Here's another one talking through the seat of his pants
Klaus heads off to join the Arrogant Army
The Times – Wednesday, 1st July 2009
Decisions that are overdue
Klaus Vella Bardon
Dr Gonzi seems to be unduly preoccupied with his decision to carry out the project of Renzo Piano for Valletta, a project that could have been decided upon with much wider consultation, offering alternative options for the public to consider. It should be remembered that many joined the Nationalist ranks way back in the 1970s to overthrow the scandalous manner in which Dom Mintoff’s Administration ran roughshod over basic human rights that made a mockery of representative government.
How can a future Nationalist opposition berate a Labour government for shabby behaviour if it excludes public debate before far-reaching decisions are made?
In their hysterical and hyperbolic attempts at proving their point – whatever that point might happen to be at any given time, though it is usually that Lawrence Gonzi is a waste of space and that the government can do nothing right – the Arrogant Army are making themselves ridiculous.
They are the Arrogant Army not necessarily because they are arrogant (though boy, do they come across that way!) but because ‘arrogant’ is now their buzzword of choice, just as it was when they were chattering in ‘new’ Alfred Sant’s lap back in 1996.
You really have to be blinded by a one-track obsession to even begin to compare the prime minister’s decision to commission Renzo Piano to the hideous things we lived through in the years 1971 to 1987.
Take a pill, Klaus.
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Can someone enlighten me as to what this guy’s point is? I must be either thick or just tired.
Is this the same Klaus that I have known for a number of years? I am referring to Klaus the dentist, who I always thought had a clear mind of his own. Klaus, you have lost many points on this issue.
[Daphne – Yes, but I’m not surprised. He’s been gnashing his teeth with all the other conservative traditionalists in Astrid’s Army for ages. They think they’re liberal because they support gay rights – at least those of them who are gay do; the rest make that limp-wrist gesture when pronouncing the word ‘gay’ – and favour divorce legislation (as though the world’s millions of right-wing conservatives don’t). But the unifying factor among all these people is that they’re so damned old-fashioned and want things to stay the same or better, hark back to the ‘glorious’ past when Sliema was full of men tipping hats at ladies, as they imagine it. The irony is that Klaus frowns on homosexual relationships and takes a very dim view of divorce, largely because he is one of those insufferable religious bigots who want to impose their way of life on everyone else. Yet the ‘liberal’ army are happy to have him around on this one, it appears.]
This guy just talks through his hat and sometimes gets mixed up too.
Klaus, a greater man than myself once said that there is no room for democracy in art and architecture. The truth of this statement can be had in the indisputable fact that if it were up to the decision of the general (largely uneducated and mostly misled) public, then none of the great works of art and architecture throughout history would have been produced. Historical fact bears this out because none of the buildings that we acknowledge today as great works of architecture were ever subjected to public approval or opinion before being built. God forbid that we should allow art or architecture to be dragged to the abysmal depths of pop art.
[Daphne – Actually, pop art can be quite remarkable and there are whole museum wings dedicated to it. I rather suspect that what you have in mind is not pop art but tacky kitsch. I rather like pop art, but then I love that whole late 1960s/early 1970s thing.]
Come on, Klaus. Do not mention the 1971-87 era and compare it to today. I was born in Cospicua and live at Zabbar and I know their mentality exactly.
Poor Klaus. He must have accidentally taken a shot of novacaine just before he wrote the above.
You’re right, Daphne (poor choice of words) . . . I was referring to popular tacky kitsch and pastiche. Looking around at a substantial portion of Malta’s buildings built over the last four decades, with their ‘lavur’ and ‘kolonni’ and ‘balavostri’ together with the stone lions and eagles . . . . oh, and the mandatory fountain with a marble statue of Athena with her top slipping off . . . it’s quite obvious that a substantial portion of ‘the people’ mistake this sort of rubbish for architecture which lends weight to Giovanni Bonello’s statement.