No wonder we cant get better!

[Exile]

Forget about global warning, UN and politicians. Think local environmental degradation. Think water quality, air quality and food security. Think broad education. Have to start at home, otherwise lets just do the sports and DJ.

[Willi]

No problem with that...that is part of what I call CIVICS education. That is about being responsible and informed citizens, not hanger-on, parasitic denizens.

Minister of Climate Change??? What a sick joke!

[Islandman]

True. The thing is sometimes we have to try to look past the headlines and sound bites. A politician will word things in a way he/she thinks the audience wants to hear at any moment in time.

I would like to know more about what the details are. It could be a very good thing or it could be a total waste of time.

[Willi]

Understand the context of us having a Minister of Climate Change and connect the dots...

[Islandman]

Thought you was joking till me go read it again.

Minister of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change. LOL.

Well, me did hear say DK was Minister of Mobilization inna the 70s so.....

[Assasin]

you are one hundred percent right. Just a few class and action to help the youngsters will go a far way. We only talk bout them things deh. That could be a part of of a Geo class or you teach it under tourism. The fact is we have to get the kids out to help making their communities better.

Heinz Simonitch the managing director of Halfmoon at the time picked up ever piece of paper or garbage he saw. He said he expected the same from all the workers, not only the cleaner, because if the place full a garbage you have no job.

[Willi]

None of this makes any difference in the context of masses single parent kids with no father and no understanding of rights and responsibility of being a Jamaican citizens. They first have to UNDERSTAND and identify with society and then we can talk about environment, etc.

[Willi]

I wish it WAS a joke!

[Exile]

They are not mutually exclusive nor is there any fixed critical path. Everything is a mix and impacts or is impacted by others....
I think the basic problem is the understanding of environment and most people use it in a very narrow sense which are the physical elements - land, air sea, minerals, climate and biological elements - plants, man, animals, micro-organisms.. On the contrary, it also involves cultural elements which include social, political and economic which to a large extent are man made. This is where the Civics lessons will come in, understanding society etc.

Earlier civilizations understood the importance of balance with nature and the stories have been passed down. Unfortunately, many of us think the solution to many of the World's ills lie in a laptop or computer or in the Boardroom but is not so. Some of the so-called solutions for environmental stewardship has been practised by generations by our ancestors....

[Islandman]

Does it have to be a sequential thing though? They are not mutually exclusive really.Respecting your local environment and what makes it pleasant and habitable is but one form of respecting your rights and responsibility as a citizen.

Show me a dutty, filthy community where public property is routinely abused and and I will show you a community that is underachieving.

[Islandman]

Wow, great minds think alike I see. LOL

Good, productive discussion . We need more of these on the forum.

[Exile]

Thanks. Seem we were writing at the same time...same thing...things is when basic needs are missing we get primordial...

[Willi]

We are closer than you think...

Still, there IS a Critical path for US and it is not the one Babylon would foist.

Prioritization does not mean single focus, it means greater allocation of all resources for a given period of time. Yes, there is synergistic benfit for some parallel processing but some things demand PRIMACY.

[Willi]

So how do you get people with ZERO identification with society to keep the place clean and protect the environment?

BUY-in comes first and to get buy-in you need concept and practical examples.

I can assure you if you clean up any given ghetto today, by next week its back to its old state.

Minister of Global Warming caan help wi. LoL

[Assasin]

that maybe true but the fact is our leaders and the "better" communities are not doing any better.

On one of my visit to Jamaica not so long ago, we have little spot we call "falling" and the place was in such ruin. I ask the youth them why them nuh clean it up and make the place look decent and them a give pure excuse.

My last visit, a little man weed it out make two bambo bench and clean up the little falling. Now more people go there and relax. Sometimes it has nothing much to do with the wealth but how we live as a people and what we accept. As youths we cut our soccer field, sell bottles to buy shirts and form our own team. Tourist can come and help with beach clean up while we throw our Red Stripe bottle in the sand.

This working also gave us a chance to row some of the best boats(cook food) you can think of. We really have to start by caring and then thinking about wealth after.