Mob rule, the tal-pepe way
The foundation which runs the cathedral has withdrawn its plans for an underground museum. I have been indifferent to these plans from the start (quite unlike my view of the plans for the bomb-site, which is very strong) so whether they came to fruition or not was neither here nor there to me. I just don’t care, and commonsense tells me that neither the Catholic Church nor the government is going to risk a situation in which the cathedral collapses. But obviously, a couple of howling people from Sliema with no background in civil engineering know better.
I rather suspect that the vast majority of people don’t care either, and that they have the same sort of trust as I do in the judgment of those who run the cathedral. Given a choice between Astrid Vella’s opinion on the matter and Monsignor Philip Calleja’s, I’m going to take the monsignor’s word any day. After all, he knows a hell of a lot more than Mrs Vella does, and has a far higher credibility rating among those who have credibility themselves.
It is evidence of the sheer brainlessness of several of those behind this campaign that they fail to realise they are slandering Monsignor Calleja (and the others on the foundation, but his case is a particular one because he ‘belongs’ to the church) when they state as fact that he is about to imperil the cathedral and desecrate its non-existent graveyard. The graves took a direct hit in World War II, and when the architect Roger de Giorgio cleared out the site, the few bones that were found were put aside. But have you been told this? No. Astrid & Co are depicting it as though whole knights lie still in their armour a few inches beneath the tiles, in a structure that is post-WWII. Were you told that shops lined that side of the churchyard until the bombs came? No, of course you weren’t. In a campaign of this nature, truth is the first casualty.
As invariably happens in situations of escalating hysteria, those who are calm and sensible are drowned out by the screaming and shouting of a very vociferous minority. In this case, the minority is strictly tal-pepe (I can tell you the names on that petition before reading it; they’re among the reasons I hardly go out any more) and so it has a sense of entitlement and a particularly loud voice, besides good networks and access to the English-language media. You think there are loads of them but really there aren’t. They’re just very, very loud and very, very determined. And when you come from that kind of background, ‘everyone’ means only your social networks, as in ‘everyone is going to that party’, when we were younger and cared about such things. “Everyone is against the project,” somebody told me today. “No, they aren’t,” I said. “My home help doesn’t know who the blazes the FAA is and couldn’t care less about the project.” But of course, her opinion wouldn’t count to that bunch up there on their high horses.
I can say that, of course, because I come from the same sort of background. I just don’t think the same way because my horizons are a little wider than the Sliema front or the Valletta cathedral, and I have deliberately and systematically detached myself from that sector of society because I just couldn’t take it anymore. The urge to shoot myself in the head after yet another round of vapid chattering had become overwhelming. Also, I do have something of an academic background in the field – not much to speak of, but a damn sight more than the screamers and the shouters, one of whom believed until fairly recently that there was a baroque house in Sliema, a town which dates back no further than the mid-19th century, and who brandished a map of the fort on Tigne peninsula to prove that yes, there were houses there in the 18th century.
Round where I live, nobody cares two hoots about the St John’s museum, and the names Astrid Vella and Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar don’t ring any bells. That is reality. But it is not the reality depicted in the media. The people are not divided over the project as the archbishop said. The people don’t give a damn. Some people, on the other hand, are on a mission. People who don’t give a damn don’t open their mouths. People who are on a mission never shut them. The archbishop is not against the project, as Mrs Vella cheekily misinterprets his words today. He is against the division he thinks that the project is causing. And quite frankly, Mrs Vella and her gaggle of Sliema types – believe me, they all share the same social profile, which makes it so very risible that they have tumbled into Joseph Muscat’s lap – are the chief agents of that perceived division.
I imagine that Mrs Vella will now rush to play the martyr because she is being criticised – for the very first time, though countless people have been gritting their teeth and restraining themselves while she whines and flounces across our television screens and stomps on every development project from the smallest house to the largest cathedral, spouting nonsense and convinced that it is perfectly acceptable for somebody without a popular mandate to whip out of her kitchen and into the forum, there to begin hijacking the role of democratic institutions like some kind of miniature Stalin. It is a sign of her amateurishness that she doesn’t understand how criticism, and even opprobrium at times, come with the territory.
So if I don’t care about the project, why am I so worried about the implications of what has just happened? Simple – as somebody who espouses liberal values and who grew up in a quasi-dictatorship governed on the principles of mob rule, with institutions either disbanded or disparaged, I have a great deal of respect for the democratic process, for institutions which are there to guard us against the ‘decisions’ of the mob, for correct procedure, and for civilised debate that isn’t rooted in lies or half-truths. And I absolutely detest personality cults in organisations. The last thing we need is another Vince Farrugia. How many people can put a face to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and to Din L-Art Helwa? But Astrid Vella and Vince Farrugia have higher profiles than the organisations they are supposed to be working for.
So while I was wholly indifferent to the project, I am in no way indifferent to the crumbling of democratic and institutional procedures and their substitution by what I can only call mob rule. There was an entire procedural system still to be got through before the project was either approved or thrown out, but we never got to that stage because the mob intervened. Mobs do not have to be equipped with chains and lorries. The unifying factor between the mob rule under which my generation was raised, and the mob rule organised by groups like Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar is this: no respect for institutions and no respect for the democratic process by which these decisions are taken. Democracy does not mean shouting so loud that your voice overpowers the rest.
Do you know what I thought of, when I read Astrid Vella’s mindless remarks as quoted on www.timesofmalta.com this afternoon? That infamous interview which our then prime minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici gave to The Sunday Telegraph back in the mid-1980s: “We don’t need law courts in Malta because we have people’s courts. The people will decide.” Indeed. Mrs Vella is on record as saying, during a television programme, that we don’t need environmental impact assessments because they are flawed. Presumably, we don’t need the Malta Environmental and Planning Authority, either, because we have Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar. And we don’t need civil engineers, too, because Mrs Vella can tell just by looking at it that St John’s Cathedral will collapse if a space is created beneath the square outside its main door.
Now she says that her organisation has “saved” St John’s “for Malta and the world”, from “danger”. Without an EIA, without geological investigation, without qualifications in civil engineering, she has made that danger not a risk that has yet to be assessed, if it exists at all, but a certainty. And of course, what is implied here is that people like the immensely respected Monsignor Philip Calleja was criminally and willfully intent on bringing about the collapse of the cathedral.
There is another thing that is absolutely infuriating: the loss of that EUR14 million in EU funds. Lots of people wrongly believe that funds are ‘given’ to Malta. No, they’re not. Funds are made available to Malta, but organisations in Malta must then apply for them through a rigorous process. The St John’s Cathedral Foundation applied for those funds and its application was approved. Now that the project has collapsed under the weight of Astrid Vella, the funds will not go to some other project. They will go to no one and nothing, unless some organisation gets its act together and comes up with a project. Perhaps Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar might wish to apply for the funds to build its own headquarters, from which to begin running the country with its people’s court.
But I wish to reserve all further comment for my column this Sunday. So watch that space.
74 Comments Comment
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Seconded.
Oh bravo, Daphne. Perfectly put, but she’s triumphed again, unfortunately. What Mrs Vella fails to mention is that it is her family constructed the first high-rise in Ghar Il-Lembi, and as far as I have been informed, she lives in this same high-rise. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. So now a small mob of pepati will rule Malta’s development. Might as well give them MEPA. There are grown men in MEPA, even in government, who are scared shitless of Astrid and the FAA. Shame on them, for not having the wherewithal.
But again I cannot condone you equating Vince Farrugia with Astrid. I believe she used to work for him at some point, and he doesn’t like her or her methods. Vince is not building any personality cult. It’s the way the GRTU works that puts him in the limelight.
But otherwise, spot on for the rest of the article.
[Daphne – I hardly think Astrid should carry the can for her family’s decision to have their house turned into a block of flats. She had nothing to do with it. But I agree that it weakens one’s credibility to fight against Sliema flats from a Sliema flat.]
We have just messed up an opportunity to create another landmark. Valletta needs fresh ideas and creative thinking to make it more attractive day and night and to place it firmly as a European city worth visiting for more reasons than an architectural museum.
Citing a petition with 1,500 names (out of 400,000 people) as evidence of a split country is so pathetic – that is 0.375% of the population. Even Norman Lowell did better than that.
It’s just a pity that the prime minister and the archbishop bowed to the FAA – they should have let the process proceed and a natural, informed decision would have been taken.
The Astrid Vellas of the world will now turn their attention to the opera house site and God help us when Renzo Piano reveals his plans which doubtless Astrid and her mob will decree as being unacceptable (to them).
This is something on which I can agree with you, Daphne. I used to work for a few months, a while ago, at the cathedral and so had the run of the place. The beautiful treasures that are inside and can’t be fully appreciated because of lack of space is astounding. The capella ardente is literally being eaten by termites. Ihope they have restored it in the meantime or at least have a plan to do so. And the way the tapestries are showcased is tragic.
I’m not particularly religious, agnostic to be truthful, but the most beautiful mass I have ever been to is the 9am Latin one on Sunday. I know this may sound strange coming from me, but having a full choir singing beautifully, the organ, some 15 altar boys and eight priests in those surroundings is a truly astounding experience.
[Daphne – I know what you mean because I haven’t been to mass (except weddings, funerals and the like) for the last 22 years or so, but when I am in a city with a spectacular cathedral I do my best to go to at least one mass with all the bells and trimmings, for the aesthetic experience.]
Yes, sometimes they do put on a good show, all that pomp and circumstance kind of thing!
It sometimes baffles me, how some people in this country seem to transform themselves instantly from ordinary members of the ordinary public to some sort of perceived authority about a particular subject.
At what stage precisely did Astrid Vella become Malta’s Florence Nightingale of the environment, and with what and whose authority does the woman talk?
This particular issue really didn’t make me hot or cold, but the arrogant I-know-it-all attitude displayed by Ms. Vella only reinforces my view that environmentalists and their opinions should be treated with great scepticism. Nine times out of ten, they are against any sort of development of whatever scale or nature, leading me to believe that they form part of that category of people who are great at opposing anything that moves, but hopeless at creating anything useful themselves.
Back to today’s news, I nominate Joseph Muscat kissing Astrid Vella on both cheeks before entering Parliament as the most touching moment of the year so far! Xi hlew, Michelle is going to be so jealous!
I found this article very interesting, not least because Astrid Vella is an old and good friend of mine.
When she set up FAA, she invited me to join, but I refused most emphatically, pointing out that I can never agree with other people telling me what to do with my own property. I regard ownership as a sacrosanct right which can only be interfered with in extremely limited circumstances.
We agreed to disagree on this matter and we remain good friends to this day. She’s actually a reasonable and intelligent person with an excellent sense of humour, not the would-be dictator you try to portray her as.
There’s a lot of truth in your article, but once again you overstate your case. I don’t think she’ll play the martyr, nor would I go as far as to call her a miniature Stalin. If, as Xaghra says, she only has 0.375% of the population behind her, the other 99.625% must be pretty ‘sin cojones’ to let her and her mob ride roughshod over them. Now there’s a frightening thought – all it takes is a ‘mob’ of 1,500 ‘pepati’ to rule Malta from the streets.
