NET Journal; 247; Two Trumpets for St. Andrew

NET Journal, two trumpets for St. Andrew, 55 minutes, 28 seconds, 5, 14, 69. The following program is from NET, the public television network. The Mediterranean, that history book of western civilization, squeezes to a narrow waist where Sicily approaches Tunis, forming a channel that maritime powers have always sought to control.

Its approaches are dominated by the Maltese Archipelago, tiny islands devoid of resources insignificant, valued only for their strategic position and safe harbours. For multi-lies on one of the world's great trade routes, whoever controlled it has controlled the trade. Maltese is nothing more than a limestone outcropped in the sea. A hundred square miles of parched and sunstruck rock. Its people scratching a living from the thin soil have learned to live with hardship and foreign conquerors. Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Romans, the great overlords of the ancient world, Arabs, Spaniards, Norman French. It was the harbour they fought for, a base to control the seaways.

Four centuries ago, Maltese enjoyed its most splendid period under the knights of St. John. Driven from the Holy Land, they made this their base for raiding Muslim shipping. Here, the knights restored a great Turkish siege which broke an Ottoman army and helped save Europe for Christendom. Today, after a century and a half of British rule, the Maltese are a newly independent nation, responsible for themselves for the first time in their history. In the past, there have always been the reapers of corn, the camp followers who polished the boots of some fallen overlord. They kept to their villages and tiny stone walled farming plots. They left the business of government to someone else. Now, they are faced with the problem of survival in an international context. The problem of turning outwards, a society long absorbed in village affairs and in a medieval cult of saints, ruled by the church. The center of Luka is the parish church. Streets converge on it. Its towers and statues draw the eye.

The church is the heart of village life in this entirely Catholic country. Its priests are powerful men. There is no mayor, no village council. The parish priest is the spokesman for the village, the advisor, the organizer of civic affairs. For the British colonial rulers, the church was a convenient ally. While the church remained powerful, the Maltese were peaceful subjects and the church has remained powerful. Maltese was the only country in Europe that never knew the tensions and stimulus of the reformation. The church contained within itself any revolutionary energy by creating village rivalries over saints. We are just inside the parish church of Luka. Just near today's statue of Saint Andrews with the patron saint of our village.

Just opposite to us, you can see the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Constellation, which is the second patron saint of our village. In many Maltese villages, there are rival factions which support one or other of the saints, celebrating the saint's day or fester with fireworks, banners and bans. Like most Maltese villages, Luka's rival factions are centered on two village bantlums. This is Anthony Toma, trumpeter with the Union Club brass band. Born in Luka, he lives here with his family of ten. Industrial worker, a foreman painter, Maltese dockyard, a trade unionist and, like his Union Club colleagues, a supporter of the Socialist Labour Party, the opposition party out of favour with the church.

This is John Collayer, star trumpeter of Saint Andrews Club brass band. He works at the British Air Force base nearby, placed trumpet in their band. Like others and Andrews Club men, his politics are conservative. He supports the nationalist party now in power, the party approved by the church. Soon it will be the fester, the celebration in honour of the village patron saint whom Saint Andrews Club claims their own. The band club stand at opposite ends of the square. For Saint Andrews fester they'll play at opposite ends. The bands rehearse separately, the partisans keep separate, never entering the opposition club. All this devotion to the saint cloaks deeper rivalries. In most Maltese villages the supporters of the primary saint are conservatives, the village establishment, clerks, white collar workers, shopkeepers.

The secondary saint tend to be manual workers, dockers, labourers, factory hands. Generally staunch labourmen they are still fervent Catholics. This is the end of the day.

Argument and rivalry are endless. Which club is senior? Which has stronger claims to Saint Andrews? Which is a true fact, it's a script fact, it's a written fact, that 1880 was the first band club which is our union band club. We are registered as first. They are not registered at all in my opinion. In my opinion they pinched this name of Saint Andrew because Saint Andrew belongs to both of the clubs. But in this yearly duel Saint Andrews has a crushing weapon, it's bandstand. The other band club, which is Saint Andrews, made the bandstand themselves. Which honestly speaking in an opinion was more nice here than us. It wasn't better than us but it looks nice here than us.

So we said no, they won't have a bandstand better than us and try to organize everyone which is going to cause over 2,500 pounds. There are strong feelings about the first time. For example we've got a place where we do the fireways, we haven't got a place where we do the fireways. So we call them you haven't got a place where you do the fireways. We've got a big club they haven't got a club like us. But we don't speak about clubs otherwise you won't have friends. If you start speaking about your club which is best then you are ready to fight I think. While village bans compete in honor of their saints, other bans march through mortar.

