My New Life in Malta

Continuing from last week's episode, there was a part two to the program about Mario. Tista Tkun Int received a record number of phone calls (and I assume a record number of viewers, which means a record price for the adverts for the sponsors of part two). But I had to keep you in suspense, because I had to wait a whole week to find out the outcome.

First, they found that Mario's mother had visited Malta several times, the latest visit being only in 1992. Not only that, but her husband's family lives just 300 metres from Mario's house! Her husband's family provided a video that showed her during her last visit. The physical resemblance to her abandoned son was uncanny. Poor Mario was made to sit through a whole long video presentation summarising the prior week's episode and a bit more information on his mother. Then Rachel handed him his mother's rosary beads and the necklace that she was wearing on the day that she died.

But there was a bit of a happy ending to the story. It turns out Mario did have one living uncle in the UK. Colin flew out to see him and to inform him about the long-lost nephew that he never knew he had. But here is where it gets good. The uncle was not playing along with the bullshit! He was supposed to act surprised, and was giving very exaggerated "oooohs" and "aaahs" as Colin informed him of the details. But the funniest part was when he told Colin "you know, I had no idea my sister was even dead until YOU CALLED ME LAST WEEK!" 

HA! Take THAT, Tista Tkun Int! Your bluff has been exposed!

The uncle did say that he never knew that his sister had had a child. And she left Malta immediately afterwards. Obviously, it is something that she chose to hide from everyone. Which leads us to my question, also mentioned by David in the comments to the last post, whether she would have even wanted to see him if they had found her alive. What if they had shown up on the doorstep of an 80-something-year-old, whose husband did not know she had ever had a son, with her full-grown 57-year-old child? Perhaps things turned out for the better, for poor Mario's sake.

Mario then followed his uncle's cue. When Rachel started her exaggerated and draaaaaawn out speech about how they had found the uncle, alive, in England, and Colin had gone to try to convince him to-- "Did you bring him here?" blurted out Mario, impatiently. She was shocked, but had to admit defeat: "yes, he is right here in the studio!"

I got a perverse joy from having watched both Mario and the uncle break down the show's supposed fantasy.

Then the uncle and aunt came out, and it was beautiful. For the second time, I cried my eyes out. (I swear, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of films that have made me shed just one tear, and here T.T.I. manages to get me to cry like a baby two weeks in a row). In addition, Rachel informs us that the family of the mother's husband are waiting at a restaurant to meet Mario (the restaurant's name is repeated several times, of course). They are not actually his relatives, but I guess they felt a bit guilty that they got to enjoy his mother as an auntie all their lives while Mario had nobody.

And so that ended an emotional episode of Tista Tkun Int. After that, the following two stories just did not hold my interest. After Mario, nothing could measure up. I found myself talking to the TV set and saying "get over it lady, your mother is alive!"

I am back on the blogosphere. My big apologies for not posting much over the last couple of weeks. My efforts to find employment continue, but it is such an energy-consuming task that meanwhile I need to take a little break and focus my energies on other things as well. For example, blogging!

Currently I am very excited because many good things are coming up.

First, my very good friend K will be coming to visit next month. This will be my first friend to visit me in Malta, so I get to show her around the island and give her a glimpse into my new life. Then, immediately after that my mother will be coming to visit! So I get to show her around as well, and to show off how much of a local I have become.

On the job front, still waiting to get something definite, but the possibilities are there and I am more hopeful than before that I might soon have something concrete. And to round things out, I have found another very exciting theatre opportunity!

You know what they say, "when it rains, it pours" and all of a sudden I feel a bit overwhelmed by everything that is coming my way.

