Saturday, December 8, 2007

Christmas times & Maltese poverty...

F'dawn iz-zminijiet tal-Milied, bizzejjed tmur sal-Belt jew ta' Sliema biex tara nies hergin bil-basktijiet minn hwienet ta' ditti 'expensive'. Jekk tkun influwenzat mill-'media' kapitalista w mill-politici Maltin li l-hin kollhu jiddefendu s-suq hieles w allura naturalment il-kapitalisti, facli tasal ghal konkluzzjoni zbaljata li l-Maltin kollha qieghdin jighxu xi hajja ta' lussu! Fuq in-naha l-ohra tal-munita, hemm Maltin ohra, li lanqas biss ghandhom x'jieklu! Ommijiet vittma ta' l-uzura! Ommijiet li jkollhom ir-ragel jilghabhom u jispiccaw bla flus! Familji li minhabba sfortuna socjali jispiccaw bla certezza finanzjarja! Dawn huma fatti li jezistu fis-seklu 21 gewwa Malta, il-pajjiz suppost zviluppat membru ta' l-UE. Difficli tifhem dak li thoss omm fqira meta fuq 'magazine' tara reklami bhal; ''Make this Christmas special for your kids...'' u jkomplu billi jissuggerulek tixtrilhom dak it-tali` oggett jew tehodhom f'dak it-tali` post li naturalment hlief flus ma jkunux qieghdin jitolbuk! Jigifieri jekk din l-omm m'ghandhiex x'tiekol, wisq anqas flus, ulieda m'humiex ser ikollhom Milied specjali?! Ulied il-'middle-class' u l-'high-class' biss ser ikollhom Milied specjali?! B'liema dritt kumpanijja twegga s-sentimenti ta' min u fqir ghal skopijiet ta' profitti?! Din hijja l-Malta moderna tal-lum! Malta li bhal kumplament tad-dinja suppost moderna, qieghda titmexxa b'politika fejn min hu l-aqwa jhawwel u min ma jiflahx jithawwel!!! Viva l-gustizzja socjali!!!

26 comments:

La delirante said...

Hi Glenn! I am learning Maltese (Jiena ghed nigthallem bil nitkellem bil Malti u nifhem ftit meta jiena read) :) I wanted to say that I am learning but Maltese and that I understand a bit when I read. I think I understood your post. I think you wrote that in Valletta or Sliema one can see many people Christmas shopping and that the media is contributing to send the message that if you want a special Christmas you need to spend money on gifts. I believe that Christmas, the way it is understood nowadays commercially speaking, implies that just like for Valentine's day or birthdays a gift is offered to people to whom you feel a special bond or you care about. I gave a present to some of my colleagues because I felt like telling them: "we get along very well and I feel comfortable with you. I like working with you" or to my partner: "I love you" but it is just a way to express affection no matter what the gift is (expensive or not so expensive). I think it is nice to give and receive gifts not because one is obliged to do so but because one really feels it.

I hope I understood your points correctly.

I noticed that you have added my blog to your blogroll. I am glad you like visiting my blog from time to time. I will keep on visiting yours as now I am understand Maltese better and the things I have read in your blog I have found to be very interesting. I will also add your blog to my blogroll.

Have a nice day,

David Cuschieri said...

I agree with Wen's idea that one does not need to give an expensive gift in order to express certain feelings. Yet, I believe that there is little doubt about the objective underlying most of the Christmas propaganda - to make as much profit as possible!!!

When I go out and see so many nice things in various shops, I always look at the price first. I ask myself: can I afford to buy this? A few seconds later, especially when I see a person who is sometimes younger than me buying certain very expensive items, I ask myself: why is it that that person can buy such things while I can't do the same? Of course, the bottom line is that we do not have an equal amount of money. Why not?

Some of the youngsters prowling the Sliema streets have barely ever worked in their lives, but they have enough money to buy most of the things which are not affordable for thousands of other Maltese individuals; this normally happens because they are the children of extremely wealthy parents. Does this mean that one should support a system whereby certain items out there are only available for people who come from ultra-rich families? What about the thousands of people who do not come from such families? Should they be treated as an invisible section of our society?

Christmas surely has its wonderful facets. Yet, I believe that it is that time of the year where one can truly notice a very clear distinction between the haves and the have-nots.

One of the really sad things about contemporary society is that it almost constantly bombards us with the message that if you work hard, you will be able to achieve whatever you desire. Well, the problem is that I work quite hard, I know many other people who also work incredibly hard, but when the weekend comes around, we cannot really afford to purchase or to indulge in certain activities. Perhaps I should work harder? Well, the thing is that I would like to be enjoying life to the full now...not after having worked for 40 years so that I could be earning a little extra money!

To conclude, I believe that the poor people in Malta no longer have a voice. The attitude propagated by the capitalists is that one is poor because he/she wants to be so! Yeah, I am sure that the poor enjoy having insufficient food at home or no heating during the cold months! The poor are usually the ones who are branded by the wealthy class as the "hamalli". Furthermore, most of the people who are portrayed in the media come from relatively wealthy families and have little interest in improving the plight of the poor. And what is the government doing about all this??? Nothing at all!!!!

GleGer said...

First of all 10x for your comment Wen! I agree with you that if you really feel like giving a present to someone special for you, you can do it any time of the year, not in Christmas or Valentines ecc... I believe that Christmas is a capitalist feast, not a religious feast! I promise you that from now on i will visit your blog regularly, 10x!

Naqbel mieghek 100% David! Bizzejjed tisma certi stazzjoniijiet tar-'radio' bhal fost l-aktar 89.7BAY u tisma r-reklami tieghu, li kwazi kwazi jwasluk biex temmen li l-Maltin kollha sinjuri w jaffordjaw jixtru djamanti w karozzi godda qishom qed jixtru l-pastizzi!!! Naturalment, il-gvern ma jaghmel xejn kontra dawn l-affarjiet, ghaliex ghalih, din hijja propoganda indiretta! Grazzi tal-kumment tieghek Dav!

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