The Malta Independent 13 February 2025, Thursday
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Where are the gladiators now?

Victor Calleja Sunday, 12 January 2025, 07:24 Last update: about 2 months ago

There was once a man, a foreign man, who was gifted a few millions from our national coffers. Because he criticised Malta, the whole country rose up in arms to attack him. To, had he still been here, tell him to return to his own country.

Like a wuss, and definitely unlike a gladiator, this man tried to save face with the Maltese, or at least with those who handle the local coffers. He protested, timidly, that this was all his idea of a joke. As someone rightly sniped: from a man who has lived his life in film and storytelling, this explanation, his need to point out that it was a joke, was an even better joke. Ridley Scott in fact has been quite a joke in this entire palaver.   

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But hold on, hold on. Is he the joke or the joker laughing at us? He took our money. Most of us looked on in awe: ministers and film commissioner promised us world prominence and incredible money's worth coming out of the filming of the Gladiator sequel in Malta.

If he was even remotely aware of our political situation, Ridley Scott would be roasting us for more than our touristic problems. He'd be laughing wholeheartedly at our idiocy. Because, while his remarks about Malta being - basically - a dump created a tsunami of words, of discussions, of united anger at him, we usually let much bigger problems go unspoken about, hidden away.

Take the most recent revelations regarding energy, about the extent of political corruption, of coverups, of bent businessmen, and consider how the people reacted to these sickening facts. Except for the utterings of the usual ones who fight for justice, there was quite a deafening silence. There has been no tsunami of words and no palpable anger at the ruling party, and at the former high-ranking people in government.

If Ridley Scott had to try setting foot in Malta once more, only some Roman god of piety could save him from the lynching he would face. Like a losing gladiator of olden times, he would face a mob calling for his blood.

When a magisterial inquiry concludes that a Maltese politician like Joseph Muscat headed a government which included people allegedly connected to criminal and fraudulent acts, then a tsunami of silence is unleashed.

Scandals galore are uncovered every day; scandals which mean that money which can be used for very good local causes is lost. This money lost, squandered, or taken by people who have no right to it, is after all coming from taxes paid by the entire population. It's not as if it's money coming straight out of Labour Party funds. The largesse the government keeps sharing with its cronies is not theirs; they are just the supposed safekeepers of the country's riches.

If only the anger that Ridley Scott's silly comment unleashed was - or is - replicated every day that passes without Daphne Caruana Galizia. This was a person who was denigrated for doing her job; no not just that, for doing much more than most of us will ever do in our lifetime. In fact, this woman's work and words are still - seven years after her execution - causing problems for the people who were in power then.

Instead of cutting all ties with Joseph Muscat and anyone connected to him, Robert Abela and Co continue treating the former Prime Minister like a demigod. Instead of being outed as one of the worst curses that ever befell this country, Joseph Muscat remains a member of the Labour Party, travelling around the world with a diplomatic passport.

While the general populace, rather than attacking the antics of our present Prime Minister and of his predecessor, reserves their deepest anger for a silly filmmaker.

We are a country of gnomes and worshippers of the unmentionable god, Omertà. Unless we are transformed and embrace values while denouncing the real horrors around us, we will remain a country which elevates mediocrity.

 

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