Indiana Jones and the Temple of Hogwash

Astrid and friends have discovered the old drainage system beneath St George’s Square. The amazing discovery was made by public works employees last Tuesday, acting on the advice and guidance of FAA and its B-movie tag-line ‘Who knows what lies beneath?’.

The discovery has been heralded as a triumph for civil society, the words ‘civil society’ having become interchangeable, in the vocabulary of Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar, with its own acronym.

Somebody please tell this woman and her friend Francesca Meilaq, who thinks that all tapestries were made by Gobelins and that all underground museums face the same problems as Egyptian desert tombs, that the drains have been there for the last 450 years and everybody with one brain cell jigging about in his skull knew about them. Why? Because the presence of drains beneath a city built by command in the late 16th century is taken for granted, especially when that city was built by a military order with a military purpose and using military engineers. Many people knew exactly What Lay Beneath even if civil society did not. Let’s put it this way, I don’t need to dig up the lane leading to my house to prove to myself that drains Lie Beneath. And if some farmer accidentally digs through one, my reaction will not be: “Wow, drains! I knew it! What a discovery.”

The drains were not ‘discovered’ (and certainly not by people as full of shit as they once were). They have been uncovered. The two words have different meanings, but a bachelor’s degree in English is as nothing when there is misinformation to be spread.

From the news reports:

“Archaeological studies in St George Square, Valletta have revealed an undocumented network of tunnels which possibly connect to the Palace. They were discovered on Tuesday.”

“The FAA had pointed out the existence of the passageway during a meeting with Rural Affairs and Resources Minister George Pullicino, who briefed the organisation on the square’s embellishment plans.”