On Malta

Well this post originally started with a little rant about the VAT fraud guys and what was in my opinion a very light sentence give to them. But then I noticed that I really don’t know enough about the case to really give a solid opinion about it. But personally, I still think the sentence was very light.

Apparently, the judges either had no common sense or they were in on some sweet deal regarding those stolen millions. Wait, what? Judges being corrupt? No way, they have principles, they wouldn't do that. Grow up, people suck, few people stick to principles, and lets face it, you screw over someone you don’t know and in return you buy your wife a diamond ring, and then she stops nagging you for a while and you can get a decent evening of rest – its almost fair game. Who even lost the millions of euros? I think it was the people, but I sure didn't feel it, and neither did you. So do we care?

Actually, before we answer that, let’s check: Should we care? Oh, sure we should, what, some immigrant took my job? Blacks out then! And wait up, wait up there, did you just say they're messing with our stipends? Hell no, lets show them what youth power is really about. Yeah, about selfishness, greed, and a total lack of compassion and caring for anyone that is not us. We're safe here, we're studying at University, most of us with a concrete plan for the future, a future where we will enter into a lucrative career, have a meaningful relationship with a partner who also has a lucrative career, have some children depending on time and energy left over after work, pay others to raise them and hope they turn out well, always impressing upon the child that unless he also makes economic security and social status his top priorities then he's wasting his life away. After spending 40 years in your career, you'll retire and in your old age you will enjoy the things you didn't have time for before, like spending time with your children...oh wait, they're adults and have moved away now. What about quality time with your significant other? Sure, you're still in love, but its a different love, its merely acceptance. You're used to each other's routines, few things are really interesting anymore. By now you're just empty shells, going through the motions, barely understanding the modern world and therefore hating it, forgetting when you were young and when the elderly treated your culture with contempt you laughed and said they just didn't understand...well look who's old now. "I'm 67, she's 65, let’s party! *breaks leg*" It just doesn't work, you've wasted your life in your work, deal with it now. What have you got to show for all that? Any creative work you did, a painting to hang on the wall, an album filled with music you've made yourself? A book, or even just a greater understanding of the world?

Sadly, probably not, if you've spent that long with the same mentality, you don't just suddenly become a free spirit because you've retired. Retiring just means your body is too old for work, and if it’s too old to handle sitting in an office all day, you can surely bet that it’s too tired to do anything meaningful. Well, you might just be able to become a philosopher, if you’re badass enough. Ok, good luck coming up with a philosophy you can write down and contribute something to humanity. Humanity, not society. I don’t want to contribute anything to a society where corruption and nepotism are practically an accepted status quo. The problem is that we have “soft despotism” ruling our way of life. The government’s taxes and laws are annoying, but most people are employed, making enough money to get by without too much hassle, so no one really cares that the people we elect of our own free will, the people we trust with making sure we can live comfortable, happy lives, are simply living off us like parasites. Ok, quick question, why did we vote for whoever we voted? Did we think, “Oh hey, this guy could very well, change things a bit, really make a difference.” Or was it more like “Lets see, 1 to 10 for the Nationalists/Labour”. With our traditional partisan culture we…what, partisan culture? Why do we still have this archaic practice? The fact is that no matter who wins the election, our lives won’t be much different because the parties aren’t so different. For all the difference your vote will make, might as well vote for independent nobodies. Might as well waste it.

A society like this is a failed society, and it’s about time we realise it and fix it. How? Through simple human passion. There is little passion in the world nowadays, too many youths focus on themselves and the mundane things in life without wishing to make a change. And when someone does want to make a change, it sure isn’t easy. It’s too easy to be caught up in the mundane quotidian activities. Especially with the internet, we’re never really bored, we’re always doing something, and that prevents us from having to withdraw into our own heads to pass the time. I especially love the internet, I couldn’t live without it, and I truly see the internet as one of the greatest wonders of the world, but lets face it, its changed humanity, and not necessarily for the better. We communicate more than ever, but less of it is with significant others. We communicate to people all over the globe, and it’s very interesting, but we’re not really developing ourselves. I admit it, I feel far, far more comfortable texting, writing emails or chatting to someone than speaking face to face, and I’m not proud of that. Back to passion, so many things almost constantly distract us, as our interests are so varied. Play World of Warcraft, guild mate tells you to get on MSN, he sends you link to YouTube, from there you go to another link, since your browser is open might as well check FaceBook and your mail, see what some celebrity did, etc. Any time I try to focus, by simply having a browser open I get distracted. We are a generation that fears boredom above all else, and that is understandable, as boredom is just plain crappy, but this has a side effect of making us all too hungry for more excitement. Sitting and thinking isn’t very exciting, so screw it.

