So we\u2019re traveling to Nairobi\u2014yes people, the drive from Athi to Valley Road is travelling \u2013 and the \u201clearned\u201d guy seated in front of me opens the window and gingerly lets loose an empty pet can of soda. I\u2019m not perfect, far from it, but littering just gets to me. Not just because of the environmental effect but majorly the sheer impenitence lacing the perpetrator\u2019s demeanor.<\/p>\n
Before you brand me a self-righteous critic, imagine a man or woman old enough to be your father or mother having to clean up after your grown-up brazen self. Whilst you may rebut my seemingly whimsical protest with the inane phrase, \u201cbut it\u2019s their job,someone has to clean\u201d, I could borrow words from my lecturer Mrs. Muthami saying \u201cthis is your world and there\u2019s a limit to the abuse it can take, before it starts to cave via global warming and the calamities that come with it\u201d. No she didn\u2019t stop there but added, \u201c\u2026then you start blaming God when it\u2019s we who have failed to take care of what God gave us custody of…\u201d<\/p>\n
I won\u2019t pull the environmental card, Wangari Maathai sung that song. Instead I\u2019ll play the morality card. How responsible are you? My pastor says \u201cresponsibility (or lack of it) starts from our bedrooms, when we wake up in the morning\u201d (an unspiritual statement if you ask me). It starts with us,\u00a0because if we would be audacious enough to stick gum under a pew, fart in an elevator, pull more toilet paper than we require, leave taps dripping,\u00a0heaters and lights on unnecessarily, double parking, overlapping, speeding in residential areas, being unnecessarily loud, smugly queuing on the express counter pushing a trolley full of shopping, and suggestively gawking at someone\u2019s wife or husband in their presence amongst other pet peeves\u00a0then we have a long way to go.<\/p>\n
Are we then incorrigible? Far from it, there\u2019s hope for us yet. Gandhi said we are the change we want to see. If you want to have a responsible\u00a0government and society, then be responsible yourself. Go on, turn the tap completely off, be considerate and use only what you require, for Pete\u2019s sake do the right thing. It\u2019ll take you 21 days to kick the old habits but before long the world around us will smile back.<\/p>\n
By Asutsa Govedi<\/p>\n
(rockyagovedi@daystar.ac.ke)<\/p>\n
So we\u2019re traveling to Nairobi\u2014yes people, the drive from Athi to Valley Road is travelling \u2013 and the \u201clearned\u201d guy seated in front of me opens the window and gingerly lets loose an empty pet can of soda. I\u2019m not perfect, far from it, but littering just gets to me. Not just because of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}