As John McEnroe used to say, you can not be serious!
[Daphne – But that’s precisely it, Tim: class distinction. Nobody would have taken any notice of 1,500 factory workers led by a chap from the union. Why does my voice carry that much more weight? I hate to say it, but it’s for the same reasons, though I also do my best to be rational. The last time I criticised Astrid ever so mildly, she sent a very challenging email in to this blog, which I failed to publish to save her embarrassment. Now I don’t care, as quite frankly, I’ve had enough. Intelligence is useless without disciplined thinking, and on this one (as on many others, but I’ll let those pass) she’s all over the shop. There are so many flaws in her arguments that they can be spotted at 20 paces. But the one that upsets me most of all is the flaw that says we should bypass the democratic and institutional process and go straight to Astrid and her petitions. As I said, I don’t care about the museum either way, but I do care that decisions about specialised projects are made by people who know nothing about them. Now they’re all chuntering on about ‘using a palazzo’ to hang the tapestries in. Have any of these fools actually seen the tapestries? I’d like to see the palazzo in which they could hang – all two storeys of them. And whose palazzo? A palazzo owned by somebody else, who might not wish to have it requistioned or forcibly sold? Ridiculous suggestion no. 2: hanging the tapestries in the cathedral. That’s right – in all that light and with half a million people walking past them every year, causing them to decay at speed. Stalinist, yes: it is a trait of totalitarianism and communism to present the views of the common man as being equal to, if not superior to, those of specialists. If I want to know about risks to the cathedral, I am not going to consult Astrid Vella, with her degree in English and her 30-year career as a housewife. I will consult a specialist. And if I want to know about the technicalities of an underground museum for tapestries, I will consult a museologist who specialises in tapestries, not Astrid’s sidekick Helen Tomkins. I am not comfortable living in a society in which the views of semi-literate people, uninformed politicians and bored housewives about an underground museum project are elevated in value above those of museologists, geologists, civil engineers, art historians, architects, and the rest of the army of specialists that would need to work on an assessment of something like this. For the record, Tim, when Astrid asked me to join her association, I gave her EXACTLY the same reply you did. Surely you can see that there is something intrinsically totalitarian about somebody who sets up an organisation to tell other people what they may and may not do with their property. Incidentally, unlike you I don’t think she’s intelligent; she just knows how to work the system, like that one who was kissing her on the cheeks outside parliament this evening.]
The quality of the comments to this post have just rendered this blog superfluous.
[Daphne – Gerald, why do you have to be so opaque?]
Just a small point; isn’t this another spectacular u-turn by our PM?
[Daphne – No. It was a spectacular damage limitation exercise. What did I say before the last election? That the real coalition was always going to be between Labour and AD, because they’re the ones who just can’t get the meaning of liberalism, and their socialist approach permeates everything except attitudes to immigrants. FAA and its ‘environmentalists’ (for which read people who live in flats in Sliema) are essentially socialist. By this I don’t mean they support Labour, though Joseph Muscat loves them. I mean they think like socialists: no respect for procedure, mob rule, and rights of veto over what other people do with THEIR property.]
And when one reads this article it is difficult to fathom the opinion posed that you are ‘indifferent’ to proceedings. It’s just another biased attack against someone who at last takes on the PN and exposes them for what they really are; a corrupt, institutionally decadent party who have been in government for way too long.
[Daphne – No Gerald. If you read through my articles, you will discover that I have never written one saying that I love the museum project or don’t love it. On the other hand, I have written reams about the opera house bomb-site. Unlike you, I happen to know Mrs Vella’s competences (talking) and work experience (none) and quite frankly, she is no more qualified to tell us what to do with our homes, our property and our museum projects than the next stay-at-home mum looking for something to keep her busy now that the children have grown up. If I want to know about the stability of the cathedral, am I going to consult Mrs Zammit up the road? Damn right, I’m not. I know civil engineers who won’t hazard an opinion because, as professionals, they must first investigate the situation.]
I very much doubt Astrid’s and FAA’s influence for this backtracking. One of course can only speculate as to why this project is now history but it is certainly a politician’s job to put everything in the scales and aim for the equilibrium. Moving ahead seemed to push things beyond the balancing point but if public opinion was divided on the matter, then its net effect would have been zero. So I think it’s only coincidental that the outcome is in line with the opposition to the project.
On their part, the PM, the Archbishop and the St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation showed that they are capable of challenging their own initiatives and take strategic decisions which go contrary to their seemingly original position. Far from being a weakness, this is first-class leadership.
[Daphne – On your last point, I agree. On your first point, I don’t. Neither Joseph Muscat nor certain individuals within the Nationalist Party would have bothered taking up the matter of the museum had they not perceived the chance for, in the first case, opportunistic partisan advancement and, in the second cases, the opportunity to get their own back for perceived wrongs (two MPs who expected to be appointed to a cabinet post and weren’t) and the chance for redemption (Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando). The opportunity presented itself, gift-wrapped, in the chaos created by the FAA. Politics is always about wheels within wheels. We have lost all sense of perspective when we fail to realise that this is a blessed museum we are talking about, not EU membership. What Joseph Muscat and Astrid Vella have effectively done between them is bypass MEPA as the adjudicator on major projects. From now on, every project that the FAA is going to pick on is going to go through a repeat of what we have just seen, with Muscat jumping on the bandwagon using parliament to approve or reject projects (a return to the past) and individuals on the government side playing the hero as and when it suits them. And the court of public opinion – ha – will decide. I’m sorry, but it’s too close to a return to the 1980s for my taste. I’m not of the view that just because they come from my social background they’re OK, but thugs and hamalli doing the same thing would have been scary. But yes, it is first-class leadership. Alfred Sant went through pretty much the same thing in 1998, over a yacht marina project, and look what happened.]
Gerald
“Just a small point; isn’t this another spectacular u-turn by our PM?”
Why? What does the PM have to do with this? I have never heard or read that he expressed an opinion one way or another. All he ever said was that MEPA should decide on a project that was not even a government one.
[Daphne – Antoine, how can you expect to find facts or commonsense in a national panic over a – deep breath here – museum? As one of my sons pointed out this afternoon, it’s funny that the very same people who are agitating for a museum to be built on the opera house site are agitating against a museum under St John’s Square.]
Hey guys, who’s talking about Astrid winning her case or the Labour party stopping the project? For goodness sake, there were a few rebels on the government side who could have embarrassed the PM, if the issue came to the vote, which would have possibly put us all in the ”schiesen housen” (Andrea please correct), so Gonzi, rightly so, decided against going into a battle he could possibly lose. And the church helped save the government from getting a lot of stick. Goes with the job. Next battle: the new parliament building.
[Daphne – And why did the Opposition call for a debate on a museum in parliament? Because it saw the chaos being caused by the FAA. Then the axe-grinders on the government side saw it as the perfect opportunity to grind those axes, ‘with the backing of the people’. And Joseph Muscat thought that the prime minister would come to the same grief as Alfred Sant in the summer of 1998, not being the most amazing judge of character.]
Daphne, like you, I didn’t have an opinion on this project, precisely because I do not happen to be an expert on such matters and neither the proponents nor the opponents were putting across information that could help interested members of the public form an informed opinion. Astrid & her clan were making a lot of noise but saying nothing of substance while Mons. Calleja & his clan did not publish any expert reports which I would expect one to have made before proposing a EUR14 million project on a site of such national importance.
I agree with you in principle that decisions over such projects should be made by institutions that are competent to do so. But the truth is, MEPA has such a poor track record that it has lost its credibility. Hideous blocks of tiny apartments that no one wants to buy – let alone live in – that have been erected in recent years in the place of decent houses in formerly pretty residential areas stand as a monument to MEPA’s lack of competence. Of course, you can do what you like with your property, but some respect to the surrounding landscape is to be expected. MEPA failed miserable in guaranteeing this and has become irrelevant in the minds of many as a result.
This is why people like Astrid Vella can carry on the way they do.
[Daphne – I am in complete agreement that the essential problem is lack of trust in the MEPA, but the solution is not to replace the MEPA with a bunch of loud tal-pepe housewives with no training or academic background and their ‘people’s court’. The solution is to agitate for stricter procedures at the MEPA. If the thought of having cases decided by the MEPA is worrisome, then how much more worrisome is thought of having projects approved by a kangaroo court made up of know-nothings? Am I the only one thinking just how deliciously ironic it is that the FAA was depending on Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s support to have the project undermined by parliament?
The tragedy is that this is a case of ignorant people with no experience screeching loud enough to drown out the sound of far more credible organisations. Does anybody out there on this blog know what Din L-Art Helwa’s view of the St John’s project is? That’s right, you couldn’t hear for the sound of Astrid Vella drowning out Martin Galea and Martin Scicluna in the rudest manner possible. No one can accuse Din L-Art Helwa of being unreliable or in the government’s pocket. It’s spoken out clearly against several projects, and has unparalleled credibility. THE heritage organisation with decades of expertise in these matters tentatively favoured the project, based on the outcome of technical studies. That’s the approach any sensible person had to take, rather than taking a decision along the same lines as the crowd yelling before Pontius Pilate.
Has anyone asked Patrimonju Malti? Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna? No, just Astrid Vella, Helen Tomkins (who calls herself Caruana Galizia to give herself clout, a name that is on none of her identification papers) and the rest. I am living in my idea of a nightmare: a place controlled by Sliema housewives with nothing better to do, when I work so hard to escape all that.]
You can’t dismiss “the court of public opinion” and advocate deomcracy in the same brain. They are 2 facets of the same “entity”. Which is why the jury in a “trial by jury” is made up of “ordinary” people. It’s what you get when you let people decide. “If I can decide who leads the country I can also decide who does what to whom.”
Illogical, granted, but that’s democracy for you. Admittedly, the alternatives are scary.
[Daphne – You have answered your own question. The people, through the democratic process, vest decision-making capabilities in those institutions which are the cornerstones of democracy. The Labour government, in the period 1971 to 1987, systematically undermined or dissolved these institutions and transferred power to ‘the court of public opinion’ (and we all know what that meant). What we have seen happening now is a return to this process. A small mob of people looking for a purpose in life has tapped into public dissatisfaction with the way the MEPA operates, and has positioned itself as the alternative ‘court of public opinion’, using the difficult situation in parliament to have projects stopped. The move away from having parliament accept or reject projects, and the transfer of these powers to a specialised authority was a good one. The problem is that many people do not have faith in that process. How much less faith, therefore, should they have in a rag-tag ‘people power’ group? Having grown up in the 1970s and 1980s, I find ‘people power’ groups pretty scary, with or without chains. I don’t think they’re OK just because they’re not a bunch of ‘hamalli’. This is the first time that it has happened with a government project, but it has been going on for years. The country has missed out on several investment projects worth tens of millions and hundreds of jobs because they have been derailed by people like this, claiming to speak for everyone.]
