I’ve always considered myself to be a reasonably patient woman. I queue for ages, mostly without gritting my teeth; I stay on the phone line for long minutes waiting for customer representatives to help me; and I could listen to my friends speaking about their lives for hours without even getting up to pee; but, lately, I’ve felt myself getting more and more impatient and, well, angry.

At first, I thought it was just me but after bringing this up with several people and browsing social media regularly, I’ve come to realise that it seems to have become a national problem.

Just last week, I was both shocked and disgusted at the video which surfaced of an older man hurling awful words at a bus driver.

It was truly harrowing to watch. He just stood there at the front of the bus, oscillating between calm, cold hatred and heated abuse. The fury was literally palpable.

All I could think was: Why are you so angry towards someone you don’t even know? I thought that there would be dozens of people who would agree with my sentiment but when the video was shared on a particular social media page, the commentary that followed was astounding.

People weren’t only not defending the bus driver; they were using the post to vent, too. They were angry about the traffic, the overpopulation, the bus system, the influx of foreigners. They couldn’t disagree with the enraged man in the video because they were as furious as he was.

Lest we forget that this happening came hot on the heels of another bus incident where a man kicked and shattered a bus door because the bus was full and the driver couldn’t let him on.

It’s hard to stay calm when the country you love keeps getting raped, ransacked and ruined- Anna Marie Galea

Now, this week, the police had to be called to a football match after there was a literal brawl on the field, with two coaches allegedly being attacked by some of the players’ parents.

I mean, honestly, it’s starting to feel like no space is safe anymore. Everyone always seems to be on the brink of a nuclear explosion at any given moment.

I don’t know where we’re heading with all this. The problem is that, while we continue to have to deal with old systems that don’t work and are inefficient in the modern world, get stuck in traffic for hours at a time, feel like we have nowhere to breathe thanks to the monstrous construction and suffer from the constant claustrophobia of being overpopulated, I can’t imagine how any of this is going to get better.

We were once a beautiful, slow-paced country of sand and sea, and, now, with the summer fast approaching, I’m already anxious about how packed the beaches will be and how impossible it will be to find parking.

It’s hard not to be resentful when the few things you used to enjoy get harder and harder to attain with each passing year. It’s hard to stay calm when the country you love keeps getting raped, ransacked and ruined.

We used to be a country. Now, we are just an angry hive of bees that doesn’t know where it’s going.