I’m sure you know that feeling when you think a situation is bad but it actually turns out to be much worse than you thought it was. That’s how it feels reading the local news this week and seeing the accompanying comments made by the prime minister and the man in the street.

I think we’ve (once again) reached the climax that happens midway through all dystopian novels, where characters have to deal with so much trauma and distorted information from the people in power that they become desensitised to what is happening around them. The extraordinary becomes ordinary. Bad becomes good. They end up either going with the flow to survive or going mad.

Just last Sunday, Times of Malta revealed that the former transport minister Ian Borg was part of a driving licence racket. The scandal (and, yes, that’s what it is, no matter what anyone says) centres around the transport ministry placing pressure on Transport Malta to help

select candidates obtain driving licences. I mean, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry that the country is so corrupt that it’s come to this pathetic state of affairs that we are even going to ministers to help us pass standard, rite of passage tests that even people with half a brain cell have managed to achieve in the past. I suppose it gives the popular phrase usually screamed at dangerous drivers “Min tak il-liċenzja?” a whole new meaning.

The former transport minister had the gall to come out and say that he would always help those in need like he were a latter-day Mother Teresa giving his last crumb of toast to the needy- Anna Marie Galea

And if that revelation weren’t bad enough, on top of that, the former transport minister had the gall to come out and say that he would always help those in need like he were a latter-day Mother Teresa giving his last crumb of toast to the needy, with the prime minister chiming in and saying that Borg was just doing his job. Oh, and in case you were wondering where the police are in all this, they’ve allegedly had this information in hand for a year.

Is it any wonder journalism isn’t encouraged in this country when even our driving tests turn out to be rigged? There’s always plenty of dirt to uncover in La-La Land.

Beyond the downright ludicrous fact that there were those out there who thought that asking for “help” on this matter was okay, does no one care for the health and safety of people on the roads? When I failed my driving test the first time, it was for good reason. I was as stiff as a board and couldn’t react quickly enough to what was being thrown at me on our roads. I would have been a hazard.

The next time around, I had far more confidence and, even after passing the test, my father spent a few evenings driving with me to make sure I was okay.

Have we really gotten to the point where we don’t even care about potentially hurting others?

What a desperately disgusting situation this country is in. What a circus the people in power have created. And, yet, the electorate keeps clapping because they seem to believe that it is their minister’s job to put food directly into their mouths instead of working for it like the rest of us. We really did get the government we deserved.