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Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!pln-w!spln!dex!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!enews3 From: alt.culture.malta FAQ maintainer <faqmalta@cwebdesign.com> Newsgroups: news.answers,alt.answers,malta.announce,alt.culture.malta Subject: alt.culture.malta FAQ version 3.80 Followup-To: alt.culture.malta Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 17:17:26 +0100 Organization: malta FAQ Lines: 1130 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Message-ID: <qvo0uvg562cmjl896bmjro95j4vqlrn0re@4ax.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: p-072.newsdawg.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers) about alt.culture.malta and of course Malta. It should be read by anyone who wishes to post to the alt.culture.malta newsgroup X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.8/32.553 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu news.answers:263426 alt.answers:70750 alt.culture.malta:1157 Archive-name: cultures/malta/faq Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-modified: December 17, 2003 Version: 3.80 (text) Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers) about alt.culture.malta and of course Malta. It should be read by anyone who wishes to post to the alt.culture.malta newsgroup URL: http://cwebdesign.com/altmalta/ Disclaimer: Approval for *.answers is based on form, not content. Welcome to alt.culture.malta. This FAQ is regularly posted to the alt.culture.malta,alt.answers and news.answers newsgroups approximately once a month, and the most up-to-date version is also available at the alt.culture.malta web site (http://cwebdesign.com/altmalta/). Many FAQs, including this one, are available at http://www.faqs.org. Additions have been made, new information has been collated from newsgroup threads which can be found in the newsgroup archive (http://www.maltanetworkresources.com/newsgroup/alt.culture.malta), as well as reworded and edited. The Maltese newsgroup alt.culture.malta was set up for the discussion of anything related to Malta, or the Maltese islands. It may be used by web page creators as a springboard for URL announcements of Maltese websites. Created on the 25th October 1996, this is now another good place where to submit a message describing your new Maltese web page; to discuss your site updates, or simply to discuss anything to do with Malta or Maltese. The newsgroup is robomoderated. The alt.culture.malta web page can be found at the URL http://cwebdesign.com/altmalta/. To get more information and search for Maltese WWW sites, other resources such as mailing lists, and more general information on Malta, you might visit Malta Network Resources (http://www.maltanetworkresources.com). You can access searchable archives for Maltese newsgroups from MNR. MNR originally as a directory had a 'delegation' (official link) from (the now defunct) original 'Virtual Tourist' (the world list of web servers). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Somebody wrote ng - what does ng mean? 'ng' simply means (USENET) 'newsgroup' (informally called just group). What is the point of the group? The description of alt.culture.malta is 'Discussion on Malta and the Maltese', which includes Malta, Gozo and Comino, the Maltese abroad. The point of a newsgroup is given by its name. 'Alt' is a series of groups all about different topics, 'culture' means that the newsgroup discusses things pertaining to particular cultures, 'malta' means that this is a newsgroup for discussion of anything connected to Malta and the Maltese. For more details on what one can post about, check the Charter or read on below. I cannot connect to alt.culture.malta. HELP! The list of newsgroups carried by your service provider (ISP) is generally the responsibility of the news administrator. Since this group is relatively quite new, not all news administrators will have added it to their lists. If the newsgroup is still unavailable at your site, please contact your news administrator (e.g. by sending an email message) and request that it be carried. Regular booster messages will be sent out to help the group get the widest possible coverage. You might access it by using a web site which allows access to alt.culture.malta - examples include Malta Network Resources, Dejanews (http://www.dejanews.com) and Newsguy (http://www.newsguy.com). Note that Newsguy does not archive old postings, Google Groups only stores posts from a few years and does not archive the first two years of this newsgroup completely. Only Malta Network Resources (http://www.maltanetworkresources.com) has a complete archive of the group. NEW: You now may read alt.culture.malta using Malta Network Resources, using your browser (the url is given above). You also can read new postings and post to alt.culture.malta by joining scmalta-l which is the public Malta mailing list (http://www.cis.um.edu.mt/staff/cmeli/lists/scmalta.html), and send email to the moderated list. There are some other lists but they are private. Email to scmalta-l is gatewayed (two way) into the alt.culture.malta newsgroup. To subscribe, send "subscribe scmalta-l" to majordomo AT cis DOT um DOT edu DOT mt (without the quotes), leaving the subject line empty. In other words, you can read the group by subscribing to the mailing list (using email) and vice versa you can read the mailing list by subscribing to the newsgroup, or through the web using Malta Network Resources. What is the malta.* hierarchy? The malta.* hierarchy is the national hierarchy of Maltese newsgroups. New newsgroups have been added recently. Please find the most up to date information on the malta.* hierarchy and the "Adding malta.