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A letter to my country-loving friends



My dear patriotic friends,

I'm very surprised to see many of you speaking so passionately about our national interest. Up to a few days ago, the discussions we used to have had led me to lose all hope there was any sense of national interest left in you. But unfortunately, it seems that our definition of what constitutes the 'national interest' is quite diverging.

I'm therefore writing to you, who used to recount stories of the days when you worked in undeclared employment. On how you used to hide when advised of spot-checks. I thought it was in the national interest for you to declare your income and contribute to your country. Unfortunately, you didn't quite agree.

To you, my smoking friends, who gladly throw away your toxic cellulose-acetate cigarette butts and filters wherever you happen to be smoking. I thought it was in the national interest for you to dispose of them properly, to ensure they do not end up polluting our seas, our soils or our water systems. Unfortunately, you still don't quite agree.

To you, who deem it fit to just throw your litter out from your car window after eating your take-away. I thought it was in the national interest for you to dispose of your waste properly. But I jog four times a week near the runway strip and past Hal Far and I know where I see the dumped litter. I know who cares the less about my country, and it's not the people in Hal Far. Jogging there just this morning, I found that unfortunately, you still don't quite agree.

To you, who had once invited me to your Armier boathouse for a day by the beach. I'm sure you're aware that it is built on land your father stole from the rest of the nation. I thought it was in the national interest for you to return that back. Yet you, and thousands of others, still don't quite agree.

To you, who used to boast about not paying a cent for your water-bill thanks to the borehole in your yard. I thought it was in the national interest for such an important national resource to be used responsibly, rather than in a way which is causing the rest of us to pay higher bills and your children to ultimately end up living in a country with no natural water resource. Yet you, and thousands of others, still don't quite agree.

To you, working in your brother's business while registering as unemployed. I thought it was in the national interest for you to stop stealing my taxes. But you, and thousands of others, still don't quite agree.

And we all know why. Because you, and thousands of others, care only for your ego and pockets, neither  for your country nor your nation. So you project your carelessness, selfishness and money-sucking attitude on someone else. The Nazis blamed it on the Jews. You blame it on the immigrants. Even though your misdeeds above are costing our beloved 'national interest' tens of times more than giving refuge to the 5,000 asylum seekers we have in our islands.

But they're easier to target, right? We don't even need to impose the wearing of arm-bands, they're already easy decipherable by their skin colour.

You may find comfort in being in the majority. But the majority is not always right. In fact, the individual rights you want to see broken are the same rights which protect you from being ever trampled upon by a wrong majority. The individual rights which Sir Ugo died defending in Parliament.

And they exist because throughout history we have learned how wrong the majority can be. A majority in the Sanhedrin once decided that it would be in the 'national interest' for a man to die, while another majority backed it up with cries of 'Crucify him'. Another majority once elected Hitler. Other majorities still stone women to death in Afghanistan.

The pity is that this majority elects a government which behaves in its own image.

My dear friend, I hope your individual rights are not the next ones which the majority might deem fit to disregard, in the name of the 'national interest'. If that happens it doesn't seem this Government will be there standing for you. But I'm pretty sure that we don't need to worry and that you'll gladly give them up, given your eagerness to show your love for your country.

Pro Patria Mori.

Pity you invoke it only when Mori involves someone else's life rather than a cent from your pocket. We could be so much better off if you used your spirit of patriotism in the right direction.



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