Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

The recent appearance of Austin Camilleri’s three-legged horse at the entrance of Valletta (incidentally, one of the finest, most elegant and enigmatic pieces of public art seen recently), has prompted two responses which best exemplify the dismal lack of imagination facing this country.

The first response, so silly one is tempted to dismiss it as a prank, is an online petition calling on the Prime Minister to remove the creature because, in the eyes of the petitioner, a disabled animal is offensive to him and the city.

The second response, however, upped the stakes in terms of silliness.

Just one day after the monument was installed, some Mepa official with a great sense of aesthetic fixed the familiar bright green application form on the pristine blank wall right next to the monument. And, thus, the comedy begins.

The application was from the Grand Harbour Regeneration Corporation which, in one brilliantly ironic stroke, shows exactly just how one should not go about regeneration.

Better still, it is for a proposal of a monument to the knights.

Perhaps someone should take chairman Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi and his board aside and point out to them that we already have a monument to the knights and it was built by the knights themselves. It’s called Valletta and its stands just beyond the ruins of the Royal Opera House.