* hierarchy to a news server FAQ" from http://www.malta.news-admin.org Why has alt.culture.malta been set up? What is its purpose? It was originally set up as a Maltese newsgroup since there is a demand for a newsgroup where to discuss Maltese topics. Anything related to Malta, Gozo, the Maltese Islands, Maltese culture, tradition, history, future, current events in Malta, whatever is Malta-related can be discussed. It was favourably discussed in the alt.config newsgroup before it was created, unlike the older alt.malta which was not and was always rmgrouped. The alt.malta newsgroup is obsolete. Please don't post to it, so the rest of us won't miss anything. Even discussion of Maltese WWW sites and announcements of Maltese Web resources physically located in Malta and abroad may take place on the newsgroup. alt.malta is technically "defunct" (a rmgrouped newsgroup) and still exists only in a few isolated pocket locations, it does not generally propagate any more (if at all) since most sites have now dropped it replacing it with alt.culture.malta. Yes, discussing Maltese dogs is allowed. The newsgroup was upon general consensus and after an informal voting successfully changed to a moderated one due to spammers attempting to overrun the group. It is preferred that you post in English, it will be understood by most people on the group. Don't let this stop you from posting in Maltese however. Using Maltese fonts in usenet posts might not be a good idea as there is no way to specify the font apart from using html which is not recommended as usenet is an ascii medium. How many people will see my post? It is not known for sure how many people view USENET or any individual group. But trust me, many people, possibly tens of thousands every day will see it so please try to be professional. Where is the newsgroup located or hosted? The answer is nowhere, or everywhere. This is how Usenet works, messages get duplicated (propagated) from server to server. It is not like a website. Is the newsgroup archived? Yes, go to http://www.maltanetworkresources.com/newsgroup/alt.culture.malta for the only authorised (and the most complete) archive. It is also searchable from the main page. What is the connection with soc.culture.malta? Does soc.culture.malta exist? Was it voted for? Where can we discuss the RFD again? soc.culture.malta was proposed and discussed some years ago, as a robomoderated newsgroup (i.e. software approves postings basically). A vote was held but due to lack of support, the vote failed. If you were in favour, or against, this newsgroup, you are encouraged by the author of this FAQ to use alt.culture.malta instead. Any hints on group behaviour we should know about? Well, one should make factual statements without adding colour to inflame anyone. If one adds a few pejorative adjectives to a factual statement then it becomes caustic and serves no purpose other than to inflame. The outcome is people will lose respect for one's writings and ignore them. Which one would think would not be what the writer wishes. The other possible outcome is that people will complain to the moderator. Then the moderator has a problem, which the moderator does not want. So a good critical article on a subject will be read and discussed. What is the alt.culture.malta charter? The charter of alt.culture.malta describes what the Maltese newsgroup is to be used for. The topic is anything related to Malta, anything Maltese, or the Maltese islands. It may be used for URL announcements of Maltese websites. So this is another good place where to submit a message describing your new Maltese web page. The newsgroup is (robo)moderated. The charter also explains the moderation policy. The charter can be found at http://cwebdesign.com/altmalta/charter.html. What is the moderation policy? It is stressed at the outset that posts to alt.culture.malta are not moderated according to their content. The group is moderated by a robomoderation program under the control of the human moderator and program maintainer. People may post with "unreplyable" or "munged" email addresses e.g. "john@xyz.mt.NOSPAM". Messages posted to alt.culture.malta should be related to Malta or the Maltese in some way. Some civil and informal unrelated discussion is allowed among regular or new posters, otherwise messages must be on topic and courteous to the regular and new posters. Authors of rejected posts are notified via email by the robomoderator. As soon as one posts, the robomoderator notifies the poster that the posting has been received. This can be turned off by following the robomoderator's instructions. Off topic messages as specified above, should be introduced "Off topic:" in the subject header. ECP/EMP and binaries, Make money fast schedules, sex advertisements are explicitly not allowed. Maltese URL announcements are allowed. Personals should be sent to a different newsgroup, soc.personals which exists for that purpose, with the exception of penpals or people looking for their relatives in Malta and Gozo (genealogical requests) which are welcome. One copy of all messages will be posted to alt.culture.malta only after being approved by the robomoderator at the submission address alt-culture-malta AT cis DOT um DOT edu DOT mt, and will be also be posted on the SCMALTA-L mailing list. First-time posters will, upon having their initial post approved, be placed on auto-approve, so their subsequent postings will be automatically preapproved. The robomoderation does not focus on content. Of course, should an approved poster start spamming for instance, he/she will be removed from the autoapproval list. The preapproval list is only used for pre-approving posts to alt.culture.malta and for verifying voters for