The title of this article breaks a sacred rule: don't use Maltese in an article written in English. But rules are there to be broken, and in Malta the rule now is: shatter all rules as no one really cares.
For my non-Maltese readers: tal-biki literally translates as "makes you weep" but more than that it implies a tragic state, a shambles. In Maltese it sounds more poignant, closer to what we have here on this rock.
What a few years ago - oh lord, that sounds so long ago but it's just over a decade - was a country with a rock-solid foundation has been turned into a rotten rock nation.
When Malta was ruled by the PN - for almost a quarter of a century - it was hardly paradise; Malta then was not quite a gem and, whatever it was, it sure needed sprucing up big time. That sounds like a sci-fi comment that once upon a time the PN was an organisation that could run a country. And run it moderately well.
Malta always had its peccadilloes; its omertà; its smallness which encouraged too many close connections between businesspeople and politicians; its lacklustre attitude is not exactly a recent invention. But the country was moving forward, even if with some bumps and regressions.
Malta's institutions, although far from perfect, were functioning; its economy trotted along, maybe not brilliantly, but well enough; its environment was somewhat a blot on its landscape, but it wasn't overly ruined; traffic was bad but not disastrous. There was corruption and people were given government jobs and posts they didn't deserve, but this was nowhere as rampant as it has now become under Labour.
The list goes on and on. Our reputation was good, people abroad looked up to us and considered us miracle workers by enjoying a buoyant economy during the 2008 economic crisis, one of the worst in modern times.
That's the past. Gone, long gone. Now our reputation is somewhat ruined, with numerous people abroad discussing Malta for the worst reasons. If only Labour had used their massive victories to truly transform us into a state to be envied.
The Labour Party was given a mandate, more than once, to transform the island, or rather to add on to what had been achieved, to solidify the successes and clear out the failures and all the ancillary cobwebs. Instead, the Labour Party in government went from one scandal to another, culminating in the worst crime against justice and democracy, the murder of the prime, or only, investigative journalist. And the state continuously covered up for the perpetrators and the facilitators.
Yet another rule being broken here: don't comment about old news. But this is July going on August, so all should be breezy and allowable.
A few weeks - or months - ago, a State of the Nation conference and survey was organised. The two people behind it are both important figures on our political scene, so important that they are showered most generously with all sorts of work emanating from government circles. Good luck to them, as without government largesse the two of them would suffer God knows what deprivation, and we can't afford to have two minds like theirs suffering.
According to that immaculate font of news, TVM, the conference revealed the "findings of a research survey conducted by Marmarà... intended to read the pulse of the nation."
The pulse of a nation. Such a wonderful way of describing this earth-shattering survey. Although here I have to make an admission: I haven't read the whole report. I'm just quoting TVM, our prime dispenser of truth and nothing but the truth.
According to TVM, the most important data gathered by Marmarà concerned the "happiness syndrome". These were the enlightened figures of our country's pulse and state of happiness:
"72.1% - Happy
2.1% - Unhappy
25.2% - Life could be better
0.7% - Don't know."
Now I understand why the Labour Party keeps winning the trust competition. We are a very happy people. This is why values have disappeared, and the quality of life has reached rock-bottom. We adore having road congestion, fumes, over-development, corruption, nepotism, crippled institutions, dirt in our streets, deaths on our roads, few trees, fewer green spaces, unusable pavements, infinite noise.
We don't just adore all these horrendous things. They make us, or at least the grand majority of us, happy. The minority can all go and try hard to get on with it, change course, become positive and embrace happiness.
And unhappy people should get their pulses checked every so often and send their readings to Messrs Bondì and Marmarà.
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