Why Astrid didn't object to excavation beneath St George's Square
It’s because – to put it crudely – the ministry licked her butt. That’s people like Astrid Vella for you – transparent as hell. Butter them up and they’re all yours on a plate, garnished with parsley, because all they want is attention and to be made to feel important. That’s where the monsinjuri went wrong. They should have allowed Astrid to feel that SHE’s deciding. You know, people think that it’s the somebodies who are the worst problem in life. No, it’s the nobodies.
Astrid Vella, on timesofmalta.com
Daphne, the answer to that is so obvious, I’m surprised you even ask.The project at St George’s Square was to go down only one storey, and not four. Out of that single storey,the exploratory excavations revealed a deep top layer of old rubble infill, meaning that the actual rock excavation was limited to 70cm to 1.25m depth,depending on the incline of the flanking streets.A far cry from four storeys! Furthermore,unlike the St John’s Foundation,the MRRA involved civil society from early on, which is the norm in such cases,in spite of your declaring erroneously that consultation is only carried out after the EIA stage.FAA carried out its investigations which proved that, contrary to what the studies showed, there were structures just under the surface.I remind you that the core sampling and ground radar studies which did not trace anything at a depth of three feet are the same studies that the Foundation assured us would show up a crack in bedrock at a depth of 4storeys. It is to the Ministry’s credit that they acted upon our investigations immediately and beyond the first 50ft have already accessed a wealth of passages and structures that had been blocked off.
“Unlike the St John’s Foundation, the MRRA (Ministry of Resources and Rural Affairs) involved civil society from early on”. What Astrid means is that clever George Pullicino involved HER from early on – not civil society, unless she believes that she stands in representation of civil society.
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I knew it! By golly I knew she would say that! Mela hej! Kieku ma kienetx Astrid we would never have found the service tunnels under the Main Guard. She must be a descendant of the Phantom of the Opera to be so in tune with underground passages. So now we have an Indiana Jones of our own. Her psychic expertise stopped short of St. John’s Square.
Someone’s summed it up on timesofmalta.com:
Josephine Cremona (on 29/7/08)
FAA was not consulted and that’s a great insult for FAA’s ego. That;s the problem. What the Cathedral should have done is to talk to FAA first and probably all this storm would have been avodied. They would still have done all their research and technical studies they did, but having talked to FAA would have done away with all this big issue.
Funny really that there has been no criticism from other NGOs in the same field (no need to mention names, but there are many). But FAA sulks very quickly if it’s not consulted as it likes to think of itself as the one and only, the other NGOs being of much lesser value and quality compared with the unbounded energy of FAA and its officials who are always always right.