How can any self-respecting creative suffer through this kind of naff rubbish?
This is a photograph of Joseph Muscat addressing an audience of supposed creatives at the Labour Party’s latest tactic for nabbing a specific stakeholder group.
They held a tedious seminar yesterday evening, when everybody should have been out drinking or watching the belly-dancing at MedAsia, the ‘hip’ beach-club in Sliema, like JPOS in his red trousers and blue shirt (how hip can it be if super-naff people like that go there?) to which the odd creative and several hangers-on turned up.
Look at the way Joseph is standing and preaching. And you can just imagine that only one thing is going through his audience’s mind, or at least the minds of those of them who read this blog:
I WONDER IF MICHELLE MANAGED TO PERSUADE HIM TO HANDCUFF HER TO THE BEDPOSTS LAST NIGHT WHILE FANTASISING ABOUT MR GREY.
How can a man address a seminar about the creative arts and literature when his wife has just been caught on a plane reading housewives’ porn?
Tal-biki.
Anyway, I hope this doesn’t mean what I think it does.
Malta Today (obviously…) reports:
Addressing a Creative Society debate organised by the Labour Party, leader Joseph Muscat said the state shouldn’t hinder the artists from developing their talents, but should be there to provide a level playing field.
“Policymakers should guarantee that everyone is given the opportunity to develop their talents and enjoy the reward based on their capabilities,” Muscat said, adding that artists should be given the opportunity because they deserve it, and not because they were Maltese.
Muscat said the first challenge policymakers face is to abolish the monopolies that existed in small states like Malta.
“Everyone should be given the same opportunity. Only this way will true talent be exposed,” he insisted.
I’m sorry, but I totally disagree. I espouse liberal principles when it comes to creativity. True creativity is driven by true initiative, and is not state-sponsored. It also depends on the Zeitgeist. Vincent van Gogh would not have achieved fame and fortune in his lifetime with state sponsorship. Nothing would have been any different.
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You can take the child out of the priedka tal-milied, but you can’t take the priedka tal-milied out of the man.
The people in the picture are really trying hard to appear interested in what Joseph is saying. I am sure they were duly impressed if they could understand what he was on about really.
U l-mara ta quddiemu is very creative indeed with her choice of hair dye. Opal fruits orange.
Muscat said the first challenge policy-makers face is to abolish the monopolies that existed in small states like Malta.
Which monopolies? And what is PL’s record on monopolies other that instituting them?
In the “creative context,” I suppose Doctor Muscat means (among other things) production companies like “Where’s Everybody” (which is not really a monopoly: there are so many other production companies and theatre groups in Malta’s free-marketplace).
It appears that Business Management Doctor Muscat does not believe in the Liberal economic policies of the market forces for the arts, or in the selection of artists, performers, and technicians. Instead, he seems to echo the traditional gripe of the MLP/PL masses: their often claiming exclusion from opportunity by discrimination, rather than the actual evaluations of individual skills and talents.
So, it seems that Muscat perhaps would not only like to eliminate some producers and create others, on a micro level he also would seem to insist that regarding the selection of talent everyone is equal.
Without Muscat’s definition of “monopolies,” whatever he may be saying is ridiculous, absurd, or dangerous.
Of course, the absense of clarity is consistent with the PL’s general non-definition of policies, where it always prefers to speak in generalities rather than in the details of specifics (unless details are removed from their rational context). This is emotive (not rational) politics.
In the entertainment business, competition is fierce; and there are opportunities for some (among the many), but achievement is never instantaneous (and always limited).
The arts should not be politicized or compromised by politics. However, the cultural worlds of the PN versus PL masses are not equivalent, irrespective of their respective educational and professional achievements. There are many PL supporters in Malta’s local arts scene.
My opinion is that the PL, generally, believe in conducting class warfare in Malta, while the PN, in general, believe in raising up Malta’s human capital.
And I believe that the PN policies can bring about true socio-economic progress. But cultural progress is something else.
Cultural change for the PL masses in Malta is still two generations away.
At the same time, Mintoffian political dinosaurs fear their extinction on both personal and cultural levels. So, the PL political battle in Malta appears to be a contest conducted on the basis of its belief and will to power, rather than on the basis of more rational critical analysis and discourse. Some would call this mad; others would call it “religion” or “faith”.
Dear Daphne, I take it that you are well acquainted with this book.
As a matter of fact so are most woman,actually sales of this book have surpassed even that of Harry Potter.
Seems that Michelle is in good company..
[Daphne – No, actually I have never even seen a copy. But it doesn’t matter, because I am absolutely uninterested in porn and I just cannot stand poor writing.]
I prefer reading the reviews on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2JF7E91JJVHAT/ref=cm_cr_dp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B007J4T2G8&linkCode=&nodeID=133140011&tag=
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2HHBQETYNMKCX/ref=cm_cr_dp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B007J4T2G8&linkCode=&nodeID=133140011&tag=
“The good: Nice cover art. ” Ebeth822 (Tx)
Is that Ornella Vanoni?
In the pic no less than eight people are holding their chin to support their heads as they are evidently falling asleep or dead bored.
Another is cleaning his ear of wax. And the fake blonde at the front is pondering whether to make the “hasla” or go to a coffee morning on Monday.
Creative indeed.
“Imagine for a moment that you have a brain. Now pose as if you are thinking about an idea. Imagine you are being creative.”
Come on guys, how about some 360 degree feedback?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPkaEK9ToMA
” Everyone should be given the same opportunity. Only this way will true talent be exposed”.
The film ‘Raid on Entebbe’ springs to mind.
I absolutely hate it when the arts are set against society in general.
I will NOT attend, watch, listen or buy simply because some board of self appointed intelligentsia think it is. I know they’re trying to be hip, but if it’s going to be some 70’s ideological revival, heaven help us.
Anyone bothered with the Malta short film festival on TV? Painful.
Do Joseph Muscat and his Labour disciples know the difference between art and trash? I suspect that their idea of art is ‘Gensna’.