If only junk, flotsam, detritus and waste always found its way into original beach art, as in the case of the two scarecrows on Grace Bay Beach in the Turks and Caicos Islands, one would not be distressed as we were many times over the past two winters of cruising the coast of Florida, the Bahamas Cays, and the TCI, deambulating on secluded patches of seaboard, often in the middle of nowhere, in sceneries so beautiful the eyes mist over, having to pick our way around so called 'sea glass', bits of fishnets, empty bottles, cans and tetra packs, cigarette butts, plastic wrappings, and bizarre objects left here and there to rot and disfigure the scenery. All of it, a very distressing and tangible testimony to the recklessness with which humankind treats our environment, but especially the sea, as witness this idyllic piece of uninhabited island in the Bahamas where volunteers valiantly try their best to pick up the litter left over by the retreating tides. How futile, how sad. One has to wonder about the sustainability of an economic system that permits the leftovers from consumption to end up as litter, all over the planet. There is no escaping it. We are all culprits, and accomplices to this scandal.
