Sweden, Canada, Holland, Germany and Trinidad, just to name a few for my sample observation.
I've visited about twelve European countries, travelled all over the United States and Canada playing music, and what always struck me was how neat and orderly the cities ran. How neighbourhoods always seemed well maintained. How people knew to put their trash in garbage bins, how to recycle. In a nutshell, how to care for their surroundings, their town, city, country and by extension the environment.
Whenever I'm in Trinidad I'm always saddened how we take care of our country.
In many of the lower-income areas some houses are literally falling apart - no repaint jobs, derelict walls, crumbling roofs. In St. James and Woodbrook most of the pavements are broken, the drains smell stink and there's garbage strewn everywhere on weekends when there's no garbage pick up.
Whenever I take a drive throughout the country I see garbage thrown out of car windows as people drive on by, it's as if we get a kick out of being nasty.
Along the highways between the East, West, North and South, there's garbage along the roadways.
After carnival every year, taking a drive throughout St. James, Woodbrook, St. Clair and lower Maraval we can see signs of J'ouvert - many of the masqueraders splash paint on people's houses, even the walls of churches aren't spared, so much for the sacred spaces.
There's no respect, no law and order here.
St. James and Woodbrook once used to be residential areas and then slowly without warning and without proper paperwork and zoning bylaws, businesses started popping up everywhere. My family's historical home in St. James is now huddled on a street next to a roadside mechanic, a printery, an ice factory and a gym, in what was once a residential area.
Cars blare their music at all hours of the night for everyone to hear. People spit everywhere. Drunkards piss on innocent walls every weekend.
Trinidad is a lawless country, every corner, every crevice. Every person learns from a very young age by observing their parents how to be a reckless 'Trini'. Our only saving grace is our weather.
But it is sad and true, we have no pride of ownership here. We rather destroy and let everything decay around us, than to preserve our heritage buildings, than to preserve our nature sanctuaries, than to honour our sacred spaces, than to respect each others' homes and property.
Trinidad is a country in decay, and in years to come when everything is in shambles and we all look around clueless wondering how it all happened, what we should really be trying to find, is a mirror.
I've visited about twelve European countries, travelled all over the United States and Canada playing music, and what always struck me was how neat and orderly the cities ran. How neighbourhoods always seemed well maintained. How people knew to put their trash in garbage bins, how to recycle. In a nutshell, how to care for their surroundings, their town, city, country and by extension the environment.
Whenever I'm in Trinidad I'm always saddened how we take care of our country.
In many of the lower-income areas some houses are literally falling apart - no repaint jobs, derelict walls, crumbling roofs. In St. James and Woodbrook most of the pavements are broken, the drains smell stink and there's garbage strewn everywhere on weekends when there's no garbage pick up.
Whenever I take a drive throughout the country I see garbage thrown out of car windows as people drive on by, it's as if we get a kick out of being nasty.
Along the highways between the East, West, North and South, there's garbage along the roadways.
After carnival every year, taking a drive throughout St. James, Woodbrook, St. Clair and lower Maraval we can see signs of J'ouvert - many of the masqueraders splash paint on people's houses, even the walls of churches aren't spared, so much for the sacred spaces.
There's no respect, no law and order here.
St. James and Woodbrook once used to be residential areas and then slowly without warning and without proper paperwork and zoning bylaws, businesses started popping up everywhere. My family's historical home in St. James is now huddled on a street next to a roadside mechanic, a printery, an ice factory and a gym, in what was once a residential area.
Cars blare their music at all hours of the night for everyone to hear. People spit everywhere. Drunkards piss on innocent walls every weekend.
Trinidad is a lawless country, every corner, every crevice. Every person learns from a very young age by observing their parents how to be a reckless 'Trini'. Our only saving grace is our weather.
But it is sad and true, we have no pride of ownership here. We rather destroy and let everything decay around us, than to preserve our heritage buildings, than to preserve our nature sanctuaries, than to honour our sacred spaces, than to respect each others' homes and property.
Trinidad is a country in decay, and in years to come when everything is in shambles and we all look around clueless wondering how it all happened, what we should really be trying to find, is a mirror.
Hi, visiting from the A to Z challenge. I was really struck by your post because it is something that I notice in my job. I am a postwoman in the south of Manchester in England. In the rich areas I deliver the streets are tidy and clear of rubbish and people seem to respect their surroundings, but in the poorer areas there is litter and neglect and the gardens are scruffy and often full of discarded furniture and so on. I have always felt that this situation becomes a bit of a viscous circle, that you live somewhere that is 'scruffy' and you stop caring about it, you stop respecting your neighbours and so it becomes worse, others stop caring and treat their environment badly and in the end everyone feels what is the point of bothering to care if nobody else does. It is a very sad state of affairs but maybe it takes individual people to decide to make a change in attitude, and perhaps others might follow. Laws could come from above to force people not to litter, but people caring about their community would be a much more powerful means for change.
ReplyDeleteHi Martine,
DeleteThanks for what you wrote. I totally agree with you, because in the nicer neighbourhoods in Trinidad, there is a certain amount of pride, but sadly I also think that Trinidadians living here get a certain 'kick' out of being disrespectful of our environment. It's how we've always been. Terrible way to be really.