Are we cultured?

Culture is a wide-ranging term and veers towards elitism. I am not including ‘customs’ here, because to my mind that word used by many to suit their agenda belies the true nature of what culture should be all about.

Culture should be about appreciating art, music, literature, architecture and other related activities, which require intellectual engagement, and not shooting birds and launching petards.

We have to face up to the fact that there are still many who lack the sophistication to distinguish between culture, tack and plain macho egoism. Hence the elitist factor. So is it the educational system, government in general, or the media that is failing to enlighten through education and exposure to the right kind of cultural activity?

It is not enough to throw open the doors to museums once in a while if the public is not aware of what to appreciate and why. In Malta, Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco seems to be aware of this, “Museums must be accessible to all, but the first responsibility was to get the Maltese to appreciate the contents of their museums”, he said in parliament on Tuesday.

He was responding to Evarist Bartolo, Labour spokesman on education, who said that whole sectors of the population were still unaware of our heritage and its importance. He queried:

“What education results were achieved under the objective presented last year to make heritage sites socially inclusive?”   

The fact that school visits are being encouraged is a good start, but how are those visits followed up when the children get back to the classroom? Educating children about the arts has to be fun and itself creative to be successful.

If as I read, Malta is designated to be the European Capital of Culture in 2018 we have a lot to do. Dr de Marco said in Parliament, “Malta had a duty to look at 2018 humbly and take stock of its needs in cultural heritage for years, not a year, of excellence.”

Ah, yes our long neglected heritage. The debate in parliament on the estimates of Heritage Malta and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage raised quite a few relevant issues. Mr Bartolo said that the country still lacked a national cultural heritage strategic plan. Despite the current upheaval, there is not even one for Valletta.

Cultural experts believed that lack of management plans in the city have led to changes being carried out in a chaotic way, he said. Well, it certainly seems the people responsible need to get their skates on. Seven years is not that far away in terms of such planning.

He also spoke about the Domus Romana in Rabat, claiming, “It was unacceptable that a large sum of money had been spent in 2005 to restore it and only six years later part of the work has to redone”. Let’s hope the lack of planning on work in Valletta will not lead to further financial mismanagement.

Besides, the experts’ opinion that “lack of management plans led to changes being carried out in a chaotic way” reminded me of something, and I shall digress slightly here. As I now have to drive round the houses, in more ways than one, from St Mark’s street to get to the Hastings area, I noticed a sort of traffic light, which indicated that St Mark’s street could be closed on occasion.This is now one of only two access points into the city and, as far as I know, the only access point to the top of Valletta.

I met someone last night, who lives in the neighbourhood and has been phoning around – local council, police etc - for information. Apparently, nobody knows why or when St Mark’s street could be closed to traffic!

Could the authorities please tell us how we could get to Hastings when and if they decide to close St Mark’s Street? How will an ambulance gain access in an emergency?

Also, since the bastions are being cleaned up near the House of Four Winds and there are still two huts housing pigeons, has it not occurred to anyone that this is not only a futile exercise but also a waste of EU Heritage funding.

Back to the parliament debate, Mr Bartolo criticised the government for failing to publish the State of Heritage Report for 2009-2010 and said the report had to be more analytical and critical giving a true picture of how things stood. He added that MPs were only given the balance sheet for the heritage superintendence for the debate.

Responding to his point of the lack of a national cultural heritage strategic plan, Dr de Marco said that a cultural strategy had been laid out in 2006 and would expire later this year. Work had already started on a revision of the document for a second edition.

Heritage Malta’s board of directors had laid out a strategy for the three years between 2011 and 2013, realising that this year’s work must be done within a longer-term framework. The agency’s biggest challenge was to transform museums and visitors’ centres.

A national forum on cultural heritage would be held next October and November in which the State of Heritage Report for 2010 would feature, he said while committing himself to hold such a forum annually.

On the issuing of warrants to conservationists and restorers, he said a number of loopholes had been tackled and he would soon be submitting a memo to Cabinet to authorise the necessary amendments.

He agreed with Mr Bartolo on the need of a policy tool. In the next few weeks, an ad hoc committee under the superintendence would be working to draft a national agenda that would include the university, Heritage Malta, Mepa, heritage units and NGOs.

Mr Bartolo also asked whether the government had ratified the 2000 Florence EU convention on landscaping and the 2005 Faroe Islands Council of Europe convention on cultural heritage for society? He emphasised that the landscape convention needed to be implemented because the countryside and coastline were under threat.

Dr de Marco responded that several international conventions were to be ratified within the next few months. The sooner the better. Nevertheless, it is not enough to ratify conventions if rules were ignored and enforcement was weak and sometimes non-existent.

There is no doubt that our countryside and coastline are on the brink of total ruin. Our coastline, especially in Tignè, and along the Strand, has been so horrendously dented with monstrous buildings that views of the sea and of our prime heritage site Valletta, except from some of the monoliths, are becoming rarer and will soon disappear.

It is not just in Sliema that the coastline has been messed up. It is obvious when travelling by boat around Malta that much of the coastline is diminishing fast and our urban landscape is being reduced to an arid concrete jungle.

Ancient, majestic trees are summarily chopped and any green space is built over. Malta, with its extremely high population density, remains the EU country with the lowest share (less than 0.5%) of land covered by trees. The countryside is also slowly but surely fading away.

It is true that a large number of trees have and are being planted, in Mellieha, Salini, Ta Qali, and Xrobb l-Ghagin. But what about urban areas? It will take centuries, not seven years, for them to replace the very mature trees that have been destroyed.

How long has the Manoel Island green lung got before that also disappears? Oh, that also reminds me, we have a great cultural activity there now – a Luna park.

I had to laugh when I read that Minister George Pullicino had said: “We want the public to take ownership and embrace a green environment.” Did he mean the green environment the government is not protecting?

However, appreciating nature and being a tree hugger are not really cultural activities, so let’s get back to the nitty-gritty and preparing Valletta to be the European Capital of Culture of 2018. As Mr Bartolo rightly pointed out,  “although enthusiasm was welcomed standards and guidelines were needed for heritage activities.”

We need to get rid of all the naff, tacky stuff and concentrate on serious cultural activities. Better to have fewer high quality events than a conglomeration of bustle. For that year, the eyes of Europe and beyond will be upon us and it is crucial that we get it right, especially, since one of the aims of the venture is to raise Malta’s visibility and profile on an international scale.

I tried to garner information through the Internet on Malta and the EU culture programme and this is what I got:

“What's happening in Malta? Cultural operators from Malta submitted last year 6 out of 819 applications for funding under the Culture Programme. None of these applications was successful. However, eight organisations across the country were active as partners in other European projects.

“Stay tuned for more information about Maltese participation this year as complete figures will be available at the end of 2009.

“The stories from your own country. Last update: 01 September 2009”.

I do not know whether we have done better since, but it looks like our ‘cultural operators’ are going to need all the help they can get.