In the absence of some real life art and entertainment in our theatres and a scant of free and professional critique and analyses of truth and facts as they stand for public consumption, we are left with a void that has become something resembling the mixed waste being processed with the organic.

For such a tiny place though, we do have so much dirt to process in the way of information on corruption, on bribery, on division, betrayal, mafia and the whole lot of worthless institutions,, organisations and their boards who all need to be removed, from top to bottom and properly reconstituted if we are to stand a chance at honest living.

Besides, of course, the matter of saving the country, its heritage and identity and our health, from the Planning Authority and the Transport Ministry, who have completely lost their own identity and assumed that of some warriors for an overlord. 

As we lurch from impunity to village politics, from serious deficiencies as with mental health service to the correctional facilities where they have their own statistics for death of inmates, from attacks on immigration to drug busting and incidents of guns and police facing off, we are plagued by the sub-culture of gossip and conjecture and where merit is lost on political advantage.

Everything comes down to politics and tribes and power-grabbing.   Until Joseph Muscat’s dismantling from office, the force was running through every entity and every level, permeating the essence of life around us.  Now it resembles a scramble for survival and the need for a new narrative to fill the imagination of the people.

What it is, really, is dumb as a commodity.  Dumb is at the core of all the theatrical images of grandeur and waste of money going on to try to salvage some idea of normality.  The pretense that we are a civilized country and have law and order and justice, equal opportunity and education to take us through life and make it better.

Even if you just look at the money that is squandered on a daily basis on the contracts construed under Joseph Muscat’s watch and then also on the vanity of building a stage in the main guard in Valletta or wherever, just to stand in front of a microphone with the MPs behind the PM so that he can say how excellent he is and how well he has done, paying tribute to himself.

This need for drama and sensationalism is wearing thin.  The number of deaths from Covid-19 keeps on rising.  There is the real drama and what is taking place in our hospital.  Robert Abela is going to find it more and more difficult to reach his audience and convince them that his purpose is to govern and deliver a serene life.

The media is caught up in the whole charade and fails to stick to a platform of integrity.  Lack of coherence and plenty of everything else is leaving the door open to speculation and manipulation of the events and facts that matter.

The day will come, if it has not already, when all will become one grand novel, only fit for a TV serialization created by someone who is able to see where the rot is and deliver the true story.  By that time the culprits will have left for refuge around the world to enjoy the fruit of their spoils.

The possibility of coming to our senses seems rather remote.  Judges, magistrates, public officials, members of Parliament, construction companies and associations like the Malta Tourism Authority, the Malta Hotels and Restaurant Association, the Lands Authority, the FIAU and MFSA following on the choices and judgements of a handful of businesses in collaboration with the likes of Keith Schembri, Joseph Muscat and his hand-picked stooges now in Castille and wherever required, ensure continuity and dumbness. 

Drama has fallen now on to the number of positive cases declared every day.  This is good for Abela because it distracts from the daily unholy revelations that continue to plague his administration and the one that came before him. 

We are seeing more and more that the country was run not just by a kitchen cabinet but a Casino Royale.  No wonder 17 Black! 

The tragedy is though, that instead of coming closer to eliminating the stench of corruption and incompetence, we are descending ever lower into the abyss of dumbness.  Ministers whose job it was to prevent fraud and ensure security of our finances, accountants who should defend the good reputation and standard of financial services in Malta, stand up in Court and claim their right not to reply to questions, or alternatively, somehow have this gap in their memory.

The absence of cultural events - and I don’t mean popular events that just draw the crowds to fill tables and chairs and sell alcohol - that present people with literature and proper drama, music and art, is costing us dearly in trying to cultivate a sense of value in life.  Without it we are becoming always more prone to digest gossip and lies and become aggressive and prejudiced.  Agendas are murky.   Information is trash and power is concentrated in the hands of the few who lead the dumb like a scorpion on the back of a frog crossing the river.

The media is slipping into the crevices and providing whatever angle of news that it can pick before it melts away by the evening.  Short-term gain has been the project of the Labour Government for our island without any concern for the long-term consequences.  That attitude became propaganda and cannot be easily shifted, especially without a media that can stand up to the fight for survival and a people who are becoming even more radicalized into the fake and dark drama that has captured not only our institutions but our daily life and the way we live it.

A simple instruction, that of wearing a mask when we go out and in indoor public places, is beyond us.  We choose to follow the example of the short-term opportunists and defy nature.  When crisis faces us, then we apply the law with the mentality of a North Korean army, fining people for the most innocent of lapses whilst expecting people to behave when the very ones who should be implementing the orders do not. 

“You guide the people, but you are blind! Think about a man picking a little fly out of his drink and then swallowing a camel! You are like that. It will be bad for you teachers of the law and you Pharisees! You are hypocrites!” 

“But inside they are full of what you got by cheating others and pleasing yourselves.”  Matt. 23