On kindness

The nuns had a retreat day a week or so ago on the theme of kindness. Now, in an enclosed order, kindness may be the most important virtue, stemming from forgiveness, that a person may bestow on others. Daily, we sin against each other merely out of our weaknesses and imperfections, not malice. One nun reminded me that the strong in spirit must always be kind to those who are weaker. Seeing myself mostly in the weak category, I realized that any strength I did have was solely from graces. Because I am so pitifully weak, I must rely on God for everything. Any strength I have is directly from trusting completely on Divine Providence alone. Some people hate me and others for this confidence. Seriously, I have met those who want me to be miserable in poverty. I am so sorry for radiating joy in need..not really...I am not sorry. Those in joy irritate the grasping and greedy, who want the joy but not the suffering. I may be on a day-to-day schedule in God's Hands, and I am joyful. To those who want me to be miserable I can only say, trust in God. The joy wells up and overcomes fear. But, this joy only comes with ridicule, criticism, false judgement and marginalization. The crabby ones want me to join in their unhappiness. Sorry, give me the mattress on the floor and a cheerful heart, give me kindness to those who hate and disdain me. You can have it all and have an empty heart. I shall be kind to those in darkness. And, believe me, those in darkness, hate the light.

For Sarah, Two

A, a, a, DOMINE DEUS

I said, Ah! what shall I write?
I enquired up and down.
(He’s tricked me before
with his manifold lurking-places.)
I looked for His symbol at the door.
I have looked for a long while
at the textures and contours.
I have run a hand over the trivial intersections.
I have journeyed among the dead forms
causation projects from pillar to pylon.
I have tired the eyes of the mind
regarding the colours and lights.
I have felt for His wounds
in nozzles and containers.
I have wondered for the automatic devices.
I have tested the inane patterns
without prejudice.
I have been on my guard
not to condemn the unfamiliar.
For it is easy to miss Him
at the turn of a civilisation.

I have watched the wheels go round in case I might see the
living creatures like the appearance of lamps, in case I might see
the Living God projected from the Machine. I have said to the
perfected steel, be my sister and for the glassy towers I thought I
felt some beginnings of His creature, but A,a,a, Domine Deus,
my hands found the glazed work unrefined and the terrible
crystal a stage-paste . . . Eia, Domine Deus.

David Jones, in The Sleeping Lord and Other Fragments (1974)


The problem with artists since the Impressionists, is that artists have become increasingly separated from the classical training and from understanding the role of the intellect in art. Anti-intellectualism is the bane of Western Culture in 2013, bringing us to the gross relativistic attitude that art is merely the immediate expression of the particular artist, or, worse, propaganda.

The first was highlighted for me as long ago as 2002, when a radio interviewer sought out a young artist at the Toronto Art Expo (http://www.torontoartexpo.com/), who blatantly claimed that if she splashed or hit mud on a board one morning, as she felt like doing that, the piece was "art", as it was an emotional expression of who she was at that moment in time.

The radio interviewer was "gob-smacked" and I just laughed out loud, pointing out the relativistic  individualistic heresy to my son, who was standing in the kitchen waiting for pizza. The artist as prophet was dead in Toronto, and instead we heard the artist as arch-narcissist. Who cares who she felt one fine morning in Canada, if the result of her expression was not only ugly, but totally anti-intellectual?

OK, I shall get negative feedback on this one, as artists too often defend their private revelations as an expression of the zeitgeist.  I would hope that artists would lead us OUT of the zeitgeist into the world of transcendent Beauty and Truth, but I am an idealist.

So, the anti-intellectuals see art as almost the private interpretation of realities, when in reality, they may be only speaking to the few who are living only in their passions and on the emotional levels of existence, or worse, those who just do not give a d.... and want the latest painting of the most popular artist in their living rooms. "I have a ......." someone said to me recently. I was not impressed.

Anti-intellectualism kills real religion and real art, dead. Without engaging the brain, the rational, the logical and the analogical, one is doomed to boring repetitions of crayon drawings on the kindergarten walls of the world's schools.

You know this ALL STARTED with private interpretation of the Bible. Then, we had reader-response to great novels, and personal interpretations of poetry and essays, rather than studies of form and content.

Thank God for Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot and my favourite, David Jones, for spotting the problems early and attempting to stem the tide of macpoetry. That they did not succeed is merely a symptom of the age of advertising, commercialism and the death of the religious spirit in art.

