Do you want to know what I think about the Renzo Piano project?

No, I didn’t think so.

Frankly, there are enough strident opinions flying round to last us another 60 years.

And anyway, do readers actually look to opinion columnists in order to form their own opinion? For example, if I came down in favour or against all or parts of the project, would that help you make up your mind about how you feel about it? Of course not.

You have your own mind and would rightly object to being treated like a backwater nincompoop who needs to be told what to think.

So, rather than boring you even further, let’s look at this whole debate from another angle.

It is obvious that the government wants to leave behind something tangible to be remembered by at the end of its tenure. This, in fact, has become its mission. It also wants to give life to a project that will create jobs at a time when construction has practically ground to a halt. Fair enough – this is a commendable thing.

So I’m curious as to why so many people are objecting.

Governments have done similar things in the past and there was hardly a murmur. On the contrary – as Prof. Pierre Mallia correctly pointed out this week in our sister paper – costly projects such as the new airport were met with general approval. What have changed are the times and the economic climate we live in, and I think this is what the Gonzi administration keeps forgetting.

Writing in MaltaToday about the PN electoral defeat in the MEP elections, Nationalist MP Charlot Bonnici recently wrote, “…there was a substantial sector of the population that was not exactly in sync with the government or with the party”.

This statement inadvertently reveals where the problem lies – for it is the government/party that needs to be in sync with the people, and not the other way round.

Those who are loudly protesting against the sum of money that is going to be paid out to Renzo Piano aren’t just being small-minded and petty. They are simply stating the obvious: that while we seem to have no trouble finding e80 million for this project, there never seems to be money available for what really matters – the mundane but crucial things which affect our daily lives. I thought of this when I painfully twisted my ankle last week on one of our atrocious pavements. Something like that automatically makes you feel grumpy and resentful: Huh! EU standards indeed!

Several years ago I did a vox pop with women about what they would do if they were Prime Minister for a day. Most of them said they would make sure the whole country was given a good clean. No, it doesn’t sound as glamorous as Renzo Piano’s designs, but tell me, what is stopping us from cleaning up Valletta right now, this very minute? Why does it have to be either avant-garde architecture or nothing at all?

It is easy to dismiss those venting their anger against the project as people who have no vision, or ‘taste’, or who cannot appreciate the finer things in life. But let us be honest here: there is plenty of justification for their moans and groans. I compare the state of this country to a crumbling, ramshackle house where the fridge is on the blink, the plumbing is outdated and the electricity needs to be re-wired… then someone comes along and says, “Hey, I know! Let’s install a Jacuzzi to make us feel better!”

Priorities. That’s all some of us are asking for.

Many people are struggling – a recent National Statistics Office lifestyle survey reveals that the poverty line is no longer the domain of those we normally refer to as the low-income demographic group. The survey show that 57,444 persons fell below the “at risk of poverty” line, with a resulting at-risk-of-poverty rate of 14.2 per cent – and let’s bear in mind that this data was compiled in 2007. Granted, the term ‘poverty’ is relative, and while Malta’s poor do not live in cardboard boxes in Republic Street, it is precisely because they are hidden that it is so easy to forget they exist.

So, should we blame people who cannot find the money to pay their bills if they look sourly at the plans for Valletta?

Me, me, me

The Nationalist government tries to turn the tables on those who criticise its plans, by saying they are just trying to find fault with everything the government does because they want to see its downfall. It plays the sympathy card – “don’t you see we are doing all this for you?”

But it is the government that doesn’t get it. This is not about coming up with a project to make the PN look good in order to keep the Nationalist Party in power at all costs – most free thinking people have gone beyond this mindset. The best thing to have come out of all this is that people are not divided over the Renzo Piano project across party lines (Nationalist voters thumbs up, Labour voters thumbs down). For once, the issue actually transcends politics although it seems the government is not happy about this either.

Unfortunately, (and this is why the country is in a rut) Gonzi et al seem to think everything is about them – much like a self-obsessed diva who thinks every word or glance is about her.

Say cheese

Meanwhile, of course, the debate which is raging and whizzing back and forth all over the Internet is all so much pointless hot air, because the very fact that there was such an elaborate presentation is proof that we have a fait accompli on our hands. Added to this is the way we are having it hammered into our brain and being told at every turn that an elusive mass of people called “Everyone” likes it. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that from a mere opinion we are now being presented with a fact.

What do you mean you don’t like it? “Everyone” likes it (ergo you are stupid, ignorant, and above all, you have no ‘taste’).

So there you go, Renzo Piano’s Valletta project will start on January 2010 and will be completed in time for the 2013 general election with the traditional unveiling of the lapida (commemorative plaque) as flashbulbs capture the moment and Lawrence Gonzi smiles for posterity.

Let’s just hope that somewhere along the line they can squeeze out another couple of thousand euros to fix a few pavements.

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