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| January 2000 Newsletter | |||||||||||
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| Helgoland | |||||||||||
  Anybody who has read my article about Helgoland
(GMC Newsletter No.11/99) and thought a little bit about it may well ask himself, how do people manage to live together on such a small island, the size of Filfla. In the previous article it was only stated that Helgoland is inhabited - now you must know that on Helgoland live 1600 (one thousand six hundred!) citizens. This population density should make even Maltese wonder. In addition to the local population during the holiday season, from April to September, around 250 seasonal workers swell up the population. Helgoland has 2000 hotel beds and at peak periods up to 7000 day trippers visit the Island. The narrow streets of Helgoland are then as crowded as Republic Street in Valletta at 10.00a.m. In spite of all this the Helgolanders go about their daily life with a high level of self discipline, order and respect for each other. This civic sense has been inbred over hundreds of years.The Helgoland Civic Council is made up of a directly elected Mayor and 13 councilors from various political parties. The council, as well as a handful of municipal employees have a heavy work schedule on hand. In addition to the normal administrative duties the council has responsibilities that go far beyond those of a normal council. They are responsible for the electricity supply. Independent from the mainland, with a state of the art oil fired smoke free power station, the cooling water from the power station is used to heat up all the houses as well as keeping the public sea water swimming pool at a steady 27°C. The Island has no fresh water supply, so top quality table water is produced by a desalination plant. All sewage is treated in a biological treatment plant which cleans it almost to drinking water standards and is recycled for flushing toilets amongst other uses. This treatment plant can handle sewage from up to 10,000 people because it has to cater for all tourists as well. All this naturally has its price and one cubic meter of drinking water (including sewage reprocessing) costs DM 15.-- or LM 3. The environmental awareness of the Helgolanders was always exceptional. The reason for this was that in former times practically all income was generated from fisheries, mostly lobster catching, which required crystal clear, unpolluted waters. Any sort of dumping of waste and sewage into the sea was scrupulously avoided. Today the waste disposal system is as perfect as it can be. All households and hotels sort out all their refuse at source into glass, metal, paper, plastic and compostable waste. These are compacted to reduce their volume and shipped to the mainland for recycling. Also this is to be paid out by the citizens - a 3 person household, for instance, has to fork out DM 250.-- or LM 50 a year. The school population of Helgoland is today made up of 146 male and female pupils who are taught by 12 full-time teachers up to the secondary school level. Anybody who wishes to study at university has to go to the mainland - there are contract universities and subsidies to Helgolander students are paid. There are two Parishes on Helgoland, the Lutheran Parish of St.Nicholas and the Catholic Parish of St. Michael. The co-operation between the parishes is such a good one that both churches share one tower and its bells! The Helgolanders enjoy a good health care system. There are two doctors and a dentist looking after everyday needs as well as a 50-bed clinic specializing in the care of patients suffering from Parkinson's Disease. Of course there is also a midwife who looks after the Helgolanders not becoming extinct! What does one do in his free time on such a small Island? The Helgolanders are very sportive people and everything is carried out on foot. There is a Sport Association with about 700 members practicing football, handball, badminton, tennis and gymnastics. The Water Sports Club has 400 members and organises the only one German high sea regatta every spring-time. The event is called "North Sea Week" and anyone who matters in the sailing scene takes part. Here the qualifying rounds for the well known Admira's Cup in Cowes are held as well. For years now the Islanders organise an athletic highlight - the "Helgoland Marathon". Maybe it is difficult to imagine a 42 km course on such a small Island. The participants are enthusiastic. This event takes place on the second Saturday in May. This year 350 athletics took part and for the year 2000, 500 runners are expected. For all the Maltese Marathon athletes applications are still open! Another popular activity is choir