More bollocks from Astrid
Here’s Astrid Vella, talking bollocks again on timesofmalta.com, complete with island as a proper noun. I suppose her degree in English was as useful as her diploma in baroque studies. ‘Your party’? Thanks for confirming that you’re anti-Nationalist, Astrid. Not that we needed telling, given your antics.
And David Friggieri? Chi e?
Gejja bil-freedom fighting. Twenty-three years too bloody late, I’m afraid.
Astrid Vella (2 hours, 1 minute ago)
The fact is, Daphne, that you seem to be among those on this Island who cannot abide the thought that the public has a right to have a say when that opinion crosses your party, as befits a democratic country and according to our rights of public participation enshrined in the Aarhus Convention and the relevant EU Directive.
That is the reason why the St John’s decision taken, incidentally, not by FAA but by the Prime Minister and the Arhbishop, has unleashed this campaign to discredit FAA at all costs. If we had objected to the St George’s Square project, you would no doubt have accused us of blocking all development projects, as you have in the past.
As David Friggieri said in his column this Sunday: “It is an indictment of a country which believes that it is free but whose people are still held hostage by fear. Even worse perhaps, it is an indictment of a people who continue to think that it is inevitable for everyone (including the freest of free thinkers) to sacrifice free thought on the altar of political allegiance and expediency.”
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Daphne is a Statist, Astrid. She believes in the omnipotence of the State and its self-serving executive. For her, democracy is a privilege meted out once every five years and the choice should be no other than between Establishment Clique A and Establishment Clique B.
[Daphne – Actually, Kev. I’m not. I believe in the rule of allow and in allowing institutions to do their work. Those institutions shore up and guarantee democracy. Outsides, anarchy and corruption lie – and we experienced them.]
That’s exactly what I said in different words.
I know I’m late in my comments, but I just read this posting. I’m quite intrigued by David’s comments about: “a country which believes that it is free but whose people are still held hostage by fear”. Strange comment coming from the offspring of the head of the Censorship Board. Quite ironic, don’t you think?
The gist of what HRH Astrid is trying to say is that everyone has a right for an opinion. Correct. If memory serves me right, it was Peter Serracino Inglott who once said that the right to have an opinion brings with it the responsibility to inform yourself of the facts (or words to that effect).
FAA work the other way round. First they form an opinion and then use the media to shape and twist “fact” to conform with that opinion. Then they are joined by AD, James Tyrell and anyone else for whom it is politically convenient give them a helping hand in the misinformation campaign.
[Daphne – Actually, the right in question is the right to express an opinion, not to have one. We form our opinions in the enclosed privacy of our minds, and other people can’t possibly have any control over that, no more than we do. If you see a beautiful woman, I imagine that you immediately form the opinion that she is beautiful, before you can help yourself. But I agree with the rest of it – FAA are the quintessence of power without responsibility.]
Agreed. I rephrase. The right to express one’s opinion on an issue brings with it the duty to inform oneself properly on that issue. Incidentally, Labour also gave a helping hand in FAA’s misinformation campaign. This is what Roderick Galdes had to say on 31st July 2008: ” Among the worrying factors are the very stability of St John’s Co-Cathedral as well as underground historic remains.”