It’s hot. And it’s not just the weather. But no matter how much they fan them, the flames we face are nothing compared with the ones that consumed Daphne Caruana Galizia. She ran ahead of all of us and was cut down. None of us should be surprised that we now come within range. This is what we stepped up to. This is why we run.

They want us to stop and now they are willing to squeeze the screws. Consider how PN MP David Stellini ‘wonders’ whether the thousands who protested against corruption last year were ‘acting in good faith’. It wasn’t just the leaders of those protests he is indicting. We are all being made to doubt our sanity, the facts we are aware of and the conclusions we have drawn from. We are isolated from the rest of the world where the corruption we are asked to condone would have the entire country on the streets.

They want a new normal to set in. A normal where a Minister caught with a secret off-shore company set up just after he came to office, remains in office. Even when bank accounts and commitments of insane income are documented and published.

A normal where a direct order amounting to half the entire national expenditure in public projects for a year is granted to a political donor. And the Leader of the Opposition meets the political donor behind closed doors to discuss the deal.

A normal where people who dare say this is not acceptable are bashed in a chorus of accusations, outright lies and insinuations set up by all government and opposition forces using their media infrastructure to isolate dissenters.

A normal where the police force lies about threatening arrest of whistle-blowers when they secured an arrest warrant even before they first called the subject for a meeting.

A normal where the entire country is covered by a piovra, an octopus whose tentacles have now gripped the judiciary, the press, the civil service, the police, the public prosecutor, the parliamentary opposition but it’s head remains firmly in Castille.

Though many do not want this for their country, few dare to speak up. Be one of the few.

Speaking on Thursday at our monthly vigil in Great Siege square:

  • Winston Psaila
  • Jessica Debattista
  • Ranier Fsadni
  • Lizzie Eldridge

I will be speaking too. The event starts at 8.30pm.

In the meantime in case you forgot where this started, here’s a short feature from Channel 4’s interview yesterday with Paul Caruana Galizia.