What worries me about all this is that, from now on, this bunch (PL, AD, FAA, PN backbenchers who are out for the kill) will think that they can kidnap any kind of development going on, and get away with it.
[Daphne – That’s exactly what I’m saying. The blind stupidity of the crowd knows no bounds. They have effectively handed over the veto on every single project presented by private investors and the government to a Sliema housewife, a couple of piqued PN backbenchers and Joseph Muscat. And they call that ‘people power’. Any private investment company thinking of developing a yacht marina, for example, can kiss its plans goodbye. It was already going to be difficult before. Now, it’s impossible. And while that bunch at the FAA derail investment worth millions, which we need more than ever in the current climate, they invest nothing, spend nothing, create no jobs, and live in their Sliema qamel bubble oblivious to what is going on in the rest of the country.]
Excellent article. The same argument holds for most if not all NGOs. They have no mandate and no knowledge to back them, just their own conviction.
Most of the members in these NGOs are the same people giving the impression that there are many organisations lobbying for a cause. The ones that bother me most are the so called environmentalists. These manage to influence policies based on non-scientific principles. But the ones that really make me flip are those which lobby for abandoned animals. Due to their interference no one can take any concrete action to rid the island of the pests roaming the streets.
[Daphne – I wouldn’t put all NGOs in the same ‘keffa’. Some have very high credibility and for very good reasons. But I agree that the environmentalists are just too much, for the reason that they seem unable to distinguish between various levels of importance and don’t seem to know the meaning of opportunity cost. Abandoned animals: I have my own views on that. Most of the people who do this kind of work are well meaning and very kind, and some of them do good work with nice, clean compounds. Others – I have one particular individual in mind – are questionable, apparently. I don’t believe that dogs should be kept in compounds, but that’s not because I think they are ‘pests’. It’s because I rather like them, and know how they suffer psychologically in that kind of situation. They’re better off dead, really. Putting them down humanely is the answer if a family home can’t be found for them. Dogs like the company of humans, not of other dogs.]
@Tony Pace
Bath, bathroom, latrine, lavatory, rest room, washroom, water closet.
I don’t think it’s a case of class distinction. 1,500 factory workers could have been just as effective IF the leader of a political party with damn near 49% of popular support decided to take up their cause and make it his own.
I maintain that Joseph Muscat (aided and abetted by PN MPs) used the situation to manipulate Dr Gonzi into a lose-lose situation where he was forced into damage limitation.
Ironically, of course, 1,500 is an extremely significant number of supporters for Joseph Muscat to win over.
I agree that the FAA is a waste of space and I never have had nor will have anything to do with it.
If the FAA and their supporters, all 1,500 of them, can impose their will on the other 398,000 Maltese then there is something seriously wrong going on and that is what should really cause us concern, not the bored housewives. The bored housewives will, I suspect, find another fad to amuse themselves with, in the medium to long term but the problem of a very small tail swinging the dog will remain.
[Daphne – Tim, that’s exactly what I’m saying. I mentioned the bored housewives because I find it doubly offensive that the group doing all this has no track record and is completely uninformed. I’ve noticed that in this particular debate, the people who know most said least. That’s because when you have academic/professional training in the field, you don’t speak about opinions and suspicions as though they were facts. I just ran into sister-in-law Alison, by the way – well, not ran into her as such.]
Daphne, sad that we fought ”real” battles to get where we are today, only to have the democratic system undermined by a bunch of wannabes. I can guess who must be gloating at the moment: the same people who just love broadcasting inflated numbers of employees being made redundant as a result of the economic situation. But, hey, dawn huma t-targa tal-haddiema! Losers….
[Daphne – Yes, apparently we are doing so well that we can afford to turn away investment of EUR16 million. And we have so much spare cash to splash around that we can use several million in taxes to buy a whole set of Valletta houses to convert them into a museum. That’s why I speak about the dangers of know-nothings like Astrid Vella and her clique: you can apply for EU funds for the creation of a museum project like the one that has just been scotched, but you can’t get EU funds to buy real estate. If I hear another one of those idiots twittering on about buying ‘a palazzo’ – yes, right, to hold an entire set of tapestries designed for a cathedral, plus more – I shall be unable to restrain myself. Are the FAA going to raise the millions for the purchase of these palazzi from their own pockets, or are they assuming that the rest of us are going to have the money hauled out of our taxes because they’ve decided to turn up their noses at EUR14 million from the EU? Tad-daqqiet ta’ harta.]
Dear Daphne,
Just to remind you. The Cathedral foundation is made up of people appointed fron the Church and others from the goverment! One of them was Richard Cachia Caruana. The government was involved 100% in everything from the beginning, no matter what the prime minister says. When the foundation scrapped the project it meant that the government also had to drop the project as they are part of the foundation. They would have been much more credible if the project was dropped two or three days before not just a couple of hours before the motion hearing. Let’s be honest, dear Daphne. The project was dropped because Dr Gonzi has serious problem with some of his MPs. So clear – so why are you demonising a person like Astrid Vella because she was objecting to something she didn’t believe in? So unfair on her! She has all the right I presume, no? After all she was proven right as the project withdrawn…….
[Daphne – I’ve always said that one of the most serious problems in this country is a weak education system which churns out people who are unable to think clearly. Clear thinking is not genetic. It has to be taught from childhood. So let me spell out the situation to you. Astrid Vella, Helen Tomkins et al had nothing to do and decided to set up a group called the FAA, to fight against construction in Sliema. At first, it was a flop. Then, they began to tap into public disaffection with the MEPA and latterly, with the government. Practically all their support comes from Slimizi of a certain kind (my kind) and from former Slimizi or people with Slimizi links. They caused a lot of trouble in the last election and nearly landed us with Alfred Sant as prime minister (and however bad you may think this prime minister is, Sant doesn’t even bear thinking about). They got the backing of the media, lots of support from AD, plenty of coverage from Super One, and suddenly they were on a roll and on a high. On this high, they decided to venture out of Sliema and take on some other projects, the most recent target being the St John’s museum.
Joseph Muscat totally ignored the museum project – and quite frankly, museum projects are not the stuff of Opposition campaigns – until he picked up on the fuss that Astrid & Co were making precisely among his target group of disaffected ABC1 voters, who he needs to win the next election, having studied the last election result and realised that a significant number of people in Sliema, who usually vote Nationalist, did not vote at all (and nearly landed us with Sant because of their NIMBY mindset). He is now going to work on them, since AD has been given up by largely everyone as a dead dog. A light-bulb went off in his head and he thought to himself that this would be the perfect opportunity to bring down the government in the same way that Mintoff brought down the government with a yacht marina vote in 1998. Now let me make this very clear: Muscat’s aim was not to stop the project, about which he doesn’t give a flying f**k. His aim was to bring down the government, and Astrid and her FAA provided the perfect opportunity. You see, one of the things that know-nothings like Astrid Vella don’t know is that politics is not a game. It is serious, with very serious and sometimes deadly consequences. She is in right over her head.
Yes, the prime minister and the archbishop did pull the project to avoid the consequences of a parliamentary defeat – but the only reason the situation arose in the first place is because an uninformed housewife from a narrow social circle in Sliema got in right over her head and ended up as an agent of destruction. These are not things in which amateurs should be dabbling. Amateurs end up used by opportunistic politicians for their own ends. The difference between me and Astrid Vella is that I have been around for a good fewer years than she has but most of them have been spent understanding the workings of politics in Malta. As a result, I could see this coming a mile off, and she couldn’t. Well, I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt in assuming that she couldn’t. The alternative is trying to come to terms with the fact that she was deliberately colluding with the Opposition and with certain Nationalist MPs who, instead of sitting tight and counting their lucky stars, appear to want to create as much trouble as they think has been caused personally to them. I hope you understand now, but just in case you haven’t, I repeat: politics is not a game.]
I based my arguments on expert geological and technical advice which I passed on to my parliamentary group. You might have noticed that I purposely avoided dramatising the matter using the media. I had no intention of letting anyone be subjected to ‘the baying of the mob’.
Daphne
“And I absolutely detest personality cults in organisations.”
This is one of my pet hates because it is the cause for much NGO fragmentation especially in fields like animal welfare and the environment. Everybody wants to be chief not Indian, so they set up their own little ‘personal’ organisation and then launch appeals for other bodies to work together. If they really wanted to work together they wouldn’t have set up their own splinter group in the first place, would they?
jaqaw mahruqa?
[Daphne – L-anqas xejn, qalbi. Inkwetata ghal dak li gej: koalizzjoni tal-FAA u Joseph Muscat ghas-sabotagg ta’ kull progett ta’ zvilupp u investiment, qisu dal-pajjiz jista’ jaffordja jarmi l-flus u x-xoghol.]
I always suspected that most NGOs in Malta are simply a medium for egocentric people to stay in the limelight. Just look at the number of NGOs who officially have the same purpose – cancer foundations, environment….some of them have an established and respectable history, but most of them are just one-man shows.
Whenever a protest is held, reporters invariably give a long list of organisations which participated, and the photographs and film footage accompanying those reports show that the number of organisations is roughly equal to the number of people physically present.
A few weeks ago, I received around six different e-mails to vote for Astrid Vella in a European competition for some sort of environmentalist of the year (I cannot remember the exact title since I deleted all the mails). These e-mails had confirmed my suspicions that the FAA is nothing but a one-woman show, a woman who is striving for recognition and attention.
As they say, empty vessels make most sound. It’s amazing how she and Joseph Muscat have the same characteristics. Both of them never worked in their lives, and have no real direct or indirect experience of how the private sector works. Both of them are opportunists, and both need to be pampered. Only in Malta…..in normal countries they would immediately become a laughing-stock, and recognised for what they really are.
I think Mrs. Astrid Vella should move to Cospicua where the real baroque houses are and start a crusade against their demolition. She would not even make the back page of l-Orizzont.
Great article, Daphne. You really hit the nail on the head. I find petty Astrid so irritating, insofar as she is always complaining about this and that and never coming up with anything concrete in terms of an alternative. Her only solution was to hang the tapestries in a palace a stone’s throw away.
How come Sliema ended up like this if it was not for her and a couple of other Sliema residents who sold their lovely houses in the first place? Really? Someone said her family was the first to sell?
[Daphne – She can’t be blamed for her family’s sale of their house. Maybe if she lived in an old Sliema house today, rather than a flat built on the site of an old Sliema house, she wouldn’t sell it for development. So leave her alone on that one – really. But I agree with you on the stupidity of suggesting that the tapestries be hung in ‘a palazzo’. Those tapestries were designed to cover every inch of the cathedral nave, so obviously, any space in which they are hung has to be the size and height of the cathedral nave.]
