Picture of the Week: Trash Pit

I have written so much about garbage on this blog that you would think the subject has been exhausted. You would be wrong. Take a look at this:

This is a trash pit outside of a motorcycle shop. You might not be able to see it but there is plenty of oil mixed in with this garbage. So what's the deal?  The security guard I spoke too was not very forthcoming. But the picture speaks for itself. They should be bagging this trash so the truck can take it away. But they aren't. This pile gets bigger by the day.

Evolution of an Illegal Garbage Dump

Outside of a resettlement area not far from here is an illegal dumping ground. I pass it frequently and it is interesting to watch it's evolution. Here is a picture from earlier in the year with a huge sign telling people they should stop tossing their garbage here.

Here is the same sign a few weeks later and someone has spray painted over it.

As ever the dogs are scavenging.  You can see them in the background.

As you may have guessed nobody cares and the people have completely ignored that sign. Eventually the weather wore it down and it is now gone. I have caught people dumping here many times day and night.

The problem with this dump is not the breaking of the law per se but the fact that this garbage dump is on the side of the road next sugar cane fields. The wind blows, the stray dogs scrounge, and the garbage gets strewn everywhere. It does not matter that the garbage truck picks up the majority of the trash.

They cannot pick up everything, only the big bags. There is always filth left over and much of it sinks into the soil especially after the rain.

There is also a little creek there and it too is full of trash.

I admit that it is a little hard to make out but that is a creek which runs through the sugarcane fields on either side of the road. It's dry in this picture but when the rainy season comes it is very wet and the garbage gets disseminated far and wide. 

There are no pictures I can take that will accurately convey the overwhelming stink and the absolute filth of this area. The environment is totally polluted and the air is wholly offensive. What is to be done? I don't know. Maybe a large metal dumpster or two could be placed here. Obviously people will continue to toss their trash here. People are even scavenging this dumpsite.

It's pretty gross and it does not have to be this way. But it is this way and that appears to be how it will remain.

Night Trash 9

Night Trash!  Will it ever end?  I don't think so.  These pictures were all taken during the lockdown. Will the new normal mean less stay dogs and night trash?  Of course not!

Local i*mart Illegally Burns Their Garbage

i*mart is a Philippine based convenience store not unlike 711 or Munsterific. As with every business you would think they follow the law but when it comes to RA 9003 one i*mart simply does not care.  RA 9003 forbids the burning of garbage yet this i*mart has a burn pile right out in front for all to see.

I did not catch the employee lighting this fire on camera but you can see his back as he enters the store to retrieve more garbage to burn. It's a rare thing to catch such a flagrant violation of the law in person. It appears they do it in the early morning as well.

The first picture shows the bag on fire and the second shows the large flame with i*mart in the background. 

A few days later the same thing. A burn pile in the early morning.  Who is burning the trash when the business is closed? The security guard on duty of course. I saw him do it with my own eyes. 

What is so hard about collecting the garbage and placing it in a secure location until it can be properly disposed of? The garbage truck passes by practically every day of the week.  Something could be worked out with them.  There simply is no excuse for anyone, especially a business, to burn  their garbage.

A New Normal or A New Philippines?

What does the new normal look like?  It looks like this:

What is he doing???? This security guard is dumping sanitizer onto a tiny mat that you walk on and....I don't know...sanitize your shoes? Kill the coronavirus on your shoes???  Seriously what the heck?  What else does the new normal look like?  How about this:

This is the new normal? Shutting most of the entrance to the store and having people wait in a line because only 5 are allowed in at a time is now normal?  This is supposed to keep the public healthy??

No!

This new normal is not about keeping people healthy at all. The government's main concern is controlling individual behavior because it allows them to exercise petty authority and gives their otherwise  meaningless existence a sliver of self importance.

We were told that social distancing was necessary for a limited time to flatten the curve and get back to normal. Now we're being told that social distancing is the new normal forever.  Even though it can only ever be selectively enforced because it is totally unfeasible in the real world.

The government has even crafted legislation to enforce this new normal.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1265835/house-execs-define-new-normal-in-newly-filed-bill

“This bill will prepare and educate the Filipino public for life after the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions and to adapt to the new norms of physical distancing. It institutionalizes a new way of life after the Enhanced Community Quarantine and serves as a guide to the public,” it added. 

The bill proposes that among the measures to be imposed in public places are the mandatory wearing of masks, the availability of handwashing or sanitizing stations in public areas, temperature checks, and physical distancing of at least one meter, but preferable two meters, in all public spaces. 

For public transportation, physical distancing shall also apply in ticket queues, and passengers in all types of public transportation vehicles shall be required to wash their hands or sanitize before boarding the vehicle and be seated a seat apart and be at all times in face masks. 

“Contact-less” payment mechanism shall also be implemented.

"It institutionalizes a new way of life." What that means is that it regulates new behaviors and creates a new class of criminals if they do not behave in the approved way such as wearing a face mask in public. People will also have to practice social distancing in public at all times. Everyone is on board with the new normal. From the DOH to the DOT all sectors of Philippine life will have to adjust.  There is no going back as Harry Roque said.

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/04/26/2009938/we-cannot-go-back-general-community-quarantine-new-normal-malacaang-says

In an interview with DZMM on Sunday morning, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that the Philippines cannot return to life as usual because of the overwhelming effects of the global pandemic. 

