Albert Mizzi – one-time Air Malta chairman, entrepreneur par excellence, and one of pillars of the Midi consortium – has announced that he’s not too enthusiastic about the appearance of the Tigné project, especially as viewed from Valletta.

In an interview with this newspaper last Sunday, Mizzi said, “To be honest with you, today I have second thoughts about how it looks from Valletta myself. As an individual I am not totally happy with it.”

This statement was largely met with muted hoots of derision from those who have been forced to look at the hideousness that is the Tigné Point project. Because it’s a bit late in the day to admit that the huge jumble of boxy shapes that makes up the Tigné Point project makes the eyes water, isn’t it?

Back in the day when the project was still getting off the ground, we had that which is optimistically known as the ‘consultation’ phase. This is a euphemism for the stage where the developers get to swamp the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, the media and the public with glitzy presentations about how the project is going to enhance the quality of life of the Maltese (they can now buy toilet paper and an outfit from the same place and grab a cappuccino while they’re at it) and about how the revolutionary, ground-breaking architecture is going to put us on the real estate map.

If any resident dared to pipe up with a valid objection, he would be dismissed as a Nimby and blinded by the smiles of the happy models featured in the mock-ups of the project. Inevitably Mepa would give the green light for the zillionth ‘exclusive’, ‘high-end’ development and we’d all sit back and wait for yet another concrete block to rise from the building debris.

More often than not, the objections raised by residents which would have been pooh-poohed as uninformed kvetching, turn out to be well-founded.

Going back to the Tigné Point project. This is what Martin Scicluna – former chairman of Din l-Art Ħelwa – had to say about it back in 2009: “The Tigné peninsula is an example of buildings that do not fit into the townscape and do not use an architectural language that puts a building into relation with its neighbours.

“It is a pale imitation of so many other foreign resorts – characterless, sterile, modish, meaningless glass and concrete canyons.” That just about sums it up, even though it is completely at odds with the slick presentations and spin written about the project. Moral of the story? Don’t be taken in by the spin.

Exalting Dominique Strauss Kahn’s wife to heroine status because she delights in her position of long-suffering companion of a seedy man is really demeaning to women- Claire Bonello

• Dominique Strauss Kahn – the disgraced former president of the International Monetary Fund – has now been charged with aggravated pimping. That means he’s being charged with helping to organise and profiting from prostitution.

A leaked transcript of his police interrogation reveals his contempt for women, who he describes as “equipment”. His text message to a like-minded pal asks, “Do you want to (can you?) come to a great sexy nightclub in Madrid with me (and some equipment) on July 4?” In another text message he refers to “a gift” and “luggage”.

Strauss Kahn tried to pass this off as being slightly not politically correct. He fessed up to using “unsuitable and inappropriate” terms to refer to “a person of the female sex”.

This follows his declaration that he had attended orgies but was completely unaware the women draped around the hotel suites in various states of undress were paid prostitutes (as opposed to housewives who had stripped off because they were feeling the heat and simply happened to chance upon the suite where Strauss Kahn was looking for his “equipment”).

That particular episode came hot on the heels of his “liaison” with a hotel maid, which he passed off as “inappropriate” but not violent.

So far, so Silvio Berlusconi. We’ve become immune to politicians acting out like frisky goats instead of concentrating on what they’re paid (handsomely) to do.

What is rather perturbing is the reaction of Strauss Kahn’s wife and how she – in turn – is perceived by the French public.

When the attempted rape scandal first broke, Strauss Kahn’s wife – Ann Sinclair – flew to his side. She insisted he was innocent and put up the considerable bail necessary. Taking the Tammy Wynette anthem Stand By Your Man to heart, she announced she was proud to be married to a “chaud lapin”. Presumably she meant that she was proud to have landed a womaniser – a ladies’ man.

I wonder if she’s still so chuffed at having landed Strauss Kahn, now that his contemptuous attitude towards women has been revealed.

That aside, it is even more dismaying to note that in an online survey, Sinclair won an accolade for the “tenacity and unwavering support” she showed her husband).

She was praised for her “loyalty and courage”, and billed as “both a heroine and a kind of anti-heroine for women in France. Women look at the problems they face in their own lives and seem to identify with her.”

With that kind of attitude it’s no wonder women are sometimes their own worst enemies.

Sinclair may have done well in not deserting her husband, but exalting her to heroine status because she delights in her position of long-suffering companion of a seedy man who can’t keep his fly fastened, is really demeaning to women the world over.

cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt