Kajbews and Indians, Muslims and Christians
Never mind, boys - Renzo Piano will breach their bastions and then we can pour in and eat the b*ggers on toast
Some people haven’t evolved beyond Form 1 and Gateway to Our Nation’s History: Renzo Piano is doing what the Ottoman Empire failed to do (and what’s more, he’s doing it by direct order).
timesofmalta.com Alfred Farrugia
What the Ottoman Empire failed to do, Renzo Piano is doing “by direct order” with the stroke of a pen – a breach in the Valletta bastions! What could be simpler and less expensive than a gateless city? Has Piano considered blocking City Gate so that everyone enters Valletta in front of Castille? Is this compatible with a World Heritage site? Is the “flying” House of Representatives on stilts a direct response to Labour’s promised earthquake? What is so magic about a comb of steel pillars that do not even have to support a roof? Valletta is not Sydney or Singapore, so a 1,000 seat covered theatre would have been enough. The Sydney Opera Theatre – unlike the Concert Hall – seats 1,500! How much does each segment of this 80 million euro project cost? How much are the design fees for this project? Renzo Piano’s proposals are valid, but an international competition could have provided a wider and possibly a better choice. Having waited for 60 years, why do we have all this rush to finish the project in this legislature? Malta deserves a better legacy and value for money.
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As if an international competition would have changed anything for the timesofmalta.com brigade of doomsayers! In a rather funny thread on Facebook, a few of us were trying to understand what could make these people happy. Here are a few things “pjano” should have included: gold aluminium, red cobbles, red roping for staircases, plastic covers to cover all seating, stone lions on each side of the gate, lavur, balavostri etc… only then we can claim to have done something “mill-maltin ghall-maltin”.
Sounds too familiar to the people waving around Col. Gadaffi’s “plan” to infiltrate Europe and turn it into a Muslim nation.
I can’t believe why people are so concerned about weather effects on an open-air theatre. Being a Swede I can assure that these people have no clue of proper, round-the-year, rain and wind and I have enjoyed several open-air venues in my own home country.
“Malta deserves a better legacy and value for money.”
Next he will propose the construction of Malta’s largest Lidl outlet.
Malta deserves better people.
As I’ve always maintained: Malta’s a wonderful country to be in, were it not for the Maltese!
“What the Ottoman Empire failed to do, Renzo Piano is doing “by direct order” with the stroke of a pen ”
Somebody please tell this dumbass that Valletta was built after the Great Siege.
Does that include you, or are you “special”?
Egregio Professor Renzo Piano…
You have been hereby accused of “aiding and abetting” the enemy…The Turkeys
Re:
“Some people haven’t evolved beyond Form 1 and Gateway to Our Nation’s History: Renzo Piano is doing what the Ottoman Empire failed to do (and what’s more, he’s doing it by direct order).”
Sorry lass, this chap and others could not have made it to Form 1.
SUR (ta’ l-injoranza) Farrugia et al…Just shut up.
Please stop embarrassing us.
Sigh…..
Truly is there any point in carrying this discussion further? The arrogant, ignorant element will continue to pour tiresome drivel whatever the plans and propositions made. I am just waiting for the day when the final seal of approval is given and the “first stone” laid down, then perhaps the nonsense will diminish.
Mentioning stupid people that comment on timesofmalta.com. There’s this nobody who goes by the name ‘L.Galea’ who has a way of posting the most stupid of comments. Whenever I bother to read his comments and try to reply to his ignorance, timesofmalta.com never publishes my comment. I think he has some sort of protection from timesofmalta.com. Can you make some sort of page on your blog dedicated to him and call it ‘L.Galea’s Ignorance Daily’?
If your comments are not appearing, it could be because you did not provide the required info. I sent them an email and they told me that the minimum required was a letter for the name and a surname. I think you should register too, but I’m not sure if this is strictly required for the comment to show.
I registered months ago but can never log in because the system recognises my email address but not my password, even if it has just been reset by the system itself.
Sorry Yanika but you do not have much experience of the site if you are not sure that one can comment without being registered. Of course they can.
Joachim is right – the webmaster or whoever runs (badly) the Times website censors comments and rarely publishes those they disagree with. This can be observed especially in comments regarding immigrants – for some reason, although the printed version is moderate in the way it treats the immigrant question, the person/s running the website are firmly committed on the anti-immigrant, anti-African, side.
