euro|topics - Kenneth Zammit Tabona

Zammit Tabona, Kenneth

one of Malta's most popular artists and illustrators. Has a weekly column in the Times of Malta

4 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Times of Malta - Malta | 07/08/2007

Kenneth Zammit Tabona on homophobia

Maltese artist and columnist Kenneth Zammit Tabona responds to an "alarming increase" of homophobic letters addressed to the paper he works for. "I was blissfully ignorant of the fact that there actually are people who are ready to put pen to paper spouting all sorts of quotations from the Bible. ... [These extracts] were written several thousand years ago with the sole aim of keeping an evolving nomadic people united and strong by the simple expedient of increasing and multiplying it at all costs. ... Oddly enough these correspondents were mostly women. ... Women's rights are still relatively new in the most enlightened parts of the world. ... These rights are non-existent in many others; far too many in fact. It is interesting to note that, while these backward bigoted communities still stone adulteresses and allow husbands to beat their wives and fathers to strangle disobedient daughters as a matter of course, homosexuals are hanged. We cannot accept this state of affairs in what we would like to call a 'civilised' world, can we? Of course not!"

Times of Malta - Malta | 15/05/2007

Malta's political evolution

The columnist Kenneth Zammit Tabona considers that "the vast majority of Europeans, reared, as we are, in the protective shadow of the EU, are highly disinclined to be either anarchically Left or militantly Right; not that these people do not exist, as we know only too well, but, unless something drastic happens to upset the applecart, like uncontrolled immigration, they can actually be contained. ... People have it so good that there is nothing much to fight for anymore apart from controversial issues like gay marriage or partnership ... In Malta, however, there are a number of social issues that must be overcome before we are mature enough to graduate to gay marriage, the most pressing being the introduction of divorce ... . The government has no right to deny divorce to its citizens, especially while purporting to hide under ecclesiastical petticoats pour epater les bourgeois! We are a secular state not a religious one as far as I know."

Times of Malta - Malta | 14/11/2006

The freedom of expression in the arts

The Maltese artist and columnist Kenneth Zammit Tabona considers culture that is sensitive to Islamist reaction. "I am convinced that the cartoon issue [Muhammed cartoons controversy] was an orchestrated affair of organised rabble-rousing with a purpose; the purpose being to seriously inhibit creativity for fear of unleashing the furies and imposing a relentless self censorship for fear of reprisal. It is carrying political correctness to a ridiculous degree where one ends up writing, directing, painting or composing as if mincing through a minefield. The result being anaesthetised, innocuous concoctions that have no connection with what goes on in real life for fear of treading on someone's sacred toes. ... [Islamist extremists] must learn that they cannot hold our minds to ransom or jeopardise our culture. Our culture was achieved after millennia of thinkers, philosophers and revolutions gave their very lives to achieve freedom of thought for us all."

Times of Malta - Malta | 17/10/2006

Does the EU really want Turkey?

"I do not profess to fully understand Turkey and Turks. We in Malta still hold, by and large, a warped impression, coloured by the Great Siege mentality, which is completely unfocused," writes Kenneth Zammit Tabona, an artist and columnist, "Turkey is a country of strong contrasts and contradictions. ... Mr Pamuk's novels also criticise the mania, started by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, to make Turkey more Turkish which because of the complexity of the Byzantine/Ottoman empire entailed ethnic cleansing to achieve. Anyone who has read Louis de Berniere's excellent and riveting novel 'Birds Without Wings' will be horrified by the displacements of entire peoples from Greece to Turkey and vice versa for instance. The Greco-Turkish problem in Cyprus is a direct consequence of this. ... In fact joining the EU requires Turkey to make such a great leap forward ... that I cannot see it happening for another decade at least."

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