On my way to the office, while passing through the same routes, I realised how dirty the roads were. Trash was stacked and spilled everywhere. There was no wall that did not have a heap of litter thrown beside it. There was no empty plot of land that was clean and was not laden with rubbish. The overall look of all the places was dusty, dirty, messy and highly unhygienic.
Seeing all this, one question rang in my mind. I thought that the majority of population of Pakistan is Muslim. Muslims believe that “Cleanliness is half Deen”. So if majority of us is Muslim with this belief, then from where did the habit of littering creep in our society? It is not a new thing either. I have been witnessing this kind of behaviour by my fellow country people since my childhood. And my parents have witnessed this too since their early days.
We attribute many of the habits and cultures of Pakistan to the Hindus of Indo-Pak Sub-continent. We have a staunch belief that we have acquired many of these traits from Hindus since our communities have lived so closely for so many years. But I wonder to whom and to which community we can attribute our acquired habit of “littering”.
I keep wondering and wondering and wondering and wondering some more that how we came to be litterers.
Seeing all this, one question rang in my mind. I thought that the majority of population of Pakistan is Muslim. Muslims believe that “Cleanliness is half Deen”. So if majority of us is Muslim with this belief, then from where did the habit of littering creep in our society? It is not a new thing either. I have been witnessing this kind of behaviour by my fellow country people since my childhood. And my parents have witnessed this too since their early days.
We attribute many of the habits and cultures of Pakistan to the Hindus of Indo-Pak Sub-continent. We have a staunch belief that we have acquired many of these traits from Hindus since our communities have lived so closely for so many years. But I wonder to whom and to which community we can attribute our acquired habit of “littering”.
I keep wondering and wondering and wondering and wondering some more that how we came to be litterers.
5 comments:
Agreed!
It's pretty simple actually:
We are brought up with 'do as others are doing',
whereas, in the civilised world, one is brought up with 'do the right thing'.
hmm I keep on wondering abt it as well most of my time when I am on road, but no clue, I think we are just one very very very lazyyyyyyyyyyy nation........its Beta :)))
why can't government start fining people who litter? Some of the parks of Islamabad are really well-kept because of the signs that say they are going to fine rs. 500 if they see somebody littering. Those parks are comparatively clean! wish they could start that at least in parks and then later streets.
Anonymous/Si - Good to see that others agree too.
Omer - Your point is valid. But then again i am wondering that how did we start doing this as well, i.e. train our generations to "do as the others are doing".
Attiya - Yes Beta we are lazy, rather extremely lazy. And "Aunty" recognised you without your telling her. ;-)
Maryam - Good idea! I guess only a fine system would force people to follow the law and/or do good things. Maybe citizen police is required that can remain on a neighborhood watch and prevent littering (amongst other misdoings).
-Monazza.
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