Did you read and hear all the reactions to Gonzi’s appearance on Dissett this week?

No, me neither. That’s because there weren’t any.

Now if the Prime Minister thinks this is a good sign, or an indication that he did well on the programme, he really needs a reality check.

Personally, I took in about five minutes of his smug smile and the usual platitudes and went to sleep.

The fact is that many people have given up on politicians, and they have especially given up on this administration.

They have tried protesting, they have tried making their voice heard, and yet ultimately they know that no one will listen. I’m not surprised that the Mepa hearing that pushed through the Renzo Piano project was poorly attended. Everyone knew it was useless to go when the whole thing has been a fait accompli since Piano presented his idea several months ago during an expensive ceremony involving much pomp and circumstance and acrobats scaling down a large screen.

Despite the considerable wave of discontent against how the new “performing space” (that’s what they’re calling it now) is going to look, it hasn’t made one jot of difference.

By the end of Gone with the Wind, Rhett Butler frankly couldn’t give a damn anymore about Scarlett O’Hara’s antics, and that pretty much sums up the current mood in the country. We can’t be bothered anymore. The fighting spirit is gone.

I see this ennui all around.

Take the KSU elections, which were bravely contested by Mark Camilleri and his newly formed Moviment Indipendenti. According to reports, only 1,836 votes were cast, making this the lowest turnout in recent years. Mind-numbing as it is to accept, the elections for the University Council had already been turned into a microcosm of national politics, with the right-wing faction and the left-wing faction staunchly staking out their respective turfs. They behaved, in short, just like their counterparts in Parliament do – no wonder so many students switched off. The debacle at the recent AGM led Pulse to withdraw from the elections and Mark Camilleri’s decision to contest was one last futile attempt to break the stronghold which SDM (Studenti Demo-Kristjani) has at university. As can be seen by the numbers, however, students could not be bothered to vote. They don’t see the point.

So, predictably, SDM won. And I predict that in 20 years time, KSU president Carl Grech will be a Nationalist minister. In fact, with his carefully parted hair, intense gaze and preppy pastel blue sweater he already looks uncannily like Lawrence Gonzi.

Sort of a “mini me”.

Apathy rules

Now, whether or not you agree with Piano’s “performing space” (the phrase “roofless theatre” is apparently not being allowed any more by the Piano police), the real issue is something else. You see, this government has made it clear that it doesn’t care anymore whether it has the backing of the electorate in decisions of national importance. It will smile at you patronisingly, putting up with your objections on sufferance and humouring you like it would humour a five-year-old throwing a tantrum.

This government knows that, eventually, you will run out of steam, exhaust yourself with trying and, ultimately worn out, you will retreat meekly back into your little corner and shut up. The fuss will blow over after a few weeks, or at the most, a few months, until something else which is controversial comes along. If nothing comes along, a well-timed and well-calculated nudge towards a “controversial” subject can always be guaranteed by some TV programme or other.

I wonder if people are just not angry enough yet, or whether they know that even if they brought the roof down (couldn’t resist that) with their fury, it wouldn’t change a damn thing.

The Front Kontra il-Censura protest a few weeks ago is another case in point – despite over 3,000 who appeared to believe in the cause (according to the Facebook group) only a few hundred bothered to bestir themselves from their sofa long enough to show up and be counted in Valletta. The same thing happened with the ‘Legality Now’ protest a few weeks later. Not enough people were willing to put their money where their mouth is, especially in bad weather.

Trying to rally support for a protest march in this country is very tough going, unless it’s organised by a political party. Everyone assumes everyone else is going, so their own absence won’t really matter. The problem is that too many people are relying on “the other guy” to stick his neck out.

And when you come to the conclusion that sticking your neck out is useless because Gonzi is just going to get his own way anyway, then perhaps we really shouldn’t blame people for raising their white flag in surrender. (“OK, Mr Prime Minister, you win – for now”.)

After all, they have their own problems to think about.

Problems? What problems?

It’s not enough that the Nationalist administration completely steamrolls over public opinion. Now, even the personal worries which people have to deal with on a daily basis, according to this administration, are trivial figments of our imagination.

Recession? Malta has emerged unscathed on the other side already we have been informed. Restaurants and wine bars are packed on the weekend, they insist – sure, some of them are, but take a drive through the ghost town that is Bugibba and then talk to me. Most bathroom and kitchen outlets have been offering massive discounts and unbelievable offers for months now, and yet you hardly see any customers in their enormous showrooms. After all, just how many times can you afford to buy a new kitchen/bathroom in your lifetime, especially when money is tight?

Then there are the shops that are closing down one by one, the people out of work, the crippled tourism and industrial sectors and the thousands of properties that have been on the market for years, bringing the construction and real estate industries to a grinding halt.

Poverty? We are better off than most countries in Europe, we are told. The people who cannot afford to pay their bills, who eat cheap, low quality food and who don’t send their children on school outings are not really poor, they’re just lazy bums who want more handouts. That argument doesn’t wash however, when the people in question are in the bracket known as “the working poor”.

Education? Look at all those thousands at university, sixth form and MCAST, they say.

Yes, but what calibre of students is being produced? What is their standard of written and verbal English and Maltese? Are they able to adjust to the demands of the working world or do they fall apart because there is no one to give them the answers? And what about the other thousands, who leave school after Form 5 and are barely literate? Or are we still going to blame Labour and Mintoff even though these children (and in many cases their teachers) have been schooled their whole lives under the educational policies of a Nationalist administration?

These are just some of people’s daily worries – and while some of them are just a mirror of what is happening in other countries as well, what gets me is when this administration doesn’t even acknowledge these real fears. It’s that condescending attitude of “stop complaining, you don’t know how good you have it” which is galling. It’s the squandering of public funds on frivolity like the “luxurious” renovation of a public convenience in Valletta, which is going to be “inaugurated” with, God help us, a cabaret show.

I mean, seriously, you couldn’t make this stuff up.

Roof-raising

I was recently in Sicily where classical music can be heard softly playing inside the greenhouses in the belief that this will yield a better result for the organic tomatoes. I couldn’t help but notice the irony that our classical musicians are expected to perform in a roofless theatre (oh darn, I meant “performing space”) but Sicilian tomatoes listen to Mozart under a roof.

Meanwhile, back home, the slap in the face to our performers continues. The Upper Barrakka Gardens were recently given – you guessed it – a temporary roof, in order to protect visiting Italians from the evening chill.

If I were someone who believed in conspiracy theories, I would say someone is taking these decisions purely out of spite, because they get some cruel satisfaction in seeing people become epileptic with rage. But I’m sure it is all just a coincidence, and that the Malta Tourism Authority had no idea that news of this temporary roof would come out the day after Mepa voted for a “roofless …” oops, there I go again.

[email protected]