The slime in the sea, the drainage leaking from the shore, horses dropping dead in the heat, the price of fuel & electricity going up, delayed flights, the third world situation at Identity Malta, no further arrests on the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia, no interviews with the police for real persons of interest in Panama accounts, the smell of waste wafting through the air at Maghtab, drug culture, fight culture, abuse of children, massage parlours sprouting all over the island offering something extra, clubs that demean women and make objects of them, the price of bread and so much more. Many can add their own grievance to the list.
These are the day to day, current jobs that should be at the top of the list of public service. They are all to be avoided, prevented, dealt with and understood to be of damage to society, to the country and towns and villages we live in, to the people who work here and to our health and quality of life.
But they are not the sexy, money-making spinners that have become the popular groove amongst the labour crowd of ministers and parliamentary secretaries and their cronies. They are not the “in” job. They are the by-products of the other “feel good” jobs, the ones that keep the till ringing and the drinks flowing.
The disconnect between the issues that people are facing, as families, as women, as seniors and as tourists is growing wider every day. Puerile gestures are eventually presented to try to give the impression that there is a management of some sort to monitor and to create solutions and tackle the problems seriously. It lasts all of a few minutes. If at all.
The people have grown tired and concerned about the situation as it is left to degenerate by the day. The absence of competent and honest management is being felt throughout the sectors. In such a vacuum people are known to get away with murder, to take the law into their hands, to avoid civic duty, to grow angry and to affectively take their frustration out on others and blame innocent persons for the mess they find themselves in. Only recently we had the case of a person being accused of abducting a child, when it was not true. Women are killed and abused. Feminicide is on the rise in Malta. Children have become victims of aggressive parents, taught to hurl insults at others, whilst they are also the ones to suffer from poverty and ill health, such as asthma and malnutrition.
Against this micro-level angst of society, there is the mega-project, fat commission, country- demolishing, pseudo-socialist, engineered management of income generating activity, dressed up as power-stations, road-works, hospitals, social funds from sale of passports, and investments meant to bring Malta to the top of the world, the crème de la crème of progress. Monaco, Singapore, Dubai – it seems that is the only thing they cannot decide upon but then it boils down to what the activity is. If it is building, it is Monaco, if it is allure it is Singapore, if it is high-rise it is Dubai, and so on. And Malta? What happened to that sun-baked island, sitting in the middle of the lovely Mediterranean sea, with welcoming people and friendly faces? Our fields growing vegetables and fruit, our sea giving us healthy fish and so much pleasure.
Our sky is a victim of dark walls, our air polluted and causing harm to our health, the birds have nowhere left to make a nest.
All the while, there is silence.
The silence extends also to the answers needed as to why all the direct orders worth millions, to why our financial reputation is suffering, to why we lose land and hand it over to one foreign or local investor. To why the petrol stations on ODZ land. To how our institutions have become accomplices of the mis-use of power. To why all the bank guarantees from our money. To why we are amongst the top ten countries in Europe for the high price of electricity we pay. To why our roads are clogged and polluted but tearing down trees is the order of the day. To why our national airline has also been dragged down to poor performance level, neither low-cost, neither legacy, where you must buy a bag of crisps but put up with long delays.
What we do not see anymore, the tourists can see and evaluate. They can judge if the trip has been worth it and if they felt better after their holiday than before it. Would they recommend Malta to a friend or chose to return for a longer stay? Of course, there are those who smell an opportunity to make a deal and milk the system for all its worth. A slap on the hand and a suspended sentence is worth the risk.
But, we are told, the Maltese have never had it so good. Indeed, it is good that across the social spectrum, people have raised their standard of living, with increased income and mobility. Not all have had access to this affluence but there are ways of interpreting that reality to accommodate the bad news.
In time, some election or another will give the impression that things have been done or will be done with regards to people’s concerns. Candidates will challenge each other and send gifts to the constituents to bank their good will.
By then, the slime will have been cleared, the uprooted trees forgotten, and some arrest or other will make the news. Memory will serve only for remembering the dead. The tourists will no longer remember that ravaged island. All for what? Wasn’t it possible for anyone elected, to do their job properly? Why are we waiting? Why were we promised so much and left so lacking? Maybe someone can tell us that.