The dust begins to settle on our foolishness

The Times, Thursday, 19 February 2009
The majority are not necessarily right (1)

André Zammit, Sliema

The project of the St John’s Foundation – which I have not seen but I presume was the result of a serious study – has been shot at from all angles and the Prime Minister and the Archbishop had to intervene to put it on hold “as it was dividing the people”. This may have been expedient and perhaps inevitable, but it is not a permanent solution.

I have some sympathy with the Foundation’s complaint that the whole process has been hijacked by a number of vociferous and perhaps well-meaning organisations – not necessarily just busybodies – and has not had the benefit of being properly judged by professionals.

When, some 30 years ago, I introduced the topic of public participation in planning in my lecture courses on urban studies at university, I used to quote Catherine Bauer’s classical qualification of “what the people want” by “what the people would want if they knew the full range of possibilities on the one hand and all the practical limitations on the other”. I think that this concept is still very valid. I do not subscribe to the notion that the majority are always necessarily right. Galileo, Darwin, Einstein and a few others were in a minority of one.

Personally – and I have had some slight experience of excavations – I am not impressed by the excessive fears expressed that excavations in the proximity of St John’s would necessarily jeopardise its safety and stability.

Recent advances in rock mechanics and rock stabilisation should allay such fears. In fact, independently of the project, it would probably be a good thing if a proper exploratory trench were dug all along the frontage of St John’s to eliminate any damage that may be caused by the roots of the trees or the seepage of underground water by the sealing of any fissures.

The priceless tapestries remain in storage and endangered. The suggestion of displaying them in some restored palazzo nearby, completely misses the scale of the operation. It is like attempting to house the Sea World aquarium in a goldfish bowl.

What is really worrying is the upheaval which the hauling of hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of rock from the nerve centre of Valletta would cause to the fabric of the city and its urban life over a number of years. I have not read or heard anything of a method statement, but I have a suggestion which may sound like Columbus’s egg.

From the point of view of accessibility I have always advocated the excavation of a tunnel under St John Street linking the Sliema and the Senglea Ferries – which should be revived – with the main access shaft to the north-west of St John Square, where the flower kiosk is now. There are now rotary tunnelling machines which will cut through globigerina limestone like butter and next to no vibrations.

If the two projects were to be amalgamated, all the spoil material from excavation would be taken out from the tunnels and all the concrete and other building materials would be brought in the same way. The tunnels would then be lined and equipped with travelators (people movers) and the access shaft with escalators. How about some serious thinking on these lines instead of ruffled feathers and trading of compliments?

The Times, Thursday, 19 February
The majority are not necessarily right (2)

Yves Calì, Sliema

Unfortunately Malta is still a country where tonsils carry more weight than credentials. The FAA and the recent stoppage of the St John’s Museum project sustain this argument.

Had the FAA waited for the final application, then taken a stand, it would have been credible. Had the FAA sat down with viable options and reached a compromise, it would have been constructive. Had the FAA not acted as an estate agent, it would have been honest.

The FAA instead played into the hands of the PL (Partit Le). There were still avenues to be explored that would have kept the project going, yet on the strength of a thousand or so signatures Malta has lost out. “If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.” (Jacques Anatole Thibault)