I know. It isn't original but I can't remember where I saw it so I cannot attribute it.

The past days have been a sobering moment for us all. The multiple revelations by the media are showing us a Malta many of us do not recognize.

There is, to be sure, huge collusion by the Muscat government at its various levels. The gates have been opened and all sorts of deals are being made. Maybe they were actually made months and years ago and it is only the implementation phase that is being done now.

The names have been ironically apt: Old Mint Street has now become the street where money is minted, big money, from one day to the next. Tac-Cavett is not a family nickname but the key to riches.

It is obvious to one and all that this is only the tip of the iceberg. We have had the Cafe Premier saga of instant riches, and siting the new university at Zonqor Point will make some people instantly rich or even richer.

In other times, Labour used to criticize the PN government for its closeness to the 'barunijiet' but objectively, it was never like this. I am not usually known for shirking from criticizing the PN governments but honestly there is no comparison.

Actually, the government connection is one important aspect but it is by no means the only one.

What is happening - all these controversies on land use, ODZ, land or building deals, etc  must make terrible reading for the thousands of PL supporters who are honest and would not touch something that is not their own, nor will try and wangle the government to give it to them for free.

But they cannot deny the evidence in front of us all: the short-cut to riches that the fortunate few have found, the complicity by those who are put there specifically to ensure this does not take place.

It is true this sort of thing, this generalized corruption, happened in the bad old 1980s and Labour, trying hard to get re-elected, found itself condemned to 25 years in Opposition wilderness. In 2013 it came up with a clear commitment that it would ensure a clean administration and this sort of thing is happening again.

It is one thing to criticize an administration because Mepa holds back on instant permits and quite another to see that all the checks and balances have been swept aside.

One can understand, though I disagree with it, that a less rigid approach by Mepa can stimulate the economy but it's not just corners that are being cut now but the very basis of legality.

All restraint is going to the dogs and soon enough we will wake up and find we do not have a countryside anymore and that we have irremediably turned this fair isle into a concrete hell.

I will not be drawn into the specifics - we all know what's what and all that has been said is more than enough. The rule of law has been turned into a farce where the right connections can open doors and remove restraints. We have now reached a point where the rights of others are being infringed. It's a throwback to the years when your property could be expropriated for no reason at all and you had to sit and watch others benefit from your hard-acquired property.

Over the past days, we have seen the government trying hard to turn attention elsewhere, such as with the Mater Dei concrete scam but even that backfired when it was revealed, and confirmed by the government itself, that there had been problems with the new pillars for the power station.

This can now lead to foreigners and companies about to build anything in Malta to ensure that close checks are carried out during construction. That is not a bad thing in itself but may inevitably prolong the entire process, so what we have gained by flattening the Mepa process will lead to a lengthening of the process in another manner.

But what really worries me is what this will do to the national fabric. Inevitably, people will copy the template and will seek to short-circuit the process. I warn the Nationalist Opposition it can expect attempts to get it to enter the same commitments that Labour seems to have made prior to the election. It must resist all such attempts even at the cost of not being elected, or of not having enough money to contest the election. If it copies Labour, it will have lost the very reason for its existence.

The battle is not just half-lost, it is mostly lost. The Malta we see today is a Malta of budding entrepreneurs who believe no rules should bind them and that being close to the party in government is the key to future riches.

I get around quite a lot and know people and companies who would never knowingly break the law or commit an illegality. But then I also know so many who will not bother.

This happens all over the place. The restaurant owner who shirks on hygiene, gets a cheap cook who feeds his clients rubbish, as well charging too much as the others around him, thinks he is wise and saving money.

The shop owner who hikes his prices because everybody is doing so is pushing more and more people to shop on the Internet.

The constructor who builds matchbox-sized flats to squeeze more flats in a small plot thinks that sooner or later people will buy them.

The employer who treats his workforce as disposable items believes he can trick people all the time and then some.

All these people, and then some more, want to make as much money as they can in the least possible time. They go for instant profit and lose the long-distance target.

And together, collectively, they ruin the country as never before.

Meanwhile, as Greece goes down the hole, as Europe pushes back the immigrants that have arrived, as Europe tries to stop Putin and Isis all at once, our fair isle is well on its way to perdition.

There are things that can be made right, but there are many others that just cannot. This has become a country of gaffes, yeah right, Gaffe Arena.

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