Out of strife – Rachel Borg

As we ambled rather unconsciously through the events that were shaping Malta in the past decade and with stronger determination over the last 7 years, little did we know that all that we had ignored, swept aside and left to others to fight for has now come back to us and placed us in a position where we can no longer afford to be complacent or hide behind personal values.

We had thought that our life was determined or conditioned by the power exercised by the government and its political system. There were many who resented interference and criticism by the Opposition or the media and journalists simply because it went against personal will and freedom of choice. This gave rise to a politically permissive society, focused on personal gain at any cost and the general trend was to allow the political class to lead the country any way they liked, whether or not it was accountable and transparent, whether or not it hurt others in doing so - something which is not normally associated with a permissive society but which nevertheless prevailed.

In the face of death and a growing threat to a fair judicial system and in the strong evidence of corruption, money-laundering and criminal conduct the people experienced a widespread sense of their inability to influence the impersonal forces driving the reality around them.

This avoidance in reacting to the forces around us was stressed even more so by seeing someone like Daphne Caruana Galizia becoming vilified and discredited, though she did not let any of that stop her from doing what she did to try to uncover the truth.

But here we are now. We become conscious that it is in fact the will of each individual that can determine the outcome of life or death and the transformation and forging of enduring structures, whether material, political, or psychological. We can become violent after losing our job. We can become altruistic and share the burden. We can continue to support corrupt practices that reveal their source in our fundamental necessities and against our human rights or we can stand and determine our fate by displays of personal and collective determination, strong will, courage and sacrifice; by intensely focused and unprecedented effort in the face of danger and death; by a deepening capacity for moral discernment born from experience and suffering.

We become conscious that every person counts and every one can drive an agenda of seeking justice and saying no to impunity. If we are fining people €10,000 for contravening quarantine, how much so should we be demanding no more impunity for murderers, criminals and a system engineered for personal and client wealth generation at the cost of the country?

Today we realize that it comes down to ordinary people to save the country and the lives of our relatives and friends. Extraordinary measures may be put in place to deal with the economic and human cost, but it took this global event to shine a light on the contribution that each and every person makes in whatever job they have but especially in those jobs that have not been at the forefront of praise and glamour and not so popular in recent years. Also in their consideration of the person next to them.

There comes, too, the understanding that life is not just about making money and finding easy ways to get it. All of it can come crumbling down in a matter of months. We have actually had too much of it physically collapsing and nothing being done because we felt we are too small to face the force of powerful politically engaged sectors, companies and persons. But these same politicians are doing all they can to hold off the knowledge from us that we can do a lot and we will no longer tolerate the corruption and failure to provide not just for the inner circle, but for a society that lives in truth and hope and respects its own power.

As we are even compelled to stay at home, others can continue without restriction to work on construction sites with all the inconvenience that that brings to residents, especially at a time when they scarcely need the added thought of the dangers around them that can be brought about by a poorly regulated sector that has caused the death of a woman and left others homeless. It is true that fortunately for the government, more urgent problems are on our mind at the moment, like getting through this virus but, for now, it remains that one woman was killed by the construction near her house and the sector is still afforded protection over residents’ and their health.

We understand that there are people who need construction on their development to begin or continue. But this should be done with the greatest oversight and safety inspections and also with concern for the health of the workers on site and social distancing. Each project should also be evaluated for the urgency of building. In the UK, builders themselves asked to close down their jobs because it was impossible to adhere to proper social distancing for the workers.

When, by the mercy of God, we emerge from this injury to mankind, so many people’s vulnerabilities and vulnerabilities in our political and social systems will have been exposed, and we are at critical moment where we can decide on how much we tolerate that goes against good morals and the common good. We can remove the perpetrators of injustice and greed and replace disorder with a new order of equity and support for society, the global environment and an economy that rewards essential service providers and not corrupt business.

In our own personal spheres, our inner-governance is changing, too. We may be called to become far more inventive about how we utilize time, not just rushing about always with our thought to personal entertainment and distraction over family, how we participate in community and what damages it, and how we work around a fragile social and economic landscape.