The number of shocking stories that every day make it to the international media is too large for comfort. There is a tendency for one to lose the ability to be shocked; a tendency that has to be resisted if we do not want to lose our humanity.

Three stories struck me. The two foreign ones are evidencing the nasty reality that dehumanises us, the Maltese one shows the surrealistic mentality aimed at hoodwinking us. All three are related and relevant to Malta.

Europe is our first stop. Four members of the UK’s richest family – whose fortune is estimated at around £37 billion – have received prison sentences for exploiting staff brought over from India to work at their Geneva villa. A Swiss court handed sentences ranging from four to four-and-a-half years. They will appeal.

Now over to the US. Tesla shareholders recently approved CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion remuneration package. The Finbold platform calculates that Musk makes a whopping $400,000 (€372,000) an hour!

If you don’t consider these stories as examples of gross indecency, then don’t keep on reading.

Surrealism faces one on landing in Malta.

Last Sunday, the prime minister gave us another example of the Adam-and-Eve complex, that is, the attitude of failing to take responsibility for one’s actions. Adam blamed Eve for his actions, Eve blamed the serpent, while Abela blames society.

For months, he refused the request of the Jean Paul Sofia family to hold a public inquiry. He even forced his MPs to support his refusal. Then, he told his Sunday morning gathering that it was society that was refusing the Sofia family request.

And, last Sunday, Abela blamed society for the prevailing money-first aka ejjew nitħanżru (‘let’s pig out’) culture! He was reported saying that it was society’s fault that people clamoured for more money but now society has had a change of heart and people are clamouring for other values apart from pecuniary ones.

On both occasions, Abela spoke as if he was a casual observer from Mars and not as the person responsible for what is happening.

The kulħadd jitħanżer (‘everybody pigs out’) culture was nourished and turned into an art form by the Labour government. At the very beginning of the post-2013 legislature, the government set up the sale-of-passport scheme. In practice, this meant that one could become a Maltese without having any relation with our country except one based on money.

If money could buy you citizenship, it could buy you anything else- Fr Joe Borg

If money could buy you citizenship, it could buy you anything else. Now everything had a price: decency, truth, votes, vulnerable persons, honesty. Deceitfully making money off cancer patients was considered legitimate business. The era of snouts in golden troughs or the kulħadd jitħanżer culture reigned supreme. Its basic commandment was: if it makes money, it’s good. The strategy adopted was simple: if it gets us votes, it’s good since votes give us power and power gives us money.

This brings us to the story of the British billionaires exploiting Indian workers. Awful and disgusting, isn’t it? But is it not awful and disgusting that Malta’s economy (Malta is collectively richer than the British billionaires) has been largely built on the exploitation of so many Indians, Nepalis and other third-country nationals? Furthermore, these exploited foreigners are depicted as the cause of most of our troubles. And who is responsible for this economic policy based on exploitation, may I ask? Surely not just society.

The Musk story amplifies in the most disgusting way the ever-increasing unjust distribution of wealth and inequality that have become a staple of the capitalist system.

In the last 10 years, inequality has risen in Malta. If we compare the income of the richest 20 per cent of the population to the income of the poorest 20 per cent in 2023, the richest had an income which was 5.3 times higher than that of the poorest. This ratio was the highest it has been for at least 10 years. It is also higher than the EU27 ratio of 4.72, where it has been decreasing for years.

The richest 20 per cent include those who colluded with corrupt politicians to rob Malta of its resources; those who raped our environment; those who fraudulently won multi-million tenders.

All this disgraceful mayhem was the fault of government policies and not of society.

But the situation is worse than that. I too find a list of statistics boring, please, bear with me, read this list of statistics of shame, and cringe.

In 2023, the number of persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion stood at 105,466 – an increase of 2,632 persons over 2022. In 2011, the number of people in the same category was almost 70,000.

If we dissect that statistic to consider only those at the risk of poverty – that is, those who have an income which is below 60 per cent of the national average – it transpires that in 2012, there were 61,689 persons in this category. Fast-forward to the new dawn of 2023. Now the number is 88,462 persons, which is 2,665 worse than in 2022.

If we continue to mine the data, we find that poverty has risen particularly among those aged 65 and over and affects 40 per cent of single older persons and 33.3 per cent of older couples. It is also high among single parents (41.6 per cent) and families with three or more children (31 per cent). Poverty has risen even among those who work, with 7.6 per cent of all employees at risk of poverty in 2023.

All this is not the fault of society but the fault of right-wing capitalist policies enacted by the government in the last decade. I do not see any notable evidence of a Damascene type of conversion among the persons responsible for this unjust situation. The leopard that unleashed the kulħadd jitħanżer culture will not voluntarily change its spots.

The solution lies elsewhere.