Now, back to what a horrible society we live in  (note: This society is not horrible for most people, in fact most of us live comfortably. However, for our comfort, so many others are suffering) - it is madness that a person with a joint gets a harsher sentence then people who stole millions from us! Am I the only one who just doesn’t get it? Is this world really that insane? Half of the news I read is barely coherent. The Finance Minister accepted an invitation from a private company to watch Arsenal, and didn't expect to be lambasted for it? Is he stupid? Lets just say it had nothing to do with bribery and conflict of interests or anything, and it was an innocent invitation. Well, he should have declined, simple as that. Go see Arsenal another time; I'm sure Mr. Fenech has enough money to do it. Why should he decline a personal pastime invitation? Because he's an elected official for a very specific reason: To run our country, and if he's to be trusted with that level of responsibility, if thousands of voters trusted their power into his hands, so he could represent them, and work for their needs, not his own, then he should not put himself in a situation like that. I must say, I agree with Daphne Caruana Galizia when she says, "It is a question of commonsense, and the lack of it". I do expect more from a Minister than to make such a mistake. Well, I used to expect a lot from Ministers, nowadays I expect nothing, but this is self-harm on his part, its ridiculous. I heard he asked the Prime Minister for permission, and I know if I had been the Prime Minister, or if he actually had any sense, he should never have received permission.

Also, just a side-note, don’t work at MacDonald's or Burger King, its not worth it. Bad pay, bad hours, whatever, but the shame you feel is just too much. Every now and then while I’m buying the €1 burgers from MacDonald's, because screw the fact that simple common human decency should deter me from ever giving money to a corporation infamous for its evil, the burgers are €1! €1! Anyway, as I was saying, every now and then I walk into MacDonald's and see a schoolmate working there, both of us are embarrassed at his predicament. We make eye contact, we smile a bit, but its more of a grimace because the eyes never lie, and when I get my burger I walk away determined not to look back, a bit ashamed at myself, a bit ashamed for him. Hell, if you really don't care, then go for it, but keep that in mind.

I have another complaint with Malta – Valletta. Now, a group of thugs once assaulted me and my friends once, and a separate occasion my bag (including my wallet and all its contents) was stolen, so I’ll admit that Valletta is a place I loathe. Anyway, I was walking around Valletta recently, and instead of a proud monument to Maltese culture, a place we can proud of as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, I see a dump, a cesspit. The place is filthy, buildings are falling apart, and I wouldn’t go live there if you paid me. Well, maybe if you paid me, I need money, but that’s beside the point. The point is that Valletta, instead of being a symbol of the pride and might and Malta, is a symbol of the Maltese “I don’t care, someone else will take of it” attitude. I don’t know if it’s the government’s or the people’s fault that Valletta is in such a bad condition, but it’s everybody’s duty to somehow fix it. More on this later. No Minister would enjoy walking down the back streets of our “glorious” capital city. I don’t even understand why it’s in such a bad state. Lets face it, unless someone can do something about it soon, we might as well demolish half Valletta and put up some new buildings. Sure, it destroys the character of the place, but since the character is not so much regal and traditional as slums at the moment, I don’t think anyone would care. Just like the redesigning of the entrance to Valletta. Taking into consideration the future generations principle, that we are only taking care of the earth for the next generation to enjoy it, it makes no sense. Few to no people born since the 80s actually care at all how the Valletta gate was before. Both due to the fact that, as I mentioned before, youths nowadays just don’t seem to care, and also because we’re used to it being wide and spacious and we like it like that. The government paid Renzo Piano over €1million to design this project, and good for him, I’m sure he’s a great architect, but lets face it, it’s a waste of money. The government is expending its energy into fields that produce next to nothing. After dealing with corruption, and spending that money on more doctors for Mater Dei, or any other of the myriad problems Malta faces, then, just maybe, we could turn to the entrance of Valletta.

As for it being somebody’s duty to fix this, why is it that Ministers with no qualifications in what they’re presiding over get to make decision for us? The government should spend more money on hiring teams of experts before they announce decisions, to make sure the decisions make sense, and less on flashy free cars for ministers.   - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geniocracy - That should be the right way forward, if we could be sure the geniuses aren’t assholes in any way.

