02:00

Not a very long post tonight, folks. I only have 15-20 minutes free time on my hands (as of now) and just need something to do, and this is it.

Well, I've been noticing of late that there really hasn't been anything worth noting on the international scene. Strange beyond belief to be honest, but I feel as if the same old stories have been circulating round and round all the time. The Zimbabwe crisis - and what a crisis it is, with inflation standing at a reported 14 million percent (yes, you're reading correctly!) - has been making headlines since the country had their rather farcical set of elections. The race for the White House in America is slowly gathering momentum but is still in its early stages. The war in Georgia has now stopped completely as Russian troops have been withdrawn from the region. There's just absolutely nothing of substance to speak about in terms of current affairs worldwide, unless you consider the headline Italian consumers stage 'bread strike' (Reuters) to be the biggest thing since the invention of the toaster.

And Malta is just as bad, to be honest. All the political fanfare that surrounded the country in the early stages of the year has obviously died down, and now we are yet again stuck with the same old statements coming out from various Ministers' mouths - "We can't guarantee that such and such an electoral promise will be fulfilled this year or indeed even in 2009". The highlights of the last week have been a murder in Hal-Qormi, where the accused gave himself up to the police at the Law Courts but then pleaded not guilty at his trial; a Proton (not the particle that forms part of an atom) car blowing up and killing a man as he was trapped inside, also at Hal-Qormi; and finally, a motorcycle accident on the road linking Rabat to Zebbug which has left the two motorcyclists involved in a critical condition. Things just couldn't be any brighter... Hell, even Jenny leaving the island could have made front page news this week!

It seems as if everyone, everything and everywhere is in the process of a post-summer hangover. And that truly is the case, I believe, as the rain starts to fall on the Northern Hemisphere of the globe and autumn settles in.

God Bless and Take Care,
Matti