“We are all in this together” has to be one of the most worn-out phrases to have been thrown around during these very strange times. Whether it was priests shouting it out from their pulpits or politicians barking it out from theirs, one thing we could all at least superficially agree on was that like it or not, we were at the very least on the same ship.

Like death and taxes, it was presented as a certainty: a beacon of hope, but as with many things in this country, not even disease can overcome our petty politics.

I don’t know why it has become so hard for people to admit they are wrong and shoulder their responsibilities;  everywhere you look now, we have people dodging bullets, deflecting and, in some cases, downright blaming someone else for their mistakes or failures. A few days ago, Julia Farrugia Portelli took to her page to target “the Nationalists” and remind us that we should all be grateful for the vouchers which we were given from our taxes, although many of us won’t be able to use them anyway given we are now swimming in so much illness that going to a restaurant has become a bit like playing Russian roulette.

There are dues to be paid and it’s time we started collecting- Anna Marie Galea

Now, last week, our prime minister did a massive U-turn and went from telling us that we had won the war to letting us know that we are in our current, dire situation because we lack discipline. Not because his government decided to let mass events continue to take place, host all the parties that no other country would and chose not to test the thousands of people who flocked to our islands in the last few months. According to our prime minister, old Consiglia who didn’t wear her mask properly and stood close to her coughing neighbour at the cheese counter is why we are where we are now.

And the lack of responsibility taking doesn’t stop there either. In the middle of all the heinous crimes which have taken place this week alone since everyone feels that they can literally get away with murder (because apparently, they can), we had the little commented-on testimony of the doctor and part-time messenger pigeon Adrian Vella, who confirmed up and down that he passed letters from Keith Schembri to Yorgen Fenech while he was out on police bail. This would mean what most of us already suspected: that if what Vella is saying is true, Schembri’s claims that he had nothing to do with the documents is a blatant lie.

What people should be asking at this point is why this man keeps getting caught with his pants down and yet manages to keep escaping the long arm of the law. There is a duty for justice to not only be done but to be seen to be done. There are dues to be paid and it’s time we started collecting.

I know that everyone is tired. Tired of the barrage of bad news, tired of the daily reports of blatant corruption, tired of trying to understand what our authorities are saying, tired of staying inside, tired of going out and being anxious, tired of court cases which have already gone on way too long, tired of the never-ending rape of our environment;  but among this collective exhaustion, we should be able to feel united in our need for the real truth of our various situations to prevail. It is only then we will truly be all in this together.