If an artist separates the spiritual and the historical, the cultural and the contextual from his art, he will fall into
schizophrenia, the breakdown of the connection between the real and the emotions, and for the artist, this is death. We have enough of this type of art, from the early 20th century on...we do not need more. We know what the problem is....

To be continued....

For Sarah, Part One

I promised a friend I would write on the Illative Sense in Newman with regard to my idea that poetry and other forms of art appeal directly to this sense. I am writing a longer piece on this and it was part of my dissertation which I have temporarily set aside until I get more funds to continue. Let me explain. For Newman, his Illative Sense is the part of the mind, or even the soul, which bridges the logical, ratio, ability to understand God and religious principles, especially absolute truths and commitment to that truth, or assent to that truth. He describes this ability, or sense as the leap of belief, when the rational part of us is incapable of fully apprehending basic truths about God. He does not believe that the rational ability of man can apprehend or define God, the great effort of Anselm and Aquinas, but rather that there is in us this bridge which leads to the "yes" of faith. I have been thinking for years that art and artists have this Illative Sense built into their psyches and into the process of art. Why do I think this? In the process of art, one works with the material of one's art. If it is painting, the tools, the paint, canvas or whatever and the creative process are necessary for the art to occur. But, in the aesthetic process, there is a mysterious interplay of personal inspiration, the very word indicating a movement of the spirit of a person, and the materials. And, in a true artist, not a commercial artist or a propagandist, the pursuit of Truth and Beauty allow the artist to enter a transformational  creative state, which is usually labelled the aesthetic sense.

However, there is something else happening here, which is the mysterious bridge between the soul and the mind of the artist, a bridge between the spiritual realities which the artist tries to absorb and concretely communicate and the spiritual sense. I think that Newman's Illative Sense may be part of this bridge. In other words, the very thing which leads us to a higher form of thinking, regarding religion, that part of being human which demands an absolute commitment to Truth and Beauty (and if an artist denies or departs from this he is a charlatan and fake), he is denying the real source of the inspiration. To be inspired is what the Greeks understood as the appropriation of the daemon, or the taking over of the soul by some mysterious muse or muses, who almost made the artist into a superman, a person who transcends his own self in order to create. This is called poesis and mimesis. Poesis properly only belongs to God, as it is creating ex nihilo and mimesis is the creating from the mirror of nature. We can only copy and our art works are a pale reflection of all Beauty and Truth. Aristotle, in Nicomachean Ethics, one of my favorite books, uses the term phronesis to mean practical wisdom. Some critics have seen this as prudence and others as merely wisdom. Prudence is the virtue we Catholics receive in Confirmation, if we really receive that sacrament in grace and is the application of the mind and soul of wisdom to ever day events and discernment. However, in the use of the rational mind, we make such leaps immediately or with due process of rationalization, but in areas of religious impetus, with what Newman calls the Illative Sense. The artist more than other people by nature, by gift and perhaps by temperament, uses his intellect with the added gifts of prudence and inspiration. I think this movement of the spirit and the Spirit may be either the same or overlap in the Illative Sense.

The movement of the artistic process must include a spiritual awareness which bridges the rational with the affirmation of belief. One who is an artist knows, just knows, when something is right and true about his art. If it is not true, one starts over again, working both with the material and the inspiration. But, the capacity to sense what is true, good and beautiful may rest in this Illative Sense, the same thing which brings one to accept a truth of the Church or an attribute of God with which one is struggling.




 To be continued... copyright 2013

Short post, serious thought

The TLM is a better Mass for the laity; because of the silence, it teaches meditation and contemplation. The NO, emphasizing the exterior, destroys this ability and keeps lay persons from appropriating adult levels of faith. One cannot enter into or follow the three stages of the interior life without cultivating silence and interior awareness

The Year of Faith.

I have been so caught up with life that I have not written a post on the excellent call to consider the true Faith and to ask for the gift of faith in this Year of Faith. Faith means many things to many people, and some people claim they do not have any faith, but all humans believe in something, even if it is not religious in content. One can believe in unseen realities told to us by scientists, politicians and even the medical community, believing without seeing or even understanding. This is an aspect of faith.

