The camel's nose is a metaphor for a situation where the permitting of a small, seemingly innocuous act will open the door for larger, clearly undesirable actions. 

The story goes that one cold night, as an Arab sat in his tent, a camel gently thrust his nose under the flap and looked in. "Master," he said, "let me put my nose in your tent. It's cold and stormy out here." "By all means," said the Arab, "and welcome" as he turned over and went to sleep.

A little later the Arab awoke to find that the camel had not only put his nose in the tent but his head and neck also. The camel, who had been turning his head from side to side, said, "I will take but little more room if I place my forelegs within the tent. It is difficult standing out here." "Yes, you may put your forelegs within," said the Arab, moving a little to make room, for the tent was small.

Finally, the camel said, "May I not stand wholly inside? I keep the tent open by standing as I do." "Yes, yes," said the Arab. "Come wholly inside. Perhaps it will be better for both of us." So the camel crowded in. The Arab with difficulty in the crowded quarters again went to sleep. When he woke up the next time, he was outside in the cold and the camel had the tent to himself.

And that, people, is quite our own predicament.  In so many ways and instances, the public has been kicked out of its own tent and now stands outside in the cold.

Take, for example, that after so much scolding and doubts about every possible failure and fault of BWSC, nasty chimneys and Enemalta debts, the public quite generously agreed to welcome in the water and electricity reductions but the new power station and 285m LNG tanker has come along with it, humps and all.

Now we may have some perceived drop in energy bills but what we pay at the pump for petrol and diesel far outweighs any saving that was given.  Not to mention that these savings come about even before any new power station is built and operating.   To replace an unfounded allegation of a cancer factory, we now will face an even nastier tanker posing a serious threat right at our belly.

Then there is the environment which has crossed into the absurd, having gone from ‘what about me’ to ‘forget about them’.  That resulted in a good kick in the behind for the sleeping citizen, now out on the pavement. 

Not to mention, too, the faces covered in honey, from having stuck their head in the honey pot to feast on this delicious syrup.  In Brazil they have a saying:  ‘Quem come melado se lambuza’.  Which means ‘those who eat honey for the first time get a sticky face’.  After almost 25 years on the opposition benches, those who are able to reach the honey pot for the first time, will greedily stick their face in it and slurp it all up, getting their mouth covered in the sticky syrup.  Now that the honourable ones have the pot before them, they are all feasting as much as they can and once again, the man is out on the street and the camel has the tent for itself.  The evidence is all over their face but they keep on guzzling.

‘We will give you a better bus service’, the people were told.  They said ‘ok, yes, please do’.   €30 million later and they are stuck at the bus stop waiting for the elusive bus to arrive, that maybe 2 hours later they can reach their destination.  We are told it is sabotage and not trying to fit a fist into a jar at Mater Dei and Tal-Qroqq.

No less, either, when it came to meritocracy and transparency.  What we were not told is that meritocracy was to be the 500 and always growing ‘positions of trust’ persons, who vowed to pull the cart whatever the load.  As one Minister after another defends the indefensible, they themselves are forced to get strapped to pull the same cart loaded with goods and end up whipped.  It’s ‘doable’ once, twice, three times.  ‘I will resign’ we were told.  ‘I take political responsibility’ insisted another, to the air.   And where are we now?  We don’t dare open our mouth to say anything, lest the consequences fall on us, our family and friends. 

Freedom of speech and an open and communicative management for our country has fallen greatly foul.  Not even in Parliament can you receive answers and information, let alone on the state media and from the official sources.  Many honest workers have faced tension and fear around their workplace and even death threats are now part of the job description.

Who now will stand up for workers or ex-workers at Enemalta, Airmalta, De La Rue and the many transferred or kicked out of their job on the quiet? 

‘For want of a nail, the shoe was last …. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail.’

To rid ourselves of the problem of illegal migration, we in turn created safe passage and residence for a whole community of Libyans and others of unknown provenance, who can now sleep comfortably in our beds.

The list goes on.  We can mention the army, the police, hunting, climate change, foreign affairs, business, utilisation of EU funds, social justice and the mother of them all, the Constitution.  When the Constitution is abused, all is lost, most of all social justice and a civil society.

But many are young and optimistic and others were tired or angry.  The word now is that all politicians are bad and there is no trust in any party or government. That is ridiculous and nothing more than poor protest for finding yourself kicked out of your tent whilst you slept.  There should be no more excuses or finger pointing and enabling.  Rather, get up and bring another few mates so that together you can push and pull the culprit who pushed you out in the first place.  This mantra that we will lose trust in politics is just a deterrent to us taking control after a falsehood and seeking the right way.  Sure, many will have lost trust where it deserves to be lost and that is quite sane.  It may not be perfect or completely ideal but hopefully the time will come when indeed, what’s best and right, will be done.  Wrongs should be righted and lessons learnt.  Protest corruption, get angry (without resorting to any violence, that is) at tangible disappointments and speak out against lies and deceipt from wherever it may come.  You are a citizen not a subject so you may channel your grievancies towards those who will listen and are there to properly carry out the function of ruling democratically.  But, and here is the last one, I promise… ‘don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater’.  Alternatives do exist and it is up to anyone to choose them.