group votes. It may not be sold, given away, or used as a mailing list. It started as empty and was added only as above. Every poster may request to be removed from the preapproval list. List entries may be aged out after a term determined by the space available on the moderating host, to be not less after a year. In rare cases a person who reponds abusively to the robomoderator's auto-replies, will be put on the robomoderator's ignore list. Therefore no crossposting will be allowed except for on-topic RFD/CVF's. It is HIGHLY ADVISED (but usually not necessary) that posters send their message directly by email to alt-culture-malta AT cis DOT um DOT edu DOT mt, for moderation, rather than posting directly from USENET to this newsgroup. This will speed up the time your message will appear in this newsgroup. After submission,if the article has not been posted yet,you may contact the moderator (see below for details) and request a STOP POST on your article, hoping you reached me on time. Once posted the only thing that can be done is the issuing of a cancellation. I cannot guarantee that it has not been posted on servers, or added to any archive servers on the Internet. Everything will be done as time permits, and no guarantees are made. After all not all sites will honour cancel messages. Messages that are not approved will be returned to the sender as far as possible, with an automatic response as far as possible, occasionally noting why it did not meet with approval, and offering suggestions. Postings should not be identically duplicated within reasonable time, of at least a week. If one is posting about an upcoming event, it is legitimate to repost a slightly modified announcement. Once returned to the sender, the moderator's decisions are final, but you may resubmit your messages for reconsideration, with appropriate changes made. The moderator is not responsible for any articles lost while being transmitted over the Internet, therefore you should keep a copy of any submitted messages. Copyrighted material submitted that is keeping with fair use provisions of copyright laws is permissible so long as it is informative, educational and related to Malta or Maltese. Posting Delays: When posting to alt.culture.malta your article will not appear in the group immediately. Posts to alt.culture.malta are forwarded to the robomoderator that checks that you are on the auto-approval list (see above). If not (i.e. you have posted for the first time) the human moderator has to approve your posting. Subsequently your next posts will be auto-approved by the robomoderator. It then sends the post to the Usenet gateway (and to SCMALTA-L). From the news gateway the article must make its way back to your news server. If you would like to be certain that your posts are reaching the group, you may subscribe to the SCMALTA-L mailing list. To do so send an e-mail message to majordomo AT cis DOT um DOT edu DOT mt that reads subscribe scmalta-l If getting timely and complete information is important to you, you may want to consider following via the mailing list. E-mail is much faster and more reliable than news propagation. The mailing list SCMALTA-L and the newsgroup alt.culture.malta mirror each other (except for some other Maltese mailing list digests which are posted to the newsgroup only - to get those by email you can subscribe to those lists). If your posts do appear on the group immediately, it's likely your provider doesn't have the group set as moderated at your site. In that case your posts are not being distributed to the full group. You should ask your news administrator to set the group as moderated. Another way around this problem is to send your posts as an e-mail message to SCMALTA-L AT CIS DOT UM DOT EDU DOT MT Everything sent to that address is automatically distributed to the group, through the robomoderator and with the same rules. What is the Moderator direct contact address? The official moderator address is cmeli AT cis DOT um DOT edu DOT mt, but being the author of this document also, I can be contacted also as specified at the end of the FAQ. Where is Malta? Malta is a small country, an island in the Mediterranean sea, south of Sicily (Italy), actually more than one island, but the larger ones are Malta and Gozo besides the other ones Filfla and Kemmuna (Comino). Where can one find Internet cafes in Malta? The following were mentioned by posters: [W] there are public PC terminals in the Eden Super Bowl, YMCA Cafe in Valletta, [MDS] Saddles in St Julians (on the first floor). [CM] There are also now some internetcafes along the Sliema promenade/seafront (e.g. Waves Internet C@fe);before it joins Manwel Dimech Street; another one exists in Mosta in front of the Mosta Church dome, there is a bookshop with a restaurant on top. In the restaurant there is a single PC public terminal. There is another one in Sliema in Bisazza Street. Some of them have websites and can be found a new MNR category or just search for them. Maltacom has said it will be setting up free Internet Terminals around Malta and Gozo. Where can one get public domain Maltese fonts? You may download public domain Maltese fonts in TrueType format from the new download section at Malta Network Resources ( http://www.maltanetworkresources.com/download.php ). These fonts are ISO-8859-3 standard public domain SudEuro fonts (used also for Esperanto). I know of other fonts which are non-standard and cause trouble under win95. These fonts work under windows 2000 also. The Government, according to a press release, has developed its own non-ISO standard font for use with the MAGNET network. Unfortunately this means having to have more fonts and IMHO should be discouraged (and phased out with ISO standard