The Environment

 

By William Skinner

Traditionally, Caribbean people have been very conscious and aware of their environment. The growth of the international environment movement, has placed protection on : rainforests, water resources, and both land and ocean pollution. It is fashionable , to promote care for the environment , as a sophisticated science , understood only by the so-called experts.

 The broader populace , is expected to be educated to and wait on directives from the experts , not realizing that the care of the environment commences with a diligence of our own and immediate private properties, living conditions and spaces. In the old Caribbean, we saw keeping our personal environments as our natural responsibility. The chattel houses were exquisitely painted , with immaculately kept gardens and every rock was meticulously used and even empty soda bottles, were placed to complete the creative landscaping of the gardens that flourished with popular tropical plants. That picture remains irremovable in my mind and drove me to an early interest in gardening and was perhaps my first lesson , in caring for my environment.

At primary school, at the end of the term, we cleaned our desks with sandpaper , to remove accumulated markings. This meant that when we returned to school , after the holidays, our classrooms would be spotless. Along the road of development, we seem to have lost sight of these simple lessons. A person not taught to care and maintain his or her personal environment and space , cannot be expected to look for a garbage receptacle, when they have a piece of paper to dispose.

The care of the environment ,  like all important disciplines should be instilled from a very early age.

William Skinner is a Caribbean social commentator.

 

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