Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/570058
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2015 News 13 MCAST reserves the right to accept or refuse in part or in whole, any or all tenders submitted. Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology Administration Building, MCAST Main Campus, Corradino Hill, Paola PLA 9032. T: 2398 7100 F: 2398 7316 E: tenders@mcast.edu.mt www.mcast.edu.mt Invitation to tender Operational Programme II – Cohesion Policy 2007-2013 Empowering People for More Jobs and a Better Quality of Life Project part-financed by the European Union European Social Fund (ESF) Co-financing rate: 85% EU Funds; 15% National Funds Investing in your future MCAST T. 21/2015 TENDER FOR THE SUPPLY, DELIVERY, INSTALLATION AND COMMISSIONING OF EQUIPMENT RELATED TO MARINE ENGINEERING Tender documents may be requested by email (on the email address below) or collected from the Purchasing Department at the MCAST Administration Building (at the address below), from Monday to Friday, from 08:30hrs to 16:30hrs. Tenders should be placed in the pre-addressed envelope and deposited in the appropriate tender box at the MCAST Administration Building, at the address below, by no later than Monday 28th September 2015 at 11:00hrs. The Principal of the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology notifies that offers from interested parties will be received for: EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND 1.130 Great Siege) a crucial role to play, the Siege was ultimately won thanks to the "collective impact of several forces". According to Mallia-Milanes, these include, for example, a number of grave tactical and strategic errors performed by the Ottomans, especially in the early phase of the siege; the known di- vision within the Ottoman lead- ership, which contrasted sharply with Jean de la Valette's firmness of character and his unusual de- cisiveness; the gran soccorso; and the approach of the seasonal storms in the Mediterranean: "The weather can be a very pow- erful force of change in history!" Though perhaps certain distor- tions, if not downright inaccura- cies, about the Siege persist in the popular imagination to this day, both Farrugia and historian Prof. Carmel Vassallo point towards the "powerful PR machine" at the Order's disposal – one which, for the purposes of the Siege's after- math at least, la Valette exploited to the full… so much so that he even failed to mention the help he got from other quarters dur- ing the Siege in his post-mortem of the Siege sent to the Pope. "In his first letter to the Pope after the lifting of the siege, the Grand Master completely failed to make any mention of the Spanish King or the repeated reinforcements of hardened and experienced Spanish troops sent to him by Don Garcia from Sic- ily," Vassallo says, adding that this help was actually more than crucial to Malta. "It was these troops who were re- s p o n - s i b l e f o r most o f t h e fight- ing at St Elmo where the O t t o m a n s frittered away the flower of their soldiery and it was they who made up the bulk of the piccolo soccorso without whom Birgu, and Malta, would have fallen." In fact, Vassallo claims that if anything, a frank "reappraisal of la Vallete's role is long overdue", even going so far as to suggest that the Siege was won "despite, not because of la Valette". Draw- ing on the work of French histo- rian Fernand Braudel, Vassallo says that despite being Grand Master for eight whole years be- fore the siege he is on record as being the one who "did least to improve the island's defences". "Indeed the island's lack of pre- paredness on his watch was in sharp contrast to the high state of preparedness of the Order at Rhodes." Neither did la Valette have a very high opinion of the Maltese populace, as can be evidenced in his correspondence following the fall of St Elmo during the Siege. "In correspondence with the Viceroy after the fall of St. Elmo, the Grand Master certainly did not express a very high regard for the Maltese and on the contrary labels them 'the enemy within'," Vassallo says, adding how in that same letter, la Valette also be- trayed concerns that the Maltese 'popolazzo' could rise against the Order. With this in mind, and while conceding that the Maltese "have not historically been associated with the sort of 'martial spirit' of say the Sikhs or the Nepalese", probably serving primarily as auxiliaries in combat, Vassallo doesn't discount that there may have been plenty of individual acts of bravery from the Mal- tese during the Siege, "especially seeing it was their families and homes they were defending". Ultimately, the enduring ap- peal of certain Great Siege myths could simply be down to just how powerfully its key players stick in the imagination. While he disa- grees with "traditional histori- ans" who tended to depict the Siege as a major historical event – "it hardly had any long-term impact on the historical develop- ment of the Mediterranean" – he doesn't deny the seductive narra- tive that comes with it. "To the popular mind, the in- herent qualities of traditional history have their own particu- larly alluring charm and attrac- tion. And perhaps understand- ably so. The turbulent, arresting drama of a siege like that of 1565, its emotional spectacle, and the determining, almost superhu- man, qualities which traditional history attributes to the so-called 'great man', like Suleyman the Magnificent, Jean de la Valette, Philip II of Spain, and an infi- nite number of similar or lesser figures — all play an important role in the formation of popular perceptions." treljic@mediatoday.com.mt Is Jean de la Valette's role in the Great Siege due for a reappraisal? "Grand Master la Valette certainly did not express a very high regard for the Maltese and on the contrary labels them 'the enemy within'" – Carmel Vassallo Carmel Vassallo