The sides of the roads here are littered with empty bottles of water, styrofoam lunch containers, broken glass, and in some places, bags of trash. The beaches are no better. Recycle? A foreign concept. Many people here don't see the point of using a garbage can, because it will not make a difference. How can one person make a difference, they ask.
They must not know who Rosa Parks is. Or Leonardo Da Vinci. Or the Wright Brothers. Or Alexander Graham Bell. Or Albert Einstein.
This garbage can has been full for some time. Instead of emptying it, they use the ground wherever they are standing. The earth is their neverending, infinite, wide open garbage can. Where I come from, it is a disgrace to litter. People do it, but we look down on them. I look down on them. Because they know better. I do not look down on my friends here, because I believe they do not know better.
There are no landfills here. Just fields of garbage. When there gets to be too much, they burn it. They burn everything. Plastic, metal, live animals who fall into holes and can't be rescued...they know nothing about the consequences toxic fumes they are sending to the ozone. You gag, and try to hold your breath when you drive past "the garbage road" where the resorts take thier garbage to be burned. The rich and powerful American and European owned resorts. Billion dollar enterprises. They know better. But they close thier eyes and pretend it isn't happening. The very people who can uncover this country's natural beauty, are ruining it.
When I took this photograph, my Dominican friends laughed at me. They thought I was taking a picture of the garbage. But I wasn't. I was taking a picture of the beautiful flowers. If only my friends could have seen the flowers too...
1 comment:
Wow, that is very sad. So true about the big American and European companies that do nothing but get richer and richer and give back nothing. I cannot even imagine the amount of waste that they create on a daily basis. Yuck! Great post.
Jen
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