OK, Astrid Vella founded and is in complete control of Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar. Now we have the question of what to build on the old opera house site. Dr Gonzi suggested the building of a parliament house. I fully agree with him. Now Astrid Vella (sapitutto), through her organisation, is already objecting. Maybe somebody will tell me why the FAA considers it within the scope of its ‘mandate’ to decide that an opera house is OK and a parliament building is not. What is the difference in environmental (ambjent ahjar) terms? Both are large buildings. Ghax allura, veru irridu nindahhlu f’kollox.
Why doesn’t the foundation go ahead with the application? Once neither the government nor the church voiced points against the technical aspects of the project, they wouldn’t be going against the view of the people who appointed them to their positions on the foundation. Does an autonomous foundation now require the approval of the Labour leader, Astrid Vella and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando to submit an application to MEPA? Did this project really have to be politicised? We’ll be hearing about this Labour ‘victory’ right until the eve of the next election.
[Daphne – That’s just the point I’m trying to make: that all capital projects, private and public, are now dependent on the personal approval of Astrid Vella, Joseph Muscat and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando – and perhaps Jesmond Mugliett, too, given that he is still aggrieved at not being appointed to the cabinet. If there was ever a dangerous situation, this is it – far, far worse than anything going on with the MEPA. It’s abominable that just three people, one of them unelected, answerable to nobody, and not a public officer, another of them the head of the Opposition not the government, and a third who had some very public and unfortunate MEPA issues – how very ironic, now have the veto on capital projects.]
Extracts from The Times:
“……And I hope it signals the beginning of a new and more mature era in politics which is less partisan and more focused on citizen participation, a victorious Astrid Vella, coordinator of FAA, said” – Hmmm where did I hear these famous empty words?
“She said she hoped a similar decision would be taken on the opera house site“- she seems to be ready to bulldoze all government projects now. Unfortunately, the government has a PR problem. All major projects in European cities were controversial at one point or another but today all these constructions are considered landmarks (the Louvre’s glass pyramid, a major office in Raykjavik, the London Eye).
“Labour played a critical role in this issue. We were very impressed with Joseph Muscat and his keen and personal interest in this issue” -Is she that naive, or are they both hypocrities and opportunists?
However, I must say that my biggest disappointment is with those backbanchers with a grudge, who could not let go of power, even if they were inefficient or were there for more than 20 years.
Much ado about nothing.
Not all decisions taken by so-called experts are for the best. Let me remind you that some years back Wasteserv together with the present government decided to turn a quarry into a rubble-dump not more than 200 metres away from Hagar Qim and Mnajdra Temples (a world heritage site). These plans were only changed due to the intervention of the Qrendi Local Council, which hired experts to do an impact assessment and referred the case to EU.
The quarry was put out of use when the Siggiewi and Qrendi Local councils complained about the damage being done to the said Temples by explosives used to break the stone. I wonder who had issued the permit in the first place.
Now the so-called experts have decided to build a monstrosity to (as they say) protect the temples. How I wish the FAA had complained about this. Now it’s too late, the damage has been done.
Wouldn’t it have been lovely if some environmental group had complained when the original Valletta entrance was being replaced by the monstrosity we have today? When mentioning Sliema, don’t forget that the persons who have turned this beautiful town into a concrete jungle do not live there but in villas in the countryside. Nobody gave a hoot about the other property-owners whose patios have been turned into dungeons due to the high building around them.
[Daphne – Actually, Grace, and trust me on this one because I lived in Sliema for the first 26 years of my life – at a time when it was an old-fashioned seaside town with the same families and distinct neighbourhoods – most of the people who sold their houses in Sliema didn’t live in them. The people who did live in them were tenants. The tenants got ‘key money’ or a free flat in exchange for moving out, and the owner got a sack-load of cash, and everyone was happy. Why did the owners sell their houses? DING-DONG! Because they had a choice between hanging on to a house rendered valueless by a sitting tenant paying two peanuts every year, and letting that house go in exchange for enough money to buy another house elsewhere, but this time without a sitting tenant in it. And why did the sitting tenants move out, even though it meant the demolition of the old house? DING DONG AGAIN! Because they had a choice between living in a house that wasn’t really theirs and living in a brand new flat that was – without paying for it. If you want to blame anything for the destruction of Sliema, blame the rent laws.
About the temple structure: I agree with you there. It’s awful. But you are simply underscoring the point I am making about Mrs Vella and her friends: their world-view does not extend beyond that of the typical Slimiza fil-bozza (believe me, I know what I’m talking about). They know about Sliema and they know about Valletta, some of them know about ‘the three villages’, but that’s just about it. Why didn’t Astrid protest against the monstrosity at the temples? I’ll guess because she didn’t even know about it, or maybe she doesn’t know where Mnajdra and Hagar Qim are.
Your view on experts: there are experts and experts. You yourself remarked that the quarry idea was dumped after the local councils commissioned reports from experts. Would the idea have been dumped if the local councils had commissioned a report from Astrid Vella or Helen “Caruana Galizia” Tomkins? Of course not. As the cartoon strips say: who dey?]
@ Andrea
bog, privy, crapper
From what I could understand the museum was going to be dug out in the square in front of St John’s Cathedral. I know from first-hand experience that underneath Valletta there are networks of tunnels and ‘secret’ passages from one palazzo to another. Each residence around St John’s has a cellar and underneath the cellar there must be a water cistern whose volume was proportional to the floor area of the building. Those were the building regulations imposed by the Knights of Malta.
St. John’s Square did not exist before the Second World War, it was a built up area, and Strada Zaccharia intersected Strada San Giovanni in front of the cathedral’s steps.
St John’s square is basically a quarry filled up with war debris. The land speculator and the architects should know that.
Astrid, Joseph, Jesmond, Jeffrey and Ninu are saying that San Gwann has been saved. If they really wanted to save the cathedral they would have urged the government incessantly to uproot all the ficus trees around St John’s, including those near the Great Siege monument.
So the root causes of this problem lie somewhere else. Did they succeed in killing Richard Cachia Caruana’s baby before it was born?
One thing’s for sure: this is not PPP (Pepe’ People Power), Daphne. It’s like the ant and the elephant on a rope bridge …. the ant thinks it’s shaking the bridge. The showdown has been avoided and postponed.
I am incensed by Joseph Muscat’s presumptuous declaration that all Malta was against the project. Has he ever heard of the silent majority? On reflection, would things have turned out differently had you written such a strong article some weeks back and mobilised those who hold a different view, namely that we should have allowed the whole process to be assessed without ill-informed interference?
[Daphne – No. I am in a fool in many matters, but in these things I have a near-instinctive grasp of situations. If I had spoken at that point, the Astrids and the Josephs would have accused me of having an agenda, and they would have been believed because people were getting carried away and were thinking illogically and irrationally. Therefore, my influence would have been weakened and it would have been even worse than writing nothing at all.
You ask, how could things have been worse – the project has been scotched. I could see that it was going to scotched in any case, the way things were going. By keeping silent then, and not giving ‘my enemies’ a reason to tarnish me with accusations of having an agenda, I have more credibility now when I describe what has happened. I have been very clear about the fact that I have no views about the museum per se, unlike the parliament building, about which I have very strong views. But I am very concerned about the procedural mess that has been made, and its consequences for capital projects in the near future, both public and private. It’s a disaster. I can also see what is coming next: Astrid and Joseph may be crowing triumphantly, but people will only accept the scotching of capital projects when they are feeling relatively financially secure. If the economy takes a turn for the worse, and people begin to be laid off, then those who campaign against large investment projects worth millions of euros will find themselves markedly less ‘popular’.
The tide will turn – it always does in these things. You’re a hero one minute and in the stocks the next. Or, as in Jeffrey’s case, in the stocks one minute and Astrid’s hero the next. As for Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, if it is true that he opposed the project to get back at the government person who he believes was trying to oust him from parliament, then I find it most puzzling that in order to do this, he has given a massive helping hand to the ones who really did him ill and crucified him: the Labour Party.
People are already experiencing what is known in marketing terms as ‘buyers’ remorse’: that feeling of puzzlement, doubt, sadness and worry that you sometimes get after purchasing something that for a long time you thought you had really, really wanted (some men get it when they finally catch up with a woman they’ve been chasing). It’s beginning to dawn on them that they didn’t even see the plans or wait for the technical reports before saying ‘No’, and another truth is rapidly dawning, too: they’ve turned away EUR16 million in investment that would have been ploughed into the Maltese economy, EUR2 million from the foundation and EUR14 million in what is effectively foreign direct investment. Helen “Caruana Galizia” Tomkins boasted – and Astrid parlayed the boast – that before selling her share of her former family home, she had it scheduled and protected from demolition, thereby forgoing a large sum of money. Well, bully for her. That was her choice. As a respecter of property rights, I stand up for her right to do whatever she pleases with her property. But she has absolutely no right to insist that we make the same choice with an injection of EUR14 million into the Maltese economy.]
Just a point of info on the type of EU funds involved. From the information that can be obtained from the official website, the project in question seems to fall under the ERDF Priority 2 Axis of the EU Structural Funds programme. This ‘Priority’ aims to promote a sustainable and competitive tourism industry. The applications are usually open for around six weeks and there is a standard form to fill in. One has to put in the aims and objectives of the project in line with the EU’s and Malta’s priorities.
The project has also got to fit in the ‘national priorities’ as set out in the National Reform Programme, as well as various other government strategies and plans. It obtains points on different aspects, including the priorities mentioned. Finally, all the projects are listed according to the total points and projects are chosen accordng to this list until all the funds allocated for that particular call are exhausted. The rest that would have obtained the neccessary “pass mark” are placed on a reserve list until the next call.
The selection committee is independent from the government and has to answer to the EU Commission. In addition, all infrastructural projects are funded on the proviso that the necessary permits will be obtained.
So in this case, the project would not have been funded if, after the various studies, permits were not issued. [Daphne – Of course not. The European Commission is not going to hand over money for a project that can’t take place because it hasn’t got planning permission.] In addition, once this project shall not be funded, the next project/s down the list can obtain the necessary funding. If none are present, the funds can be re-utilised in a subsequent call. So in view of the fact that we have till 2013 to utilise these funds, there is very small risk that any funds shall be lost. [Daphne – The funds are to be considered lost unless they are gained. Gaining them depends not just on coming up with a project, but on having the European Commission’s approval for that project. The moral of the story is: a bird in hand is worth two in the bush.]
On a slightly different but related point, our dear leader of the Partit tal-LE, Joseph Muscat, has spoken in public criticising the fact that in 2008 we were net contributors to the EU. Given that he is a newly converted Europhile, a leading EU expert and a leader of the pro-EU PL, I was surprised that he hasn’t realised that EU funds are given on a reimbursement method – that is, the principle of ‘first you spend, then we pay’. As such, all the projects that have been accepted so far under the 2007-2013 period (amounting to almost EUR200 million, with the University of Malta obtaining over EUR34 million, MCAST another EUR4.5 million, Malta Enterprise and Parks EUR30 million and tourism, including the St John’s museum project, another EUR30 million, will only effectively begin in 2009 and the same with the payments.
