Caring ‘about’ and caring ‘for’ are two related but quite different ideas and behaviours.  The difference between them is consequential.

I was reminded of this distinction during the debates around Ridley Scott’s publicity seeking comments about Malta.  Leaving aside the fact that he should never have been given such a massively disproportionate film grant, his comments were deeply vacuous. 

But what was more interesting was the anger and hostility his comments provoked.  It appears the country was divided between those whose sense of national pride was offended (for some deeply so) and those who considered the comments to be, in some way justified.      

It is a truism to say that while the vast majority of Gozitans care ‘about’ their island and its overall well-being, there is, at best, an ambivalence about how that generalised sentiment is realised in daily life. 

Caring ‘about’ highlights an emotional connection to the island, its culture, history, or condition.  Caring ‘for’ highlights something different, something more practical and specific, for example, taking care ‘of’ or taking care ‘to’. The difference between the two can be immense and is evident in the context of the many crises facing the island.

The difference is evident at the environmental level where many, perhaps a majority, express a general concern that things are going in the wrong direction and at an alarming pace.  But translating that general concern into specific action to reverse the trend and to protect the island’s environment in all its dimensions encounters many fault lines. 

Often it appears that we care but we also clearly don’t care or don’t care enough.

Across my adopted home of Gozo, almost everyone expresses a strong desire to protect the ‘unique’ character of the island except when that desire conflicts with their own immediate and often short-term interest. Or when it places possible limits or restrictions on their individual ‘rights’. This is no where more apparent than with respect to free-wheeling construction and everything that surrounds it. 

We talk pompously of sustainability but resolutely resist its practice. We profess ourselves to be very proud of our ‘island of villages’ (the new official PR spin) while we deviously and often illegally plunder their core fabric. 

Not only that, we also frequently eulogise the plunderers and their professional and political enablers. We like to complain loudly about the behaviour of the ‘foreigner’ and even the ‘Maltese’ (especially at weekends and during holidays), except when they line our pockets. 

Similarly with respect to governance and the rule of law.  In general, we complain about the behaviour of our local political and business elites and their criminality which is now threatening to asphyxiate us.  Yet, when the election rally tent comes to town, or when ‘favours’ are needed, we cheer and applaud those very same elites. 

We loudly insist that ‘things’ need to change but shy away from any such change if it makes demands of us – it is almost always ‘someone else’ who needs to change.  Our expressed ‘care’ or ‘love’ of our island is highly selective as is our anger about what is being done to it on a daily basis. 

We are angry but not half angry enough.

Given the revelations of widespread and deeply entrenched corruption in politics and business in recent times, being angry, very angry should just be the beginning of it.  Translating that anger into resolute action to protect Gozo (and Malta) from that corruption should be the starting point in moving from caring ‘about’ to actually caring ‘for’.  

Moving from one disposition to the other is clearly a step too far for many of us.

We need to begin to own our anger and to let it inform and, more importantly, animate us.  We need to feel the injustice of what has happened, what has been deliberately done and what continues to be done.  We need to directly challenge those who continue deny its scale and manipulate its consequences. 

If we do not, we collude in allowing it to continue.  Our professed anger should become the compass guiding us.

My first wish for 2025 is that my fellow Gozitans begin to resolutely move away from this vague caring ‘for’ their island into a more proactive and engaged caring ‘for’.