Break in at PAM headquarters

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, located in Malta, has called on the relevant authorities to further reinforce security measures for their headquarters.
The premises was the target of a breach of security last night when unknown persons broke into the building.
The staff discovered this morning that a number of computers and other items were missing. The police were called in and investigations started immediately under the supervision of the District Magistrate and the Police Inspector. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is also conducting its own investigation.
The Secretary General, Dr. Sergio Piazzi, returned immediately to the island from Rome, Italy, where PAM MPs are currently meeting.
The news of the break-in shocked the PAM Members, and PAM President, the Honourable Rudy Salles of France, expressed his grave concern that the diplomatic seat of the Mediterranean Parliament had its security threatened by this criminal action.

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Follow up

Due to several mishaps (I am blaming them on a bad bout of prolonged vertigo) following the launch of my blog on Monday, some commentators have sent their contributions to my email address.
I had forgotten to enable the comment option. However, some people just preferred to limit their comments, on “It is all about power and control”, to me and did not want to publicise them.
This because one commentator felt that “local political and other parties scan and record personal expression for their data files”.
Is this paranoia? Or, does it explain why it is usually the same people with a partisan agenda who blog? What do you think?
I had also initially given out the wrong blog name, so my apologies to those of you I sent on a wild goose chase.
Anyway, things will improve as I settle in and my dizziness disappears, although according to an objective critic the vertigo has done wonders for my drawings.
Since I cannot tell who sent their opinions to my email address because they prefered not to comment on a blog and those who just could not access the blog comments, I am reproducing some of them anonomously.

May I be so bold as to make a comment? I liked it v much indeed though I think you are so used to being a balanced writer as a journalist that it did not have the Hansen bite. More you please, less balance.
I look forward to seeing more.
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One can see increasing evidence of Catholic Fundamentalism in certain establishment sections of our society, more concernedly because it seems to be emerging amongst the intellectual and academic gliteratii amongst whom are those expressing their horror that the decision of the censor to ban 'Stitching' might be reversed.
Yet, at the Manoel Theatre, recently all those same persons were present for a production, which included full frontal nudity, blashemy, buggery, clerical rape, homosexual priest rape of a mental patient - mind you it was all done with the utmost of taste.
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Very good but factually incorrect – I am sure we both saw Viva Maria when it first came out.
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Your blog on power and control is disturbing but doesn’t surprise me. I have for some time thought that the Christian church would wish to be as controlling as that other religion about which we have become preoccupied since 9/11.
Religious fundamentalism is more of a risk today due to the economic tsunami still to hit us all, when people will turn to their religious leaders for support and comfort. Religion will be the substitute for retail therapy!! Who was it who said that “religion is the opium of the poor”? Oscar Wilde I think.
I hope your blog will be an article in the Times of Malta.
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Interesting reading (and quite shocking).
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Good Blog. This country is run by the Church not by the State. In fact, you have a Prime Minister who was a former president of the Azzjoni Kattolika, a president who was a Jesuit and a deputy prime minister who is more of a bishop then a Cabinet minister.
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A very good article, I would publish it locally if you can find an editor ' bil bajd'. I totally share your views, brava.

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It is all about power and control

I watched Louis Malle’s “Viva Maria” (released in the Sixties) for the first time on Friday. It is a bit of a romp, but among the playfullness with the sexy Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau in their youth, Malle includes in his spoof some jibes at the Catholic Church.
Namely, what priests and monks have got up to (historically) in order to retain power, i.e. their support of brutal, exploitative and corrupt dictatorships.

The reason I bring this up is because next morning I read about the result of one court case following the Church in Malta successfully launching a witch hunt against some young revellers, who dared dress up as priests, nuns and even Jesus at this year’s carnival in Gozo.

Of course the witch hunt today is not on the same scale but the motive is still that of retaining power and control. The Church in Gozo can still wield considerable control as has just been demonstrated.
The bishops have gone on record as saying that they want to stamp out the practice forever. “This should not be allowed to happen again” (the dressing up not the witch hunts).

In the movie the name Maria is not incidental. The promiscous, striptease artistes (Bardot and Moreau) are hailed as saints for their part in a revolution.

In the real world, a young man had been charged in court and found guilty of wearing a “sacred habit” without permission. He got a one-month jail-term suspended for 18 months, for offending the State religion by dressing up as Christ during the Nadur carnival last month.

The police said steps were taken after the public statements made by Archbishop Paul Cremona and Gozo Bishop Mario Grech about the behaviour of certain individuals and costumes worn during this year's carnival in Nadur.

Like previous years, scores of revellers dressed up as priests and nuns during the rowdy Nadur carnival.

“Shameful behaviour at Nadur carnival infuriates Gozo Bishop”, who said “society is living under the dictatorship of relativism,” reported one newspaper.
Mgr Mario Grech, the Bishop of Gozo, thought it “very bad taste indeed to hurt religious sentiments by impersonating the holy figure of Jesus and the Apostles”.

He also claimed that is was also illegal and made it clear that he expected the police to act . He was quoted: “one asks where were the police at the time? The culture of making fun of the authorities is rapidly being promoted, calling it maturity. However, is it?”
He said he sincerely hoped that offenders were brought to book.

So it was making fun of the authorities that was really irking the Bishop. It was not the wearing of the vestments that provoked the outrage but the poking of fun at the Church authorities.

In a statement the bishops (I guess that the Archbishop did not want the Gozo bishop to hog all the limelight) called on the authorities to defend the rights of the public, adding that this applied not only to the religious beliefs of most of the people of Malta and Gozo but also to public decency in general.

But public reaction had been very mixed on the issue, it is the Church who is the major complainant.

Carnival is celebrated in many countries, but particpants rarely end up in court because of their costume, In Brazil (where costumes are little more than a g string) and elsewhere carnival behaviour is accepted for its eccentricities, bawdiness and irreverance.

But not on the tiny EU member state of Malta, or rather on the even smaller sister island of Gozo, The Bishops’ hopes were fullfilled. Nine Maltese people aged between 20 and 35 years are now being investigated by the police in connection with alleged offensive behaviour and costumes used during the Nadur carnival.

They will face charges under the Maltese Criminal Code, which bars people from dressing up as priests and/or donning Church vestments or naval/military uniforms without a permit.

But since it was not the wearing of the vestments that provoked the outrage but the poking of fun at the Church authorities, I am not sure whether the Criminal Code covers that.
As a local blogger pointed out, there was no outrage when men dressed as nuns took part in a charity show imitating “Sister Act” on TV. Or indeed criminal proceedings.

Yet, a young man now has a criminal record. And the fate of the other people involved is still to be decided.
The police said they had also filed charges in relation to other contraventions (not specified) during the three-day Nadur carnival.

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