implementations). What is the weather in Malta like? Does it snow? It is hot in summer, over 30 degrees Celsius. It never snows in Malta. Sometimes we have hail or small ice, but that's about it. How could I find an email address in Malta? My suggestion - first try through ICQ (www.icq.com), then use the many people searches available on any portal. It is not guaranteed. Try searching usenet, if that person has posted you may find an email address. Please do not spam persons. Is there a Maltese dictionary one can buy? A poster [TV] suggested Kelmet il-Malti by Kaptan (Captain) Pawlu Bugeja, a Maltese-English-Maltese dictionary which is an Associated News book. [MS and others] There is a larger dictionary in two volumes called Maltese-English Dictionary fairly enough, by the late Professor Joseph Aquilina (the latter is the one usually recommended in schools for the last decade AFAIK). It was published by Midsea Books of Valletta. Is it true that there are no verbs in the Maltese Language? Not exactly. There is no need to write "to be" in Maltese. For instance "jien" or "jiena" (female) means "I" but it also can mean "I am". Maltese has no infinitive like in Arabic and unlike Italian and other languages (as in Italian leggere - to read). The verbal main entry in dictionaries is always the 3rd person masculine singular (rikeb meaning 'he rode' for 'to ride'). In the spoken language and in Busuttil's Maltese-English language the convention used is that of the 2nd person singular of the Imperfect (eg. tirkeb 'you ride' instead of rikeb). What is the Maltese language derived from? How many letters does the Maltese alphabet have? It contains elements of Arabic, Sicilian, Italian and English (more recent). There are words which have been Maltesized from the original English e.g. kardigan (Eng 'cardigan'); sometimes they are called English loan-words. The Maltese language has 29 letters. What is the value / exchange rate for the Maltese Lira or Pound in terms of foreign currencies such as US$, CAN$, UK stg, EURO etc? To give an rough estimate, on 9th August 2002, according to the Central Bank of Malta on local newspapers, one Maltese Lira was equivalent to: 2.4184 Euros, 2.3581 US$, 3.7120 CAN$, 1.5316 UK stg and 4.3925 AUS$. Who is the President of Malta? The President of Malta is His Excellency Dr. Guido Demarco, who was appointed on Easter Sunday 1999. Are there any Maltese Satellite channels? Can I get TVM, Net TV or Super 1 on satellite? There was a channel, a general travel channel called WWW.travel which broadcasted in digital MPEG-2 on the hotbird satellite (clear FTA transmission i.e. no cards are required). So far the Maltese tv stations which broadcast terrestrially in analogue have not begun broadcasting on satellite even though satellite owners in Malta and Gozo keep increasing exponentially. Feel free to write to these stations so that they may start broadcasting on digital satellite. Can you mention some places of interest in Valletta (capital) etc? There are a number of Museums - the War Museum, the Typewriter and Office Museum, the Toy Museum, St John's Museum, the National Museum of Fine Arts and the Manoel Theatre Museum. Apart from museums there are the popular visual multimedia shows - the Malta Experience, the War Experience, Sacred Island, The Great Siege of Malta & The Knights of St John. [MaM] There is also St John's Co-Cathedral which is a must. Do not forget to visit Mdina; Marsaxlokk (pronounced Marsashlock as x in Maltese is a sh), the Blue Grotto in Zurrieq, Dwejra in Gozo, Xewkija Church in Gozo, the Upper Barrakka in Valletta. The view from the Upper Barrakka is stupendous. You can see the grand harbour and the three cities from there. What can be seen in Mdina? [MaM] The 1st Capital on the Island, the walled city or the Silent City. In front of the Cathedral there is a large square called St Paul's Square. When you had a look at Mdina, follow the signs to either chadwick lakes -very picturesque in the winter- or to Buskett gardens also pretty in the winter. What is the Blue Grotto? [MaM] It is an absolute must see but only if the sea is calm as bowl of water. Don't do the tour when the sea is rough. One can see the beautiful colours of the water and the shadows playing on the water surface in the caves, the corals... The boats leave as soon as they are full which is about every 5 minutes. The tour usually lasts about 1/2 an hour and costs a pound (Maltese Lira) a person. Any tips on what to do in Marsaxlokk? [MaM] This is somewhere where you have to go to buy fresh fish. Once on a Sunday go to the Market. Nothing much really other than the usual rummage market with fresh fruit and vegetable stalls but the thing to see here is the fish market in the morning. Here you have all kinds of fresh fish -some still alive and kicking- Then again this depends on the sea. If the previous night there was a storm or the sea was just too rough, obviously no fishermen went out hence no fish. However, all is not lost, on Sunday at 12:00 noon, the church bells go wild! No electronics are involved, but many men ring the bells! What's the Cittadella? [MaM] It is a beautiful cathedral in Rabat, Gozo, surrounded by several little alleys. Very similar to that of Mdina. When facing the Cittadella, walk up the street going left past the Cittadella. There are lots of little souvenir shops. In some shops you can apparently order a glass of Gozo wine, a plate with tomatoes, capers, olives and cheese served with Maltese bread. Delicious and cheap. There is a hill with a beautiful statue of Jesus, it can be seen while driving in the area. Can you explain what you can see in Dwejra? [MaM] There are two things to do here, first there is the Blue Window. Very