Hamalli nation update (because the hamalli have really taken over the asylum)
The Malta Independent reports this morning that President Coleiro has set about turning San Anton Palace into a “complex for the enjoyment of the people”.
I will never understand why Maltese hamalli, unlike hamalli elsewhere, always want to remake everything in their own image to prove the point that there’s nothing wrong with their thinking, attitude and preferences and that ‘jien/a tajjeb/tajba kif jien u jiena proud.’
Hamalli like Marie Louise Coleiro JUST DON’T GET IT. That six-hour hamallagni installation ceremony was the biggest indicator possible of what was to come next.
And now after all the time and money spent on the restoration and redecoration of San Anton Palace, it’s going to become a fun park for lots of other hamalli (“the people”), because in the new President’s way of looking at it, simply doing what is done right across Europe, and opening a few state rooms in the palace to paying visitors a few mornings a week, is not enough.
Read it in The Malta Independent:
President Coleiro Preca yesterday announced plans to draw up a business plan aiming at turning San Anton Palace into a complex for the enjoyment by the people of Malta.
The President was speaking at the inauguration of the regeneration of the main square in Balzan.
She said there are ongoing talks with auditing companies to draw up the business plan but she did not reveal the names.
The business plan aims to help Maltese families enjoy the cultural heritage of the palace as well as to attract tourists and get EU funds to help in the Palace’s restoration.
Meanwhile eyebrows have been raised at the fact that the President was allowed to speak from the altar lectern (ambone) in St Publius Church in Floriana during or after the Pontifical High Mass to celebrate the feast. Traditionally, Presidents have always spoken during the reception held at the band club immediately after the Mass.
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http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-05-05/news/president-wants-to-turn-san-anton-palace-to-a-complex-4855332864/
I hope ample parking arrangements will be provided. St. Anthony Street is already chaotic as is. Ask the residents.
I still can not understand why Mrs Muscat went to Rome instead of Marie Louise Coleiro Preca. Should it not have been Dolores Christina who is acting President, or is that the next surprise in store for us, to have more control Muscat will put his wife as acting president?
[Daphne – The acting president is not the deputy president. The role of the acting president is to fill the constitutional role of president symbolically while the actual president is away from the country. The acting president does not deputise for the president on overseas missions. The President should have been there herself. It was the priority. The country does not ‘have an acting president’. When the president leaves the country for however brief a period, an acting president is appointed for that period only.]
Don’t they teach anything in social studies or civics or whatever it’s called nowadays?
They do not teach anything like that. They only show their total ignorance of correct protocol or else issue “waivers”.
FFS, why do you need civic lessons to work out something so simple?
I’m just surprised that after fifty years of independence and forty years of republic, the vast majority of the Maltese are clueless about the structure of their government. That includes our PM, who is unable to work out who represents what, who takes orders from whom, and who does what.
Here’s a little primer:
Head of State – The President
Head of Government – The Prime Minister
Ambassadors represent the head of state, not the head of government. Note to Lino ‘Profs’ Bianco, Norman ‘Doorman’ Hamilton, MC Hamallu in Brussels and others.
The commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Malta is the president, not the Army Minister.
Malta has no vice-president.
Oh, and one other thing. The President has her own budget, that is to say the President’s Office has its own budget, out of the national budget, which is voted on in Parliament. So MPs are at liberty – in this case, they have the duty – to lay into the President. Any citizen can ask their MP to submit a parliamentary question about the use of public funds by the President. That nonsense about the President being some kind of super partes, untouchable entity is bollocks. Just like that ‘sub judice’ lie.
Who needs teaching when one is drenched literally in Mintoffajanism?
My, my. I just asked because Dolores Cristina would have been better than Mrs Muscat. That’s all. Relax.
Our very own Disney Land
very fitting – pajjiz tal-Mickey Mouse
“Meanwhile eyebrows have been raised at the fact that the President was allowed to speak from the altar lectern (ambone) in St Publius Church in Floriana during or after the Pontifical High Mass to celebrate the feast. Traditionally, Presidents have always spoken during the reception held at the band club immediately after the Mass.”
It only go to show that the parish priest is either tal-qalba mal-partit, or does not know the distinction between a sacred place and a secular, political one.
Nispera li fl-arrangamenti ghall-popolin li ppjanati fil-palazz idahhlu xi ftit stands tal-pastizzi, hamburgers, pizez u luminati.
Peter Paul’s take-away ghandu jkollu l-prijorita’ fuq stabbilimenti ohra li jithajru jidhlu ghal dan ix-xoghol.
Thajret minn Nicky de Piro. If one Taghna Lkoll supporter can do it, so can another. Peter Apap Bologna can give the guided tours.
Luts sii wot kitsch suvinirs she mejk tu.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140505/local/business-plan-for-san-anton-palace.517644
“and get EU funds”
The devil, as they say, is in the detail. Turn this into a ‘heritage prowjekt’ and someone else will have to foot the bill.
What does she mean by all this? Moving out and opening it up to the public as a museum, or turning it into a wedding venue, and possibly a hotel?
And what makes her think that she can do this? She is only a resident there and does not own the place.
Speaking of Hamalli. Can someone start asking why on Earth are Deo Grech and Natius Farrugia part of the Maltese delegation at the Eurovision this year?
They have nothing to do with the delegation and are there either on a top secret mission or as a favour for their past pretentions. I believe they had complained in the past because they were not allocated passes by PBS in another Eurovision festival in previous years.
