To The Residents of Antigua,
I just finished a 10-day vacation at the beautiful Hammock Cove resort. From my vantage point on our seaside patio with its plunge pool and gorgeous view of the Atlantic, Antigua has a lot of natural beauty.
Unfortunately, beautiful Antigua also has a very big problem. Garbage. Everywhere. Everywhere except at the resorts that are painstakingly maintained to create an illusion for tourists.
I noticed an excess of garbage strewn around when we went out of our resort to walk through Devil’s Bridge.
Empty liquor bottles, food wrappers, plastic cups, smoking paraphernalia, soda cans, and even larger items that seemed hard to explain.
Then my husband went on a 6 hour birdwatching excursion with one of the locals. They covered a good deal of the island – lagoons, fields, bush, beaches and small communities.
The one common thing, everywhere, was garbage.
It’s hard to appreciate colourful birds when they are perched on discarded screens and other electronics. Even more disconcerting was the fact that the local bird guide admitted there was a problem with people defecating in the bushes.
A quick internet search revealed that concerned citizens of Antigua & Barbuda have brought this to the attention of the government before. I found a letter to the editor by Audley Philip, dated May 20, 2018, pleading for people to start taking pride in their country and make changes. Looks like that fell on deaf ears.
Paper straws in the cocktails at resorts are not good enough. I am not impressed. If Antigua & Barbuda wants to entice tourists for years to come it will have to clean up the garbage and start showing a genuine appreciation for its surroundings.
Until then, this Canadian couple won’t be back.
Dr Shannon Lee Dutchyn
British Columbia, Canada
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Fake author.
Although I do agree there is a problem.
I read this article and was surprised at the mention of my name there in. I went back and did some research on the particular article written by me to which he refers and he was spot on.
I am honestly saddened to have read the tourist account of how sees Antigua and how garbage is thrown at over. In all honestly, we cannot doubt him and in fact the situation has gotten worse overtime.
We have a beautiful country that many of us often brag about. But we also have a serious problem with littering.
Canadians in particular would find this offensive because Canada is known to be one of the cleanest countries.
I can only encourage our countrymen and women to let’s take more pride in the overall appearance of our beloved homeland.
Tourism is our main economic driver and it is not nice when our guests comment in this manner. This is about all of us and we ought to be concerned.
Our beaches, our gutters, our road sides, our trails, our streets are often messy because of the actions of some of us who are less than caring and concerned.
Let us all commit to doing better and get all this mess cleaned up.
Now all became clear to me, I thank for the necessary information.
Canada is very clean
Hmmm
You really use this as news!! Because a Canadian tourist say this? How long now this have been taking place.When folks will not taking pride in what belongs them, like this beautiful country Antigua. As a newspaper outlet you should help, not just when some tourists bring this up, it makes news. The government has tried many ways to rectified this issue. Let’s do better!!
That’s the saddest brown nosing thing I’ve ever read. Only thing needed was ur last sentence. The rest was 💩
Sorry, I am Bajan and visited, that was also my observation. Will you get personal and focus on the messenger and not the message
Good stay home!! Canadian tourists are some of the most obnoxious people to come to our shores. It’s funny how many of you idiots fell off devils bridge last year alone. I work in the tourism industry and let me tell you Canadians are some of the worst tourists I encounter. Also they are cheap as hell and never tip. Most of them just stay on the resort anyways and do not book tours or spend their money locally. Very happy you will not be coming back, you probably can’t afford it anyways because your dollar is worth nothing. You can thank your illegitimate wanna communist dictator Trudeau for that. Keep you ras inna Canada bumbbaaclaat.
Really sad and disappointing response from someone who works in our hospitality industry.
There is a major problem with littering on the island. Everyone needs to do their part.
You are ignorant!!!! There is a problem here and it has nothing to do with the opinions you have on Canadian people.
Nobody, why do you want Canadian tourists to stay home, does not their presence provide you with employment?
I am sure your employer would like to know your viewpoint.
B.t.w. tipping culture varies by nationality, why not banish the Brits as well?
What a silly response. As a Bajan I visited Devils Bridge and for a tourist attraction it had no safety barriers sir. Cuss me for the poor road works I saw of incomplete work. Or better still the poor behavior of persons parking in corners on highways.
