Ding-dong hell
I am sometimes astonished at the sort of case that excites the imagination of the crowd. Two stories caught my attention in the newspapers yesterday. One of them was about a constitutional case filed by a 26-year-old woman who was born a man, and who is being prevented from marrying by some officious upstart at the Public Registry. The other was about a judicial protest filed by a woman who lives and works in a house hard by the Senglea church, and who is being driven crazy by the chimes that break out of the church clock every 15 minutes. I read the newspapers on-line, and always check the comments beneath, where this facility is available, to see what people are thinking. There was a storm of commentary beneath the Senglea chimes story, and not a single comment beneath the other one. Somewhere, somehow, the question of persistent noise had struck home, divisively of course, and people were driven to – oh dear – sound off. Clearly, they weren’t as exercised by the pompous petty officialdom that makes an unmarried person unmarriageable simply because she was born a man and is now a woman, and the people at the Public Registry don’t know which gender box to tick.
The chimes comments were fascinating, bringing all sorts of apparently unrelated issues into what should be a simple decision based on whether the sound of the bells is indeed above the EU-mandated decibel level and a public nuisance. Suddenly, it was all about tradition, being Maltese, support for the church and Catholicism, petards, planes landing and taking off, and bossy interfering women who should put up and shut up or failing that, sell up and move house. Oh, and why doesn’t she put in double-glazing? And why doesn’t the Curia pay for the expense? Oddly, most of the people commenting appeared to have understood that the fuss was all about church-bells and not about clock-chimes, and so went ballistic at the thought that this nosy woman was trying to eradicate the bells bit from the description of Malta as a place of yells, bells and smells. As for the trials of those who live in the flight path, nobody seemed to make the less than fine distinction between the necessity of an international airport and the total frivolity of loud clock-chimes every 15 minutes.
I appreciated, in particular, these two comments. Peter Mifsud: “Shame Ms Spiteri you think that you are a Pulita trying to ruin everything what is Maltese.” Joe Borg: “Prosit. Why don’t we now dump our language, the festa, the flag, the national anthem and the maltese islands will be called by another name so that we will be sure that anything which is Maltese and other old traditions will be lost forever.” If you want lots of examples of irrational thinking and brilliant non sequiturs, the comments section beneath the stories on the on-line version of The Times is a great resource. Tradition, eh? So a church clock that chimes very loudly every quarter of an hour is now a tradition. It won’t be long before the same people are out in force claiming that buses and perambulating car-wrecks churning out black fumes are also a tradition, and that those who wish to have them removed on the grounds that they are a health hazard should be corralled with the blacks (who also represent a threat to tradition) and left there.
I know Anna Spiteri, the woman who filed the judicial protest about the Senglea church. She taught me geography for archaeology at university, and she is as far removed as possible from the popular idea of an interfering housewife with nothing better to do. She is a scientist and so, when investigating the decibel level of the annoying chimes, she took the scientific approach and didn’t merely protest that they were getting on her nerves. She researched the maximum permissible decibel level in an area such as hers, called in a professional to calculate the decibel level of the once-every-15-minutes chimes, and then tried working things out with the parish priest and the local authorities. Her arguments – oh dear again – fell on deaf ears. So she called in the lawyers, and now we have to see what comes next. I think it will be silence, though not from the clock.
I happen to agree with Anna Spiteri and not with the clock-chime-fanciers. She was living there almost 20 years before the manic clock arrived as a millennium gift to the parish. The chimes have nothing to do with the glorious celebratory bells that are such a welcome sound when heard once a week on a (late) Sunday morning or after a wedding or festive celebration. They are an electronic nuisance, the clock equivalent of the computerised voice on GPS systems in cars (“Recal. Cul. Ating. Turn. Left. After. 300 metres.”). They have nothing to do with tradition, and nor does the clock.
