I must confess that there are times when I feel like I fell off Mars and accidentally landed on this island. This week, while I was waiting at the post office for everyone to pay their electricity bills and not actually post anything or collect parcels, I happened upon a debate between two men.

The discussion at hand was about a Neolithic figurine that had allegedly been found in the Ġgantija complex in Gozo before being put up for auction on Catawiki. Apparently and somewhat loudly, both men couldn’t understand why anyone would buy “an old rock that wasn’t made of gold” or why it was wrong that Maltese heritage could easily be stolen and auctioned off. Of course, once I heard the buzzword “progress” being bandied about, I knew that the war was lost.

It was nothing short of ironic that, a few hours later, I was poring over an article about an English amateur detectorist discovering a necklace linked to Henry VIII and reading how proud the finder was to hand over the historical piece to the British Museum. Can you imagine anyone doing that here? I can’t. I doubt most of us know that our temples are older than Stonehenge and,  even then, we wouldn’t care.

Our historical remains are seen as nothing more than inconveniences by our contractors – they’re probably even annoyed that there are so many of them. But, then again, it’s nothing that pouring a bit of concrete into won’t solve. What people don’t know is lost for good, won’t hurt them.

And, speaking of the Ġgantija complex and concrete, it would seem that UNESCO has had to step in to see if the ironically named Ġgantija Heights proposed block of flats, which falls within the temples’ buffer zone, could potentially harm the complex. I’ve always found it sad and shameful that we literally have to take our pleas overseas to be able to put a spanner in the works of the grotesque decisions taken in this country, but here we are.

We need to be told by others that we are barbarians with no respect for our heritage for this money circus not to wheel in the flying monkeys with little hats- Anna Marie Galea

We need to be told by others that we are barbarians with no respect for our heritage for this money circus not to wheel in the flying monkeys with little hats. And, even then, we will just leave unfinished, illegal projects semi-abandoned till another government or another board approves them. All that compulsory schooling and open days at the museums might as well have been given to the seven trees we have left. They would have probably left more of an impact anyway.

And, then, in the midst of all this tomfoolery, we have first-year students at university complaining about a new programme aimed at helping people think critically and develop effective communication. Because why would that be needed when everything is going so swimmingly, right? I’m super curious to see who will willingly choose to participate in this study unit when it inevitably gets demoted to the realm of optional credits. After all, it’s not like having an inquiring mind and a willingness to speak up has ever brought anything but grief in this country.

I suppose, all things considered, there has been progress; the trouble is that it appears to be being made in the wrong direction.