One has to admire the courage of Nicola Abela Garret in taking to task Minister Austin Gatt over the ridiculous bus times which people are having to put up with after the ridiculously botched route planning for Arriva. But, on the flipside, one cannot condone her behaviour in setting up this charade, and painting herself as Ms Goody Two-Shoes, while at the same time insulting the minister’s dead mother.

While one cannot condone the language she used in hurling insults at Dr Gatt at the university, she was almost forgiven. Granted, she did not swear at him, but still, she could have contained the outburst and limited it to something milder. It was the closest Malta has ever got to a “custard pie attack”, which infamously enraged former New Labour deputy PM John Prescott so much that he punched his ‘attacker’. Thankfully, Austin Gatt is of better stock and walked away from the incident.

But, there seems to be more to this than meets the eye. It is now emerging that Ms Abela Garret concocted the whole thing and had allegedly told a journalist from The Times that this was going to happen in advance.

We then also learned that Ms Abela Garret had used obscene language on Facebook, insulting him on a public board. The comment has since been removed, but what started out as an interpretation of a gutsy student, has now turned into a farce where people plotted for a story, and one of the players then went on to use foul language on Facebook. This is, indeed, poor form and shows immaturity on her part as well as a lack of professional ethics on the journalist’s part. She has now lost credibility.

However, Ms Abela Garret still has a point, and a very valid one. How can Transport Malta possibly expect people to be satisfied with the service, when it takes a student two-and-a-half hours to get to lectures. If they started at 9am, she would have to get up at the bare minimum of 6am.

Ms Garret was also right to blame Dr Gatt himself. With all the usual pomp, Dr Gatt and his assistant Manuel Delia drafted the routes, and those present at the Eden Cinemas a couple of years back remember the discourse and the absolute certainty that this was going to be one of the most advanced and comprehensive systems in Europe. What a load of codswallop. The routes are an absolute mess, and when this newspaper invited Dr Gatt and Manuel Delia to join us on a tour on the buses, they refused, point blank.

Ms Abela Garret has now written an open letter of apology to Dr Gatt, saying that she was woman enough to say sorry for the language she used, but now expected an apology from him for the route chaos. At first, we concurred, but now, seeing the plotting behind the scenes and the language used on Facebook, it is clear that this is a frustrated student with a devious streak and a penchant for five minutes of fame.

But perhaps the most important lesson in all this is that people live in the here and now, not the past. Some have said that Maltese students should take a look around them and thank their lucky stars for what they have in comparison to what kids had in the dark 1980s. Of course, they are completely right in saying so. But do the kids today care? Of course not. Just like the kids of the former Soviet satellite republics don’t care. They do not look back and think: “Wow, I have a free education, a stipend and the ability to go and study abroad.” What they do think is: “Why do I have to spend money on buses and why are things so much more expensive and not as efficient as they are abroad.”

People need to stop thinking in the past. There is a new reality and a new generation. The older we all get, the more out of touch we get. We reiterate, aside from the brainwashed few who still cling to the vestiges of is-salvatur and missier Malta on the other side of the coin, most kids nowadays do not care. All they care about is the here and now, maybe also tomorrow.