Ms Spiteri is right. Let’s say that it wasn’t a church next door, but a house, and a man with a clock fetish moved in and installed a clock, just like the one the church has, on his faccata. The police and the boys from MEPA would be round within 24 hours, demanding that he removes it on the grounds that it is disturbing the public peace. But the church is allowed to make as much noise as it likes. The very loud chimes went off every 15 minutes right through the day and night at first. Imagine trying to sleep with an alarm clock going off every quarter of an hour right through the night. Wouldn’t you be driven crazy by this kind of Japanese World War II POW camp torture? The parish priest saw reason about this one and agreed to have the clock programmed to stop chiming after 11pm, even though lots of people in Senglea are asleep long before then, especially in the winter.
The obvious question here is: what are these chimes for? In centuries gone by, church-bells – not necessarily church-clocks – marked the hour, and some of them the quarter-hour, because clocks were very costly and sophisticated items that only wealthy merchants and princes could afford, and watches did not exist, still less mobile telephones. People told the time by looking at the sun or listening out for the church bells. In important harbours like Malta’s, a gun was fired at noon so that any ships in port could adjust their time-keeping devices. But now everyone wears a watch or carries a mobile telephone that tells them the time, and the church has lost entirely its time-announcing function. Before, it provided a useful service. Now, it merely drives us nuts.
“Standing stiff after a full-on show that saw Simon Le Bon being what he was when the 1980s afforded him teen-idol status, the singer admitted he was in agony from back pain and had had to lie down, call a doctor and get a Voltaren injection just before hitting the stage” – from a newspaper report about Duran Duran’s performance in Malta a couple of days ago. Sigh. Sic transit gloria mundi. And in this anti-smoking age, the lit cigarette lighters held aloft during a ‘moving anthem’ have been replaced with “a carpet of mobile phones, lit simultaneously” and waved about in the air during the song called Save A Prayer. What price religion?
This article is published in The Malta Independent today.
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I sympathise with this poor woman. I think what is traditional is the excuse to make a noise. Whether it is letting off of petards, ringing of bells, shouting, jeering and honking our car horn (xalata tal-festa, general elections, football games etc). As long as the few can have their merriment, the many have to suffer in silence.
I’m with you on the church bells issue.
Regarding Joanne’s case, I had already commented here: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080604/local/i-am-a-woman
What’s more to be said than that some people find personal satisfaction in ruining people’s lives.
It’s quite a simple matter, really. Ms Spiteri has a prior user right to enjoy protection at law. Whether the infringer (is that a word?) of her rights is the Parish Priest, the Sacristan or whatever, she was there before these confounded bells and they should, if they are illegal, stop and there’s an end to it.
Bocca locuta est, if you’ll forgive the mongrel Latin.
Do you mean “Bocca has spoken”?
How about opening a war chest to support these two brave ladies. I would willingly make a contribution to their legal expenses.
In both cases the Church, one in the name of morality, the other in the name of tradition, is directly or indirectly involved. Anything which weakens the power of the men in black and strengthens our civil rights has my full support.
there you go – you have it from the legal (b)eagle. End of story. Finitis. Black and white. We can all live happily ever after now. If only life was that simple … !
It would be interesting to know the reaction of the Parish priest to the complaints from Anna.
Probably he advised her to suffer in silence since she will be rewarded handsomely in heaven for her suffering. Or maybe he told her that the clock was put there by divine intervention, since God wanted to test her. Or maybe still it was an act of the Devil who devised this cunning plan to turn her against the church.
Funny that the same people who are preaching about compassion and respect are the ones who show least of this towards their brethren!
well, i was one of the people who castigated Mrs Spiteri . I didnt know the facts , that is, that she was there before th clock stared its quarterly chime. So I agee with AB-C about this one. I take my words back and will eat humble pie
-infringer-
INFRINGEMENT, INFRINGER – Unauthorized use, typically of a patent or copyright. Patent claims are comparable to the description in a deed to land. The description points out where the boundaries are. A person who crosses boundaries without the owner’s permission is a trespasser. In patent law, infringement is a form of trespass, and a person whose product, process, apparatus, or composition infringes the scope of a valid claim is comparable to a trespasser and is called an infringer.
http://www.lectlaw.com/def/i040.htm
How about opening a war chest to support me? Come on now…
Yesterday I wrote a comment on the Times about these “blessed ” chimes . I wrote that these chimes make people swear every quarter of an hour. Guess what ? By today the comment disappeared!
