On April 14, 2009, I took a photo of the country's worse disaster, which is the growing mountain of smelly garbage growing in leaps and bounds on a daily basis. It is amazing to note that to date nothing has been finalized, or agreed upon to formalize any resolution to deal with this two years later! Haven't we delayed this growing pain long enough?
However, since these times, we have made some positive changes in the community and I wish to use my blog to thank the grocery stores for stepping up to the plate and doing away with plastic bags. However, I note recently when I shopped I forgot my cloth bag, and I agreed to take a plastic instead but was not charged the 5cents as was told that would be the penalty for opting for plastic grocery bags. I suggested to the cashier that I must pay for this and only then did she agree to take my money, and said to me she was new and wasn't told to charge for it. So are we taking a step back? I also recall that once the plastic bags were done away with there were no signs of them on the checkout counters. However, today they are very prevalent at checkout versus the cloth bags which are mainly hidden under the counters. I also further noted that most cashiers will not ask if you wish to purchase a cloth bag, but rather ask if you want a plastic bag for your groceries if you don't have a cloth bag with you.
It is situations like this that really irks me in this country. We are gung-ho for a short while and because the dust has settled, we go right back to doing the same thing over and over again and that is using plastic bags more versus cloth. How can we change the mindset of others if we are not being proactive and remaining there when it comes to choosing plastic over reusable cloth bags? The fact that the plastic bags are fully biodegradable as some have printed on them or can be recycled, the problem I have with this is that we are adding more and more to that ever growing smelly mountain causing a major distraction from our clean air. Is it any wonder an oil refinery is proposed?? I can see behind the veil, if the country can't get its garbage situation under control, then we will just add to it. That is what I am feeling is happening here and that makes me very annoyed and disgusted to think that our country can be abused in this way.
Many have tried and failed since this time to come up with a plan to sort out the smelly garbage dump situation. It is very difficult to see that so many other unnecessary matters have taken precedent over this growing concern and again we see how nonchalant the Governments reactions are about proceeding with any formulated plans. I have to wonder what happened to the WISE plans (www.wise.ky). I went to many of their meetings and there seemed to have been some exceptional ideas and plans to bring Mt. Thrashmore down, but alas they too have gone silent. Only the website remains and nothing new added upon my last visit that would give me any semblance of hope that we have reached an agreement to resolve this once and for all.
I take it the Govt. has no plans, and this is clearly evident because if you scroll down my earlier posting on this blog regarding the 'Conservation and Environmental Laws' that have been in 'draft mode' sitting on a shelf for over a decade and has not been given the green light of approval. We have been made several promises by the current Minister, but that still does not settle with me, I can only imagine that these were all diversion tactics to silence me along with others out here to 'shut up' and go away while they consider how they will fare from this law coming online. I cannot see this government or maybe any successive governments putting this law on the books, because it is going jeopardize the progress of many developers whose only objective is to set out to destroy our environment and rape this country of what little it has left.
So on the two year anniversary of my photo of the garbage dump from my 9th floor room on the cruise ship, I am saddened that my intentions were to bring abreast the impact this is having on visitors coming to our shores, versus how lazy and environmentally reckless we are as a nation that we have turned a blind eye to this growing catastrophe for generations.
Finally, I am a realist and if I don't have hope, then I wouldn't be one. So I am optimistic that our garbage problem will be addressed and the cloud of smelly garbage that's so evident in the evenings along the 7mile strip will soon be a deterrent enough that maybe our people will take a stand and say 'enough is enough' and the government must now put aside everything else briefly and address this once and for all.
In the meantime, can you imagine what the tourist is thinking that smell is while they walk to dinner on the 7mile strip??