One can believe in one's own self and have confidence in unseen talents or abilities or even passions in the soul. One believes in one's friends. One believes in one's football team. In this Year, one can face the need for the adult appropriation of the Faith. At a certain age, it is the responsibility of each person to understand and believe in the faith because it is one's own and not belonging to either a parent or a priest. A priest in Ireland told me recently that the reason the Irish have lost their faith is that they stayed at a child-like faith level and did not read or study or pray into their maturity.

In this Year of Faith, please help those around you come to their own appropriation of the Faith through faith, hope and love.

The artist as prophet

Popular among the Romantic Poets in England and their Trancendentalist comrades in America, was the idea that artists, be they painters, writers, poets or musicians, were prophets in society. Their duty was to bring the increasingly dull populace, enamored with money and industry, back to the love of nature through metaphor and simile. I would like to turn this secularist idea on its head and say that the prophets, especially those in the Old Testament, were artists. We can see this in the Christmas season with the singing of the beautiful words of Isaiah and David, as well as some of the minor prophets. The problem with so many modern artists is that they see art purely as self-expression, surprise, surprise, and forget that mimesis is the mirror of poesis, which is found alone in God, the only real creator ex nihilo. We artists imitate and if we love God Who is Beauty, we shall be prophets. Without love, there is no true art, merely propaganda. Without love, there is no true prophecy. To be continued...

Social Engineering

Well, applying for jobs and having some discussions with Catholic employers, including diocesan gurus, I have discovered the tyranny of the EU regarding sponsorship. Religious orders, as well as parishes, and dioceses no longer can take postulants, seminarians or employees from non EU countries without going through a long process that may not end up with a positive issue. That men cannot come from Viet Nam, where so many seminaries have either been closed or have strict government quotas, is only one example. When did Great Britain and Eire lose their sovereignty? Rhetorical question.

New Year Reflections

One of the challenges in evangelization is knowing when to give up and move on. In this world, too often we hang around a dead corpse, lamenting death, when starving people, hungry and open, are waiting for food. In Europe and in America, dioceses, parishes, priests, and lay persons keep defending the rotten schools called Catholic. I cannot discuss with some priests, and have not been able to do so for twenty-five years, the fact that so many teachers and educators have not been asked to make the oath and promise. Or why taking money from corrupt governments who control curriculumm is a good...it is not.I have a Master Teaching Certificate from NAPCIS. Look it up and make some resolutions about what you really want to support...a real Catholic school or a fake one. It is merely pride to pretend something is what it is not.

Happy Feast Day, Mary

We love you, dear Mother of God and ask your intercession.

More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, without corruption you gave birth to God the Word: True Theotokos, we magnify you.

Well, yet another Gramsci post; without the Spirit, the intellect stagnates and dies

Did philosophers and revolutionaries honestly believe that humans can be intellectuals without the life of the Spirit? Did and do they honestly want a better life while denying the soul?

Some critics of the Church since the Enlightenment state that the teachers and Popes did not address the modern issues of politics, science and modernism. This is a misunderstanding of the times and the teachings. Since the publication of Marx and Engels, the Church has been on the offensive, not the defensive regarding teaching concerning the effects of tyrannies, the materialists dialectic and the supposed war between the classes. All the popes since 1848 have addressed these ideologies. The problem has been in the implementation at the local levels of the clarity of the Teaching Magisterium.

Why? Many priests fell into error and carried those errors into the pulpit for the last two-hundred years. Many priests and even bishops themselves were and are communists and push for that version of a world-view, based on materialism, rather the the spiritual message of the Kingdom of God.

As laity, it is our duty to take care of our brothers and sisters in poverty or troubles.

Gramsci was clear that the Church was the only institution to understand what he and other revolutionaries wanted in the culture wars and the destruction of Western civilization, itself created largely by Christendom.

Here is one of  his quotations. Gramsci understood that both Faith and Reason were held together in the Catholic Church, that Revelation and the Teaching Magisterium provided a cohesive block against the fragmentation of society.

The strength of religions, and of the Catholic Church in particular, has lain, and still lies, in the fact that they feel very strongly the need for the doctrinal unity of the whole mass of the faithful and strive to ensure that the higher intellectual stratum does not get separated from the lower. The Roman church has always been the most vigorous in the struggle to prevent the “official” formation of two religions, one for the “intellectuals” and the other for the “simple souls” … That the Church has to face up to a problem of the “simple” means precisely that there has been a split in the community of the faithful. This split cannot be healed by raising the simple to the level of the intellectuals  .... but only by imposing an iron discipline on the intellectuals so that they do not exceed certain limits of differentiation and so render the split catastrophic and irreparable. 

