By Adel Khamis Al-Zahrani
Al-Madinah
IT was a rare scene, but it was a beautiful and inspiring one in some way. It went viral on social media and was viewed by millions of Saudis and non-Saudis.
A man waiting at a red light in his car throws a piece of plastic out the window carelessly. A street cleaner watching him from the opposite sidewalk decides to take his garbage bin, knocks down the car window and then unloads the trash inside the vehicle. The scene ends leaving the owner of the car is in a state of daze and the witnesses shocked. The cleaner returns to the sidewalk slowly with pride, as if he had said in a loud voice: "This road does not need your waste, nor do the pedestrians. I am a cleaner and I spend my day roaming the streets to clean them and clear the garbage skips. I do not need your waste either "
The scene was, of course, recorded in another country, but I wish I could recruit that worker and hundreds of others like him so that they might restrain the litterbugs who trash the streets and fields of my beloved country.
Perhaps those who do not scrutinize their own behavior despite their religious or moral obligation, or out of a sense of social responsibility, might actually react with fear, a fear that the contents of many trash bins would end up in their cars or their homes with elegant halls and luxury saloons that emanate the fragrance of oud and amber.
I do not need to use any euphemism here. Trashing streets and public places is a terrible phenomenon that is widely witnessed in all parts of the Kingdom. People exchange pictures taken in parks and public places after visitors have left behind piles of garbage. The view of ATM rooms full of trash has become a familiar scene, especially after individuals suck the monetary life out of the machines and leave behind miserable receipts instead.
Some people blame the municipality. They are undoubtedly right because the municipality must bear an important share of responsibility for the mess.
There are others who blame the "cleaners" who gave up their work in hunt for a more profitable trade — I mean begging. But I will not agree with them here. Let us not forget that the worker would not have given up his job to occupy a part-time role unless we had made it profitable for him.
Let us not forget one thing. The sense of responsibility is contagious by nature and if the street cleaners have noticed that people actually care about maintaining cleanliness in public spaces and keep them free of trash, that sentiment will surely influence the workers' attitude as well, irrespective of whether they like it or not.
I can give you an example myself. I, Adel Khamis Al-Zahrani, never drop any litter anywhere other than their designated places. I have been trained to adopt this behavior at an early age, and I trained everyone around me: My children know that throwing waste on the road is taboo, and my friends cannot do it either because they believe in the principle, or are worried about my reaction. What if all of us did the same?
When I am in my friends' car, I urge them not to throw anything out the windows and suggest alternative solutions like collecting the waste in a bag until we can find a trash bin. Oh God, how difficult and complex this solution is! There are solutions that are more difficult and complicated. The easiest, or perhaps the most difficult, solution is that first of all we believe that this is our land, which God gave us as a gift and with responsibility. This is our land, the land of our children and grandchildren. Who knows one day this sense of responsibility won't become contagious like faith?
