Solomon's Quandary...

Is it accidental or coincidental that the name 'flutterby' is a more apt name for the creature than 'butterfly?' What in its history could have prompted man to mislabel it so? And why has it never been fixed? Funny how easily things are just accepted as 'the way things are' rather than finding ways to make them better, don't you agree?

As a case in point, on Saturday I (among others), was invited to Cunupia to witness first hand what to the residents of the community was a clear case of advantage and for which they were hoping to enlist public support for their cause. It seems that someone(s) took it upon themselves to build a concrete batching plant (a mixing/loading operation for cement trucks) within a thriving residential community and who were (allegedly) able to secure permissions to operate. Now, as is to be expected, the residents of the community were not too happy living adjacent to an industrial facility and were (naturally)  concerned about dust, noise and any other effluent or pollution that could potentially affect the quality of their lives; on that point I must say I agreed with them so I went. What was presented to us when we arrived was a towering black screen built on the boundary of the houses stretching up to the sky and as far as the eye could see, eighteen feet from the backs of the houses, creating an Orwellian world's end where a picturesque rural community once stood. I took video of it all and made it available on public media questioning how such a thing could have been allowed in the first place when the owners of the plant, having gotten wind of my broadcast, contacted me through intermediaries and invited me to visit the plant and hear their side of the story, an invitation I accepted based on the fact that I had already expressed quite a public opinion on the issue. Needless to say I was impressed with both the people and their operation; the people for their part came across as decent folk trying to make a living going about their business, and the plant itself as state of the art, clean as a whistle and not that loud while running. The owners have erected a double screen that includes the Orwellian wall and have installed sprinklers and vacuum devices to keep the dust level down. To be honest I have to admit that the plant itself was the cleanest I have ever visited and they have to be commended for that and the steps that they have taken to 'protect' the community from their operation.

But the issue remains the establishment of any industry so close to a residential community. The fact of the matter is that, while I have never seen a plant so clean (I have seen few houses that clean), it is still an industrial plant in a residential community and that should never have been allowed in the first place. It is my view that whoever gave whatever permissions or authority under which this plant operates are in serious breech of their duties and ought to be relieved of their responsibility immediately. No one anywhere, not even the most tolerant and understanding of people would stand for this. The issue here hinges on what is fundamentally right versus what is patently wrong. Nations are built on the backs of societies that are in turn made up of individual families nurtured in the cradles of healthy communities. Our politics and our practices need to understand and reflect the power of the home to regulate the quality of life that we all enjoy and to support and encourage them rather than undermine and destroy.

There is only one way for everyone to 'win' here and that is for the owners of the plant to agree to move it completely out of the community and relocate elsewhere, preferably to an environment more suited to that type of operation. There is an old saying - 'Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing that it does not belong in a fruit salad.' This is not a difficult problem to solve, fix it.