Conflicts of interest may feel like an inevitable consequence of small-island, Southern European life

What are we skinning? Maria Schembri Grima resigning as chairperson of the Building and Construction Authority in the wake of an incident involving a dangerous demolition in B’kara... for a site in which she served as architect.

Why are we skinning it? Because in a lot of ways, it’s got all the right ingredients for that home-brewed Maltese stew: conflict of interest, the unstoppable, inscrutable and ever-rapacious construction lobby, and a government that only acts to swerve away from the economic status quo when the media coverage grows just a *tad* too embarrassing.

Joseph Portelli is wedged in there somewhere too. Oh yeah, he owns the company that’s in charge of the fateful building site in question.

Forget about the Mary Spiteri musical, this is the true anthem of our times. A fully immersive theatrical production that encompasses the Maltese forma mentis in a way that no anthem ever could.

But hey, at least nobody got hurt, right? Well, the BCA was actually set up after people DID get hurt as a result of construction site mishaps. One of them even died...

So whose idea was it to let its chair continue to serve as an architect? I can’t be sure...

Somebody should have had the decency to inform them and air this out... The media did. Time and time again.

But that’s the media. A negativity machine, if there ever was one. Yes, the new Maltese status quo runs on the pixie dust of positivity, and anything which dares contradict it is deemed heretical and snuffed out.

What will happen if we just stop building for a little bit? Apparently, a dystopian desert in which everyone is deathly poor and we cannot afford anything, least of all property.

But do YOU know someone under 40 who is ready to buy even a flat without the help of a partner or their family? Dude, the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section of the bookshop is right there. Think you’ll find the volume you’re looking for between ‘Roadside Picnic’ and ‘High Rise’.

Do say: ”Conflicts of interest may feel like an inevitable consequence of small-island, Southern European life. But cases like this explicitly show why this shouldn’t be something we take for granted.”

Don’t say: ”First you complain about destruction, now you complain about demolition. It’s precisely this kind of unrealistic extremism that holds you social justice warriors back.”