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Once we’re into administrative notices, readers are also advised that some server downtime is predicted sometime today. This should not affect readability of J’accuse since updates are being made to minor works in the system, still, you have been warned.

I visited the Piano plan exhibition for a second time and this time round I found more time to watch a part of the one-hour documentary about Valletta and its rich history. I wonder whether a DVD of that documentary could be put up for sale. It was too hot to watch the whole documentary in the stifling room but I wish I could have seen the whole thing. Walking back to the MCP car park after half a day spent in Valletta I could not help but wander wonder (thanks Ettore, you bloody pedant) whether the taxi drivers would still manage to hog Piano’s new entrance once the dust settles in the same way they managed to block Paceville’s pedestrianised area and use the new fountains to wash their cars.

And once we have the ADT on our mind, don’t you think that the SMS reporting and inaction business is a real scorcher of a classic? Walking through the Valletta Bus Terminus you get fumigated a couple of hundred times as buses driven haphazardly by drivers preoccupied with their phone call zoom to within a hair’s breath of taking your life or limbs away.

Piano. Molto ma molto Piano.

Debenham’s kick starts its recruitment drive in Malta and is expected to open soon. Gio Batta becomes a Hilfiger store (and perfectly mimicks the trend across half of Europe of integrating modern design within old architecture – here we get chav dress in porecelain wrapping) and Wagamama is expected to tickle local oriental tastes. Did anyone mention an economic crunch?

This article and accompanying Bertoon appeared in yesterday’s edition of The Malta Independent on Sunday.

Two is company, three is a virus waiting to happen
I opted for the coach-coach-plane travel itinerary for this particular homecoming trip. The incredibly hopeless state of connectivity from one of the two legal hubs of the European continent meant, once again, that the most convenient way getting to Malta involved eight and a half hours of travel by land and air.

Coaches and buses linking airports in the middle of nowhere to main cities are one of the spinoff effects of the so-called “low-cost flights”. If you go through a list of destinations of any “low-cost airline” you will probably come across the names of cities like Frankfurt, Barcelona or London. In actual fact your carefully weighed suitcase, hand luggage and person are delivered at an airport that is normally (at least) an hour’s drive away from the main city in question (see Hahn, Girona and Stansted) – hence the need for the coaches.

It’s a spin-off development with a spin-off price. “Cheap” prices advertised on “low-cost” sites are not obliged to mention the added euros that are required to fund the whole travel operation when getting from door-to-door. That is how I compare trips and costs. You basically have to take into consideration the total cost incurred from when you leave your doorstep at home to the moment you open your suitcase in the bedroom/hotel room at your chosen destination. Don’t be fooled… be informed. You can thank me later.

But I digress. I mentioned the coaches because they are not normally my preferred mode of transport – me being the gas-guzzling, unapologetic, private transport, forget-the-car pool type of person. This time, the economic crunch, an unwillingness to drive for three hours and other factors meant that I would be catching two coaches from Luxembourg to Hahn to Frankfurt. This meant travelling on two coach loads of potential carriers of the A(H1N1) virus.

We are often accused of commiting the mortal sin of always being critical of any efforts to discuss the evolution of the Maltese political scene. It is true that oftentimes the broken record that is our understanding of the effects of the PLPN hegemony of local political development can become a cumbersome obstacle that transforms to a blinkered view when looking at new attempts at open discussion.

Jean Pierre Farrugia’s candid article in today’s Times engages the discussion of how political parties are losing their values. Farrugia brings an interesting issue with regards to the Nationalist party out into the open: whether the more conservative elements are actually nullifying the work of an earlier generation of centre-left politicians who had brought the nationalist party closer to the workers and the masses. Reading Farrugia’s article leads one to understand that Farrugia forms part of the element of the nationalist party that believes that its soul should be firmly routed in the caring centre-left … and that right now this is not happening due to the stronger “conservative” element.

Without going into the merits of the argument, Farrugia’s article is a welcome addition to an open space discussion. It’s a brilliant discussion to get going and ncludes many sub-topics: liberalism, the nature of the centre-left and the existene or otherwise of a real conservative agenda. Maybe it might be time to reopen The Malta Chronicle again – though not for now perhaps, summer laziness is just round the corner.

“Even my life-long friend Guido de Marco, who is above any suspicion of being a Marxist, defined his position on the political spectrum as being centre-left.” -JP Farrugia

Since when does being centre-left create an automatic assumption that one is a marxist?

Italy’s famous blogger/activist Beppe Grillo has announced his intention to run for the post of secretary of the Partito Democratico. Reknown for his often controversial criticism of the political establishment, Grillo suprised many of his fans with this move. His intention is to revive an “empty” left that is devoid of all meaning and, in his words, “fascinated by its Berlusconian double”. The blogger can participate in the election of the Pd secretary because in an effort to import the U.S. primaries model, the Pd allows all citizens to vote in the earlier rounds for the choice of its leaders.

Le proposte “forti” sono quelle di sempre: «Per prima cosa devono andarsene quelli che hanno più di due legislature, quelli che hanno disintegrato l’Italia insieme allo psiconano, quelli che sono l’altra faccia dello psiconano, cioè D’Alema, Rutelli eccetera». (La Stampa)