I feel that whoever is responsible should have toned down the noise to EU acceptable levels and that the chimes ring on the hour, from 0700 to 1900.
I think MEPA was caught sleeping…….. again.
This is not an attack on bells which have been on our belfries for ages, or an attack on religion.
I stand to be corrected , but wasn’t the Paola Mosque “silenced’ because of the prayers in high decibels from its loudspeakers morning noon and night , after the people from the surrounding areas protested?
BTW If one happens to be in a Muslim country , s/he will be woken up with a jerk at five in the morning , and s/he will hear the prayer “Allah hu Akbar” start from several minarets at different times , with different sound levels.
One can imagine the cacophony.I think I have a video somewhere.
All of this (Catholic & Muslim) noise is done in God’s name.
Mario Debono – Calorie-free, eh?
Mario Debono (Or should that be “De Bono”?) – For the benefit of those who missed your comment in The Times blog, I’m reproducing it here in all its glory:
“Mario De Bono (2 days ago)
Bells, and Petards, are an old Maltese tradition enjoyed by many. The petards are annoying to some, but like bells, music to others. I love ’em. I’m Maltese! For the few that dont, tough luck, the majority dont mind. I dont think the excesively loud petards should be allowed though. But i have heard louder sounds in night places, and whats more, its an ineccesant thumpthump thump nowadays! So i wonder whats more dangerous. Saturdays night after Saturday night adoring a battery of speakers or a once eyarly village festa? Get a life, all you who are out to santize Malta and all that is Maltese out of existence. You’ll be wanting to outlaw pastizzi because of their shape next!” (Extracted from here: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080729/local/for-whom-the-bells-toll-or-peal )
What is all this fuss about ? Has everybody forgotten that the Maltese Church (as distinct from the Catholic Church) is beyond the law. Anyone living in the vicinity of the San Gwann parish church HAS to wake up at 6am exactly because the electronic bells or noises are programmed to come on at that time. When a surgeon, who spent whole nights working at St Luke’s, complained to a high placed cleric, he was told it was a local custom and that no one would dare change anything. This cleric had his lodgings in Mdina so I do not know at what time they wake everybody up over there. One thing I know for sure. He did not spend his nights in an operating theatre. He was asleep day and night for over thirty years. As for the poor man/woman wanting to marry a woman/man I have expressed my opinion here before. Gender has nothing to do with “marriage”. Anyone should be legally entitled to “marry” anyone or anything else be it male, female, animal or vegetable. Who cares. It is when third parties are involved that the State comes in . For example if a lady and a German Sheepdog, legally married, apply to adopt a human child, then the State has the duty to come down on this married couple like a ton of bricks and charge them with attempted child abuse But otherwise why bother? Why does the state have to interfere with people’s behaviour as long as it does not cost it anything and does not involve innocent parties ?
For the non English speaking it was Ms Spiteri’s arguments that fell on deaf ears, not the bells. A foreign friend of mine said “If the sound of the bells fell on deaf ears then those who could hear were OK. How do we sort that one out?
Bocc,
I don’t even agree with your statement that the woman has a right to silence because she came before the church bells. Life moves on and what was acceptable a few decades ago even in terms of noise levels is not necessarily acceptable today.
Given that we in Malta live in such close proximity to one another, some inconvenience is inevitable. However, there is a limit to this too. So those who came AFTER the bells need not have to suffer in silence.
Tanya
A Man Da………..ha toqghod taqbad mieghi ukoll? I ate Calorie Free Humble Pie on this. Didnt know she was there BEFORE the church clock. But my post against those who rant innecessantly against petards, lights, old church bells, ect still stands. Why do we have to give it up because someone says so?
According to my dad, he tells me its De Bono. I shorten it for convenience’s sake.
Bocca didn’t give a “statement”. He was giving a rendition of Maltese civil law. I hate it when the words “state” or “statement” are overused or used wrongly. You can just say “said” instead of “stated”.
