Why What I Did For The Beaches Of Puerto Rico Is A Lost Cause

Revised July 28, 2020

I am currently living on the island of Puerto Rico where I have resided for over the past 9 years. For the past 6 years, I have been on an ongoing mission protesting in various beaches and rivers on this island with my signs as I decided to be the guardian of the beaches and rivers. Click here to read why.

My goal

My goal was to educate and raise awareness to the people from all the litter that they leave behind at the beaches and rivers and so that they can open their eyes and realize this beautiful paradise around them.

This plight was not an easy one as I have faced threats and recently was shot at the face for defending the beach. Read more about that here.

I believe what I did for this island was just a lost cause as I find this beautiful island just to be a lost cause as it seems like the majority of the people don’t care about this island enough to do something about the problems, be it environmental or otherwise.

Every time I go to the beaches or rivers or just driving down the roads, I would find plastic cups and bags, empty bags of potato chips, straws, bottles, cans of beer, and cigarette butts all over the ground.

People would walk by and over the trash because in Puerto Rico and in many parts of our world, Garbage has become second nature.

I would find people sitting next to the garbage on the beach. It has become their decoration as the people choose to ignore the garbage. Here is a video where I did a social experiment demonstrate the people ignoring the garbage. Click here to read about the people ignoring the garbage in Puerto Rico.

I dedicate my time to pick up garbage after garbage and raising awareness, and I often asked myself why?, When it seems like the majority of the people here and everywhere else in this world for that matter just don’t care.

We no longer care

We don’t care about this world anymore, we only care about the artificial things. I believe it is time to wake up to see the beauty in this beautiful world we all call home.

We all have a voice but all I can hear is my own. Because people walk around as if their tongues were cut off.People have hands and yet they take no action in doing things to start making the change. Their hands are busy holding their alcoholic beverages as it seems that drinking and having a good time takes top priority over trying to be the change this island desperately needs.

Many would wonder why I care so much about the environment here when I am not even a native of this island. But as I wrote here, it just seems like foreigners care more about Puerto Rico, than the very people who were born here.

But to make myself clear, I do not fight only for this island, I fight for OUR WORLD since people have forgotten that we all belong to this beautiful world. I fight for all the species that exist in this world because we think that we are the only species on this planet.

Not much Support for what I do

I feel that once people know that I am not from this island, that they really don’t support what I have done.

After being shot, that is when more people started to follow me on social media. But with all the people following me, I still feel like I get very little support as I post things on my Facebook pages to raise awareness and hardly anyone shares my messages. Which would help greatly to get my message out.

I spend my time to translate many of the things I post into Spanish here on my website and on my youtube channel, including having a second facebook page to talk directly to the people of this island, which is not very easy for me as my Spanish is not as great. I use google translate. But yet, that also seems like a lost cause and perhaps a waste of time as I feel that many people won’t even read what I write or say.

Many only share things that have no importance to anything, just nonsensical things. Many just want to be entertained. People here share gossip because that is what it seems like the majority of the people enjoy. But that is world we live in. People want to see videos of violence, a fight or other nonsense and things that matter have no importance.

We need more conscious messages in this world. Now everything is all negative as we have become desensitized and choose to saturate our minds with garbage, just like we choose to saturate our world with garbage.

I am sure many would find my messages negative or radical, My messages were for awakening the consciousness of the people. My messages were made for the people to start thinking. The people would respond when I would bring my signs to the beaches and river as they would start cleaning their things and that was good thing, They became much more aware of their surroundings. But it is sad that I needed to walk with signs in the first place.

Wanting to give up

I did not come to Puerto Rico to do what I have done, but it became my responsibility to take care of this beautiful island as I love Puerto Rico. There has been many points during the 6 years of doing this where I said to myself, to the heck with this. It is pointless to continue doing this. I have sacrificed everything just to continue to do this, That includes my life as I mentioned before where I was shot in the face and the many threats on social media. But I continue trying to raise awareness. I continue to take care of this island.

What is the point?

Many could ask what is the point of caring? What is the point of picking up trash. Puerto Rico is such a lost cause, that you can do beach cleanups today and the following week it would be trashed yet again. That has become of our world.

That is the mentality most of the people share. So their point of view is well if no one cares, why should I? But again, I care deeply about our world. I chose to be an earth warrior.

Everything is all connected even if people refuse to see that. All that trash that you leave on the beach because as the people who ignore it would say, it is not theirs, would go on traveling to other parts of the world, other countries. Eventually, when it is all said and done, all that trash is going to come back to this island 4 times worse than before.

Trash is a global problem

I know this is a global problem, this garbage problem is a worldwide thing, but I am not in another country. I’m here, and the problem can be cut down starting right where we live.

It starts with you, stop ignoring the trash and pick up what you see. Does not matter if it is yours. Organize in your communities, start group cleanings. Remove the garbage and replace it with flowers. This is not the world we should want for our seeds, the grandchildren, the future!

I made a simple challenge to everyone to change our environment. It’s called the one trash bag challenge, it’s simple. You bring a bag and pick up what ever you find wherever you go. You can read more about that here.

This island needs more people like me

Puerto Rico is such a beautiful island and I want the people here to realize that they live in paradise and that is how they should treat it. Many people would tell me that this island needs more people like me, I always reply back that all they need to do is look in the mirror, you are staring at the change. Therefore, I want them to realize that they are the change

The change starts with our example, with our action. If you collect garbage on front of the people,chances are they will also pick up garbage since we live in this monkey see, monkey do type of world. Where people need some form of guidance, since many just can’t guide themselves. But chances are they might just look at you strangely, like why are you picking up our decoration for.

Talk to your friends, if they throw away cigarette butts, SPEAK OUT. If you see trash, talk to your friends and organize and say let’s clean that up. You all have a voice and do not want to use it. Then you leave the rubbish behind, come back tomorrow to sit in your own trash.

Let’s do something about it.

Take your garbage home with you, put it in the trash in your home. The people just want others and the government to come clean for them. For something that is the responsibility of the people who use the beautiful beaches here. Take it with you, It is not very difficult. The change starts with you. What you do leaves an impact, leave positive footprints. not ugly ones.

So we can either choose to see this island as being a lost cause and moving out or we can start taking action as I chose to do. This beautiful island, this beautiful world that is our home needs more people to care for it. To heal it from all the scars. BE THAT CHANGE!

I don’t regret all that I have done for the environment here. I hope to have inspired many people with what I have done. Hope that I could have ignited something in the people to be that change.

Here is a video I made asking the people if they prefer paradise or a landfill. You can read more about that here.

Donations for my cause

I am an unofficial one man non profit and if you like to support what I have done and continue to do on the island and would like to donate. I accept donations through paypal @ jivanwild@gmail.com or click here. Thank you

Over to you. Do you think this world is a lost cause? Do you think we can choose to be the cure rather than the plagues we continue to be?

Please leave comments down below. Please share.