The definition of maintenance according to the Collins dictionary is… Uncountable noun… The maintenance of a building, vehicle, road or machine is the process of keeping it in good condition by regularly checking it and repairing it when necessary.
If you do not maintain buildings, vehicles, roads or machines, they should still last a long time if they are well built, but gradually they deteriorate and eventually fall to pieces. Maintenance costs money, and if it is done well and regularly, it costs a lot of money.
If we take Europe in general, the people in the northern countries have more of a maintenance culture than those in the south. If we move south into Africa, the idea of maintenance gradually gets less and less important until it gradually disappears. This is probably because it gets hotter and the countries are poorer with much less money and inclination to spend on maintaining anything.
Exceptions do occur, like for instance the bridge disaster in Genoa. Genoa is situated in northwest Italy. They should have known better. If I were the Italian government I would check all bridges, especially those in Sicily. Covering concrete bridges with attractive metal panels like in Kappara does not mean that things don’t go wrong underneath. All bridges should be checked regularly.
Now Malta is a hot, small country that up until recently did not have much money. It was occupied by the Knights and then the British, both of whom had the maintenance culture and imposed it on the Maltese, who probably did not.
When foreign influence left the island, the Maltese, me included, were left on our own to either maintain our belongings, our country and things in it or not.
Well a strange thing happened. What belonged wholly to a person was looked after well and anything that was shared by one or more people was left to look after itself.
Take for example the average Maltese house. It is spotless inside and normally very well looked after. Outside the house, on the street and pavement is another story. A Maltese will look after his car but public transport is already looking scratched, dented and abused. If the company owning the buses maintained them on a regular basis and all dents and scratches removed immediately, I am sure the costs of travelling on the buses will increase substantially. So what happens? Look at the buses going past and you can see for yourselves. And everybody continues to travel at reasonable prices.
If a foreigner or Maltese goes into a clean and well-maintained place, it wouldn’t be very likely that they would throw something on the floor or break something
This is just one example. In London for instance, the façade of every block of apartments has to be redecorated and maintained every seven years and the interior also. The money needed for this maintenance is charged to the owners as a service charge. This is supposed to happen in Malta also, but there are blocks of apartments in Sliema and elsewhere that haven’t had their façade or interior maintained since they were built. Some as long ago as 40 to 50 years. Then when a bit of balcony falls off, it is reluctantly repaired. I am not making this up. Go and see for yourselves.
Of course maintenance costs money. This is why it is relatively less expensive to live in Malta than in other European countries further north.
So there is a reluctance to maintain things that do not belong solely to one person, and we can name a few examples. Roads, pavements, façades of apartment blocks, common walls, bridges, zebra crossings, street lights, street signs, etc. We can see that most maintenance of these are the duty of the authorities in one form or the other, but others belong to groups of private individuals.
The attitude is that it’s not my responsibility, so I couldn’t be bothered and I will live with it. I will walk over the broken pavements every day, finding out, and planning ways not to fall over and hurt myself. Let someone else report it. Let someone else stick their neck out.
However, having said that, and this is the strange thing, when Maltese people are trained and supervised well, they can maintain anything as well as anyone. Sometimes even better.
Take for example the aircraft servicing we do for world airlines, and our own airline. As good, if not better than anywhere else. This means that we have among us a good mentality to do good maintenance if we want to, even if the product being maintained doesn’t belong solely to us.
I wish I could say that over time things are getting better, but that is not the case. We still have regular clean-up campaigns, sometimes by foreigners, which is embarrassing, that leave areas clean for short periods, but they soon get untidy again.
What is the answer? The only answer is education. Educate our children from kindergarten to university that things should be maintained on a regular basis. That signposts shouldn’t be bent and broken. That pavements shouldn’t be destroyed and if they are, then they must be repaired.
If a foreigner or Maltese goes into a clean and well-maintained place, it wouldn’t be very likely that they would throw something on the floor or break something. If, however, the place is full of things broken and untidy, the chances are that more rubbish and vandalism would occur.
About six years ago I saw a young man skateboard down the steps of the new garden opposite Spinola Palace. As he was doing so he broke many steps. I called out to him and told him that he shouldn’t do that but he completely ignored me. Those steps are still broken and have never been repaired.
To change our southern European mind-set we must educate people. We are no longer a poor south European country. We have the money and ability to maintain our country. Let us take our private ownership mentality and carry this on to the other parts of our country that we enjoy in common with our fellow citizens and visitors.
This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece