In Reply to: Rubbish from Tsunami posted by mariahef on Monday, 21. February 2005 at 20:01 Bali Time:
The fact is that Indonesians are dreadful litter-bugs. They chuck plastic bags, wrappers, food, whatever on the ground where-ever they are. From time to time they will scrape it up into a heap and set it alight, but in the most it is left to float around and often finds it's way into the sea.
Before everyone howls me down for saying something negative about our beloved Indonesian friends, please don't. I really like Indonesia and it's people, but the truth is that the average person there is not good at looking after the environment.
And, I might also point out, neither are Australians - I come from Perth where we have beautiful white sand beaches. And every morning huge machines troll up and down the beach cleaning the sand picking up all the rubbish left there by Australian litterbugs.
This time of the year always has high tides, in Australia too. I doubt the amount of rubbish being noticed on the beaches has anything to do with the Tsunami - the currents don't really flow that way. The amount of rubbish washing up on the beach is the same as last year.
Personally I despair at the littering going on in Bali and other Indonesian islands. It is a real put-off and is more likely to eventually kill tourism than the threat of terrorism. This has been recognised by several groups who have been working hard for years to try and combat the problem, but it is getting worse.
FreoGirl