Mrs Vella claims her Eur20,000 of public money was used to…build a website
Unbelievable – stand by for the upcoming and inevitable Non-Profit Baroque Tours with Astrid Vella
Astrid Vella says:
04 June 2013 19:39
Mr. Busuttil, I’m delighted to let you know what has been done with the 20,000 pledged to FAA from the Good Causes Fund. It is to be used to pay for our expenses to create the Malta Cultural Heritage Website at www.culturalmalta.org Focussing on history, art, architecture and culture, his website has been set up in order to make our students, cultural tourists and all who love Malta aware of Malta’s unique heritage. As such it was endorsed by Dr. Mario de Marco, when Minister of Tourism, and the Ministry of Education. It is one of the only independent websites to be allowed on the Ministry of Education E-platform due to it its high standards. I invite you check it out to see for yourself.
———-
I know that this website’s readership is absolutely rife with people in the trade, so I’d like you to visit this website and give your professional assessment of whether a Eur20,000 fee for its creation is realistic.
Everyone else is invited to give their opinion as to whether the Good Causes Fund should pay for a website like this. My own view is that it should not.
If the government funds one website through the Good Causes Fund, then it will have to fund anyone else who comes along with a similar request. There are many such sites and many ideas for such sites. Why and on what basis fund only Astrid Vella’s?
Also, the list placed on the table of the House says that the money is going to Flimkien Ghall-Ambjent Ahjar. The objective of this organisation, we were given to understand by all the shouting and parading, is campaigning for a better environment in Malta.
When did Astrid Vella shift the FAA towards promoting art and culture (as distinct from restoring public art and buildings, which doesn’t allow for possible business opportunities), which is not within the remit of something claiming to be an environmental NGO?
What the government has done here, through the Good Causes Fund, is give Astrid Vella (‘the FAA’) Eur20,000 with which to build a website that can, in future, be used as the basis for a business in cultural tours and similar, and which is already being used – judging by the advertisements – to bring in advertising revenue.
And before Mrs Vella goes ballistic and winds up her siren-like (the type stuck to the top of a police car, not the type that sat on coastal rocks to tempt ancient sailors to their death) voice to protest, might I remind her that this is public money and the questions are more than justified.
Do you know what the utterly ridiculous irony is here? That Astrid Vella’s horrid, bitchy friends (not all of them part of Malta Taghna Lkoll and the Labour Party) have spent the last couple of years maliciously rumour-mongering with lies about how this website is funded by the Nationalist party/Nationalist government WHEN ONLY NOW WE DISCOVER THAT ALL ALONG IT’S BEEN ASTRID VELLA’S WEBSITE WHICH GIVEN FUNDING BY THE NATIONALIST GOVERNMENT.
I trust that Super One and the Labour Party will register this fact, stop spreading lies about how this site is funded (it isn’t funded) and turn their guns on somebody who appears all set to turn an NGO into a nice little earner with help from the Good Causes Fund.
17 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
I’ll give you my professional assessment on the historical content. It’s dire. Cut and pasted from the DOI website, itself cut and pasted from ‘Highways to Maltese History’ or whatever the awful book was called.
Not to mention the sentence construction, which is awful throughout. The text is peppered with typos. Even worse, it’s full of historical rubbish which has long been refuted.
If this is what Sliema’s finest can manage, then I’m all for destroying this “unique heritage”.
Mrs Astrid Vella, if you’re reading this, know that your website sucks big time.
I concur.
Gateway to Our Nation’s History
That’s it.
Oh and: Frederick II liked [sic] Maltese falcons.
I suppose every bloke like Maltese birds, chortle chortle.
There is an ad for Hotel Juliani on there.
Is it a paid ad?
Who gets the income?
Robert Musumeci
ALMENU KELLI RAGUN FUQ DIN: ….l-Partit Nazzjonalista messu fittex li b’mod ripetut jiddiżassoċja ruħu minn dawn il-blogs meta dawn kienu jinkludu kummenti ta’ natura personali.
[Daphne – As the prostitute who had sex with John Profumo said, when he denied it in the notorious 1960s trial, “He would say that, wouldn’t he?” After all, he was at the receiving end. And he didn’t swing to Labour because of anything I wrote. He swung to Labour because of the woman he lives with, into whose milieu he was drawn inexorably, as tends to be the case with men of weak character. If his girlfriend’s personality were weaker than his, instead of a hundred times more dominant, she would have been drawn into his world and not the other way round.]
Why didn’t the government build such a website itself?
1. It would probably have cost less than Eur 20,000, and
2. There is no reason why an initiative like this should be proprietary while paid out of public funds.
And since Ms. Vella claims that “it is one of the only independent websites to be allowed on the Ministry of Education E-platform,” does this mean that the Ministry of Education is making further regular payments to FAA for use or maintenance of this website? If yes, what is the amount of such payments?
What was the money given to the president of the hunters’ association used for?
I do feel sorry for the people who paid money to advertise on this site. Look at the statistics http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/culturalmalta.org#trafficstats
Mhux hekk 20,000 euros for a webiste. About a month ago I bought a hectare of land for that amount in Bahrija. Mela.
I find Heritage Maltas’ website very informative. Was there need by the goverment to fund another similar site?
Who, I wonder, she wants to fool, In the age of WordPress
Those funds were certainly not used to design the logo of Cultural Malta, as it sucks big time.
As to the website, well, what can I say, it reflects a cacophony of distortions. Maybe it’s my browsers’ fault, but if you look at the pictures they’re all elongated, as if one were in the hall of mirrors.
I’m an IT professional having started my career as a freelance web developer.
This particular webpage was created using Joomla, an open-source (free) content management system. The theme could have cost a maximum of €100 and development costs maybe €200.
€20,000 for this website? Who writes this stuff?
Simples… where are the invoices? I presume someone invoiced for 20000euros and vat was paid accordingly. Right?
She must have build a little Facebook, I guess.
I had a cursory look at the website. There is only one word to describe it – a disaster.
For example of five items listed as Attractions – Heritage House, just two are museums; the other three are commercial establishments.
Under Attractions – Natural Heritage, there is just one item on wild flowers at Dingli cliffs. Is that the only natural heritage we have in Malta?
One of the objectives of the website is “to attract cultural tourists to Malta by making them aware of the richness of our unique culture”. This is commendable. But with such sparse information provided, the site gives the opposite impression to any one who is unfamiliar to Malta.
More weaknesses. Although apparently well organised, it is not easy to find what one is looking for.
There are no events listed, giving the impression that culture events are non-existing in Malta.
Is this the best FAA can do with 20,000 euros?
MTA, Heritage Malta and Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti are listed as partners to the site. They should disassociate themselves soonest because it gives them a bad name.
On another matter: A few months ago, in her efforts to defend a commercial establishment at Upper Barrakka, Ms. Vella unfairly and harshly criticised Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna, an NGO which has done so much for Malta’s heritage. Ironic isn’t it?