interesting, a rock shaped in an arch form out in the sea. Then there is the inland sea. if the sea is not rough, there are little fishing boats that can take you out for a couple of liri. The boats have to go through a little opening in the cliffs out to the open sea and you have a beautiful view of the cliffs. Keep a look out for one of the cliffs that is in the form of a human face! The boat driver also shows you some little caves where you can see right down to the bottom of the sea and also admire the corals growing along the cave edges. How much time does it take to see Gozo? Does one have to go before sunrise? [MaM] Gozo can be covered in less than a day so don't break your neck getting to the ferry point thinking that you have to go before sunrise! The 10am ferry will give you plenty of time to see everything as well as allow ample time to just drive through the country roads of Gozo and you can always catch the 5pm boat back. Be careful when driving, some foreign drivers in rented sometimes drive like mad in Gozo. Any hints on renting a car etc? [MaM] Don't take a car from the airport as it possibly could cost double of what you would pay outside. Try renting a car from any souvenir shop or ask the reception if the have any good offers. Or use the bus which runs all over the place and cost 11 cents for normal rides and 30 cents for the 'express buses' (this suggestion dates to 98/99) and head for Valletta. When walking through the gates, on the right hand side there is a Tourist Information Bureau and they have free leaflets of all the walking tours (Valletta, the 3 cities, Mdina, the Citadel in Gozo, etc). Where should one stay? [MaM] This depends on the individual's preferences. Bugibba/Qawra and Paceville might be places to avoid. Bugibba has plenty of promenades to walk along but otherwise has many hotels next to one another and many touristy restaurants where you can get typical English meals or expensive Maltese restaurants as an alternative. Paceville is cheap as all the bars, discos and loud clubs are in Paceville, and unless you are planning on discoing all night, you won't be getting any sleep until the last one closes at around 5am. Is there a type of glass called Mdina? [BM] It's called Mdina Glass, a traditional form of glass blowing, which is still done in the Ta' Qali crafts village (not Mdina!). [WLC] There are actually two glassware outfits at Ta' Qali Crafts village. One is called Mdina Glass. I can't remember the name of the other one. [ Does anyone know the name? Please post to the group if you know ] There is also a glassware outfit in Gozo now called Gozo Glass, which is quite different from the other two. They tend to make products which include 24K gold dust/leaf embedded in the glass and they have some very fine and unique pieces. How do you say Happy Christmas and Happy New Year in Maltese? Il-Milied it-tajjeb u s-Sena t-tajba. It's spelt incorrectly on many foreign websites, unfortunately. This is the actual spelling. What are the tourist figures for Malta? Last June 2000, 120703 tourists visited Malta, according to the Tourism Minister, and is an all-time record for Malta. What happened to the 17th Century village of "Matrice" in Gozo? Was it renamed? When? [WLC] This is a genealogical question whose reply as posted was the following. Matrice does not stand for a place. The Church was called Matrice as an entity in Gozo many centuries ago. It was responsible for keeping records of marriages, births and deaths. Marriage certificates carried the designation "Matrice" as the place where the marriage took place, rather than the location. Once the state took over the task of maintaining records, this usage of "Matrice" or Matrice village was dropped in favour of the actual place. Another meaning of "matrice" is "mother church" to a new parish. For instance St George's parish became the "matrice" to the new parish to be established at Xewkija in 1678. Where can pastizzi and other Maltese food be purchased outside of the Maltese islands? [DLB] In Toronto there are many Maltese bakeries which sell pastizzi. Any more information? Do you have the recipe for pastizzi? [SJM] A pastizzi recipe is given in the book "Taste of Malta" by Claudia M. Caruana. The ISBN is 0-7818-0524-4. The recipe is on page 59, note that the book calls them Maltese Cheesecakes which is the English translation of the word pastizzi. The book also states the recipe was adapted from Wilfred Camilleri. The recipe on Page 59 is for the cheese filling. The recipe for the pastry is on page 276. [HCG] For the pastizzi request - a recipe can be found in our book "The Food and Cookery of Malta" by Anne and Helen Caruana Galizia. Published in 1999 by Pax Books and obtainable from most Maltese bookshops or from info AT sapienzas DOT com. Can anyone give the recipe for Pastizzotti tal-Qastan? I use Anne and Helen Caruna Galizia's (a bit vague, on the sugar) and they keep coming out very dry. Ma nafx x'qed naghmel (I don't know what I'm doing) [HCG] Please advise Dave re pastizzotti tal qastan - the recipe is deliberately vague on sugar since not everyone likes things too sweet. A little fruit juice can be added to make them less dry but if he is using tinned sweetened chestnut puree he will find it moist enough. Good luck Dave. Helen Caruana Galizia Do you have other recipes? Try looking in Malta Network Resources, including under the Books section where you can find the above book through Amazon.com. Alternatively try looking in other sections of Malta Network Resources. Did Napoleon come to Malta? Yes, he stayed in Palazzo Parisio in Valletta for some days. I'm looking for information on musical instruments in Malta or in the Mediterreanean. Can you help? [S] I've