What's the buzz?

Following the publication of Ġużè Stagno's Manic cover story last Sunday, a Maltese blogger who uses the name ereżija posted an entry entitled "Toni Sant?" on a blog called Il-Kriżi...u kif tegħlibha (translation: Crisis...and how to overcome it). I don't know this blogger, and this is quite evident from what's written in the "Toni Sant?" entry.

Ereżija's Maltese-language entry starts by telling readers that it should be easy to make enemies in the Maltese blogsphere by asking the question: who is this Toni Sant? To be more more precise, the question raised is about my achievements (for lack of a better term) rather than my identity or personal character. Ereżija claims to remember my TV show Mill-Garaxx as "ħelu, imma xejn specjali" ("sweet, but nothing special"), and recalls my days as a university student calling me "karattru mill-aħjar, persuna simpatika" (which roughly translates as nice guy). Well, what can I say? Thank you for your kind words! Ereżija's big question, however, is "Jista' xi ħadd jgħidli x'għamel speċjali li huwa daqshekk rispettat?" (Can someone tell me what he's done that's so special to earn him such respect?)

Ġużè Stagno and Mark Vella, not to mention Robert Micallef and Pierre Mejlak, are probably responsible for ereżija's question. I don't think there's anything but sincere bewilderment in ereżija's question. No one's feathers will be roughled by this question, but perhaps Ġużè, Mark, Robert, Pierre or someone else cares to engage with erezija's question. I'm not fishing for compliments. Honestly! I'm just saying, does anyone care to take up erezija's question?

If I were to attempt a response to ereżija's question I'd say that what comes across as "respect" is mostly human warmth. My professional activities over the past 25 years or so mean very little to anyone who wasn't aware of the struggle against all odds that came with whatever they experienced. Some of these people simply lived similar struggles in their own lives while others saw the challenges first hand by being a part of whatever I was involved in, be it radio, TV, theatre, music, or the Internet.

Then again, it could be that, as the Bard put it, it's all just a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.