My Thursday and Sunday columns
Just a note to remind you that my Thursday and Sunday columns for The Malta Independent and The Malta Independent on Sunday are no longer being uploaded on this site.
The Malta Independent site has since gone live and you will find them under ‘Debate’ (www.independent.com.mt).
Tomorrow’s column is about whining and the Renzo Piano theatre, taking the cue from something that occurred to me today while reading the horrendously stupid comments beneath the report on timesofmalta.com.
This is that many of those who glorify the Royal Opera House and criticise Piano’s democratic design are, ironically, the most likely to have had antecedents who were excluded for financial or social reasons from the interior of the Royal Opera House and who might not even have seen the exterior because in those days people didn’t leave their villages and went to Valletta perhaps once in a lifetime, if at all.
They should be championing this theatre – free and open to all, designed by one of the greatest architects of all time and a symbol of the democratic age in which we live – and not that one, a symbol of their ancestors’ social and financial oppression.
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Well said, Daphne
People are forgetting that the Piano theatre is also a monument to the WWII and the heroic people of Malta during that war.
Where’s Baxxter?
Seriously??? “free and open to all, designed by one of the greatest architects of all time and a symbol of the democratic age in which we live –” What planet are you living on??
Have you become socialist or something – free? open to all?
Designed? I repeat: seriously???
[Daphne – If you wish me to take YOU seriously, don’t use three interrogation marks when one suffices. No, I have not become socialist ‘or something’. I merely remarked on the absolutely ludicrous irony of the descendants of people who were never allowed into the ROYAL Opera house holding it up as some kind of symbol of all that they hold to be good. The fact is that if many of those praising the Royal Opera House were alive when it was busy, they would never have been able to set foot in it even if they wanted to. They miss that point, don’t they.]
Hey Chris, Have you ever been to Caracalla or the Arena di Verona the latter being in that part of Italy where it rains on alternate days? Both are world famous open theaters.
X’Antipatijia ostra! Multiple question marks. Skopra l-question mark, dan.
Couldn’t you have asked all those questions in one sentence?
Just a comment on The Malta Independent site: I don’t have time for Twitter, FB and whatever there is to put a simple comment on the online paper.
Why can’t they keep it simple for someone to comment?
I started taking cursory looks at the paper but probably I would only pop in on Thursdays and Sundays to read an article in the opinion section.
Agree. I find the site a total botch up. Very slow, irritating and frustrating.
And then they congratulate themselves with multiple thank you ads in their printed paper. Who the hell made that decision, before cleaning it up?
Maybe the editor should consult Daphne.
Yesterday, being Thursday, I read what I had to read and tried to put a comment where we are being “coerced” to comment.
After filling up name, address and what not, I clicked on ‘terms and conditions’…they don’t exist, and after trying to go back,the form was empty!! (allow me two exclamation marks Daphne).
Obviously next Sunday I will try to give it another try, because Daphne and the editor decided that her articles should not be uploaded here. Fair enough, he’s paying for them, but Daphne is not getting the feedback, which I think is important.
[Daphne – I’ve passed this on.]
Those who wish to comment on The Malta Independent website need to register first, and once only.
You can do so in different ways, the simplest being by clicking on the ‘register’ icon at the top of the home page or below each commentable story, and filling up the necessary details. The other options are signing through Twitter, Facebook and Google.
I tried again today to log in, we moved one step forward, there’s the “terms and conditions” agreement.
Call me “nitpicker” if you want.
Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that I read it and I agreed with it. As soon as I pressed the ‘back’ button , I found the form which I filled up, empty.
One question: “If I don’t do FB or Twitter , would I need to fill in the form for every session, or just put in my email address and password , like the other on line papers, and my name will appear automatically?”
BTW: I see that ALL the commentators who wrote before today on The Malta Independent did not read the “terms and conditions”, because these simply were not there. That says a lot .
Thank you, Daphne.
My only issue is the lack of roof. Have just come in off the mountain bike and got soaked, yet the ride in the rain was part and parcel of the experience. I actually enjoyed the solitude and the inclement weather. On the other hand I prefer to remain dry when visiting the theatre.
Open air theatres exist in nearly every major city in the world. There are enclosed theatres for other functions and presentations, such as the Manoel and the Mediterranean Centre, not to mention two well-equipped theatres in Gozo well known for opera productions.
The colonial government insulted Valletta with Barry’s horrible neo-classical theatre which was too small anyway for Grand Opera due to a very basic design error. Barry had never visited the site which is on an incline and the facade had to be pushed back to make way for the steps that still exist.
Money for the rebuilding of Barry’s theatre was available in the post-war reconstruction programme but Mintoff used it to clear the Mandragg and rebuild that area; a laudable thing in itself, but it eventually left a scar on our city that no one but this government has so far had the gall to tackle.
Incidentally, Joseph Muscat’s reply to the budget speech referred to the project as “hela ta’ flus” and “monument ghall-hela ta’ flus”. They prefer spending the money on social services.