Now on to some Maltese cultural observations. There is a show called "Tista Tkun Int" (which means "It Could Be You") on Maltese television. Mention this show and many people will groan, but sit down to watch it and you are easily hooked. The premise of the show is that somebody nominates a friend or relative so that T.T.I. can reunite them with some long-lost relative. Some of the stories are not so exciting. A couple of weeks back, there was a mother who had not received any letters from her son in the UK. They found him, and nothing was wrong. Sometimes they are unique, like last summer when they took a Tanzanian man who has lived in Malta for 25 years back to his country of birth to track down his sister. But a couple of weeks ago there was a story that was simply heart-wrenching. 

It was the story of Mario, whose mother left him at an orphanage when he was born in 1950 and he never heard from her again. Apparently she had several brothers and sisters, but nobody ever came to claim him. As the years went by, nobody adopted him, and to top things off, he never married. So this 57-year-old man has nobody in the world.

 

But first, some background on the show. It all starts with the hostess, Rachel, introducing the story in the studio. Then her trusty foot soldier Colin goes out and tracks the person. He normally shows up at his or her home with the TV crew. And this being Malta, most people recognise who he is. He then asks a few questions such as “so, tell me, when is the last time you saw your father?”  After the charade, he informs the surprised participant that he or she will get on a plane to X location to track down the missing person.

 

Here I have to be cheeky. Since they were going to take Mario to Australia, and it is expensive to get there, they found several other stories that dealt with going to Australia and packed them all onto the same flight. As a result, there was a loooooong build-up as they rounded up each participant and introduce each story.

 

The show flashes back and forth between Colin on the road, and Rachel back at the studio. Except this time, they both went along on the trip. I guess she did not want to miss the chance to go Down Under.

 

After that there is some background on the story. This time, on Mario and how he was abandoned. They tracked down the fact that his mother has left Malta in 1951 and gone to England, but soon after moved to Australia. So Colin and Rachel marched into different local archives and registrars trying to find information. (As if we are to believe that they figure all of this out in one morning! In reality they spend months researching the stories). Eventually they find an address near Sydney.

 

Then back to the studio, where Rachel talks about the great deal on a new washing machine! Or she visits a furniture store which offers a unique deal to T.T.I. viewers!

 

Back to Sydney, where they are driving along to the mother’s alleged house as we are shown scene after scene of poor Mario crying his eyes out. Eventually, they find the place. Colin gets out and finds a man with Asian features in front of the house. This prompts Colin to yell out “nee-hao!”  I cringed in my seat at this appalling lack of cultural sensitivity. Did he miss the fact that Australia is a multi-cultural society, and that this man could be a native English speaker? Does he not know that not all people with Asian features speak Chinese?! Colin then proceeds to interview “Il-Ċiniżi” about who lives in the house. Then comes the sad news that the owners, who were indeed Maltese, died a few years back. We are shown a shot of Mario waiting back in the van. The poor man is about to get the sad news.

 

So it is a perfect time to go back to the studio, where people can call in from home and listen to the Tista Tkun Int band play a song. If they can name the title, they can win! Rachel takes this time to once again thank the sponsors for providing the lovely prizes. The caller is invariably an older woman who is very excited to be on the air. The band then plays the line from the song that contains the title (hint hint), so that Mrs. Borg from Attard can win a holiday for two to London, courtesy of Air Malta!

 

Back to Sydney. Colin is talking to the neighbour, a German man, who confirms that Mario’s mother died in a car accident a few years ago. Then her husband died as well. And… they had no children. We go back to the van, where the sad news are delivered to Mario. Then they go out to meet the neighbour, who sees the old photo of Mario’s mother and confirms that it is the same woman he knew as his neighbour. He is “100 percent” sure of it. He also says that she never mentioned having a son.

 

So we go back to the studio. Mario is sitting there, while Rachel retells everything that we have just seen. They really like to drag this out as long as possible. Then they ask Mario, as they ask every participant, if they have any idea who nominated him or her to go on the show. In this case, it was the nuns from the orphanage. The poor man is sitting there with tears in his eyes. So, Rachel takes this opportunity to thank the sponsors and introduces… the dancers! Several young couples dance for several minutes for no apparent reason in the middle of the studio. The audience watches, then claps at the end.

