All the hypocrites are coming out of the woodwork
Here's the one that Victor Ragonesi and friends got rid of
Just check out the barely credible dishonesty of this letter.
It’s written by a man who was part and parcel of this country’s political administration in the early 1960s, when the 19th century gate to the city was wiped out, the flanking curtain walls dynamited and bedrock excavated to create the ghastly gateway and desert behind it which I have known all my life.
What was Victor Ragonesi at the time? PA to the PM?
Member of cabinet?
Maybe he would care to enlighten us.
The Times – Monday, 6th July 2009
The Valletta plans
Victor E. Ragonesi, Sliema
Hands off Valletta and its original entrance; everybody. Valletta is the second city in Europe with all its roads parallel, north/south/east/west. The first city with parallel roads in Europe was part of Turin, in northern Italy. Nobody has the right to desecrate Malta’s capital.
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I suggest you dedicate a paragraph on this imbecile and his letter in your Sunday article for maximum exposure.
He was PA to a Nationalist PM. Why didn’t you write it, Ms Caruana Galizia? Or is it just Mintoff and il-lejburisti who are destructive?
[Daphne – I did write it, dumbo. If I’m guilty of any crime it’s taking my readers’ general knowledge for granted. Everyone knows who was prime minister in 1964. We are reminded of it every year, when we get a public holiday – and it’s not to celebrate my birth, either. Or maybe saying ‘everyone’ is an exaggeration – that wotsit Sander Agius of Zoo ‘blogged’ recently on maltastar.com that it was years before he discovered why there’s a public holiday on 21 September, his excuse being that he comes from a Labour family and he was never told. He never asked, either. And another thing, I wasn’t even born when that gate went down, so you can hardly accuse me of supporting the decision – not least because my entire extended family was anti-Nationalist at the time, and voted for the Progressive Constitutional Party.]
And I won’t believe you don’t stand to gain anything from this.
[Daphne – Believe what you like, loser. People like you, who lack the balls to put your name to your opinion and show everyone what you’re thinking are incapable of understanding that some of us are (1) capable of holding strong opinions about public issues, and (2) defending them with or without fervour and with or without fear or favour. Now wriggle back to your hole, worm.]
nilghab zobbi li ma ggibx il-kummenti tieghi
[Daphne – I just did. You had no balls to start with, and now you don’t have a prick, either. Perhaps they should dress you in a red satin loincloth, give you a harp and stand you at the entrance to the city as the resident eunuch.]
Ilghaq, ilghaq u ilghaq Pawl.
How about putting Pawlu’s wotsit up for auction now that he’s lost it? Doubt you’ll have much bidders for dead meat.
Wrong move, Pawlu-Pawl. Never pawn your phallus for a challenge. Try pawning your Queenie for a Rookie – you might still fend off a mate for a eunuch.
You’ve lost your aforementioned appendage, Pawl. It belongs to Daphne now, who will undoubtedly make it into a weathervane. It blows a fair bit up on them there hills, you know.
[Daphne – I don’t know what it is, but when you allow men into the room the conversation always seems to turn to the same topic.]
And how are the other esteemed English speaking readers going to understand this bas(e)ic Maltese? LOL
Dhalt ghaliha Pawl !
“What was Victor Ragonesi at the time? PA to the PM? ”
I believe he was the PN’s Secretary (at the time, the post was not yet that of Secretary-General).
[Daphne – He was secretary to the prime minister. “The year is 1964 and Malta is preparing itself for independence from the British colonial masters. It is a historic moment and the country is at a crossroads. For the umpteenth time the Maltese Prime Minister’s First Secretary, Victor Ragonesi takes off for London to participate in talks that will eventually lead to the much-awaited appointment in Malta’s history.” – interview with Victor Ragonesi in Malta Today, 16 June 2002]
I think when Dr Ragonesi writes: “Hands off Valletta and its original entrance; everybody,” he’s simply being retrospective. It’s what he had wanted to say in the sixties, but didn’t. So he says it now para la chumpa…
Alternatively, it’s a grand case of senility: he believes the present ‘bieb tal-garaxx’ is in fact the original entrance…
taking your readers’ general knowledge for granted or simply omitting to remind us the PM back then (with his destructive plans for Valletta) was also Nationalist?
then & now…they are undemocraticaly screwing Valletta
you told KZT he comes from a selective social group, but you are totally off mark again. There are several intelligent Nationalists who dont like the style of Piano’s designs
do we always have to bow down and agree with what Gonzi PM decrees even when we dont like his ideas?
life has become so expensive in Malta….the current GM is totally disconnected from reality
I think you and Gonzi make perfect play mates – you obviously do not hold anybody in high regard except your self and couldnt give two hoots if people are struggling financially
piano piano ci fottano tutti
[Daphne – Your arguments would be more convincing if they were written properly, but then you would need an argument to start with. ‘I don’t like it therefore it’s wrong’ is an illogical statement.]
