Time is bleeding from Independence Day. Nothing worthy of note came from the opposition’s celebratory meeting except this: our independence can be lost, not to foreign powers, but to our own careless politicians.

I say it is already lost.

Through democracy, the people believe that the candidates they voted into power will serve the people. To serve the people, taxes are necessary.  Nothing will come of nothing, so it seems reasonable.

In a nutshell, taxes can be seen as investments by the people for the people, with the politician serving as the go-between.

But it is no secret that this is not the case anymore. Taxes do not seem to be investments anymore; our trust in the go-betweens we voted for has been betrayed.

To make matters worse, the people do not have the power to guide their politicians as to where their funds need to be reinjected. Consider the Air Malta situation, with so many people’s daily bread on the line.

We no longer have a say where our hard-earned money goes. Recall the recent multi-ministerial trip to New York with a ridiculously large entourage funded by the Maltese people.

Here’s an easy and useful test to see if an expense is of national importance as alleged. Ask yourself: “Does it help the majority?” That is, over 50 per cent of the Maltese population? Now, apply this test to Air Malta and the trip to New York. Or any of the government’s recent projects, for that matter.

We are legally obliged to pay taxes, on pain of punishment. “He who does not work, neither shall he eat,” goes the saying. But what about he who works yet still does not eat? That is our situation.

We cannot sugarcoat it; we are forking out money for causes that are not to our benefit and we are unable to stop these payments. Is this not extortion?

Our situation gets even worse when we realise that public land – our land – is not, in fact, controlled by the public.

The simplest contemporary example is Comino. We fought tooth and nail for it but, in the end, all we got were dismissive studies and promises for next year. The destructive capitalist practices went full steam ahead.

At this point, chlorinating the Blue Lagoon and installing a waterslide would sound like reasonable requests compared to the plans that big business is preparing to unleash on that poor little rock.

To government and big business, the Maltese people are a nuisance on the island that they rule- Andrea Caruana

Make no mistake, this greed has affected us seriously and will continue to do so. Don’t forget, big business is gambling with foreign investments. That means they hardly care about local people.

A recent study found that 4.7 million tourists will be needed to occupy the increasing number of hotels that are crowding our island. Apart from being an impossible number, this would obviously exert a big strain on our sewage system and quality of life.

What it shows is that big business and the government are willing to drive us into the sea for the sake of profit.

We can say we are independent but, in fact, we have been colonised by vicious greed. It’s an enemy occupation. To government and big business, the Maltese people are a nuisance on the island that they rule.

Add to all this the fact that inflation stands at seven per cent. The fears of austerity measures, widespread budget cuts and further increases in prices are well-founded.

It does not take an economist to realise that this has the makings of an economic disaster that could lead to some tough times for people, whether it is because of the institutions they rely on – we’ve already seen a €1.1 million cut in the university’s budget – or simply because of the price of bread and milk.

We farm the land we do not own and reap our harvest for others. This is neo-feudalism. Our kings hold cabinet seats and their knights lead armies of bulldozers. Who truly holds power? That is a mystery.

We are the labour force. To ask “who is a worker?” is the same as asking “who is my neighbour?”

In the current situation, we work furiously but our pockets keep getting emptier.

I fear a day will come when we lie awake in our beds, with empty stomachs and, in the darkness, think: “we should have done something.”

Andrea Caruana is a nurse and medical student.