Stop ignore problems, accept criticism and work to improve. Do you think I do not complain about littering in Barbados and poor behavior of drivers? Stop ignore issues and accept it’s better be veridical for the behavior of littering is quotidian in nature in your beautiful country.
Do you think water should still be running from persons home into the streets in 2024? Do not answer!
That’s why one of the punishment for petty crimes should be community service, picking up trash specifically. Make them do it in the same areas where they live and work, then they will feel a way when and say something when they see ppl throwing rubbish down after they just cleaned that area. Cause we don’t see something as a problem until it affects us personally.
The litter law is not enforced and sadly our locals continue to trash our island with no selfrespect or pride. So what is the solution? I say enforce the litter laws and start educating our people it’s not kool it litter. GIS there is a job for you. Also this needs to be taken inn the schools so the young people also get educated about this as it seems to be part of the culture now.
Whoever critized this letter are ignorant. I’m Antiguan and is embarrassed to admit that this has been an issue in Antigua way before the 49 years I have been alive. I have not seen a race of people that has such disregard for garbage disposal. It is sickening. I have witnessed it done by children as young as 5 and seniors as old as 70. I try my best to pick up as much as I can whenever I visit a beach or go on a hike but in order for this issue to get solved takes a collective shift in culture across the board. It starts with education. Education for adults firstly as the children are inheriting this sad trait. We also need more serious fines for perpetrators found committing such acts. Garbage don’t end up on beaches and in woods by themselves. Please stop blaming tourists who point out obvious flaws in the “product” we are trying to sell. More needs to be done!
I spent a month in Antigua and found myself asking persons not to litter when I saw them doing such. Too casual an approach to living and existing. Perhaps, it’s the many migrants bringing their bad habits into Antigua as I did meet many from other Caribbean countries. In Barbados, we have a problem of many migrants seeking to set up shop any and everywhere without disregard to order.
We need a AN ACTION PLAN which may seem #DRACONIAN, to some but, the PLANS, legislation(s) or otherwise which controls WASTE MANAGEMENT must be brought up to today’s standards.
GASTON BROWNE, PM and your ABLP Ruling Arm, of the Government and, and, and, the other managers #WHO’RE charged with managing the public sector, the OPPOSITION, Pringle, Watts, Bowen etc, do the necessary work required, to bring this SCOURGE on our Nation under control.
Regardless, of what ass kissers, minions, lackies are gonna say, this letter and according to @Audley Philip, the writer did the research to see if anyone beside himself was paying attention, and Audley Philip has assured us, that the author of this letter is genuine.
So, to those who think, this is NOT newsworthy or is a pile of 💩💩💩💩💩💩shit, crap and they don’t have to come back. Idiots at their fucking best. This is akin, to someone coming into your house, business etc, and telling you the place smells like stale shit human shit, mixed with fresh rat shit, more fresh human shit plus dog and cat shit. U house tink no fuk!
Or, you open your mouth to hold a conversation on Independence Drive and the shit💩💩💩smell from your mouth reaches a cruise ship, docked at the Port. U mouth tink no fuk! Wake to hell up.
Again, we need laws/legislations which to some may seem DRACONIAN, but DRACONIAN it has to be to clean the flora and fauna of Our Nation and polish it like the GEM it is.
These revised laws, and new ones will touch all, as in the entire family from babies to businesses, hit their pockets and pride.
Litter Wardens MUST begin to wear body cameras to document their actions/activities.
Waste collection receptacles MUST be encoded/tagged.
Waste Collection Vehicles MUST also be equipped with recording devices.
Families NUST be held accountable as a unit.
Civic Pride MUST be taught in schools from pre-school to the grave.
UPP, ABLP, INDEPENDENTS CITIZENS, DENIZENS, TOURISTS MUST PAY for any action which will cause the Nation to be sliding down a “latrine_hole!”
Gaston annah hate me hate U.
Ah lub, me lub, wey me nearble tring bury! Feel me!
Jumbee_Picknee aka Ras Smood
De’ole Dutty Peg🦶🏿Garrat_Bastard
Vere C. Edwards
Y ppl just can’t come to Antigua nd just fcking enjoy it !!! Every other day is complains ! Well stay way tf u are nd nuh come bck period ! Now u gonna write a whole article!!! Gaston know this is happening nd he nuh post a change to it !!!!! wtf u want us to do !!!!
