Photo credit: Malta Today

This article first appeared in Malta Today

When protests erupted in Madrid after an 87-year-old woman was evicted from the home she had been renting for decades, it was not just about her particular case alone.  

Her rent, which had been previously capped under the laws at the time, was suddenly raised from €500 to €2650 because a new company bought the building.  The woman, María del Carmen Abascal could not afford the increase on her pension and courts had already blocked three previous attempts to evict her, with her case gaining extensive media coverage.  When she was taken out of her home on a stretcher, flanked by police, people took to the streets.  It is even sadder that Maria del Carmen, who had become a symbol of the housing protests, has died in the meantime.

“This whole housing situation is heartbreaking. Mari carmen has been, in a way, the last straw that sparked this social unrest, but we’ve been dealing with this whole issue for a long time now,” said protester Simón de la Riva, 43, a teacher. “It’s unacceptable that vulture funds are buying up homes, that people can’t afford to live, that entire families are being evicted, and that an elderly woman has been evicted.”

I was reminded of this when people kept questioning activists, “why are you picking on Stivala? What about all the other establishments which have taken over our public pavements with tables and chairs and erected similar permanent awnings?”  Yes, obviously, it goes without saying that all those who have broken the law over the years and got away with it should have their awnings, tables and chairs removed.  But much like the case of the elderly woman in Madrid, the Stivala case was simply the last straw. 

Overnight he extended his restaurant, erected a permanent awning, paved over the pavement and took over public land with tables and chairs as if it were his. I don’t understand why some members of the public are fixated on claiming that he is not the only one – that is not the point.  The point is that this cannot continue and Moviment Graffitti are now very justifiably in action mode. Going through the right channels, through the law courts, through the Planning Authority, through the Lands Authority is time-consuming and only allows offenders to play for time. They laugh in our faces while knowing full well that they can sneak their tables and chairs back out again when another obscene infringement somewhere else becomes a focal point.  

So while it is true that the PA issued an enforcement action to remove the awning, Stivala kept playing cat and mouse before the structure was finally removed. The Lands Authority served him with an eviction notice to clear the stretch of public land, but gave him 30 days to do so, and as I write this, the illegal paving is still there.  Resident groups and NGOs are furious at this arrogance because it has become a symbol of how the powerful just do what they like with what is, in effect, our country. 

As pointed out by Moviment Graffitti, “The reality on the ground is clear: Carlo Stivala’s illegal occupation of public land continues, and he continues to profit from it with impunity. This is emblematic of much wider problems: the rampant occupation of public spaces by commercial establishments, whether legal or illegal, and the authorities’ complete failure to enforce lands, planning and environmental laws.”

Those who seem to see action groups such as Graffitti as the enemy also make me wonder what it is they do not understand. As long as developers continue to do what they like, it is us who will suffer. This is not about the PN or about those who “hate Labour” or “who are jealous” or who want to “overthrow the government” or who have a “political agenda”.  I read comments such as this and want to weep at the inability to comprehend just how much harm this brainwashing has caused. It is similar to those who hate NGOs such as the Malta Rangers Unit, which is there to protect our environment and heritage – yet to see the comments one would think the MRU are enemies of the people.  Do those who always react with their sarcasm, their jibes and their snide remarks even love Malta? Or is their mission simply to ensure the Labour government is not criticised and is defended at all costs?

I guess I know enough about this type of mindset to answer my own question. 

Violence and drugs – a lethal combination

Every week seems to bring us news of a violent incident or murder. What used to be a rare occurrence in Malta, which would be the talk of the town for weeks, has now become so commonplace that we are in danger of becoming desensitised.  Understandably, we often ask each other, ‘what is happening?’ as every headline seems to bring us yet more shocking news.  

When a society starts to disintegrate like this it is easy to look around and point fingers at what we might perceive to be the causes, which almost always feature the usual targets.  Anxiety, stress, traffic, road rage, property prices, overcrowded hospitals and buses packed like sardines are blamed on overpopulation and hence, that has become the explanation for all our ailments.  But if people are flipping so quickly to the extent that they are causing grievous bodily harm, or at the extreme end of the scale, murder, we cannot keep placing the culpability on others.  

We are right to be worried but I think we are looking in the wrong direction. I believe what we are witnessing is a nation which is being fuelled by an undercurrent of alarming drug use coupled with a heavy drinking culture.  Add the stressors of everyday life into the mix and you have a whole swathe of people ready to lash out because substance abuse removes the last vestiges of any inhibition.  

This is not to say that the curve balls which life throws at us are always easy to cope with.  Like anyone else, I can have a very bad day which fills me with fury – but I’m hardly going to take a crowbar from the boot of my car and start smashing car windows or use it to cave someone’s skull in.  That doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes fantasise about slapping someone silly, but it stays there, in the realm of my imagination. 

It is the understanding of social norms and civilised behaviour which separates those who can control their anger from those who let loose and act on it impulsively, turning aggressive and dangerous.  Granted, there are those born with a chemical imbalance who are unable to contain their emotions and who have never learned how to regulate themselves;  the type of people we describe as short-tempered or having a short fuse.  But there are also varying levels of intensity which range from simple frustration to blind rage. When people who are already prone to being aggressive turn to drugs or alcohol, it can be a lethal combination which is either directed towards others or even more tragically, towards harming themselves. 

The fact that violence has increased across the board is a troubling sign of a troubled society which, despite all its material luxuries, is clearly dissatisfied and has to turn to mind-numbing drugs for escape.  Rather than grasping at straws to explain “what is happening”, we first need to admit this to ourselves.