One of my heroes, Alistair Campbell, once said ”We don’t do God”.
Back home politicians don’t only “Do God”, they also “Do Eurovision”. Here’s Malta’s newly appointed Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, concluding her piece on the importance of culture:
This week, Malta’s representative to the Eurovision Song Festival left for Serbia.
I met Morena at her farewell party last Monday. The Vodka singer is a talented, lovely young woman, very shy and self-effacing in real life.
I wish her well. No matter what the result is I have no doubt she will give it her all, very conscious of the fact that she is Malta’s ambassador at this daunting event. For the next few weeks this annual contest and Malta’s participation will be a conversation piece in the most unexpected of places. Read the papers, watch television, listen to the radio; love it or hate it, it’s an annual event in our national agenda.
Am I going to be the first politician to admit that I think the whole Eurovision charade is taken way too seriously? Of course not. Let the people have their bread and circus, I say. Eurovision as opium of the people. Besides, what’s wrong with a beauty contest? It’s all part of what’s good about this wonderful continent of ours: the amazing variety of stunning women from Belgrade to Valletta, the hot parties, the overdone nationalism rubbing shoulders with the cross-border appeal of fit bodies. All under the pretence of culture.
But how appropriate that Zitka (the cutest intellectual in the world!) came up with another gem of hers today. I asked her what she thought of the Minister’s take on culture and the girl sent me an article by a Serbian (coincidence!) guy called Nikola Bozilovic. She’s become totally obsessed with this kitsch idea. The article is called Political Kitsch and Myth-Making Consciousness. Here’s the juicy bit on culture which Zitka highlighted in red:
Why has nowadays the word ‘culture’ become a meaningless phrase in the jargon of quasi-political nonsense? Is it because it is used to sweep away all the fogs of political vagabondage and nonsensicality while pink-painting the gray reality? Is it used to, maybe, cover up the utopian horizons of the virtual reality and identify the key places of the supposingly bright future which is here, almost knocking at our doors? Culture as an alibi, excuse, empty promise, escapist adventure. In the diction of the Serbian quasi-politicians this word, which is otherwise imbued with meaning, becomes meaningless and used as “worn-out shoes”. Culture has become a common appendage, coating, glaze on a cake or an artificial heart-shaped gift.”
That was Sigmund. Linking Dolores Cristina, Nikola Bozilovic, Zitka Krolova and Morena di Gozo.
