Mahmoud Ahmad

 

Sometimes I ask myself this question, do we really deserve public facilities and gardens? And the answer staring back at me is repeatedly the same — unfortunately no.



People shout out to officials and municipalities that there are not enough public facilities for people, unlike in other countries. And, when a public facility is built people are quick to abuse it and trash the place by leaving garbage behind and trashing it with paint. Soon it is left to go to seed.



Why is this behavior very common here? Is it because the vast majority of the general public — Saudis and expatriates living in the Kingdom — are not educated on how to preserve public facilities or is it just the basic disrespect of the law.



Everyone knows that public facilities are created and built for the public to use. But what they rarely understand is that it is in the interest of the public to take care of the government’s created area for public use.



 With good care they instill longevity in the use of public facilities and also inherently inculcate good values in their brethren.



People love to enjoy time with their families on the beach or green landscapes created for families. But their enjoyment should not be at the expense other families.



I fail to understand why families love to leave signs of their use of the facility for other families to look at. It is just like lions sometimes marking their territories in the wild by pissing on trees in several locations. Is this what families do here? Littering their garbage for other families to see as a sign that they had been there.



It is the duty of elders in families to teach good manners and clean living to their offsprings. Some family members are just oblivious to what their wards are doing, while some see their children on the beach or gardens throwing garbage about and sometimes even food and drink and say nothing about it.



This sadly signals to the child that such behavior is acceptable. Worst of all, it comes from the lack of sensitivity in the elders themselves. It is rare that elders themselves lead the way by cleaning the areas after packing up, nor do many families force their children to collect their garbage and place them in the garbage containers.



The least a family can do is bring a plastic garbage bag, collect their garbage before they leave and throw it in the designated place. How hard is that?



The other day at the Jeddah beach when I was with my family, a Saudi family with four children, about to leave the spot, had left behind their leftover food and garbage.



An old man, a passerby, told the man nicely to collect the garbage and place it in the container. For this civil act, the old man was told by the departing Saudi that ‘it is the job of the cleaners and they were hired to do this.’ And he plainly ignored the old man and walked off when he was given the advice ‘that this was not the correct behavior and attitude.’



Scenes of garbage-laden gardens and green landscape in the morning after a weekend are sad pictures. There is a sea of garbage everywhere, reflecting tjat there is a zero awareness about taking care of public facilities.



The fact that the public’s attitude toward facilities they enjoy are getting callous is because there is an absence of any law against such behavior. Such people are directly contributing to the spread of disease that could come from rats and other dangerous insects that feed on the garbage.



Why do other countries succeed, almost completely, in protecting their gardens and public facilities from vandalism while we do not? The answer is staring in our face.



The fact that families and schools teach their children about the importance of respecting the rules in public places, which includes keeping the place clean for the others to use, plays a key role in raising awareness of keeping the facilities clean.



Another fact is because of strict and stiff laws against such behavior and lastly and most importantly is the emphasis of self-discipline.

In Islam, cleanliness is part of our faith. That says it all. If we impose self-discipline to our behavior and enforce it on our children, then this problem will disappear.



Our children learn from us. If our behavior is reckless and careless, then what do we expect from our children?



Without any regret, families leave their garbage behind in the belief the hordes of hired cleaners will take care of the filth as it is their job and that is what they were hired to do.



I just ask such families to pause and reflect. Will they not be extremely angry if someone left garbage inside the house or near their front door? They will, of course, raise a big hue and cry. They will not hesitate to call the person who left the garbage in their homes as filthy, indisciplined and any other names.



Yet when they commit the same act on a government property it is acceptable. Some families will use the excuse that other families dirty the place, and also why they are an exception. But this argument does not wash as, to me, the worst competition is between persons to see who makes the place dirtier or is dirtiest?



Municipality, meanwhile, should get its act together and show some toughness against such behavior. It is not enough to force the cleaning workers to stay up all night and walk long distances to collect their garbage. They should legislate to act against errant families who use public facilities as garbage disposal.



I feel sorry for the cleaners because of the recycling of garbage by various families at the same spot, making the cleaners clean the spot repeatedly. A tough and boring task indeed.



I would like to inquire what happened to the municipality supervisors? Why are they not supervising the place at night and during vacations in order to force families to clean up their garbage, and to show them that they mean business.



We are good at issuing laws but we are extremely poor in enforcing it. Just like the law against throwing litter from the cars. I would love to know how many fines have been written against people throwing stuff outside their car windows. I bet there is none.



If we cannot keep any place clean after we use it, then, for sure, we do not deserve any garden or public facility. We need to change our attitude first to deserve such facilities.



— The writer can be reached at mahmad@saudigazette.com.sa