By Kimani Wiseman
Treasures can come in different form. They can be in the form of material things. For example gold, diamond, or pearls, or even something that is playing a special role in our lives. Sand can be classified as a treasure because of the marvellous job it is doing in the environment.
Sand is formed when rocks breakdown from weathering and eroding over thousands and even millions of years. Starting from thousands of miles from the ocean, rocks slowly travel down rivers and streams, constantly breaking down along the way. Once they make it to the ocean, they further erode from constant action of waves and tides. Sand is deposited on the coast by waves.
Sand is very important at the beach. They absorb the impact of storm surge and high waves, preventing or delaying flooding of inland areas and damage to inland structures. Climate change is already causing stronger and more frequent storms and hurricanes, hence the sand that you see at the beach is very important. Without it, many lives would be lost and properties would be destroyed during a storm or hurricane.
Sand is a habitat for a variety of species like crabs, and sea turtles. For example, turtles, such as the olive ridley sea turtle, use the sand at the beach to dig their nest and lay their eggs. The turtles cover their eggs with sand, to protect them from predators. The sand also helps to incubate the eggs and the temperature of the sand determines the gender of baby sea turtles, with cooler sand producing more males and warmer sand producing more females. Without sand, sea turtles would be extinct.
Sand displays the aesthetic beauty of beaches and contributes to the ecotourism of countries. This is why when tourists arrive in the Caribbean, they would lie down in the sand at the beach, and enjoy the golden sunshine.
If you look carefully around the environment, there are other treasures that are visible. The ocean provides us with an abundance of seafood, that is a treasure. The water you get when you turn on your pipe, that is a treasure. Trees provide us with oxygen that is a treasure.
In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, we do not have natural resources such as oil, but we are blessed with all these treasures. We have black sandy beaches, which are very unique, clean potable water in our pipes. Have a look in Africa and many other countries across the globe and you would see how polluted their water is. We are also blessed with lush green vegetation. We have to be very thankful for all these treasures and be very careful not to over exploit these treasures, or else they would disappear in the blink of an eye.
You hit the nail on the head.
The author says we do not have Natural Resources such as oil or gold but we have sand. Saudi Arabia also has sand…and oil! So does Venezuela and much, much more! What is the point of the article? Of course we have resources, more than most small countries…fish, soils, clean water, etc…. Usually people look at Singapore. Per capita it is the wealthiest nation on earth and has far less resources than SVG. Singapore does not even have drinking water so it has to be imported. They are wealthy because they are smart. We are far behind because we are dumb…PLAIN AND SIMPLE!
Instead of writing a worthless article like this one we should be be schooling our government how to use the real resources we have to our advantage. What about human resources? the greatest thing we have, for the time being in physical resources, is great water, as long as it is windy and all the toxic chemicals from tire-burning blows over the oceans far from us and rains onto other islands. Why don’t we instead encourage government policy that builds a strong work ethic in our people instead of socialism that encourages people to do nothing and get free things paid for by those who are productive? Look at Venezuela! Do we want that?
If we can harness our Human Resources to become productive all the other resources will be just iceing on the cake! Forget about the sand!
Jamal, if you are not satisfied with the above article then write your own. Start you own blog about the failure of the government and let other people express their own opinions.
SKECKPALMER, Why do I need to write an article when I can comment on those articles posted. It is almost the same thing; afterall, you read my comment didn’t you? The article may have been written because the author was bored and decided to just do something to fill in time. The best way for people to learn is to do thier own research. At the moment it is considered a crime to go to the beach and take sand. There is so much more that can be written about that would have a greater effect on the people, but those that need to learn it most may not be able to read nor do they have the resources to even own a computer or be able to afford current. How do we reach them? more of those listen to the radio than read online. I thought C.Ben was going to write an essay on the work ethic of SVG but it never came. Most of us do not have the time to write articles because we are working too hard to pay the high taxes of SVG.
Jamal, if you are not satisfied with the above article then write your own. Start you own blog about the failure of the government and let other people express their own opinions.
I do so much love that reply of yours JAMAL as it was indeed straight to the point. I do hope that others reading it will understand the salient features that you have expressed both about us, our poorly governed country and our seemingly Stalinist Government’s approach to its stewardship.