Catholic intellectuals, including the laity, have a duty to combat the lies of the ideologies which have almost overcome the concepts of freedom and individualism. Our definition of the individual is not that of the socialist.  We are unique creatures, each one having a purpose, not to be subsumed by the bloated government. 

Those who are the enemy delight in the fragmentation of society, and society is built on natural, moral law and not the laws of men. This is the key to the strength of the Church...that we have recognized that man-made structures are doomed to tyranny and/or chaos.

Tyranny will come to America and chaos to Europe for the purposeful loss of the culture wars has occurred. 

That Gramsci only saw the discipline of the Church as evil, rather than a guideline of the Holy Spirit intended to persevere Truth mirrors his own lack of Faith and Reason. 

The man or woman who will not bend to God, will not bend to the Church. Humility in scholarship is key.

We are on the edge, as most people will choose material comfort over truth. This is the sad decline of the human spirit. The remnant Church holds the real intellectual unity of a society, which Gramsci wanted through his groups of intellectuals at all levels.

Of course, this burgeoning of intellectual life has not happen, and in fact, societies are less intellectual now than in the recent past. Atheism makes one closed to the entire spiritual world, and therefore, the world of creativity and newness.

There has been a split in the Church, but not the one mentioned in the above quotation. The real split is between those who see the Spirit working in the Church and those who want to make the Church into their own image and likeness, into their own ideological institution. Hence, the liberal intellectuals have sold out to the Gramscian ideal of "intellectualism" but separated from the soul.

This state in a person or government is suicide. The intellectual gifts are connected to the spirit of man and woman, to the soul, to prayer and illumination.

Gramsci's material mind-set could not imagine an institution which is actually empowered by  GOD HIMSELF.  That the Trinity dwells in each baptized Catholic and that there is insight and intellectual freedom partly defines us as made in the image and likeness of God.

Gramsci wanted men and women to be made in his image and likeness--and that is the primal sin of the angels; I will not serve.

Without the Holy Spirit and the individual free spirit of men and women, the intellect dies.

We are in that stage of Western Civilization. At the end of the year, we can only look forward to making ourselves and our families strong against the Gale of Stupidity and Barbarism which will engulf some reading this in their lifetime.

The passing of a year

For some, the passing of the year is a sad time, as the dying year brought love and life. Sometimes a fear or dread of the future covers this day and evening. Some go to parties or dances to celebrate a new year of life and light. Some go to forget a painful year. Some just go for the diversion. But, at the passing of 2012, I think most Americans can stop and think that as Catholics we have lost the culture war and must try either to regain our battle strategies, or, choose another path of resistance to the growing evil. That evil is growing can only be denied by those who will go out tonight for diversion from the pain of reality. Christ lived in real time and real history. He is the God-Man who came into time to redeem the time and us, as well as all of nature. If we cooperate with Christ's grace and vision and truth, this day would mean another time of reflection and a hope for new life. New life most probably will not be material. New life must be spiritual and interior. This day, stop and have an examination of conscience. Look at the good and bad of the year and resolve to pray more, adore more, and allow Christ to change you, so that you can face the years to come. These will not be pleasant.

The Generation Gaps

Entering a new year, in which a few days I shall have a birthday,and meeting wonderful people who have family and love each other across four generations, I am struck by the numerous generation gaps. The gaps are not based on age but on experience and technology. I have friends in their sixties and seventies who are on line, on facebook, read blogs, text and email each other. I have other friends in the same age group who do none of these things. Sadly, they are cut off from a generation or three who communicate using technology...but more than that, these good people are unaware of a strong conservative movement online...one which is both political and religious. More and more international contacts are "on the same page" in these spheres. The dangers to the Catholic Faith, especially the clergy, and the real enemies of national identities and freedom control the traditional media. Herein lies the "knowledge gap". This is a huge part of the generation gaps....where we find truth or lies...where we encourage truth. The remnant Church in all countries of our glorious universal Church need to band together. Ironically, even the international groups of anarchists are more united than some Catholics.

The Masterpiece in Malta-The Beheading of St. John the Baptist by Caravaggio

Yes the new conservatives

Well, at a great party this evening, I met yet another youth of this post-Gen X generation which encourages me. He is the same smart young man like those I met in Ireland whose eyes are open to what is really happening both politically and financially in Europe and America. A glimmer of hope for Malta...I wish the Church would wake up here to the evils of socialism and relativism.

