Who is to blame?

Whenever something goes wrong in this country, we immediately blame the government, or the politicians whose ministry may be associated with the perceived wrongdoing.

We never blame ourselves. We never accept the fact that quite a number of us Maltese are selfish, greedy, untidy, uncouth, indifferent, and certainly not a credit to our country. A great number of us certainly do not help in any way in presenting Malta and Gozo in a positive manner; in fact we excel at doing the exact opposite, and even if we do not personally ruin our surroundings, we are just as much to blame by our seeming indifference and apathy.

If it doesn't belong directly to us, we wash our hands of it, and in some cases do our utmost to destroy it. In fact we only take action when something negative occurs, if it affects us personally.

It is not the ministers who smash bottles in the street or vomit on the pavements, throw rubbish everywhere, shoot at signposts, destroy road signs, write graffiti on walls. It is not our ministers that tip cement all over the roads, as well as grease and oil from construction machines. It is not our ministers that bash down walls, destroy pavements or drop dust and rubble from trucks along our roads. It is certainly not our ministers that serve bad and overpriced food in restaurants and in some cases, treat customers very badly. It is also not ministers that serve alcohol to underage children and then allow them to run drunk and drugged along our primary tourist streets.

No, it is not our ministers who do these things, it is we Maltese who allow all this to happen and see it in front of us and yet do very little to stop what we know to be absolutely wrong.

We are a nation of the short sighted. We think only about ourselves and always about today, never ahead to tomorrow. We will grumble at everyone except ourselves, and blame the easiest people to blame - the government, or more specifically the minister.

Imagine if everyone did, or even nearly did, as they should in this lovely country of ours. We would be living in paradise. But we don't, so we aren't, so let's blame somebody.

So is the government blameless, and are the ministers blameless? Of course they are not. They are to blame for being too soft, by not having the guts to clamp down on all these abuses, and ensuring that enforcement is carried out. For not making us Maltese look after our country, when they know how vitally important it is for us to do so. For not acting decisively themselves and instilling this discipline in those people in Malta who so desperately need it.

They are to blame for not looking to the future, and anticipating the need of really educating our young children on the necessity of looking after our environment, and wanting to serve people in the proper way. They will tell you that they are doing this, but they are not. They are to blame for allowing so many misdemeanours to get too far, and allowing too many people to do what they want. They are to blame for not wanting to offend voters, thus allowing more and more wrongdoings to occur. They are to blame for starting good initiatives, rules, regulations and laws, and then letting them fall by the wayside.

It is certainly not easy being a politician; whatever you do is going to offend someone, and with the natural selfishness of our population, they are probably going to lose, whichever action they may take.

It would be nice if just for once, politicians only made decisions that were for the good and benefit of the country as a whole, and not decisions that are made, or not made, so that they do not upset voters.

We are all Brand Malta, in a Malta that so desperately needs all Maltese to cooperate, but so few will do so voluntarily. It is, therefore, up to the government to have the courage to make sure that the rest of Malta become acceptable Brand Managers, whether they like it or not.

It is easy to criticise politicians, especially when you aren't one yourself, but if we don't sometimes call a spade a spade things will never change.