Mario Debono: Because petards are a nuisance to people who are sick or dying, keep babies awake at night and drive their parents to despair. They’re also an immense irritant throughout the festa season. We don’t only get to hear ‘ours’. We get to hear everyone else’s too.
Daphne. I can see your point. Living in a village for nigh on 37 years, and a village of iffissati on festas and always trying to outdo each other, and knowing everyone there, and having been a baby and had baby brothers and sisters and cousins and I don’t know what else sleeping soundly through the thickets of kaxex infernali, and having to help countless elderly relatives in their 80’s up to our roof to watch said kaxex, as our maternal house is right in front of the church, well, I think that qualifies me enough to say that you are not that right. In our area, old people and young alike revel in these things, knowing that its for a week. the “other” villages around us, usually a stone throw’s away didn’t bother us with their fireworks either. It’s a low aerial bang, so it doesn’t travel far. Perched high up in the clouds where you live, I doubt if they bother you. You see, it’s a village thing, and one has to be part of that life to appreciate these things. Not so much a Sliema thing, although from where I live, the Sliema/San Giljan bangs are getting louder every year, whilst the village bangs are getting less loud with more emphasis being made on colour displays along with music. That’s how it was this year in my village, with the bangs being restricted to the Salute when the statue came out of the church. I am Zurrieq born and bred, and very proud of it, although (by marriage truce!) I live in San Giljan. Come festa week, however, I can’t do without it. It gets better and more artistic every year. The Mid Week concert, with its blend of modern jazz, classical greats and a few well written pieces, accompanied by dancing water and the occasional firework, was really, really good…..for a Village. Maybe you would wish to write up about it for your excellent magazine…… Come next July, you’re invited. (Just ask your husband for directions. He is my mum’s family lawyer.)
Mario Debono … ?
I was surprised to hear church bell ringing and clock chimes every quarter of an hour in Schwennengen Germany some two years ago. Thought that it was a dying tradition even in Malta.
the abuse of power by the church doesn’t end here, how come the church gets privelaged parking for a wedding? When i organise a party at my house i cannot get the same reserved space for my guests like the church does, why has the church the power to close streets for the festa, shoot petards from neighbours houses, harrass people trying to “sell” their services by door to door “salesmen” masquerading in dresses, and collect money without giving VAT receipts ?
“When in Rome do as the Romans do”.
In neighbouring, civilized, non-Christian countries,people have to put up with much worse for the sake of tradition including being woken up vociferous and exhuberant clerics armed with megaphones at odd hours of the night on a daily basis for prayers. I still have to read anywhere in the local and international press that anyone ever complained.
@Daphne
“Because petards are a nuisance to people who are sick or dying, keep babies awake at night and drive their parents to despair. ”
That is certainly no exaggeration, I still remember my uncle as he lay dying in St Luke’s. His last half hour was spent begging us to “make them stop”.
Not to mention how they terrify young children (and animals), and give even adults a big shock if not expecting it. I remember being in Sliema when they were set off from the middle of the bay – I almost jumped out of my skin. Imagine an elderly person with a weak heart.
And like you said we don’t get to hear ‘ours’ only – In sliema we got to hear all 4 parishes, Balluta, St Julians, Gzira, Msida, Swieqi etc.
@David Buttigieg
I wholeheartedly agree with you for condemning petards – something which I consider to be an abomination.However, you included Swieqi in your list of neighbouring nuisance villages.Swieqi/L-Ibrag celebrates in December the feast of its patron saint – the Immaculate Conception – with no outdoor festivities and no bangs. The feast is celebrated in church only and gives a very profound community spirit.
@ Sybil: “When in Rome do as the Romans do”
Poignant but pointless.
The utter lack of respect for the individual in religious circles is dumbfounding, whether it is in catholic Malta or non-Christian countries. You might be well-advised to read some Christian Democrat literature that places the rights of individuals at its core. Yes, when in Rome do as Romans do, but that does not mean that every Roman should have been forced to applaud the spectacle of Christian-eating lions.
Nobody wants to ban the village festa, church bells on Sundays, or colourful fireworks. These are beautiful Maltese traditions that even the non-religious love. What is objectionable is the attitude that any amount of noise in the name of a god who, apparently, hates peace and quiet, is justifiable.
