Let’s have a market in Mdina cathedral because it’s wasted being used only a few hours a week
The prime minister says the most shockingly ignorant things, but he says them to an audience that is largely shockingly ignorant too (even many of those who think themselves sophisticated and educated) and so he gets away with it.
The latest, earlier tonight on Bondi+: spending so many millions of euros on a parliament house designed by Renzo Piano is a waste of money because parliament only sits for a few hours a week. So we have to get our money’s worth by using the building for other things as well.
Yes, put a museum (but please, not a political museum) or a library or whatever on the lowermost floor by all means, but for heaven’s sake don’t justify it on the grounds of maximising the use of the building.
Parliament House is the equivalent of a cathedral. It is, in fact, the cathedral of democracy, a powerful symbol of where we stand in our respect for that system of government. And when a building is in itself a work of art, created by an architect-artist, it becomes virtually its own raison d’etre. It exists as a thing of wonder and beauty.
When Muscat says things like this, which truly reveal his crassness and ignorance, how uneducated he is and what a great Philistine, I realise what pseuds the ‘artists and creatives’ who root for him really are. For yes, Muscat really is a Philistine of the worst order. He has no feeling for anything like this, no understanding of it at all.
This is how he described his meeting with Renzo Piano, and I quote verbatim, because I took notes:
“Meta ltqajt ma’ Piano ghidtlu, isma, hemmhekk x’nistghu naghmlu bih?”
Beautiful.
Incidentally, he used a similar tone when reporting on his exchanges with his finance minister: “Ghidtlu Ed, issa aghtini…cempilli Edward u qalli…u jien ghidtlu, Ed…”
I was left with the strange feeling that he gets a kick out of playing casual with ‘important’ men old enough to be his father, almost like a child allowed to stay up late with the grown-ups. Weird.
38 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
I don’t wish to be rude, but why are we supposed to take lessons in democracy from a prick who happens to be PM?
Frankly, I think it should definitely be the other way round!
Couldn’t have said it better!
Joseph amazed me but Lou. . . I’m gobsmacked.
According to Joseph Muscat on Bondi+ – and he, being Prime Minister, should know – “il-Parlament jiltaqa kuljum; tlett darbiet fil-gimgha”.
What’s wrong with a political or modern history museum?
[Daphne – The obvious, David. A Museum of Maltese Political History is inevitably going to be a Museum of Lies, Falsehoods, Myths and Pet Gripes.]
Daphne, I worship at your feet.
I’m doing the same, Daphne… worshipping at Your feet. :)
Love the way you pick up/notice these things. Well done.
Worst possible case scenario for a museum, it is a BIASED museum. Furthermore the meaning attributed to politics in post colonial countries is negative.
Cathedrals and other churches are used by tourists and locals who visit them as well as for concerts. Not many tourists and locals visit houses of parliament.
[Daphne – Your lack of knowledge is stupefying, David. All the parliament buildings I know of (the ones worth seeing) have organised tours for paying visitors: Westminister, Edinburgh, Berlin, Budapest…the queues are enormous at all of them.]
On a recent visit to Berlin, I spent hours waiting in line just to enter their parliament building.
I have seen queues of tourists for St John Cathedral in Valletta, St Peters’ Basilica in Rome, the Strasbourg Cathedral, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and so on. I saw no queues to see the parliaments of these cities.
[Daphne – David, how shall I put this kindly? Barcelona and Strasbourg are not capital cities. The Spanish and French parliament houses are in Madrid and Paris. Strasbourg’s parliament building is the European parliament, and tourists are about as keen to visit that as they are to visit the version in Brussels. I repeat: in Budapest, Berlin, London and Edinburgh (the Scottish parliament) you will have to queue, and in London and Berlin you will also have to book before queuing. The same thing will happen in Malta, because a Renzo Piano building is an international attraction, like those others I mentioned. People don’t visit a parliament building because it is a parliament building, but because of the nature of the architecture.]
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Berlin_reichstag_west_panorama_2.jpg
Reading David’s comments reminds me why we have Joseph Muscat as our prime minister.
David, do you by any chance follow Joseph Muscat?
Because your knowledge is as intense as his.
David is (like quite a few others I know) an ‘educated’ blockhead with the intelligence of an ant.
I am actually surprised that the PM has not proposed to move the Monti hawkers directly into the Parliament building between 9.00am and 3.00pm, considering that this allows enough time for the house sessions between 6.00pm and 9.00pm.
Insider information tells me that if Muscat thinks he can make the hawkers change their stalls, than he really hasn’t understood anything.
The hawkers plan is to play his game until they are established all the way up to the “Our Lady of Victory” chapel and then back to their own thing which, truth be said, is an essential element of a market’s eco system.
Please don’t go giving him any ideas
Please don’t give him any more rubbish ideas. He already has a bottomless supply.
Mao Tse Muscat can change the stalls as much as he likes, but that ain’t gonna change the hawkers or their wares which are made up largely of the cheap and tatty.
Changing the shape of the stalls isn’t going to suddenly transform our dear hawkers into Rastafarian artisans spinning semi precious stones into handmade jewelry, displaying their warter-colours, or beautiful handcrafted wooden carvings as they do in, say, Covent Garden.