But British occupation is ending. Britain is the world's policeman no more. The island base no longer vital. So time and circumstance brought independence to motion. After the last world war, the multi's could not be expected to be happy with the mayor. The measure of self-government they had and we were determined, especially speaking for my party, the nationalist party which I have the honor to lead. We were determined to pursue the whole thing until we attained complete independence for Malta. But now that British power has declined, the Mediterranean has a new maritime power. United States ships are now anchoring in the same harbor their finishes used. Their bans are also marching through mortar, on surely from the sixth fleet. NATO's southern shield against Russia.

Meanwhile, the Italians are also saying it with music, playing their own diplomatic overtures over Rome television beamed from Sicily. For Malta, Italy is a powerful cultural influence, a possible source of financial aid. For Italy, Malta is a stepping stone to the markets of North Africa. A base she would not like to fall into unfriendly hands. We had great trouble with Mussolini, 30 years ago, who claimed that Walta was Tera Redenta, which means unredeemed land belonging to Italy. But the present Italian government is a democratic government and their great fear is that we might fall under the influence of somebody else here.

And because we fall under the influence of somebody else, this somebody else might hurt them. And this of course applies also to NATO, NATO want to be here because they are frightened that the Russians might come here and the Russians will hurt them. And the Russians want to come here because they are frightened that NATO are here and NATO are going to hurt them. The Malta Labour Party's headquarters in Luca stand defiantly opposite the church. This is the Labour Party's junior band, in Malta bands even getting to party politics. Labour is the party of protest and dissent, dissenting most of all against the nationalist government's policy of alliance with the West. And nationalist fear of what Labour's policy towards Russia might be if it came to power. But in Malta, Christ is King of the Labour Party of everyone.

In Malta, the church's festivals and ceremonies mark the passage of the year, its processions outshine those of any rival. And in Malta, the church's festivals and ceremonies mark the passage of the year, its processions outshine those of any rival. It's 4 a.m., the great bill has told the partanoster the first mass of the day is in progress.

Many of Luca's people, especially the women, come to church once a day, some of them come twice. About 85% of the population attend church regularly. On Sundays nearly a thousand masses are celebrated on this tiny island. This is a country of simple Catholic faith, old fashioned in its rituals, fervent in its expression. Five o'clock, the early shift at the Dockyard waits for the bus that takes them to work. Twenty minutes ride in the bus carries them from a rural village into the world of modern industry.

The Malta dry dock was inherited from the British Navy when it's fleet retired from the Mediterranean. Enlarged and modernized with British aid, it is now a commercial yard, cleaning and repairing merchant ships, especially tankers. But the closure of the Suez Canal cut business by half. Now it's struggling for work in tough competition with other Mediterranean dockyards. The dry dock is nationally owned, it's the island's key industry. But a British firm of engineers runs the yard as managing agents. There are no experienced maltees who could take over, only men in the lower ranks of management, still feeling their way, still at a disadvantage with their fellow maltees. The only drawback we've got is that during the Admiralty, all English personnel were being supervised in this yard.

But now, as we have the Maltees dockyards under local government, we've got many Maltees doing their jobs as foremen, department managers and such like. Now we're finding a bit difficult with all the men which were being governed by English personnel to be governed by a Maltees personnel. When they see an English supervisor, they feel much more than they feel a Maltees personnel. For example, as a municipal adviser, I find it time difficult to control all the men under my supervision because they say that I'm a Malteesman. But discipline must be inserted here and the father of ten. So I know what discipline is. I have to bring up a wife and ten children. So when I come here as a foreman of princess, I have to bring another ten guns, ten guns with ten men each, which is 100 men. So was I do a home? I govern my home with my wife and my children and I have to do the same here. Halfway between village and industrial society, the Maltees worker is finding adjustment hard.

It's hard to change from the leisurely pace of admiralty work to the cutthroat business of commercial repair. It's hard to accept that life is much less secure than it used to be. Labor disputes, pay demands and strikes have disturbed the scene. But larger problems loom. Russia is making diplomatic excursions for friendship visits by Soviet squadrons. NATO has a headquarters here already. Malte is now finding that independence involves making painful and delicate choices. The Malte government hopes to tie itself firmly to western powers. Other Maltees hope wistfully for neutral status. Meanwhile, down at the dockyard, the difficult job of making the industry pay is the only concern of the British manager Cliff Morley. Well, politically, this is not my concern, but certainly commercially we'll repair Russian ships as well as anybody else's. As indeed we have done.

