It’s hard to know what to go after this week. From a court ruling about our hospitals that should have surprised no one and incited revolutionary furore in the most placid of citizens to an Indian waiter actually going back to his country and calling out the poor working conditions in Malta only to be answered with racism, to a magistrate who should probably look up the definition of strong in the dictionary after handing out a judgment that sounded like the exact opposite, to courts ruling that our television stations should be impartial; the list goes on and truly has been endless. It’s almost like a mirror of everything wrong with this country.

I mean, in which other civilised states would you have people uploading photos of other people at protests and announcing to the world that they should boycott the restaurant they own? It sounds like something out of George Orwell’s 1984.

Apparently, freedom of speech and the right to peaceful assembly in Malta only count if you’re on the same team: everyone else needs to be ostracised, shut up and shut down. Universe forbid you point a finger at a problem or, in some cases, even allude to the fact that there’s a problem, to begin with.

I always say the same thing: it’s a good thing stoning hasn’t been a thing in Malta for a few centuries because people would probably fight over who would cast the first rock.

What makes this story even more appalling is that the person who initiated the restaurant boycott is a beneficiary of around €2 million in direct orders from the government. I mean, of course, he is. I could almost yawn at how predictable all of this is. What did George Degiorgio’s son say that got him arrested this week too? Money talks. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything more accurate.

How about we use our heads instead of pandering to pampered politicians who are only out to fatten their wallets?- Anna Marie Galea

In this country, all you need to do is follow the mostly poorly concealed money trail and you’ll get all the answers you need.

I say poorly concealed because the impunity is so rampant that people can’t even be bothered to go to the effort of hiding things properly.

In this land of milk and money, an untouched bank account and a wife sporting expensive plastic surgery and even more costly bags is just a way of life and raises no alarm bells but steal a can of tuna and you will experience the law in its full force. It would be laughable if it weren’t so profoundly and tragically sad.

Here are a few ideas for everyone. How about we let people protest if they want to? How about we let them speak what they deem to be the truth without acting like the tinpot dictators we so often worship?

How about we stop trying to punish people we disagree with? How about we stop bringing our egos and tribal mentality into everything from the food we eat to the colours we wear to what television stations we tune into?

How about we use our heads instead of pandering to pampered politicians who are only out to fatten their wallets?

How can we hope to move forward when many seem so fixated on holding us back? Wake up and smell the €300 million coffee.

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