The writing on the wall

The writing is on the wall, and it has been there for some time now. 

Only the wilfully blind, the obliviously greedy and the politically indoctrinated refuse to accept it (at least in public).  Malta and Gozo are, most shamefully, in serious trouble and the next five years will seal the deal for decades to come…unless.

An irredeemably corrupt ruling elite supported by compromised and complicit sectors of society; an environment under siege; a landscape actively degraded; and a growth model that resolutely prioritises private profit above all else. 

A society hellbent on promoting inequality with a corresponding culture of uncaring and aggressive individualism.  Plus, a refusal by a majority to confront these realities.

And most disconcerting of all, there is no necessity or logic for it to be this way – there are obvious and better alternatives…if. 

This is a rich and beautiful land with a talented and resilient people who have the capacity to design and deliver an entirely different reality to that being forced upon them daily.

A visit to any town or village in Malta or Gozo; a walk along any promenade, any car, bus or ferry ride, an airport visit or any search for the “green Malta” exposes Malta’s “not fit for purpose” home-grown model of “development”. 

Any random conversation in any village square, any trip through the bowels of social media, any honest chat with neighbours and friends, any minimally insightful analysis of “brand Malta” highlights a deep malaise and a growing dismay about the direction of national life in all its dimensions.

The official figures of Malta’s success story tell one tale: a tale of crude numbers and out-of-context data. By contrast, our heads and more importantly our hearts, tell us an entirely different tale, a tale of people squeezed to the margins. 

As a foreigner who chose to live here, I recognise that there are so many things to love about this place.  And so many things to deeply dislike.  

Malta is blessed to be located in the Mediterranean with all the richness this bestows.  Malta has a world-class seascape of endless wealth and possibility.  It self-evidently possesses deep history, geography and culture, a vibrant and diverse environment, amazing traditional architecture and a skilled multicultural demography reflective of the centuries that forged it. 

Malta has so much to offer its inhabitants and its neighbours, and upon which it could build a sustainable and resilient “brand agenda”.  An agenda appropriate to its minuscule size, its very limited resource base and a realistic carrying capacity.

An agenda for a land in need of appropriate and careful protection, nurturing and preservation. 

Instead, its ruling economic, political and administrative elite (and their fellow travellers and apologists) choose to promote an entirely inappropriate, ugly and unsustainable model of the crudest iteration of economic development. A Maltese edition of "drill baby drill".  And in the process, they are ignoring even their own research.  

They do this to ensure immense benefit for themselves, but with huge cost to Malta and Maltese people at large.  A “never mind the quality, just feel the width” ideology of endless, unfettered growth.  A land, its public resources and its society there for their private enrichment.

A (publicly funded) “vision” or “policy” document here or there, a press statement suffused with grand abstractions promising mañana goodies (or straight bribes) and appeals to atavistic political traditions and behaviours.  Truly world-class political farce of epic proportions.

Routinely, the spectacle reminds me of a popular TV advert from my youth where a canning “expert” constantly attempted to force yet more peaches into each individual tin.  He was comically known as “I’ll get more in if it kills me Mckenzie”.

In our case, the slogan would be “I’ll get more out, even if…”

In the planning hype for the forthcoming election, the promises, the bribes, the sloganeering, the trappings of Malta’s tried-and-trusted political circus will once more be wheeled out and orchestrated in support of this “national” agenda. 

We will be regaled, once again, with the tale that life has never been better but can be even better again and again if…

The writing remains on the wall for anyone to see, and the Maltese people will have a choice - admiring and paying homage to that writing or choosing to write something entirely different.