The Environment
By William Skinner
Traditionally, Caribbean people have been very conscious and
aware of their environment. The growth of the international environment
movement, has placed protection on : rainforests, water resources, and both
land and ocean pollution. It is fashionable , to promote care for the
environment , as a sophisticated science , understood only by the so-called
experts.
The broader populace ,
is expected to be educated to and wait on directives from the experts , not
realizing that the care of the environment commences with a diligence of our
own and immediate private properties, living conditions and spaces. In the old
Caribbean, we saw keeping our personal environments as our natural
responsibility. The chattel houses were exquisitely painted , with immaculately
kept gardens and every rock was meticulously used and even empty soda bottles,
were placed to complete the creative landscaping of the gardens that flourished
with popular tropical plants. That picture remains irremovable in my mind and
drove me to an early interest in gardening and was perhaps my first lesson , in
caring for my environment.
At primary school, at the end of the term, we cleaned our
desks with sandpaper , to remove accumulated markings. This meant that when we
returned to school , after the holidays, our classrooms would be spotless.
Along the road of development, we seem to have lost sight of these simple
lessons. A person not taught to care and maintain his or her personal
environment and space , cannot be expected to look for a garbage receptacle,
when they have a piece of paper to dispose.
The care of the environment ,
like all important disciplines should be instilled from a very early
age.
William Skinner is a Caribbean
social commentator.
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