The clear, undisputed and R.H reasoning for not littering in Barbados (Poem)

By Stanley Collymore

That Cleanliness is next to Godliness is a cultural, spiritual and

hygienic mantra consciously, meticulously and assiduously

embedded in as well as purposely drilled into the psyche

of every one of us Bajans is an incontestable fact that

is beyond disputation. A vocation, so to speak, that

having been realized from birth, is willing carried

out during our growing up years as developing

children and teenagers, conscientiously there

afterwards forms a fundamental element of

our normal lives and established adult existence. A situation

that’s constantly complemented throughout all this with a

straight-up, uncompromising, unequivocal, direct and a

no-nonsense admonition automatically and resolutely

managed by our politicians, family and community

elders, social advisors, teachers, cultural, devout

and educational mentors; our many principled,

committed, communal and ethical purveyors

and consequently, not inexplicably against

that permanent and municipal backdrop,

a rather understandable and expected

response were Bajans regardless of

the occurrence or avowed pretext

to thoughtlessly, forgetfully or

intentionally depart from this generally

recognized, freely accepted, widely

observed, profoundly ingrained

unmistakably enduring and

furthermore, a culturally

enduring obligation

and expectation.

So it was always a no-brainer in these aforesaid and

acknowledged conditions to envisage that folk,

either patently local or who otherwise were

themselves holidaymakers on vacation to

our Caribbean island abrogating these

particular, social, cultural, hygienic

and moral exhortations which are

so indubitably immersed in the

psyche of all Barbadians wouldn’t distress, make

angry and even indisputably alarm concerned

Bajans perfectly incensed by this noticeably

thoughtless and utterly loutish behaviour.

And whose natural response in typical

Barbadian vernacular will obviously

be to curtly, but with characteristic

Bajan humour too, energetically

exhort such noticeably selfish

and inconsiderate persons to

unambiguously R.H. well

halt their exasperating actions,

cease littering, and through

this procedure do every

principled Barbadian

a massive favour!

© Stanley V. Collymore

11 October 2017.

Author’s Remarks:

For decades now, and most sickeningly and increasing so, this Planet Earth that all of us who were born and are currently living here, and moreover quite involuntarily from our respective point of view because none of us had any choice in the matter or any participation whatsoever in the acts that initiated and brought about our conception or actual birth but, all the same call home, has shamefully and devastatingly been polluted in a diversity of ways which aren’t just highly detrimental to ourselves and our own kind but correspondingly so to all other forms of life that similarly and with every right and lawful justification to do so as we do, crucially too inhabit the earth.

And the striking thing from my personal point of view and that of others of a similar opinion is that this sort of reckless, despicable and despondently unsustainable conduct need not carry on happening; but does so all the same. And the transparent and principal motivation behind it all is the obviously clutching avariciousness and pernicious greed associated with millions of people globally from mass producers of consumer products, their retailers and quite clearly their mindless consumers. All this insidiously combined with a dishonest thoughtlessness, no concern as regards their really sickeningly and thoroughly disgusting actions by those directly involved in or who otherwise are themselves very supportive of this incredible contamination and mindlessly uncaring destruction prevalently but oh so pointlessly and quite malevolently inflicted on Mother Earth as well as its diverse animal, plant, creature and human inhabitants.

The kind of pollution and mindboggling destruction that not only affects earth’s land species, large or small, that together with ourselves utilize this planet as home and where many other land-based animals and diverse other creatures do their level best to survive, but equally and markedly increasingly so in this strikingly ominous process Planet Earth’s seas and oceans. A noticeable and unmistakably catastrophic situation where all forms of sea mammals and other forms of life that populate the seas and oceans of the world that we all share and have done so for millennia, and in many instances for far longer than human beings have done, are not only and increasingly being put at severe risk but are also dying in considerable numbers from our grotesque inhumanity and barbarity as human beings, a state of affairs which is itself wilfully and uncaringly spurred on, in the most narcissistic manner, by the exclusive birth monster of human selfishness and obdurate stupidity that if not sensibly checked and massively put into permanent reverse will see the eventual eradication of the world’s diverse species of land and see animals, other presently but evidently perilously living creatures, as well as dangerously threaten mankind’s own future existence.

For let’s be perfectly frank and furthermore be unequivocally honest about all this. Animals other than the human kind don’t intentionally plan to or otherwise pollute and destroy their own environment, neither do they purposely attempt to and actually do so without a solitary moment’s thought for or any consideration whatsoever in relation to what they’re inimically doing or worst so what lasting or even permanent effect their activities when carried out will unashamedly and cruelly disadvantageously have on others. A most dubious distinction and seemingly mammoth and perverse pride that only human beings callously claim.

So it’s with tremendous admiration and enormous pride that I both welcome and applaud my fellow Barbadians both in their astute recognition and consummate maturity for tenaciously tackling and maintaining the hygienic integrity and beautiful environment of our cherished Barbados. While, at the same time, in definitely straightforward and robust but classically humorous Bajan terms warning off and likewise exhorting polluters of our country and their ilk, whether they’re local or foreign visitors to our idyllic tropical shores, to R.H well, while there, NOT litter in any conceivable way or despoil the natural and picturesque land and sea environments of our cherished homeland, Barbados.