Revenge on the cheese-grater
Transport Minister Joe Mizzi, who is also responsible for the Valletta and Floriana Rehabilitation Committee, called the press to Ordnance Street today to explain how it is being paved over so that the market stalls can be moved there from their time-honoured location in Merchants Street.
Ordnance Street is the first turning on your left as you walk past the ‘Burger King’ shopping mall just inside the gate to the city. More pertinently, it is just beneath the new parliament house.
The Transport Minister was accompanied at his press conference by his appointee to the Valletta and Floriana Rehabilitation Committee chairmanship, Kenneth Zammit Tabona, who must think highly of these plans or he wouldn’t have been there. It must be a dovetailing of interests: Kenneth’s revenge on his cheese-grater coupled with the Labour Party’s pre-electoral promises to market-traders that they would be permitted to set up their stalls just inside the city’s main gate.
Was this plan put to the vote by the Valletta and Floriana Rehabilitation Committee, or was it presented to them as a fait accompli, whereupon they all put their tails between their legs and got on with it?
Or perhaps, like our Kenneth and his manifest hatred of Renzo Piano’s design for Parliament House, they agree with plonking your archetypal tacky market – just like the one in Eastenders and so many others selling exactly the same things in rundown city neighbourhoods throughout Europe – in this prominent position.
The fact that it’s a market doesn’t bother me one bit, but the sort of market it is bothers me a lot.
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http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-12-29/local-news/Ordinance-Street-works-pave-the-way-for-Monti-to-move-location-from-Merchant-Street-6736127985
U xi nghidu ghal dawk li hemm qabel tidhol il-Belt fejn il-venda tal-linja jbieghu il-hobz go dak id-duhhan tal-karozzi tal-linja? Sanita zero.
Ghax i-0direttur il-gdid tas-sanita mhux jibghat nies overtime biex in-nies ma jgergrux kontra l-gvern li gew tas-sanita jissigillaw u jharku.
F’ sajf shih qas inspection wahda fi stall ffesta ma saret. Taf int Malta taghna lkoll.
Din is-sitwazzjoni ilha s-snin u nispera li xi darba tinbidel.
Minister mizzi – a complete failure.
Everything under his responsibility is falling to pieces – Transport Malta, public transport, traffic management, employing relatives in his department etc.
So Kenneth Zammit Tabona was all against the roofless theatre which is now being used almost every day in summer (fireworks are not disturbing performances) and winter, including Christmas. And he is not against this pastazata of a shabby market next to Piano’s masterpiece.
And who’s that lady holding her handbag next to Mizzi?
Norbert Gatt is employed in Joe Mizzi’s ministry, so expect total obedience from him to his minister’s madness.
Where are those persons who used to speak out and pen their critical thoughts on projects proposed under the PN administration?
Like the museum in front of St John’s Cathedral, which was cancelled as a result of public opposition?
Has Joseph Muscat silenced everyone?
Norbert Gatt is ex-minister Lawrence Gatt’s nephew. Please don’t tell me that he also has been sucked into the Taghna Lkoll funnel.
[Daphne – Norbert Gatt is there because he is a full-time employee of the Restoration Directorate and has been for some years. Any restoration of buildings has to take place under his technical supervision. This has been the case for a few years now.]
Thank heavens for that. Forgive me for not connecting his vast expertise in restoration to the project in question.
I’m curious to see whether there will be the same outrage for the museum to be built on Merchant Street.
That is Kenneth’s bag, he keeps his pashmina in it.
Fireworks not disturbing performances? Yes, well tell that to the Globe theatre people who are trained in working outdoors, but whose version of King Lear came not so much with a ‘blow wind and crack your cheeks’ so much as ‘crack fireworks, blow Joseph Calleja rehearsals and sing along with German students running down South street.’
I have long got used to the fact that when it comes to the arts we are Neanderthals where the bar is so low that it can be used to measure a full fathom five. I just wish people wouldn’t show it off so easily in public.
Yes, the space was used in summer but for much of the time what it was filled with was questionable, and certainly did not merit having so much money devoted to create the space.
But hey ho this is a country where politicians are either experts or devils depending on hue, when in reality they are at best semi-decent lawyers and doctors but more often then not asinine twerps as blissfully uneducated as their supporters.
Fm. You forgot to mention oil exploration, Joe Mizzi’s supposed forte. A total disaster.
Recall his high hopes for Hagar Qim well driilled earlier this year when people in the know foretold would be a dry well. Watch the buffoon on u tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrWZsFAnrcw
Oil exploration was supposed to be a government priority according to joe mizzi earlier this year (2014) quoted by l-orizzont. Now there is a deafening silence on this issue. Perhaps the buffoon discovered he is a total incompetent and shut his mouth?
Will they have a stall of antique cheese graters?
No, just watercolours.
Auctioneers have given up.
I believe it’s not only the Rehabilitation Committee that want the market there but the promise that the Labour Party had made to those who worked in it.
It’s a pity, like you yourself mentioned, that we are going to have a shabby looking market beneath one of Renzo Piano’s beautiful works.
Just a reading of the names on that Committee sends a shiver up my spine of how everything is “mahdum bizilla.”