The arrogance of some people who presume they know it all is just so unbelievable that, at times, I start to doubt if all these comments are serious..
patrick abdilla : seriously i am no architect but i could have come with better ideas then those, it makes me feel ashamed that i am maltese.
Patrick Farrugia: it is about time that the people are consulted on such projects.
C. FENECH: Oh by the way I am no famous architect…..I mean I did not win any of the prestigious prizes (Obviously others have)….but since I will be footing part of the bill…….
Antoine Farrugia : At Freedom Square I leave an open place with a fountain and something of that sort. Regarding the bridge and City Gate, I would prefer something like the bridge in Rome infront of Castel Sant’Angelo with 8 statues of the Knights who served Malta, L’Isle Adam and La Valette the last two statues before entering City Gate and on each side of city gate 2 statues of Gerolamo Cassar and Francesco Laparelli…I’m not an architect but I’m sure that this should be a MORE beautiful image to our city.
dusty williams: Rigward id-disinn, m’hemmx hafna x’tista tghid, nahseb anke student tal arkitettura kapaci johrog b’xi haga ahjar.
Maria Pace: Dear Renzo, Why all the construction and why all the narrowness – Do you get paid by weight?
effie carbonaro: I think you should hear the ideas of the Maltese because they differ very much from yours.
Raymond Huber : Entering Valletta in four years time (?) will definitely not make me feel I’m entering a city build by the Knights as a defense from the enemy but Zulu land.
NGT: aaaaargh
Someone tell this gormless idiot that the Ottoman Empire never attacked Valletta. He doesn’t have two brain cells to rub together. Not only is he a romantic ignoramus, but a fool as well. This unbelievable pimple also has the unmitigated gall to call the theatre design ‘a steel comb’.
I think we had better just divide the whole area up and build it as ‘plotts tal-gvern, garaxx isfel, zewg masunetti u flett fuq’. Forsi t-tfal ta Grejsi u Klottie ikollom fejn joqghodu.
Some history lessons from an ignoramus –
After the debacle of 1565 the OttomanTurks couldn’t afford another attack on Malta. They never attacked Valletta. Lord Strickland constructed Triq Glormu Cassar before World War II. He breached Castille Place. Dom Mintoff breached the bastions from Barriera Wharf and nearly chopped the Valletta side tip of Fort Saint Elmo’s bastions when he built Triq il-Mediterran. Portes des Bombes probably was one of the first breaches in Valletta’s bastions, which start from Blata l-Bajda.
According to Joseph Muscat, the government should listen to people’s suggestions. Sure, I am most surprised Gonzi didn’t think of this himself. We would then have a place suitable for the Carnival dances, for haphazard parking of oil-leaking cars, vendors of doughnuts and tatooists, a public toilet disguised as stairs, a place for the occasional political meeting and, why not, an extension of the hideous Mintoffian housing blocks.
Naturally it should definitely include ‘balavostri’, silver ‘enumilju’ and some tegole thrown in for good measure. Why can’t some people just shut up, and watch genius at work? My favourite quotation is “a camel is a horse designed by a committee”, so please lay off.
We already have all the said mentioned things in para 1 for the last twenty five years or so and nobody bothered to put a stop to them. Sometimes people are like the three wise monkeys – see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Then one day they wake up.
A very good comment I think. The Ottoman Empire metaphor is particularly telling. Another one he could have used is “Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini”
Now why aren’t I surprised that you agreed with that comment? Here’s another one for you: cacoethes carpendi et cacoethes scribendi
[Daphne – http://keithgrech.blogspot.com/ My Latin is shot to hell: a compulsion for finding fault and writing about it?]
roughly translated: A compulsive habit to find fault and to write
Negative comments come from negative people. Negative people tend to be jealous of others who have a brain.
Those who have nary a few gray cells had Malta’s water supply reduced to a few water tankers distributing water (own supporters first) when taps were dry.
Those same people had procured a second-hand telephone system and it would have been a privilege to be connected within two years after the initial application for a party line.
They had an aging power-station converted from oil to cheap coal, ruined its water distillers and were unable to obtain spares after upsetting our American friends.They allowed the airport to deteriorate to a point that it shamed the whole nation.
Now they have the nerve to criticize a project which will restore Valletta’s dignity and identity as a world heritage site. They are so smart and so well versed about Valletta’s history that they even mix up dates relating to the construction of the city itself.
Their vision is fixing an existing promenade, painting a few lamp-posts, laying a few bricks at one and a half the original estimate and finishing the project months after the promised completion date – and I almost forgot – building new flashy roads on top of agricultural soil which in itself is an illegal act.
