Driving from Mġarr, Gozo just a couple of days ago, I arrived at a slight bend in the road at Xewkija where the footpath narrows considerably.  Despite this, someone had managed to park their car tight against the wall of a house, totally blocking the entire footpath.

Anyone with a buggy, in a wheelchair or with a visual or physical disability would literally have to step out into one of Gozo’s busiest roads to bypass the ca.  The person who parked in this way was either oblivious to anyone else’s needs or wilfully abusive.

On-street parking has become a major issue in Xaghra (as elsewhere and everywhere). One particular resident a few streets away (who incredibly has a government traffic enforcement job) has adopted as ‘his’ parking area an emergency exit (one that has been used by both ambulance and fire services in recent times). 

Neighbours have asked him not to park there on several occasions and further requests are being met with silence or aggression. He is fully conscious of his actions and their possible consequences but continues with the abuse. 

All of you will be aware of similar, apparently trivial instances of abuse, they abound. Pointing them out and bemoaning them is deemed silly, a waste of time and even childish. Road users, boat and caravan owners, builders and contractors, club and restaurant owners routinely practice various minor and major levels of abuse. 

We have come to not only accept it, but to consider it ‘normal’, part of the ‘way we do things’, and we even expect it.  People abusing others and their positions is an everyday occurrence.

This widespread abuse reaches another level altogether in many economic, consumer and business dealings. Substandard work with substandard materials is common (even in mega-projects), dangerous work practices (and linked deaths) are well documented, and the gross exploitation of migrant labour remains rampant. 

The abuse of vulnerable addicts by the ‘majorly successful’ gambling industry grows proportionately as does that sector in Malta’s economy.

It needs little comment from me that when it comes to our environment and the protection and preservation of nature and all its benefits, extreme abuse is the only accurate terminology to use. Our construction/destruction industry has become a well-documented serial abuser free from sanction, regulation, or enforcement. 

And it has become a very powerful serial abuser. Many feel that it has become so abusive of the welfare of our people, land, resources, and institutions that nothing can be done to contest its power. Its leading abusers stalk the land in the absolutist style and manner of feudal barons of old.

Orchestrating, facilitating and even promoting much of the abuse and the impunity of abusers is our government and our current and previous political system. Maltese people freely admit that their political system and its accompanying national institutions including those of policing and the law are corrupted and deeply compromised. 

The behaviour and policies of our politicians are fundamentally abusive at almost every level from economics and finance to health and education services to the media and international affairs and all in between. The abusive use of direct orders, promotions, appointments, and rewards packages is now a visible public sport, with ministers vying with each other for who is the champion.

A passing glance at recent events and behaviours involving the Attorney General’s Office, PBS, Air Malta, the Vitals hospitals deal, Pilatus Bank, Planning Authority decisions, etc. reveals the depth and breadth of state abuse of this land and its people. 

And we still await anything that resembles due process let alone justice regarding the murder of Daphne Caruana Galicia.

When it comes to trying to understand why Maltese people continue to live in these overarching abusive relationships, I am tempted to revert to explanations of why women often do similarly.  Routinely there are financial reasons; there is also ongoing emotional attachment and many hope that ‘things will change’ in time.  There are the inevitable fears and threats or the ‘that’s just the way things are’ argument.

There is also the very popular assertion that ‘things aren’t that bad, and others have it much worse’.  Arguing that abuse happens elsewhere is a well-tried yet wholly dishonest response.

There are any number of lines that ignore or justify the controlling and abusive attitudes of perpetrators.

It is necessary to remark that there are many thousands of Gozitans and Maltese who abhor and oppose the abuse that is meted out to them and their communities.  I have the greatest respect and admiration for those who, despite everything retain their basic self-respect and who extend it to others and to their country.

Despite this, we continue to live in abusive times.