Labour and FAA – they're the frigging limit. Project blockers, the lot of them.
Labour thinks the top shot is more attractive - daqxejn lavur u lesti
Picture shows: The naval oil depot as it looks now, and a computer-generated image of how the bastions would look without the naval oil depot.
The Times, Friday, 31st July 2009
Labour MP votes against EU funded project
Matthew Xuereb
The Labour Party’s representative on the planning authority board, Roderick Galdes, yesterday voted against an EU-funded project that will see the demolition of a British-built oil depot between Vittoriosa and Kalkara and the restoration of the bastions behind it.
Mr Galdes was the only Mepa board member to vote against the project, insisting that while the bastions were of historic importance the oil depot built by the British were of historical value too.
The area known as the Hornworks of the Post of Castille is an important stretch of the Vittoriosa bastions facing Kalkara Creek and the site of the most significant battles of the Great Siege of 1565.
It consists mainly of two smaller bastions joined together by a short curtain wall. The configuration of this part of the Vittoriosa defence wall dates from the pre-1565 period but was reconstructed after the siege and again during the 1700s under the Order’s French military engineers.
A representative of the Restoration Unit told the Mepa board that the proposed restoration works on the historic bastions included the demolition of the early 20th century building grafted onto the bastions by the British in order to serve as an oil bunkering depot.
The building is considered unrelated to the historic fortifications and has served mainly to obscure them from view.
This intervention will help make the area more imposing, re-establishing the relationship between the historic ramparts, their foreshore and the sea.
The project, which was given the go-ahead yesterday, will be co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and is expected to cost about €46,000.
At first, Mepa’s Heritage Advisory Committee was of the opinion that the request could not be favourably considered because the building formed part of the harbour’s industrial archaeology and was of architectural and historical importance. However, in a subsequent meeting, the committee reconsidered the application and noted that this was an interesting building but also “an accretion, which is distracting the legibility of the bastions and causing damage to same”.
The committee said the bastions should take priority over the building and did not find any objection on condition that the building was adequately documented from the interior/exterior through drawings and photographs.
Consulted on the application, the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage said the oil depot was supported on beams that were embedded directly into the seaward walls of the Post of Castille and were therefore damaging the fabric of the fortifications.
In addition, the Superintendence said the application also had to be seen in the light of an extensive and ongoing programme being undertaken by the Restoration Unit of the Works Division with the aim of restoring and valorising the harbour fortifications.
During a Mepa board meeting discussion on the application, it was suggested that parts of the naval oil depot would be conserved and placed in a public garden for people to admire. But the board voted against the proposal.
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Daphne. While it is true that this is a free country, and that everyone has the freedom of expression, I think you are doing your utmost to stretch this right to an extreme limit. Whilst admitting that on occasions I have found your articles to be spot on, especially those dealing with social problems etc., I (and many other PL voters, like myself, and many PN voters) think your political articles are hopelessly biased. You would be much more respected (although I don’t think you’re after this!) if you try to balance your views and try to call a spade a spade!
[Daphne – I don’t work for the state broadcaster and I am not a reporter. The newspaper for which I work pays me for my opinion, and not for a weekly round of beating about the bush, still less to report the facts – a completely different job which the journalists in the newsroom are paid to do. I am paid to tell you what I think about the facts and what I think, full stop. If I think that Joseph Muscat is a complete ***hole (I do) and I don’t think the same of the prime minister (I don’t), then that’s what you’ll get from me: ‘Joseph Muscat is an ***hole’ and not ‘In my opinion, Joseph Muscat might have some way to go before he gains our respect, but then on the other hand, he’s achieved good results in coping with Anglu Farrugia.’
Opinion columnists are not required to ‘balance’ their views and don’t do so unless they wish to commit career suicide. Haven’t you worked out yet that the least-read columnists are the most circumspect, or the ones panting to show how ‘balanced’ they are? At least if they could be amusing…..but they’re not even that. People enjoy reading opinion columns most when they fervently agree or hotly disagree, or when they are simply amused. For tomorrow’s exercise, find a baker and teach him how to bake bread.]
It is true that our past also influences our present. I’m sure that you felt (and still feel) outraged at what you and your family (and many others) suffered at the hands of violent thugs in the 1980s. But many others also feel (and still feel) outraged at what happened to them in the 1960s. Some persons from both eras are still in some form of power, so I also sympathise with those who view them in a negative light. To conclude, I feel that whatever happened in the past, should not be forgotten, but it should also NOT be used, consciously or unconsciously, to justify writing political articles that foment hatred.
