ferrousland.com - daily news archives
Monday, February 06, 2006
littering - 08:50 PM
(filed under 'bahrain')
since we've been in bahrain, i've noticed littering is a huge thing. perhaps australia used to be like this, too, perhaps before i could remember, but i'm so not used to seeing people throw rubbish down where they stand & not even blink an eye.
i've seen people throw rubbish down on the street right in front of me: kids finishing a drink & turfing the bottle ahead of them into the the area where the cars park; shop keepers throwing a used paper towel out the door & onto the street; a lady at a fun park finishing a packet of some snack & dropping the empty packet where she stood; a young man sitting in his parked car waiting for some fresh shawarma, finishing the sandwich he was eating & then throwing the packet out the car window.
mind you, bins aren't all over the place. you have to walk quite a decent distance to find a bin & usually it's only one of the big industrial bins found on the street, which i assume are for local shops & buildings.
perhaps if i was born thirty years earlier than i was, i might have experienced the same thing in australia. maybe i'm just used to being in a place where environmental issues are a big political & social thing. i have seen one sign on a highway promoting not littering in bahrain & to keep it beautiful, but that's the only one. maybe these things take time. even if there was a big push to 'keep bahrain beautiful' i imagine it might take a full generation or two for people to change the way they do things & to change their attitudes.
i'm not having a go at bahrain at all, there are many things about this place which i think they do so much better than the 'western world' (such as the way they treat children, any children, not just their own, as though they are totally wanted & valued) but rather i'm just observing something about life here.
on the other hand, the people employed to empty the rubbish bins & clean the streets do a really good job at cleaning up, because even though on one evening you might see the roads & footpaths strewn with rubbish, with papers & bags being blown about by the wind, the next morning you'll go outside & the streets will be as clean as a whistle.
family pictures - 11:30 AM
(filed under 'general')
finally some lovely pics of my growing extended family. here's a family shot of dad, tosca, kassia & luca, & a close up of my little sister & my little baby brother.
these are pics provided by tosca. i assume she took the one of the two kids. not sure who took the family one.
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