Cover up

The Malta Independent

Cover up

We are witnessing a cover up of mega proportions. As the country is rotting at its core the government media machine keeps us` focussed on the chapters we opened and the chapters we closed, on the transitional` arrangements we secured and on the derogations we are seeking.

Meanwhile most of us continue to suffer in silence, feeling impotent against the state of decadence this country has fallen into. Pick any aspect you wish of the country`s way of life and you will find out that we are in a rotten mess.

Economically we are living on borrowed time. No matter how much we get taxed these additional revenues cannot keep up with the rate` that the government keeps spending our money. Figures for the first five months show that expenditure increased twice as fast as revenue. With all industrial dispute suddenly and magically solved it is only a matter of time until we find out that this industrial state of non-belligerence is being financed by` tax revenues which were originally meant to address the deficit.

Exports are falling, tourism is not growing and profitability has evaporated from most economic sectors. The combined effect of over-investment and reduced demand has produced serious structural problems of over-capacity which will take years to address and only through the painful death of` ill-conceived investment projects. Cash flow is no longer flowing and new investment is the last thing on most entrepreneur`s mind as they are driven into a survival mind-set rather than into an optimism for growth mode.

On the environmental front we are falling to standards below that of the third world.` Our roads are getting worse not better, traffic congestion is eating into our quality time, public transport remains in a pitiful state and lack of waste management has offered us the unappetising choice between being spectators at` contaminated sea resorts or suffering congestion in the few safe beaches left.

Socially we are witnessing the rapid creation of new poverty with people depending solely of the generosity of NGO`s and philanthropic organisations for their survival as the state has neither the means nor the` will to cater for the problems of single mothers, ex-convicts, drug abusers, broken families and other marginalized groupings of society. Trying to get your rights through the court has become expensive on top of` adding more pain and anxiety waiting years for justice to be served even in the simplest of cases.

Yet faced with this lethargic state of affairs the government manages to keep its citizens alienated from demanding a proper account of its non-performance. Instead we are supposed to feel jubilant because now we have been awarded 7 years transition to keep doing a part of what we have been doing for years,` to defend the interest of our citizens of` not` having to compete with foreign workers for the jobs which our economy miraculously create even though investment has vanished.

There was a time when we felt jubilant when we won wars, when we got political independence, when we gained economic independence from the military base, when we secured substantial financial support in grant form from Italy for keeping our neutral status. Not anymore. Our national pride has been so eroded by the lethargy all around us that these days we are expected to feel jubilant for keeping in part what we already have.

What a cover up!