I would suggest to Mr. Micallef to go and brush up his Italian. I can’t quite fathom why many resort to a foreign language of which they have no good grasp. Stick to Maltese, James. Translating – verbatim literatim – from your mother-tongue to English is not really recommended, you know.
And sentences begin with a capital letter.
I knew Dr. Ragonesi of the 1960s to be a respectable gentleman with a good dose of political acumen, who served the Nationalist Party and the nation well at the time.
But that is almost 50 years ago and retired respectable gentlemen should remain respectfully retired since most just do not fare well in halfhearted comebacks.
Applying 50-year-old theories to today’s circumstances is fraught with unwarranted distortions. Dr. Ragonesi should have stayed away from this issue having had his fingers in the pie when the existing ‘City Gate’ was erected.
What Renzo Piano has designed adds value to the city entrance and is a throwback to the design of those gentlemen who built Valletta for future gentlemen.
I don’t think that Dr. Ragonesi’s comments are the result of ‘senility’ but that they are a mischievous jibe because certain events of the last few decades did not unfold the way he thought was best for the Nationalist Party.
In spite of his views, which he has every right to have, he has been proven wrong as evidenced by the Nationalist Party’s successes since 1987.
@ Pawlu
Your beloved Labour Party thrives on people like you with limited (if any at all) brains. I think you have been an eunuch since the 1970s when Mintoff identified you as such at a dockyard meeting. Remember that?
Let’s be pragmatic. A lot of those who are the most passionate about restoring the opera house and the entrance to Valletta will be dead by the time these projects have been completed.
I don’t think there is any Nationalist who does not agree that the destruction and replacement of the old gate – together with the building of the disproportionate Law Courts facade – was a major blunder of a PN administration, made worse by throwing away the stones when they could have been reassembled elsewhere. Piano is now trying to remedy that blunder without committing another one (building a replica). There is no attempt by anyone, not even the PN itself, to cover up or re-write history. That is rather the speciality of the PL, actually.
On another point, I don’t know why Dr Ragonesi mentions the streets of Valletta. If anything, filling up the open space at the entrance will re-establish the grid pattern in that area.
And this one, who was kicked out by Ninu, is sulking in the corner.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090706/letters/the-valletta-plans-1
Miskina Malta !
Could it be that Victor Ragonesi is still feeling guilty, being who he was during those years, about the way City Gate was broken to pieces so as to build the monstrosity we have today? Could it be that the works of the master, Renzo Piano, make him feel bad about the current gate? Could it be that he now understands that, at least, the former entrance should have been dismantled and preserved?
Dr Ragonesi –
I am not sure which city in Europe had parallel streets first. Arguably the Borgo of S. Pietro in the Rome in the mid C15th is a candidate. The great Alberti is credited with influencing efforts to ‘rationalise’ its street plan. But I am sure there are earlier examples. There is nothing sacrosanct about a grid plan, incidently; both Vitruvius and Alberti believed, as did Laparelli, that curved streets were called for in certain instances.
It is, however, not generally realised that Senglea was probably the first planned city in Malta. It has a grid plan like Valletta but its planimetry is (sensibly) skewed so that it comes to terms with the site. Nothing much is known about the development of Malta’s first new city, who planned it, and so on. The frescos of Perez d’Aleccio indicate that the streets were laid out in a grid pattern by 1565.
Several of those commenting on timesofmalta.com are worried that the Renzo Piano project might jeopardise Valletta’s status as UNESCO World Heritage site. These people must be wearing blinkers! If the present monstrosities (the city gate, the arcades, the flats on top of the arcade, the law courts) do not threaten the city’s status, then most definitely Renzo Piano’s project will not.
There were buildings which were higher than the bastions at Porta Reale , or better still Porta San Giorgio.
I think you’re trying to be a bit too clever. Porta San Giorgio started being called Porta Reale around 1600. So Porta Reale would be correct (or Kingsgate – if you prefer).
@ john: Nice to know that it was called Porta Reale from 1600. Can you tell me from where you got this information, I thought it originated in the British era. We had no kings in the knights period, even though the Grand Master was called is-Sultan.
If it was originally called Porta San Giorgio then where was I being “too clever”?
John. If you care to examine the hundreds of original maps and plans of Valletta published/drawn since 1566, you will find that pre 1600 the gate was referred to as Porta San Giorgio, and after that date it was called Porta Reale.
