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One more source of trash and litter is the business that pay someone to stick flyers under car door handles. That is still being done at the Organic market Tuesdays. Both the Venue lessor and the customers should demand a stop to it. I have taken a dozen or so flyers back to stores that do this and dropped them in the floor. They just have a blank look and nothing to say when you ask them to go pick up the litter they created. I also refuse to shop there.

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2 hours ago, betty7 said:

bontepar loves filth & noise. most mexicans dont. perhaps he is the person who should leave?? he may not be the kind of visitor who the locals welcome.

This kind of comment doesn't add to the quality of discussion here any more than the thoroughly worn out  "go home if you don't like it" comment does.

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33 minutes ago, Mainecoons said:

This kind of comment doesn't add to the quality of discussion here any more than the thoroughly worn out  "go home if you don't like it" comment does.

I agree that the tired phrase "go home, etc" belongs in the same trash bin as "get a life".  People who really don't like it do go home.  Otherwise....some people just like to complain; it's part of their personality.  Not the better part, IMO.

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It seems a lot of Mexicans don't have much respect for the environment or even each other when they share common spaces. 

This starts with the government not caring about any standards of safety/pollution when it comes to vehicles on the road to not maintaining/cleaning public roads or even putting any efforts into designing roads that are safe. 

On an individual scale this combined with poor education (not just books education) and poor family planning where parents have more kids that they can provide for adds to the problem. 

I have seen plenty of $%&/()ss (sorry drivers) driving and drinking and throwing beer bottles on the carretera. Some parts of the highway from jocotepec-Guadalajara have become dumping grownds for garbage that will never decompose. The main carretera of Ajijic is covered in dust and car exhaust that smells like death. 

I think the poor people just accept It and get used to living in filth. 

I grew up in a poor country (not Mexico) where my parents didn't understand that throwing garbage was bad. They both had university degrees but their parents never told them it was bad, their friends did the same thing and society deemed it as acceptable. 

It wasn't until decades later when my parents moved to the western world that they understood how $%&/()ic their behaviour was. But that's because in the western world respecting shared spaces is part of our cultural values. If you want to fit in you have to embrace that. Not in Mexico. 

Maybe Mexico will grow up one day, but I don't see that happening in my lifetime. It will take generations for it to happen. 

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Hmmm... Carrying my groceries from Chapala market, waiting for the camion, I see 20-something young people in their shiny cars throwing trash on the streets.  Thursday, an empty Mirienda! can landed almost at my feet as I stood next to an indigenous lady.  The can could have hit someone.  The kids in the car were from Guad.  I reached over & stomped the can flat with my shoe and the indigenous lady picked it up & put it in the trash can 2 feet away.  We looked into each others' eyes and shook our heads...  exasperation.

In my opinion, based on what I have seen, it is the 50-year old & younger generations who don't mind just dropping refuse wherever it's convenient for them.  On the few occasions when I enjoy a cigarette in the plaza, I have always extinguished it, twiddle the tobacco out of it, then put the filter/paper bit into my purse or pocket.  It is AMAZING how many older people will comment on how nice it was for you to that - not throw it on the ground.

Having had a farm on a highway between the county seat & Mobile, AL, I can tell you how much work it is keeping the place presentable.  My kids wouldn't drop a gum wrapper & would rank on kids who did, then pick it up for them.  It happens here, but to a lesser degree.

Being in a "weekend fun area" or "tourist-y-ish area" & so near Guad is no asset.  When I was in Chapala centro, every fiesta left deltas & drifts of garbage.  People walked back to their cars or bus stops & left their cans & bottles & bags wedged into other peoples' gates & fences, on windowsills.  Not pretty.

My neighbor in Las Redes is up early every day.  I, in contrast, am the laggard.  As I prepare my coffee, she has swept her cochera & sidewalk, plus part of the street, & then starts on mine...  (I don't sweep much, preferring the pressure hose, but it's too early to deal with hosing.)  ;p  I'm out a couple hours later, and watering the plants washing things down to help combat the dust.

There is very little trash on my street.  However, there are 2 or 3 big cans at the corner for the school & restaurant.  MOST of the kids are careful to use the trash cans.  ALL are respectful & polite, so far.

I have found that people tend to rise to our expectations.  Why not just talk to your Mexican neighbors & see if you can spark a neighborhood movement?  Big things start off small.

Love is the way to bring us all together & create the world we want to live in.

 

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crazydog, well written & 100 true. many people in 3rd world cultures do not assimilate w/western values. by western i mean european. the south asians who move to the US can eventullay afford a brand new house & expensive car. yet the trash is piled up in the kitchen untill there is no more space. my combodian friend told me this as he was discribing his family. they must have forgotton that there were garbage trucks. old habits die hard. 

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Oh, wow!  I just had a flash of insight:

I wonder if the original inhabitants of North America groused like this after the Conquistadors arrived... and the Pilgrims, etc. 

Obviously, the motive was having already heavily contaminated many of the rivers & streams in England, France & other countries...

A humorous personal experience:

When I was buying coffee once  for my gran, I was behind a grumpy old white man in a store with mainly indigenous customers.  The cashier spoke to a lady at checkout & they chatted a bit in their mother tongue (not long).  The grumpy old sort heaved an impatient sigh & blurted out:  "Speak English!  If you don't want to learn English, you should go back to Mexico!"  :o

I was already starting to giggle...  :rolleyes:

They ignored him & finished their sentences.  Then, this very classy lady turned to address the rude fellow.

"Sir," she said (standing tall, with beautiful dignity), "We were speaking Navajo.  Why don't you go back to England?"

He stood there with his mouth open while she left with her packages.

I was trying to hide my laughter, because I followed their conversation.  Those two ladies were my neighbors on the rez.

:lol:

Just sayin'...

 

the force awakens.jpg

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