The Chapel of Bones
Sometimes, I remember why I prefer the Nationalist Party to the other two. It’s slick without the dirty tricks (I’m not counting the extremely dirty tricks of some MPs). I just LOVED the way the government pulled the rug right out from under the whining ‘I want a cultural venue not a parliament’ mob by announcing the multi-million-euro regeneration of Fort Elmo into a cultural venue, albeit with a cruise-liner passenger terminal attached. Even better was the presence on the board that will oversee the project of Martin Galea, Din L-Art Helwa’s executive president.
Now when the Astrid lot make their demands for the bomb-site, we can say, “What – do you want ANOTHER cultural centre? ANOTHER museum area? Off the back of the tax-payer? So are two not enough for you – St James and St Elmo?”
And when, as will invariably happen, she attacks the board and demands its resignation, she will be making a direct attack on the president of Din L-Art Helwa.
Now hold your breath for the Mainguard.
The announcement of the Fort St Elmo project, which will also take in the Evans Laboratory building, met with the usual comments from lgalea and friends on www.timesofmalta.com. They are demanding that the Chapel of Bones be rebuilt.
I stopped for a while, and I thought: can they be serious?
Where do they suggest the government gets the bones – from the wholesale slaughter of its enemies?
15 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
As if the project will ever be completed in our lifetime anyway. And everyone knows that Martin Galea is a blue eyed St Edwards boy anyway so no surprises about the appointment.
[Daphne – The last time I looked, his eyes were brown. And it’s a damned relief to have so many St Edward’s boys on that board, anyway – they tend to be much better at getting things done than the armies of St Aloysius boys in parliament. Behind every St Aloysius boy in the public eye, you’ll usually find a St Edward’s boy doing the real work.]
Daphne, that is completely untrue and you know it. [Daphne – No, I don’t know it. What I see is actually the opposite. I wrote an article about it once – that the reason our politicians are such bad managers is because they’re all (1) lawyers and (2) educated at St Aloysius. Before they had their backs broken, schools had a particular ethos and moulded girls and boys for a particular role in life. With Sacred Heart it was good wives. With St Dorothy’s it was fending for yourself. With St Edward’s it was public servants and army officers (hence the rigid self-discipline, which not all could take and some cracked), and with St Aloysius it was Becoming An Important Person or a Professional.]
It’s the other way round. The St Aloysius boys work very hard and most become self-made people. I’m not denigrating St Edward’s, but they do tend to be born with silver spoons in their mouths, don’t they? [Daphne – No, they don’t necessarily.]
And the Old Boys network a’ la’ St Edwards does exist. [Daphne – Are you for real? The prime minister, leader of the opposition, president, and practically every member of parliament went to St Aloysius. With St Aloysius around, you don’t need Freemasony.]
There are many appointees in government that are there because they were St Edward’s boys [Daphne – You’ve got it. They tend to be the best. Not always, but a lot of the time. Of course, I know several super-smart managerial people who went to St Aloysius, but to my mind, they are the exceptions that prove the rule. Those were not the qualities the school set out to cultivate. And of course, St Edward’s did produce Noel Arrigo.]
I do believe you went to St Aloysius College sixth form [Daphne – Yes, I and all three of my sisters, and my husband, and one of my sons, and one of my grandfathers, and my father-in-law, and my sister-in-law, and my brothers-in-law….(all on my list of good ones, of course). And I can tell you that I loved it every bit as much as I loved the convent.]
Does that mean you have a plethora of St Edward’s boys working for you? [Daphne – I have nobody working for me. The new business model is outsourcing. Catch up.]
Gerald: “As if the project will ever be completed in our lifetime anyway.”
Given your reaction to the scuttling of the St John’s co-Cathedral project, I’d have imagined you’d be relieved that nothing would be done about this one.
Had enough of projects, experts, bull, gossip and games. [Daphne – I think you’ll find the FAA provided most of that.]
Provide the right infrastructure, basic roads, lighting, heating, training for people born on the island, others who choose to stay and guests, transport and a good internet service and you will be surprised how investment would flood in. [Daphne – So…….if we have roads, lighting, heating and training, Astrid and the FAA will stop trying to sabotage projects and correct procedure, and investment will flood in. How does that follow, I wonder? What a run of non sequiturs.]
