Bahraini Rants, well, has a good rant about litterbugs in which he doesn’t pull any punches, to him:
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.
I can’t disagree with him. And yes I feel the same way about morons who think nothing of throwing garbage out of their car windows, leave all garbage exactly where they left it while on picnic or an outing rather than take bags and remove their garbage with them, or even much more serious in my book when a business makes it a habit to just dump their industrial refuse wherever they can (at night normally) without a hint of decency. All of these people are destroying this island.
Going on a walk in a rural part of Bahrain brought this all to the fore for me. It was last Friday that Frances and I decided to take the dogs for a walk, so we did. The weather was beautiful if a bit windy. Throughout the ancient paths we took through palm groves or old farm-land to get to an unused strip of beach we noticed rubbish thrown haphazardly and in a hurry. It looked that people just drove their trucks to a dark spot (as close as possible to a main road mind you, there is no reason to really encumber themselves) and just toss the refuse out. That refuse mostly was industrial or construction waste.
The worrying thing is that no one seems to give a shit. From time to time we do get local and foreign companies organising a day of beach clean-up, I have also heard of some local communities doing so as well, for instance the village of Duraz go from time to time to clean up their beach. But generally, the feeling is that someone else will come and remove the litter. Or, it’s only paper anyway, or it’s only a cigarette butt, or it’s just a nylon bag.
What can people do to ensure that the environment remains clean then? Don’t litter! What you need a PhD in order for you to understand this? If you go out on a trip, take a rubbish bag with you, put a small rubbish bag in the car, use your car’s ashtray (or don’t smoke in the first place), if you produce garden rubbish, at least call the municipality to advise them of the situation and they in their turn will ask the company contracted to clear the roads and collect rubbish to schedule pickup, if there is a charge for this service then pay it, don’t just pile the rubbish outside your door.
Companies who dump industrial waste should be heavily penalised for the privilege. There should be absolutely no quarter there. I have seen various hazardous rubbish piled near waterways. One of the blog’s readers has shown me pictures of chemicals being dumped at the shoreline of Tubli Bay which is supposed to be a natural reserve. From the pictures above you will see everything from coal, to plastic bottles, to huge tree-trunks left as presents for future generations, because if they are not moved they will still be there for sure.
Apart from all of this, we also have the cement mixers washing their tanks at the beach, farm-land, or anywhere they can hide. The result of course are huge thing slabs of concrete where they dump the result, and that kills off numerous kinds of wildlife and insects, other than creating an awful mess of the place.
Where is the government or municipality from these people? I suggest we get a flogging post erected in each governate and flog these bastards to within an inch of their miserable lives. Maybe then they will think before they destroy our environment.
Comments
Litterbugs? No, they’re litter slime.
Well… well…well!
Our municipal councils are more worried about the scantly-clad manniquiens than what their job is really all about : to keep an eye on whether the rubbish bins have been emptied and the sewerage manholes are not overflowing!!
Thanks Mahmood and Bahraini Rants for taking the time to comment on this.
Again, like with other issues, this goes back to education. Parents should teach their children to pick up their rubbish and keep their rooms tidy.
Just like at home, many people in Bahrain consider the cleaning company like the housemaid: we drop the rubbish, you clean up after us!!
Long lives the welfare state mentality!
We sure are going forward with the times!!
Litterbugs? No, they’re litter slime.
well they need to impose fines on people who mess a round,
like for instance a BD 50 fine if someone throws rubbish from the car window.a BD 20 fine if you drop a cigarette. etc
this is the only way that will force people in obeying the law.
and start RECYCLING….
Re: Litterbugs? No, they’re litter slime.
Somewhere I have a T-Shirt that reads “Singapore is a FINE City… They fine you for EVERYTHING” With a picture of what looks like a Parking Ticket on it.. I would hate to think that soon I might get to add another T-Shirt that reads “Bahrain is a FINE Country.. They FINE you for EVERYTHING”
Be careful with what you wish for..You just might get it.
If you really want to hit someone HARD for tossing a cigarette butt from his car window or that empty shawarma wrapper, fines won’t work. Make the culprit spend 20 hours PICKING up trash in PUBLIC wearing a sign telling the world why he or she is picking up trash. SHAME will do wonders.
Re(1): Litterbugs? No, they’re litter slime.
this is actually an excellent idea. A lot of people won’t bat an eyelid for paying a fine of BD500, but for them to have a flag on them saying that they’re bad? Shit, the shame will kill them AND their families!
Litterbugs? No, they’re litter slime.
I love to see US Judges handing down “SHAME” sentances for these types of crimes. While I have no “hard numbers” to stand behind I would bet that the “criminal” would be much less likely to commit the same offense again VS if he/she just had to pay a fine.
Your right Mahmood. A 500 BD fine is nothing, just as a $1500.00/$2000 fine is not in the US.Pay it and move on. BTW you must have a STACK of BD 50 notes hanging around since you stopped smoking. I mean you used those 50 BD notes to light up those “cancer sticks”. That was running you around 1000 BD per pack!
Re(2): Litterbugs? No, they’re litter slime.
The problem is that the police are the worst offenders. If you’re unlucky enough to be behind them on the road you’ll find them constantly chucking alsorted garbage out the window. These guys are the Hansel and Gretal of Bahrain – leaving vast tracts of rubbish in their wake making it easy for them to retrace their steps should they ever need to.