It has been more than two years since I wrote an article denouncing the Manoel Island development which was overwhelmingly approved by the Planning Authority. The article, more than aptly entitled ‘The rape of Malta’, recently came up in my feed again and as I curiously skimmed through the lines to see what I had written, my heart sank a little with the realisation that as bad as things were back then, they have gotten worse in the last two years. I also noticed, with even more melancholy, that my tone had changed. More than two years on, I am not as sad as I used to be, but I am instead angry; very angry.

I did not think that there was anything more frustrating than feeling unheard and unseen, but then I realised that there is something far more damaging: the immoral, amoral, unethical and downright criminal becoming so widespread and so commonplace that it becomes the norm. And that is where we currently stand.

For people like me, raised with a clear notion of what is right and wrong in a country that bends the rules at will for next to nothing, it is starting to feel very much like being the only lucid person in the hospital ward. What is more, there is simply too much going on all the time to be able to process and adjust in a timely manner. The mental fatigue of trying to understand all the things presented to me is sometimes too much to bear. It leaves me cold and tired. It leaves me wanting to leave.

Moral decay is like cancer: it spreads to everything you think and do- Anna Marie Galea

When it was reported that the police sergeant who is being accused of raping a woman tested positive for cocaine, the overwhelming response was rightfully one of outrage, and yet, there were still several people repeating the local, much-loved maxim: “Everyone makes mistakes.” Yes, everyone does make mistakes but that does not make it less vital to hold people in roles of privilege and responsibility to high standards. If anything goes, where does the line get drawn?

It certainly was not drawn when the involvement of our politicians was uncovered in the Panama Papers or when a journalist was murdered. It still is not being drawn now, with dozens of crimes being revealed each week.

I often toy with wondering about what it will take to raise so many from their slumber. It is this laissez-faire attitude and a lack of respect for rules and codes of conduct that lead people to the belief that they can get away with murder. If you do not stand for anything, you will fall for everything.

Perhaps, what people still fail to realise is that moral decay is like cancer: it spreads to everything you think and do. It even spreads to the environment you live in. When you see things in this light, it really does explain how the nation keeps getting steadily uglier with less than a peep from our politicians.

The concrete parks for our children to play in, the roundabouts that look like Vlad the Impaler spent the weekend there, the wafer-thin flats that you would not even put your least favourite pet chicken in, the brutalising of what little nature we have left in favour of more grey concrete. When Malta stopped caring and holding people accountable, it did not just sell its soul to the highest bidder; it simply let it slip away.