No plastic bags, yes?
In our fair city, no more -
t'was a rule, ordained.
No plastic bags, yes?
This community goes green,
we're making the step.
No plastic bags, yes?
Gladly adopt the new norm,
citizens comply!
No plastic bags, yes?
The people agree, thinking...
t'was for a reason...
...and they think...
...and they think.
---<--@
Huh?
I went to Puregold Molito (in Muntinlupa City) one morning to get some groceries and went home with a paper bag full of goodies.
While I was riding on the jeep, a kuya noticed I was struggling a bit with the bag because it was packed, and attempted to sympathize with me.
He said, "kasi pinagbawal pa nila ang plastic bag, ano?" (This is all because they banned the use of plastic bags, right?)
I said, "dapat lang kasi ang mga ilog natin baradong barado na." (That's right because our rivers are so chock full of them.)
He gave me a blank stare. I smiled back.
I appreciated the sympathy but I thought to myself, "how can the spirit of the law sustain the letter of the law if the mind of the citizenry is not familiar with the reason behind it?"
I support the drive to ban these plastic bags. (I support the drive to ban sharks fin products too.)
I am willing to change my routine to accommodate this need of a positive change reinforced by the city ordinance but I am only one person in a city of many, many, more individuals...
- selah -
A city takes its decisions together and when a community takes a decision, it is always owed by the leadership to launch these ordinances carefully through effective promulgation and, if need be, a thorough information drive, so that those who individually make these decisions work (the citizenry) do so in depth - not by blindly obeying but by willingly following.
Follow the Pawprints -
Little steps matter BUT only in the context of a mature thinking about the wholesale necessity of ecological preservation and resource conservation.
A baby takes little steps not so it can take little steps but so that it can solve the problem of learning how to walk like an adult.
I applaud our local LGU's for banning the use of plastic bags but this prohibition, for it to be effective, must exist within a larger, central policy that is both nationwide in scope and responsibility and long-term in its vision and implementation.
Make Manila the pilot city with Manila Bay at the epicenter of the national resource conservation and ecological preservation drive. Designate all of Metro Manila as the model community for the entire Country and make every city in the Republic connect with Manila in this way.
Just my opinion, is all.
