Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1499757
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 MAY 2023 COMMENT The Skinny Malta, shrunk down EDITORIAL Burying the Muscat legacy: the right thing to do PAGE 2 JOSANNE CASSAR We did not sign up for this PAGE 6 In republican Malta, the State, through its main arm on heritage, is inexplicably spending €15 million on a museum for the colonialist ruler rather than for the colonised - Charles Xuereb, page 4 What are we skinning? The island descending into a fresh bout of Muscatian political scandal concurrently with the nation being doped into sub- mission by Love Island Malta. Why are we skinning it? Both phenomena are worthy of anal- ysis and consideration when taken on their own; mashed together, they become an ab- surdist banquet for us to feast on. Do you think that the scions of the Muscat administration re- gret not being in government for Love Island Malta's unveil- ing? I would say so, yes. Super- ficially, at least, their rallying cry was one of unity, and few things in recent memory have united the nation's collective attention better than this fran- chised reality show which aims to engineer love among its cherry-picked contestants. Doesn't the fateful hospitals deal also hinge on a franchise whose entry into the island is based on engineered and cherry-picked relationships? You could say so, yes. Alleged- ly, of course. Given that the legal process for all of this will be messy and painful for all involved, wouldn't it perhaps be a bet- ter idea to stick all of the usual suspects in a remote villa and have them duke it out then? Remote-ish... I mean it's Mal- ta (and/or Gozo) we're talking about here. Comino too. Don't give them any ideas. They've already put forward too many. You know what I mean. My point still stands. Well, given how reality TV revels in at least the impression of transpar- ency, it would be a welcome change from the long-gestat- ing drips and drabs of informa- tion that we've otherwise been receiving from this story. Love Island is airing on TVM, the national broadcaster. Which technically makes us a stakeholder in the show. And so far, the show seems to have held its own end of the bargain, by ostensibly proving itself to be of enough entertainment value for a large chunk of the population. Not so for the hospitals deal. Not really. So far we've just been privy to witnessing our hard-earned tax monies flushed down the drain in a deal that's looking skeezier and skeezier by the second. What would be the ideal pay- off, then? Well, a magic wand solution that actually gives us upgraded and workable new hospitals would be good. And fair. But that's unlikely to happen. Yeah, so I suppose we'd have to settle for the schadenfreude of seeing some high-profile ar- rests. That'll destabilise the country something fierce. What this case has shown us is that we weren't in fact doing so great even while we were allegedly 'stable', so I say crack open that Pandora's box and let the chips fall where they may. It's a disorienting proposition. Relax, bello. Do say: "If there's any whiff of the American-style 'infotain- ment' phenomenon to the re- cent developments in the hos- pitals case and its subsequent fallout, it's only because the protagonists in question have led us to that point of absurdist corrupt dealings. Allegedly." Don't say: "It's easier to love the callow kids among the cast of Love Island than it is to love Malta, at this point. At least the kids feel as though they could be fixable at some point in their personal histories." No. 192 - Loving the Island MICHAEL FALZON Between a rock and a hard place PAGE 7 SAVIOUR BALZAN Let the one with the proverbial balls step forward PAGE 5