singing. A male choir, established in 1892, now known as the "Halluner Songers" (Helgolander Singers) is famous for the shanties (sailors' songs). Very professional with strong voices are the 14 male singers known as "Karfinken" (Church finches). The choir of the Protestant church has also given many recitals away from the Island as far as Rome. In December when the thermometer sinks well below 0º C and days are very short and dark, Helgoland develops its own unique charm. Islanders meet each other over a hot "Grog" or "Teapunch" (both prepared with Rum) for a "Klönschnack" (gossip), they make Christmas decor-ations, evening classes are organised for academic studies or else just for fun. The churches are packed for the Advent religious services and the Islanders who live on the mainland return to celebrate Christmas with their families. Unfortunately this idyllic situation is interrupted by the "Small High Season". From Boxing Day till after New Year's Day, tourists arrive from everywhere. They come to experience the loneliness, the icy wind, the crashing of the waves and the sad cry of a hungry seabird. This year there have been many bookings. Why that? What are their expectations? A special atmosphere for the new millennium perhaps? Helgoland is always beautiful, every year, every day, every hour, and the Helgolanders are a special race - open, honest and straight-forward; without these qualities it would be impossible to live together in such a confined space. Oh yes, there is still something worth mentioning: Helgoland's symbol, the "Lange Anna". It is a free-standing needle-like rock of sandstone at the northern tip of the Island, 58 meters high and 40 meters away. Until the year 1865 there was a bridge like connection which unfortunately collapsed. But every Maltese knows the "Azure Window" in Gozo, well, "Lange Anna" looked just like that! The author Dieter Salto, used the ticket sponsored by Lufthansa which he won in our "Write an Article for the Newsletter" Competition to visit Helgoland. From Malta he traveled to Hamburg via Frankfurt, then by train to Cuxhaven and finally in quite stormy weather he made it by ship (3 hours) to Helgoland. Mr. Salto thanks the Mayor of Helgoland for his assistance in writing the above article and it is hoped that photos of the author's visit will be displayed on the Circle's Noticeboard within the next few weeks.
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| The Global Village by Joseph Busuttil | |||||||||||
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With modern means of communication, whether information technology, traveling, dissemination of current events, or other channels, the world has become a global village. We are finding out more about how other people live and what we have in common regarding thinking, feelings, emotions, behaviour, and self expression. Some time ago in my work as therapist with mental patients, I met Paul, an elderly stone mason who had been in hospital for over twenty years. It was not an easy case because he had withdrawn into a world of silence and isolation. Paul would come to therapy and just stare. After a while he started picking up small pieces of stone from the garden. With the help of a large nail from the nearby woodwork section, Paul started carving out bizarre human figures, each comprising various male and female bodily parts. It was not easy to analyse these figures, but at least he was trying to communicate and express himself. A few years later, while searching for more information on art therapy, I came across the work of Dr. H. Prinzhorn (1886-1933), of the Heidelberg Psychiatric Clinic. Entitled "The Pictorial Works of a Mental patient, a Contribution to the Psychology and Psycho Pathology of the Gestaltung" (Bildnerei der Geisteskranken ein Beitrag zur Psychologie und Psychopatologie der Gestaltung), the book dwelt at length on the creative production of mental patients. One of Prinzhorn's patients in 1912 was Karl. Also a stonemason, he was admitted to hospital and started trying to communicate through sculpting wood. Some of Karl's works incorporated two facets - a male and a female form, in one figure. Prinzhorm saw one of the central themes of Karl's problems as identification difficulties, and how Karl thought that everything would be fine if man and woman were united in one body. The similarity between Paul's work in Malta and Karl's work in Germany was uncanny. Two men, living in different times and cultures, yet united in their self expression. It is said that mentally, we are not individuals, but share our feelings and emotions with others in a universal and collective unconscious. As I look at one of Paul's statues in my study, I tend to subscribe more to this view.