They’ll still be selling their giant bras and elasticated nylon tangas with happy slogans like “eat me”… albeit, under matching canopies.
In Italy there are “Fiere del antiquariato” , which add character to the old cities, but these cannot be compared with the Valletta Monti hawkers selling g-strings and t-shirts imported from Thailand.
Such markets are normally placed on the outskirts of the city not bang on in front of a prestigious building.
The ground floor of the parliament building is an ideal place for the public library, not a museum of museums. Newcomers to the city would think that THAT is our only showcase and would not be much interested about the looting which took place on the 7th June 1919.
The one in Milan’s held once a month, stalls set up by antiquarians from neighbouring regions.
It’s located at the canals, which also happen to be the city’s nightspot.
Muscat’s being very silly if he thinks he can organise and regiment something as spontaneous as the flea market in Birgu.
When they tried to do the same in Brera, obviously pushing it upmarket, the stalls simply moved elsewhere, leaving that part of Milan a wannabe Montenapoleone.
Brera at night (semi darkness) was full of ‘vu cumprar’ Somalis, fortune tellers, palm readers…frightening I must say.
The monthly fiere del antiquariato roam around Italy like the Monti hawkers roam our island weekly – Bormla Tuesdays, Zurrieq Thursdays, Birkirkara Wednesdays(?).
I will try to go to Birgu to buy/sell some interesting old pieces.
Don’t miss the guy with a Volvo 240 estate packed with paperbacks.
Then there’s the young woman with the little Mazingas and Goldrakes.
Il-medjokrita ta’ dan il-PM u dawk kollha li joxew jisimghuh qieghda tikber kulljum u mur ara f’liema stat sejrin inkunu sa hames snin ohra.
Jien nistageb kif Lou Bondi na stahax igibu fuq il-programm tieghu meta ghada lanqas nixfet l-inka minn fuq l-appointment li accetta.
Nispera li l-gimgha d-diehla jkonna lil Simon Busutill biex it-telespettaturi jkunu jisghtu jistrihu ftit mill-banalita u jisimghu argumeti sodi u konkreti.
Joseph Muscat contradicts himself. First he says that the Parlament building is a waste of money, later on he added a historical museum will enhance that Renzo Piano building as it will be visited by millions of tourists.
Muscat is simply a c*nt. Making a fuss in the EU about not being able to use Maltese. He took a Phd at an English university, in the English language for f*ck’s sake. He is the worst sort of c*nt – a hypocritical c*nt. That joke isn’t funny anymore.
The fuss about not being able to use Maltese in the parliament. Yet, family practices point to different patterns of language use……clash of public/private ideal?
He can be a real caflanga sometimes.
You’re far too kind
He even mentioned ‘isqfijiet’ at one point to describe that the place can be used for different events. A Freudian slip of the worst order – reflecting clearly inner feelings and thoughts.
Loved the way he tried to describe his vision for the entrance to Valletta, couldn’t name one museum.
He’s just not interested.
It hurt me deeply to hear him say: hela ta’ flus nonfqu 80 miljun fuq il-Parlament meta ser nuzawh biss 10 sighat fil-gimgha”.
I was so shocked that I couldn’t believe it he actually said it.
This statement belies an empty mind, a mind devoid of any philosophical and/or real political thought.
Indeed, the building is a monument to democracy, the millennium-long struggle of our people for independence and the nation having a place which it can refer to as Parliament as opposed to a makeshift ugly hall which we conveniently refer to as Parliament.
This man, in his cockiness, forgets that he is no longer sitting in a Centru Laburista addressing bird brains. He believes that we all, on seeing the works in progress remark to our friends: u dan il-Parlament ghalfejn ghandna nhalluh il-Belt? Tas-Sliema hemm tant bini. Ghaliex m’ghamluhx hemm?
I heard this with my own ears. I felt sick. Still do. And JM thinks we are all of that persuasion. No wonder he speaks as he does and use the word “qazzizni” to describe tried-and-tested systems which are nothing short of checks and balances.
He expressed his allergy to what he called elitism.
No, Dr.Muscat dearest, the problem isn’t elitism, the problem is having a formal space where everyone can elevate themself, hawkers included, hijacked by your rise to power.
Mintoff had his Dimech and pile of gagazza, you have your stalls.
You seem unable to have free space around parliament, at least not when you’re there.
A socialist horror vacui, perhaps Mintoff’s effigy could be used to scare away any crowing bourgeois.
Problem is, Giordano Bruno is in Campo dei Fiori.
I think I know what Piano felt like telling him in response to his stupid and puerile question.
Being, as he is, an architect who enjoys a gigantic global stature he is obviously trained to bite his tongue when confronted by jerks.
This is nauseating Philistinism in the worst tradition of the Malta Labour movement.
Is there is any need to remind any intelligent person of the desecration by Mintoff of such a historical magnificent and beautiful monument as Castel Sant Angelo and converting it to a cheap disco or the conversion of the historical forts along the Victoria Lines into pigstys?
Before you understand that Parliament is a cathedral to democracy and before you start showing respect to the institution of parliament you must first have an understanding of and respect for democracy itself. With Mintoff as his idol i doubt we can expect much.