At last, Kenneth Zammit Tabona speaks up
They got the cross right on this horrid bag at least
The chairman of the Valletta Rehabilitation Committee was on Radio Malta this morning, and said that he does not agree with siting the market outside Parliament House, which I found surprising given that he has stood by Market Minister Joe Mizzi at press conferences on the subject, thereby signifying his approval.
If he doesn’t agree, he should take a stand in his capacity as chairman of the very organisation which is supposed to sort out these matters. He should stop behaving like a courtier in the court of King Joseph whose survival depends on currying favour with the queen and never crossing either of them.
Now he speaks out, just because he’s seen how angry people are?
Those stalls really served to drive the point home even among people who until yesterday didn’t give a damn about or a second thought to the subject of the market’s relocation to Parliament House.
Something else I’ve noticed since yesterday: even Labour supporters and ‘anti-cheese-graters’ who have spent the last few years denigrating the building are suddenly expressing disapproval about having the market there. Not for aesthetic reasons, you understand, or because they give a monkey’s cuss about architecture and Renzo Piano.
It’s because they’ve finally understood that this building is Parliament House, and so it’s absolutely not fitting to have a flea market just outside.
Kenneth Zammit Tabona said on radio that he doesn’t like the stalls (this I would have sworn to, given his keen sense of aesthetics) and pointed out, as Giovanni Bonello has done already on the comments board of this website, that the cross is not that of the Knights of St John, but of San Stefano. The St John cross is white; the one they have used – in their immense ignorance ghax mhux xorta – is red.
So now we have the chairman of the Valletta Rehabilitation Committee, the chairman of Valletta 2018 and the mayor of Valletta all saying that they don’t want the market there.
But the market is going to be there because King Joseph owes a debt of dishonour to the hawkers whose vote he bought with his disgraceful promise.
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Besides the aesthetically blasphemy, what about security? All those people and noise under parliament building surely could create a security issue.
‘Market minister’?
When such naffness is met with disdain by a nation lacking all sense of finesse, that’s really something!
I get the relocation of the hawkers (Y hawkers x Z family members = B new votes).
What I don’t get is Ta’ Gilardu’s kiosk being incorporated into Piano’s design.
The hope is that there will never be a terrorist attack on Malta but if it ever does occur, the most likely place to be hit is a densely populated area.
Market places are increasingly being singled out as preferred targets worldwide as they are not afforded the security provided to ports, airports, train stations and similar locations.
Were I a Member of Parliament I would not be at all happy sitting above a potential security threat.
Why all this fuss about the stalls?
We get what we deserve.
I beg to differ – if I did not vote Labour I should NOT get what I deserve.
That’s democracy – you deserve what the majority voted for.
Or rather you got the government the majority voted for and that government thinks that you deserve these ghastly stalls at the entrance to the city. So there.
Did you do anything to stop people from voting Labour?
Pearls before swine.
While I definitely disagree with the ‘proposed’ market location, I think the argument that it being located outside parliament is not suitable should be dropped, as frankly in Malta it doesn’t really make sense.
I know I’m being the devil’s advocate here, but the market is already located outside our existing parliament building and no one has ever raised issue with that (maybe because it was at the back of the building rather than at the front).
Maybe it’s all a case that the market place makes some of our parliamentarians feel at home, so since they’re moving they’re bringing the familiar with them.
In fact there are enough permanent stalls so that each mp can use one as his own office, and not have to suffer the indignity of using a building designed by “il-barrani.”
My apologies for the rant and incoherence but I’m too livid/embarrassed by the whole situation to think properly.
Neil (the other one), you are totally wrong.
1. Malta does not have an ‘existing parliament building’. Parliament convenes in ‘borrowed space’ within the Palace.
2. There has always been a ‘market’ at the back of the Palace: a food market.
3. There was never reason to object to what had existed for a few hundred years and moving Parliament to the new building is simply restoring the Palace to what it was intended for previously.
Breathe in, think deep and the true picture will eventually emerge.
Give the hawkers what they want, give the hunters what they want, give the boathouse owners what they want, say yes to whoever wants something in exchange of his support, and before you know it it is +36,000. Ta Daaa! Wait, who pays the consequences of the inevitable mess?
The Maltese electorate have a government they deserve.
A government elected out of stupidity, egoism, opportunism, cronyism and lack of foresight. Very sad indeed.
You’ve said it all, Saggio.
Did they copy those stalls from the very smart ones used for selling harbour cruise tickets on the strand to our vest and tattoo tourists .
True, but not as colourful, David.
I have the sneaking suspicion that we have not been told the full horror of what was to have been the grand design for the monti next to parliament.
In this article it is quite evident that the eight pointed cross being stuck onto the stall front is green not red.
Was the horrid idea in fact a multi-coloured cross nightmare?
http://www.tvm.com.mt/news/salib-tal-kavallieri-fuq-tilari-l-godda-tal-bejjiegha-tal-monti/
Did MEPA approve of this monstrosity or is MEPA there only to tell me if I should use aluminium or wood in my windows and doors?
Is the government so incompetent that it would allow one person to conjure a design, approve it and give the go ahead for the stalls to be assembled? This would have been a daft idea even if the location of the stalls were not so prominent. So who are the ones who agreed with the design and are now hiding behind the fall guy?
So the red cross is of San Stefano and the green cross is of St. Lazarus. Did no journalist think it would be a good idea to swing by the ‘garaxx tal-gvern’ to give us the full monty?
We have after all been paying the workers there since last November to assemble the monstrosities.
http://m.imgur.com/PA5CygG
Vera tal-biki. Lanqas biss jafu xi jridu. Bhalissa qeghdin f’Penik Stejxin. Balbuljata minghajr tadama wahda. L-aqwa t-Tatus (tattoos).
If the tourists get ripped off at some market stall selling suspect thongs and umbrellas, then they have no excuse because they have been forewarned by the eight-pronged mark itself which is a ready clue there’s no Maltese pride in the product.
Do not fall into this trap! This thing of the stalls is a distraction tactic from the other important matters.
Do you honestly believe that these structures will be used? Look at what people are talking about now, moving away from far more serious things happening.
They will not be used and we’ll soon see our PM singing victory and chanting “Gvern Li Jisma”
They have already starting twisting facts by saying that Simon Busuttil wants to as they say in Maltese “joqtol lil tal-Monti bil-guh”.
“Kenneth Zammit Tabona said on radio that he doesn’t like the stalls”
Isn’t that what Joseph Muscat also said?
Surface noise.
Beneath that, “business” as usual?