Community in modern Malta | Sasha Vella | TEDxUniversityofMalta

Sasha Vella begins by describing her move to Gozo, where she encountered a vibrant sense of community characterized by mutual aid, neighborly support, and symbiotic relationships—experiences that felt like culture shock compared to her life in central Malta. She reflects on how this contrast made her realize that such community-oriented living has largely vanished from modern Malta, despite her own memories of a different pace of life even at age 26.

Vella identifies the primary driver of this shift: life became faster, and with increased accessibility to wealth and success, individualism gradually rose while community faded. She poses a critical question about how two islands just 25 minutes apart by ferry can embody such dramatically different ways of living, suggesting this reflects deeper questions about modern society's priorities.

The speaker acknowledges that individualism has provided significant benefits—freedom, personal rights, and opportunities for innovation—but warns that without balance, it drifts toward selfishness, isolation, and loneliness. This creates a dangerous inversion where everyone thinks only of themselves, resulting in the loss of empathy, compassion, and mutual responsibility.

Vella emphasizes that humans do not exist in isolation despite believing they do, and that our actions inevitably affect those around us. She distinguishes between being independent and being disconnected, arguing that modern fast-paced life has blurred this line. She attributes the gradual erosion of community not to a sudden collective decision but to subtle shifts: less interaction, hesitation to give or ask for help, and increasingly transactional relationships.

The core problem, she argues, is not geography or pace alone but rather priorities and values. When growth, progress, and achievement become central concerns, community becomes secondary not from malice but because something always feels more urgent. She questions what kind of society, relationships, and lives result from prioritizing individual success above all else.

Vella concludes that the solution is neither to reject individualism nor romanticize the past, but to find balance by recognizing that individual choices directly shape society. She calls for renewed awareness of others, willingness to show up for one another in small ways, and recognition that connection can be rebuilt through everyday choices, just as disconnection occurred gradually through them.