Only a few days ago, we had the pleasure of viewing Renzo Piano’s plans for Valletta. A highly ambitious project is about to start in the capital city, with a time frame intended to be of around four years. The plans, out of a hat of an impressive architect, are those for a contemporary city, a capital city of great standing in the world.
As we were led up the Republic Street history by Minister Austin Gatt, one must have felt history unfold. He included the Valletta football title wins with those of history-making Grandmasters. Probably a lapsus. However, joking apart, this marvellous setting is hardly appreciated by the Maltese people, in the sense of architecture and importance. I really enjoyed a wonderful history lesson, which finished off by Renzo Piano’s very good speech, in plain English, where everything he said made sense.
Hopefully all should go as planned, and we will have a capital city to be proud of. First of all, the opera ruins that will be no more after 70 long years of going nowhere to solve a World War II problem. Even the ruins made by recent wars in former Yugoslavia have been replaced and been made usable. Ours stuck out like a sore thumb. The Maltese look forward to the project, and will accept inconvenience to have a better city.
Speaking of inconveniences, these should be carefully studied to have the least impact on shops, staff and their jobs, sales and the investment happening in Valletta. Maybe later opening hours for shops, commercial outlets and others should be considered to compensate for the hours lost when the dusty and noisy works will start.
We are in full summer mode, having enacted all the work related to Parliament in the past months. It’s a time for reflection too, as the recession is bound to continue to be present, and extra efforts have to be made.
Looking to the future is just a game of roulette; nobody can envisage what is going to happen, for better or for worse.
Economically, I believe we should hit the bottom by the year’s end, then start, albeit slowly, to recover. Of course this will adversely affect many as this year is not the best of years, so investment, jobs and opportunities will not be so plentiful.
It’s when a person thinks calmly that he or she tends to get the better ideas. Hopefully people give a complete and correct picture, for people to decide upon. Decisions affect people and families. Every person wishes to live a better life, and although one sees difficult times ahead, there are families who would be happy if they manage to to maintain their standard of living.
Robert Arrigo is a Nationalist MP