SOCIAL media recently carried a report about a rich man who is accustomed to clean the area in front of his house every morning. When asked about it, he said that it gives him feelings of happiness and enjoyment when seeing the surroundings of his house clean and tidy. He recalled that when he was very young, he lived in an area where people from the surrounding neighborhoods used to dump their garbage. It was horrible to live in the area and even opening windows of the house was a bitter experience due to foul smell. At a time when he was seriously thinking of shifting his accommodation to another area, he happened to meet a friend after a long gap. That friend explained to him his miserable living condition. Even though the friend bought a pick-up truck to transport goods, he failed to make ends meet. At this time, the man was struck with an idea of disposing the garbage from the area. The idea was eventually translated into action and thus making his neighborhood clean and tidy on the one hand and providing a better means of earning for his friend. What he did was that he shared his idea with neighbors that his friend will engage in collecting and disposing trash from the area on a daily basis in return for a fixed amount of money to be paid by all those living in the area. Some local residents wholeheartedly accepted the idea while some others were not ready to make any payment initially. The friend started his work and within a few days, the area was transformed into a neat and beautiful place to live in. Both those who contributed money and those who refused to give anything became beneficiaries of this positive change. I had recalled this incident when I saw people throwing trash recklessly on Corniche and seafronts. Even though the government pumped millions of riyals to keep roads, beaches, parks and other public places neat and clean, some people are causing big harm to public hygiene. There is little effort needed on their part to keep public places clean through putting trash and leftovers in the designated boxes installed in all public places. It is quite strange that we, the Arabs, are very keen to keep our houses neat and tidy but at the same time are negligent of public hygiene. We are extremely conscious about hygiene while we are at home and spend hours to clean each and every part of our house. But we forget all about this while we are at any public places. Perhaps we feel not any difficulties in sitting or spending time in the midst of garbage and throwing litters here and there. As a woman, I would like to point out that hygiene is one of the hot topics being discussed at any gathering of women. During such gatherings, some of them complain that their housemaids were not keen on keeping the house neat and clean while some others talk about the best available cleaning detergents. Their topics also deal with the best models of washing machines and cleaning equipment, types of air fresheners, as well as the sprays used to kill insects at home. Is there any logic behind our negligence of hygiene at public places while giving utmost importance to maintaining hygiene at home? We sterilize our toilets and use air freshener there but at the same time, we don't bother in dumping tissues in public toilets. Hence, it is imperative for us to change our mindset toward hygiene by giving equal importance for hygiene both at home and at public places. We have to remember the directive of the Holy Qur'an in this regard: “Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.”