Friendship in Malta

Maltese people are so friendly. I made friends last time I was here and am making new friends. In such a small country, friendship and family form the basis of a cohesive society. I sincerely hope this never changes here, but I am afraid it is. There are so many wonderful Catholics here, generous and noble and loving.

Like all nations, there has to be a basis on national pride and national feeling. Now, the Maltese people have a noble past, especially regarding the winning of the Siege of Malta against foes far greater than themselves.

The nobility of the men has passed down, but I am concerned that the same type of watering down of masculinity which has happened in America and Great Britain, in Eire and in France, is happening here.

This is the emergence of the Peter Pan men. Those men who do not grow up and do not want to take responsibility learn to opt-out at an early age.

Why is another question, but the what is clear. Last year, I noted that Malta is a matriarchy. That is, the women seem to be in control of the families. This is not always the case, but in many families, as I have been told by the men, this is so.

That the new generation of young men may not be inheriting the great genes of the warriors who were victors in the Siege is a growing threat. Watch the upcoming elections. See what happens and how youth vote.

One of my young friends here who is a bright, thinking Catholic said yesterday that his generation does not think. We had a short conversation about the busyness of youth-going here and going there. That these youth have friends is great (the culture is an extrovert culture) but that social life and distractions take them away from prayer and family is sad.

As in Eire, the adult appropriation of the Faith is rare here. That adults sailed on into their middle years in Ireland without making a serious, mature commitment to the Church is happening here. One cannot take for granted that a socialist run country will preserve the Church's teaching in the schools, or in the market-place.

Again, I return to a theme of this blog from day one. All Catholics must learn how to think like Catholics, and not socialist, not Marxists, not relativists.

The future of the culture-war has been lost in the States. I hope it is not lost here in vibrant Malta.

The Theotokos

Tomorrow, starting at Vespers, in the States, it is the Feast of the Theotokos, the Mother of God, the God-bearer. This is my favourite feast day of Mary. That is bore God in her womb changed the world, changed the horror of our loss of the Face of God into the joy of the possibility of seeing and living in the Beatific Vision.

This day also commemorates one of the oldest titles of Mary, granted to her at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Truly God and Truly Man, Christ is her Son. She is His Mother.

The Catholic Byzantines have many beautiful hymns to Mary. Here is one for a small reflection. And, the Vladimir Madonna is my favourite icon.

ALL OF CREATION

In You, O Woman, Full of Grace,
the angelic choirs and the human race -
all creation rejoices! All creation rejoices!
O Sanctified Temple, Mystical Paradise and
Glory of Virgins, He, Who is our God, from
before all ages, took flesh from You and became
a child! He made Your womb a throne! A throne
greater than the heavens! In You, O Woman,
Full of Grace, In You, O Woman, Full of Grace,
all creation rejoices, all creation rejoices! All
praise be to You! All praise be to You! All
praise be to you!

Sunday Sermon

Today, it is more important than ever that I shall my Sunday sermon experience. The priest who said the Mass at St. John's Co-Cathedral noted that today, on the Feast of the Holy Family, that parents should make the home a place of  (GET READY FOR THIS) silence and composure.

I could not believe it, but was so delighted with his admonition, that I think I wished I had the computer out taking notes.

The Canon stated that the family must be a place which is conducive to the growth of the Catholic Faith.

Wow. And, this is so true. That, unless the Faith is preserved and encouraged in the family, it will die.

Not only is prayer important, and the sacramental life essential, but the entire atmosphere should allow for reflection.

His ideas fit neatly into the post from earlier today wherein I stressed that the laity must also pursue perfection as well as the religious person. We cannot believe the lies of some of the clergy from the past 50 years, a Siren's call which allowed the laity to be content with a second-class citizenship of holiness. This attitude, so often given in the Confessional,  (not by the excellent priests in Bayswater, by the way, who are great). That priests have encouraged sins, such as contraception, is documented and witnessed by some many of the laity. One cannot be holy and commit mortal sin.

The Canon this morning pointed to this haven of a home of silence and composure. What does this mean in practical terms for us?

One, simplifying life. The kids do not have to do everything.