This past three years, we've done work on all eastern country ships, except China, I think, is the only one. We did a lot of business with Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Poland, East Germany, Russia and so. Why shouldn't we? We're a commercial organization trying to get a living from whoever wants to come to us. We don't like the NATO and Soviet navy coming here and so on. We would like, and we're most eager to see that our people earn their living through tourism and industry and agriculture and fishing, not just by becoming studious of some other nation who uses for war purposes. Malte, which has suffered so many conquests in the past, now seeks only the more peaceful invasion of tourism, hoping that its images of fortress can be changed. At present, only English tourists come in force, being barred from more sophisticated watering places by currency problems.

But from Lebanon to Morocco, a hundred resorts compete for tourists, most of them with long experience in providing for the needs of tourists, all of them with just as many natural beauties. Without natural resources, Malte needs factories that process other people's raw materials. Under British guidance, she's trying to attract foreign companies here, with tax concessions and cheap labor. The types of industry that comes here and the size of industries must necessarily be small. After all, this is a small island. One of its grave limitations is that it is small. We've gone to too many hotels on it, or too many industries, otherwise they will be toppling into the sea.

And we've got to plan the whole thing with that very obvious limitation in mind. But otherwise, I think the prospects of the change over are very much better than we thought a year or two back when the rundown was announced, you know, people got very excited and disturbed, very naturally. Eight o'clock, and John Kaleier leaves for work at Luca Air Base, half a mile from home. Twenty-six years ago, Italian and German bombers were trying to smash Luca Airfield, right in the line of fire, half the village was destroyed. But Malte's stubborn wartime defense earned it the George Cross, Britain's highest award for civilian bravery. Today, the RAF keeps only a few reconnaissance squadrons at Luca. By 1972, the Air Base will be closed.

Three more years, and John Kaleier will be retrenched. He and thousands like him. Malte's who work for the British services as clerks and drivers, technicians, laundromes and cooks. Some of them will find other jobs. Some will join the 5,000 already unemployed, a large number for a tiny place like Malte. When the last commanding officers taken the last solute, when the Union Jack is lowered for the last time and the last barracks gate is closed, what will they do, I ask themselves? Where will they go? And how will they feel? When I finish from the service another 3 years, I should think if I don't find a job in Malte, I will emigrate to Australia where I have a lot of brothers-in-law and father-in-law and mother-in-law about 12 of them there. And I don't call this emigration, I mean it's not emigration because you want to, you have to, you emigrate because you have to, it's not because you like to, but you have to go.

The island is overpopulated and many have had to emigrate already, often to suffer the loneliness of separation from their people. I miss all my friends and I play with local bands, you know, I miss them all and you miss the atmosphere, you lose your country in a way. You won't be sure if you settle in Australia, I mean a lot of people go there and then become homesick because of the air, of the friends, they lose a lot of friends and you might come back even if you suffer hunger. You just come back. Forgotten squadrons of British emin quietly molder on the wall of the Luka Bar they once filled with noise and drinking.

Now the village workmen have it to themselves, coming in here and their morning break for drinks and shelter from the heat. 11 o'clock and the hawkers are making their rounds of the narrow streets, calling the housewives out of their dark, cool houses with offers of cheap goods. Apart from the old men yawning away the morning in the village plaza, this is the time of day when Luka belongs to the women. There are no supermarkets, no department stores in Luka, only the little neighbourhood shops.

This is how the women spend the meager wages their husbands bring home, less than half a British workers wage. These are the staples of their diet, the undecised fish that come from around Malta's coastline, cheap vegetables and fruit. Half a mile away it is the 20th century, but here in the village plaza some things are as they've always been.

A priest collecting from the village for the church funds, laughter and conversation and gossip, the village simpleton. In spite of television, cars, electricity, Luka is curiously remote, still part of the rural tradition, with goats and horses in the streets, with the stone walled wheat fields just outside the town. Ladies hobbling from the church in black foldettas, the stiffened cloak in which Malta's women concealed themselves for centuries. The change has come too, of course, often for the better, though without ever managing to change the multi-use out of recognition. Yet the changes are coming. Time was when a man would decalate his car to a truck with a saints name. Nowadays the signs show other interests and other influences.

