We need to come together as a people and work on our civic sense. Our civilization is nothing to write home about, yes, we aren't a particularly rich country and we are a third world nation for a reason, but that's no excuse for the amount of dirt we have in our towns. You can blame everyone for almost everything that happens to us as a people (which I personally disagree with as a mindset, by the way), but you can't blame anyone else for the amount of dirtiness we have in our communities. Yaounde, Douala, Buea, Limbe, Bamenda, Bafoussam, all of them have heaps of dirt on the roads.
Yes, the government and the councils have a part to play, and they are quite frankly doing a horrible job too, but we as people don't even dispose of our dirt properly in the first place.
Let's not even talk about eating groundnuts and throwing all the peels on the road as we eat, or roasted corn, or plums.
Let's not dive into how we dispose of dirt from moving cars, buses and bikes either, tossing wrappers and peels straight out the window like the road is a bin.
This is actually so perplexing because Cameroonians, in their houses, are for the most part clean. Even a lot of poor people whose houses might not always look the best still hold on to personal hygiene as something to stand on. But the moment we step out of our personal spaces, we turn into zombies of some sort, like the mess outside isn't our problem anymore.
I truly believe people underestimate how much a place (city, town, country) being clean plays a huge part in why they choose to live there. Yes, economic viability is at the top for most people, but cleanliness is high, very high, especially in this social media world. Do you know how many people travel abroad and their whole mindset is to take photos to show people their new, clean environments? Yes, I know it's also about infrastructure, but if you have dirty infrastructure, it's not attractive to anyone, no matter how modern it is underneath the grime.
We must consciously try to fix this problem. The older generation is horrible in this aspect, they have a negative civic sense, but we have to educate them anyway. Talk to your mothers, fathers, uncles, aunties, grandmothers, and so on, to do better and be conscious. Educate a fellow passenger when they throw something out the window, something they could just hold or put in their bag and dispose of properly once they reach their destination. It also starts with us: carry a small bag for your own trash when you're out, and don't be afraid to call it out gently when you see someone litter.
PS: if I were president, littering would be a fined offense. Maybe that incentive would flip the current behaviour. I'd also really vote for a Cameroonian candidate who puts this as a priority in their potential policies. It's that important to me.
I think it's getting worse, and our towns are getting dirtier by the day.
Let me know what you think, and what you've done in your own little way to fight this issue.