 

At this point, I am getting restless. This particular story has captivated me. But they have been dragging it out for three hours! And every time it gets intense, they interrupt with some other commercial gimmick. In fact Colin is now telling us how to download the show’s theme song as a mobile phone ring tone, courtesy of the sponsoring mobile phone operator.

 

Then we are back in Australia. The Dynamic Duo have managed to track down the cemetery where Mario’s mother was buried. They accompany him to the grave. There it is, the mother he never knew, who never came back to claim him… but she is dead. Mario deposits his rosary beads on the tomb marker, and says that as a child he used to pray with these that his mother would return. He then bends down, and kisses the grave.

 

I am not one to cry at movies. A story can be the saddest in the world, and I will sit there while everyone around me wails. But this time, the tears were streaming down my face. My heart was in pieces.

 

Back in the studio, where Mario is watching the footage of himself at the gravesite and has began to cry again, Rachel sends out an appeal. If anyone knows of any of the uncles or aunts or has any information, please contact her. They normally like to provide happy endings, and this time it was extremely sad. The show will be repeated on Sunday for all who missed it.

 

And guess what? People did call. But that will have to wait until next time. For now, I would like to thank all of the sponsors, and listen to a nice song brought to us by the band…

Apologies for my very long absence from the blogosphere. Since I last wrote, I have been focusing my energies on the job hunt and I have been neglecting this space.

Thank you for the leads I received from my loyal readers! Very superstitiously, I do not want to say anything until things are firm, but I am in the midst of very hopeful talks that might be very fruitful. I realise that I sound like a cryptic politician, but if all goes well, then I will happily announce the outcome. And if not, then I will keep trying.

Just a short note to say that all is well, and I will be back to blogging shortly.

(And thank you to all two of you who checked to see if the blog's silence meant something was wrong with me )

Thank you for the suggestions received so far on finding a job, and please keep them coming! I appreciate any tips you can send me so that I can try all possibilities. The campaign is on to make sure I can stay in the country! Just now I was trying to find leads on the internet, and oddly enough I found a forum for foreigners living in Peru giving each other tips on visas, work permits, and immigration issues. At least it was comforting to know that I am not the only one dealing with these problems, and I am sure there are many in Malta in my situation as well.

 

In other news related to life in Malta, I decided not to continue with the Maltese class. After attending twice, I came to the conclusion that since I am at a more advance level it is really not the right class for me. If it was not in Mosta, I might keep going for the socialising aspect, but having to take two buses to get there is just too much. Alas, I am left with the dilemma of patting myself on the back doing such a good job of learning the language on my own, while at the same time still not having a forum in which to practice with others who, like me, struggle to form correct sentences without having the conversation turn to English.

 

As a test of how good my understanding of Maltese really is, I went to the cinema to see Qerq, the Maltese cinema box-office hit. Malta makes very few movies (I have asked many people and they can only think of a couple of other films ever made in Maltese) so this was a great opportunity to hone my language skills. It is being shown without English subtitles, so it would be over two hours of total immersion. M told me that local productions tend to be bad, so he would not go to see it. Determined, I went on my own. Now I would have nobody to ask if I missed part of the plot, and I was ready.

 

What can I say… I expected that it would not be an Oscar winner. I assumed they had a low budget so there would not be special-effect wonders. Mostly, since the Maltese tend to look down on things made in their language, I thought people were mostly doing their usual if-it’s-in-English-it’s-better complaining. In the end, I can use only one word to describe it: bad. No, actually it would be more like BAD.

 

Never mind the fact that it had all possible clichés thrown in: babies switched at birth, re-entering society after years in a mental institution, re-entering society after years in a correctional facility, the corrupt rich businessman whose perfect family does not know of his criminal dealings, the criminal gang that performs Mission Impossible style operations (including the unexplained use of a laptop to somehow magically shut down a store’s security system), and the melodramatic over-acting. All of these can be found in Hollywood movies, but not usually all in the same film! The editing was like something a teenager might do with a video camera. Product placement was done without even the pretense of blending it into the background. It was more a case of: pour wine of X brand into a glass, then zoom in to the bottle for several never-ending seconds to make sure the audience reads the label.