This shows how short-sighted and how poor they still are.
They are still utilitarian in approach. They have no appreciation for aesthetic beauty and fostering a cultural environment in Malta is anathema to their policies because, needless to say, they still think that it is better to give people one fish a day rather than teaching them to fish.
They cannot understand that these projects ultimately inject more money in the economy because they attract further investment, they bring more tourists and all in all, they make a city even more beautiful.
But I sadly note that they haven’t changed their mentality. They are still sucking from Mintoff’s bosom of poor ideas where whatever didn’t directly produce something was conceived to be a waste.
They are still harping on the “bridge leading to nowhere” little realising that the bridge has added a touch of class to the area, and made the area yet more appealing. This is the point: adding value to something which is ignored or not quite used to its full potential.
At the end of the day, they are still the penny-pinching scroungers who brought Malta to its knees over 25 years ago. Their policies are the horrible policies which gave Malta all those acacias from LIbya, the horrible square buildings and the rape of our landscape over the years, not to mention the destruction of anything beneficial to the soul and to the mind.
And, I’m afraid to say, they are still the same. The mentality is the same. I could hear Mintoff talking this evening. And the mere thought of it makes me want to run to the nearest EU Job Centre to flee Malta at the first opportunity.
In future Labour budgets, the capital projects will once again consist of reductions in the price of canned tuna, mackerel and anchovies.
Though I myself think the open air theatre is great, I also think it is the only decent part of Piano’s project. He’s ruined City Gate even more than Borg Olivier did – and that’s saying something.
Oh give us a break, issa nwahhlulu erbgha kanolli u skoss puttini bil-patata barra mdawrin ma’ bust ta’ Glormu Cassar.
Wara referendum fejn the people who’ve spoken jaghzlu il-‘Maltese personalities’ minn minnhom npoggu fin-nofs. Tista’ tahseb Mintoff fejn jispicca.
Mbaghad naghmlu ghaxar snin ngergru ghax m’hemmx latrina fil-vicin, li t-turgien m’ghandhomx poggiaman u li fix- xita jizolqu. .
You describe this ‘thing’ as ‘a symbol of the democratic age in which we live,’ when the fact is that the majority of us were against the new parliament building and certainly against the idea of a roofless theatre in place of what should have been a proper opera house. The will of the people was totally ignored by Gonzi and his bunch of merry men, so in what way is that a symbol of democracy?
You should address your comments to Mintoff and not Gonzi. It was the Great Leader who used the ‘war-damage’ money for rebuilding the Royal Opera House for other uses in the 1950s. See my post above.
And there was I thinking Mintoff was dead.
Send me his contact details and I will certainly put it to him.
How much is Gonzi spending on his new unnecessary Parliament building for the few compared to how much he is spending on this useless theatre for the many. He doesn’t care about the people and never has.
Said Oliver Cromwell. Salem’s nice these days.
If MLP gets elected, within a few weeks they will destroy Malta. They hate Valletta and would turn the capital into a cesspool. All capital projects would stop and subsidies on everything galore.
“Why should I go to work when our leader Muscat will send me the cheque for doing nothing” Viva Labour ha ha ha
Regardless of any success or how beautiful the theatre turns out to be, it will still be remembered as an arrogant move by Gonzi with total disrespect for anyone (in this case quite a large no. of people) who did not agree. You will disagree, of course. I’m sure there are many how think otherwise though. Including many of those with your evident political inclinations.
I would say most of those are against it as well Rob but they don’t want to speak up against their beloved leader, so they pretend that they think it’s a great idea.
Yes of course, The People have spoken.
Daphne: X’gosti ghandek ! Jidher qisu bacir izda flok vapuri hemm is-siggijiet ! Qisux it Tijatru Rjal li l-PN kien ilu jwieghed li se jibni minn 1952 !
Zgur li isbah minn dak li kien wieghed Fredu Sant siehbek ta’ kontra l-EU.
Dik il-gerha kienet latrina – issa almenu tista’ tmur bilqiegheda, u tghid hames posti ruzarju ftit ‘il-boghod mil-hamba ta’ Strada Rjali, Dward.
Bil-litanija tal-Labour,
Halluna nahdmu, itolbu ghalina
Middle Class gdida, idhlu ghalina
Franco Debono, mur u hallina
Min jaf xi jrodd is-slaleb Joseph Calleja, li kien ikkritika d-decizzjoni ta’ dan it-taparsi tijatru. Ahjar isejjhulu Tijatrin !
Ghandhom bzonn buffu, tithajjar Eddy?
U int xi haga hekk ghasel tinzillek.
Zeza tal-flagship hej.
I believe that the Norman E Grech you mentioned in Thursday’s piece is brother to Josette Grech Hamilton; and for the past couple of years he has been vociferously campaigning for the removal of the George Cross from the national flag.
Perfectly understandable that The Malta Independent have asked you not to reproduce the Thursday and Sunday columns here on your website, but perhaps it would be possible for you to have blog entries posting links to them?