jam25mack

We all know who the main culprits are and its not the Westerners. My old man would have skelped my arse if I ever dropped any litter while in the mountains as a kid and we often came back with pockets stuffed full of wrappers and cans. Everytime we go camping here we end up bringing back a bit more than we took. It's such a shame. I've spoken to a few of the more westernised locals I know and they can't understand why the locals act as they do. I was doing a walkover (drive over) in the mountains the other week and you come across really nice villas surrounded by all kinds of crap they have literally thrown out of the front door. Its so strange.

DXBtoDOH

A lot of them just don't see it. It's not the notion that someone will come along and clean it up, but they just don't see the rubbish or why it's rubbish.

I see this in Asia. There are islands in Indonesia that would be gorgeous if they weren't otherwise filled with rubbish. Villagers dump rubbish into lots right next to their houses! They just don't care. For some reason their brains don't register that plastic scraps all over the place is ugly and a mess and that if the village got together for a few hours they'd clean up most of the place easily.

Likewise, I remember on my last Kenya safari we drove from one conservancy to another, crossing through a bit of the countryside occupied by a local village. The conservancies were pristine. The village lands were filled with rubbish. Plastic bags all over the place, plastic scrap all over the place, cans tossed here and there. Entire fields dotted with plastic rubbish.

It is weird.

Miss Ann Thrope

I've been to lots of Africa and most Asian countries but the filthiest place I have ever been, which almost made me weep with horror (and really, I'm not the weeping type) was Tunisia. Distributed across the tops of the piles of rubbish in the ruined castle, which forms a kind of park in one famous mountain village, were the stomachs and entrails of the sheep slaughtered for Eid al Adha. All stewing beautifully in the late Autumn sun. Roads and streets routinely had multiple mini-tornados of rubbish. Still an amazing country - but why do people destroy their own beautiful backyards like that?

Maxima

Attitude towards garbage is the litmus test of a first world vs third world mindset

ExpatAl

Depressing to see. I remember seeing piles of rubbish on some of the St Lucian beaches (away from the tourist resorts and in the residential areas of Soufriere)

Same when I went to Bali and visited the town of Kintimani next to Mount Batur. Piles of rotting 'tributes' given to their Hindu Gods, stray dogs and faeces everywhere, didn't stick around for too long that's for sure!

I've always told the missus that when I'm old, I'll probably be the one picking rubbish off the beach with a black bin bag to pass the time!

Arcadia

Libya was also like this.
I can remember the time Ghadafi was making a visit to a certain area and instead of removing the vast mountains of rubbish, they just built a wall so he couldn't see it.

jam25mack

That was my old man when he lived in Asia a few years ago. He would walk the beach daily collecting rubbish and getting some exercise. He also arranged for old oil drum bins to be placed around the town and at the tuk tuk stops and would b0llock any of the locals he saw dropping litter. After a while they got the idea and started to get involved. I haven't been there in a few years but it would be interesting to see if the mindset has remained.

Miss Ann Thrope

One other bit of lost UAE that I still think of, right in the heart of new Dubai, is what used to be the lovely wild stretch of beach past the JBR buildings between the Hilton and Sheraton beach hotels. As recently as 2009 that was a nicely unkempt stretch of beach backed up with grassy dunes quite unlike any other stretch of seafront in the city. Both hotels were there but there was nothing else in between along the seafront except a dusty track.

scrubbedexpat141

4x4 beach too. Used to be so easy and pleasant to have a morning on an empty beach.