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Die Befestigungsanlagen von Cottonera Geraldine Cauchi |
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Die Wälle, Forts und Wachtürme Vittoriosas sind die ältesten Maltas und galten als die stärksten von ganz Malta. Vittoriosa musste ja als Haupthafen gegen jeden Angriff besonders gut geschützt werden. Daher wurde die Halbinsel durch einen tiefen Wassergraben vom Festland abgetrennt, der später in eine Parkanlage umgewandelt wurde und heute als "Coronation Garden" noch zu sehen ist. Vittoriosa ist praktisch rundum von Befestilgungsanlagen geschützt, deren einzelne Abschnitte von den Rittern der verschiedenen Nationalitäten verteidigt wurden. Der Stadtplan zeigt, welche Abschnitte in den jeweiligen Verantwortungsbereich der verschiedenen "Zungen" gehörten. Die gewaltigen Bastionen von St. John's und St. James sollten ebenso zu Ihrem Besuchsprogramm gehören wie der "Poste de Castille" an der äussersten westlichen Ecke der inneren Befestigungsanlage von Vittoriosa. Nach der großen Belagerung durch die Türken wurden aber nicht nur die inneren Befestigungsanlagen Vittoriosas und Sengleas verstärkt, sondern auf grund der schlechten Erfahrungen während der Türkenbelagerung wurde ein ganz neuer Befestigungsring weit in Richtung Westen angelegt, der das gesamte Gebiet der drei Städte Vittoriosa, Senglea und Bormla schützen und zu einer uneinnehmbaren Festung machen sollte. Nach ihrem Erbauer dem Großmeister Nicolas Cottoner wurden die Anlagen die Cottonerawälle genannt. Die Cottonerabefestigungen sollten unbedingt ebenfalls Bestandteil Ihres Besuchsprogrammes
sein.
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Hören Sie gut zu!? Ingrid B. Kidder |
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Befassen wir uns einmal mit dem Gehör, rein sprachlich, versteht sich! Es gehört dazu, dass das Ohr des Menschen das Sinnesorgan ist, welches als erstes beim etwa vier Monate alten Fötus voll entwickelt bereits seine Funktionsfähigkeit besitzt; und welches im allgemeinen nach den anderen als allerletztes Sinnesorgan auf dem Sterbebett versagt. Doch zurück zur Sprache: hören, gehören sowie horchen, gehorchen gehen sämtlich auf den gleichen germanischen Stamm hören zurück, der sich im alt- und mittelhochdeutschen Sprachgebrauch wandelte und anpasste und ursprünglich die Fähigkeit des Sinnesorgans Ohr beschrieb. Im Laufe der Jahrhunderte haben sich Meinungsabwandlungen ergeben, die letztendlich immer noch mit dem eigentlichen hören etwas gemein haben. So ist ein Höriger heute ein Mensch, der nur auf die Wünsche oder Befehle eines anderen hört, davon abhängig ist und sich danach richtet. - Er ist hörig. Im Mittelalter wurde dieses Wort zu einer Standesbezeichnung: der Hörige war ein leibeigener Landarbeiter. Daraus hat sich der Begriff gehören, also eine Eigentumsbezeichnung mit dem Substantiv Zugehörigkeit entwickelt. Wenn wir bei der Form hören bleiben, finden wir auch den Zuhörer mit dem Verb zuhören, was die verstandene Aufnahme des Gesagten beschreibt. Das kann in einem Hörsaal vor sich gehen, wo sich so manches mal ein Lektor nur mit Anstrengung Gehör verschaffen kann, oder Zwischenrufe überhört. Horchen - die Abwandlung ohne Umlaut - ist heute seltener gebräuchlich, eher im technischen Bereich, z.B. das Horchgerät, welches nicht zu verwechseln ist mit dem Hörgerät, das als Knopf im Ohr vielen schwerhörigen Mitmenschen die Verständigung erleichtert. Gehorchen sowie Gehorsam sind üblicher, vor allem im Umgang mit Kindern, in Schulen, und bei den Soldaten, die unter vielen Regimen 'in blindem Gehorsam' ihrem Lande zu dienen verpflichtet sind. Es gehört mit zu diesem Thema, auch den mit gesellschaftlichen Regeln behafteten Ausdruck es gehört sich nicht zu erwähnen. In beiden in diesem Satz eingebauten Fällen von gehört bezieht sich dieses Wort auf eine Zugehörigkeit, eine Art Eigentum: beim ersten Beispiel positiv, und 'es gehört sich nicht' verneint die Zugehörigkeit zur guten Sitte. Wenn auch inzwischen weit entfernt vom eigentlichen Ohr, so sind doch gerade diese beiden Abwandlungen oft zu hören. Zum Abschluss wünsche ich Ihnen weiterhin ein gutes Gehör für den Klang und die Feinheiten der Sprache, mit der Sie sich gerade beschäftigen.
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