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Monday, February 06, 2006 - (see all news for this day)
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.
it has become a disposal society and everything in it is wrapped for instant disposing. sad!
It is sad when people do not clean up after themselves. Some people don't know any better, don't care, or are plain slobbish.
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" the next morning you'll go outside & the streets will be as clean as a whistle."
That doesn't excuse our ignorance though. And I agree totally with you, it is absolutely shameful for people who claim to hold Islam at the highest level, but conveniently forget to practice its first tenet, to be clean!
Even disregarding religion for a second, what does it take for that stupid woman, man or child to just keep the empty packet or wrapper or whatever with them until they reach a bucket to dispose of properly, or even wait until they get home to dispose of the refuse? Not much. But the main problem is the absolute lethargy and arrogance we have which must be dealt with from infancy so that at least 20 years down the line, we will grow up into a useful and clean society which respects itself and its environment, rather than what we have now which is a race to destroy both.