‘Hi Renzo, I’m Joseph’
So now we hear that the prime minister took the opportunity of popping into Renzo Piano’s studio while he was in Paris last week, to discuss how the City Gate project can be “developed” (for which read ‘changed’).
Muscat took along with him to Paris a contingent of the Maltese press, but he gave them the slip for that particular meeting and didn’t even tell them about it.
We found out through a press release a couple of days later.
When challenged about this, he replied that the previous government had meetings like that too.
Have you noticed how this is something he does all the time?
If asked about something by the press or his political opponents, that makes him feel challenged, he shoots back that ‘the others did it too’ or ‘the others put the system in place’.
He does it ALL the time. I’ve actually got the impression that before he decides to do something, he first works out whether he can ‘validate’ it in this manner.
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So much for ‘spiċċa ż-żmien tal-arroganza’. I guess it was a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Don’t be surprised if he would request to be credited for any ‘changes’ and have his name next to Renzo Piano’s ….
Wara l-Perit Mintoff issa ghandna l-Perit Joseph.
Milli qed nara, it-tnejn qammelin.
S’issa la kont tad-dawl ma rohoslix u lanqas il-hajja. Expansive kienet u expansive baqghet.
Well, despite the Internet age, it’s still “il-Perit tweet tweet”.
Not only me.
He did it when he was first in Brussels as Prime Minister as well. He disappeared for a few hours, incommunicado of course, and left everybody waiting to brief him on the Euro group meeting. Some said he went to sleep. Others, more in the know. sniggered.
And where is the result of that ‘meeting’, eh?
‘Others, more in the know. sniggered.’
If it’s what I’ve been told, we’ll get more of these ‘meetings’.
Once a month.
Is it true that the Parliament will eventually be not housed there and instead we will have a permanent wirja tal-Perit Mintoff and his life? I hope that Muscat is not serious about this!
What life? What museum?
He ran the country like he ran his household. Nothing to write home about. Nothing much to fill a museum with or perhaps Yana Mintoff Bland can lend the museum photos of the stacks of money he hoarded.
It is and he is.
A real blasphemy – if there is one.
The same cynicism with which Joseph Muscat appointed Franco Debono to head Constitutional reform, giving him the same chauffeur-driven ministerial car used by Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, could very well (badly) be applied to the Renzo Piano project.
Joseph Muscat thinks it is a good idea to put ministers and MPs offices in the Main Guard across the piazza, while retaining Parliament in the President’s Palace. I have an even better idea.
Use the new parliament building at city gate for its intended use and, if there is not enough space in the building, dedicate a whole floor in Palazzo Ferreria (on the other side of Republic Street) for offices of ministers and MPs.
If he thinks it is a good solution in one place, it should be just as good a solution in the other.
He just wants to put his finger in the project so when the project’s complete, some fool like the Eddy Privitera type will come round saying: “Progett mahsub bis-sahha ta’ l-ghaqal u inizjattivi tal-gvern Laburista.
I would have loved to be a fly on the wall to see the discussion between Renzo Piano and Joseph Muscat. Something tells me that Renzo Piano was not amused.
No doubt he thought: ‘è arrivato il vagone’.
I suppose a journalist asking Renzo Piano himself what it is our democratically elected prime minister wants isn’t on the cards.
Piano was commissioned and is delivering on a previously defined brief, any new request will carry a price.
Basta bil-waste of people’s money.
As for Muscat, if he can’t arrogate his decisions, that makes him a junior clerk, not prime minister. Now, if taking a decision means every columnist declaring him arrogant, bully or ‘intollerant’, that’s his problem.
There is a truth, but Muscat simply can’t appropriate himself of its qualities.
Sad if he can’t go beyond his own complexes, it confirms he’s easily pushed around. When he had to state Labour has to introduce government as a forma mentis, it seems his followers won’t take authority and its weight.
All that’s left is to keep up appearances. And he goes to Piano thinking the man won’t see right through him.
Nispera l-PM ma jaghtix in-numru tal-mobile ta’ Renzo lil Frankie Debono l-Kummissarju, ma jmurx joqghod iccempillu kuljum biex jaghtih pariri tajbin.
Dik jonqsu miskin wara dak il-martirju li gie mgieghel jghaddi minnu.
I heard that the Bieb that’s now a Xaqq is under review. Nothing off the table. We could have the old Bieb back in time to commemorate the 450th anniversary of the Great Siege.
And if Joseph gets La Vallette’s blade back we can stick it up for all to see and together experience a proud-to-be-Maltese moment before Turkey joins the EU.
No hurry there… Turkey’s looking east.
Note that “Old Bieb” refers to the original gate, not Bulculvier’s Bieb ta’ Garaxx.
Which one Kev?
Which, in your view, is the ‘original’ door? The Brits did theirs, the knights ditto. It was a question of function, everything else was for the masses to identify and digest mentally.
Where does one introduce a baseline for ‘restoration’? What you imply is that we refuse the republic and six decades. Run for cover whenever reality demands work and the style.
How is it that your ilk feel useless enough to have to dilute their being of any sign of their existence?
Pathetic. Second rate, followers, plebeain. Uniformed, jaded and dull.
Ghandkom l-okkazzjoni tersqu lejn did-dinja u ma tafux kif.
Tibqghu nieqsa minn kollox. Msieken.
