Great sense of priorities, I must say
A few days ago Jason Micallef, chairman of Valletta 2018, gave a press conference saying that he will fulfill his lifelong dream of carpeting Palace Square with pansies at a cost of “between 15,000 and 25,000 euros”.
At the risk of sounding terribly politically incorrect, I must point out that his nemesis Joseph Muscat got there before him.
That’s a pretty wide ballpark figure, and knowing something about the cost of plants, I’d say it’s set to go higher still. It’s also a lot to splash out on abusing your public position to live out your dream at the expense of others. And then for something so transient, pointless and frivolous as using flowers to carpet a public square with a design that can be seen only from above, when members of the public are going to be at street level.
And now this morning The Sunday Times reports that Grand Master Emanuel de Rohan’s flintlock sold for 35,000 euros at an auction in Italy, with Heritage Malta failing to make the winning bid because it doesnn’t have the money or wouldn’t spend it.
Heritage Malta has budgeted 100,000 euros for an art installation “to mark the 40th anniversary of the republic” later on this year.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140504/local/grandmasters-flintlock-sells-for-35000-at-auction.517558
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140429/local/V-18-chief-s-plants-dream-comes-true.516883
Priceless. What a pity and how phoney.
It would have been a brighter idea to use that money to help the people in hardship. Mela gejjin bid-dream come true ta’ Jason Micallef.
Life is about living with others and for others.
What space does Heritage Malta have in allocating budget?
Is this dictated?
Are the people who work there in positions where they should have some say, there for the salary and position or to be able to make a difference?
If agenda is dictated, they should declare it and publicly refuse to be used as tools. They should take a stand.
That’s assuming ethics come into it.
I wouldn’t worry. It can’t be that the trend-setting liberals lack a sense of humour.
Reading that Heritage Malta has reserved €100,000 for one art installation makes me wonder who the chosen artist tal-qalba will be.
It seems that il-hbieb tal-hbieb now extends to artists too.
Why don’t we ask Owen ‘Varist’ Bonnici? He was the darling of the literati and erudite Labour voters.
It was plain as a pikestaff (or flintlock) that culture, the arts, fine arts, conservation, history, museums and the rest of the “nejk” (Mintoff’s words, not mine) would be bottom of the heap in Labour’s list of warped priorities.
I know a few outspoken and passionate Heritage Malta staff who were forever complaning about the lack of funds, and who vowed to vote Labour. Well, what of those funds now?
Agreed, Micallef got the proportions all wrong, an infiorita tends to be a long narrow thing, preferably along an incline, that people get to walk alongside and actually see what’s going on.
Again, function has nothing to do with it.
Or perhaps it’s directed at the new Grandmasters. Then it does.
As for Heritage Malta, how dare you imply there was anyone else on this island than gensna? These are the ones who’ll deface any space of ornament.
Just look at the icon they worship, a literal translation of an ideology, stylistically primitive, figuratively speaking just that, figurative.
We will be subjected to some gigantic rendition of a cactus plant across a parade gate Saddam Hussein style, which instead of scimitars will cross the pala and the furkettun.
If I remember correctly, the word ‘pansy’ used to refer to gay people. Is there some hidden message there?
[Daphne – Sigh.]
The yearly allocation for Mrs Konrad Mizzi is one and a half times that for Heritage Malta.