I rant you risten

Thursday, December 02, 2004

a heated post about the environment

One of our biggest problems with Bahraini’s is that people have no respect for their environment and that REALLY gets under my skin… People don’t give a shit about where they throw their trash, constantly under the impression that there’s some poor fellow there to pick up after them. The thing is there is someone there to pick up after them, he’s the poor garbage man that I see every morning on my ride to work having to pick up juice boxes and wrappers off the side of the road…

I’ve said this before, Bahrain’s a tiny place, if you’re gonna litter, it’s going to build up until it becomes disgusting… and since Bahraini’s don’t give a shit, they’re inviting others living here to not give a shit either… I get so pissed off when I’m driving and I see a Bahraini driver, rolling down his or her window and dumping out trash… I mean, why? You’re in a car, you’re obviously going someplace, can’t you crumble that empty pack of cigarettes or that tissue paper and hold on till you get to wherever you’re going so that you don’t have to make my country a little less beautiful? Can someone explain to me why people litter? What is the deal? I see trash cans everywhere but people are too lazy to do anything with them… I dare anyone who reads this to go and drive around Bahrain looking for a spot or patch of “refuse free” land… if you do find that actual spot, then think back of all the other spots that are just covered in trash and allow yourself to vomit (in a toilet that is, we don’t want more crap on the floor)…

I’m not asking you to quit your job, join green peace, get on the rainbow warrior and save the sardines… I’m asking you to realize what you do in your life where you’re fucking litterbug and if you stopped, and if you made everyone around you to stop then maybe you can make a difference… Every little piece of trash put in a bin counts by the way… I’m planning on having kids someday and I want to do everything I can to preserve some sort of clean environment for them to grow up in… If you’re from here, then try to remember how pretty and green it was here 15 years ago, do you really want to lose that forever? Do you want to take your kids over to a public garden to show them more sand? The government is doing its part to keep the country clean, but it shouldn’t be just up to them, we should all do our part. It doesn’t have to be anything grand, just keep after yourself; and if more people start becoming responsible citizens and keep after themselves then we might actually have a chance…

Just to paint a really sad picture for you, at the cemetery in Manama, there’s trash on people’s graves… During a funeral, there’s usually bottled water being passed around for anyone feeling a little dehydrated. Do you know how these assholes repay their gratitude for getting a free drink of water? They throw the empty bottles on ground, while I end up picking up after them and tossing them in the garbage bin less than 5 footsteps away… You fucking assholes, I don’t give a shit how religious you are or who the hell listens to you. You just lost all credibility in my book when you tossed garbage on someone’s grave, and if by chance anything is thrown on any grave of any relative of mine, I will not hesitate in pummeling your face into the ground. If you just read this and feel there’s nothing wrong with people littering in Bahrain, then FUCK YOU TOO.
Peace loving, tree hugging, granola eating, disgruntled hippie…

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

edu, u have touched upon a very sensitive subject for me....i think that littering should be punishable by public flogging and even death...you should see the garbage that people throw right outside their front doors in some of the poorer areas...i mean they just dont give a fuck about mice and rats and disease and cleanliness...not only them....you should see the state of the bathroonms where i work ....disgusting people....it is unislamic to be dirty.....anywyas all of the problems in bahrain come down to one thing and thats education of the masses or the lack of it

Anonymous said...

edu, u have touched upon a very sensitive subject for me....i think that littering should be punishable by public flogging and even death...you should see the garbage that people throw right outside their front doors in some of the poorer areas...i mean they just dont give a fuck about mice and rats and disease and cleanliness...not only them....you should see the state of the bathroonms where i work ....disgusting people....it is unislamic to be dirty.....anywyas all of the problems in bahrain come down to one thing and thats education of the masses or the lack of it
peace kahraba

Anonymous said...

You don't have to describe yourself as a "Peace loving, tree hugging, granola eating, disgruntled hippie" regarding the jackasses who feel it is their GOD GIVEN RIGHT if not a GOD GIVEN DUTY to drop litter where they deem fit. Normal people can't stand litter bugs.

Seems the undeclared motto for these idoits is "Give a TCN a Job.... Litter."

Lord knows they won't get off their candy asses and pick up trash themselves.

Mahmood Al-Yousif said...

aw come on, it's not THAT bad, I mean this is a problem that happen EVEN IN AMERICA! What's a little trash thrown like this going to do to the environment?

Bahraini Rants said...

the way people view the environment here drives me crazy... If it's not littering, it's the smog, and all those cars with horrible emissions... I wish we had a stricter car safety inspection test or something like that... Being a country dependent on oil revenues, I wonder how people would take to driving hybrid cars? I have to tell you, the Prius looks bad ass in an environmentally friendly way...

Mahmood Al-Yousif said...

my son Arif had a lesson about the environment at school when he was 5 or 6 (maybe 7, can't remember). every time we went out to walk the dogs in the desert he goes on about how bad it is of people to just dump their building material, rubbish and also remove trees and shrubs that were there just a few days ago. I encouraged him to make a movie and he did. I edited it for him and he screened it in class which impressed his teachers no end. The essense of the story is that all of our children have been brought up to respect the environment and they know that they shouldn't litter. We didn't do anything special other than do as we say in front of them and that stuck.

I'm not saying that we are saints, far from it, but it really takes very little to teach children respect for the environment, much easier than even teaching them respect for other people! They can very quickly understand that littering is bad because they see it in front of them, teaching them to respect someone who they think is an asshole is a whole different matter.

I'll put up the movie if I find it.

Anonymous said...

I cannot believe anybody besides myself actually cares about this situation as a three year resident of tubli bay and someone who has caught in the act over 150 indians illeagly dumping garbage and all others kinds of terrible junk it seems as if nobody will take action it is all empty rhetoric. I had three letters published in the GDN about this problem faxed a letter to the Ministry head who is in charge of this and he told me it was not his problem amazing I thought so I starting taking the people I cuaght to the Isa town police station it helped I have the pictures of many of them quite a nice collection. In the three years and many people cuaght I have determined it is management and socio-economic combination.

1. Managenment- The Owner of the buisness most of the time Bahraini gives the six wheel truck to the indian supervisor who has his people fill up the truck with garbage and has the indian driver dump it at the closest location. I have cuaght many and I immediately have them call there boss who gives me a line of bullsh"t started by sorry sir. very sad.

2. Socio-economic- I have cought 156 people dumping some I let go others I call the police. 149 have been indians, 2 Bahrainis and the rest Pakistanis. If you have ever been to india such as myself you can understand why it is so easy for an indian to dump garbage anywere it is really quite filfthy so as to say they are doing to Bahrain what they would do in there country, the sad part is Bahrain is letting foriegners destroy there country everyday and are only talking about ways to fix the problem.

1. Impose heavy fines.
2. Revoke company liscence.
3. Deport individual.
4. Estabilish a REAL (envoiromental protection agency)
With five hundred inspectors with real powers.

The real sad fact of the matter is I am a foriegner and I care more about Bahrain than most Bahrainis.

Bahraini Rants said...

we need more people like you.. heavy fines and a proper environmental agency will come, but we need them to have serious backing from the government (I am hopeful)... We need fines enforced and once the people start realizing that dumping your trash will actually get you in jail, then they might stop.. fight the good fight anonymous foreigner..