How very macabre.
“Alexiei”.
HIM!
[Daphne – The mayors of Valletta and Floriana are members of the Valletta and Floriana Rehabilitation Committee whoever they may be.]
I’ll try again.
“Michela”
HER!
This is a ridiculous idea and always has been. The traditional home of the open market was never there.
Of all times when we now have spectacular entrance by an internationally acclaimed architect, an EU presidency, CHOGM (for what THAT is worth) and ECOC in 2018…wonderful image of Valletta.
It’s “ordnance”, not “ordinance”.
[Daphne – Yes, I wish everyone would get that one right once and for all. I don’t think people realise they are two completely different words and that it’s not a simple matter of an ‘i’ here and there.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ordnance
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ordinance ]
I’d shouted myself hoarse on this one. I even tried to enlist Giovanni Bonello’s help. If “La Vallette” was blasphemy, this is far worse.
For the Maltese version – “Ordinanza” – is not a translation of “ordnance”, but “ordinance”. In Maltese, it should be “Ordinji”.
Please, Giovanni Bonello, if we can overturn 300 years of common usage, then surely we can overturn 30 years?
While at it let’s change Saint Christopher Street to its original name which was: Christopher Street, Strada Cristoforo.
There’s lots more:
– “D’Argens” is not “Argens” (bit-tikka, ghax ahna Maltin u prawt).
– If it’s “Il-Principessa Margerita”, “Ir-Re Dwardu VII” and “Orsla”, then surely it should be “Guzeppi Garibaldi”, “Censu Bugeja” and “Pawlu Boffa”?
– If it’s “misrah” not “pjazza”, then surely it’s “borg” not “kavallier”?
– It’s not “Ibragg” but “Ibrag”
– “Moll is-shipwrights”. Eat your heart out, Akkademja Taliban.
What do we do about Rue D’Argens Street and Triq Rue D’Argens?
We rename them “Zieme”. Or something.
This is another ‘before March 2013’ back room deal by Joseph Muscat …….. And the ‘Tal Monti’ voted en masse for the Moviment.
I find it quite telling about our ‘Maltese’ mentality in general that a woman, to whom I am related, who was born and raised here but has been for the past 30 years living in Canada, thought that the Piano project was beautiful and innovative, and blended quite well with the surroundings.
She is no architect, though she has what one could call an artistic streak. On the other hand she might have been brainwashed about the ‘ugliness’ of the Piano project by ‘the other side’ so that when she saw it she didn’t think it was that bad after all.
She told me that those who denigrated the project didn’t have any taste for beautiful works. I couldn’t agree more.
You begin to put Michela Spiteri’s rants as a switcher into some perspective.
Kenneth Zammit Tabona – Valletta and Floriana Rehabilitation Committee chairman?
Dan f’xiex jifhem?
The temptation to answer your question with “shit-holes and Valletta has plenty” is too great to resist.
I remember for years travelling to Malta and seeing his ghastly paintings monthly smeared all over the Air Malta in-flight magazine. I’ve also read some of the nonsense he writes about art – miskin, il Principe di Agrigento is so far off the mark.
Can Minister Joe Mizzi explain why Helena Dalli has a sleeping policeman situated on both sides of her house on the Zejtun to Marsascala road please?
She prefers a sleeping policeman rather than a hyperactive one who drinks 20 cans of Red Bull a day behind her door.
‘DO NOT DISTURB’.
I wouldn’t wonder if her little highness would ask for a ‘Keep Silent’ or a ‘No horns allowed’ next.
A very bad sign.
She is having sleepless nights already.
Maybe Joseph knows a bit more.
Xi trid taghmel! F’Parigi, triq l-isfel mis-Sacre Cuore issib triq shiha bit-Three Card Monte ‘stalls’. Iriddu nikkompetu b’xi haga hux.
Dennis Dowling is Saviour Balzan’s father-in-law.
So, so far there is Saviour Balzan, Mariella Dimech and Dennis Dowling “earning” monies out of the public coffers? Three members from Saviour’s family with their snout in the trough. Pretty good going for just one family.
Puts Saviour’s rants into perspective. Am I missing anyone else related to Saviour Balzan? I guess we should tell John Dalli that this is the real Mr BS.
Dak biex il-ministru ma jinsiex jixtri qliezet ta’taht. Misshom jarmaw dawk li jkun hemm u kien ikun hemm il-hadd, bl-ghasafar, diski u loghob li gew ikkupjati u aktar.
Nahseb Kenneth interessat jiehu stall fuq il-monti. Tghid x’ha jbiegh?
Cfuf u trapani – u, forsi, nucalijiet ‘gay friendly’.
Naħseb se jkompli jbiegħ il-prinċipji tiegħu għax jidher li s’ issa mar tajjeb ħafna…
I would not be wrong to say that 90% of the products sold on il-Monti are imported from China.
This also includes Maltese bizilla and tablecloths with Maltese scenes.
There are “business people” who import tons of this trash from the Chinese in Catania.
You forgot to mention the tangas with a mouse face front.
Kenneth Zammit Tabona does not seem happy. He cannot be blamed because he has to deal with ‘incompetent Joe’ on a regular basis.
