A few jobs ago, I worked at a company where Maltese employees were in the minority. A few weeks into the job, I was called into my manager’s office and told that he would appreciate it if I would come straight to him if there were any problems and not just complain to my fellow country people and pretend that things were okay.

I remember feeling taken aback and telling him that I hadn’t complained about anything and him telling me that he knew that I hadn’t spoken negatively to anyone yet but that, in his experience, Maltese people preferred to complain to each other rather than address problems directly. He said that we were happy to moan to each other but then would avoid any form of confrontation when it came to our superiors. He also added that if I saw a problem, I shouldn’t just ignore it but report it.

At the time this was matter-of-factly said to me, I was almost upset that this was how Maltese people were being perceived but, with time and ever-growing frustration, I have come to realise how much truth there was in his words.

I have heard multiple people bemoan the construction sector and the way in which things have been done for decades. I have listened to scores of stories about people waking up frightened in their beds because they claim to have felt their houses tremble when machinery twice the size of their home rolls up and starts digging into the ground in their vicinity. And, yet, despite all the squawking behind closed doors, Isabelle Bonnici is the only one who raised any concern over the new construction laws, which were introduced quietly over Christmas in the underhand way that has become the standard for our authorities.

Among the new rules is the opportunity for builders to gain their licence from an alternative source should they fail their exam. Because, apparently, even though a good number of us got our qualifications by sitting for exams we were forced to pass at all costs, construction workers are somehow exempt from the rules of modern life.

Even though a good number of us got our qualifications by sitting for exams we were forced to pass at all costs, construction workers are somehow exempt from the rules of modern life- Anna Marie Galea

I wonder how everyone would feel if we applied the same parameters to the medical profession. You know, your surgeon couldn’t quite cut it at medical school but, look, there’s this other place that they got qualifications from. Would that be okay for you? And if literacy has remained a problem 79 years after the Compulsory Education Ordinance was introduced and people were legally bound to send their children to school, I don’t know what to tell you.

The “u iva, mhux xorta” attitude that has long plagued our islands keeps costing us and, apparently, not even the fact that bodies keep piling up because of negligence is going to change that. Even if our authorities do take on the blame and say sorry (which is a rare occurrence anyway), it always seems to be followed by some hollow, half-arsed action that leads to very little improvement.

Does no one ever get fed up with the superficiality, the lack of sincerity and the short-term memory that is applied to everything?

It’s true that the dead don’t speak but, in Malta, neither do the living.