Whichever, littering of Nassau\uff92s public areas is nothing less than a national disgrace and a tourist disaster.
<\/p>\n
As a regular and frequent traveller to the Bahamas (over 40 times in 16 years) and one who has lived and worked in all four corners of the globe, I\uff92m disgusted by the wanton destruction and rubbishing of some of Nassau\uff92s prime public beaches and parks. Never in all my working life have I been confronted with so much evidence of a public\uff92s blatant disregard for its beachfront and recreational areas. Every public holiday leaves a trail of destruction and rubbish as if these gathering areas are nothing more than public garbage tips. Last Monday was a disaster, will Friday be more of the same?
<\/p>\n
Two examples prove my points:
<\/p>\n
First, the beach and adjoining area stretching from opposite the Holiday Inn on West Bay to Arawak is the filthiest, most deplorable public beach I\uff92ve ever experienced and that includes parts of the Philippines which are vile! Broken bottles, broken furniture, polystyrene food boxes, plastic bottles and cups, KFC and McDonald wrappers and every other type of imaginable rubbish festoons the beach itself and the so-called parking areas. The latter is also characterised by broken concrete footpaths and car parking barriers, uncontrolled vehicular movements, badly damaged palms and the like.
<\/p>\n
While the visual impacts are bad enough, the real tragedy, which I\uff92ve watched both in dismay and disbelief, has been the common behaviour by adults, teenagers and children alike! Regardless of whether they\uff92re sitting in cars or walking around, food and drink containers are simply thrown out of windows or dropped at their feet. The idea of walking to a rubbish bin or taking their garbage home for appropriate disposal seems to be a totally foreign concept? Is this ignorance or a plain case of what the hell, \uff91someone else will clean it up\uff92 syndrome?
\n
\nSecond the public park immediately east of the Gaming Board office building at Cable Beach is equally mistreated with rubbish reaching \uff93plague-like\uff94 proportions. Again, I\uff92ve watched as people of all ages simply drop their rubbish where they stand or picnic. I note that Saunders Beach also suffers from the same problem.
<\/p>\n
Common to both areas is the problem of too few bins, inconvenient or a lack of public toilets in appropriate locations, car parking areas destroyed by reckless vehicle intrusions, men and boys urinating against private fences and trees and beaches left with broken glass, cans and a plethora of personal belongings. A lack of maintenance (central government responsibility, I suspect) also contributes to these intolerable circumstances with the public reacting to the state of the facilities. As long as exhibitions of such \uff93public effluence\uff94 are prevalent, the many signs imploring Bahamians to keep their country clean are there solely for the benefit of \uff93blind\uff94 eyes.
<\/p>\n
Clearly by-laws which impose heavy fines, financially hurt offenders and are policed with great rigour are mandatory. As evidenced in Singapore this can work wonders! However, paralleling these punitive measures must be a committed public maintenance and restoration programme which significantly enhances these areas and their amenities. Ultimately, only through the provision of quality facilities can one expect the public to react and behave responsibly.
<\/p>\n
Whilst inculcating a sense of pride in ones environment needs to be taught both in school and in the home, the government cannot escape its obligations \uff97 the public wield is a vital component in planning, developing and managing the environment and never moreso than in the Bahamas where tourism reigns supreme, otherwise Bahamas watch out for the competition elsewhere in the region!
<\/p>\n
Come on Nassau residents \uff97 pull your socks up and stop perpetuating this disgraceful form of \uff93public hooliganism\uff94.
\n
David McInnes<\/B>
\nLetter to the Editor, The Tribune
\nJune 2nd, 2004<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To play on the quote of the famous Prof. J.K. Galbraith, is this a case of Nassau\uff92s private affluence and public effluence or is it simply a case of 'couldn\uff92t care less'?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}