What hurt most is the fact that few people realise that these projects were written, presented and defended by people who expected neither remuneration nor any financial gain for themselves (that is one of the main rules of being a project-leader under these schemes), but they remain (listen to this) legally and financially responsible for the project for up to five years after its completion. There actually are people who are so public-spirited that they take on this burden, and I can vouch for this from personal experience: the responsibility is real and not perceived! And all this above our required obligation, most of the times including working late at night and on weekends and without any remuneration. [Daphne – And then the one who is held up as public-spirited is not somebody who does what you describe, but the woman who undoes what you describe. What a shame.]
I am sorry to have written such a long piece (and maybe also not strictly within the context of your post), but I really feel that the people who work to have these projects accepted for funding (and there are quite a few) are being done a disservice by certain comments in the press and from the representatives of organisations who should know better.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to vent my frustration.
While everyone is in deep s***t someone else is in a deep trance:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090211/local/first-the-election-now-the-universee
[Daphne – What was it? A message is coming up saying that the page is not available anymore.]
I dont agree that people should be free to do anything they like with their property. Surely you need a regulator! [Daphne – Yes, the regulator is the MEPA, not the FAA or parliament, still less the leader of the Opposition. And the principle of property rights works like this: if the state schedules your building, which means that (1) you cannot sell it for a good sum and (2) you are forced to maintain it at your own huge expense, let it fall to pieces, or sell it for a pittance, then the state should (a) buy the property outright at the market price under a National Trust system or (b) through the same system, help fund the costs of restoration and maintenance in exchange for having you open the place to the public one day a year. The state cannot remove your right to doing what you please with your property without compensating you for attendant losses, or worse, forcing you to incur expenses. What we have here is a situation in which people are actually penalised for owning a beautiful old house. They would be better off inheriting something hideous built in the last 10 years, because it’s more valuable.]
I first came across Astrid Vella when she was campaigning against the Cambridge 26-storey tower. I was also dead set against this project, because of its excessive height on the highest point of the Tigne peninsula, which means it would be twice the height of (the other horrid) Fortina tower. This new tower is going to be the new focal point instead of the Valletta peninsula. I admired Astrid for her campaign against (the excessive height) of this project.
However, her recent rants about all the proposed projects in Valletta are really quite pathetic. While I was also sceptical about the underground museum, as I feel the tapestries should never be in an underground environment, I am quite favourable to the courtyard which is a “dead space” (excuse the pun) in Merchants Street.
However, as a matter of transparency, how was it that such a significant project managed to obtain EUR14 million European funds, without anyone knowing about it? I find this objectionable, as it appears to me that some “people” have very good access to EU funding. [Daphne – Not at all, David. There is a comment posted a bit before yours, by somebody whose job it apparently is to work on applications for EU funding for projects. Malta has received approval for EUR200 million worth of projects so far, from which EUR14 million can now be deducted. The process is not controlled by the government of Malta, and it is disingenuous and ill-informed of some people to suggest that anyone, even the prime minister himself, can pull strings to get funding for this or that. It should be obvious that if this could be done, then the prime minister or whoever would pull strings for each and every project that favours Malta, and Malta would have funds pouring in for any and every project it wishes to carry out. People love a good conspiracy theory, but as an intelligent person who is not a malicious gossip – unlike, say, Astrid Vella – surely you can see that what I am saying is blindingly obvious.]
My view is that the existing parliament would be the perfect place to house the tapestries, within the precincts of the palace.
What really shocked me is Astrid’s proposal to move parliament to the underground vault at the Mediterranean Conference Centre. Clearly she has never visited a parliament building, and her she abusively says that parliamentarians don’t deserve it – as though the parliament building is some villa for their private use. [Daphne – I’m told that she hasn’t taken a tour of St John’s, either, and she has obviously not seen the tapestries being discussed, because she thinks they are small enough and few enough to fit into ‘a palazzo’ either requisitioned from some poor sucker or paid for out of our taxes instead of with EU funding.]
In my view the following is required in Valletta.
1) A new parliament building complete with offices. While I support the ex-opera site, I also quite like the idea of the Main Guard if it is indeed true that the block at its rear in Strait street was requisitioned for this purpose.
2) Freeing up the Presidential Palace from the existing parliament, either to house the tapestries or the Armoury.
3) A Museum of Fine Art, with an area for modern art. (The museum of Fine Art in South Street is completely inadequate as well as inaccessible to the handicapped).
4) A five-star hotel instead of Evans Laboratories, with public-private partnership, using the Mediterranean Conference Centre for its meeting-rooms; also a beach concession for this hotel at Taht iz-Ziemel.
5) The removal of the Police Academy from Fort St Elmo.
6) The removal of the Lands Dept from the dilapidated Auberge de Baviere (so that it can be used possibly as a boutique hotel). It should be noted that while some hotels are suffering, there is an acute shortage of good quality hotels in Valletta. Few people know that even the Castille, British and Osborne hotels have very good occupancy.
7) Freedom square could be redesigned for open air performances with St James Cavalier as a stage backdrop, and possibly for backstage facilities.
8) Changes should be made to the Republic Hall stage at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, so that it is suitable for the (probably no more than two) operas annually, instead of building another theatre. The Mediterranean Conference Centre is very much underused as it has lost much business to the MFCC in Ta’ Qali . So no, we don’t need another opera house/theatre in Valletta.
8) The Casino Maltese should be taken over for better public use than that of a club for a few hundred lawyers.
Sandra, as you wrote in Maltese perhaps the following might be a bit too English for you, but I get the impression you’re just the type to cut off your nose to spite your face.
Bil-Malti, tista tghid lir-ragel ‘jaqta l—- biex jinki il-mara”. Now I wonder what the equivalent (in Maltese) for the opposite sex is?
True, what happened has nothing at all to do with St John’s or what lies beneath it. The Opposition skillfully took advantage of FAA and other groups and their objections, in the light of the fact that it became public knowledge that some government MPs were also against the project. The Opposition tested the government’s strength, and the government had to eat humble pie. Long gone are the days when a government minister can tease the Opposition by saying that having a majority of five means parliament is just a rubber stamp. No longer! One lesson has been learned. For decades the PN have looked at themselves as the masters of spin and political strategy. From now on, after this test case, the music is changing.
[Daphne – Albert, please: political advantage for the Labour Party has been achieved at the expense not of the government, which will carry on for the next four years, but of the country….at our expense, Albert, yours and mine.]
I think it’s about five fewer years, Daphne, and that’s not a chasm by any stretch of the imagination. [Daphne – It is an enormous chasm, Tim. It means that you share no formative experiences, grow up separately in different contexts and know completely different people until you reach adulthood, when your paths may or may not cross. I have a sister who is six years younger than I am and effectively, we grew up completely separately. Though we get on like a house on fire, she still lives in a ‘different world’, with a completely different social circle and experiences. We weren’t even at school at the same time. I first encountered Astrid Vella very late in life, even though she lived round the corner from me. Girls go out with men who are five years older than they are (which, I assume, is how you know my age, because I was in the same class at school as your former wife), but they NEVER, when young, mix with other women that much older. This comes later. For example, I went out with, and married, somebody nine years my senior, but there was no way I was going to have women friends nine years my senior back then. I don’t even have them now.] Astrid is six days older than I am, or maybe I should say we are, because I’m only half of the egg, as you are obviously aware (talking about Alison, if nothing else, who, I trust, is well).
Leaving Astrid aside for the moment, commentator P. Shaw says: ‘I always suspected that most NGOs in Malta are simply a medium for egocentric people to stay in the limelight.’ He may be right, but I’d like to take this opportunity to put in a word for one of the NGOs that is an exception to the rule, and that is the Deaf Association, which has been held together, to a large extent, by my twin brother, Chris, for the best part of about 15 years. This is an NGO that is hardly in the limelight, since it represents the interests and problems of a small group of people – perhaps 100.
Put your hands on your hearts and admit that you’ve hardly given a thought to the quality of life that deaf people lead, mainly because there are not a lot of (totally) deaf people about. I was the same until I became uncle to a deaf niece. It is a problem that is almost invisible, but a massive problem nonetheless for those that are afflicted by deafness. Can you imagine how difficult it is to learn how to communicate when you can NEVER hear a sound? Let alone all the things one misses when one can’t hear.
I won’t say more, but I must point out that there are NGOs and there are NGOs. I hope that followers of this blog will not tar all NGOs with the same brush.
[Daphne – Of course there are some excellent NGOs! SOS Malta is another one, for example. One of my sons worked there for a bit, which gave me some insight into just how much they do, without blowing trumpets or crusading. There’s the Malta Hospice Movement too, which the last time I looked was working wonders, and again, quietly.]
@ Andrea and Tony Pace: john/jane, outhouse
Daphne, “marketing terms as ‘buyers’ remorse”.
Marketing people call it by the technical term, Cognitive Dissonance, for next time, I’m sure you’ll get to use it again. [Daphne – I know that, Graham. It’s part of what I do for a living. I’m just not one of those people who clunks up her writing with technical terms to seem clever, because it blocks communication.]
I tried to shy away from having on opinion on this project, since I have no clue about development in Malta, and to be honest, I’m quite apathetic towards this particular one.
What I am angry about is this: I know now that Astrid, henceforth to be known as Bastrid, has just stolen €14,000,000 from all of us and she won’t pay back a dime.
My question is how did the tooth fairy decide to agree with Oberon (the prince of fairies) on turning away all those funds without a professional opinion? I understand Oberon trying to play games, but the tooth fairy should have stayed shtum, because environmental studies is clearly not his best subject.
[John Schembri – The showdown has been avoided and postponed.]
Spot on, John! Astrid is not the reason for what has happened.
[Daphne – No, she was the facilitator, which is just as bad.]
It figures. It’s ASOT day. Those in the know will understand.
[Daphne – No, she was the facilitator, which is just as bad.]
If things are so precarious they will come to a head, sooner or later – with or without a facilitator. Astrid is just a scapegoat. Those with enough grey matter within their skulls will know that if things weren’t more serious than they have been made to appear, Government would have ridden roughshod over the wishes (and the complaints) of Vella and the few environmental organisations which opposed the project.
[Daphne – Yes, the government should have. But it couldn’t, because Muscat and a couple of MPs had latched onto the FAA’s back for the ride. That is precisely what I mean about amateurishness and politics not being a game. Astrid’s is a position of responsibility, and the behaviour of somebody in that position has far-reaching consequences, either negative or positive or both. A leader of that sort has to be able to weigh up the negative against the positive, and assess the cost to the country of his or her actions. I bring up Vince Farrugia and VAT in 1996 as a ‘shining’ example: because he couldn’t see beyond the narrow scope of his organisation and its wish not to have VAT, he would have cost us the very EU membership he now claims he always favoured, because his agitation against VAT was a major contributing factor to the election of Sant in 1996, and it was only ‘cikka’ that we got the chance to undo that in 1998. The FAA is now in a similar position: what price scotching the St John’s project – which might have, incidentally, been scotched by the planning people in any case – if it means undermining the stability of the government and giving a distinct advantage to that mess we call the Opposition? Look at the way Din L-Art Helwa handles these situations: without getting involved in politics it achieves the results it wants on the basis of its credibility. I cite the Xaghra l-Hamra golf course as an example, but there were many others.