 

To make matters worse, it was not actually film quality. It was a DVD, being played on a laptop computer that was hooked up to the big screen. During the entire time, I could see the Windows cursor arrow in the corner. At one point, somebody in the back room must have pressed a wrong button, and all of a sudden the image shrunk and we could see the desktop, including the start menu and icons! Then we were treated to the arrow clicking around trying to get the movie back full-screen size. It was like a PowerPoint presentation from the perspective of an ant.

 

As a language learning tool, though, it was great for me. Everyone spoke in exaggerated but complete sentences, and I followed the plot in its entirety! I did miss out on where the extra baby switched at birth came from, but I think that was a plot hole and not a language problem. In the end, I came out of the cinema glad to know that since the movie is not subtitled, no tourists will be watching it. I really hope it does not get distributed abroad. I would feel ashamed to have it represent Malta.

 

As I write this, my neighbour is blasting Olivia Lewis’ “Vertigo” for the whole building to hear. After watching Qerq, maybe she is not such a bad cultural ambassador in comparison.

I write this posting as a way to ask for help from my Maltese readers. My attempts at finding employment in Malta have proved unsuccessful so far, and it is now becoming a bit of a problem.

 

The question I most get asked when I meet people is “do you want to get a job in Malta?”  This question always puzzles and astonishes me and I really do not know what people expect me to answer. Without sounding too cynical in my response: personally, I do not know a single person who is independently wealthy enough to lead a life of endless leisure, and that includes me, so… yes, of course I need a job. I need to make a living. I have remained optimistic since I arrived here that I would eventually find something, but now it is becoming a highly pressing matter as my pockets begin to hurt.

 

This leads me to my main problem: the work permit. Many people ask me if I have one. Well, it is both a complicated and a simple matter. Complicated because there is no such thing as a work permit that allows foreigners to take up any job they wish. A work permit is only issued to a foreigner in Malta for a specific job and for a specified amount of time (usually not more than one year, renewable). More specifically, the permit is requested by the employer. That is where it becomes fairly simple. “All” I need is to find an employer who is willing to request the permit and say that I am necessary for the job.

 

I keep running into circular logic about this. A while back, for example, I heard that a tour guide company needed someone to translate the tours into Spanish (apparently they do not have enough Spanish-speaking tourists to warrant hiring a full-time guide). I was shocked when I was told that they could not hire me because I did not have a permit, since it was like a chicken-and-egg scenario. Of course I did not have a permit, because THEY had not requested it for me. I bring up this example, but it was not the only time that I was given this line of reasoning.

If I were an EU citizen, then I could freely take up any job. And if I were married to a Maltese or EU citizen woman, I could do so as well. But seeing as I am not allowed to marry my partner here, and I am granted no rights at all since our relationship is not legally recognised in Malta, this is not an option. (And let me pre-empt the suggestion I often get: no, if we get married in another country where same-sex partners have rights, it will not be recognised in Malta).

Another major problem is that adverts for jobs are few and hard to find. At least this is my experience. So, not quite in desperation yet, but yes in great frustration and quickly running out of ideas, I turn to the blog as a request for help.

I have experience in two fields. The first is translation. I can translate from English to Spanish and vice-versa. I realise that Spanish is not the most in demand in Malta, but since there are relatively few qualified Spanish speakers, this might be of some advantage.

The other field is teaching. I have taught English as a second language to children. I have also taught in a bilingual Spanish-English setting. So I could teach English, which I realise puts me in competition with half of Malta, or Spanish, which I realise has less demand but it is still an option.

