IN STEREO

The land is going to waste. There was a project from Caritas, and I think it was funded from somewhere in Europe. They spent a lot of money on those projects, you know, so people would take care of their land. They spent something like... I think it was €400,000, to encourage people to take care of their land. But after they finished the project, nobody would even visit their land. A small example: there is a guy who’s got a piece of land which is about 100 metres away from my property, I would say. It was open land; he never took care of it, you know. Whenever olive picking season arrives, he just comes down and picks the fruit, and that’s it. So I stopped once and I asked him, “Why don’t you take care of your land?” “Ah, I don’t have time.” “What the hell are you doing?” “Oh, I’m busy, I’m busy, I’m busy.”

When the Caritas project came over and fixed up his land, he planted a few trees. And that was it! Now if you go by his property, the grass is about 60 or 70 centimetres high. I mean, a small flame would probably torch the whole place. And that’s real sad. The Ministry of Agriculture in our area promised five solar panels, but the people who are taking care of properties, they don’t get anything. I mean, if you’ve got somebody who’s willing to help you out, and pay quite a bit of money to take care of your land, why can’t you take care of it? That’s what pisses me off, to be honest with you. Sometimes it really gets to me, as a person. Because when I see my property is really nice and all the properties around it look like hell, it makes me feel bad. But I mind my own business. I take care of my land; that’s all that matters to me. – Jamal