I have just spent the last three minutes howling with laughter, but since there is nothing funny about what I am going to write, I am pretty sure it is hysteria. Maybe, I should hang a big neon sign on the island that can be seen from the moon which states: “This way madness lies.” Then again, many people here do not read, so it would be pointless. As pointless as the Planning Authority or giving a non-apology, for example.

We kicked off the week with some media contributors and a smattering of past and present key figures in the Labour Party alluding to the fact that they finally saw the light when it came to the misdeeds of the previous disgraced administration, which only served to enrage rather than bring anyone any enlightenment, and we seem to be closing it with the Planning Authority deciding to be their petty selves for a change.

We also had a bonus cameo from our environmental minister who has decided that what we need at the moment is a free packet of seeds per household to mitigate the environmental upheaval our country never seems to tire of. See? I told you that you were going to laugh; no one does fiddling while Rome is burning quite like us.

What kind of audacity do you need to have to call a mural unsightly when you are almost entirely responsible for allowing the uglification of an entire nation?- Anna Marie Galea

When it comes to the non-apology chunk, there is precious little to say. Firstly, you cannot apologise for something that you have not admitted responsibility to, and secondly, and perhaps most importantly, an apology usually means that some form of restitution must be made. People seem to forget that it was not Daphne Caruana Galizia who leaked the Panama Papers: she was just one of the only journalists in Malta to take the trouble to bring the information that concerned us to a blind public.

That means that even if you did have some form of bone to pick with her, the truth was still out there on a literally international scale and accessible to all. And yet despite this, no one seemed interested in apologising or asking for accountability, and the Labour Party was re-elected with resounding success. If there ever was a time when the tables should have turned, that was it; and yet, the impunity continued, allowing a woman to be murdered. This is not even a question of too little, too late; at this point, it is just insulting to even bother.

Equally insulting is the Planning Authority’s recent objection to a flamingo mural due to the fact it is “not in congruence with the streetscape”. I mean, where do we even begin with this one? How do you object to a painting on the side of a private residence but then have absolutely no problem approving some of the concrete monuments to bad taste and even worse design that have sprung up all over the island?

Most of the things I have seen lately are most definitely “not in congruence” with any streetscape I had ever witnessed and yet, they keep leaving ugly pockmarks on the island’s vista. How does that old Maltese saying go about seeing the straw in other people’s eyes and not the beam in your own? What kind of audacity do you need to have to call a mural unsightly when you are almost entirely responsible for allowing the uglification of an entire nation?

Then again, if all else fails, we can always throw some seeds at the problem. Maybe, as one commenter said, one of them will accidentally fall on some ODZ land and grow into a boutique hotel. Truly, this way madness lies.