“a project which will restore Valletta’s dignity and identity as a world heritage site” – nice words, but could you explain the hows and the whys, or are you just repeating what you have heard?
For example, how does having a “gate with no gate” (someone decribed it as “A Phantom Gate Near The Opera” and a gorilla cage nearby “restore Valletta’s dignity and identity as a world heritage site”?
[Daphne – You’re right. I’m sure Astrid Vella and George Debono can do a better job than Renzo Piano, though your assistance would be invaluable in this respect.]
John II, that’s because it’s not a gate, it’s an entrance. Valletta was built as a fortified city but cities are no longer fortified nowadays and do not need a gate that can be closed to keep out the enemy. Nobody builds city gates unless they are making a film set and building an anachronistic one for Valletta would make us look like children playing soldiers and castles (or cowboys and Indians). Grow up, Gann.
Toni, (you don’t mind if I call you Toni, do you?) all gates are entrances – and exits. And they usually fit the style to the place they provide access to and are coherent with it. If Piano’s plan is adpted, it will mean we have a walled city with all its walls practically intact but without a main gate that fits with and completes the structure. It will be like a snake without a head, a belt with no buckle, a body without a head.
Entering Valletta through that horrible gash in the forifications will be like being fed through a stomach tube rather than eating a steak.
BTW – your attempts at phishing and playing Sherlock Holmes are laughable if they were not so sad. Play the ball instead of trying to play the man.
What about re instating those two wonderful statues that were at the old entrance and mysteriously disappeared when this old entrance was pulled down and rebuilt during a PN administration. I bet these wonderful statues are at someone’s villa. Piano should include these two statues – should he or shouldn’t he? PATRICINJU MALTI…. we should all enjoy.
Ustja!
Jisimni Toni, kunjomi Abela…qed jistenna…issa ittra minghand:
Jisimni Renzo u
kunjomi Piano…
http://www.l-orizzont.com/news.asp?newsitemid=54636
“Forsi Renzo Piano jkollu ċans isir jaf b’dan l-ariklu u għalhekk nissuġġerilu jistaqsihom, lil dawk li jridu jroddu lura lill-Belt Valletta d-dinjità li jistħoqqilha: “Chiederli Signor Piano, dove sta la vecchia Porta Rejale di Valletta? Cosa hanno fatto con quello che e’ rimasto di quella porta? Chi sono quell’ gentiluomini che hanno rapito quei due grandi statue, che una volta custodevono quella porta maestosa!” Għamilli pjaċir Sur Piano, staqsihom dan kollu u għidli x’qalulek.”
His Italian is appalling. e.g. gentiluomini is plural so the article is quei not quell’ (were does the apostrophe come from?). Statue is feminine so it should be quelle not quei…..etc, etc.There are more spelling/grammar mistakes than words.
Basta jiżżattat, ja ċuċ.
A good questrion – who knows where they ended up?
It seems Toni Abela is too lazy to do his own research.
Someone has posted a comment to the effect that the statues were destroyed when a Nazi bomb hit the bridge. It didn’t sound like there was much left of them.
[Daphne – That might not be correct, because the original bridge is buried within the existing one. John might know. John?]
The military/defensive theme is very popular especially with far right posters who like to think that Malta is being invaded. This is a typical exchange on another forum:
Pisces on June 28, 2009, 10:27:30 PM » “Valletta was built as a fortified city. Leaving the door open for all and sundry instead of having some sort of gate ,to me does not sound quite appropriate.”
Saggit on June 29, 2009, 12:12:08 AM » “No?….How about all the illegals coming in? No door would keep them out.”
Piano came up with a workable solution for a problem; losers are finding problems for his solution.
Lest we get carried away with applauding or denigrating Piano’s proposal beyond normal, we have to understand that what we have seen so far are just designs at the conceptual stage, and will need to be designed in detail to ensure that the concept works from all angles. So expect some changes, some maybe quite radical, but whatever the end result, you can be sure of a fine well designed project which will identify with Malta as much as the Pompidou Centre with Paris and the Guggenheim Museum with New York. What we can expect for sure is a level of detailing to which we are not accustomed, which would hopefully become the benchmark for other developments.
Since Valletta’s enceinte has been f***ed up beyond recognition, I see no point in reconstructing anything. Besides, all the beautifully-preserved fortified “cities” from the same period aren’t cities at all, but small towns at best. The citadels in Lille, Saint Malo, Neuf-Brisach, Villefranche de Conflent, etc etc are a bit like Mdina – small, untouched, devoid of housing estates, and with hardly any vehicles entering.
