FILM-MAKER Matt Harris was born and bred in Thurrock. He still lives here but spends a great deal of time travelling the world.
Matt is not your typical Mr Angry and it would take a lot for him to put digital pen to paper over a subject such as litter. However, the recent epidemic of litter has clearly touched a civic nerve with Matt.
In his own words.
"I recently returned from Rwanda in central Africa. A country with a notorious recent history, I’m sure a lot of your readers remember the reports of the mass genocide in the early 90’s where reputedly a million people were killed.
As such heading out to this country you have some preconceptions of what it’s going to be like.Nothing could prepare me for what I saw.
Upon arrival at the capital, Kigali I was prepared for a 3 hour journey into the heart of darkness. During this drive I was taken aback by something I truly did not expect.
Not the horror, but the cleanliness.
Nowhere, not ANYWHERE could I see any litter. Not a plastic bottle, disused nappy or burger wrapper in sight.
The country was one of the cleanest places I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen some of the best and worst of the world from shanty towns in central America to the pristine parks of Northern Canada). But this was the last place I expected to find such a litter free environment, and when I say clean I mean ABSOLUTELY spotless.
Digging a little deeper I discovered why….
They take a pride in their country. The entire country comes together for "Umuganda day”, the last Saturday morning of the month EVERYONE , from the president down participates in cleaning, building or repairing things in the community in which they live. (http://www.rwandapedia.rw/explore/umuganda)
There is no traffic on this day. Shops, restaurants and businesses close and only tourists are exempt. The result, they find they’ve saved millions of dollars through the community taking responsibility.
Just look at Thurrock as a comparison, we have all the industry, business and money in the world (in comparison to Rwanda) but look at this film of our local park at Blackshots taken this morning at sunrise.
Obviously people will say – "well the council needs to empty the bins" but what about the park users actually taking some pride and responsibility and taking their rubbish home with them. Is this too much to ask ? Why do we feel the need to just throw it on the floor and think it’s someone else responsibility to clean it up ?
We need to start at the bottom with education at home and in the schools and we could do a lot worse than to look at a so called “third world” country to really see who are the more advanced and intelligent peoples.
Litter is becoming out of control in Thurrock, not just the fly tipping but just the general attitude to it – It’s just beyond me why we choose to live like this.
Go to Rwanda, just see what’s possible, we haven’t had anywhere near the hardship these people have had in the past 30 years but as a country they’ve become a shining example of what is possible when everyone takes responsibility for their actions and pride in their country and community.
It was a sobering trip.