Do you honestly believe the FAA has no ulterior political agenda? Astrid herself might not – and I have yet to see evidence of this – but I cannot say the same for her sidekick Helen “Caruana Galizia” Tomkins, who has spent the last 15 years or so waxing ecstatic about the miracle that is Alfred Sant, in pretty much the same vein and for the same reasons as Maire Benoit in her Gallarija. Much of the organisation’s support comes from precisely the same people who nearly had Sant returned to power in 2003 and again in 2008 because of their whining in favour of AD or Sant. Astrid may have had good intentions when she set up the FAA, but the association has now morphed from primarily an anti-construction outfit to an anti-government outfit.
Can Astrid herself see this? That’s the question. As somebody aptly pointed out on this blog, the FAA is supposed to be an anti-construction, ‘environmental’ organisation: how does a decision on the use of a large building at the entrance to the city fall within the scope of ‘environment’? A decision on whether there should be a large building in the first place – yes. A decision on what the building is used for – no. A decision on where and how parliament should be located – definitely not within the FAA’s ‘environmental’ competence.
Posted beneath one of the reports on timesofmalta.com there is a comment by a certain Marco Cremona (not the artist but some sort of engineer who is in the newspapers from time to time with coverage of his work in south-east Asia): “Congratulations, Astrid! Well done, Jeffrey!” But of course, what people don’t know is that he was one of those feeding Astrid Vella crap about the St John’s project and helping get her all worked up against it. He is one of those who spent the last election campaign trying to drum up support for AD while running down the government. And we are expected to believe that he has no ulterior motive or agenda? You can believe that if you like. I don’t. You see, the thing a lot of people don’t know, but I do, is that the bulk of the FAA’s support comes from the very people who almost gave us Sant as prime minister by default last year. And they are also the ones who almost derailed EU membership in 2003 by trying to get as many people as possible to vote AD. Fortunately, other people were more persuasive. The FAA is no longer an environmental outfit. It is now a political organisation, and the sooner people wake up to that, the better.]
@Daphne
The ‘government’, as you put it, will not “be there for the next four years”. Barring some cataclysmic event, we will be having a ‘government’ for all the forseeable future. As the saying goes “No matter which party wins the election, the government always gets in”.
Secondly, if you were indifferent to the project why this reaction now that it has been stopped by the Opposition?
I was totally indifferent myself for reasons very similar to yours as I know that such a project would have needed tons of expert opinions and reports before any digging starts).
Your intense reaction and your attributing the cancellation to just one woman (gosh, she is really powerful the lady!) makes me think that within PN circles this has been considered to be one hell of a big and serious setback!
[Daphne – I meant THIS government, Albert, and you know it, so don’t be disingenuous. I was and remain indifferent to the project per se. I am not indifferent to the injection of EUR16 million into the economy. I am anything but indifferent to the fact that the FAA has now become a political organisation and is working politically rather than for the environment, which is why it is now telling us where to locate parliament, which has nothing to do with the environment. My intense reaction is the result of restraining myself about Astrid Vella and the FAA, until I could no longer hold my peace, out of a misguided sense of decency, until I realised that they have now become political animals like all the others I write about. She and her group have set my teeth on edge since day one, and believe me, there are many more people who feel as I do about her in the serious NGOs. Yes, Astrid is powerful, but her power is negative power: the power to destroy rather than the power to achieve. You support the Labour Party, therefore you are probably pleased with the fact that, in the last election – thanks in great part to the agitation of the FAA – voter turn-out in the Sliema district was significantly lower than it usually is.
There is no way on earth that I can admire somebody who almost landed the country with Alfred Sant, by default, because of a couple of buildings that she doesn’t like. You, on the other hand, would have enjoyed that, but I respect you because at least you are an honest-to-goodness Labour supporter and have always been one. So our views differ on that score. Where I imagine our views don’t differ is in the danger inherent in having a group like this hijack each and every capital project. Astrid was not powerful before last March, but now, thanks to her liaison with the Opposition and with the government weakened by recalcitrant MPs who are prepared to vote along with her wishes to spite their boss, on the principle that if they’re going down they’re going to take the whole ship with them, she has acquired for herself a veto on projects. Is this the way that projects should be accepted or rejected in a democracy? As somebody who is concerned about the economy, do you think it’s a good idea to reject investment of many millions just to gain political advantage? I don’t. And I’m not talking only about the St John’s project here: there are private sector projects which have been targeted in exactly the same way by a coalition of environmental groups and AD.]
How very sad the whole situation is. Some people just do not want Malta to get on with projects and intend doing their best to stop them even before they are taken into consideration. Before lambasting the project, the FAA should have had the decency to wait until proper studies are made. Another thing that annoys me is the fact that Joseph Muscat is saying that he spoke on behalf of the people of Malta. No Mr. Leader of the Opposition, you have absolutely no right to speak on behalf of people who never told you to do so.
As I read through some of the contributions, I realise that tolleration to other people’s opinion is resulting only in ferocious attacks on individuals who, with their indipendent mind and thinking, have different views than their’s! If its tue what Daphne is saying, that Astrid was the culprit of many voters not voting PN in Sliema during last election, I can see nothing of her business to judge her!! If she believed she was right, she had the right to do so! Who on earth is she(Daphne) to pretend that everyone has to think as she does? Do we still tollerate freedom of thinking and respect other people’s opinion? Daphne is not objective when talking about politics! Everyone knows how she thinks about the PL and whoever supports the party. But I believe she has the right to do so as long she critisises the message and not the messenger…….. Reading today’s contribution of Ray Bondin on the times,curator of Valletta for 20 years, I realise how Astrid and the Pl was right to oppose the project. I pretend he knows something about Valletta to reach this conclusion. Or Not?
[Daphne – Usually, I give comments a quick subbing (not always thorough as I am usually in a mad rush) as I don’t want the comments board on this blog to turn into the equivalent of timesofmalta.com’s. But when I saw the double ell in tolerant, I thought it best to leave this comment as it is. ‘Tollerant’ is one of those words that was up on the wall at Elf Headquarters. I sent in lots of messages suggesting that they put the correct spelling up on the notice-board to cease giving themselves away, but to no avail. On Ray Bondin, I reserve judgement. Wheels within wheels….]
THere was a typo in the original link (an extra “e”):
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090211/local/first-the-election-now-the-universe
I would humbly suggest the cabinet to enact a law as soon as possible obliging any NGO to submit at their own expense an unchallengeable EIA before even opening their mouths for or against any future project.
I have never had any trust in any organisation be it religious or anything else which thinks that it has some automatic right to speak for and on behalf of the people. The only measure that gives one the right to speak for the people is through the ballot box. Should one accept a politician or an NGO as such because they speak of having had a call or a mission? Or are they to prove themselves at their own expense beforehand? Yes, I am sure that there are good NGOs doing one hell of a job forgetting personal and financial burden, the Hospice Movement as stated above springs to mind. But then we have the FAA and the manifest stupidity shown in this case.
[Daphne – Manifestly stupid people are capable only of manifest stupidity.]
I hope the Hon. Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando will not be getting your vote come the next election.
[Daphne – I have already told him that at this point he should be making strenuous efforts to win back the respect of those who voted for him, because we are the ones to whom he owes his seat, and we are the ones who can remove him from that seat in four years time. Instead, he appears to be going out of his way to win the respect of those who did not even vote for his party (Labour and AD), those who crucified him in the last few days of the election campaign (Labour and AD), and those who shouted ceaselessly for his resignation afterwards, Astrid Vella and Joseph Muscat included. His district is not Sliema and Astrid Vella and the FAA are not his constituents. Even if they were, they do not vote Nationalist, but AD or Labour or don’t vote at all. If he were in their constituency, they would vote against him. He failed to ask his constituents, amongst them myself, whether we wish him to vote against the St John’s project. If he wishes to have Astrid and the FAA’s votes, rather than ours, he will have to stand for election on the AD ticket in the Sliema constituency. Otherwise, keeping them happy is just a giant waste of time and reflects very badly on him. I think it is utterly disgraceful that, instead of standing by those who stood by him in his time of crisis, including his prime minister and party leader, he has chosen instead to stand by those who, like Astrid, would have liked to see him hung out to dry. It is quite obvious what the AD-infested FAA is trying to do: get Jeffrey Pullicino Orland to resign from the Nationalist Party and switch to AD, which would give AD a seat in parliament and the choice of forming a coalition with either Labour or the Nationalists, but either way, being in government without being elected.]
It would seem that the “popolin” is considered mature enough to decide every five years, on who gets to lead the legalised dictatorship running this country, but not mature enough to express an opinion on the proposed bulldozing of our capital city and its underground heritage, which is protected anyway by the Cultural Heritage Act.
If the government/foundation/church wanted to turn the underground heritage in Valletta into an open quarry, they should have found time to first change the law.
I find very distasteful and unworthy the systematic demonising of public-spirited people who, if I am not mistaken, have received local and international recognition for their fight to safeguard heritage and environment.
Just my two cents worth anyway.
http://gozonews.com/item/astrid-vella-receives-special-prize-for-most-deserving-entry-at-strasbourg/
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081105/local/astrid-vella-wins-award-for-volunteers
http://www.benevolat.eu/en/resultats.php
http://www.ramblersmalta.jointcomms.com/pdfdocs/tomaward.pdf
[Daphne – ‘Legalised dictatorship’, Sybil? Wasn’t that a phrase coined by the mad nutters at AD in the last election? Hmmmm. What an amazing coincidence that the mad nutters at AD have shacked up with the koccuti at the FAA and they’ve all got into bed with Joseph Muscat. I smell a coalition coming.
Do you know how many people voted for Astrid Vella in that volunteer award? Well, I happen to know, and they would all fit round my kitchen table. Astrid knows I know and she also knows how I know, but I can’t elaborate as there are other people involved and matters of confidentiality.
As for your first sentence, if I didn’t know you had racist sentiments, you would surprise me in your lack of comprehension of how democracy works. Once a year, we elect people to represent us. Their brief is to take decisions on our behalf. We vote for them because we trust them to take those decisions. Only in VERY EXCEPTIONAL circumstances do we get to vote on an issue in the interim: EU membership, say, but certainly not a museum project. If we had to vote for or against anything and everything that happens during the intervening five years, nothing would get done – and we are rapidly reaching that stage, thanks to people who think as you do. What you have in mind is not democracy but a form of anarchy or mob rule.
Who’s proposing the bulldozing of our capital city? Did you see any plans in which bulldozing is involved? If so, do please let me know. I am all agog.
