Environmentalist Frustration… should I quit?

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I just realized is my first post I'm sharing a personal and negative feeling, somehow is helping me to take this frustration out of my system or maybe I am just looking for your support so I can keep myself motivated.

A lot of people think that problems have to be resolved by others, by the government, by the Mayor of your city, by authorities, but only few think of what they can do themselves to make a difference, from those a lot only focus on what is happening inside their homes, only a few care about their neighborhood, and much less about their community.

The majority of the people never ask themselves what can they do to actually make changes, regardless of how small or big the impact is. And I am not saying these people are bad, although there are a lot of bad people, just imagine how this planet would be if the majority of the people would care more about how we can influence in a positive way in our environment.

Teaching these things to people, recruiting new members for our Environmental Group and keep the ones in motivated is not an easy task.

It has been almost 2 years since I joined the Cero Basura en Bocas Group, we have achieved important things but sometimes it could get very frustrating when things don't happen as you expected.

Cero Basura is an alliance of environmental organizations and volunteers from the civil society that work together with the little time and resources we have to improve the waste management in our town.

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These are two major important achievements we manage to do:

• The Plastic Bags Ban in Bocas del Toro!
• Another blow against trash, waste and pollution in Bocas!

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I am more sure than ever that we can make a positive influence outside of our community with the already positive results we have done here. There is people in other cities already talking about the changes we have done so far. Sooner or later, other towns will want to copy these environmental initiatives, so I guess we have to continue in this battle, and keep being the model for others.

It is hard though, is hard to feel you are dedicating efforts, time, energy and sometimes money but not receiving the same from the ones that are supposed to be working on this.

It's hard to look at the face of a store owner to tell him many times the same thing, and when you turn your back they act as if they never listened to you.

It’s hard to talk to responsables of this matters in the local Municipality so they can do their job and take action, but their promises fly away.

Who motivates me to continue in this then?... nobody!

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In our group, there is someone that works at the municipality and I personally expected from him much more with helping making the mayor and the ones responsible for making sure the new laws are applied. Those laws that regulate the initiatives we have been working on for all this time. I don’t judge him, I concluded that he could lose his job if he starts to question other people's job, especially when they have higher positions.

But I made my position clear to him:

Translation to english:

Him: Hi bro. You said hi and then you left? What happened? I imagine you are uncomfortable because of everything that is happening with the plastics and the foam.

Me: and the veggie stores that keep giving plastic bags, like the one that is in front of the bank.
It doesn't make sense to be in that group, only 3 of us participate, nobody says anything, it feels like nobody cares. I do not want to be in a group like that.
I will keep working and doing what I can, I already told Angel that he can keep counting with me but if the Municipality doesn't do their job with fiscalization and warnings, then what is all our work for?

Him: I understand. It is a shame.

We were talking about the chat group, not about the main group nor the cause.

Doesn't it bother you when you are in a group, either social or at your job and only a few have a sense of responsibility and the rest don't say a word? It is harder when it’s a social group were we don’t get paid for our time and energy. I wish everyone could see the importance of a better and healthier environment for our planet.

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A recent anecdote that encouraged me:

Last weekend I was traveling to another side of the country, around the central provinces. I had to go there for a wedding, it was a long bus ride but worth it.

I visited a mall because I had to buy a couple of shoes and proper pants for the ceremony, after living the island life for almost 10 years I forgot what it was like to dress up formal and I don't have suits in my closet.

I bought a few things in different stores, all of them offered me a plastic bag and I could not believe I had to explain to each person in each counter that I did not want a plastic bag. Can you believe they even had to call security and ask permission to the manager so I can leave free with the merchandise I bought (with my money) without a damn plastic bag!?

Well, let me explain a bit. In Panama, in the stores, as a protocol, the security guards in the entrances have to make sure that plastic bags of the store have the bill or purchased items clipped to the bag. It’s a way for them to control that nobody is leaving with an item without paying. Of course there are many other ways to do this, but seriously, I was carrying my backpack, why so much protocol for me not use a plastic bag?

This made me feel I was coming from another planet, especially the way how the workers behind the counter looked at me just because I was insisting that I did not want a plastic bag. The funny thing is that I am in my country and just came out from a small little island in the west caribbean side about 6 hours away.

I thought… “Wow! this is not happening in Bocas Island, and if I feel bothered about this, then it is because we have done a good job already” Bocas Island is where I live, soon will be turning a year since the plastic bags in the stores were banned. How cool is that?

I always say that planet earth will be a better planet without humans, we are destroying it. But please don’t take me wrong, I enjoy living but I have sort of a bad impression of our own species. Very ironically, on my way back home from mainland, I found this sticker in the boat:

Thinking in my way back about this little anecdote I had, somehow made keep trying and in our way for a better Bocas without trash.

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There is a lot of other initiatives we want to implement, many ideas but so little people and time. But we can’t move forward if the law is not completely implemented.

Turns out that the current government period ends next year, and some say that authorities don’t want to bother locals to much to not lose votes for the following elections. What a mentality, but it is what it is.

My initial goal of this post was to seek for words and ideas to motivate me more, although by just writing it makes me feel much better about the whole situation.

I really don’t know how long I will last being part of this social group since I want to dedicate more time to the animals in need, but I don’t see myself quitting just like that without making sure these laws stay up and running.

I thank you for the support and taking your time to read this post.

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Have you had a similar situation in a social group in your community? How do you deal with these type of frustrations?

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Thank You!