It is worth asking Kenneth now;
What are best for Malta; GonziPN and the ‘arrogant’ Austin Gatt who transformed City Gate into a Parliament building and an area to be proud of OR ‘incompetent Joe’ and ‘morally dubious Joseph’ who are unable to initiate and carry out a single decent infrastructure project?
Oh but Kenneth is all for the “multi-faceted Joe” Sphinx, complete with painted talons.
Didn’t he help put it all together?
Ma ntuhx xi “honoris causa”, jew kanonikat, lil Kenneth Zammit Tabona ħalli jkollu xi ittri biex iġib wara ismu?
Conveniant for Joseph so he can buy a different nylon tanga for Her Highness daily.
Qiesa hej kemm ghandhom ittri wara isimhom
Wondering what the Kitten from Malta thinks about the “soft entry” of Autobuses tal-Iljun from 8 January as promised by the man to his right.
I really wonder how it is possible to fail when the Spanish company is getting 130% extra in subsidiary in the 1st year alone, especially when the bed is already made.
You can work miracles when you get 23 million euro just to introduce 140 buses to get rid of UBS and keep using Arriva’s routes, and to add insult to injury, the contract states that there is no time limit for the Spaniards, so even if they manage to ruin this, the way it being introduced, allows for multiple excuses.
Who is the lady in the photo? Madame Defarge?
So here we have a Piano masterpiece taking shape.
Everybody knows it is a masterpiece but half of us are denigrating it, simply because ‘they did it’
So since it is there and no one is going to remove it, we plonk g strings, baseball caps, bras and 3rd rate clothing all over it.
Talk about crassness.
Half of us have been brainwashed to denigrate this project.
Who the hell, in this day and age of internet shopping, or retail shopping where you have shops just about everywhere, still buys things from an open air market?
The quality is abysmal and the prices high. I don’t get it.
In many countries open air markets are good so I see the point, but in Malta they sell socks, fakes of questionable provenance, and treksjuuts that are cheaper in shops such as H&M or Primark.
If the Valletta market were a good food market with niche products I would say why not, but this tacky remnant of another age has got to go.
Do they still do well financially, i.e. are they selling? Or is it, as I suspect, a case of dwindling sales year on year and constant complaining about the reduced sales, completely oblivious to the fact that times have changed?
You can buy a tortoise from the cash box on the tanga stall.
Li kieku tghiduli li jifhem fil-qzizati u pretensjonijiet hemmek jigi l-ewwel.
Prezenta ruhu ta’ artist meta qatt ma studja l-arti. Issa wara li tnejjek b’ma nafx kemm nies u jbellghalhom il-WoTEerkaLers tieghu bhala fine art b’l-aktar prezzijiet esagerati (anke minn ta’ artisti validi aktar minnu), Kenneth Zammit Tabona iddeffes ma’ ta’ Taghna Lkoll biex jaghtuh xi job ghax fil-verita hadd m’ghadu nteressat jixtri il-karikaturi over-valuated u redikoli tieghu.
Il-biza hija li la dan f’hajtu bellha ic-cheap art tieghu bhala fine arti lil xebgha nies ara x’ha jbellalhom lil tar-rehabilitation project. Stennew u araw.
Jekk Kenneth artist u espert fl-arts policy, mela jien tailor u fashion designer.
Jippretendi li huwa arts policy expert u music expert u cuisine expert ghax jiddeffes f’kollox u b’ilsienu jirnexxielu jimmanipula lill Mrs Dik u Mrs L-Ohra jbieh xi haga li huwa m’huwiex.
Li jikkwota x’qal fuqu Richard England lanqas ma huwa ser jgholli l-valur tal-WoTEerkaLers tieghu li fil-verita m’ghandhomx valur u min hallas 2,300 ewro (bla ricevuta tal-VAT) ghal bicca kwadru illum jaf li rema flusu f’investiment li m’huwiex. Iz-zmien isajjru l-bajtar, Wenz.
U jien Sor Michelin.
Dan m’ghandux x’jaghmel.
Saw him at the local grocer the other day accompanied by a young Indian servant (the new Taghna Lkoll socialism: doing the grocery shopping with your servant rather than sending your servant to do it alone).
When the shopkeeper suggested that he buy some lovely, yummy tomatoes he loudly declared that his servant peels them, deseeds them and then dices them for him before he will eat them.
The Spouse of the Prime Minister must think him the bee’s knees. It won’t be long before she gets her PA Pamela Seychell to do the same for her, biex tkun waslet bhal Kenneth.
Madonna how very posh.
Daphne, what’s your interpretation of The Malta Independent’s latest survey?
[Daphne – That’s the newspaper for which I work, so it wouldn’t be correct to comment.]
Do you think Kenneth feels any sort of shame standing there, or is he still proud of his choices?
http://imgur.com/p0XEDny
Maybe this will be Kitten’s iced bun: market manager, but with a suitably more pompous title. Then we will have one more ‘switcher’ on the state pay-roll.
For Kenneth Zammit Tabona, the open-air theatre is a disgrace but the open-air market situated right there is not.