Rights must be balanced against each other. There is a limit to the noise pollution that babies, their parents, the elderly, an otherwise perfectly healthy teenager suffering a mild hangover, or a god-loving lady who wishes to quietly contemplate the magnificence of creation while reading the bible should have to suffer on a daily basis.
“Justin BB Saturday, 2 August 1509hrs
@ Sybil: “When in Rome do as the Romans do”
Poignant but pointless.
The utter lack of respect for the individual in religious circles is dumbfounding, whether it is in catholic Malta or non-Christian countries. You might be well-advised to read some Christian Democrat literature that places the rights of individuals at its core. Yes, when in Rome do as Romans do, but that does not mean that every Roman should have been forced to applaud the spectacle of Christian-eating lions.
Nobody wants to ban the village festa, church bells on Sundays, or colourful fireworks. These are beautiful Maltese traditions that even the non-religious love. What is objectionable is the attitude that any amount of noise in the name of a god who, apparently, hates peace and quiet, is justifiable.
Rights must be balanced against each other. There is a limit to the noise pollution that babies, their parents, the elderly, an otherwise perfectly healthy teenager suffering a mild hangover, or a god-loving lady who wishes to quietly contemplate the magnificence of creation while reading the bible should have to suffer on a daily basis”
what about the noisy inconvenience caused to all sorts of people living near the headquarters of the major political parties and in certain main thoroughfares during election time and the 48 hour stint of continual infernal honking yelling and thumping on trailers in the aftermath of said elections?
As you so rightly noted, “Rights must be balanced against each other. There is a limit to the noise pollution that babies, their parents, the elderly, an otherwise perfectly healthy teenager suffering a mild hangover, or a god-loving lady who wishes to quietly contemplate the magnificence of creation while reading the bible should have to suffer on a daily basis.”
No one though ever bothere swriting page long articles in the defense of the rights of the people living in such neighbourhoods now, do they? Or the rights of ordinary citizens living in the noisy paceville area who have no choice but to eff off wether they like it or not in the name of sustainable development.
Grand Parade said “abuse of power by the church”
I couldn’t help but giggle, because an angsty Che Guevara T-shirted lad brainwashed by their mintoffian nannu came to mind.
The Church has no power. Nobody gives two hoots anymore (No, festa go-ers are not necessarily Church-goers). I don’t see why the petards/fireworks/festi issue even involves the Church. Tradition is tourist fodder in the eyes of the government, and as long as it is so, those who don’t like it (unfortunately?) won’t have any say.
Anna Spiteri has done the right thing through the judicial protest, and not barking up the wrong tree.
@Amanda —-What is it?
@Darwinu
“The Church has no power”
yes it does, if I went round collecting money, door to door, in a long white dress and accompanied by young boys who are still minors, then I would get arrested,
so what keeps these priests from being arrested ?, obviously they must have conenctions in high places
I hope that this year the Santa Marija band of Mqabba will sound the wartime siren only at noon on the 15th August. Sounding this siren ONCE for five minutes is sublime , but sounding it for hours on end becomes a nuisance.
@ Mario Debono: you come to Zurrieq to skim the cream ; people who live in the village core or want to pass from the village core have to put up with these uncontrolled ‘iffissati’, they just blockade the village for a whole month June/july & August/September.I agree that artistically its getting better , they have to emphasise on quality , this year the tempo of the “kaxxa tad-dhul” was slow . I got tired and went home and did not see the statue entering .
Now we have to put up with the dismantling of the street decorations, while you enjoy yourself in San Giljan !
One may notice that by Santa Marija Zurrieq will have less blue flagpole lights and the red ones will start to appear.
Mario, you have no idea how much I hate festas. I can understand why people looked forward to them when it was the only fun they got all year (and the only new dress). But now?
