Monday, 27th July 2009
PLANNING PERMITTED
As I have had occasion to remark - or think I have, anyway, it's 38C out there and I'm not up to doing anything other than lying here tapping lightly - this is a country of 400,000-odd architects, planners, judges, football coaches and candle-stick makers. To say nothing of 400,000-odd columnists, commentators, keepers of law and order and, generally speaking, experts about everything and that all the time.
Just to take an illustration, look at the feature carried in the paper (and virtual) edition of this paper, and consider the comments made wherever they could be, about the parking plans for Sliema, which aim at giving residents greater rights than aliens.
I'm not up to speed about the details, but the bottom-line, apparently, is that you can spend about a couple of hours parked on the street in Sliema but then have to hop it and leave space for residents.
This scheme has raised the hackles of quite a few people, not least of whom are the various ladies who coffee (their diets don't allow them lunch, of course) and who shop, generally using their husbands' hard-earned dosh to carry out that particular biological function.
Before the massed ranks of women bear down on me to remind me that women work and earn their own money, yes, I know that, but the ones who whine and whinge and spend their time in Sliema shopping, gossiping and sipping cappuccinos (with skimmed milk, of course) before swanning off for a tennis lesson, are not the ones who are prone to do much of that.
Said ladies have thrown their hands up in horror that they won't be able to park their BMWs on the street in Sliema anymore when they descend on the place to shop.
Their combined IQ of, what, 10?, prevents them realising, it seems, that you haven't actually been able to park on the street in Sliema for many, many years now and they are having this little whine, one has to assume, because one of the people they perceive as knowing things (Kevin Decesare of the Hotels and Restaurants lobby) has said they should and they lack the critical faculties to notice that they're talking out of their tennis frocks.
Moving on from ladies who whinge to activists who are prone to over-inflate, we come neatly to the FAA, which has pronounced itself on the Piano Project by decreeing that a certain lack of concern for the people's wishes is being discerned.
Leaving aside, for the moment, the extent to which the wishes of the Great Unwashed need to be taken into account other than every five years or so (why bother having a Government if you're going to play to the gallery all the time?) precisely how, one asks, did the FAA come to the conclusion, as it appears to have done, that the people never asked for Parliament to be sited in Valletta.
To an extent, this is true, of course, the people never did actually petition the Government to have Parliament housed in Valletta - to be accurate, the people never actually asked the Government to have Parliament housed anywhere in particular, the conclusion drawn by the FAA is faithful to a narrowly-defined version of the truth.
But, if I might be permitted to ask, in the full knowledge that I'm going to get howled down by those who know better and have megaphones to hand to be able to prove it, how in the name of all that's beautiful does the FAA know what anyone, apart from the people who are active within it (and even then, I doubt they have a clear mind) wants?
Have they conducted scientific surveys? Please, don't waste your time even trying to answer that one: they didn't even wait for the scientific evidence on the St John's Project, why the heck would they bother with trying to establish the facts?
No, they haven't conducted any sort of precise evaluation of what the public thinks, if the public thinks at all. What they have done is take a look at the comments sections of the papers and the columns of those who spout the line that Culture (and that's culture with a capital "c" of course) has to be paid for by you and me for them to enjoy at reasonable (read cheap) prices and come to the perfectly ridiculous conclusion that this is the voice of the people.
And it is on these lines that policy is made in the media age, folks.
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Comments
FAA's membership numbers are secret - much like the GWU's whose real membership numbers remain unknown. Some figure that FAA's numbers do not exceed 500.
With regard to the parking dilemma in Sliema and every place else, the problem lies with the proposed solution. Until the authorities put it in their mind that multi level parking garages are the solution, the problem will never be solved.
A scheme should be adopted whereby these parking garages are built in every city and town in Malta with some having more than one. Then each motorist can have the option of buying parking for one whole year at a set price (say e150.00) in which case he will be given an electronic card which will admit him for no additional cost in any parking garage in Malta and Gozo for one full year or at a fee if not in possession of a card.
This will solve two problems: 1 Government can expropriate a number of vacant properties for the use of garages and 2 Solve the parking problems and freeing roads/streets of reckless parking.
The only barrier to this is the mentality that everything, including parking should be free.
As a follow-up to your query "how many asked to have FAA?" , I would ask how many members does FAA have? I hope it's not a one-wo(man) band!!
As to the mystery of what is keeping FAA from pronouncing its views re the lop-sided Sliema Council Parking Scheme, I'd say that the FAA is still conducting a detailed study of the dilemma. Just to make sure that it fits in with its strong opposition to shoot down the former Pullicino plan to build a huge underground car park at Qui-Si-Sana.
All Local Councils who have introduced residents only parking schemes are acting selfishly just to please their constituents. Every motorist who pays the Road Tax is entitled to park in front of anyone's house.
Quite sexist of you ABC ... I know as many men as I know women that would like to look posh i.e. followers of the Sliema Posh Bible for dummies.
... and quite honestly I do wonder what sort of jobs they have cause their IQ is not much better than the above mentioned figure.
BTW they still gossip on the job as well ...
duh! ... you are so 1950!
Your comment should replace one of Sarah Palin's top 10 stupid quotes.
Check them out yourself on the net.
No, I wasn't referring to the cranes nor to private development. I was referring to the thousands of Euro spent by the Government on improving the promenade stretching from Ghar id-Dud till Balluta. It is quite a long stretch you know and all those railings, oversized kerbs, Kiosks, gardens, playing fields, walk ways, etc etc etc ...... they do come at a cost. If you didn't have such an infrastructure, people from other villages wouldn't be coming to Sliema.
If you don't need all this, why don't you ask your beloved Local Council to reduce the kerb size first and foremost thus giving way to ample parking spaces? As I already said in another comments board, Sliema will be for the Sliema residents only and no one else if these actions are undertaken and you surely love it.
BUT OF COURSE - YOU DIDN'T.
So, filth masquerading as art is OK, but honest-to-goodness filth isn't? Let's see you worm your way out of this one, probably with some convoluted legalese as a crutch.
'...the people never asked for Parliament to be sited in Valletta'. How many asked for FAA, anyway?
This, in my opinion, is a selfish approach by the Sliema Local Council. If they have the residents at heart, why don’t they resize the Sliema promenade kerb thus giving way to at least 300 parking spaces?!!
:)