16 September, 2014

Freely Littering Mentality

I have heard stories from Singapore, Australia and USA, from the people who’ve visited these countries.

For the first time visitors, they were surprised to have meted out with unusual, un-Bhutanesely encounter; in Singapore, people are not allowed to carry edibles while traveling by bus. It’s simply unbelievable.

In Australia, friends and relatives who had been there say that if you wear your white T-shirt for a week, it would be still with any dust on it. It’s same with the car, you need not wash for weeks. It’s simply amazing.

In USA, every single person takes care of litter, if one is seen littering, another person who has seen you littering would reprimand you, it’s not the concerned authority who is doing that. If they see fights or beating children or women, the case would be reported in a wink and police would zoom in from nowhere. Everyone takes responsibility of the society. It’s just wonderful.

I feel the story would be the same of many countries.

Talk about our country, it’s just the other way; we can take anything we like in public transports provided the space is available. Everyone litters care-freely. You buy a chocolate and wrapper goes on the ground. You drink a bottle of coke, it crumbles on the ground. The litters cannot reach its designated place despite numerous Green Bins put up by the municipality in towns, and Bins put up by schools as social contributions. Unfortunately, people who advocate proper use of bins end up littering outside freely.
 
Source: Google
There are myriad reasons for Bhutanese to gather and aftermath is the chunk of litters. In any gatherings, be celebrations, Tshechus, watching movies in a hall, going for picnics, queuing up to receive blessings, the by-products are litters, the trash from edibles and drinks.

Unlike, everyone taking responsibility in the mentioned countries, none of us take responsibility to care our own trash. It’s a story of SOMEBODY, NOBODY, ANYBODY and EVERYBODY, where responsibility gets shifted between the four to have none taken responsibility at the end of the day.

We’ve had enough awareness and policies being framed. But none has proved successful: one time, we’d defaulters fined but it didn’t work. Another time, we’d rigorous awareness campaigns to see that aftermath of those campaigns itself were garbage. It didn’t work either. What next?

I feel we have gone wrong at the root. Children were never taught to litter properly for our parents as children weren’t taught by their parents either. The repercussions of this flaw seem almost irreversible. We’re moving ahead without a way to turn back and rectify the foul steps that we’ve trodden.

Until date, no think-tanks could successfully think through to put a brake to this perennial issue we’ve been going with. We know there is a national call waiting for an answer. That answer everyone must ponder. All that we’ve ticked are incorrect answers. We bear hopes that we could tick a right answer one day sooner.

If we could replicate of Singaporian, Australian and American on ourselves, Bhutan would be an epitome of green environment. I could see a lot of elements worth emulating and importing from these countries.  But at this pace of litters we produce, Memelakha(a site identified for dumping trashes) would be everywhere across the country in no longer.


Everyone: you & I, parents, teachers and the government need to brainstorm over this perpetual issue of litters. What could be hit-the-nail answer to the call waiting in line?

16 comments:

  1. Littering has now become issue in developing country like ours. It's totally different in country you mention than ours. It's the matter of way we think. He litters thinking everyone is littering and my litter would make no difference in making a clean society. This is the notion with Bhutanese people. And one reason could be the more illiterate people residing in country knows nothing about the impact of litter.

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    1. Thanks Jigme for dropping by. Yes litter is becoming an issue mostly with the developing countries. Might be there had been time when developed countries faced the same. Let's hope everyone become responsible. Thanks.

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  2. Sangay Sir great analysis. Yes as you said Bhutanese people talks lot about values, yet in reality their work done is equal to cos90 degree which is mathematically equal to zero.Usually Bhutanese people will never walk the talk.

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    1. Norbu sir, I buy your opinion that we don't fail in planning and talking but miserably fail in walking the talk. The same was concern raised from throne while I was attending the Convocation last year. We need to change for good. Thanks.

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  3. An instructive post brother, we got to think a lot on this issue with complete attention. I am sure that we must have at least basic required values to shape ourselves, then only we can. My chief point here is what counts is the quality of drop of water that makes mighty ocean and if this quality is awesome then automatically the ocean will be pure. Keep inspiring. Hope everything is going well everyday. Take Care. :)

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    1. Ugyen, you're absolutely right. If everyone of us take it as own responsibility, litter shouldn't be a problem. Thanks for the visit. keep visiting.

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  4. Before changing anything the first and the foremost thing we need to change is ourselves. Being a responsible citizen doesn't mean we have to bring a massive change but making a little contribution is also a responsible citizen. Let us at least pledge ourselves that we will change our thinking and take care of our own waste. Lets not waste our own waste, lets us make some uses of our own waste.
    Thank you Sangay for your wonderful write up....

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    1. Pema, it's very true that we need to change ourselves first prior to changing anything around us. Everyone need to act responsibly. Thanks for the comment. Keep visiting.

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  5. oh wow this is awful that people don't care and throw their trash on the ground-does any one ever clean this up? I would not like this at all-when we moved to the state of Missouri I was surprised at the liter problem here-where I live it is very rural lots of hills and low areas and woods and rivers etc. a couple years after we moved here the conservation department (they manage the fish and wildlife and state parks etc) started a campaign in the lower grades in school-they taught about why not to liter and they now hold a contest every year for the children to design a poster for no litering-this has really helped here-and there are big fines as well if you are caught doing so
    we also have a program where organizations adopt a highway-and then that group goes out and picks up the litered trash. once things are cleaned up-most people will not throw out their trash-cause theirs will now stand out--if much liter than no one cares

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    1. Kathyinozarks, yes it's really awful. If you clean it today, litters would find it tomorrow at the same place. It's never ending problem today. We need to learn more on this and emulate from developed countries. Thanks for dropping by. Keep visiting.

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  6. I couldn't imagine living in a place where litter was strewn everywhere. In the United States, there are monetary penalties for people caught littering. Perhaps those should be implemented where you live.

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    1. Here, we tried penalties, it didn't work. The rules and regulations therefore pull back its jaw from the ground. Thanks for the visit. Keep visiting.

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  7. I'm very surprised littering is such a problem there in Bhutan. I had an idealistic image of your country in my mind of a beautiful Eden-like place where happiness is the greatest goal and a gentle pride in the pristine natural surroundings is the norm. Litter sure has a way of detracting from the beautiful surroundings, doesn't it? Even with the threat of fines, litter isn't non-existent in the U.S. But at least a lot of volunteers do their best to help clean up those careless messes.

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    1. Bhutan is admired by outside world for its pristine environment but with the pace of development threats from litters seem racing at the equal pace. Hope, we would learn sooner on this issue and rectify our actions. Thanks for the visit.

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  8. Nicely written sangay sir...Its to do with common sense or called as civic sense and that is in particular we Bhutanese are far lacking behind...Nice

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    1. Sancha sir, thanks for dropping by. Yes, we've a lot to change in this case. We've to have radical mental drift on this. Thanks.

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