Renzo Piano and differing opinions

When it was first reported that Renzo Piano was appointed to design the City Gate and Opera House project, it was like Malta had witnessed an earthquake. It dominated most news articles for a good number of days, many letters were sent and facebook groups in favour and against were formed. The main sticking points were and still are the choice of a foreign architect as opposed to a Maltese one and Renzo Piano's (assumed) style and last but not least, the use of the old Opera Site... ideas floated include a Parliament and cultural centre (the official proposal as things stand), a theatre, an Opera House, a National Library amongst other varied points of view aired by all sundry; as the Maltese saying goes, 'mitt bniedem mitt fehma.' It is a good thing that the public is involved and airs its opinion but unfortunatly most of these opinions are not informed ones.



Before slandering the project, one should evaluate what Renzo Piano comes up with. After all one does not attain international fame and appreciation if one does not reach certain standards and leaves a mark in architectural history. Projects such as The New York Times building, Osaka international airport, the redevelopment of the Genova old harbour are only from his vast portofolio of major projects. It is a positive thing that he is going to visit the Valletta site, even just to get a feel of Valletta... the buildings and the history that transcends from our majestic capital city.



For the good of our country, let us all strive in a positive way to try and get this project done, making maximum use of it so that all the Maltese can benefit from it. At the end of the day, our capital city deserves a grand entrance to be admired by all on a local and international level !

Mifsud's Return

Michael Mifsud scored Coventry's all important winning goal in their 2-1 home win against Blackpool. Coventry's coach Chris Coleman is of the opinion that bigger things await Mifsud if he continues training as hard as he already is. Hopefully all this leads to a positive continuation in Mifsud's experience abroad.

Chelsea recorded a dramatic home win in the final minutes against Stoke and have to thank Lampard for a virtuoso performance but its Manchester Utd that find themselves at the top of table with a game in hand following two consecutive 1-0 wins, against Wigan and Bolton Wanderers respectively. Meanwhile, Liverpool drop to third following their 1-1 home draw against eternal rivals Everton.

Kaka makes the all-important and sensible decision of staying with Milan rather than accepting the Arabs petro-dollars and joining Manchester City, who are languishing at the bottom part of the Premier League and with no real appropriate plans to build sensibly for the future. Money isn't everything in life !

Inter lose in a shambolic way in their 3-1 away loss against Atalanta while Juventus are now only 3 points from Inter following their 1-1 away draw against Lazio. In an emotional match for Kaka on Saturday night, Milan won 1-0 home against Fiorentina and Roma continued with their positive streak with a 1-0 away win against Torino, thanks to a rather spectacular goal by Baptista. Watch out for Juventus-Fiorentina next Saturday... should be one hell of a game !

Hibs and Valletta both won their respective games so as to consolidate themselves at the top part of the table while both M'xlokk and Msida recorded vital wins in their quest to gain access in the Championship Pool. One match worth looking forward to is the upcoming Valletta-B'kara clash next Saturday !

Charity begins at home

Istrina's last edition brought with it a bit of controversy because after only a few hours on air, the PBS chairman decided that the video clips and fun games involving local personalities should be omitted and instead the focus should be placed on giving out gifts so as to collect more money. Some were in favour of this move while others said that the whole aim is to highlight the plight of the people for whom the money was being collected. Maybe the organisers of Istrina should take a leaf out from the Dar tal-Providenza television marathon, who without giving out gifts managed to collect a cool 500,000 euros.

Charity does not only involve giving money, though this is a good thing and should be done at least once a year. It also involves giving up some of your personal time for people less fortunate than us. A few examples that come up to mind are helping the Sisters at Creche with the little kids and going to an old people's home and keeping company some of the old people. Obviously there are other ways of doing charity... after all every little bit counts !

To celebrate or not to celebrate ?

It is not the first time that we see a player not celebrating after scoring a goal for a number of reasons. Last Saturday one witnessed a young and promising player such as Acquafresca of Cagliari who did not celebrate his goal against Inter in one of the world's most famous and glorious stadiums not because he previously played with Inter, but because he is co-owned between the two clubs and didn't want to offend his potential future employers. Also a few months ago Amauri did not celebrate his goal against Napoli because they were the team that gave him his debut in Serie A many years ago. On the other hand, Gilardino has stated that he will celebrate if he scores against his former team, Milan and Inzaghi has always celebrated his goals, even those against former teams. One can understand when a couple of years ago, Batistuta did not celebrate his goal and even cried with emotion when he scored against Fiorentina. This because he become a symbol, the captain and had passed through thick and thin for Fiorentina. But instances like of Acquafresca and other players in a similar situtation, I cannot really fathom why they do so. Scoring a goal gives an adrenaline rush and one should fully enjoy the moment and not suppress one's true feelings. One must also not overdo it with celebrating, such as was the case of Shevchenko when he kissed the badge of Chelsea with his first goal for the club in the Charity Shield match against Manchester United, thus obviously irritating Milan fans.