‘The underground heritage of Valletta’ – I direct you to a comment posted here by the grandson of the building contractor who, after the war, landfilled WITH RUBBLE the space beneath St John’s Square – which is a square only because the houses that stood there were bombed. I happen to know that there were houses there, even if there weren’t photographs to prove it, because my maternal grandmother’s family owned and lived in one of them until her father lost it on a horse. Yes, Sybil, beneath St John’s Square there is nothing but…..rubble.
‘Demonising of public-spirited people’ – the public-spirited people, Sybil, are not those who seek to destroy but those who seek to create and restore. Astrid and her ilk are the ANTITHESIS of public-spirited. The public-spirited people are those who have been working 12 hours a day to have the cathedral restored to its burgeoning splendour – the very people whom ‘public-spirited Astrid’, who has never done anything for the public or the public’s spirit in her life, has spent the last few months insulting, disparaging, running down, and accusing of wrong-doing, corruption in the securing of EU funds, and heaven knows what else. I think Astrid’s real problem is that her diploma in ‘Baroque Studies’ (must have been a good course, if it taught her that Sliema had baroque houses) led her to nothing but destructive campaigns and political interference in a self-created unpaid post at the FAA, while her contemporary Cynthia de Giorgio’s qualifications in Baroque Studies led her to the internationally prestigious curatorship of St John’s Cathedral. Cherchez la femme? I think it’s more a matter of ‘cherchez le personal grudge.’]
I am disgusted with all this. The FAA, JPO, Ninu and the Labour Party should be ashamed of themselves for stopping this project, just to spite Richard Cachia Caruana, or so they fondly think. When we need funds like a junkie needs heroin, we find this bantam cock of a woman whose only interest is self-aggrandisement at the expense of reasonable development.
You said it, Daphne: “Yes, Astrid is powerful, but her power is negative power: the power to destroy rather than the power to achieve.” But to what end? Are we better off now? My grandfather, who was involved in filling up the many holes and repairing a lot of war damage in Malta, and Valletta, used to tell me the same thing that John Schembri said. [Daphne – For the benefit of our readers, Mario’s grandfather was one of the major post-war building contractors involved in the rebuilding of bomb-damaged Malta.]
Pjazza San Gwann is full of war-damage rubble, as is the area in front of Msida Church. An underground museum there would simply have involved removing the backfill, shaping the excavation, and yes, one can build a completely waterproof underground chamber to house the tapestries. Ninu Zammit, of all people, should know this. We have lost EUR16 million, and we have these awful FAA people to thank for it. But this bodes ill for Malta. When you have a country’s agenda being modified by strident harridans, then we also have a huge problem.
Try this Daphne (it is still available on TOM http://www.timesofmalta.com.mt/articles/view/20090211/local/first-the-election-now-the-universe
I learned this in group dynamics :”the winners find a solution for every problem; the losers find a problem for every solution”. I’ll leave it up to the readers to work out where to pigeon-hole FAA & Co.
Thanks, Mario Debono. I got the info from a 1935 Italian AA Map of Valletta which I bought from a “Fiera del Antiquariato” from Ferrara. No need to be a quantum physicist to arrive to that logical conclusion.
I count myself as one of the many who are not actually fully conversant with what the project was exactly all about. I think many people have the obviously mistaken impression that there was going to be a bloody great big hole dug UNDER the cathedral, which is not the case. I’d love someone to post a visual on your site just to put matters straight. As to the vicious attacks on Richard Cachia Caruana on Super One, perhaps these should give us a clear indication of what the real agenda for all this hullaballoo was all about.
[Daphne – You’re quite right. And that is precisely the difference between NGOs with integrity and NGOs without integrity. The integrity and credibility of an organisation hinge on the credibility and integrity of the people who front it. Astrid and her fibbing cohorts gave the public to understand that the museum would be dug beneath the cathedral, when they knew full well that it was planned for beneath St John’s Square. They told the public that the cathedral would collapse when they had no reports to back up this assertion (no such reports are possible without an investigation). They claimed that the ground beneath the square is full of passages and cisterns, when it is not: it was landfilled after World War II with bomb-damage rubble. They said that ‘those who fought to defend Christianity in Malta and Europe’ – bollocks of the first order – are buried in the churchyard where the visitors’ entrance was planned. Utter rubbish. There’s nothing there. The so-called churchyard is entirely post-war. There were shops and houses there before the area took a direct hit. Photographs of these shops and houses, standing on the ‘churchyard’, were published, and ignored. The ‘churchyard’ was cleared out after the war under the supervision of de Giorgio & Mortimer, the architectural firm. Cynthia de Giorgio, who is curator at the cathedral, knows exactly what was found and what wasn’t found beneath, because the de Giorgio in question is her father-in-law. This is what he told her: “There were a few bones; we cleared them up and put them to the side.” Then the area which contained shops and houses that had been destroyed by bombing was paved over and turned into a ‘churchyard’. There was a feature on the project in one of my magazines – twice a year, we have a Flair special edition on Valletta, and I had included this. I’ll upload it on this blog some time over the weekend.]
Daphne –
Even though personally I do not have any trust in Pullicino Orlando, I do not believe he is so blinded by his need for revenge as to be so short-sighted. Even if he had to switch sides in parliament, he cannot be elected on an MLP or AD ticket in four years’ time. [Daphne – I’m not saying that he will. I trust he has more integrity and commonsense than that. What I am saying is that this is what Astrid Vella and the rest of the AD-cum-FAA league almost certainly have up their sleeve, which explains why they are so busily sucking up to Jeffrey, the very person for whose crucifixion they were calling 11 months ago.]
On the other hand Ninu Zammit has nothing to lose. He is on his way out. I can’t beleive that after 15 (or 20) years as minister, he still expected a ministerial post and is holding such a grudge against Gonzi. In politics, the best politicians (very few) usually choose their point of departure. [Daphne – His attitude now probably explains why he was a minister for 20 years, to everyone’s perplexity.]
If you look for conspiracy, you will find it in everything and everybody. But the outcome of all this is not necessarily the result of some dark agenda concocted by vengeful MPs and NGOs as you seem to imply. The thesis that you have to be an expert in the subject matter to voice an opinion is not correct since by the same token I wonder how many experts are there in the “pro-movement” and yet they still made their position clear without being chided and labelled as “amateurs”. Experts do not (and are not expected to) always get it right either – we are seeing infront of us the collapse of the financial world renowned for its experts with astronomical salaries. Closer to home, we have the new laboratories being ripped apart at Mater-Dei Hospital, the same ones that were designed and built by experts without presumably any interference from someone like Astrid.
Back to this specific project, it was natural for one to become sceptical about the viability and risk containment involved in such undertaking. It was certainly an interesting proposal and frankly, like yourself, I don’t know of any other alternative to showcase these artifacts. In my opinion however, the mistake was a strategic one when the executive revealed their hand too early and had no Ace at the end. The general public is never kind to uncertainties and in situations like these, it is easy to see why people prefer to err on the side of caution. The Maltese are generally very suspicious folks and see and think “wrong” even while they sleep. Take for instance the financial side of this project, an aspect that is often overlooked. I have serious doubts whether Eur 16M (less than LM 7M) would have done the job, more so when as far as I know there wasn’t even a detailed assessment of the geological and structural requirements that this whole affair entails. A good chunk of that money would have probably been needed to insure against any damages to the Co-Cathedral, its surroundings and the loss of earnings that would ensue.
Amazing that despite having a shed-load of newspapers,five or more television stations, reporters galore (for lack of a more appropriate term) this is the ONLY forum that has come close (actually we’re there) to a healthy, intelligent, objective and informative discussion about an issue which elsewhere has seen so-called “great minds” (with personal agendas) miss the wood for the trees. As the famous saying goes “love you or hate you babe, you’re a hard act to follow”.
The FAA became fashionable because its relevance was artificially inflated by a section of the media, for a number of reasons. I don’t remember any serious report ever issued and it has never expressed anything that was not simply an opinion. The truth is that, unwittingly or by design, FAA is the cat’s paw of AD and, by proxy, of Labour.
In the run-up to the last elections, for example, there was all that agitation about the redrawing of the development zones, a campaign that degenerated into a personal mud-slinging crusade against George Pullicino (remember the ‘vote George get Lorry’ slogan?). Then there was the campaign against the Gozo Ramla development that, again, degenerated into a personal mud-slinging crusade against the MEPA Chairman. The campaign against the St John museum also seems to be degenerating into a personal attack on Richard Cachia Caruana.
The pattern is still the same (vide the “bulldozing of Valletta” claim) but all this is mischief for its own sake: experience shows that there is hardly any lasting political gain to be made from such troublemaking. At the height of the Ramla controversy (September 2007), a MaltaToday survey put AD support at 4% in Gozo (God knows what it was in Sliema) but we all know the debacle AD suffered at the polls.
Environmental issues flare up now and again and are the cause of much heated discussion but, in the end, the outcome of elections is determined by less exciting topics like the economy, employment and quality of life.
[Daphne – The ‘Vote George, Get Lorry’ placard was famously carried by the public relations officer of AD, but that is not how she was described. She was described simply as ‘columnist Claire Bonello’. This is like saying that any protest placard carried by Kurt Farrugia, information officer (the name used to be propaganda secretary) of the Labour Party is carried by ‘journalist Kurt Farrugia’. Yes, I agree with you that the media has much to be blamed for, and the English language media in particular. Over the last few years, the English-language newspaper scene has become infested – and I use the word intentionally – with staff who are either active supporters of AD or very much predisposed to this minority grouping. The net result is AD has disproportionately large influence on the most influential sector of the media. A careful analysis of the Sunday English-language newspapers will reveal that the majority of columnists are anti-PN on principle, either because they are pro-AD or pro-Labour. I am one of the few left standing who is scathing about AD and Labour. Everyone else has been systematically axed, pushed out, or has given up.]
@Daphne
And readers have had it with all the crap they’re being fed by these so-called journalists. This is one of the reasons why this ”Running Commentary” has such a large readership, and receives so many comments. Is it because serious readers are frustrated, or simply annoyed that the majority of the population never engage in ”discussion”?
I just wish the St. John’s saga debate in this diary had started a while back. I seriously believe that the main reason why the “right” side lost was because they lost the PR game, if there ever was one. Sad!
[Daphne – That’s right. There was no public affairs handling on the St. John’s side, except for too little too late. This allowed the FAA to hijack the situation with lies, conspiracy theories and untruths. Now that the whole thing has come to a head, I am meeting people who tell me, “Mela the museum wasn’t going to be dug under the cathedral? Eeeeee, I thought that was the plan.” Unbelievable.]
Indeed the Cathedral has itself to blame. Has anyone seen any plans for this underground museum, How will the tapestries be displayed? What measures will be taken to ensure correct temperature/humidity? Surely for the EU to accept to fund the project there must have been supporting plans and documentation. Daphne, even you admitted you were neutral on the subject, because in all honesty, and Astrid apart, we are are all unsure whether the best thing for the tapestries was to go underground.
