PRIME MINISTER Freundel Stuart is my man!
In today’s world of confused morality and political correctness it might not be “safe” for one male to declare another male as his man – but I do so in the same innocence Bajans of old would have done at a time when gay only referred to being light-hearted and carefree.
I know I have been critical of the Prime Minister on past occasions because I don’t think he is nearly as engaging as he should be with the Press and public, but today the PM stands tall on my platform for a disclosure he made in the House of Assembly last Tuesday night while debating issues related to garbage and the Sanitation Service Authority.
The St Michael South MP, who lives in St Philip, spoke of how badly some Bajans treat garbage disposal, noting:
“The garbage in Barbados does not belong to the Government and householders have to take responsibility for the waste that they generate. The SSA will do its job but we have to be a lot more sensitive in terms of how sometimes I see our streets lined with garbage even though it is known the authority’s vehicles may not be passing there that day.”
But it was his next remark that really caught my attention. He recalled how one night on his way home someone tossed a box from the car ahead of him while passing through Sterling, St Philip, so he instructed the police officer driving him to put on the siren and pull over the vehicle. The person responsible for the offence was instructed to pick up the box.
He then added: “Once we generate the garbage the quickest thing we want to do is get it off our property and dump it on the public. That cannot continue in Barbados . . . We have to pursue higher standards than that.”
Mr Prime Minister, I wish I had a siren too, because I see that kind of irresponsible behaviour so often that it seems like I am always driving around angry.
In the discussion that ensued the following morning in the newsroom about Stuart’s stance with the motorist, Associate Editor (News) John Sealy spoke of an encounter with two of the cutest looking brownies of the Hilda Skeene Primary School one evening. According to John, the little girls were running from the school to the bus stop to catch a bus that was already there and in the process they just dropped the empty cartons from which they had been drinking just moments earlier.
‘Pick them up’
“I told them to stop and pick them up and they did not even pay me any mind,” John added. “So I told them, ‘Okay then, I will just report you to the principal’.”
They immediately turned around and picked up their litter, John reported.
I resisted the urge to remark: Boy you’re lucky they didn’t tell you ‘My mother didn’t send me school to pick up no garbage.’
These two completely unrelated incidents point clearly to evidence that the problems we face with illegal dumping and other bad waste disposal habits can be addressed if those of us with the power to act do so. I am talking about individual police officers, public health inspectors, school administrators, managers, parents etc.
Prime Minister Stuart could have told himself he had a long day and couldn’t be bothered, that Bajans are just dirty, that it is only a box, that it really can’t harm the environment – but he chose to act, and got results.
My colleague John could have said the little brownies were not his children, that it was not his problem, that they will know better when they get older – but he chose to act, and got results.
Parents have to be prepared to compel their children to do the right thing with their garbage or face the consequences.
Principals have to be prepared to insist that students pick up their garbage, or better yet not litter at all, or face the consequences.
Health personnel have to be prepared to prosecute offenders and not be concerned about who they are, who they know or where they sit on the social ladder.
Law enforcement officers must treat the illegal disposal of even a sno-cone cup or a chocolate wrapper as seriously as other crimes.
Our environmental monitors must tell Bajans they can’t leave their old cars at the side of the house for ten years, and the roadside mechanic/bodywork man that he can’t turn the neighbourhood into his personal parking/dumping space because he is “the small man” and deserves a break.
Thank you, Mr Prime Minister. I sincerely hope you have started a garbage revolution in Barbados. We have allowed the bad habits of too many around us to fester and grow for too long and it is time to bring it to a halt.