Day of quiet reflection

What a coincidence! Today is a day of national reflection both in Malta and here in the USA. However, the reason for the quiet pause is very different. Malta is legally bound to have a quiet day of reflection on the eve of any election day. The USA is holding a day of mourning for former President Ronald Reagan; today is the day of his funeral.

I have always been fascinated by the day of quiet reflection mandated by Maltese law on the eve of political elections. This law was clearly written at a time before the advent of the Internet. Those were days when the media could be controlled: no propaganda or political messages can be printed or broadcast for a 24-hour period before people go to the polling booths. How quaintly 20th century is that?

For anyone who doesn't take politics too seriously, perhaps today still deserves to be a day of quiet reflection in honour of Ray Charles, the musician. He passed away yesterday. And I couldn't help but notice that he was 20 years younger than Ronald Reagan.

Our own cartoonist, Gattaldo, has had his own personal brush with mourning this week. So it is most fitting that his cartoon for this week deals with the theme of death. For someone with a witty sense of humour there's always a twisted approach to all the morbid emotions that surround the loss of life.

May all the dead rest in peace.

Sette Giugno 1919 in context

The 7th of June 1919 was indeed a remarkable day in the history of Malta. The death of Guzeppi Bajada, Manwel Attard, Wenzu Dyer and Karmenu Abela as a result of the riots against the British colonial government undoubtedly marked the bloodiest steps towards self-rule and independence for Malta.

Our country did the right thing in designating this day as a national holiday. It is as significant as any of the other national holidays, even if the monument in honour of the victims of the Sette Giugno 1919 riots in Valletta was only unveiled in 1987.

This year marks the 85th anniversary of the 1919 riots. This Sette Giugno anniversary comes at a time when the world is observing the passing of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who died a couple of days ago. Although 85th anniversaries are not usually marked with any special fanfare, I've been thinking about how the 7th of June has played out in history since 1919.

For instance, it is most interesting to note that the Vatican became a sovereign state on 7 June 1929. In the broader context of the Sette Giugno since 1919, one could also mention D-Day, which occurred on the 6th of June 1944, just in time for the 25th anniversary of the 1919 events.

Keeping the focus on Malta: the dismantling of the Upper Barrakka Lifts, inoperable since 1973, started on this day in 1983, because it had not been declared as a public holiday at that time, for interesting reasons I won't go into here today. And it is very ironic that on the 7th of June 1990 four Maltese men were reported missing aboard their yacht Esmeralda, 20 miles South-East of Sardinia, Italy.

This type of contextualization for major events such as the Sette Giugno is something I do quite often because it puts things in a different light than that chosen by the weavers of our major narratives.