[Daphne – David, I wasn’t ‘unsure’ about the project as I have complete trust in the members of the St John’s Cathedral Foundation – who include, lest everyone has fogotten, three monsignors who have a religious as well as a patriotic motivation for protecting the building. It is just a beautiful building to me and perhaps even to you, but it is the house of God to them. Also, I favour Din L-Art Helwa’s stance that we should first examine the EIA and the technical aspects – which are not available yet – before passing judgement.
So no, I wasn’t unsure. I was neutral. And I had all the information I needed, not only because I spoke to the curator, Cynthia de Giorgio, and quizzed her in great detail, but also because I bothered to visit the information exhibition which the foundation put up within the cathedral itself. Entrance was free and opening hours were convenient, but people didn’t exactly turn up in droves – either because, as I said earlier, contrary to what Astrid says they just don’t give a damn, or because it was easier to believe the FAA’s half-truths, misinformation, conspiracy theories and exaggerations than to think for themselves.
As for the tapestries going underground, that was something I didn’t even think about, for the reasons which follow. There are fields of academic and technical training called museology and conservation. Museums are not designed and equipped like homes or offices, by people who specialise in homes and offices. They are the work of museologists and conservators, whose responsibility it is to ensure that environmental conditions do not damage the exhibits. I travel extensively and visit museums obsessively. There is not one museum I have visited which does not have extensive underground exhibition space, in some cases more floors underground than there are above ground. More damage is caused to textiles like tapestries by displaying them above ground than by displaying them beneath the ground, because the greatest agent of their deterioration is UV rays – from even the merest amount of daylight. If the tapestries eventually come to be displayed above ground, it will have to be in bunker-like conditions, in an environment with no windows. This is in fact the reason why most museums, the world over, are mainly beneath ground rather than above ground: there is no point in using up valuable above-ground space if you cannot have windows or natural light.
Unfortunately, I take it for granted that everyone knows these things but apparently it’s not the case. I forget that the only reason I am tuned in to this knowledge is because I read archaeology full time for four years. I was astonished, however, to hear somebody like Astrid Vella, who claims to know so much about heritage, insist that the tapestries should not be displayed in bunker-like conditions. On the contrary, in bunker-like conditions is precisely how they should be displayed.]
Oh my God, The FAA are actually asking for the resignation of St.John’s Foundation members. Now that is an insult to anyone’s intelligence. This really means that not only do they not know what they’re talking about, but I am afraid they have played themselves beautifully into the opposition’s hands, and I am now convinced it’s all part of the plan. That in itself is disgraceful and should be condemned by the very members of FAA – if there are any genuine ones that is. Shame.
The Times elves are after your blood, Daphne. Actually, all they are displaying is nothing but a load of lanzit (can anyone translate this? I think its a combination of good old fashioned hatred mixed with a heavy dose of envy, bitterness and ignorance.) Not one of The Times bloggers offered any solutions or alternatives, and I bet every cent I own that 90% of the idiots thought that the museum was going to be nothing but a massive hole UNDER the cathedral. I am convinced that Astrid will be a future AD candidate. Bully for her. I give up on this country.
[Daphne – In my life as a newspaper columnist, I’ve survived five governments (this is the sixth), three prime ministers, two night-time arson attacks on my home – the most recent one a case of attempted murder as it was the house itself and not the door that was set on fire, scores of anonymous letters, hundreds of obscene telephone calls, countless whispering campaigns, gossip and rumour-mongering, insulting cartoons, slanderous remarks, a libellous book by the present leader of the opposition, a rabid Nationalist deputy prime minister who had me sacked as a columnist with The Sunday Times after I had the temerity to question his daughter’s integrity (and then called my new employers at The Malta Independent to dissuade them from engaging me, “ghax imbaghad ma jkolliex fejn tikteb izjed”….he couldn’t have foreseen the advent of blogs) and heaven knows what else. I think I can survive a few semi-literate Labour and AD elves posting ill-spelt and ungrammatical comments on a news-site. As I used to tell them before I got bored of doing so, I would much rather be me than them, and their problem is that they would much rather be me, too. Then rattling their cage ceased to be entertaining. Astrid won’t become an AD candidate, because then she won’t be able to saunter round pretending she’s independent and motivated only by a sense of civic duty.]
Please tell us who the ‘rabid Nationalist deputy prime minister’ was who had you sacked from the Sunday Times.
[Daphne – I can’t believe you don’t know, Tim, given that he called a press conference to condemn me for criticising his daughter’s decision to take on the case of somebody accused of killing the prime minister’s PA – when her father was deputy prime minister. And he timed his press conference to coincide with the absence from the island of the prime minister, the prime minister’s PA and the top people in the PN – it was August – so there was nobody to stop his outrageous behaviour. Ghastly man – no wonder he has so much in common with Dom Mintoff. At least I didn’t suggest anything along the lines that he might have given her some tips on how to handle the case.]
Prosit…..and may I be so bold as to suggest inserting the word “perceived” before “a sense of civic duty”. To my mind civic duty needs to be based on an honest and well researched approach to the issue, and on being able to offer viable alternatives. Astrid Vella and her wannabes have offered none of these. The tragedy is that the nation can actually be held to ransom by the likes of them. Oddly enough, I now believe the public affairs exercise has started in earnest. Is it too late?
[Daphne – Of course it is. But it’s certainly not too late to tell her where to shove her opera house, if you will forgive the expression. Gejja bl-opera house, hej – as though she’s going to be in the front row every night, shelling out EUR250 each time, bil-qamel taghha.Typical Astrid: she dictates, others pay. Are the FAA going to subsidise this opera house they want? Are they going to buy tickets and hand them out to the poor and needy? U morru l’hemm, tridux. Look at her mentality: she’s happy to have stopped the museum project, and that’s where her interest ends. Now she’s already moved on to the next thing. Meanwhile, the tapestries whose incipient home she’s bombed still need somewhere to go. But Astrid isn’t going to stick around for the discussion of where this might be, and how it might be funded now that there isn’t the money to pay for it. No – because her interest was not the well-being of the tapestries. Her interest was the undermining of the project for the power-rush it gave her.]
With hindsight the Cathedral Foundation (given the size of the project) could have invested a few thousand Euros on a PR exercise, given the way misinformation spreads so easily. There is a lot of paranoia/scepticism on the island, and hence mudslinging, lies, and misinformation are easily spread around. Alfred Sant knew this and so do Astrid and Muscat.
It seems that the FAA’s spectrum of interest is widening at a fast rate. I would not be surprised if they start commenting on the budget, and every other issue under the sun.
Your explanation above on tapestries was quite interesting. Thanks. I have visited a number of museums, but stupid me, never realised that UV rays were the main concern.
The elves commenting on The Times seem to be online 24 hours a day. It’s always the same people, same boring comments. They use the usual limited vocabulary: “gonzipn” (as if it is a word), etc. I wonder whether they have a job, or whether they’re just laid-back loonies who are not able to fit in a productive work environment.
[Daphne – Oh, they have a job, but being Laburisti and AD anti-capitalists, they screw the boss by doing it on his time.]
Just read The Times article “FAA calls for resignation of St John’s Foundation members” and the subsequent comments. It just confirms that beauty and class are virtues best admired inside cathedrals! The spite and hate in this country are just overwhelming and hence why we can never aspire to match the greatness embodied by those who left these timeless masterpieces behind. Ugliness begets ugliness and if this was the attitude of our forefathers then, one must wonder why the Hospitallers had even bothered to do so much for the inhabitants of these islands.
As I final thought, and I hope that I won’t be slaughtered for this, would it be perhaps an idea to try and integrate the now-aborted St John’s Museum with the new building at the site of the Royal Opera House?
[Daphne – . Also, I favour Din L-Art Helwa’s stance that we should first examine the EIA and the technical aspects – which are not available yet – before passing judgement.”
And who was going to foot the bill for the EIA’s “technical aspects” anyway?
[Daphne – The cathedral foundation, Sybil. Not you. You are being asked to fund the Labour Party’s electricity bill and Jason Micallef’s salary. Perhaps you should ask Astrid Vella about the EIA. She described it as ‘already flawed’ in her petition, when it hadn’t even been published yet. And you tell me this woman has integrity? It’s bad enough that those who signed the petition did so without asking this fibbing, manipulative woman what those flaws were, and for a copy of the EIA that didn’t exist.]
DAPHNE;
‘The underground heritage of Valletta’ – I direct you to a comment posted here by the grandson of the building contractor who, after the war, landfilled WITH RUBBLE the space beneath St John’s Square – which is a square only because the houses that stood there were bombed. I happen to know that there were houses there, even if there weren’t photographs to prove it, because my maternal grandmother’s family owned and lived in one of them until her father lost it on a horse. Yes, Sybil, beneath St John’s Square there is nothing but…..rubble.”
If what you say is correct, then why did the Foundation report to the police and MEPA the owner of an outlet next door who excavated his basement and in so doing caused irreparable damage to the underground protected heritage of St John’s a few years ago, if as you allege, THERE IS NOTHING BUT RUBBLE ANYWAY?
[Daphne – That’s what I mean about you not being able to distinguish between fact and opinion, Sybil. I’m beginning to wonder how you got your medical degree, and what sort of diagnosis you give your patients. “Oh umm, let me see: the neighbours said that if you have this kind of growth then it must be cancer. But Astrid Vella says this itchy rash is indicative of a fungal infection….”. I’m going to write in capital letters now: THE EXCAVATION WAS GOING TO TAKE PLACE UNDER ST JOHN’S SQUARE, NOT UNDER THE CATHEDRAL. THE CAFE YOU MENTION WAS IN THE CATHEDRAL STRUCTURE ITSELF, HENCE THE WELL THAT WAS DAMAGED WAS UNDER THE CATHEDRAL, NOT UNDER THE SQUARE. I hope all is clear now.]
@ Sybil
For your information, under section 8.5 of the application form for ERDF projects (Operation Programme 1, freely downloadable from the PPCD website – http://www.ppcd.gov.mt) one has to state whether a Planning and Environmental Permit is required and section 10.2 is all about Sustainable Development – Environmental Sustainability.
So if these two conditions were not met, the funding would have been withdrawn. This is one of the reasons why most of the projects that were applied for in September 2007 and January 2008 have still not started yet – one first applies, then if given the green light from the Project Selection Committee, applies for the necessary permits and only then can the project start (the project leader shold have envisaged the delay and indicated the project start date accordingly). This is also partly the reason why Joseph Love-in-the-Air Muscat is insisting that Malta has been a net contributor for 2007 and 2008(I am sure we shall hear this today in one of his Sunday morning’s sermon).
DCG: “The people don’t give a damn. Some people, on the other hand, are on a mission. People who don’t give a damn don’t open their mouths. People who are on a mission never shut them.”
What’s your mission, dear Daphne?
[Daphne – I’ve said it before. I’m an entertainer. I am paid to entertain others.]