Thanks for such an information-packed comment on life in Libya. Very informative.

It’s awful to hear about how people pop to the shop… then pop to the next, and the next… all by car instead of walking. And no recycling? That’s such a pity that so many resources are not only going to waste, but adding to pollution.

And to think Libyans believe they are moving up in the world by doing that and forsaking their waste disposal goats and ancestral culture! Truly awful. Not least as the change in diet is ultimately going to kill a lot of them!

Still, they’re only people. Just like us. And have we got our act together to start pointing fingers!?

Thanks again,
Steve

Here in Libya, we unfortunately do all the wrong things mentioned in your blog. Each home has at least one car, and no one thinks twice for using it for a five minute trip to the market and back. Walking is considered an exhausting and rather pointless exercise. We very rarely park cars in a car park and wander around the shops, instead we do a crazy ‘hop and stop’ along the road, parking at whim beside the next shop we want to visit. But who cares….hey petrol is cheap here at 15 dirham/litre, and no one is worrying about global warming or the extinction of wildlife. Taxi’s whizz around by the hundreds, although we don’t have trains.

While the government is proud at the immigrant labour brought in from other African countries, giving them jobs to help feed families back home by cleaning our streets, and waste baskets are now frequently found around town, we still have no re usable/recycling schemes for all our household waste. I despair at the rubbish and plastic I throw away each week, the soda cans by the dozen, the dozens of plastic bags we use. And all of this gets thrown onto land fill sites. We are still a long we behind Britain and other countries. While pleased at the progress made as we try to catch up to the first world countries, we are paying the price for it in other areas. Before the time of fast food, supermarkets and disposables, we enjoyed organic food, a medterranean diet, and utensils kept for years. Oh and the left overs and waste? No problem, most houses kept a goat, sheep or chickens, and nothing went to waste. You were given fresh eggs and wool, and meat in return.

With this ‘easy’ lifestyle we have made for ourselves, can we really believe we are living in a ‘better’ world?

PS……sorry I’m a bit late on jumping in on the discussion, had no internet connection for the past few weeks. Now I’m enjoying reading all the blogs that I’ve missed. Thanks!

If littering is such a social no-no, then I wish the world was a lot more like Canada, Chrissy. It’s a huge problem here. And if you say anything to anyone they look at you like you’re crazy. Thanks, it’s useful to know about the attitudes in other countries.

Thanks, Denise. Very good of you to say.

Nice to hear you’re a ‘trash picker upper’, Susan. I have to say, I haven’t come across many, so it’s reassuring to discover you are actually out there.

Yes, noise pollution is often overlooked, yet it’s a cause of major stress for many people.

England suffers for public transportation in rural areas, too. It’s all about profit!

Mike, I’ll be doing a full post on fashion sometime soon. That’s great info on fashion killing birds as opposed to rats. As for big cars for big men… I see GM may be selling off its Hummer line. That speaks volumes, doesn’t it?

Thanks, Kathy. So it’s the law to pick up those little gifts your dog leaves everywhere? Excellent. Littering is supposed to be against the law here but very little is ever done about it. Every so often there’ll be a crackdown and someone will be in the newspaper claiming to be victimised because they were prosecuted for dropping a cigarette butt. It’s all too quickly business as normal, though, with litter everywhere and nothing done about it.

I’ve never been to NYC, but from what you see on TV I figured it was probably easier to get about using public transport than your own car.

Thanks for all the great input, you guys.
Steve

Way to go,

Chrissy C

I’ve done the “picking up trash” thing for years and it has improved over time. There seems to be less litter. Maybe we Americans have learned a thing or two. I do hope the poor lady with the hat doesn’t mind that that part made me laugh. I hate hats! I only wear them when it is freezing (below zero and windy at the same time). Otherwise my hair is free to breathe.

I would love to have more public transportation here where I live, but it is impossible. I’m in a rural area with a state highway going in front of my house. The noise pollution is enough to drive one to drink at times and then there is the other pollution. The litter hasn’t been too bad so far. I do wonder if any of the drivers think of the fact that they are adding to global warming?! Hmmmm, food for thought.

Fashions do suggest the human tendency to make individual necessity into public obligation. Sort of a visual vector of time.

It seems that ornament has done violence through any history we know: Polynesian Alii (leaders) in Hawaii loved bright feathered wear; for all the claim that it was rats brought along with the coconut stores, the bright indigenous birds were extinguished more by fashion, as were nearly the sea otters of this coast I love.
There, the Russian explorer-traders began a craze that took the North American beaver after the sea otter was diminished almost to a point of no return. Beaver hats for men (top hats) remained in fashion as the continent was drained of this ecosystem-changing animal.

So in America with monster vehicles. Study how the advertisements for these things during televised professional team sports led men to worship images of power and destruction of the environment.

So, Steve, is fashion an expression of imagined power over the environment? Is it then a priori, THE cause of global warming?

Exotic foods and other commodities, ostentatious living in all its forms, incomplete sentences?

But manufacturers must take their share of the blame - why does food, for example, need so much packaging in the first place?

Thanks, Roxann. And you, too, Nancy. Yes, peer pressure is a problem - keeping up with the Joneses even though what you have is perfectly adequate. People do have a very misguided idea of ’self’ at times to need all this crap.

Matt - Ania and I nearly wet ourselves laughing at this hat on the train. (Not to mention then when we tried to secretly take a photo.) The woman realised we were staring but probably though we were admiring her sense of style, us dressed in rags by comparison. Oh, yeah, she gave us a real laugh.

That must be one hell of a pair of jeans! Good on you, Matt.

I can’t match that, but my favourite shirt (a deep red for anyone who wants to read anything into my psyche!) is about eight years old.

Yes, you’re right, Jillyanne - only when it becomes fashionable to NOT be fashionable will these people take notice and change their ways. Peer pressure works both for us and against us. Hopefully, it’ll turn more in our favour before too much longer.

Thanks for all the excellent contribution, guys. Hope your weekends have started well,
Steve