The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

The natural beauty of the Montagu waterfront: The displays of shifting colours and shadows orchestrated by the setting sun. The gentle, refreshing breeze a welcome respite after a stifling hot day and BPL outages. The families, especially the children splashing in the shallows, and others immersed up to their chests in the sea recapping the day and solving the country’s problems.

But, too, the ugliness: Loud music belting out explicit lyrics. Inebriated men emitting loud, vulgar language while leering at and making suggestive remarks to and about scantily clad women. The jet skis.Young showoffs barrelling along precariously close to the shoreline. And the abundant garbage; the indiscriminately discarded trash. And the rats. Always the rats.

Finally: how do these lithe, healthy-looking children scampering along the beach in games of tag and in the shallows end up overweight? Perhaps the answer lies in the ubiquitous empty fast-food and takeout containers feebly fluttering in the gentle breeze. And in the ever-present phones that bewitchingly foster physical and mental inactivity. The phones precariously clutched above the water’s surface, even as nature soothes bodies and souls.

EVENING AMBLER

Nassau

July 2, 2019