There is no doubt that the Maltese are an extremely patriotic and proud race. One can easily see that from browsing the comments section of any newspaper or social media post. They defend their nation fiercely, and woe betide any individual who dares to pass any comment other than "I love Malta. Malta is great". Should one be daring enough to comment in even the most constructive critical way, a tirade of abuse is usually unleashed, finished off with a good old "if you don't like it, go back to your own country".
But let us not get into the rights and wrongs about having an opinion on the good, the bad, and the ugly of a host country because although I am clearly right (everyone has a right to vocalise their opinion on things that impact their lives), I don't care to waste too much time on this. My aim this week is to highlight the outrageous hypocrisy around declaring the love of your country, almost violently from every bastion, yet being more than happy for the country to be run into the ground around you without so much as an afterthought.
No, I am not speaking about our dear friends in Castile, nor am I speaking about the influx of foreigners who are supposedly responsible for all of the country's problems and I am not even referring to the construction industry racket that is savagely raping the island. I am talking about the ridiculous level of "who cares" when it comes to taking care of the environment. Let me explain a little further.
If you walk down any street in Malta, you will notice something rather disgusting that has infected our towns and villages. Spreading like a disease, it has made its way into the (remaining) countryside and even reached the shores of the coast. This disease, this plague on our society is litter, rubbish, and filth. Household items that are discarded without a second thought, plastic bags and bottles thrown to the wind, and piles of cigarette butts in rockpools because the smoker was too lazy to simply dispose of them correctly, and it is getting worse.
What I find mind-boggling more than anything is that not many people seem to want to do anything about it. One local, Camilla Appelgren has taken it on her own back to change the way we treat our environment before it is too late. A Swedish national who has chosen to make Malta her home, she has been organising clean ups with her family and friends for the last couple of years. Recently, she approached every local council in Malta with an offer to clean up areas of their jurisdiction and, in return, they would provide them with a skip - 48 councils did not even bother to reply. Ok, let us say that 10 per cent haven't checked their emails, that some may have ended up in the junk mail folder, and some have still to be passed on to the correct person, but why on earth are councils not jumping at the chance to take up this offer?
Do they really care so little about the state of their constituent's environments that they cannot even reply to an email offering help free of charge? Local councils should be jumping on this idea- not only is it fantastic PR for them but it will also help bring the community and the country together while improving many areas of the country which has been neglected for decades.
The problem is this sense of apathy that I cannot help but notice wherever I go. Borne out of amoral familism and a distinct lack of interest in anything that does not directly benefit oneself, or one's immediate family, people simply do not care. Winnebagos and awnings are lined up on every beach, piles of rubbish are left behind, dog faeces mess the streets, and every empty plot seems to serve as a dumping ground for household waste. The pavements are cracked and dirty, tonnes of rubbish are thrown into the sea every week, and people seem to enjoy shooting, skinning alive, or killing a variety of creatures that are unfortunate to cross their path.
Take for example an incident that happened in Comino recently, apart from the numerous deckchairs that line every inch of the shore, there are also a couple of stalls selling alcoholic drinks in hollowed out pineapples. Once finished and discarded into the rubbish, they attracted the attention of bees. Bees are pretty much harmless and are an integral part of our eco system, they are also endangered and should they finally die out, we will not be left with much at all. Towards the end of the day, a boat came to collect the rubbish bags and they were thrown onto the boats, bees included (around 30 of them), and shipped off to a dump somewhere with absolutely no consideration for the animals that would have either been crushed, or suffocated within moments. This might seem trivial to you, but it is situations like this that are indicative of the prevailing attitude of apathy to anything natural in Malta.
If you truly are proud of your country, then do something about it. Waging war with foreigners on Facebook is a waste of everyone's time, instead why don't you clean up the rubbish on your street, pick up after yourself at the beach, and consider not flicking your cigarette butts out of the window when you drive. This island is tiny, and at the moment every single part of it seems that is being bulldozed, developed and turned into 5-star luxury flats that will no doubt remain empty. We (both locals and foreigners) need to step up and take proper care of what little bits of natural paradise remain. Whether that is cutting down on your waste, recycling, or just having a bit more consideration for the world around you, if everyone does a tiny bit to help, a big change will happen.