During most of the 1960s, Lady Bird Johnson served as First Lady of the United States of America (National Parks Services, n.d., para 1). Her main cause while in office was the beautification of the environments - natural, rural, and urban (National Parks Services, n.d., para. 2). Through her Beautification Project, First Lady Johnson advocated for “clean water, clean air, clean roadsides, safe waste disposal and preservation of valued old landmarks as well as great parks and wilderness areas” (National Parks Services, n.d., para. 4). Her efforts began more than 50 years ago, and Saudi would do well to follow her example. In fact, this has begun. We have all seen the flowers that bloom in the cities and the palm trees producing dates in the medians of the freeways. However, we have also all seen the trash that lies among the flowers and under the trees. Well, at least most of us do see it according to the results of the survey I pushed out (linked here: Perception of Littering In Saudi Arabia) over my last two blog posts (see table below on How important would you rate littering as a problem in your daily life?).
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| Jawad, N. (2021) |
By conducting the survey, I hoped to gather data about how people in Saudi Arabia (KSA) feel about littering, their willingness to make a change, and the perception of the causes of the littering problem within the Kingdom. This survey was administered to high school students as well as to adults. 31 people from the Central and Eastern provinces responded to the survey, but I have no way of knowing exact ages nor genders of the respondents. While this survey was small and was certainly not scientific in nature, it did yield some interesting results. For instance, about 81% of the respondents felt they could do something about the littering problem in KSA (see table below titled Which of the following would you be willing to participate in?), and only 4 out of the 31 respondents indicated that they would not be interested in participating in an anti-litter campaign in any way. This is highlighted in the table below titled The Littering Problem is something I cannot do anything about. I interpret this data to mean most people would value a clean environment in the Kingdom. When asked to complete the statement, “In my opinion, the littering problem in Saudi Arabia is mostly due to...” the topics of 23 respondents fell under four main categories with some answers included more than one reason: Ignorance at 43.5%; ; Lazy/Carelessness at 30.4%; Perception of the problem/desert at 26.1%; and Lack of resources (bins or recycling facilities) at 17.4%.
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| Jawad, N. (2021) |
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| Jawad, N. (2021) When we take a look at the solutions people feel need to be put into place, this is where differing opinions arise. Covey (2020) pointed out that before one tries to be understood, one should first “seek to understand” (p. 293). He went on to suggest that this builds an emotional bank account which allows people to see your side more clearly (p. 295). To this end, let’s look at the solutions to the littering problem some of the respondents of the survey gave. On Valentines Day, one respondent said, “I would love to help organize an event to help clean the streets of Riyadh.” However, On February 9, another said cleaning the streets would not be enough, and composting and recycling would be necessary in eliminating the litter. I did not want to sway the answers in any way, so I prompted them with this, “This box is for any further comments, questions, and/or ideas you have related to littering and/or an anti-littering campaign in Saudi Arabia” to which eight people gave solutions. Education was the most talked about. Recycling solutions and fines were also mentioned. |
The data leads me to believe that people in Saudi Arabia feel the biggest factor to the
littering problem is ignorance of and to the problem and that education is where the
solution lies. Let’s talk more about this! On Wednesday, February 24th at 6:00-7:00
please plan to attend an Anti-litter Campaign Unconference in which the participants
decide what we discuss. Save the date!
References
Covey, S. R. (2020). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: 30th Anniversary
Edition [Kindle]. East Roseville: Simon & amp; Schuster Australia.
National Parks Services. (n.d.). Beautification: A Legacy of Lady Bird Johnson.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/lady-bird-johnson-beautification-cultural-landscapes.htm
Media Sources
Jawad, N. (2021). Perception of Littering In Saudi Arabia [Data set]. SurveyMonkey.
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