By Lysandros Lysandrou.
Illegal garbage dumping (rubbish, garbage and others) has emerged as a very serious issue in recent decades, something that has also troubled me personally in recent years. The main reason I am concerned is that I am a writer of novellas dealing with stories of the Cypriot countryside which I present as an idyllic paradise, which must always be preserved as such. So far, I have published three bilingual books entitled “Make a Mountain out of a Molehill”, “Goldie and the Power of Love”, “Eureka”.
Since classical antiquity, the geographical region of Arcadia in Greece has become an ideal model that refers to any place that offers rural simplicity and pleasure and suggests a charming and heavenly place. Because (a) the Cypriot countryside is almost identical to the Arcadian countryside, (b) the first Cypriot Greeks were Arcadians, and (c) the three novellas deal with stories that take place in Cypriot villages and are based on the traditional Arcadian way of life of the Cypriot countryside, I intend to publish soon “The Arcadian Trilogy of Cyprus”.
Scandalously, some unscrupulous Cypriots, instead of taking their waste to the designated green points, throw their rubbish wherever it suits them, even into the dry beds of seasonal streams, thus obstructing the flow of water when that occurs. Even worse, illegal dumping creates the conditions for fires to break out and spread. For example, glass objects act as lenses that focus on the very hot, during summertime, rays of the sun which start fires.
The accompanied drawing is a first attempt to depict the sad reality that nowadays exists in the Cyprus countryside that I have personally witnessed and, unfortunately, one often comes across it. Instead of putting my unhappy self in the picture, I put the suffering vulture of Cyprus which is again in danger of extinction due to this obscene situation.
The economy of Cyprus is largely based on tourism and the flourishing of tourism, is depends on the health of the environment, both on land and in the sea. The unjustified delay in solving the illegal garbage issue harms the general image of the island and ultimately its economy.
In conclusion, I quote my own translation from Greek of the apt statement of the first CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Green Dot Cyprus, Mr Kyriakos Parpounas: “It is said that both the quantity and content of the waste produced by a society is a reflection of the level of its economic development. But it is also a parallel fact that the way a society manages its waste is a mirror of its culture.”
