One of the most powerful healers that one can think of in life is the capacity to stop the monotony of blind routine to reflect and soul-search. 

The skills associated with stepping back, pausing to look and listen have been closely linked to the skills of critical thinking. Sometimes the need to be still, silent and observe is worth the effort.

Letting go from whatever you are focusing on and not simply accepting what you read or hear at face value, especially when reading the numerous posts on social media, is considered a must.

Applying the above to the local context is very helpful considering that many Maltese are very opinionated. Many tend to talk about a wide variety of topics with conceited assertiveness or dogmatism. 

Our Opposition party

We hear of the turbulence the Opposition party is going through and whether this party is still relevant in today’s Malta, especially to the tens of thousands of supporters it has lost and whether this party is really in touch and taking stock of what the man/woman in the street wants from it. 

Our country needs a strong, united and meaningful Opposition to ensure a healthy balanced debate in Parliament. It is hoped that some stability reigns within this party, if for nothing else, for the sake of democracy.

 

Our Government

We also hear of a government that has been branded as corrupt and morally deficient both locally and in some international fora. Many are also taking to task our constitutional and democratic system and its administrative institutions which are based on the Whitehall model using checks and balances between the judiciary, executive and legislature branches of government. 

Most of all, some are saying that this country has bartered its conscience and values for economic wealth. 

A country that is labelled as morally sick but economically healthy is still sick and still needs healing. 

 

The man/woman in the street

Many people talk in riddles and adopt a heard it on the grapevine kind of attitude as if they want to expose some irregularity about something or someone but at the same time shy away, evidently in fear of losing something precious or perhaps having lost hope in complaining to higher authorities.    

 

Our culture, identity and faith matters

Apart from the financial, political and social institutions which are under scrutiny, there also seems to be a crisis of culture and identity which seems to becoming increasingly anti-Christian in nature. 

Political parties in Malta do not seem to be truly driven by Christian values. Many times, not to lose voters, they introduce legislation that runs counter to their beliefs so as not to offend minorities. 

It is hoped that members of parliament are at least allowed a free vote on matters of conscience, to do some justice to the claim that this is still a Christian country. Erskine May’s publication ‘A Treatise upon the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament’, considered to be the most authoritative and influential work on parliamentary procedure might help in this regard.

 

A healthy nationhood

The Maltese in their majority also do not give a fig about what Biblical Christianity is all about as long as no one touches their feasts and statues. Most are just happy to follow a religion that satisfies the needs of folklore, tradition, idolatry and paganism manifested in uncontrolled revelry and merry-making.

Feast fireworks may lighten up the summer sky but our precious and pretty environment is being darkened, spoiled and eroded beyond recognition as garigues and valleys are taken over by the forces of progress and development. 

In the meantime, there are thousands of abandoned properties, many of them for nearly a century, and hardly any action is taken about that. 

Our country is also a working station for tens of thousands of workers that come from all over the world (and which are literally continuing to cram this already densely populated island) creating small sub-cultures around us. 

It will surely be a miracle in a decade’s time if we would still be able to call our country ‘Maltese’ any more as our legislation is mainly dictated and driven by Brussels and our Constitution needs reviewing in the light of changing circumstances in our political climate.

Indeed, the Maltese political class and the Maltese citizen need to think long and hard on what really unites this country and makes us truly Maltese, what is threatening us both within and without and what measures are being taken to protect our nationhood in this globalised environment.

The alarming statistics keep coming as Maltese society continues unabated in its semi-hypnotised state of screen-gadget enslavement and a fast uncaring life-style. 

Striving incessantly for material wealth at all costs coupled with an obese hanging belly and being stuck in endless traffic jams has brought one reality. A mass of health and vital statistics reveal that our country is breaking all records in many areas – the most densely populated, the fattest people, the most diabetic and the highest car-dependent country in the world

Indeed, we need to take time and reflect in the humblest of all opinions; surely, there must be something more precious to life than this humdrum existence.

 

Anthony Zarb Dimech