Let us get real, man. Let us scuttle our romantic/sentimental national anthem in favour of one that really describes Malta as it is today. Ħniena għas-sid, saħħa għall-ħaddiem are passé.

Id-dehen lil min jaħkimha? Pull the other! This being a prayer as much as it is a national anthem, I desist from further comments so as not to be disrespectful.

That piece of poetry written by Dun Karm was good as long as it lasted. But this country of ours has now changed. We are now hip, cosmopolitan and modern, besides being the envy of all the world, as the army of stupid trolls regularly reminds us.

Since the country has changed, its national anthem has to follow suit.

I will not wait for a national competition to throw my proposal into the hat from where the winner will be picked in, of course, the most honest and transparent way. My candidate is Everybody knows by Leonard Cohen, a 1988 classic.

The polemical and poetic lyrics co-written by Cohen and Sharon Robinson touch upon corruption, infidelity, drugs, inequality and greed, among others.

Is not that a fair description of the degradation of din l-art ħelwa, also called a gawhra f’nofs il-Mediterran?

Dan Einav, writing in the Financial Times (December 3, 2018) says that, in this masterpiece, Cohen unveils “a duplicitous and morally benighted world … a society that is already rotten to the core”.

Is not this a better description of the contemporary state of il fior del mondo than the saccharine words of our national poet?

Most probably, Cohen’s words are not words which we want to listen to or sing – if Everybody knows were to be adopted as our national anthem.

But if we are honest with ourselves we know that these are the words that we read from court reports, investigations by the National Audit Office, studies about the state of several families, proposals pushing forward the legalisation of drugs and prostitution and so many other sources.

Let’s take a few examples from the words of Cohen.

‘Everybody knows that the deal was rotten’

Perhaps we would have to change that line to ‘Everybody knows that all deals are rotten’. The National Audit Office went through several deals.

Big and expensive investigations all ending with the same result: rotten.

We are now hip, cosmopolitan and modern, besides being the envy of all the world, as the army of stupid trolls regularly reminds us- Fr Joe Borg

The db Group project in Pembroke, the great robbery called Vitals, the mother of all corruption and the presumed father of a murder aka Electrogas and, the biggest one of all, a quarter of a billion illegality at San Vincenz.

The reaction of the powers that be was always the same: we will respectfully review and will learn for the future. How extraordinarily insulting. The San Vincenz illegality got a different reaction.

A government minister expects the NAO to correct the report. How incredibly hidebound and arrogant can one get!

‘The poor stay poor, the rich get rich’, Cohen says

It is sad to note that, according to Eurostat, in the last seven years the gap between those earning a lot and those earning a little has widened.

A European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions study showed that the richest five per cent in Malta got richer.

In 2010, they owned 33 per cent of Malta’s wealth but, in 2017, they owned 40 per cent.

The bottom 50 per cent used to own 14 per cent of the wealth but, by 2017, their share dropped down to 10 per cent.

The study shows Malta to be one of five countries with “a clear trend of increasing wealth inequality” over the last seven years.

That is a social conscience in action for you!

Cohen sings: “Everybody knows that the boat is leaking/Everybody knows that the captain lied.”

Cannot we apply this to our attitude to asylum seekers?

No problem if the boats leak. No problem if the boats sink.

Who cares as long as the super yacht of the mega-millionaires who buy our citizenship are safe and sound? The foreigners we want in this country are either third county nationals whom we can exploit or millionaires of shady character.

In his song, Cohen, echoing almost subliminally Shakespeare’s “honourable men”,  repeatedly hammers the words “everybody knows”.

It is his way of telling us that these truths should be evident to all and one.

This notwithstanding, he feels that many prefer not to see the scandals around them because of self-interest.

They do not care about the corruption the country is drowning in, preferring to: “Everybody’s talking to their pockets/Everybody wants a box of chocolates/And a long-stemmed rose.”

Hope is possible

I have just one doubt about insisting on the adoption of Everybody knows as our national anthem.

There is a level of cynicism which I do not share. He also seems to believe that one cannot change a society that it is rotten to the core.

I believe in hope.

I believe in the power of many Maltese of different shades of political colour and allegiances who want change.

Today, ‘Several know’ that there can be a better future.

I have no doubt that, eventually, ‘everybody knows’ that this better future would not be a chimera if all people of goodwill do their duty.