There’s another thing that’s stupid and annoying in modern society – gender equality. In itself it’s a great concept, but the fact remains that women are still too often seen as sex objects. The fact that women tend to wear provocative clothes and spend so much time and money on beauty related products doesn’t help. It’s a natural biological reaction for a man to feel aroused when a woman provokes him, yet you still find women barely covering their breasts who get angry when a man stares at them. So many advertisements target women, there’s billion dollar industries solely for beauty products, that it’s a wonder women in general aren’t even more materialistic than men. Gender equality can be enshrined in the law, and it can be dragged in the spotlight as often as feminists want, but unless there is a change of attitudes then in the mind of most men women remain sex objects. Men are very accountable, of course, but women simply care too much about their appearance. Why is it that women’s clothes are generally more tight-fitting to enhance and show off their figure? Why is it that so many hairdressers and beauticians are so successful simply because of female customers? Is the mentality that without a partner a woman is less complete still around? Women, stop bitching about equal rights and start doing something about it.

Divorce & Abortion

 Note: I sometimes mention that Catholic dogma is irrelevant. That should be taken with a pinch of salt - it is almost never irrelevant as Jesus' teaching were all ultimately good for us. Hell, if we were all good followers of Christ the world would be pretty damn close to being perfect. But it isn't, and we should not impose our beliefs on others.

The divorce issue has gone on for far too long in this country, and it is time that people stopped looking at it from a liberal/conservative perspective, or even a religious/secular one. It is also time that people stopped lumping together euthanasia, divorce and abortion. The fact that those three issues are always referred to together, as if legalising one of them means the others must also be legalised, prevents us from developing as a country.
I am in favour of divorce and against abortion (I am conflicted on euthanasia, and it is outside the scope of this post). Let us look at some solid facts: at the moment of conception a new human being starts forming. The embryo does not become a human after 3 months of growth, or even 14 days. It is always a human. Assuming that we are all against murder, then it is only logical to say that everyone should be against abortion. Women's rights groups have had their say, and what they say is wrong. The embryo is not part of a woman's body, that they can decide to remove. It is not a cancer which would be beneficial to a woman to remove. No, it is a human life, and nothing is more precious. From a religious point of view, abortion is of course wrong, but although we boast that we are a Catholic nation, the government has a duty to remain secular, therefore it being wrong based on faith is not relevant. However, according to all values and norms, killing is wrong, full stop, even, or especially, when the victim is helpless and vulnerable. Promoting real sexual education, including the use of birth control, in schools, would probably alleviate the problem of unwanted pregnancies.

In the case of rape and incest, and possibly even if there is a very serious danger to a woman's life, abortion could be allowed, but then again, why, before we even settle on the main issue, do we start arguing about exceptions? Because arguing over details leads to nowhere and bogs us all down. Argument is conducive to change, but bullshit like exceptions? We'll deal with it later, lets get through the main issue first.
Now let us look at divorce. Once again, the Catholic religion tells us it is wrong, however, once again, that is irrelevant. What is relevant is whether it should be legal. An atheist living in Malta cannot divorce, and that means a lack of freedom. Yet obtaining a divorce abroad is acceptable. What this boils down to is that those who can afford to spend a lot of money on their divorce get it, and have another shot at finding the perfect partner, if that is what they desire, while those who don't afford it get a separation where both parties can still get partners, but it denies them the more formal and "good" status of getting married again rather than living together. Children of these couples do not get a new family to be proud of, but will instead have to live with the "shame" of having your mother living with her boyfriend while unmarried.

This issue to me seems quite straight forward - whether we personally agree with divorce or not, it is still a human right, and we are neglecting that right by not legalising it. And abortion is bad, pure and simple. Shit, I wish our government had my clear sight.

Fuck it all, fuck this world, fuck everything that you stand for.

Just yesterday I saw what can be deemed a bad bus driver. He wasn't horrible for one reason only, but that reason is certainly the most important trait of a bus driver.

I was waiting for the bus to Paceville (first time I went there in months, and it didn't really impress) and unlike what so often happens, the bus actually came on time. My friend was paying for both of us, so I took a seat at the front. My friend sat down next to me, counted his change, and promptly swore because he got short-changed. Now, at €1.16 each, the total fare was €2.32. My friend gave him €2.50, and the change was 10c. This means that this bus driver probably wasn't just stupid, it shows an active form of laziness. He didn't want to rummage in the box next to him for some loose change, so fuck it, the customer pays more.