Two, simplifying life. You do not have to own everything or have the perfect living room or state-of-the-art kitchen.

Three, simplifying life. Mom stays at home and you all take a lower standard of living.

Four, being orthodox in your beliefs; that is, conforming your minds, hearts and souls to the Church.

Five, not having a television, or at least, restricting viewing. We did not have one in my little family and we learned to have times of silence.

Six, why silence? One cannot hear God, nor experience the movements of the Holy Spirit in noise.

Seven, why composure? Anger and hatred, rudeness and lack of manners have no place in the home. The world needs yet more gentlemen and gentle ladies. Composure in a home creates an atmosphere of peace so that children may grow up in respect and love. Noise is not respectful.

That this priest could see the problem is a grace for us and him. Let us all pray how to make our homes places of silence and composure so that the children can learn to hear God and not the noise of the world.

St. John the Baptist went into the desert. So did Christ and St. Paul. Our homes can be "desert homes".

Create a place where holiness and perfection can take root and grow.

New Years Eve

Monday 31st December 2012 at 17:30

Monday 31st December 2012 at 17.30 hrs Te Deum Mass by the Archbishop of Malta Mgr Paul Cremona OP and the Rev Metropolitan Cathedral Chapter.

All the news, even on Drudge

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/29/us-france-tax-idUSBRE8BS05M20121229

A small victory against the idealism of stealing, which some people call socialism.

In Malta, two

I shall only be here a week. I came for a job interview which did not happen. This is Malta. It is a strange combination of European materialism, where youth talk about things, movies, games, and never ideas (except for some of the seminarians I have met), and a northern Africa culture of "whatever". Sadly, the evils of modern life have undermined so many Catholic ideals here that I doubt whether anyone would say that Malta was Catholic is principles. New elections are looming and the conservatives are concerned that yet another leftist government will take over. Here is a piece from the BBC article on the event.

Parliament will be dissolved on 7 January and new elections are set to be held in early March, Mr Gonzi told journalists. Mr Gonzi, a lawyer by profession, had been in power since 2004. His 2013 budget proposal was defeated after Franco Debono, a member of the ruling Nationalist Party, withdrew his support for the bill. The move was in protest over the government's decision to hand the management of Malta's bus service to a German operator, among other issues. The Nationalist Party has governed Malta since 1987, apart from 1996-1998 when Labour was in power. Mr Gonzi took office in March 2004, just before the small Mediterranean state entered the EU. Four years later, his party won re-election by 0.5% of the votes cast, the slimmest margin in Malta's four-decade history. The nation of 419,000 people gained independence from Britain in 1964.

In Malta

The moon is just past full and orange over Malta as I write this . The sun sets very quickly here and the air cools down too fast for my liking. I was last here almost exactly one year ago. I left in December and I am returning in December. A type of symmetry surrounds this visit, and I am meeting new friends as well as old ones. This time, I hope to see where St. Paul was actually shipwrecked, but the Maltese person who is my host has never been there himself, so we shall see.

When I lived in Malta for a short few months last year (how time flies), I did not see all the great historical sites, although I was fortunate to see many. One of the highlights from last year was the underground cemetery of the Capuchins in Floriana. Only a few times a year do they have open day, and I was there on one of those days. The museum holds treasures from the time of the ancient Maltese people to the present day. The priest who gave the tour last year was an expert in both local and European history. What a treat! The churches in Malta are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. And, as I have a special love for St. John the Baptist, I can hardly wait to revisit the Co-Cathedral in Valletta.

The great masterpiece of Caravaggio, the beheading of John the Baptist is there, as well as one of Caravaggio’s St. Jeromes. Last year, I was here in the autumn and throughout Advent. So, I have missed Christmas again in Malta, but, perhaps next year. I had a great Christmas in London, which is a city I love, even though it has changed so much since I lived there in the 1980s. However, I feel strangely a home in London, whereas Malta is a foreign country despite the Western places, like shops and restaurants. One noticeable change is that inflation has horribly hit the stores and prices of things.

Real Estate is up as well from last year. Another noticeable thing here in Malta, and one may question this, is the feminization of the younger men. I was out latish with a friend and we saw many, many groups of drunken young men in the St. Julian's area. The styles of clothing for men under a certain age are gangsta plus lots of jewellery. It is not stylish and not British, but then Malta is not British any more. One can go all day and not hear English spoken. God makes new doughnuts everyday.