Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says it is a national embarrassment when a group of Japanese volunteers took it upon themselves to pick up rubbish that scarred the streets of Lautoka’s central business district.
While he thanked the young visitors for their action, said it reflected badly on Fiji that the volunteers felt it necessary to act.
He said littering had spread widely, “converting parts of our landscape into shameful eyesores”.
Mr Rabuka alluded to Fiji Times contributing columnist Doe Miller who succinctly wrote in The Sunday Times: “It is bad enough that we do have so much litter lying about in the first place. But when a group of visitors … to our shores … feels compelled to clean up after us, then surely the message is loud and clear. If we failed to get their message … then I’m afraid we’ve lost ourselves in a vacuum of apathy and oblivion bordering on national neglect for what we are both doing and failing to do for our country.”
A group of young Japanese volunteers have been conducting clean-up campaigns in the Western Division, particularly at popular picnic spots in Lautoka and Nadi.