Sometimes I really wonder if we live on the same island or not. Are they going to build a bridge across the harbour? Honestly…… [Daphne – Why in God’s name not? Because you don’t want one? Again, how does that follow?]
How would trucks get to St John’s? Republic street? Merchant’s street? For crying out loud……How can you compare Rome, Athens to Valletta? [Daphne – How, indeed – the one is so much more beautiful and thick with precious monuments; the other is the most ancient city in Europe (I have to correct myself – earlier I said that the most ancient city was Rome). Valletta is just 550 years old and has just a few palaces in it – nice, but there are more in Lecce. They just don’t have the historic significance of having been built by the Order of St John.]
What about the other cavalier, the one by Hasting’s gardens. I understand that it’s leased out to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. There are no windows there and the building is high, mighty and impressive. [Daphne – What a socialist attitude: snatch back a building and throw out the respectable tenants because you’ve suddenly had a bright idea. Besides, the tapestries must be displayed in the context of the cathedral for reasons that are probably beyond you to understand. You may not understand the obligation to respect the context, but you might understand this: hive the tapestries off from the cathedral and few of the millions who visit St John’s will make the trip up Valletta to see them. Most visit in large groups, and large groups are notoriously difficult to herd around. Also, tapestries are not magnetically popular attractions, so you will go to look at them if you’re in the museum already, but you’re not going to make a point of visiting a tapestry museum.]
The last things that guests who visit Malta want to do is get stuck in a bunker, plenty of that back home. Anyone who has ever lived away or worked in tourism would probably agree. Most Maltese think that everything local is rubbish so not even going there. Some bars or clubs do not even sell Maltese wine, go figure……. [Daphne – More non sequiturs.]
Yeah, let’s listen to the experts, shall we? Which ones? I would say that Joseph Calleja is a bit of an expert in his little art and yet? [Daphne – Joseph Calleja can sing. I can write. This does not make me an expert as to whether we should have a theatre for plays.] Oh, is the minister who closes clubs and gets untrained policemen to throw people out an expert? So detached. Let them eat cake. [Daphne – Actually, sweetheart, you’re detached, which is why you and the party for which you vote invariably ends up on the opposition benches. You’re one of those who make the mistake of listening only to some people but not to others. And you got your last quotation wrong, too.]
You forgot St Aloysius also produced Sonny Boy as well. As for super smart managers, you also forgot the plethora of business people it produced. My year was exceptional for that. As for the St Aloysius Old Boy network, it doesn’t exist at all.
I agree with you that outsourcing is the new business model, though. But it can burn, basically because of the inability of the Maltese to build Chinese walls. I have been let down pretty badly when I outsourced something. Let down as in the fact that my competitors know what I was about to do as soon as I was about to do it. A bit of free advice……should you wish to heed it. [Daphne – It doesn’t really affect the field I work in.]
[Daphne – Are you for real? The prime minister, leader of the opposition, president, and practically every member of parliament went to St Aloysius. With St Aloysius around, you don’t need Freemasonry.]
I agree completely, for a change…
Mario Debono: “As for the St Aloysius Old Boy network, it doesn’t exist at all.”
Eh? Please.
I have one point the make and a question to ask. The Grandmaster’s Palace houses its own set of Gobelin tapestries, as it were, in situ (in the palace itself not in a museum). Is it at all necessary to house the tapestries which were donated to the Cathedral in a specially-built museum? [Daphne – The cathedral tapestries were not made at the Gobelins manufactory. They are Flemish. The palace tapestries are French. The palace tapestries are kept in near-total darkness, and when we photographed them for a magazine, we were permitted only brief access and the merest hint of light. There is a cord across the doorway to the tapestry chamber and nobody is allowed in. Despite the darkness, they are suffering damage because there is no other form of environmental control. A team of restorers works full-time at Bighi on them. We had interviewed them for Flair magazine.]
When I was young, the Perellos tapestries were hung in the Cathedral itself for a time – I forget what the occasion was, precisely. They looked totally magnificent, mostly because that is where they were meant to be displayed. [Daphne – It was for a short festive period around St John’s Day. They can no longer be hung this way because the process of furling and unfurling causes damage in itself, and because they can no longer be exposed to heat, light and the deleterious breath of thousands of people. Hanging a new tapestry in this way is one thing, but now that they are centuries old, they can no longer be used for the purpose originally intended. Matter changes with age, as you very well know.]