discovered an amazing site in musical instruments, specialised in Oriental instruments as well. The url is http://members.tripod.com/~MEDITERRANEA_Co (broken link). Malta takes part on the Eurovision Song Festival. I can't get it on my local tv station, how could I get it on the net, or on Satellite tv? Aside from getting the official webcast or similar, you can view the German tv station ARD online at this URL: http://onlinetv.tvtoday.de/onlinetv/frameset_haupt.hbs?sender=ARD&rate=15. You can view ARD on the Hotbird satellite for free (FTA) through your digital satellite receiver. For more information see http://www.lyngsat.com. Alternatively if you subscribe to BBC PRIME (which is legal for us in Malta to do from the BBC Prime website), you can view it also (it was broadcast in 2001,2002 and 2003) with Terry Wogan's comments! A Maltese friend told me that they are celebrating the Feast of St Catherine of Alexandria in Zejtun on the 20th June. I believed this Feast Day to be November 25th. Can anyone throw any light on this? The correct feast-day is November 25th, however at Zejtun they also celebrate it on the 20th June, and is a festa. [EF] It is celebrated in June due to weather reasons mainly. This was decided around 1993-1995. [CB] Many feasts in Malta were transferred to summer months for security of weather. The Ta' Xbiex feast is the only one which takes place within the Church only, and not outside i.e. only religious ceremonies including Masses are held. What are Malta's National Holidays? The National Holidays, or Festi Nazzjonali, are the following: Freedom Day - 31st March ; Sette Giugno - 7th June; Victory Day - 8th September; Independence Day - 21st September; and Republic Day - 13th December; When was the National Anthem composed and by whom? It was composed by Dr Robert Sammut (born 1869;died 26th May 1934 in Sliema) in 1922. He was a doctor who studied at the University of Malta and carried out his postgraduate studies in Edinburgh where he was appointed professor of pathology. The lyrics are a prayer and hymn and were composed in the same year or the following one by Dun Karm Psaila. It was first heard on 3rd February 1923 and adapted officially on 27th February 1945. These dates are not official. Any official info would be appreciated. Are there any Maltese outside of Malta who are in pop and rock bands? There probably are. We know of the lead singer (Spiteri) of the popular Texas pop group, as well as [SS] Stephanie Sheri whose rock/pop band "iO" has their website at http://www.iomusic.org and has song clips. Also there are two Maltese-Australian singers who call themselves 'S2S', currently a pop sensation over in Australia. The latter were in the news in 2001. Troy Cassar is a hit singer in Australia in the field of country. According to Dj Deo on Mas Radio, the Canadian manager of the popular US singer Missy Elliot is of Maltese descent. There are more but the newsgroup is not aware of them. Please post if you know. Are there any well known Maltese living or now deceased overseas? Yes. The most popular must have been Oreste Chircop (in Hollywood) who was well known but not just among the Maltese abroad. A recent newspaper (at the time of writing) mentions Alfred Fenech as being well known among the Maltese in Toronto. He used to run tv programmes for the Maltese community for the past 30 years on a station dedicated to ethnic programmes. Some of his footage was shown on the PBS documentary series Destinazzjoni Kanada. This section is not complete, please post if you can. Are there mountains in Malta? No. We only have hills. Gozo is also known as the Island of the Three Hills. When did Malta become Independent and a Republic? Malta became Independent from the UK, on the 21st September 1964 and it became a Republic on the 13th December of 1974. Both dates are National Holidays. From the US, where can I get economical and political information on Malta? [MM] you can't go past the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) - a US based company. Their annual Tunisia & Malta Country Profile and quarterly summaries contain up-to-date information on such things as political background - international relations, armed forces; population and society - languages, education, health; currency; economy; national accounts; employment; wages and prices; agriculture and fishing; energy; manufacturing; construction; tourism; transport and communications; finance; foreign trade; external payments and debt; trade and investment regulations; everything you need to know. They also provide a selected bibliography of suggested further reading. If you want to know what's going on in the country across the board, this is the publication to read. Past reports should be available at any major library. Malta bureau of statistics also published annual reports on a variety of sectors and this may prove useful. What is Majjistral? How do you specify wind and compass directions in Maltese? The following ASCII diagram may be of some help. [JG] === | g | Majjistral Tramuntana | o | \ | | z | \ | Grigal | o | \ | / === \ | / o /\=====\ | / / \ \| / | \ |\ / | Malta \/ / ==\ / \ \ Punent --------\----- --\------------ Lvant \ \ / | \ \ / \ / | \ \ \ | \\ / \ | / \ / \ | / \ / \/ \ ./ | \ Lbic | Xlokk \|/ Nofsinhar The above names refer to compass directions as well as winds in the same directions. The names might have been derived as follows: Lbic (pron. il beach) from sicilian Libici or italian Libeccio = SW, as it is in the direction of Libya; Nofsinhar means half of the day - midday - at which time the Sun is directly overhead in the South of Malta, Xlokk from italian scirocco, Tramuntana from italian Tramonto, Grigal from italian greco, sicilian