This sudden spurt of hold-ups of people, young and old, just to get away, in most cases, with a few euros, is extremely worrying. In some instances this is aggravated by victims being terrorised or even beaten up.

If this continues, Malta will definitely earn lots of bad publicity abroad and scare potential tourists. Isn't it about time that police foot patrols are resumed in our streets? I remember a time when everybody knew the policemen patrolling our area; policemen then had everyone's respect, which nowadays is sadly lacking.

It is getting to a point when letting young teenagers come home on foot from clubs, football nurseries, etc., is becoming risky.

Of course, it's isn't just youngsters who are now afraid to walk anywhere, which is, very bad state of affairs considering that Malta has always been known as a safe place.

The Neighbourhood Watch scheme which had started a few years ago never really took off but I think it is time for the police, local councils and any civic-minded persons to put their heads together and work something out for everybody's peace of mind before things get out of hand.

There are already many places abroad where going out after 5 p.m. has become a hazard, especially for women. I am sure that we do not want to get to that point but something must be done - now. The government has more than enough on its plate to worry all about, so I think we must all do our share.

It is a pity that we have become inundated with apartments everywhere where people come and go and no one knows who anyone is, unlike the time when we all lived in houses and everyone knew everyone else in their street. This is called 'progress' but, unfortunately, it isn't. We are, in fact, regressing to a point where no one really cares about anyone else.