Thirdly, I am willing to be flexible. Realising that the job market is small, and getting a job is the only way I can live in Malta and remain here legally, I am willing to take up other types of work where my skills might be of use. I am particularly good with languages, and in addition to being fluent in Spanish and English, I have a high level in French and Italian, and can also speak Portuguese, Hebrew and German. In addition I am working on Maltese, as shown below in this blog. So jobs that might require the use of languages might also be a good fit.

When I say compromise, I do have my limits of course. No job is “beneath” me, nor am I “too good” to do certain things, but I gave up many things, including a job, apartment, sold many of my possessions, etc. to move here with M, and I feel that if I am not able to find a reasonable job, then moving here would not have been worth all the effort and sacrifice.

If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment below. Out of respect to your privacy, I will not publish anything that contains personal information, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, etc.

Any leads and tips would be highly appreciated. The clock is ticking, and if I do not find something soon then lack of money combined with immigration laws might force me to have to give up on my Maltese dream.

Grazzi.

Over the last few days, Malta chose the song that will represent the country in the upcoming Eurovision festival, which will take place in Helsinki in May.

First, a bit on what Eurovision is. It is a contest that has taken place yearly for the last 50 years. Each (mostly European) nation sends one representative to sing a song and compete against all the others. Originally only a few western European countries took part, but with time the contest has grown and it now includes eastern European countries, countries that are partly in Europe such as Russia and Turkey, and some countries in the nearby region, such as Armenia and Israel. It is interesting to point out that even the tiny countries like Andorra and Monaco send their representatives. The songs are presented in a grand and over-the-top show and then the public gets to vote on their favourite, by phone or SMS (text message). In order to keep things "fair" to some extent, viewers may not vote for their own country. In reality different "blocks" of neighbouring countries wind up voting for each other: the Scandinavian countries team up, the former Yugoslav republics support one another, Greece and Cyprus always give each other maximum points, etc. Little Malta does not have any regional block behind it, but has managed to do quite well a few times. Basically, the big countries mock and/or look down on the whole competition, but for the small countries it is a matter of national pride, of "putting themselves on the map" to use a cliché, because the winning nation gets to host the following year's competition and showcase itself to a large audience.

But this will all take place in May. Before that, each country holds its own contest to see who will proudly represent his or her nation, and that is what Malta has been up to for the past few days. Last Thursday was the semi-final, where 16 different Maltese musical groups tried their best (or worst?) to impress. I must say that I was pretty appalled at some of the contestants! I may not have the voice of Pavarotti but I can recognise BAD when I hear it. As I studied each entry and narrowed it down to the few that clearly had talent, it then became a question of who had a strong enough song, voice, talent and presentation to beat out all the others in Helsinki. Half the vote came from “an international jury who was kept in a separate room so as not to be influence by the applause” and the other half was up to us viewers. Or as the presenters said, “in the hands of the Maltese people”, which made me really happy because I may not be able to vote in the real elections but my vote for the Malta Song for Europe counts like anybody else’s. And so I proudly whipped out my mobile phone, and voted. My top choice did not even make it to the final round.

Last night was the final, where the top six singers and/or bands once again hit the stage. In addition they each had a brief interview so the public could get to know about them. Last year’s representative for Malta, Fabrizio Faniello, also sang the song that he performed in Athens 2006. Unfortunately he came in last place last year, to Malta’s national embarrassment, and people still make fun of him all the time. We were watching with a few of M’s friends who boo’ed him, but I staunchly stood up for him. Sinjuri, it takes GUTS to stand up in front of “the Maltese people” and sing a song which got last place in an international competition! Just for that, he gets all my applause.

In the end, the winner was Olivia Lewis with her song Vertigo. I like the song, but I do not think her voice is that great, or that this has any potential to win. Poor Malta has gone all the way to second place in the past, but has never won the Eurovision… and it seems like this year it will not win either. But I wish her all the luck in Finland. This morning the corner bar was playing her song, so at least people are supporting her.