[Daphne – Let’s get one thing straight. I don’t criticise the present Labour Party because of the past Labour Party, but because the present Labour Party is a joke, stuffed to the gills with clowns and jackasses like Anglu Farrugia, Toni Abela and Jason Micallef, that weirdo Anthony Zammit with his 1001 house-keys randomly distributed, that empty shell of a leader onto whom people project whatever they wish because they’re too desperate for change to see that there really is nothing there, the vulgarity, the crassness, the ignorance, the shallow thinking….it’s endless. And I’m talking about the party officials and politicians themselves, and not their supporters. Labour are clueless. The only way they could ever win an election was this way: by hanging around in a policy-free zone peopled by freaks and jerks until The People got sick enough of the other lot. Oh, what an achievement. Tal-ghageb.]
One can, of course, debate Galdes’s vote endlessly, and I myself would find myself in difficulty in approving the demolition of a historic building, whatever the era it dates from. There seems to be the mentality in Malta that only structures from the period of the Knights are worth preserving, protecting and enhancing. Buildings constructed by “the British” seem to be considered only for their scrap value, to be demolished at will.
Well, they are also part of our heritage. Most military buildings from the British era, with a few notable exceptions, are in a dilapidated state, in spite of the fact that most of them are hardly 150 years old.
It is thanks to private citizens’ initiatives like the Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna that British-era buildings and structures are being preserved and used for their historic value (for example at Rinella).
Admittedly, most of these buildings are no architectural gems, but they show what Malta was for almost two centuries. So, really it’s a hard decision. Moreover, these buildings in Grand Harbour serve to show that our harbour was alive not only during the Knights’ time, but also during all the time since then. Maybe a part-demolition could be the answer.
I don’t think demolishing half of the building will make the area better. Sometimes you have to choose… in this case the choice is between the majestic bastions and the shabby oil depots. I would say the first wins hands down.
Since when did Labour ever gave a dam about anything British?
The early beginnings of the Labour party, previously known as the Reformist party, supported the British, while their adversaries, the Anti-Reformist party, which later became the PN, supported the nobility and the Italians, and despised anything British. all this changed by the time the first bombs fell on Malta in WW2 of course. So there is a link between the PL and the British, it seems!
Just because something is old does not mean it’s worth keeping. The oil depot is hardly the Auberge de Castille; it’s a damn ugly building. If the image is correct then 46,000 euros is bloody peanuts. The objectors are really embarrassing themselves now, not that they would ever know it. In my opinion, that’s one of the biggest problems in this country – sheer brass neck!
Ma nifhimhomx dawn in-nies!
What goes round, comes around, Daphne… We haven’t learned a thing from the battles fought pre-1987 for the right of free speech or democracy!
I would have never thought that under the leadership of the PN and, especially, Lawrence Gonzi, even Nationalists who spoke up against something or other were touted as being traitors or getting insulted in blogs or the media.
No wonder the PL is going to give the PN the largest thrashing in Maltese political history… and then God help us!
[Daphne – This blog is the result of respect for freedom of expression and awareness of the importance of technology in a country’s development. If Astrid doesn’t wish to be criticised, she can just stay home and – as Hilary Clinton notoriously said – bake cookies. One of the reasons there aren’t more women in public life and politics in Malta is because women, more than men, go to pieces under the pressure of criticism and think they have some divine right to be in public life without being “insulted”. Imagine if I had that kind of attitude. I would have stopped writing my newspaper column two months after I started – and I’m just a columnist, not somebody who set up an organisation and claims to speak on behalf of the people. Basically, I think those people at FAA should stop being so childish.
FAA’s sheer intolerance of criticism is another thing it has in common with the Labour Party. This blog has been up and running for 17 months. In that time, it saw two denial-of-service attacks on the server which put it off line: polling day in March last year, when Labour thought they had won and were celebrating already; and – bingo – a couple of days after the EP election result was in in June, when Labour thought they had got into government. You may think it’s a coincidence. I don’t. I’m not saying the Labour Party did it. I’m saying that when certain elements within the Labour Party (and their support base) smell power, their first instinct is to crush criticism and exact revenge. That denial-of-service attack was the contemporary version of setting fire to the Allied Newspapers building.
