I've just got back from an afternoon run, and seeing the state of the road verge got me agitated. The entire verge is covered in litter, and the litter extends into the bush. Cans, plastic bags, bottles. Its just disgusting. Kilometres and kilometres of litter ... and I live in a very popular tourist area nogal.
What kind of mindsets do so many South Africans have that they treat the country with such contempt. I thought we were going into a new era where all people would be proud of their country, and thus treat it like a country they loved. Its so filthy I think the vast majority of people must be guilty of this lack of self respect called littering, its not just a few people behaving like this.
I cannot fathom it, how somebody can throw a can out of a car window, throw a plastic bag on the ground once finished using it. Am I unique, I could never behave like that without feeling a terrible sense of shame and guilt!
Where are the leaders of this country, teaching the people simple things like just having respect for the land you live and depend on. Imagine a clean environment, how clean it would make our souls feel, how nice it would be to live in. Or am I crazy, do most South Africans actually find litter colourful and attractive.
A lovely excuse is that littering "creates jobs" for people to pick it up. Well, in the first place, nobody is picking it up so there sure ain't any employment from it. Come to think of it, would it not be better to use our tax money to employ another teacher, another policeman.
Is it really common sense to litter in order to waste our tax revenues. Absolutely amazing logic - and some people can't see the utter madness of it! I can see some excuses coming in the comments too ...
I hope people that litter in the urban environment realise where a lot of it ends up. If it rains, the stuff is washed off the road and into our storm water drains, and from there ends up in our rivers. In cities nearer the sea it is washed into the sea, where it forms islands of plastic.
Take a walk on any beach, it is covered in tiny pieces of plastic. We rely on the sea as a food source - and we treat it like this?!
Humans claim to be highly intelligent creatures, but one thing I can see for sure, we don't use that intelligence much when it comes to our long term survival.
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