As evidence of the approaching Christmas holidays becomes more apparent, the signs of increased commercial activity manifest themselves in a heightened appetite for the profligate disposal of garbage in the commercial capital.
The evidence that this newspaper has seen suggests that this year again we have given ourselves over to excesses of indiscriminate dumping of garbage. It is the same as what, for some of us, is another seasonal habit, the habit of overeating. Both habits are dangerous and both usually have painful consequences.
Consumerism associated with Christmas usually throws up huge volumes of containers and wrappings of various sorts, much of which is non-biodegradable and all of which quickly becomes garbage to be dumped.
In a city where, on the whole, our commercial operators are far from sensitised to the importance of safe garbage disposal habits, the evidence of indiscriminate dumping will not simply disappear. The same is true for shoppers whose seasonal indulgences in snacks and lunches even as they pursue their Christmas shopping, is often evidenced in less than discreet piles of Styrofoam disposables which, every day, materialise at various commercial vantage points. Strange as it may seem many of us simply don’t know better.
These myriad piles of garbage, seemingly harmless on sunny days – except in the context of the eyesore that they represent – usually come back to haunt us, as they did just recently when a sudden, persistent early morning downpour caught the capital napping. The mind-boggling thing is that less than two weeks later no lessons appear to have been learnt.
While we accept that garbage collection is an integral part of the problem we do not accept that there is, necessarily, a nexus between the public dumping containers and wrappings of various kinds and what are evidently weaknesses in our garbage disposal regime.
Our own ‘take’ on the problem – leaving aside the wider garbage-disposal issue – is twofold. First, not nearly enough sensitisation and public awareness are being undertaken in an effort to break what, amongst us has become a near incurable habit. Second, the authorities (and here we refer to both the state and the municipal authorities) do not appear to be anywhere near sufficiently alarmed, outraged, concerned or determined enough to mount a response to the problem. It is easier for the two to indulge in a kind of boyish political arm-wrestling which no longer has any worthwhile audience.
The same piles of garbage which we have been observing in various parts of the city in recent weeks must surely have been observed by high officials of government, Members of Parliament, captains of industry and other important personages; and yet we never hear them railing against the eyesore or the danger except in cases when there is some political purpose to the noises that they make. They never use their weight to help roll back the shame of a city which, at intervals, reminds us of the way we live.
Instead, they persist in mouthing pronouncements that are designed to secure them a measure of public attention through the meaningless scraps of sound bite which they throw the media. In truth, the prevailing logic sometimes appears to be that it is all right to put the disgusting condition of our capital on hold until after local government elections have come and gone.
One might have thought that even as they make repeated pronouncements about the need to hasten local government elections, the private sector bodies would persist in a sustained – not intermittent but sustained – public campaign designed to constantly remind delinquent downtown merchants of their transgressions.
One might have thought that the Heads of the various private sector organisations might even ‘raise their game’ through high profile, downtown walkabouts during which the delinquents in the city can be publicly challenged to clean up their act.
Where, one might ask, are the private sector pronouncements that dismiss the politicking over ‘whose fault it is’ and say, instead that the shame, as much as the risks are ours, collectively.
Where are the enforcers of the law who decide that the solution to the problem may, perhaps, repose in simply reading an indiscriminate ‘riot act’ that targets transgressors across the board and maintains the pressure to a point where the transgressors become afflicted with a sufficient measure of doubt and insecurity to cause them to think again.
This week, Stabroek Business has decided to publish photographs of piles of garbage at various points in the capital. (See pages 10B & 11B)
The captions to those photographs detail their locations and some of the business places, offices in proximity.
While we stress that the naming of the places in proximity is in no way intended to apportion blame for the dumping of the garbage, perhaps those entities may well be helpful in seeking to ensure that the practice is brought to an end.