It would be easy to look at protests elsewhere in Europe and speak as though Malta were merely watching from a safe distance. I live here. I am a Maltese citizen. I know how quickly a beautiful place can ask its residents to accept an increasingly difficult daily life as normal.
I love the energy of this island. I also hear people talk about rent, wages, traffic, public services and the sense that moving forward requires running faster every year. None of those conversations needs a burning street to become important.
Distance is not protection
Our scale can be an advantage. Problems are close enough to see; institutions are close enough to answer. But smallness can also encourage complacency. When everybody knows a problem and nobody owns it, frustration becomes part of the weather.
The wrong lesson from Europe’s protests would be to ask only whether Malta might have the same scenes. The better question is whether we can respond before a society reaches the point where people believe they have to shout to be heard.
The country I want to build in
I started FreeMalta because I believe information can make this place easier to navigate. That belief does not require me to pretend the systems are working perfectly. Loving a country is not the same as flattering it.
We have a chance to make Malta a place where opportunity is felt in ordinary lives, not only announced in presentations. I hope we take it. The distance between an island and a continent is much smaller when the worries are shared.
This column represents the author's view. It is separate from News Beast's automated, source-backed news reports.