In which J’accuse marvels at the mind-numbing effect that the retiling and relighting of a square has on “the people”.
Every now and then a bit of news comes along that serves to remind us that we are after all a very tiny island with a small population that is the size of a medium town in most European countries. The fanfare around the inauguration of the re-looked (I know the verb exists in Frog so it must exist in Rosbif) Saint George’s Square is a definite case in point.
J’accuse has often poked fun at the manner in which governmental achievements that would occur without so much as a bat of an eyelid in any other country are somehow portrayed and treated in a manner deserving of a new Renaissance complete with patrons and cultural savants. It is thus that a ribbon cutting exercise in some obscure alley in Hal Bubaqra by nothing less than a Minister and a set of VIPs (Malta standard) is never a tongue in cheek exercise but a very serious manner – often completed with commemorative bronze plaque.
Ours is the country that “inaugurates” freshly tarmacked roads, has mini-festivals for the opening of “gardens” the size of some people’s back yards, puts “monuments” on roundabouts on our closest equivalent to highways and given the chance calls on a Minister and the Armed Forces to uncover a newly painted bench on a promenade. We take it so seriously that we are lost in a wonderland of awe every time a streetlight turns up and some Minister or other natters away about urban planning or the likes.
As I was saying, Piazza San Giorgio and the circus-like inauguration tops the bill of this crazy carnival of the politcally grotesque. The powers that be finally discovered enough balls in their pants to (a) remove all the cars and (b) kill the karozzin guys (it’s the only way, believe me) and (c) find a basic budget to retile the square, erect two lampposts and put a few holes in the ground out of which a bit of water spurts every so often. They added a few LED’s in the “fountain”, threw a few benches in funky shapes and vomited a few planters here and there and before you know it Bob’s your uncle! The Medici’s have been shamed. Piazza San Giorgio is the cultural apex of this year – and boo to you Renzo Piano.
They had a show kicking it all off presented by a Claire Agius dressed up as a “dead bear in pants with sequined breasts”. They had acrobats a-swinging, light show a-glaring, and ministers and archbishops a-smiling. Forget “let them eat cake”, judging by the interviews and people’s reactions on the Times today it sure does not take much to please the people.
I repeat. It’s a square that has been cleared of cars.
With new tiling.
And some lights.
And benches.
And a few holes that spout water.
Big effin deal.
(It’s very najs though – and the kids sure love it).
16 replies on “It's a square with new tiles”
not happy with an actual direct broadcast and feature in the news item, the public broadcaster actually featured the square again on the news yesterday too, as a kind of the day after experience…showing us people actually sitting on benches. how embarrassing can it get? now i could understand it if some journalist were to ask on the whereabouts of the sette gunio monument, no matter how much i may not like the design…
It just shows you the sorry state the country is in.
Well done Jacques. At last something I could read to the end – without reaching for my dictionary – and agree with.
You almost sound like Daphne.
Cheers Charles. You almost wrote a nice complement/comment. Thank deities for the “almost” otherwise the world would be so boring. Glad I spared you the dictionary this time round.
‘Every now and then a bit of news comes along that serves to remind us that we are after all a very tiny island with a small population that is the size of a medium town in most European countries.’
But why is this a problem if we are the size of a wee town? If nothing else, this is what emphasises the fact that we punch above our weight elsewhere.
Hi JBB. Have you sent any comment to the Parliamentary Select Committee on the electoral system? Deadline is the 18th.
http://www.doi.gov.mt/EN/press_releases/2009/11/pr2021.asp
Thanks Faust. Wasn’t aware of that.
@JBB, Fausto & anyone interested
Fausto’s comment got me thinking. It may be a bit late in the day but if any one of you has a basic draft (even in point form) that can be beefed up collaboratively (I’m thinking Google docs) we can try to come up with a simple document and send it from this forum. JBB – I am thinking we might have some points in the open letter to the political parties that might be grafted on as a starter.
Replies, either here or on my gmail account are welcome.
Cheers.
@JBB – I don’t think it is a problem that we are the size of a wee town (funny how that wee word pervades so fast, even our French stagiare came from a stint in Scotchland using it extensively). I think there is a problem where, if Saviour Balzan is to be believed, we spend €177,000 to inaugurate a retiled square with acrobats and such.
Wee towns rock and have great potential… I live in a region of wee towns (which grandly calls itself La Grande Region). The Trier-Metz-Luxembourg Axis, though not exactly competing with London, Paris and Rome is a model for cross-border collaboration in the microcosm that are “wee towns”.
Last one: this is what the wee town of Metz (pronounced Mess incidentally) can come up with. While we heckle about Piano they are busy building a Centre Pompidou. http://www.metz.fr/metz2/actions/cpm/index.php
If by “the open letter” you mean what I think you mean, it does not offer anything that was not in the report of the Gonzi Commission of the 1990s with equal chances of failure.
A humble contriubtion:
http://malta9thermidor.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/ditch-stv/
1. malta/gozo one electoral district meaning that each minister and prospective minister will need the votes of all…reduces insularity
2. introduce the accrual system hey presto to stop the bizarre now recurring experience that government spending balloons at every post-election year
3. 3% national threshold.
4. only one local council election mid-term. local council elections team-based (supported by parties or independent) not individual candidature.
5. Public broadcasting to be managed by university … board needing 2/3 parliamentary endorsement
6. full independent audit of each ministry immediately after each election – to expose pre-electoral abuse/misuse
@fausto
Can you elaborate on the working of this?
“Voters vote simply by putting the mark, any mark, next to the name of one candidate. Votes are counted and parties are allocated seats proportionately which are then filled by the candidates for that party who have the most votes. Counting votes would not take days and can even be made electronic (the counting, not the voting) in that the technology that recognises a mark is simpler and, therefore, cheaper than one which has to recognise the myriad ways in which voters write their “1″s and their “7″s across party lines.”
…
I mean, for example… is there a threshold for a party to be considered in the proportional allocation?
Also could you elaborate further on the rules for party lists. Are they obligatory? Could we consider the possibility where the votes go for parties then they determine how to fill their quota of seats?
It’s an open set of questions that basically queries the value of the underlying vote in a suggested voting system. Would we agree for a vote for the party first or for a representative first (and then using the parties as a means of calculating which representatives make it and in which proportion)?
The questions may appear (and are in some cases) contradictory but my intention is just to iron out the suggestion more clearly and see how it could result in (and here comes the paradox) a better “wasted vote” than the current system. For as you like to remind there will always be wasted votes but I’d like to see a system where the only wasted votes are inevitable and not part of a calculated ploy to coerce voters away from voting differently.
Jacques,
The question of a treshold is a contingent issue (which is why the central issue is having “national proportionality” rather than a “national threshold”). In the case of a 65 member parliament even if you do not have a secified treshold it will still mathematically work out to approximately 2%.
The second issue you mention is the open list versus the closed list (and, as you can see from the Wikipedia article, there are alternatives there too). I’m all for the first. It leaves the choice of representatives to the voters and that makes it fair and democratic.
As to how my proposal would work the technicalities are included in the Gonzi Commission report anf Prof Buhagiar’s paper. What I’m calling for is an end to transferability which adds nothing to the system except for delays, risks of mathematical anomalies and injustice to people whose only fault is hacing a surname like “Zammit”.
and the saga continues ….
timesofmalta.com : School children enjoy St George’s Square
Who’s next ?