In the early 90s I was chosen as a ‘person of interest’, and subsequently was invited to Anguilla to meet and to be met by ‘the family’. Although island born and bred, I knew very little about Anguilla. Nevertheless, I came and when the plane landed I was just about to disembark when I was overwhelmed, nay, inundated by the fresh, cool, clean air that hit me at the door of the aircraft. Such a greeting stopped me in my tracks and I inhaled, and never looked back, except only to get my bags and eventually move here, for good.
I am what some would call a ‘tree-hugger’. I love everything about nature – lush vegetation, beautiful flowers, crystal blue waters, fresh air and animals. I love to exercise especially in the open air (on the road and the beach) mainly because I get to enjoy those elements of nature that I mentioned before in addition to taking care of myself. Anguilla has afforded me that over the years. Additionally, the security I feel in knowing that no one would harm me while I move around has been a bonus.
My parents used to tell us as children, ‘cleanliness is next to godliness’ and we lived and I still live by that. Therefore, it is difficult to accept anything less. This brings me to my reason for this little note which stems from my passion for a clean environment. I do not walk as much as I used to, and I don’t find much joy now when I do because I am inundated with filth. Filth in the bushes; filth on the trees; filth at the beaches; filth on the very paths I must walk. I get angry when I drive around daily because it is very difficult to find an area in Anguilla that is not strewn with discarded bottles, cans, plastic shopping bags, Styrofoam containers etc – in other words, non-biodegradables. One such area is the stretch of road that runs from the South Hill Plaza junction down to the West End Service Station – en route to our famous four and five star hotels in the West. It looks as if persons just finish their beverages or meals and just pitch the bottles and containers on the sides of the road. Other areas are the road that runs just past J & Js Pizza down past the JC Recreational Center and the Spring Path road – from the South Hill Plaza junction down to Blowing Point. I’m sure there are other areas but those are routes that I drive daily.
We tout this nation as a tourist destination, but it’s not only for the tourists. We live here too. The way that things look to me is that even the goats may migrate to cleaner pastures because their grazing areas are filled with filth. I have seen even Caribbean nationals, and others whom we have opened our doors to, littering when they know that in their country of origin they couldn’t because they would be fined. Does, ‘when in Rome…’ apply in this instance too?
We say that this is a ‘Christian’ nation, but the condition of our environment belies that. To me it says that there is something wrong with our hearts. My thought is that from the abundance of the heart a man speaks, lives, conducts his affairs. So, my question is, ‘how Godly are we?’ And does it matter? The answer is, yes, it does matter. The earth was created to be a sustainable environment with man as the steward/dresser/caretaker/nurturer of it. In other words, the earth and man’s relationship to it is a symbiotic one. We take care of the earth (our portion being Anguilla) and the earth takes care of us. In our case, if we do not begin to make small changes, we will soon have walls of garbage lining our streets and both us and the environment we call home will begin to suffer and eventually cease to be what it was created for. Furthermore, no one – wait, let me rephrase and say, I wouldn’t want to live in or visit a place that encourages an overgrowth of insects and rodents.
Another saying which my parents drilled into our hearts and minds, and which most of you would be acquainted with, is ‘charity begins at home’. Let us start making changes by cleaning up and keeping clean our immediate environments – around our houses, our places of business, where we hangout etc. The same plastic bags that you get from the grocers, keep some in your cars; use them to store your refuse after you have eaten in your car – wait until you get to a bin and discard; use them to pick up garbage on the side of the street leading to your home; encourage your little ones to pick up after themselves and not to throw garbage out of your moving car; don’t leave garbage by the bins, on the ground, except on garbage pick-up days; truckers be vigilant when you are carrying garbage to the landfill that none fall off the trucks and litter the roads. Personally, I have in the back of my vehicle some garbage bags and a garbage ‘picker-upper’ contraption. When sight of the garbage gets too much for me to take, I get out and pick up as much as I can. I am not foolish, and there are other things I could be doing but we all need to do our part. It doesn’t matter whether you threw the garbage out or not. We all live here and the filthiness or cleanliness of our environment reflects on all of us.
Some will say that we have sanitation workers and that’s what they get paid to do – pick up garbage. I say that at the rate with which we litter, we don’t have enough money in the budget to pay the number of sanitation workers that would be needed to keep our island clean. My question is, ‘why do we need to pay or employ persons to pick up our garbage when we can exercise common decency, expend a little time and energy and keep our environment clean in the first place?’. That money can be utilized elsewhere.
People of Anguilla, if we don’t keep our island nation clean, no one else will. There are countries that pride themselves on having a clean environment. In most cases these are the countries that fine persons who litter. Let us try for it not to come to that. Let us develop a pride for our country and what it represents. Our island is very beautiful. We need to be able to cast our eyes as we traverse and enjoy the lush vegetation, beautiful flowers, crystal blue waters, inhale fresh air and see animals enjoying a clean environment. Citizens as well as visitors let us hold each other accountable for keeping our island paradise clean or else we cannot call it paradise!
Susanna Best Richardson
