Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1174220
7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 OCTOBER 2019 NEWS Malta, shrunk down No 4. Freshers' Week What are we skinning? Freshers' Week at the University of Malta, where first-year students are given an introduction to university life through a curious confluence of corporate peddling, partisan politics and a small, and apparently dangerous, smidgen of student activism. Why are we skinning it? Because time and time again, it proves itself to be a microcosm of Maltese life. Especially this year. What happened this year? Well for starters, one of the telecommunication companies actually set up a tent that looks like a greenhouse-slash-jungle, and anybody wanting to get to the Library area needed to weave their way through its darkened, stuffy enclave… Poignant. Like a taster of climate change concerns to come. Yes, sheltered under the dubiously rickety shelter built by just one of the corporate overlords we will be relying on for protection once world governments collapse in a collective heap. Oh, speaking of the fragile and insecure flailings of centralised power, something else of note happened at this year's Freshers' right? Yes: a Moviment Graffitti member was forced to give up their Ian-Borg-on-High-Rise mask to a tetchy security officer. Ah yes, censorship rearing its ugly head again. I thought its abolition was a cultural keystone of the current administration! To be fair, the University did correct its original mealy-mouthed statement with a stronger-worded one from the rector. Still, it's a reminder that the University of Malta was hardly ever a hotbed of abrasive activism. True. Unless you mess with their stipends or parking spaces, of course. Do say: "Young students should be eased into university life in a vibrant and joyous display of student community spirit, animated and brought to life with pumping music and the occasional stationery freebie/ sugary drink" Don't say: "Young students should learn sooner rather than later that corporate entities and the two-party system are all they should be training their attention on once they set about looking for a career post-Uni. It's too loud to study in the library with that thumping Freshers' music in the background anyway". The Skinny EMERGING MARKET BOND FUND EURO EXPLORE THE EMERGING WORLD LAST 12 MONTHS DISTRIBUTION YIELD 5.00%* 30% DISCOUNT ON INITIAL FEES UNTIL 30 TH NOVEMBER 2019 *LAST 12 MONTHS DISTRIBUTION YIELD (01/10/2018- 30/09/2019) SOURCE: CALAMATTA CUSCHIERI INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT. PERFORMANCE FIGURES QUOTED REFER TO THE PAST AND ARE NOT A GUARANTEE FOR FUTURE PERFORMANCE. THIS IS NOT A CAPITAL GUARANTEED PRODUCT, THE VALUE OF THE INVESTMENTS INCLUDING CURRENCY FLUCTUATIONS, AND INCOME FROM THEM CAN GO DOWN AS WELL AS UP AND INVESTORS MAY NOT GET BACK THE FULL AMOUNT INVESTED. CALAMATTA CUSCHIERI INVESTMENT SERVICES LTD. IS LICENSED BY THE MFSA. THE CC EMERGING MARKET BOND FUND IS A SUB FUND OF CALAMATTA CUSCHIERI FUND SICAV PLC AND IS AUTHORISED BY THE MFSA. INVESTORS MAY INCUR A SUBSCRIPTION CHARGE AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO TAX ON DISTRIBUTIONS. PAYMENT OF DIVIDENDS HAS THE EFFECT OF REDUCING THE NAV PER SHARE. INVESTMENT SHOULD BE BASED ON THE PROSPECTUS AND KIID DOCUMENT, WHICH MAY BE OBTAINED FROM CCIS OFFICES. B'KARA | VALLETTA | SLIEMA | QORMI | FGURA | MOSTA Planning Authority denies itself permit for bastion incision JAMES DEBONO THE Planning Authority has denied it- self permission to make an incision with- in the bastions housing its own offices, to accommodate access to the car park from the its enforcement directorate block. The PA's case officer was recommend- ing approval but the PA"s planning com- mission, chaired by Elizabeth Ellul, had asked for 'clearance' from the Superin- tendence of Cultural Heritage (SCH) for the breach in the bastions. But the clear- ance was not forthcoming. Flimkien Ghall-Ambjent Ahjar had warned that if approved, this application will set a precedent for "anyone to start hacking away at the bastions and to hol- low them out from within to provide ac- cess." The organisation warned that the integ- rity of Grade 1 Scheduled buildings must be respected fully and not "impinged up- on by interventions which damage and distort the physical and material fabric of these historical gems." The proposal also foresaw the demoli- tion of the Planning Authority's current enforcement directorate block whilst re- taining the external facade, and the con- struction of a receded additional floor. The proposed setback floor would ex- ceed the height of the existing buildings forming part of the Planning Authority complex, which are all two floors high. This means that it would slightly exceed the height of the bastion walls opposite the premises, but not the height of the Capuchin Chapel located on top of the bastion walls.