gricali, maltese Grieg (Greek) since it points towards Greece. Majjistral from sicilian Maistrali. Nofsilbic means SSW and Nofsixxlokk means SSE. MALTA and the EU section (summarised extracts from the booklet: Question and Answer on Malta and the European Union by the MIC - the Malta-EU Information Centre. Get the booklet for more information.): I feel that we Maltese do not care much about what happens outside our door. Will EU membership change this attitude? [MIC] EU membership is not a magic formula but it is like to have an impact on how we do things e.g. enforcement of laws as well as our sense of discipline. Will Maltese be an official EU language? [MIC] Yes, it will be an official EU language if Malta joins the EU. All EU laws and all EU official documents will have to be translated into the Maltese language. Maltese citizens will be able to write to EU institutions including to lodge a complaint, and expect a reply in Maltese. (End of section summarised from MIC booklet) World Factbook Information on MALTA: (section is out of date, will be updated once the world factbook website has more up-to-date info) Geography Location: Southern Europe, islands in the Mediterranean Sea, south of Sicily (Italy) Geographic coordinates: 35 50 N, 14 35 E Map references: Europe Area: total : 320 sq km land: 320 sq km water: 0 sq km Area - comparative: slightly less than twice the size of Washington, DC Land boundaries: 0 km Coastline: 140 km Maritime claims: contiguous zone: 24 nm continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation exclusive fishing zone : 25 nm territorial sea: 12 nm Climate: Mediterranean with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers Terrain: mostly low, rocky, flat to dissected plains; many coastal cliffs Elevation extremes: lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m highest point: Dingli Cliffs 245 m Natural resources: limestone, salt Land use: arable land: 38% permanent crops: 3% permanent pastures: NA% forests and woodland : NA% other: 59% (1993 est.) Irrigated land: 10 sq km (1993 est.) Natural hazards: NA Environment - current issues: very limited natural fresh water resources; increasing reliance on desalination Environment - international agreements: party to: Climate Change, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling signed, but not ratified : Biodiversity, Desertification Geography - note: the country comprises an archipelago, with only the three largest islands (Malta, Gozo, and Comino) being inhabited; numerous bays provide good harbors People Population: 377,177 (July 1997 est.) Age structure: 0-14 years : 21% (male 41,207; female 39,041) 15-64 years: 67% (male 127,553; female 126,355) 65 years and over: 12% (male 18,202; female 24,819) (July 1997 est.) Population growth rate: 0.68% (1997 est.) Birth rate: 12.47 births/1,000 population (1997 est.) Death rate: 7.34 deaths/1,000 population (1997 est.) Net migration rate: 1.65 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1997 est.) Sex ratio: at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female under 15 years : 1.06 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (1997 est.) Infant mortality rate: 7.7 deaths/1,000 live births (1997 est.) Life expectancy at birth: total population: 77.44 years male: 75.16 years female: 79.87 years (1997 est.) Total fertility rate: 1.84 children born/woman (1997 est.) Nationality: noun: Maltese (singular and plural) adjective: Maltese Ethnic groups: Maltese (descendants of ancient Carthaginians and Phoenicians, with strong elements of Italian and other Mediterranean stock) Religions: Roman Catholic 98% Languages: Maltese (official), English (official) Literacy: definition: age 10 and over can read and write total population: 88% male: 88% female: 88% (1985) Government Country name: conventional long form: Republic of Malta conventional short form: Malta Data code: MT Government type: parliamentary democracy National capital: Valletta Administrative divisions: none (administered directly from Valletta) Independence: 21 September 1964 (from UK) National holiday: Independence Day, 21 September (1964) Constitution: 1964 constitution substantially amended on 13 December 1974 Legal system: based on English common law and Roman civil law; has accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal Executive branch: chief of state: President Dr. Guido DEMARCO (since 4 April 1999) head of government : Prime Minister Dr. Eddie FENECH ADAMI (since 1998) cabinet : Cabinet appointed by the president on the advice of the prime minister elections: president elected by the House of Representatives for a five-year term; election last held 1998 election data: see http://www.maltanetworkresources.com/elections.html for details and links Judicial branch: Constitutional Court, judges are appointed by the president on the advice of the prime minister; Court of Appeal, judges are appointed by the president on the advice of the prime minister Political parties and leaders: Nationalist Party or NP [Edward FENECH ADAMI]; Malta Labor Party or MLP [Alfred SANT] International organization participation: C, CCC, CE, EBRD, ECE, EU (applicant), FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO (correspondent), ITU, NACC (observer), NAM, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO Diplomatic representation in the US: chief of mission: Ambassador Albert Borg Olivier DE PUGET chancery: 2017 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008 telephone: [1] (202) 462-3611, 3612 FAX : [1] (202) 387-5470 consulate(s): New York Diplomatic representation from the US: chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Charles N. PATTERSON, Jr. embassy: 2nd Floor, Development House, Saint Anne