The issue here is not what she did or did not do. The issue is that Ms. Vella yet again shows her inability to base the position she takes on coherent logical arguments. In this instance, her two most stupid statements are:

“The Venetian architect Giovanni Trevisan offered us a free theatre, ..” and

“Parliament could have been accommodated in a number of beautiful buildings at a fraction of the cost.”

There were many issues where her arguments were illogical or based on information which was factually wrong. Yet people gave her the benefit of the doubt and believed her because of her persistence.

http://www.maltastar.com/pages/r1/ms10dart.asp?a=17927

Come on honey, go for it. Tell Angelik to stop the messing about Borg-in-Nadur.

You’re way off the mark here, Daph. “that generation of women” you refer to who live off their husbands do bugger-all except sip coffee at Giorgio’s. Astrid was perfectly capable and qualified enough to have a career. She did not snare herself a rich hubby to “live off”. With money not a problem, she dedicated herself to a cause. You can agree/disagree with whether the cause is valid and with how the FAA set about it, but to give the impression that she’s a manipulating sponger is a bit pathetic of you.

[Daphne – Look, Chris, I know you two are friends, but please. Being perfectly capable of finding a job and not wanting to find a job are two different things. Even in my age-group (and there was a shift inthinking between Astrid’s contemporaries and mine) there are still many women who don’t work despite being more than adequately qualified to do so (though years out of the job market has reduced their employability somewhat). You yourself, sadly, reflect that same attitude that ‘if money is not a problem’ then women ‘need not’ work. Women don’t work for money necessarily, Chris. It’s a matter of pride, dignity and self-respect. In Italy, all women work and take pride in it, even the wives of millionaires and mega industrialists. In Malta, if you have enough to live on, the woman doesn’t bother. Because work = money, nothing more. And I hate to point this out, but it is perfectly possible to hold down a job or a career AND campaign for a cause. Surely it doesn’t take all her time and energy to write internet comments and run through some documents. What would she do if she had my workload? Hang herself?]

I tell you one thing, I could do with a couple of Astrids helping the Deaf Association.

[Daphne – You would get neither her nor the support of the chattering classes, because deafness isn’t as sexy as pretending to be liberal (while all the while being reactionary and not aware of it) and mouthing off about ‘the environment’. I sympathise because I know of other causes with the same problem of getting heard. But don’t mistake getting heard for getting results. Astrid actually provokes physical and psychological negative reactions in the people she is meant to be lobbying and has even alienated other environment groups. She is exactly what a lobbyist should NOT be.]

Oh, I’d just love to see her mixing with the chavs. The question is, which of them would last longest?

They saved it from being a private concession for the few hotels on Sliema’s Tower Road. Tony Nicholl was one who supported the takeover by the hotels.

[Daphne – Well, I obviously do because I lived there. Actually, the real salvation came in the form of a letter to The Times, written by Antoine Montanaro-Gauci, then in his 90s, who explained why it would be against the law in fact and in spirit. I don’t remember him ever being moved to comment, so when he did, Michael Refalo rethought the situation. He wasn’t an environmentalist by any measure. It was the spirit of the law which interested him.]

Wasn’t “Ix-Xaghara l-Hamra” saved from being a golf coarse, to become a nature trail?

[Daphne – Yes, by the unstinting efforts of Din L-Art Helwa, certainly not Astrid Vella, who alienates everybody except her own kind.]

On this one Silvio is right. I for one, for example can never accept the Verdala Hotel as part of the Mdina and Rabat landscape, and can never accept a golf coarse there.

[Daphne – It’s not up to you, though, is it. I don’t remember a time before the Verdala Hotel, so to me, it’s just as much a part of the skyline as Mdina and Rabat are. The golf course wouldn’t have bothered me either (speaking visually, not in terms of water consumption or take-up of agricultural land). Fields are just as unnatural and golf courses are nicer to look at than degraded agricultural land.]

Is she saying we shouldn’t even consider leaving our mark? Even if it’s splendid enough to complement the rest?

Astrid Vellaneeds to visit Berlin, Milan, London, Barcellona and Paris to understand what a capital city, or one that is in itself a worthy contender, is about.

So according to her La Defense shouldn’t have been built as it competes with the Arc De Triomphe, the gherkin upsets St.Paul’s and Berlin’s crystal dome over the reichstag is a waste as Speer had already provided plans.

And New York should rebuild the twin towers, to preserve memory, whereas Calatrava’s plans for the new world trade center train station are a monumental offence to New Yorkers.

According to this woman we’ll never be up to her standards. I half expect her to propose making the ghonella compulsory dress code for Valletta.

She will have a serious problem in the near future, when all is finished. What will she do, avoid experiencing the place? She can’t be seen enjoying herself in the theatre for sure.

Not to put on my Vauban anorak [surely “frilly velvet coat” Ed.] or anything, but Valletta is not a citadel. It is a city with a fortified enceinte and a camp retranché (Floriana). The citadel, if anything, would be Fort St Elmo.

Really surprised. I would have thought that a person of your culture would support all those that fight to protect our environment and heritage.

[Daphne – I support serious people who know what they’re talking about. I have no respect for people who think that there are baroque houses in Sliema, dating back to the 18th century, and who cite as proof the ‘streets’ and ‘houses’ on an old map of Tigne Point, because they don’t know that forts had barracks in them.]

Here we are not talking about the person but on her commitment.

I am sure that our grandchildren will remember people like Astrid, when they will still be enjoying Hondoq Ir-Rummien and other places that we managed to save for them.

[Daphne – No more than I ever look around me in some bay or valley and think ‘Wow, thank God grandpa and his generation saved this.’ Come on, Silvio. Each generation just accepts what it finds. I get upset when I look at the Sliema front because I remember what it was like before. My children don’t get upset because that’s the only way they know it.]

I know of few persons who have worked so much for the protecting of our ‘ambient” even if it seems that all of those commenting here do not agree with her thoughts on the Piano project. Some of the insults are unpleasant.

Astrid has always been consistent in her, let’s us call them, “crusades” to save what little we still have worth protecting from the bulldozers that have already devastated most of our countryside and most of the beautiful buildings left to us by our forefathers.

Back to the Piano project, it is not only Astrid who does not agree with it, but I can assure you that if a survey had to be carried out, the result would be that most of the people who care and love our Valletta, do not approve of it.

There is so much to say about this, and it has been said so many times over and over again, that it is now useless, as it is now too late.

What should have been a monument to some of our politicos will be nothing but an eyesore which our children will put blame on our generation.

[Daphne – As if. Our children are already better educated than we are, Silvio. Their children will think of Astrid Vella’s arguments as straight out of another age, if they even hear of her at all.]

Did Trevisan actually offer to pay for the building of the theatre? My impression was that he offered for free was only the architectural design (the plans).

[Daphne – Exactly. A sketch.]