We want to have our cake and eat it, too: an, ahem, “baroque” city, with full modern amenities including parking space, glitzy shops, flettsijiet ghall-haddiema, a humungous bus terminus, and a large square for that inane stupidity called Valletta Carnival.
@ Antoine Vella
What makes you surmise that the two users of another forum, to whom you refer, are far right posters?
I personally cannot agree with your contention that “the military/defensive theme is very popular especially with far right posters who like to think that Malta is being invaded”.
It is not basically correct to label forum users, who have a different view than yours with regard to illegal/irregular immigration, as “far right”.
I beg your pardon but I detest most forms of bigotry.
Dear Leo, get real. One of the posters mentioned – “Pisces” to be precise, is so far to the right that he/she is out of sight.
I know they are far right because of what they usually write especially about Africans, immigrants, Arabs, etc. In Maltese contemporary politics, ‘far right’ indicates a variegated bunch of neo-nazis, neo-fascists, racists, Europids, racialists, sacred-islanders and just plain loons.
Leo, you “detest most forms of bigotry”. This means there are some forms of bigotry you do not detest: the anti-immigrant bigotry, for example.
John II (aka Ganni Borg aka Ettore Bono), you know very well that Pisces is a she.
[Daphne – John II is not Ettore Bono unless he is using a different IP number, though I admit he has the same sort of sniping tone – what I call a bit of a male bitch.]
Well, for the record it is very easy for anybody with a reasonable grasp of IT to fake/clone an IP number.
[Daphne – I don’t think he has a reasonable grasp of IT. Ettore Bono, when I began deleting his comments, began using a variety of names and hadn’t a clue that his IP number would carry on showing up. So if it is the same person, then he would have taken the simpler option of using a computer in a different location. But I don’t think so, because Ettore Bono commented from his workplace, and I suppose John II does as well, unless they work the night shift.]
John is John (the “II” is purely to avoid ambiguity)
Any resemblance to any other poster, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
@ John II
I strive hard to be “real”. Hence, I do not understand what you mean when you say “out of sight”.
@ Antoine Vella
Does a “racist/racialist” have to be unconditionally “far right”? Moreover, you wish to insinuate that I am prone to tolerate “anti-immigrant bigotry” without having proof and evidence for your contention. Shame! Shame! Shame!
My counter-question: Is the NP politician, who stood for EP election on an anti-immigrant platform, “far right”? Could my counter-question not lead to the temptation to say that your political fold, Antoine, the NP, tolerates “far right” in and on its meadows?
Any individual, who is unbudgeable convinced of his/her beliefs/opinions/views, may be regarded by others as a bigot. Hence, my choice for the expression “detest most forms of bigotry”. In other words, Antoine, if I happen to share the views of some individual, who is labelled as a bigot, and I am convinced that the particular views are licit and legitimate, then I would be condoning that particular form of “bigotry”.
Leo Said, don’t play with words please. When you say that you detest most forms of bigotry (i.e. not all) you are basing yourself on what you, not others, qualify as bigotry. If someone else classifies an attitude as a bigoted one but you do not agree and support it anyway, you would not describe yourself as supporting bigotry.
At any rate, no PN candidate had an anti-immigrant platform. Some echoed the PM’s preoccupation regarding the logistical challenges and problems that immigration poses to the administration and said that, if elected to the EP, they would strive to get more EU help for Malta. Anti-immigrants are those who look down on immigrants and talk about them in offensive tones for no other reason than because they are African or Arab.
Did you follow Frank Portelli’s campaign at all?
Antoine, may I reciprocate? Please don’t play with words!
[Daphne – That’s it, you two. Correspondence on this subject is now closed.]
Barra il-balavostri u aluminju tinsewx it-tork tat-tarag… nistghu nitfghu xi wiehed l-hawn jew l-hemm.
By the way Daphne, the bomb that hit the bridge did not explode upon impact, it penetrated the bridge and exploded in the cavity just below the arch. When we were carrying out excavations to locate the remains of the original bridge it was noticed that a clear area which had been repaired was still visible from beneath the arch and there was severe pitting on the column walls supporting the arch, clearly indicating shrapnel impact.
Why was it necessary to excavate on top of the bridge to “locate the remains of the original bridge” when the original bridge is clearly visible from below?
And may I also ask you why you are referring to “the remains” of the original bridge? Are you implying that there are only a few fragments left?