Al over Europe, such tapestries are hung in the very buildings which they were meant to embellish. Why can’t this be the case with the cathedral tapestries in Malta? [Daphne – Not true. It’s because the cathedral gets hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, polluting the air with their breath. And because the cathedral must be properly lit, and that amount of light would cause them further damage. And because the temperature in a cathedral cannot be controlled, whether or not you have hundreds of thousands of visitors. And because time changes the consistency of textiles, weakening them in a way that ensures after centuries they cannot be used for the purpose first intended.]
Re the Chapel of Bones: whoever is calling for it to be rebuilt is being ridiculous.
[Daphne – The cathedral tapestries were not made at the Gobelins manufactory. They are Flemish.]
Exactly. The Palace ones, as far as I know, are Gobelin tapestries. [Daphne – Sorry, but I’m one hell of a pedant when it comes to language. The phrase “The Grandmaster’s Palace houses its own set of Gobelin tapestries” implies that the cathedral tapestries were made at the Gobelins manufactory, too. The correct way to write it would have been “The Grandmaster’s Palace houses its own set of tapestries, which were made at the Gobelins manufactory…”. Yes, I know – what a bore I am.]
[Daphne – It was for a short festive period around St John’s Day. They can no longer be hung this way because the process of furling and unfurling causes damage in itself, and because they can no longer be exposed to heat, light and the deleterious breath of thousands of people. Hanging a new tapestry in this way is one thing, but now that they are centuries old, they can no longer be used for the purpose originally intended. Matter changes with age, as you very well know.]
Yes, I do….and I see. So if they were to be placed in a museum, would there still not be light, and would there still not be the breath of thousands of people? OK, I can understand that an underground chamber would have had tight environmental control. But light – surely there would be that.
I am not trying to be difficult – just asking.
[Daphne – I don’t think you’re being difficult. I realise these are genuine questions and I’m glad you’re trying to find out. Within a modern museum environment, textiles are trapped behind glass, either in ‘glass boxes’ or rows of glass cabinets along the walls. This protects them from pollutants in the air, to a certain extent. If the textiles are very precious – ancient robes, embroideries, and so on – the glass cabinets are highly sophisticated and allow for total environmental control. They are literally self-contained rarefied atmospheres. If they are priceless, they are kept in darkness, and when a visitor walks past, a sensor picks up the movement and briefly puts on a special sort of dim light for a minute or two, giving you just enough time to look. I don’t know how this would have been managed on the enormous scale of the St John’s museum, with so many visitors, and that is why I was eagerly awaiting this aspect of the proposal. I am very interested in these things. The reason why you are not allowed to take photographs of certain exhibits in museums is not to protect the museum’s interests, but because the brief burst of intensely bright light is extremely deleterious. Cameras are now very sophisticated and you can take pictures without using a flash, so many museums allow this.]
@DCG: “of course, St Edward’s did produce Noel Arrigo” – true, but UK’s Lord Chief Justice Sir Ivor Judge should even that one out.. and don’t forget our friend with the fancy red socks.
@Gerald: Don’t you get tired carrying that chip around? The reason why you know so little about Martin Galea is that he doesn’t need the gutter press to publicise his work – which, I assure you, he does very well.
Gerald (again): would you prefer a reverse set of criteria to be used in selecting people to sit on a board?
“Right, let’s see, you were at St Edward’s. No, I’m afraid that disqualifies you.”
Let’s put the matter differently. Who’d be your choice to replace Martin Galea?
[Daphne – Behind every St Aloysius boy in the public eye, you’ll usually find a St Edward’s boy doing the real work.]
Let’s not start generalising about St Edward’s and St Aloysius, or we could start counting the high-profile criminals from St Edward’s!
[Daphne – We’ve already mentioned two of them, so relax.]
Tonio – And the would-be presidents – no, make that “president” – of the world here:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081107/local/roll-call-of-leaders-at-st-aloysius
[Daphne – We’ve already mentioned two of them, so relax.]
Touché!
OK – granted. Bad wording on my part.
Re the rest of your post – very interesting. Hopefully something will be done about the Flemish tapestries. They deserve to be exhibited, one way or another.