A pure and utter Philistine
Isn’t it extraordinary how a political party of Philistines, led by a utilitarian, should have got the luvvies’ vote and passionate support?
All those artists, actors, musicians and wannabes crowding to say how they support Joseph because Joseph loves ‘culture’ (stupid word).
And now Jose Herrera, a man with all the creative and artistic awareness and education of a ‘briksa’, is PS for culture with Jason (ditto) as V18 chairman.
And Joseph Muscat says on television that building a Renzo Piano parliament house which will be “used just 10 hours a week” is a hala ta’ flus – as though art and beauty are not ends in themselves as the epitome of human expression and consolation.
So if exceptional architecture is a waste of money when it doesn’t get ‘used’, what is a painting, or an orchestra, or a staged play?
The man has the mind of the subsistence peasants from which he is but two generations removed, and for that he alone is to blame. He has had all the advantages and the opportunities to learn and grow and change that mindset, and beyond money, trappings and functional status symbols, he can’t see.
So he’s going to stuff the sort of tacky market round parliament house that you would find near a train station anywhere else. And he told us on television that when he went to Renzo Piano’s office in Paris, he asked him to find a functional use for the building because it’s wasted on parliament “only”.
And he’s too ill-mannered, crass and uneducated to understand just what an ignorant statement that is to the world’s greatest living architect, and to democracy itself, of which parliament house stands as the ultimate symbol.
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This belief that the state should always function like a business is not only senseless but also very right wing, in the worst possible sense of the word.
Businesses are obsessed with the bottom line and always looking for the cheapest way to make a product or deliver a service.
In many cases however, we don’t want government services to be as cheap as possible.
Just think of the air traffic control service, where safety is more important than cost by far. Joseph’s and the PL’s mantra on this subject however goes unchallenged. As usual they know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
Lebanese merchant genes will out, what.
“[T]hey know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.”
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head for most decisions taken by the Labour Government so far (to say nothing of its ‘philosophy’ in general).
[Daphne – That was actually Oscar Wilde: the price of everything and the value of nothing.]
I actually knew the source of the quote, but was just complimenting its use in the current context.
Apologies to Mr. Wilde for not having given him his due credit.
An illiterate person comes to you, holding a book, and asks you: What do I do with this? You realise it doesn’t make sense to tell him to read it, so you tell him: Aghmel bih li trid.
I don’t even want to try to imagine what Piano thought when faced by the Prime Minister of Malta, asking him what he can do with that building.
This is what you get from socialism
justice is what you get from socialism
[Daphne – Oh right.]
http://www.faithfacts.org/assets/images/socialism_explained.jpg
If your idea of justice is cretins like Testa and Mangion being given generous amounts of the tax payers money for prostituting themselves in the service of our Dear Leader as a pretend salary then you’ve got a point
Can you please define ‘justice’ because, considering that the government has not yet issued its ‘enhanced and revised dictionary of terms’ where meritocracy, transmitting pornography, corruption and social justice for example, have all acquired new meaning, we need some help here.
Socialists put a price for everything , Nationalists value everyone and everything.
Has he obtained a licence to have his Alfa used as a taxi while he attends cabinet meetings and Parliament? ‘Cause you know, it’s a waste of money to have a car like that lying idle while he is not using it.
Muscat is a mirrored reflection of those who blindly vote for Labour. Feel free to ‘like’ or ‘share’.
Like.
A political election has become like a 5-year Eurovision Song vote. (Incidentally Malta started participating there since Mintoff’s election in 1971 – more or less.)
There are those who vote for the singer (because he’s one of us and if he wins ‘we’ will (somehow) win too!).
Then there are those who ‘vote’ for the song.
In a way it explains why Labour can (almost) get away with murder, while the Nationalists’ mistakes are blown out of proportion.
If we’re talking value for money, then sack the prime minister.
How much gold and silver would need to be pooled in this time to earn a modern day Notabile and for the real Maltese spirit to flourish? This opportunism is getting claustrophobic.
Is Abu Baker now a member of the national festivities commission?
Is that “DJ” Gianni in the photo?
[Daphne – Yes.]
There’s Lou Bondi as well in that picture, looking at the floor, as if he wants the earth to swallow him up.
‘The working-class…is now issuing from its hiding-place to assert an Englishman’s heaven-born privilege of doing as he likes, and is beginning to perplex us by marching where it likes, meeting where it likes, bawling what it likes, breaking what it likes.’
-Matthew Arnold, Culture And Anarchy
A few weeks back I went to Valletta and as I entered I was left wandering at the magnificence of Renzo Piano’s project, although its not completed.. The beauty of its – for a better word I call it – dovetailing of the Parliament Building with the bastions build so long ago.
I stopped to look around in awe at a truly majestic art in stone – bridging medieval and modern times.
I felt uplifted and then sad at the same time. knowing that, especially for the present government and many others this great piece of architecture is a waste of space and money.
Thank you, Dr. Gonzi, for your foresight and understanding of what architecture is for, and thank you, Signor Renzo Piano.
And there they were, thinking the skeleton was the finished product.
That place is pathos, sunset makes it a de Chirico.
Oh, how I just loved it when I.M. Beck used to call them , ” THE GREAT UNWASHED “. Anybody who ever read Rudyard Kipling, would know what kind of low levelled part of society he was referring to.
Spending on an internet campaign to mark the first 100 days and erecting a platform on Castille stairs is OK for Joseph.Building the Red China Dock and the Marsa Shipyard to mention just two projects were two bottomless pits where millions of hard earned Maltese Liri in taxes went.
But having a living Piano monument , freeing precious space from the presidential palace, is ‘hala ta’ flus’.
By any chance, is he considering having the Monti hawkers using the space when there are no parliamentary sittings?
Plain common sense dictates that the area designated for the ministers should be left out to be used on a booking basis like in every workplace all over the world.Every member of parliament will have his own office inside the building from where he can do his research and meet with his constituents about their difficulties.The speaker should have his office there also.
Parliament should meet more often and the house committees and commissions should also work from there.
Wait…if there is space for a museum there should be space for everyone. I nearly forgot he is still a Super One reporter.
With their same reasoning, if my husband and I use our house only from 7pm till 7am, then the 12 hours in between, when we’re at work, we should be renting it out…you know, ghax tkun qieghda hemm ghalxejn
Don’t give the socialists any ideas. They might slap you with a tax for not using your home between 7am and 7pm as an “incentive” to rent it out, in order to create “economic growth” as set out in the roadmap.
L-istess arroganza li kellu Mintoff ghandu l-PM.
I’m sorry to say that most of these problems arise from the fact that the PN in government was not able to finish off all its projects on time leaving those who never believed in these projects to finalise them. This should be a lesson to all.
Nikki B, private Industry is not obsessed with finding ways how to do cheap things or deliver cheap services. It is obsessed with doing them efficiently and effectively, meaning do it right first time.
In this way no time nor material is wasted while the product/service remains of good quality for purpose and expenditure is retained at what is actually necessary for that kind of work.
So every piece of work is measured, calculated and costed.
It is something that people in Government and those working in the Public Sector cannot come to terms with.
Their argument is that, while the work of industry can be measured and calculated, the work of government businesses cannot be measured nor calculated.
But then they know how to reduce 25% of their inefficiency, meaning that the know , somehow, how to calculate their 100%.
But the greatest motivation in having a government job is how to start work late and, to compensate, finish early and to hell with efficiency.
Wait for John Dalli to tell Hospital employees at the Out Patient Department that they are paid to work full day not half days.
That will bring about efficiency while the service remains excellent.