Island ‘contradictions’ and Heritage

I will have the honour of participating in the 2nd Island Dynamics Conference in Valletta, Malta May 11-15, 2011. My presentation will of course focus on island heritage. The presentation, Neighbours: ‘distances apart’: Comparing heritage tourism in Jamaica and Cuba will bring to the fore the long-standing thinking that, “each small economy is unique”.  

Open-air museum embraces 7,000 years of history

I couldn’t think of a more ideal location to debate this issue because the island of Malta reflects the variances and contradictions of these small land masses. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea the Maltese archipelago consists of three islands- Malta, Gozo, and Comino. Together the islands are home to an estimated 400,000 inhabitants. Malta is the largest of the three islands.

Naturally, I have been reading all I can on Malta. According to the official tourism site for the islands, Malta is the cultural, commercial and administrative hub of the archipelago; Gozo offers a diversity of natural experiences to include fishing and agriculture, while Comino is largely uninhabited.  

Having always been drawn to the concept of the open air museum, I was struck by the fact that these islands have been so categorized, with Malta alone promising 7,000 years of history! This I’m excited about!  Already I have a ‘feel’ of the island through the array of photographs that can be viewed at http://www.visitmalta.com/the-maltese-islands

 

The Singapore Contradiction

The images and the general data on Malta make for interesting reading. But as I suggested at the start Malta contradicts what we know and understand  about small islands and the vulnerabilities they face. It mirrors islands like Singapore in Asia; and Barbados in the Caribbean, which reflect high standards of living. I’m sure you would have heard about the Singapore Contradiction, which argues that the success of islands like Singapore “was achieved in spite of and not because of their small size and insularity”.

Despite their vulnerabilities some islands often out-perform their developing and developed country counterparts in various aspects of development, chief among them human development. A look at the Human Development Index (HDI) in recent years demonstrates the point. 

Island 'contradictions' and Heritage

Valletta: View from the sea

Intangibles on show: Umbrella Lace Market

In relation to heritage, there are islands that have managed to comfortably conserve and safeguard their heritage assets to position them as powerful players in regional and global heritage. Malta boasts three sites on the World Heritage List, including the city of Valletta. From all indications, the island is taking advantage of the prestigious listings. Importantly, however, these islands have managed to shape strong communities seeped in cultural appreciation and knowledge as a direct result of the value (including investments) placed on heritage. 

Merchant Street in Valletta is home to the famous St.Catherine of Italy Church

That ‘each small economy is unique’ is a truism I hope to demonstrate in my own presentation on Jamaica and Cuba. I suspect that it will also be brought into sharp focus from simply being in Malta.

God willing, come May 11-15 you can look forward to daily postings about the Island Dynamics Conference, and of course the breath-taking sites of Malta right here, and from the main hub http://www.islanddynamics.org/blog.html. I hope to leave that experience having a fuller understanding of the ‘contradictions’ that pervade island heritage. 

Photographs courtesy of  Malta Tourism Authority www.viewingmalta.com