Beautiful By Nature. Dirty By Choice.

"Beautiful by nature, dirty by choice," said the British woman I was talking to. She had been living here for sixteen months (her husband was working on the island) and gave that for the explanation of the way the place looks.

"Beautiful By Nature, Clean By Choice" is the motto of the Turks and Caicos Islands. But it's not beautiful everywhere, and certainly not clean. These are pictures of some houses taken just a few miles from the resorts, on Beach Road.
People sitting under trees, on concrete platforms, many of them with graffiti.
Trash in the yard or flowing over from garbage cans.
I don't know what this was, but I'm sure some guy spends his afternoons sitting on this chair surrounded by litter.
Laundry hanging outside...
Amid the crap all over the yard.
Would it be so hard to pick up the fence, throw some paint on the walls?
And all over the island, from the less desirable areas to the ones that clearly look like those who reside there have money, are these unfinished concrete homes.
Most of them only have one level, or even half a level. They've just been abandoned, with the rebar sticking out of every wall, weeds growing up and around the entire structure.
Apparently, there was a lot of corruption when the local government was in charge and people lost tons of money. Now that it's back under British Rule, I guess they're trying to rebuild it back to what it was. But from what we've heard, it's not at all a good time to invest here. Although, it is known as an offshore financial center and there isn't any income tax, so someone is making out pretty well.

I just don't understand, and this goes for being in the states too, why you can't clean the crap from your yard. It's one thing to be poor, it's another to be lazy. If you're sitting in your yard, surrounded by trash, broken down cars and overgrown trees and grass and talking on your cell phone, you can't tell me you don't have any money. To me, you're either stupid, lazy, or both.

And these days, even if you're born into poverty, it's unlikely you have no idea of what's going on in the world. I'm sure you have a TV in your house, or have seen one at a friend's house. Don't you know what it looks like to have a neat yard? Why wouldn't you want your place to look better?

Don't be dirty by choice. It's not beautiful.


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