So, he broke the first rule within 5 seconds of our getting on the bus. He broke the next 2 laws within the next minute. He first threw away a piece of paper through the door, onto the street, and then spoke at length to his friend on his mobile. And now this morning I just read on the newspaper about fines increasing for the breaking of these laws.

Let's forget this particular incident for a while, and think about during the day when wardens are out and about. We've all seen bus drivers littering, smoking on the bus, speaking on the mobile, stopping in the middle of the street to buy pastizzi, and generally breaking most laws out of sheer "x'ghala biebi" attitude. So why aren't more drivers taken down hard?

Back to the original bus driver. He broke more laws in the first minute than most, so he stood out. A while later when some young girls came on with disgustingly (for normal people...for sluts and those who invite rape they seem to work well) short skirts he even made some sexual jokes and laughed as he embarrassed them. But hell, they were inviting it really, so whatever.

Point is, I don't hate this man. He was really chilling, I've rarely seen such a happy bus driver. He simply wasn't an asshole. And that's the most important trait of a bus driver - being cordial and stuff. Its come to a point where I'd rather bus drivers who put my life in danger with reckless driving than the usual fucking assholes.

Case in point: This past summer, while on the bus to Sliema (during the day) about San Gwann there was a huge group of students waiting for the bus. The bus was only about half full, but it was very obvious that there were simply too many students to really get them onto one bus. Obviously, spitting in the face of the law while pussy lawmakers stand idly by, he somehow managed to pack them all onto our bus. I must say, I don't think I've ever been on a more tightly packed bus. There were 5 people standing on a single step, holding on for dear life. But no matter, that's the type of behaviour I've come to expect from bus drivers. But when we got to the Paceville terminus, many students got off so that people further back could get off without hitting a solid wall of students. That was all fine, until an ATP guy with a huge fuck-off scar on his face starting herding these students to another bus. The poor foreigners followed him like cattle, confused and scared of this thug with a uniform. Please bear in mind that they had paid, they had tickets, and they didn't want to stop there. A girl ran away from that group and came back onto our bus. The guy with the scar ran after her, grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Viciously. A man with a dark complexion (100% Maltese, not African, but to the poor blonde-and-blue-eyes young girl he might as well have been a nigger) and a scar that made it obvious he was wasn't above pretty extreme violence. Hell, if I was that girl I would have shat my pants.

Back to the story:
So, she whimpered out an explanation to this guy, who then asked her for her bus ticket. She gave it to him, and he claimed the time on it was wrong, therefore she was a freeloader. To be fair, I was not paying attention to whether she had paid, so I can't be sure. However, he then asked another woman, a Maltese, to show her bus ticket. Now, I am 100% sure I saw this woman pay. I got on at Mosta, she got on on the "tal-balal" road, I was sitting near the front, and there is no doubt at all in my mind that she did in fact pay. Anyway, he claimed this bus ticket was also wrong, and he physically grabbed her and stood her up, and pulled and pushed her off the bus. All the while, the bus driver was right there, looking at it all passively. If those girls' tickets were wrong, it was because his machine was wrong. But he didn't say anything, he just waited there and drove away one the commotion died down. Bear in mind that this was apart from that group of students who just wasted their money - they had got on a different bus for Sliema, paying again. A lot of their friends, those who hadn't got off, remained on the bus with us, and everyone was just there like, WTF?

Basically, way I see it, assholes like the guy with the scar should be dealt with somehow, but assholes like that will always exist. It is society's job to beat them down until they become nicer people or until they kill themselves. Sadly, they won't kill themselves, they'll just keep picking on those weaker than them. And in our public transport system, these dicks gain power, they gain the formality of a badge and a wage. Nowhere else would that kind of behavior be accepted.

But this story ain't about him. Its about the bus driver, who knew that the girls were right, who knew those students were supposed to be with him, who shouldn't have let some thug come on board his vehicle and push people around. But he just sat there and turned a blind eye. As did I and all the others on that bus. Its about Maltese society, which doesn't fix problems so much as sweep them under the carpet. We are apathetic when it comes to others, we can always make some excuse. The true bane of society isn't doing what's wrong, it's finding an alternative to what's right and which appeases our conscience, as most people do not have a fully formed social conscience - it's all just laziness and fear. Laziness because we don't want to go out of our way for others. Unless something affects us directly we don't give a fuck. And fear of being an outcast, of what others will say, of how you will be treated. It's fear of being unable to live a "normal" life. When apathy becomes the norm just being socially motivated becomes to unstable. And that is simply what those in power want, that no one really questions them.