During a road trip, from the city to the west side of Panama, I was in my cousin’s car, sitting shotgun. When I was done eating my chips, I threw the empty bag through the window.
“What have you done!” My cousin yelled at me. He pulled over and made me go pick it up. We spent the rest of the trip talking about why we should never do that.
I was only 12 years old. Since then, I have always reprimanded whoever I see doing the same, sometimes it ends well and sometimes it ends like I will show you in this post.
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The contamination and pollution of our planet is the responsibility of those that have started it, meaning us humans. We may not be able to resolve the pollution or contamination issues by ourselves, but with better education and cultural behavior, as a group we can contribute positively, in fact there are many countries around the world with high ecologic culture and friendly environmental initiatives, see the list according to the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) here
Unfortunately, where I come from, Panama, a third world country in Central America still with a huge lack of sense of responsibility when it comes to the environment, it is disappointing to accept that, from a cultural perspective, we are not there yet. However, things are changing little by little, but if we the locals don't appreciate our own home, rivers, parks, streets, etc, then how can we expect expats, visitors or tourists to respect us?
In this post I want to address two important points:
We are all citizens of the world, regardless of local or tourist, we should all respect destinations, and nature in general wherever we go.
Tourist or travelers that come to Panama, have a very bad image of our “ecological culture”, or should I say: “dirty culture”. This needs to be change too.
Busting an arrogant tourist littering:
I was walking down the street towards Ave España in Panama City (thinking about my next steemit post =) There was one person 2 meters ahead of me (a foreigner), who was about to enjoy his delicious eskimo pie ice cream. Right before he went for his first bite, he threw the wrapping on the street like it was a normal thing to do.
When I saw that, my reaction was instant:
- Me: excuse me sir! You just “dropped” something.
He turned around, looked at his trash, then looked at me and with a very arrogant attitude he gave a bite to his ice cream and kept walking. So I had to insist.
- Me: Sir, I just saw you throwing that trash right there, please collect your trash and put it in a trash bin.
- Tourist: No! If you want that, then you pick it up!
After explaining everything, the policeman wanted to see if it was true that he threw his trash on the street, so he requested politely to walk back with him. The tourist got even more mad and threw the popsicle stick on the floor right in front of the policeman.
Then I thought: “this is going to get interesting, this would be a good opportunity to make a video, record all the show and write a post about it”. So I took my cell phone, after all he was being a total douchebag, and maybe next time he will think twice before doing that again.
And now, enjoy the video…
Right after that, I went to the douchebag and told him: “hey, dont take it personal, see this an opportunity to learn something new, no hard feelings” so I extended my hand. As expected he got even more crazy and started to yell at me: “FxxK YOU MOTHER FUxxER!”
The policeman and I look at each other, and like if it was a telepathic message, we both knew that the best was for me to go and leave that douchebag continue with his life.
After I found out by the policeman that he was from USA.
So here is my conclusion:
This is a cultural matter, is not about lack of education or economical status, I mean if you think about that, how come a someone travels from his country all the way to Panama, walks a commercial street, eats an $3 ice cream, throws the trash on the street and has no education or money at all ?
I was talking the other day about the topic with an indigenous Ngobe from Panama, comes from a poor family and it was in his village where he learn how to appreciate the environment.
Of course education is an important key, but believe or not, there people that went to school and don't even know that the trash that is on the street ends up in the rivers after the rain drags it to the sewers.
The culture is indispensable for the well treatment of the waste. As long as our culture allows people to throw trash like is a normal thing to do, everyone will always see trash on the street, roads, rivers, etc.
So yes, I don't totally blame this guy, for thinking is a normal thing to do, although his argument of throwing trash on the street because others do the same is very stupid!
I believe that we, the society that welcomes expats, tourist and visitors are the ones that have the biggest fault for this to happen. Thats how many people see us, “we live in the trash” although is not as bad as it sounds.
I hope you like this post and if you are the type of person that throws trash on the street, think next time before doing it, keep your trash until you see a trash bin or until you get home. Like I said in the video, it does not matter if you are a local or a tourist, we all need to respect!
Thanks.
