Cock and bull
HUMANS HAVE a talent for fighting over boundaries.
We love drawing lines in the sand. Or anywhere! Well-known donkey, The Law, mandates the age of ‘consent’ for women as 16. This could create an industry for legal eagles to argue ad
nauseam. Did the alleged statutory rape victim try to consent at 11.55 p.m. on her 16th birthday eve? Or 12:05 a.m. the next ‘day’? Instead of asking trained judicial minds to decide whether consent was given, or whether the complainant was unable to consent because of age, mental disability or whatever, we prefer to draw legal lines.
Five years ago, The Old Ball and Chain’s lifelong best friend’s husband suffered an aortic tear and nearly died. He was on the table for 16 hours and received 60-plus units of blood. So we lined up at Blood Bank to donate. I was turned away. Why? Apparently, Blood Bank is so saturated with supplies, it refuses to take blood from anyone over 60. If I’d been 59 and 364 days, my contribution would’ve been welcome.
I’ve been desperately trying to stay awake during the latest battle about lines between Noranda and the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET). The fight isn’t about mining’s effect on the environment. It isn’t even about the delicate balance that must be struck between environmental damage (an everyday reality) and economic damage. Nope. It’s about where virtual lines should be drawn around an almostmythical ‘Cockpit Country’. These lines should never be crossed, especially not by soulless bauxite-mining companies. After all (horror of horrors), miners might disturb bird shooters, whose high-flying chickens must be killed and brought home to roost (or fry).
SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BAN
Speaking of chickens finding homes to roost, let’s assess how generally effective the environmental protection lobby has been and how contextually important it is to draw special lines around Trelawny’s famous cock pit.
To tumultuous applause, Government announced a ban on single-use plastic bags, effective January 2019. That was like 20 lawyers at the bottom of the sea, a good start. BUT what followed the announcement became a monumental joke. Single-use plastic bags remain widely available, especially from roadside vendors whose circumstances limit their options. Last week, the Old Ball and Chain found my favourite toilet paper that had been missing for two weeks. It used to be wrapped in paper. Now it has returned proudly presented in (single-use) plastic wrapping (aka, bags).
Plastic, high on the real environmental enemy most wanted list, proliferates, including plastic bottles, whose unrestrained, irresponsible use by corporate conglomerates usually end up clogging gullies and choking beaches.
So, on Twitter, I asked earnest young government Senator Matthew Samuda why the apparent discrimination. His reply was that plastic bottles were recyclable. I asked where? He responded that bottling companies were to spend $800,000,000 developing recycling centres islandwide. Six months later, there’s no sign of these centres. The bottom line is, it’s Government’s responsibility to collect and safely dispose of solid waste, which includes educating us on separating garbage for recycling. Profit-making bottling/drinks corporations should offer incentives to customers who return bottles for recycling.
On May 8, Matthew Samuda posted the following:
“Imagine we cleaned this beach on April 21st, all it took was one rain and look at it, WORSE than before. We are flirting with Disaster. There can be NO Blue economy if we continue to manage our Solid Waste this way. Urgent Action must be taken now.”
I rest my case. So what action was taken?
While we bicker about where to draw a line around a cock pit, environmental chickens are coming home to roost everywhere. The Amazon. Saudi oil wells. Italian landmarks. And Indonesian forests are burning. While we focus on keeping our cock pit, monogamous climate change, the planet’s most dangerous environmental threat, is a crisis. Sustained by stubborn refusal to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, carbon emissions and archaic agricultural practices, it’s ravaging small island economies. Ask Greta!
Peace and love.