Street, Floriana, Malta mailing address: P. O. Box 535, Valletta telephone : [356] 235960 FAX: [356] 223322 Flag description: two equal vertical bands of white (hoist side) and red; in the upper hoist-side corner is a representation of the George Cross, edged in red Economy Economy - overview: Significant resources are limestone, a favorable geographic location, and a productive labor force. Malta produces only about 20% of its food needs, has limited freshwater supplies, and has no domestic energy sources. The economy is dependent on foreign trade, industry (especially electronics and textiles), and tourism; the state-owned Malta drydocks employs about 3,800 people. In 1995, over 1.1 million tourists visited the island. Per capita GDP of $12,600 places Malta in the range of the less affluent EU countries. The island is divided politically over the question of joining the EU. GDP: purchasing power parity - $4.7 billion (1996 est.) GDP - real growth rate: 4% (1996 est.) GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $12,600 (1996 est.) GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 5% industry: 34% services : 61% (1995 est.) Inflation rate - consumer price index: 3% (1996) Labor force: total : 148,085 (September 1996) by occupation: public services 37%, other services 28%, manufacturing and construction 25%, agriculture 2% (1995 est.) Unemployment rate: 3.7% (September 1996) Budget: revenues : $1.66 billion expenditures: $1.69 billion, including capital expenditures of $633 million (1996 est.) Industries: tourism; electronics, ship building and repair, construction; food and beverages, textiles, footwear, clothing, tobacco Industrial production growth rate: -5% (1996 est.) Electricity - capacity: 405,000 kW (1994) Electricity - production: 1.41 billion kWh (1994) Electricity - consumption per capita: NA kWh Agriculture - products: potatoes, cauliflower, grapes, wheat, barley, tomatoes, citrus, cut flowers, green peppers; pork, milk, poultry, eggs Exports: total value: $1.9 billion (f.o.b., 1995) commodities: machinery and transport equipment, clothing and footware, printed matter partners: Italy 32%, Germany 16%, UK 8% Imports: total value: $3 billion (c.i.f., 1995) commodities: food, petroleum, machinery and semimanufactured goods partners: Italy 27%, Germany 14%, UK 13%, US 9% Debt - external: $134 million (1996) Economic aid: recipient: ODA, $NA Currency: 1 Maltese lira (LM) = 100 cents Exchange rates: (see above for RECENT values) Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March Communications Telephones: 191,876 (1992 est.) Telephone system: automatic system satisfies normal requirements domestic: submarine cable and microwave radio relay between islands international : 2 submarine cables; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) Radio broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 9, shortwave 0 Radios: 189,000 (1992 est.) Television broadcast stations: 4 (1996 est.) Televisions: 300,000 (1996 est.) Transportation Railways: 0 km Highways: total : 1,582 km paved: 1,471 km unpaved: 111 km (1993 est.) Ports and harbors: Marsaxlokk, Valletta Merchant marine: total : 1,128 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 18,806,358 GRT/31,554,713 DWT ships by type: bulk 314, cargo 353, chemical tanker 32, combination bulk 27, combination ore/oil 13, container 43, liquefied gas tanker 2, livestock carrier 1, multifunction large-load carrier 3, oil tanker 224, passenger 7, passenger-cargo 3, railcar carrier 1, refrigerated cargo 31, roll-on/roll-off cargo 37, short-sea passenger 22, specialized tanker 3, vehicle carrier 12 note: a flag of convenience registry; includes ships from 46 countries among which are Greece 478, Croatia 52, Switzerland 48, Russia 46, Italy 44, Norway 37, Turkey 28, Germany 23, UK 22, and Ukraine 20 (1996 est.) Airports: 1 (1996 est.) Airports - with paved runways: total: 1 over 3,047 m : 1 (1996 est.) Military Military branches: Armed Forces, Maltese Police Force Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49 : 99,032 (1997 est.) Military manpower - fit for military service: males: 78,710 (1997 est.) Military expenditures - dollar figure: $65.5 million (FY96/97) Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 2.7% (FY96/97) Contributors to the FAQ The following people have made posted or emailed contributions to this FAQ and alt.culture.malta newsgroup. Special thanks goes to them. If you have any corrections, suggestions, additions, subtractions etc, please contact the author as specified below. Emails have been omitted to avoid them being picked up by spambots. Should you prefer to have your email listed, kindly let me know. Charles Borg Eric Flask Jeremy Mark Micallef Mark D. Spiteri Maria Sciriha Mona (amina) Mestary Shawn J. Micallef Stephanie Sheri Tony Vella Wilfred L. Camilleri Blot123Man Helen Caruana Galizia Joe Galea and all sources mentioned above, as well as anyone else I forgot to mention. --- end of FAQ document --- This document is (C) Clyde Meli 1996-2003 who is the FAQ maintainer and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the author. Archival at rtfm.mit.edu and www.faqs.org permission given. The author is not responsible for any advice given in postings. You may print the faq for your personal use, including for usage in schools provided it is kept intact and you must tell people where to find updated versions of it (what newsgroups it appears in). The FAQ author has not used all the services mentioned and cannot vouch for their accuracy or correctness. Replies to this email address will go to an autoresponder to cut spam and will NOT be read. <to contact me please message mnr @ www.maltanetworkresources.com - Malta Network Resources> 