They would enjoy it a whole lot more if it didn’t have such basic issues!
Rather than see it as a complaint, why not try to understand it is constructive criticism , and an issue that we should be addressing. There are many more, but ignorance like yours is probably blind to that too!
The world moves forward, and Antigua moves backwards… FACT!!!
A lot of ppl are out of work ! Y not hire more ppl to clean up ! The government forever nuh have money ! But always a bring in artist and paying them all them UsD but nuh have no money !!!! A lot of ppl are out of a job !! Young boys out there thieving nd a walk with ppl things ! They need something to keep them occupied! If y’all feel a way about Antigua that’s yur problem go somewhere else ! If Anna one things it’s the other !!
@ Die heart Antiguan
Is your moniker intended to mean you are a “Die Hard Antiguan” the traditional phase for someone who loves Antigua so much that they are willing to die the hard way for Antigua?
Or do you mean you have a dying heart?
Whatever you mean you are a fraud and a low life.
Only a low life would fail to understand how much money we spend on the Tourism promotion team we have in Canada People don’t visit Antigua arriving on our shore because the because they mistook Antigua Eastern Carribean for Antigua, Guatemala. These visitors are enticed by the Tourism promotions where they are told The Beach is just Beginning and now Its beauty beyond the beach.
The rage you exhibit towards those can’t deal with the filth and trash is troubling. Why?
Your writing reflective of your thinking, not of just a low life but suggest you need help.
AND BTW” Are you suggesting people come to Antigua and enjoy the filth? Recently even the Prime Minister said: Antigua people too nasty in response to the piles of trash in his Constituency.
Hope in the remains of lifetime; I never encounter a human like you.
Nobody, and all others like him/her, should be assigned to cleanup the island! Ignorance can lead to all sorts of negative outcomes. But, clearly, the government must enact the appropriate laws, and enforcement of those laws is the key to the desired outcome. Littering is not only unsightly, it is unsanitary!
I have been saying that ANtigua is filthy for years now.I am from Antigua and come back there every year.I have also watched as the filth went from bad to worse.There is an area on the hill near Trade Winds Hotel.Where you could get out of your car and take pictures looking down into Dickinson Bay and beyond.I happened to look into the bushes nearby and could not believed the amount of garbage bags thrown away there.Things like those should never be tolerated.The City is run down.In my time of living there.The City was clean every working days.Let us bring back the civic pride we had back then to keep our Country clean,always.
https://youtu.be/CrwSVeDkqtg?si=6Qijx2cQ49tWdwUY
It’s the stray dogs pulling garbage all over
Also the wotless hoomans
Do you notice everything is falling apart in Antigua? St. John’s, The hospital, garbage collection, the government buildings in disrepair, the roads, the water situation. Tell me folks, has a previous Antiguan government collected so much taxes and has incurred so much debt and the situation been this bad. Nothing will change until the people rise up and demand change. It won’t be easy as the Labour Party is not prepared to leave office even when the people want them to. They will uses their collaborators to steal the elections to stay in power.
Yes, I agree something needs to be done with all the garbage all over Antigua. I was shocked the last time I came home. Right outside the airport, there was a big pile of garbage. I lived in Toronto over 10 years and it was a very clean city. I visited Canada last July and was surprised with the garbage at the side of the road in Etobicoke. Things are changing everywhere, but Antigua depends on tourism.
Please clean up your mess. The government should start charging folks when they are caught littering.
I wonder if Canadians have stopped bringing drugs to Antigua. The Dr. who wrote the letter should know, she is from BC. There you can go to certain streets and find people cooking ( manufacturing) drugs such as Ecstacy, right in their kitchens.
What does this have to do with the garbage and unsanitary situation in Antigua?
Aloenso:I have visited both Toronto and Montreal many times.I can tell you those were two of the cleanest larger Cities I have ever seen.
I have visited Toronto and Ottawa and they are clean places. But Vancouver, generally a nice place to live, is a hot bed for drug manufacturing. The Government even gave permission for Langley ( a company) to manufacture and sell cocaine . In BC, where the doctor/ tourist is from, 2200 died of drug overdose last year.
Well some of the synthetic drugs from Canada have made its way to Antigua.
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