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There is one statement I made recently which needs revisiting.
It was when I meekly praised Lino Brigulio for his argument that cultural tourism is not what attracts visitors to Malta. Indeed he had argued that it was a fallacy.
I take that back and declare that Professor Brigulio should be forced to mingle with the hordes of Italians, German and French that come to Malta and Gozo specifically for its culture.
It takes a little bit of extra effort to start visiting the sites that welcome thousands of tourists every day.
I just did that with some foreign friends this week. The place was Ggantija and I was appalled.
Now, I am sure the official statement responding to my piece with details on what has been done will be forthcoming.
Ggantija and the little talked of Brockdorrf circle have been forgotten by successive governments because stones have no votes and the budgets that are put together are for building palaces called embassies in Brussels for overweight ambassadors cum cabinet ministers.
Ggantija carries a small poster reminding us that it is run by Heritage Malta and that you are entering a world heritage site. Heritage Malta by the way is a government funded agency.
After paying Lm1.50 you are all alone.
There are two lonely signs in English, but there is not one explanation in French, German, Spanish or Italian to explain what Ggantija is all about.
Just in case nobody realises, most Brits could not give a toss about Ggantija, most of the time it is the lager they are after.
I have to admit that I encountered a miniscule man at the door offering a guide in German for 80 cents.
But otherwise I had to content myself with an English précis under a perspex board, needless to say the text did not fail to mention that this is the most ancient standing monument in the whole wide world.
Heritage Malta will obviously argue they have no money to provide for more services.
I am confident that a gentle knock on the Bank of Valletta or HSBC branch at Xaghra would lead to a small donation of say a thousand each – followed by photo opportunities of course.
Alternatively a door-to-door collection from Xaghra residents, would do. I am told that during the Argentian crash, Xaghra folk lost millions.
But with Lm2,000 one could easily sponsor an archaeology student to cough up a timeline, do some research, prepare some illustrations and together with a graphic artist prepare a design. Finally a translator could prepare the text in German, French, Spanish and Italian. A professionally designed and illustrated display board could then embellish the entrance to the temple site. With the remaining Lm300 one could organise a small reception, pastizzi and all on site, kindly hosted by the local politicians.
Now, I am sure that Edward Debono would be very pleased with my thinking process. Though I must admit that I never quite understood his six coloured hat lecture which he repeats nauseatingly to all the gullible.
I know that Heritage Malta will be incensed to read this, but I could not give a toss, because I am sick and tired of translating badly scripted archaeological descriptions in my Form 2 French.
It would be futile of course to point out this minor detail to the Minister of Gozo. The Queen as she is affectionately known is too busy looking at the bigger picture.
The bigger picture is of course netting as many votes as is humanely possible.
Gozo’s history and archaeology is not only marred by our handicapped institutions, but by a culture that is intrinsically moulded with consumerism. Never mind what Pope Benedict has to say, but many Church going, fervent Catholic Gozitans infringe more laws and avoid more tax than anyone else in the Republic of Malta.
Now why everywhere you look on the sister island is a building site is unclear to me. And Gozo is fast becoming as shabby as Naxxar, my hometown. Marsalforn is not only an unsightly concrete jungle but a hideous bunch of loosely regrouped flats. It has been turned into a Bugibba of sorts saved only by the greenish headlands that tower over it.
The pretty village of Zebbug continues to throw up blocks of flats in every corner and Xlendi is only saved by the breathtaking cliffs that have so far remained untouched.
The rest of the villages are bursting with empty dwellings.
Trapping sites dot the landscape and hunting hides spring up like outposts in a prisoner of war camp.
After Ggantija it was a visit to Ramla Bay. I had not been there for ages.
Greeting you is a largish placard full of spelling mistakes in English. It informs us that what I know as a one-man organisation calling itself the Gaia Foundation - which received thousands of liri from Bank of Valletta and other sources is taking care or has taken care of the delicate sand dunes in the bay.
It is April, but there are already signs of barbeques at Ramla.
I wonder what Heritage Malta would have done with the thousands of liri Gaia Foundation received. More placards I guess. Gozo’s future is found in the quarries that cut at its soul. The one at Qala tucked away on the North East coast and the one at Dwejra continue to eat away as they did years ago. And yet no one seems to notice.
Now, it does not take much to convince readers that I do not have the same devotion for David Casa as he has from Simon Busuttil.
Listening to Casa on the radio last Friday, convinced me that my judgement is far from wrong.
Mr Casa has lost none of his loquacious innate ability to spit out words and make water turn to wine and turds to silver.
Last Friday he talked about hunting and trapping.
I know many hunters and trappers who are bona fide hunters and trappers and respect the law, he said.
Does he?
If he does could he please come forward and present them to us?
He went on to inform the radio audience all the talk about trapping birds coming to an end in 2008 is nonsense.
Well, since I had the opportunity to represent the government on this one in Brussels, I can confirm that Mr Casa is wrong.
Come 2008, trapping will be a thing of the past at least on paper. I am sure it will continue illegally in Malta and it will take several more years before the last trapper disappears from the Maltese countryside. In 2008 it is officially over.
Mr Casa always gives the impression that he knows what he is talking about, but his knowledge of birds and the negotiations on hunting is as credible as his claim that IVA had nothing to do with the Nationalist Party.
Perhaps Casa should also add this one to his Encyclopaedic mind. Come 2006 Malta’s exemption to hunt in Spring will also come into question, and if my workings are right by 2008, Spring hunting will also come to an end.
And as in my premonition that Joe Saliba would move ahead uncontested as Secretary General of the PN, come 2008, David Casa will be eating humble pie needless to say together with his retinue of hunter friends!
Bits and pieces
Louis Grech is the only MEP who does not have a Maltese as an assistant, which is one good way of doing away with all the years of the Labour xenophobia about foreigners taking the jobs of Maltese. Louis Grech was, after all, never a prototype socialist.
Dogs, dogs, dogs. A concerned reader tells me that all his telephone calls to Freddie Fenech to attend to the dogs at the Ta’Qali stadium appear to fall on deaf ears. Perhaps Mr Fenech is too busy in his role as private investigator.
A complainant continues to phone MaltaToday about a baker in Zurrieq who dumps all his wood and what not in the street. The fact that MaltaToday has not highlighted this misbehaviour is, according to this person, proof that I am on the take!
The small eatery in Rabat by the name of Camps is closing down or has closed and with it the Maltese delicacy known as the sfineg tal-bakaljaw. Health authority terrorism seems to have been the last nail in le patron’s coffin.
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