Deo Grech is currently inundating the iNews page with updates from Copenhagen. As far as I know, iNews is a separate entity from PBS, so it would be good to know whether they are paying PBS or Deo Grech for these updates. Quoting iNews: “Deo Grech huwa parti mid-delegazzjoni Maltija għall-Eurovision 2014”
With regards to our dear beauty treatments mayor Natius, I do not know what his purpose is. Perhaps he is trying to get votes from the big gay community present at Eurovision? Perhaps he is trying to convince the Austrian singer that he/she would be better off shaving at Natius Ole?
Can PBS enlighten us as to what purpose are our taxes being used?
What business plan? This is a residential area and businesses cannot be imposed on the residents at the whim of one sociologically challenged woman!
Even if she is the President! Especially businesses that attract very large numbers of peasants and their cars!
What, may I ask, will be done about the parking situation? This was already a nightmarish situation whenever the previous President opened the palace to the public.
The Palace is in a purely residential area and cannot be turned into a business that receives large amounts of people. This is Lija/Attard for Heaven’s sake. The roads were built for horse drawn carts not thousands of cars.
San Anton should be left as it is (although parts of it need restoration). Aesthetically,it is a grand country villa with peaceful walkways. The Knights of St. John and the British considered it as such and it has been (more or less) untouched. Why this uneducated upstart cannot learn from centuries past is beyond me.
I suspected that she’ll concoct something similar immediately after she announced that she’s going to open the private section if San Anton Gardens for pre-wedding photos. She also needs to do something better than her predecessor.
This “I’m happy with myself and accept me as I am or f*** off” attitude has its roots in poor self-confidence.
President Coleiro was at the forefront with that midget Mintoff promoting ‘Malta l-ewwel qabel kollox’. This was at a time when Malta was emerging as a new independent country and later as a republic.
Maltese people felt inferior to their English masters and were eager to prove to themselves and others that they were fine as they were, ignorance, hamallagni and all.
We can’t really say that the mentality in this country today is much better than in the 1960s. We have a better quality of life, better potential for education, our frontiers are wide open with opportunity, but we still think in the same way.
Dak x’ghandu ahjar minni? Mhux kollha bil-patata barra twelidna? Iiiii, dan se joqghod jghidli x’naghmel ghax mar l-universita’? (While reading out these sentences, please drawl out the last vowel in the last word of every sentence.)
PN governments did plenty to combat this mentality but I fear it was not enough. They focussed on education and work opportunities, and rightly so, but very little was done to change the general attitude of dependence on the country’s masters and later, the state. There is still this ‘nara l-gvern jghinnix xi ftit’, or ‘nara x’nista’ nakkwista’ mode of thought.
Labour governments, of course, reinforce this sort of thinking. They cancel out years of progress in just a few months. This benefits the people at the helm, who strive to grab anything within their reach and keep their constituents dependent on any titbits they may throw at them.
Besides the obvious chavvy nature of this whole charade, was the audit / advisory firm selected by tender or yet another direct order?
It was a blunder by the church authorities to allow President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca to make a speech from the altar lectern. To many the president is still a politician and she is showing it.
I strongly recommend his advice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVLrcu0DVw0
From enjoyment by the people to education of the people.
Anything else is rape.
The San Anton kitchen garden is already the hamalli garden. San Anton Palace is not for any current incumbent to do with as he or she pleases, with this desperate desire to ‘manage’ it and leave a mark.
The president did not go to the canonization ceremony in Rome because she was not given permission to address the congregation from the altar lectern.
Just when you think they cannot sink any lower….they surprise you with yet another pearl of wisdom.
How very crassly Labour. She wants to put a price on everything but values nothing.
Why is an audit firm drawing up the plans? Here the main concerns would be the preservation of the palace, its dignity, and the environment.
It takes more than a financial consideration for such a place to be opened to the public. Who is Tarzan and who is Jane in this Labour jungle?
The Grandmaster’s Palace, Valletta should be given the dignity it merits devoid of offices and turned back into the jewel it truly is. That was the plan.
San Anton Palace, on the other hand, should be left as the President’s residence and visitors should just enjoy the public part of the gardens, which should be given the botanical aspect they once had.
Trust them to get it all wrong.
In her speech, Her Excellency again repeated that old chestnut that Publius, the “protos” (chief man) of Malta referred to in the Acts of the Apostles, is Saint Publius.
That Florianizi should continue to insist relentlessly on this awful mistake may be somehow excused but the Head of State should not, in my opinion, repeat historical blunders. We know nothing about Publius the “protos” other than what is recounted in Acts.
There is zero evidence that he was ever baptized or ordained bishop of Malta: all is pure fantasy. He could not have been Saint Publius as this Publius (quite common Roman “nomen”) was bishop of Athens and died some 70 years after Saint Paul’s landing on Malta.
Professor Anthony Bonanno writes: “The tradition of the appointment of Publius as the first bishop of Malta…is the result of a confusion with another Publius, bishop of Athens, several generations later. And it would serve no purpose to continue to uphold it”. [Malta Phoenician, Punic and Roman p. 200].
I think it is reasonable for us to expect the Head of State to know the history of the country of which she is first citizen.
Incidentally, when Saint George Preca (relative by marriage to Her Excellency) was canonized, some protested that he was called the first Maltese saint as, it was claimed, it is Saint Publius who deserves this appellation.