Dear Editor,
Some people still do not recognize the value of our environment and pristine appearances of our surroundings, like the occupants of a Rosignol to Georgetown minibus who were travelling from New Amsterdam to, perhaps, the Berbice River Bridge last Sunday. I observed the occupants throwing out all sorts of litter, which included ice-cream cups, not once, not twice but three times from the windows of the bus onto the public road.
It could have been that the guilty persons were children, and their parents had done little to educate them about littering.
I am sure the occupants of the bus could not have done what they did in front of my eyes in New York and cities in the world − not without being caught and punished according to the law. What they did made me sick, as they performed that act of littering, not hiding in a corner, but in full view of passers-by on the New Amsterdam and East Canje roads − the nerve!
Of course, what I saw was an isolated incident. How many more instances of littering in Guyana go unseen and hidden every day?
You know, the habit of throwing unwanted items anywhere we please, I believe, is an internal mind issue. No amount of advertisements on the TV and radio or in the newspapers, or lectures and talks can curb this appalling and inexcusable practice. The issue of littering must be dealt with internally. Also, parents need to transmit the idea of keeping their environment clean to children. I believe they are failing when it comes to this. I would observe how schoolchildren litter the school environment so often and somehow sense that they brought these habits from the home. Maybe it is what they are accustomed to doing at home.
No matter how many garbage bins are placed at various places, I have observed that persons still throw their garbage wherever they please − wherever seems more convenient to them.
Persons must develop a deep love and care for their environment. They must develop that relationship between themselves and the environment. For me, that involves understanding that our surroundings and environment are gifts from God, and we are stewards to whom God entrusted those possessions. We can either love them, care them, and be good to them or we can do what the heck we please.
It would be a hard task to help people make that connection.
Yours faithfully,
Leon Jameson Suseran