I would like to thank the editor on the leader regarding the islands' shabbiness (September 2). To make these little islands a tidy place only a little effort is required from the authorities and that is to enforce. The machinery exits but not enough oiling goes on. The country needs hands-on management and not armchair managers. There has to be some sense of discipline instilled and very quickly.

I remember when the roads were not made of tarmac and water bowsers used to come around to settle the dust; we used to have dust bins for the rubbish and road sweepers came around every day in all towns and villages. We did not have modern take-aways but the outlets we had did not create so much waste.

Before a major effort is made to clean up the place one has to see what is making it dirty; vehicles that leave building materials in their wake, horse dung, machinery leaving fields and drive onto a main road, grass cuttings, rubbish dumping...

There should be a task force for just this purpose. I see workers cleaning up arterial roads and they do a good job of it; there should be more of them around more frequently. No one likes to see rubble walls collapsing or unfinished, weeds growing across roads.

What I cannot understand is why bigger countries with millions of people can do it and we, a little jewel in the Mediterranean with 400,000 people, fail. Less talk and more action is needed.

Keep it up, editor, keep drumming it in. Perhaps one day we will get there, if not for our sake for the sake of the next generation and those to follow. And readers, please make every effort to keep Malta tidy.