RUBBISH!

Above and below - rubbish strewn over the ground outside the Marriot Hotel next to College Green, Bristol

Broken bottle on street

So what do we do about this? Early on Sunday morning (25th July 2010) outside a hotel in the centre of Bristol - the whole place was littered with broken bottles, cans, take-away packaging and papers. This is a lovely part of the city right by the cathedral and College Green at the Bottom of Park Street. Everywhere was covered in rubbish - all over the streets, the green, the pavements, evidence of a throw away society that pays no regard to the place where we live.

3 men from the council were picking it up and putting it in large bins - to go to landfill I expect. I asked one of them if it was always like this. Yes - but the centre is worse he said, especially on that day when he told me it was the worst he had seen it, in some parts difficult to walk down the street.

Who does this and why? And how do we stop it? It is a sign of a dysfunctional society and lack of community. Why do we put up with it?

College Green

I know alcohol plays a part, but it is also a mindset of "this is me and stuff the rest of the world"

But rubbish is horrible for everyone to look at, dangerous for children and animals and a symptom of our diseased mentality - everything is ours to take, use, chuck.

This is a photo of an albatross that died because it ate plastic bottle tops that litter the oceans - brought there by rivers and ocean currents from city streets all over the world. Would a large screen on College Green and in the city centre that showed the effect of rubbish on rivers, oceans, wildlife and people help rubbish throwers to realise exactly what they are doing? Do you think they would look at these images and think twice? Part of me would like to think so, part of me - the cynical side I try to fight - thinks they wouldn't care a toss as long as the beefburgers and beer kept coming.

rubbish at sea

So what do we do? Get the message into schools for sure. Get fines working. Get people to understand through TV/radio/paper ads the effect of throwing things into the streets.

So many services are under threat from the cuts to local councils announced by the government; real services that will affect the lives of vulnerable people such as care for the elderly, children's services, schools and so on. Just think if Bristol could spend half or a quarter of the cost of cleaning streets and put that to protecting meals on wheels or health services. But instead hard to come by money is spent on paying people to turn out early on Saturday and Sunday mornings to collect rubbish that could be put in bins. We have to be able to tackle this one - surely. This has to be an easy one to get hold of and save money?

Bristol has a Clean and Green campaign part of which is aimed at fast food littering.
Some staggering stats from the web page:

Fast food litter is the most rapidly increasing type of litter on streets across Britain, increasing from 5% to a staggering 22% in four years. Bristol's city centre greets an estimated 30 thousand people each weekend night who have come to enjoy a drink. A number of the visitors will stop for a night time snack.

Up to one and a half tonnes of fast food litter ends up littered on the streets of Bristol each weekend night, and Bristol City Council has 24 hour cleaning to deal with the problem.

And here is a news report on it from BBC Bristol.

What is that telling us about the last 4 years? They also say the fast food litter teams clear it away early before residents see it. Maybe they shouldn't, maybe if people saw the horror they would demand it be stopped and we would come up with a solution. I was shocked when I saw it and it prompted me to write this blog.

In these times of cuts which are threatening so many this has to be one we tackle as a city together - all over Britain.

Perhaps in a few years throwing rubbish won't be possible anyway because packaging will become too expensive - and maybe we'll begin to get a glimmer of the real cost of the goods that we take so much for granted. When oil can't be used for take-away containers, when beef becomes too expensive to produce anyway, when plastic bottles become a thing of the past, when glass becomes something we are obliged to take back to the shop/supermarket to be recycled, maybe we'll get the message that the last few decades has been a terrible time of taking the planet for granted.

Compassion in Society

This last week I went to 2 different meetings and both wanted to see a fairer, more just world. the first was the excellent National Justice and Peace conference: Our Daily Bread - Food Security, People and Planet where the main speakers were Vandana Shiva and Alastair McIntosh. Click here for a short write-up and for a more comprehensive one see The Tablet, although the article can only be downloaded if you are a subscriber.

The second meeting was the Labour Party meeting in Bristol, the first since the election. I went along to see how Lour will re-adjust its position and lay out its vision for the future.

Both meetings were full of people who were not obviously well-off or influential, but shared a desire to see a fairer society that took the poor and vulnerable along with the rich and powerful. What I want to know is what drives people to do good? What motivates ordinary people to act for others? How do we generate a society where people are compassionate and caring as the norm?

For Labour maybe the desire to help others comes from deeply held values rooted in democratic socialism - creating a culture that brings a sense of community and purpose - a desire to see a fair wage and justice in society. For the Catholic conference I believe it is a desire to do what is at the heart of true Christianity - work for the Common Good, the poor, the disadvantaged and to do the work of Christ on earth today.

But there were big differences. The Labour party meeting was all about stopping cuts and being against the unfairness of the "Con-Dems" approach to the economy - but I was desperate for a vision of what the fairer society would look like and how it would work. I was clear what Labour were against, but not sure what they were for.

The NJP Conference was far less accusatory (apart from against Monsanto!) but ran the danger of dissipating so much positive energy that was created over the weekend because back home people simply feel powerless in the face of huge problems. "What to do on Monday morning" was not totally clear - but there were ideas.

I have so many sympathies with those who feel disheartened about the state of humanity and the state of the environment - I hope we are not too late to change things. But the sight of so many good people wanting a better world helps keep the track open and passable.

Whisperers in the Wind

The aspen is a common tree throughout Britain, there are some fine examples by Cheddar Reservoir near Bristol. Here is a little film about them I made on a tiny Flip camera - hence the quality is poor, but ok. It is about the folklore attached to them and is called Aspen - Whisperers in the Wind.

I need to get a better camera!

Music by William Jackson - Sir Sydney Smith's March from The Ancient Harp of Scotland. Beautiful album.

Peaceful Scene - Morecombe Bay

A short, peaceful film shot on a small stills camera on Morecombe Bay. Just imagine being there. (Sorry about wonky horizon!)
Nothing much happens, no drama or big close-ups, but it was very peaceful and meditative. Lovely natural sound. Enjoy Being There.

Broken Spirit

No one can feel satisfaction at the suicide of Raoul Moat, it strikes me as a tragedy from beginning to end - with a Shakespearean tragic ending. Moat stands as a symbol of what can happen when the human spirit, which is destined for greatness, becomes desperate, broken and distorted by who knows what. All any of us can do is pray for his victims, their families, his family and for Moat himself.

A lovely religious sister I know cried in her car when she heard the news, weeping for him, the people he killed and injured and for society as a whole. This type of thing happens all over the world, many times, but concentrating on just one incidence focuses us on what can be for some a desperate world where goodness has simply disappeared.

Like Derek Bird and others who seem to go crazy and see no way out, it is easy to despise and to say thank god they are gone. But I just feel deep sadness for everyone involved - it must have been - and still is for those left to recover - a living hell.