@ Mario Debono:Perhaps she’d like to get invited along with Daphne to watch the festa from your roof? ;o))And why did I immediately get the hunch you’re from Zurrieq?Perhaps “a village iffissati on festas and always trying to outdo each other” struck a chime – er – chord? At least we’re in agreement on two points: firstly, that some petards are excessively loud and we both don’t enjoy them; and secondly that the mid-week concert was very, very good (for a village?!). In fact I’ve made a mental note, come next year, to listen to it from closer quarters than my living room. ;o))) Oh – and were the bangs this year really restricted to the Statue’s salute? That’s good to know. I normally take scarper to quieter environs on both festa weekends, due to the irritating petards. Next year I just might decide to stay home and enjoy them!
Sybil, Sybil – Calm down a little bit. Half Sliema has been celebrating election time for the past 21 years. Are you sure that that’s not what got to you?
Let’s face it, election time comes once every five years after all, and the noise is all part of the fun – a way of letting go the tension of the previous few weeks, if you wish.
Incessant petards, on the other hand, we could do without. From where I live you have no choice but to hear the ones of Balluta, of St Julian’s, of San Gwann (as I write this), of Msida and all four of Sliema, to mention but a few. That’s 8 feasts in 12 weeks of summer holidays. Yes, if I could I’d ban them.
@ Mario Debono – So you spent the last week of July in Zurrieq for the festa and you say that the surrounding villages don’t hear the sound. Do you think that everyone is deaf. Let me start by congratulating all those who produce fireworks for their artful colourful petards, but no congratulations are deserved for the petards that produce only sound. These petards can be heard from miles around, all through summer we start in June with Mqabba, Qrendi, Zurrieq, Mqabba and Qrendi for Santa Maria and Zurrieq again in September. Some even start at 4.00 am a month before the Festa. I can understand people enjoying the spectacle of the coloured petards, but the ear blasting noise at all hours is disgraceful. I would like to end by congratulating one of Mqabba’s fireworks factories for winning an international competition last year.
I simply refuse the excuse, that we are noisy and all that kind of s*** because we are a Mediterranean horde…
No it’s the kind of prolonged childhood… “Of bursting into an adult’s room, screaming, playing drums, using whistles, horns or whatever to attract attention….It’s like saying to the world that watches: We are here! We are here! Watch and hear us.
Roman Emperors knew that lesson too well, keep them people happy as long as they don’t outgrow us.
On the 21 Feb 1848 Parisian intellectuals were clamoring for a reform… for a ‘qabza ta qualita’ and they had this to say. Never, never give power the occasion of an easy success
@Jane
My apologies for including Swieqi in the list, they seem to be an example to be followed!
Amanda Mallia Saturday, 2 August 2227hrs
“Sybil, Sybil – Calm down a little bit. Half Sliema has been celebrating election time for the past 21 years. Are you sure that that’s not what got to you? ”
I assure you that it not get me at all just as much as I imagine that traditional village fiestas do not really get you either.
:)
Daphne Caruana Galizia Saturday, 2 August 2040hrs
Mario, you have no idea how much I hate festas.
I think anyone reading your articles got the hint ages ago.
:)
The insularity of the Maltese is dumbfounding, to say the least. A certain A Camilleri earlier wrote of his “surprise” that he heard bell chimes in Germany.
Many Maltese, I would suppose the majority, actually think that the sounding of bells is something “Maltese”.
Bells are sounded from churches all over Europe and beyond, expecially in small villages.
Sybil Sunday, 3 August 2139hrs
“I assure you that it not get me at all just as much as I imagine that traditional village fiestas do not really get you either.”
I am currently being made to endure one or two by my two excitable young children (who, incidentally, only like the colourful fireworks, candyfloss and staying up way past bedtime, but certainly not the awful crowds which are part of the “festa” package). Hopefully, they’ll outgrow them … And no, they don’t like the petards, either.
@ Daphne
“you have no idea how much I hate festas. I can understand why people looked forward to them when it was the only fun they got all year (and the only new dress). But now?”
Daphne, you seem to forget that some persons, and I include myself, still care for a “healthy” dose of “tradition” and “culture”. Even “now”.
@ Sybil
“I think anyone reading your articles got the hint ages ago.”
Sybil, one also gets legions of hints when one reads your posts aka messages.