Luka's family is now in the city of Malta. Malta's national income per capita is the lowest in Europe. Here in Luka many women watching pennies all the time, cook the family's midday meal in the village baker's oven.

Wages being low and fuel expensive, community cooking is the only remedy. Meanwhile living costs are going up under pressure from the growing tourist industry. It's after 12 now. The midday meal is on the table. When that is finished, Luka will draw its curtains and close its shutters. For this is the Mediterranean and one o'clock the time of Syester. Luka's family is now in the city of Malta. Luka's family is now in the city of Malta. Luka's family is now in the city of Malta. Luka's family is now in the city of Malta.

Luka's family is now in the city of Malta. Luka's family is now in the city of Malta. Luka's family is now in the city of Malta.

Luka's family is now in the city of Malta. Bought o'clock the village is humming again. Shops open, the men go to their bars on the plaza, deserted streets filled with people and animals once more in the cooling air of afternoon. The men go to their bars and banclubs for women only their homes where groups might meet to make the traditional Maltese lace. The men go to their bars and banclubs for women only their homes where groups might meet to make the traditional Maltese lace. Apart from their homes and the casual contacts of street and square, their only social carvings the church and its religious societies.

It's the women who go to mass most often, the women who listen most respectfully to the priest, they are the conservatives of Maltese society, the firmest resistors of change. The women's faith, like the faith of women in many Catholic countries of the Mediterranean, centers on the worship of the Virgin Mary. More prayers are offered up to our lady than to Christ and such things cause concern to the clergy trying to modernize their church. The church provides comfort and guidance from cradle to the grave for those who conform to the will of the church. Being anticlerical involves difficulties in Malta, even the privilege of becoming Godfather's in baptism is withheld. For those who don't conform, the church has sometimes refused the rights of proper burial. For those who don't conform to the will of the church, the church has sometimes refused the rights of proper burial.

Malta is a tiny place. 300,000 people have little room to spare on an island of a hundred square miles. There's not enough space for farms and wheat fields. Land is parceled out in tiny plots. In village cemeteries, space is also short. And disparities between the affluent few and the many poor are seen plainly here. Only those with money can rest their bones in a permanent family grave.

The rest are disinterred after a few years. Their bones thrown in a common grave and the coffins burned. This is a country of simple faith, with a very literal view of heaven as paradise and of hell as a place of eternal fire and burning. The anticlerical labor party claims that here in the cemetery, the church has wielded the ultimate sanction against its opponents. Any member of the party who died and was known to be a member of the party, was buried in a stretch of ground without just like the sign that this is a burial ground. And locally, of course, this is called the rubbish heap because it's not how you bury people in this world. Also, of course, the church carried out various pilgrimages all over the island where they explained to the faithful that whoever votes for the labor party commits a mortal sin and cannot hope to achieve salvation.

And this went on during two elections. The church only goes against a political party when this party, as such, goes against religious interests of the people and the religious life of the people. Well, I must say this is news to me for a very simple reason that we had long talks with the representatives of the Vatican, with Monsignor Cardinale in particular. And during these talks, nothing was pinpointed in our program which goes against the teachings of the church. When the Council of the Labor Party published a statement in which it attacked the authority of the church and went against Catholic principles and Catholic traditions.

And so, both myself and the Bishop of Gozo, had to give what we call interdiction. Only to the members of the Council, not to the labor party, that's a miserable interpretation. During election time, all the voters who went to church and went to confession were individually asked by the priests by the confessor. Are you going to vote labor? Because if you are, I cannot give you absolutely. I said it publicly more than once, but I was prepared and the Bishop of Gozo with me to come to an understanding and forget the past. But for a long time, more than a year, nothing came out. Only misrepresentations and the press of the labor party.

The position is really one of democracy against privilege. The church has enjoyed medieval privileges for hundreds of years, even under the British. To the extent that, for instance, the bishops are above the law, whatever they commit, they cannot be taken to court and proceedings taken against them. They also conflict when it comes to economic matters, because the church owns a tremendous amount of land. And they want this land to be completely outside the jurisdiction of government. I do hope that with the help of Almighty God, we shall succeed to have peace. And at the next elections, the church will say nothing about the parties.

