Dear Dr Ferdinando Dos Reis Falcao Your question A: If you get a guest at your home, and if he is invited by you; you would surely clean up the mess he creates in your house because you invited him.
My reply A: Invited guests would normally be within a social class and be expected to behave as in a civilised society. Any mess created would be joint and after the visitor has left whatever that can be recycled is placed in an appropriate recycled bin provided by the local authority and based on the German model i.e. seperation of plastics, metal, paper, etc. This recycled waste brings in an income to the local authority that subsides our rates bill for the fire, police and general taxation. General rubbish is placed in wheelie bins and collected by dust carts similar to the ones in Margao. Your question B: But if you get an uninvited guest and he messes up your home, would you clean up the mess or tell the guest to behave and clean up his own mess? My reply B: An uninvited guest would not be a guest and would be entering at their own risk to be dealt with appropriately leaving no mess. However litter from neighbouring streets and gardens blown in by the wind cannot be helped and just like in Goa can be seen everywhere unless swept overnight. It does not have to be back breaking work and a little effort from every individual using a litter picker and bagging it for collection and disposal by the local authority. I will send an example of a litter picker in my next posting. General: People in general are educated to bag their litter and take it home with them. Those responsible will then put it in their recycling bins as above. New arrivals are easy to spot as they thoughtlessly drop litter on the street or from their cars on to the road. Very soon street cameras will be able to identify them and levy them with penalty fines that can be as much as GBP 80 per incident. Habits of a lifetime are hard to break. However, can I urge everyone for the sake of advancement on planet earth to follow the Goa Tourism theme as announced in Goa Today July 2014 issue "If there is anything that we need to dump, its our bad habits" "Naarlu Bab says, "Let's keep Goa clean! "If Goans won't do it for Goa, who will?" Best regards. Melvyn Fernandes Thornton Heath, Surrey, United Kingdom 16 July 2014
