Clean and green doing good

AT a time not-in-the-too-distant past, there used to be an activity in every community that is called “government work day”.
A day would be reserved each week where the community gathered to perform community work free-of-charge.
This was a voluntary day when the entire community gathered – men, women and children would take directions from the village leaders to perform certain tasks ranging from cleaning the community centre to buildings houses, roads and bridges.
Although serious work was involved, it was also a time when people made merry, sang songs and shared food and laughter.
In those days, each village had a house where visiting patrol officers, medical teams and missionaries would be lodged if they should arrive in the village. Families would be tasked to provide food, water and firewood alternating with each visit so that, within a year, each family got to serve visitors.
In those days, villages were clean, there was order and a close-knitted community which respected the law and each other.  Alas, those days are now spoken of in the past tense.
Today, the community spirit has been replaced by individualism. Each man or family is for himself or itself. Self-interest overrides community interest. As a result, the community spirit is no longer present in most communities.
The men’s house is gone from most village settings. Community gatherings and community work
is no longer present.
Gone too are the period patrols into villages by medical teams, patrol officers and police.
The guest homes in most villages are no longer maintained.
This has resulted in a serious breakdown in order in communities such that respect for the rule of law and order is no longer visible.
It is with this background that The National congratulates Bank South Pacific for taking the initiative to conduct a nationwide clean-up campaign.
The initiative involved no less than 250,000 school children and people nationwide last Friday and
Saturday to clean up their schools and communities in one of the biggest clean-up
initiatives undertaken.
The clean-up is part of the BSP Go Green initiative which, itself, is part of the “clean up the world” event.
BSP is spearheading clean-up drives through its branches throughout Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Niue.
In the capital city, Governor Powes Parkop participated in the clean-up and called upon everyone to keep their environment clean and healthy everyday, and not wait for somebody to urge them or to pay them to do it.
It is not just an issue of cleanliness for cleanliness’ sake. It is also a health issue.
Children are growing up today who have no concept of what it means to keep their litter in a bag or packet and dump it in the right places. They will tear off the lolly packets and throw the covers off without a second thought. They drink soft drinks and discard the cans or packets.
Betelnut spittle is splashed everywhere. Many do these things unthinkingly, without any second thought that, perhaps, it might be wrong.
That culture, which the older generation among us grew up in, where order, respect and cleanliness was insisted upon and enforced, no longer exists in the community.
A clean-up event is long overdue and we would like to urge other companies and government agencies to take up the call and promote such campaigns on a regular basis. Moreover, such clean-ups should be part of a community calendar on a weekly or monthly basis such as happened in the past.
There is a greater reasons for clean-ups now because there are a lot more litter and pollution problems today than there were in the 1960s and 1970s.
Cans and plastics and non-biodegradable wastes abound today.
The government should decree that one day, in a fortnight or a month, should be set aside for free community work. That day, all people at homes, in villages, at schools and business houses should set aside to do free cleaning up and any other community work.
The country would be a much better, cleaner and orderly place if these were to happen in every part of the country.
It is good to see the leading commercial bank giving back to the community by trying to educate and raise the community’s awareness on environmental issues and to promote conversation of biodiversity and ecological sustainability.