The Archbishop is 83, his successor determined on a peaceful withdrawal from politics. The church should remain in a purely pastoral role. Of course, there are subjects that come under both state and church, and there that has to be some sort of agreement on those basic points. But in general, the church is above politics. The church approves of all parties which do not go against her basic principles. In Luca Village, a few years ago, a famous event symbolized the clash between church and party. In Luca, we were holding a mass meeting, and while this meeting was going on, two of the church supporters went inside the church and rang the huge bells so that they drowned the voices of the speakers. When we complained to the police, we were supposed to keep lo and order, to stop any interference with public meetings of this kind.

The police said, we have no jurisdiction over the church, we can't do a ring about it. Boys were ringing up bells and mint of cell. Ring up bells, how much as you like. Time will come when you won't ring any more bells. Time will sure come when you won't ring any more bells. I'm just hearing these words. Seven years ago, still in my ears. And they told them, all right boys, will carry on the meeting and you carry on in the bells. We never said something you guys got, we're always what we said is against the law of the church as being run now or by that time. But I'm never against God. I'm a true Roman Catholic. Everyone, labor or nationalist, is a true Roman Catholic at best a time. The climax of the year, when Luca is divided by its rivalry, yet united in celebration of its patron saint. And the end of the year, when Luca is divided by its rivalry, yet united in celebration of its patron saint.

And the end of the year, when Luca is divided by its rivalry, yet united in celebration of its patron saint. And the end of the year, when Luca is divided by its rivalry, yet united in celebration of its patron saint. And the end of the year, when Luca is divided by its rivalry, yet united in celebration of its patron saint. And the end of the year, when Luca is divided by its rivalry, yet united in celebration of its patron saint. And the end of the year, when Luca is divided by its rivalry, yet united in celebration of its patron saint. And the end of the year, when Luca is divided by its rivalry, yet united in celebration of its patron saint. And the end of the year, when Luca is divided by its rivalry, yet united in celebration of its patron saint.

And the end of the year, when Luca is divided by its rivalry, yet united in celebration of its patron saint. And the end of the year, when Luca is divided by its rivalry, yet united in celebration of its patron saint. The fester begins in the church, with the ceremony for Saint Andrew, in which the patron's deeds are recalled, is continued protection invoked. This is the solemn moment of the feast in which all the village joins. Even the Archbishop has come, carrying before him a bone of Saint Andrew, a sacred relic authenticated by the Vatican. And the end of the year, when Luca is divided by its rivalry, yet united in celebration of its patron saint.

And the end of the year, when Luca is divided by its rivalry, yet united in celebration of its patron saint. The saint will be carried on a long procession through the streets of Luca, to cheers and shouts, and the crash of fireworks. Almost every weekend, throughout Malta's long summer, one of the 63 villages will be holding a feast in honor of its saint.

No fester is a fester without newgar, a sweet to which multies are addicted. With the smell of gunpowder, smoke and incense, the flavor of newgar is part of the very essence of the festival. The saint will be carried on a long procession through the streets of Luca, to cheers and shouts.

The saint will be carried on a long procession through the streets of Luca, to cheers and shouts. The saint will be carried on a long procession through the streets of Luca, to cheers and shouts. The saint will be carried on a long procession through the streets of Luca, to cheers and shouts.

The saint will be carried on a long procession through the streets of Luca, to cheers and shouts. The saint will be carried on a long procession through the streets of Luca, to cheers and shouts. The saint will be carried on a long procession through the streets of Luca, to cheers and shouts.

The saint will be carried on a long procession through the streets of Luca, to cheers and shouts. The saint will be carried on a long procession through the streets of Luca, to cheers and shouts. The saint will be carried on a long procession through the streets of Luca, to cheers and shouts.

The saint will be carried on a long procession through the streets of Luca, to cheers and shouts. The saint will be carried on a long procession through the streets of Luca, to cheers and shouts.

The times may be changing, but the festers remain. How long can it go on? The village rivalry which has absorbed the multies for generations. How long before the events forced them to look outwards, and join the rest of the world in this uniform metropolitan industrial century? How long before the events forced them to look outwards, and join the rest of the world in this uniform? How long before the events forced them to look outwards, and join the rest of the world in this uniform? How long before the events forced them to look outwards, and join the rest of the world in this uniform?

How long before the events forced them to look outwards, and join the rest of the world in this uniform? This is NET, the public television network. NET, the public television network.

NET, the public television network. NET, the public television network. NET, the public television network.

NET, the public television network. The public television network. The public television network.

NET, the public television network.