Cleanliness is next to Godliness
- 30/7/2014 <--Prev : Next-->
Mother always used to quote the above saying to us when we were small, looking behind our ears to see if we had cleaned there!!
And having just returned from a trip to Rwanda, I need to extoll upon it's cleanliness compared to that of Zimbabwe.
There is not a SCRAP of paper or plastic to be found lying anywhere in Rwanda, in fact, when one enters at the airport, the authorities will confiscate any and every plastic bag they find in your possession!!
Driving through the town and suburbs, it is absolutely incredible just how clean and spruce the city is. Yes indeed there is poverty, shanties and shacks in many areas but absolutely NO LITTER.
In fact the whole country virtually closes down on the last day of every month, when the entire population, including the Prime Minister and the Top Dogs, go onto the streets to clean up the litter!!
The anti litter campaign is so strict that even the guides who took us up to the Virunga Mountains to see the gorillas, picked up litter on the way up and down the mountain.
Now, I ask you with tears in my eyes, why can Zimbabwe not be like that
The fines for public littering in Rwanda are heavy and enforced, just as they are in Kenya too. Education needs to start in the schools, be proud of your city, be proud of your country, carry your litter with you to the nearest bin !!
There are plenty of bins in the city now, and even some amazing private people in Burnside are installing bins for the good of the city.
Another extraordinary aspect of Rwanda was that the buildings were generally brightly painted. As humble as a shop or dwelling was, it was painted, some in the bright colors of popular cell phone companies, rather like Coca Cola is doing here in Zimbabwe.
Full marks to Coke for painting the brightly coloured signs and decorating shops and businesses all along the road from Chimanimani to Bulawayo via Masvingo. I know they have a large separate division which undertakes signwriting for the company and shops which sell Coke products can apply to have brilliant and distinctive sign writing done by Coca Cola.
Come on Bulawayo 'Keep Your City Clean'!!