I implied nothing, Jozef, no need to write a thesis.
As for my “ilk”, you are so confused I feel the urge to confuse you even further. You see, unlike your ilk, I am not a follower, I have never asked for anything and I do not expect anything from anyone.
Now back to the gate that’s now a xaqq. It does seem that Joseph’s Paris meeting also dealt with the possibility of bringing back the old gate – it seems they still have the original slabs; most of the stonework, anyway.
My view? Ambivalent to intrigued. You can rebuild a whole city, but there is nothing like an old gate to feel the passage of time.
Confuse me even further eh?
All I know is that you seem unable to work out any style not to your comfort zone.
The ‘door’ as you call it, carries a function and, let’s say, metafunction.
Piano like every architect, has a brief, a budget and a deadline. Embarking on a slab hunt defeats the project and all its parameters.
What he did, was the algebraic substitution of that which we all hated with restored ‘mass’ and geometry. Giving the bastions thier ‘original’ lines. Which, in my view, matters even more than the mannerist scroll work or whatever was ‘fashionable’.
That would be the detail which devil usually imposes on the Maltese to avoid work.
Liberal and multilingual please.
It’s what he refers to as ‘intelligenza leggera’, where technology, the mental process ie, serves truth and not the other way round.
Has anyone deciphered the formulae inscribed on the facades yet? Is there meaning on the west facade?
Have you seen the theatre? It happens to be an object of imagination, he provided the boundaries, you fill in the rest.
He knew we still carry the scars, so perhaps a mental reconstruction heals the soul. What better way to proceed than use nominal function, (put up performances) to achieve the second one?
If that’s not philologically humble and beautiful, I don’t know what is.
The problem with Astrid you see was very simple, she was concerned with memory, but not its method.
If I’m fed memory down my throat, it becomes offensive, something to refuse. Memory is elsewhere, always.
Then again, no answer to the ‘original’ slabs.
Thesis? Tsk, just a comment from yours truly.
Joseph Muscat said “… it transpired that the new parliament building hosting the plenary chamber is custom-built.”
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-04-29/news/muscat-dubs-parliament-building-too-small-1489764353/
Amazing! It was blindly obvious from day one that the plenary chamber is custom built. Did he have to meet Renzo Piano to realise that?
That gives you a measure of the man.
Perhaps he should have checked the plans before proceeding with his oversized cabinet.
Insomma, tort ta’ GonziPN.
X’tistenna min pastizz rahli.
This is the manner in which this government will rule: introduce a policy, test the waters and if the response is positive, implement.
If the response is negative either make a U-turn or quieten down and implement without anyone noticing until it is too late.
We shall soon see the latter practice in the choice of bidder for the new power station. It’s a done deal and they make it out to be an open contest between bidders.
The people voted for him because he solemnly promised that he will do things better than the others .
I wonder what Franco Debono has to say about the fact that Parliament will not be moved to the new House.
Last week I heard him on TVHEMM say that the current parliament set up is outdated (opposition & government facing each other) and that the new semicircular set up reflects modern parliaments world wide.
Qabel l-elezzjoni Josephdotcom kien jghid li meta jkun fil-gvern mhux ser imexxi kif kienu jmexxu n-nazzjonalisti. Issa fejn jaqbillu jghid li jekk in-Nazzjonalisti kienu jaghmlu hekk nista’ naghmlu jien.
Comment of 2013.
The press release does not say anything about Piano’s impression of Joseph.
I will.
Renzo Piano said “Ma che pezzo di merda’ – in the Zeneize dialect, of course.
I’m eager to see whole history of art dissertations at the University of Malta’s Melitensia section deriding the guy “who messed up Malta’s top 21st century project” .
Min jaf kemm staghgeb Renzo Piano bil-proposti ta’ Joseph! Inqumu u ma nhallux min ihassar dan il-progett minhabba l-ghira u n-nuqqas ta’ apprezzament arkitotteniku.
It is Joseph Muscat’s prerogative to have a large cabinet as much as he likes. It is his prerogative not to use the newly built House of Parliament.
But it is not his prerogative to change plans of the new building in such a way that will prevent other governments from using the building as a House of Parliament.
I disagree. An emperor does as he pleases. You have no right to object.
He is setting a mind-set for his switchers and pseudo-floaters. He is definitely incompetent as a politician but not as a cunning one (bil-Malti “ha**ej”). He foresees that his magic wand will not solve Malta’s problems and ills.
He knows that somewhere along the road he will discover (probably he already know this) that he cannot keep all his promises. He will discover that he cannot reduce the utility bills; that the power station will take longer than expected to start running on gas; that he cannot find new jobs for the thousands leaving university next year; that he cannot solve the problem at Mater Dei etc, etc…So set the people’s mind now.
Keep telling the “people” that it is the previous administration’s fault, that they created a mess and not “us laburisti”, but the Nationalists with their “politika negativa” ( an new buzz word).
And you know, you say something today, repeat it ad nauseam and the “poplu cuc” will start to believe you. So when eventually he will be faced with questions for which he will have no tangible, concrete and truthful answer, he will blame it on the PN. A truly “Ha**ej Malti” insomma.
Joseph Muscat said “… it transpired that the new parliament building hosting the plenary chamber is custom-built.
Transpired that it is custom built? Did he think that Renzo Piano pulled a building design out of some catalogue?