Issues pertaining to the environment have repeatedly come up for intense public discussion. At the forefront of that discussion are some extremely pertinent views that have been put forward by prime minister, the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie.
Today we recall that on one memorable occasion, he made the point that “We like to brag about our prosperity, yet we tolerate a level of dirt and dilapidation associated with countries at the bottom rung of the development ladder.”
We totally agree with him.
The question that remains, concerns what, if anything, we ﾖthe Bahamian people – are prepared to do about the matter at hand. Our surmise is that some people are being shocked into a new kind of realization now that malaria has struck.
Sadly, in a world where talk is cheap, Bahamians have talked and talked and talked. They are yet to act as if the matter at hand is potentially this nationﾒs most potent adversary.
Today the current scare that is now localized to Exuma is sending shockwaves far and wide. Nervous tourists to that island are doing what nervous people are supposed to do, namely postponing their visit to The Bahamas.
This disaster is unfolding against a rhetorical backdrop where the word was to the effect that The Bahamas was to embrace an ethic that called for it to become cleaner, greener and more pristine.
That was then. Today the talk is all about malaria.
We have previously suggested that too little was being done and that Bahamians nation-wide should be enlisted and mobilized for the challenge ahead.
In this regard, a perusal of the record shows that the Prime Minister, is appalled and angry at what is happening, and that he has pledged to do something about it.
As he noted in one of his hard hitting and no holds barred addresses to his party in convention:” Nothing better demonstrates the loss of personal and community pride than the appalling condition into which we have allowed our physical surroundings to fall and our environment to deteriorate.”
Today we reiterate a point previously made concerning how Bahamians relate to their environment. Some of them do not care. In some instances, this lack of care for the environment is the product of crass ignorance.
In other instances, environmental neglect and degradation is driven by greed. And so it is, that some Bahamians take no note of the garbage on the streets; take no note of the carcasses of dead animals that litter some streets.
And then there are those other instances where practically every one adopts a ﾑlet it rip attitudeﾒ. This leads to that kind of world where bush-mechanics are lords and masters of all the junk they can survey.
In addition, there are those other well-heeled predators that routinely make money off their own environmental depredations. Some of these people are getting away with what can be characterized as a rape of the environment. We see much of this when certain business types are allowed permission to so ﾑland ﾖscrapeﾒ vast tracks of land, leaving in the aftermath environments that have been literally denuded.
Quite evidently, there are Bahamians who could care less about the environment that surrounds them. They are the ones who are constantly in prowl of the next dollar, regardless of the costs that must be borne by the community at large.
Today some of the chickens are coming home to roost. Some Bahamians are beginning to see that there is a connection between environmental degradation and the quality of life they can enjoy.
Fishermen are beginning to understand that you can so destroy the marine environment that fish habits are destroyed. Others who go in search of conchs are belatedly realizing the danger inherent in taking and eating juvenile conchs.
This litany could be extended to other areas. For example, there is absolutely no doubt that oil, gas; diesel and other petro-carbons have contaminated much of the water table in this nationﾒs urban areas.
The list of outrages against the environment would also take into account the indiscriminate dumping of all manner of awful waste and refuse, from defunct refrigerators to dilapidated rust bucket cars.
The sum of the matter ﾖthen is that this is nothing more than an invitation to disaster. Today there is whiff of disaster in the matter involving malaria.
It is still not too late for the Government to be pro-active in taking the lead in mobilizing the nation so that all Bahamians would realize, appreciate and inwardly digest the fact that when they destroy the environment, they are destroying themselves.
Editorial from The Bahama Journal