One News is now at it again: making me a target for the hatred and vilification of its ghastly mob of losers and chippy hodor because this blog was the first to reveal that the DCC approved Joseph Muscat’s permit in 24 hours. Shame for them that I have two decades of experience in handling the Labour Party’s attacks and the biggest response they’ll get from me is a reverse salute before I head for the beach.
As for the PL giving the PN the largest thrashing in Maltese political history: political parties don’t give each other thrashings. This isn’t armed combat we’re talking about. In elections it is electors who give thrashings. If you knew me well enough at all, you would understand that I am not one to move with the herd and that I tend to stick to my guns no matter what if I have taken a decision. Hence, the fact that lots of people around me have decided to start thinking through their backsides about politics in the same way they have always thought through their backsides about everything from marriage to children to work to football to not noticing that they and their friends are suffering from a really bad case of arrested mental and emotional development does not bother me at all. I’m used to it. It was the same in 1996 and I, the bloody-minded lone voice, turned out to be right in the end. Thank God I didn’t give a damn about all those idiots around me thinking they were cool to vote Labour. Il-vera msieken, jahasra. Sheep, the lot of them. As for me, I can’t wait until Labour is in government, because if I’m still around and still writing, I can tell you that I’m going to have a field day.]
“One News is now at it again: making me a target for the hatred and vilification of its ghastly mob of losers and chippy hodor because this blog was the first to reveal that the DCC approved Joseph Muscat’s permit in 24 hours.”
Daphne, but you must give One News credit where credit is due. Your name is accompanied by very flattering footage of you, with the camera moving right up your long legs….lovely dress by the way.
[Daphne – It must be ancient footage….]
That’ll larn him (one hopes).
Such a pity you couldn’t be similarly passionate about United…or at least footie…
I know this has nothing to do with this, but I could not let this pass. Mark Vella Gera came to my mind when I read about this and how the court tried to cover him up until you revealed his name on this blog.
The same thing is happening again here. U pulizija ghal giehna
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090731/local/policeman-charged-with-raping-girl
U dak li qed jiddefendih mhux dan hu http://www.anglufarrugia.com/ ?
The architect must have been totalled on rum to site the oil depot on the waterfront. The oil tanks should have been buried some way behind the bastions and the pipework laid to the quay side. What’s the history of an oil storage facility?
To think that Roderick Galdes is a Labour MP and sits on the MEPA Board, and voted in favour of retaining a nondescript carbuncle instead of exposing the original 16th century bastions, is a disgrace in itself.
Yes, let’s turn the Grand Harbour into a Knights of St John theme park. I mean…who has the right to decide which part of history is more important than others?
In case we have forgotten, last March Roderick Galdes also voted in favour of a Polidano application to build some 40 flats in Balzan in an Urban Conservation Area. Fortunately all the other Board members were against the development and one of the few remaining open enclaves in the village was saved.
Maybe the PL will try to do what they do best: stop the EU funding for the restoration.
In case we have all forgotten, the Cultural Heritage Act protects building such as the ones which are in this permit being earmarked for demolishing.
This is one aspect I honestly do not understand: why do we have laws when it is those same politicians who have introduced such laws who are then the first to break them?
Tghid mhux ha nhallat erba’ tankijiet taz-zejt ma’ world heritage fortifications?
Just to add a bit on this story: it now seems that the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, the Heritage Advisory Committee and MEPA’s own Integrated Heritage Management Unit recommended AGAINST the demolishing of the naval oil depot…
Now, these are certainly not so-called amateurs or PL politicians: shall we now be regaled with the sort of comments some fellow posters usually indulge in?
Disgusted (by the way, must be stressful being permanently disgusted) I will not indulge in comments on MEPA’s experts but will bring to your attention this quote from The Times website which you must have missed:
“The committee (i.e. Heritage Advisory Committee) said the bastions should take priority over the building and did not find any objection on condition that the building was adequately documented from the interior/exterior through drawings and photographs.
Consulted on the application, the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage said the oil depot was supported on beams that were embedded directly into the seaward walls of the Post of Castille and were therefore damaging the fabric of the fortifications.”
(http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090731/local/labour-mp-votes-against-eu-funded-project)
[Daphne – Thanks for that. Disgusted is probably relying on information that Astrid gave her, whereas I hadn’t read this at all.]
Well done Antoine for exposing Disgusted’s half truths. Disgusted embraces the same tactics of FAA – that of manipulation and distortion of the truth.