Patrick Kavanagh, who has recently retired to the island after spending many years here, is scandalised by “the constant stream of scantily-clad women in skimpy bikinis and bare-chested men wearing nothing but Speedo thongs, meandering along Sliema, Balluta Bay and St Julian’s waterfront with total impunity” (August 31).

He considers this “plague of shameless exhibitionism” as a totally disgraceful example to set to innocent children.

If Mr Kavanagh were to move beyond his Balluta Bay vantage point in the direction of Paceville, he is likely to be struck by flashes of Sodom and Gomorrah!

In that area violence is rife, crime seems to proliferate. Police presence is, at best, minimal. Over the years, the overall situation has deteriorated steadily.

While the powers-that-be slumbered and wallowed in their impotence, the number of child pregnancies increased steadily. So did the number of broken families. The Corradino Correctional Facility is overpopulated despite very lenient sentences for very serious crimes while the drug problem proliferates outside and within.

The state seems to be comatose and incapable of maintaining discipline, while the social agents, including the Church, were largely silent spectators all along. No wonder that church attendance has been diminishing steadily.

I will not stop complaining that the powers-that-be never responded to the timely solicitations, in Parliament and in sections of the media, urging them to be pro-active in this regard. Those solicitations are on record as a permanent rebuke to the politicians and other authorities who now face the music.