On garbage and bribes

The streets are dirty everywhere. I went to the Kinburn Spit, a wild stretch of Black Sea coast, and it’s as filthy as Luzanovka, Odesa’s crowded city beach.

Everyone says: “some­one has to clean up!” and “why isn’t anyone clean­ing up?”

Have we for­got­ten that it’s clean where people don’t litter?

Are we wait­ing for a big strong hand to clean up after us?

People! When will you wake up? When will you stop wait­ing for some big uncle? When, seeing some­one litter in the street, will you go up and ask them to pick it up? Good God, when will you start clean­ing up after yourselves?

For mean­ness you blame money, not mean people.

For dirty streets you blame a slug­gish gov­ern­ment, not the pigs who shit where they live and even where they come on holiday.

For road acci­dents you blame myth­i­cal speed demons, while you your­selves cross on red. When a traf­fic cop stops you, you slip him money, and in the evening, in the kitchen, you curse bribe-taking offi­cials at the top of your voice.

There’s no excuse for liars and loafers. There’s no excuse for end­less excuses!

In con­clu­sion, I’ll switch to “we”: we deserve what we have. And if anyone sud­denly won­ders, “Why is every­thing here so…?”, pinch your­self on the arm, hard, really hard.