As a Vegan, I support any initiative that can help to protect all animals from harm as well as protect the environment from further damage. I don’t know if we realise it but just imagine that if humans disappear this very second, the whole ecosystem and most of our environmental issues will disappear. Shocking? Not really.
We live in the era of social media and global trends. One of the latest trends we have seen is the worldwide request to stop the use of plastic straws. It destroys sea life in such a rapid and horrific way (we all have seen the video of the sea turtle with a long plastic straw inside one of its nostrils stopping its ability to breathe).
We have also seen the serious damage that plastic bags produce to the environment (and the harm they cause to animals). There are businesses that are moving forward with eco-friendly bags in order to help alleviate these issues. All of these initiatives are great and commendable. I fully support them. I am also glad to see many people supporting them.
Having said that, I think we need to be honest with ourselves. I will be really honest.
READY?
Protecting the animals or the environment are not fashionable trends just because Leo Di Caprio is on board. This isn’t about posting a selfie with our eco-friendly straw or drinking from a bottle to let everyone know that we support the initiative but at the same time leaving all our rubbish or bottles behind when we lime at the beach. But hey, we don’t use plastic straws…
I said I was going to be honest.
We can buy a dozen eco-friendly bags in the supermarket and feel like we are protecting the environment but who are we fooling when we go and decide to dump all our trash everywhere? From our car’s window, truck, maxi-taxi, bike, bus, you name it.
Just recently, I was visiting Trincity Mall when I decided to watch a movie. After the film, I waited until everyone left and my eyes just could not believe what I was seeing. It was extremely dirty with rest of foods, drinks, pop-corn at every single corner and seat I turned.
People like to say “Well, you know I have children and children make a mess!” Yes? What is so wrong in teaching them to pick up after their own mess? Is it that we lack humility and we think is beneath us to clean after ourselves? Is this is the kind of example we are giving them? The selfish, entitled attitude that we should NOT clean our own mess because someone else will come and pick up the slack we left?
I just cannot understand (and process in my mind) how do we really think this is acceptable behaviour. When the two cleaners came and we started chatting about it, they said this was a common occurrence and that “today wasn’t that bad, there are worse days and if you tell people about it, they get vex”.
Is that how much we love our country? Oh, sorry I forgot that waving the Trini flag and saying how much we like doubles and Carnival shows how patriotic we truly are. My bad.
Sometimes, we are even caught throwing our trash in the street and someone tells us about it. I know, it is appalling…no, not the fact that we are throwing our rubbish in the street but that a complete stranger thinks they have the right to tell us something? The nerve! I find that a good old cuss solves the issue one time, right?
Sometime ago I was in Matura and Toco, admiring the gorgeous nature there but at the same time deeply heartbroken and angry at seeing how horrible we are treating it. There was rubbish at every single corner you can think of. And I mean tons and tons of dumped trash. Even in declines, natural water springs and tiny waterfalls which means, you will have to go great lengths to reach those areas…just for the purpose of dumping your garbage.
I saw a very filthy beach full of trash and bottles everywhere. People complain all the time that those in authority should be the ones cleaning AFTER THEIR MESS. Seriously? We are killing, destroying, and disrespecting ALL forms of life in T&T. And we do it without a care in the world.
Don’t believe me? As I said in a previous blog post, in our country, our very own NATIONAL BIRD…let me type that again…our very own NATIONAL BIRD is brutally murdered for profit. Then, its dismembered parts consumed by those who have no heart or national pride. There, I said it. As sad as it is, we do not have national pride.
Just recently someone posted some very disturbing pictures on Facebook of a mother turtle coming to the beach to peacefully lay her eggs. Instead she found a violent death in the hands of pseudo-humans that killed her in the most heinous, vicious way. Her guts were swimming inside her shell while lying afloat in the waters.
We can condemn these barbaric acts until the sun goes down. But there is a market for it. There are people willing to pay for someone else to commit these atrocious, unspeakable acts. Their hands are full of blood as well.
Apparently, it is not enough to murder millions of chickens every year or pigs or cows or fish. We seem so desperate to consume animal corpses that we must also touch and destroy the protected species.
We have a problem. We have a serious problem.
We can mention a list of names of those who we can blame for this hot mess. But often times, we seem to forget about the number one culprit. The one who should take full responsibility for his/her actions and is closer than we think…
The only thing needed is a mirror and taking an honest look at ourselves.
There lies the problem and the solution. The ball will always rest on each one of us but is up to us (and no one else) to make that change happen.