First full Sports update of 2009

Juventus though not playing at their best, managed to beat Siena with a trademark freemark by none other than Alex Del Piero, Beckham was paraded from the 1st minute in Roma-Milan were he played a diligent game with the score ending 2-2 whilst on Saturday night Inter drew 1-1 with Cagliari. What Inter fans should be slightly worried about are two main things; the first thing involves a lot of work by Mourinho, who should try and settle down on a formation and stick with it, not throwing in 4 attackers and playing in a 4-2-4 formation everytime the going gets tough; and secondly they should resolve once and for all the thorny issues with Adriano and Balotelli which could destabalize the atmosphere and harmony within the players themselves. A result that surprised many was Fiorentina's home loss against Lecce whilst Napoli and Genoa seem to be moving steadily ahead with respective wins over Torino and Catania.

Manchester United seem to be steamrolling their way to what might possibly be another Premier League with a very convincing 3-0 win against Chelsea whilst Liverpool stuttered in their bid to win the league for the first time since the 1989-90 season with a goalless draw against Stoke. Aston Villa, Arsenal and Everton, who all have a chance to end up in 4th place, won their respective games against West Bromwich Albion, Bolton Wanderers and Hull City. Tottenham Hotspurs remain a bogey team despite massive investment in players and a change of coach with Harry Redknapp entering the fray, losing 1-0 away against Wigan and remaining anchored in the relegation zone.

In Spain, Barcelona continue their impressive march with a not so impressive 3-2 away win against Osasuna whilst Real Madrid seem to have found some sort of consistency since Juande Ramos was appointed with a 3-0 away win against Mallorca. Seville remain in third place with an impressive 3-1 away win against Deportivo La Coruna but the game of the week was the very entertaining 3-3 draw between Valencia and Villareal.

Regarding the local scene, Marsaxlokk yet again lost, this time 1-0 against Sliema Wanderers whilst Hibs beat Hamrun 1-0 in what was a close game. During the week Valletta beat Hibs 2-0 but more than for the scoreline, this game will be remembered for Njongo Priso's actions when scoring one of his goals. He allegedly left the pitch during the game without seeking permission, which earned him a yellow card and also a two-match suspension. Hib's striker Terence Scerri won the December Player of the Month award.

In the local Basketball scene, Compleet IS SW will be playing against Bupa Luxol in the Louis Borg Cup. It was plain sailing for Bupa Luxol with a 95-79 win against Depiro but it was a different story in the Siggiewi Smina vs. Compleet IS SW, with the latter winning by a mere two points with the final scoreline reading 71-73.

Other interesting international sports news involves Ferrari. They unveiled their new-look 2009 F60 car over the web. The car represents many changes, both aesthetically and engine-wise mainly because of the new aerodynamic and kinetic energy recovery system (KERS). One other note worthy of mention is the re-introduction of slick tyres after a number of years. A fun fact worth mentioning is related to the name given to the new car, that is F60. This number represents the number of years and editions that Ferrari have taken part in Formula One.

New Year's Resolutions

It being the beginning of the year, one finds quite a few articles regarding the above-mentioned theme. We find articles stating that one should make a few resolutions that may actually be achieved instead of the usual long unrealistic list. One may also find humouristic articles for example by the one and only Jeremy Clarkson, saying that the month of January is the worst one when it comes to keeping up with all the resolutions. You're feeling a bit down and decide to reach for a cigarette but then you remember that you've decided to cut down on these so you decide to grab a nice chilled pint of beer but then you realize that you also promised to cut down on drinking. The next inclination would be to indulge on food but after the numerous Christmas meals, you realize that an attempt at jogging would be more beneficial. Clarkson is of the opinion that life is too short and precious to waste time on resolutions and instead we should focus on enjoying life as much as possible. Only today, the Times of Malta featured an article stating ten ways to save energy; in all probability this article was written as a consequence of the upcoming new energy tariffs. Comments vary with people saying that we should go back to the stone age whilst others said that it is about time we started to waste less and contribute in some way to saving planet earth and Enemalta's inefficieny couldn't really be left out !

I'm of the opinion that New Year's Resolutions may be useful in that they give us aims that should be given at least a shot in trying to be achieved. Not many, but a few realistic ones to try and improve our standard of life in general.

Best of luck to all in keeping those (in)famous New Year's Resolutions !