At about this time of the year for the past 8 years, Mario Axiaq and I have been putting together a list of obituaries for people known for their public life in Malta. It is an exercise that works hand in glove with Mario's aboutmalta.com project to chronicle Malta day by day and MaltaMedia's round-up of the year gone by.
In compiling this year's list I became aware that Manuel Borg, a former colleague of mine at Radio Malta, passed away this summer. I was not only shocked that he died at such a relatively young age (he was just 57 year old) but also that somehow the news of his passing didn't reach me until Mario and I started comparing the lists we had put together separately since last Christmas.
I first heard of Manuel Borg's name as a radio producer on a multi-part rock documentary presented by Albert Zammit around 1981 on Radio Malta. Eventually, I caught his name again as co-producer on Twanny Scerri's various shows featuring Italian music. When I started my career in broadcasting just a few years later, Manuel was one of the technical crew I worked with regularly at Radio Malta. He and I became good friends and eventually co-produced a 13-part series commemorating the tenth anniversary since John Lennon's murder, starting on what would have been his 50th birthday in October 1990. It was the last year that Radio Malta enjoyed as the only radio station in the country. Manuel and I knew it was the end of an era. Just a few months later I quit my full-time job at Xandir Malta, which also meant that he and I never had the opportunity to work together again.
Truth be told, after I had taken up my management job at Radio One Live, I had called on him to help me put together a decent collection of Italian music. I will always remember Manuel Borg whenever I hear a song by Lucio Battisti, I Camaleonti, I Giganti, Matia Bazar, or most other decent Italian acts And so should generations of Maltese radio listeners, particularly those who didn't watch much TV in the late 70s or 1980s. In any case, on a personal level, I'm most saddened by Manuel's death and I'm sorry I'll never see him again, even if the last couple of times we met we didn't really have much to say to each other beyond the obvious.
Here's the list for this year, so far:
ROBERT NAUDI, Politician
(Died: 2 January 2008)
EMANUEL FIORENTINO, Art Critic
(Died: 13 January 2008)
JOSEPH M. GERADA, Tradeunionist
(Died: 30 January 2008)
CARM LINO SPITERI, Politician
(Died: 9 February 2008)
GEMMA PORTELLI, Actress
(Died: 21 February 2008)
ALBERT RIZZO, Politician
(Died: 29 February 2008)
EBBA VON FERSEN BALZAN, Artist
(Died: 15 March 2008)
EMANUEL ABELA, Civil Servant
(Died: 9 April 2008)
SIR ANTHONY MAMO, President
(Died: 1 May 2008)
KILIN SPITERI, Author
(Died: 8 July 2008)
MANWEL BORG, Broadcaster
(Died: 5 August 2008)
JOE MERCIECA, Journalist
(Died: 13 August 2008)
GEORGE DOUGALL, Broadcaster
(Died: 3 October 2008)
KARL CHIRCOP, Politician
(Died: 12 October 2008)
ANTON AGIUS, Artist
(Died: 19 October 2008)
JADE BRINCAT, Musician
(Died: 12 November 2008)
SALVINU SCHEMBRI, Footballer
(Died: 14 December 2008)
EVELYN BONACI, Politician
(Died: 15 December 2008)
If you think there's anyone else we should include in this list, please contact me. We'd also appreciate any corrections to dates of death as listed here, because we don't always get things 100% right.
Labels: autobiography, death, ritual