“Too Clever” because “buildings which were higher than the bastions” only appeared in Porta Reale times. If you look at the important Francesco dell’Antella map of Valletta of 1602 you will see that just inside the gate (where parliament is to be erected, and where the “council flats” are), there are no buildings at all. These were built later. Therefore : “or better still Porta San Giorgio” is not better at all, but is incorrect. Incidentally, the gate is referred to as Porta Reale in this 1602 map.
I hope this answers your questions.
Thanks for your erudite reply, John.
Naħseb li dan huwa suġġett li ma naħsibx li wieħed għandu jdaħħal politika fih. Il-Belt Valletta hija tal-poplu Malti kollu u allura m’għandux il-poplu jinqasam fuq suġġett bħal dan.
Kulħadd għandu dritt jiddiskuti u jagħti opinjoni tiegħu. Ma tagħmilx sens li għax Nazzjonalist trid taqbel bilfors mall-proġett li ħejja il-Perit ta’ fama internazzjonali is-Sur Piano. U lanqas ma tagħmel sens li għax Laburist ma taqbilx mall-proġett.
Hemm mitt argument biex taqbel u mija oħra biex ma taqbilx.
L-opinjoni tiegħi.
Bħala idea ta’ belt rinnaximentali jkun jixraq li l-belt naraw bieb li jkun jixraqilha, jiġifieri bieb ġdid li juri d-dekor u s-sbuħija ta’ din il-belt. Ma tagħmlix sens li tibni l-bieb oriġinali jiġifieri l-bieb ta’ Żmien il-Kavallieri – Porta San Giorgio. Lanqas dak li bnew l-Ingliżi u wisq aktar il-kruha tal-bieb li għandna llum. Kont naqbel li jinbena bieb xieraq li fih dekorazzjoni li tixraq lil din il-belt Majestuża.
L-idea li l-foss jiġi mibdul fi ġnien sabiħ hija idea ġenjali. U tkun isbaħ kemm-il darba l-karozzi tal-linja ma jibqgħux ikerrhu d-daħla tal-belt…u forsi minflok venda naraw ġdid sabiħ mdawwar mal-funtana.
L-idea tat-teatru hija idea oħra sabiħa. Kif ġa semmejt ma tagħmilx sens tibni bini li jkun waqa’. Ma ninsewx li t-teatru Rjali lanqas kien bini oriġinali fil-belt u tajjeb li ngħidu li għalkemm fid-deher kien sabiħ, meta mqabbel ma’ belt rinnaxximentali kien stil ieħor. U allura li tħalli l-fdalijiet oriġinali u minnu innifsu qed turi l-Istorja ta’ dak li għaddew minnu l-Maltin ta’ qabilna filwaqt li tużah għall-bżonn tal-poplu llum hija idea tajba.
Il-Parlament għadni dubbjuż dwaru. U allura mhux se nikkumenta.
Naħseb li meta wieħed jħares lejn il-Proġett irid iħares lejh bħala ħaġa sħiħa. Xi ħadd sema’ l-parking li naħseb hija vera problema fil-belt…allura tajjeb li n-nies tal-belt ikollhom alternattivi bħalma hi l-Park and Ride u forsi jkun hemm ideat innovattivi oħrajn.
Jekk veru iridu s-sbuħija tal-belt allura iridu ineħħu bini ikrah li tela’ dan l-aħħar 50sena. Pero’ fl-istess ħin x’ħa jsir minn dawn in-nies?
Naħseb li dan il-proġett irid isir man-nies għan-nies. Ovvjament se ssib min jaqbel jew ma jaqbilx għas-sempliċi raġuni politika u oħrajn li jikkrittikaw b’mod kostruttiv għax f’qalbhom veru jixtiequ li l-Belt tibqa’ sabiħa anzi tisbieħ bħala ġawhra f’pajjiżna.
Grazzi
(Jekk joġgħobkom ikkritikaw mingħajr tgħajjir :P )
Laburist
“Jekk veru iridu s-sbuħija tal-belt allura iridu ineħħu bini ikrah li tela’ dan l-aħħar 50sena.”
Hares sewwa u tara li l-Posta u l-ghassa tal-belt se jitwaqqghu biex ikun hemm fetha mal genb tal-Knisja ta’ Santa Katerina. Kemm tiflah twaqqa’ bini ikrah?
timesofmalta.com Galea. L (6 days, 7 hours ago)
Corinne Vella BECAUSE IT IS AN IDIOTIC PROJECT WHICH IS A BLASPHEMY. Valletta is an old city built by gentlemen for gentlemen and not a modern city. Piano’s project is good for a modern city, but not an old FORTIFIED city like Valletta. What shall we say? Welcome to City Gate without a Gate. Welcome to a theatre without a roof. Welcome to a Parliament on stilts because our MPs want to be seen taller.
What a caveman this guy is.