“We are no longer back to normal as we know it po. The GCQ is already that, it is the new normal. For as long as there is still no vaccine, we cannot go back to normal as we know it,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.

Meanwhile...

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1262762/diarrhea-leaves-2-dead-42-down-on-maguindanao-island-village

Two children had died while 42 others had been downed by what health officials believed was an outbreak of diarrhea on an island village of Maguindanao, health authorities reported. 

Health Minister Saffrulah Dipatuan of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao confirmed to reporters that the diarrhea was triggered by contaminated water sources. 

Dipatuan said a health team sent to Barangay Bongo Island off the coast of Parang, Maguindanao, traced the contaminated water from two sources tapped by residents, who are mostly Maguindanaon fishermen. 

One of the water sources is an open well, while the other is a closed well, but both have been found to have a high concentration of e-coli, Dipatuan said. 

“One team sent there to treat the sick and investigate had gathered stool samples that confirmed high e-coli bacteria from water sources,” Dipatuan told reporters. 

Many residents have no toilets and dispose of their human wastes elsewhere. 

The dry spell has ushered in, the time when residents rely mainly on open wells as sources of drinking water.

Wearing face masks, washing your hands, and social distancing are not going to help a community whose water supply is contaminated. What the Philippines needs is not a new normal where everyone is forced to wear a face mask at all times or wash their hands every time they enter a store.  Rather the Philippines needs a total make over and a revamping of society at practically every level. A make over which will lead to a healthier and more sanitary nation. 

Where to even begin?  How about the prisons and jails? Overcrowding has long been a problem in the Philippines. It is only now with the threat of COVID-19 that the government has decided alleviate the situation. 

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1266479/govt-expedites-probation-parole-work-to-decongest-jails-amid-health-threat

“I’ve heard from the mouth of (Justice) Sec. Guevarra himself that they are expediting the processing of individuals who may be qualified for probation and parole to decongest our detention facilities,” Palace spokesman Harry Roque said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel Wednesday.

Why wait for a crisis to occur before decongesting the jails and prisons? Why not have this be everyday policy? Of course this would also mean speeding up the courts and not having trials last years on end. 

Can you see what a new normal with the goal of making society heathy really entails?  It requires a total revamping of Philippine society at every single level. From the courts down to the way people behave. Not astroturfing society by having people wear face masks and wash their hands or stay 6 feet away from everyone.  

Or covering EVERYTHING in plastic!

Creating a fire hazard won't stop the spread of COVID-19 but that's not stoping Robinson's Supermarket.

Even one local SM Supermarket locked their side door creating a one way in, one way out situation, and a fire hazard.

Why did these stores do this? Now everyone has to enter and exit the same door and that is not social distancing. How is this not illegal? 

Oh wait. It is illegal!

Section 9. Prohibited Acts. The following are declared as prohibited act and omission.  

(f) Locking fire exits during period when people are inside the building; 

https://lawphil.net/statutes/presdecs/pd1977/pd_1185_1977.html

Is anything going to change in the Philippines? No. Not really. Not fundamentally. I have been out and about since ECQ and GCQ was lifted and it's pretty much the same. I have to wear a face mask, get my body scanned, and get spritzed with alcohol if I want to go inside a store but that's rather superficial. Even before COVID-19 people were wearing face masks because the air is so polluted. People are continuing with the same behaviors from all I have seen.

The Philippines needs a lot of changes if it wants to become sanitary and healthy.  To do that the mindset of the people must be changed. Here is a great example of the mindset that has kept the Philippines a polluted wasteland.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1277808/waste-segregation-more-crucial-amid-pandemic

Waste segregation at source has become more critical amid the pandemic as the volume of potentially infectious waste from household sources is growing, an official of the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) said on Tuesday. 

Given these circumstances under the “new normal,” reduction in waste generation must be given priority, while garbage collection systems must quickly respond to this growing concern, said Crispian Lao, NSWMC vice chair who represents the private sector in the commission.

A reduction in waste must be given priority? Sure. That is what RA 9003 is about. But no one pays attention to that law and there is no infrastructure in place to implement it. 

Right now the new normal involves a lot of plastic with the intent of separating people. If the Philippines wants to get healthy that is not the way. Running water, toilets, proper sanitation and waste collection, and a mindset against littering is needed. More than that is needed. A whole revamping society is needed.

That change won't come easy.

Night Trash 8

Night trash!  Did you forget about night trash?  I haven't. How could anyone forget night trash once they encounter it? Hungry dogs sniffing around for a midnight snack toppling over garbage cans and tearing open bags looking for a tasty treat are the source of night trash.

Stray Dogs and Garbage at the Graveyard

I went to a funeral service, sorry I mean Necrological service as that was what was printed on the program, and it was just as the title of this blog post says. First there were stray dogs roaming all over the place.

This little pupper was busy walking all over and rolling in the grass. Worn out he decided to a take a rest on this woman's grave. Surely she won't mind. But it was just a short rest because snack time was almost upon us. Everyone was scattered around the area munching on their cupcakes and sipping their mini Coke bottles. That was the cue for all the dogs to come out of hiding and begin begging for food and searching for scraps.

Of course a wheel barrow full of garbage is the jackpot for any discerning dog. These dogs are not discouraged from hanging out in the cemetery.  Here are the gravediggers feeding one of the dogs.

They probably have some comically morbid name for him.  Maybe Yorick? 

Second of all there was garbage.  I don't mean the garbage from snack time. I mean in the soil in which the man was being buried. Take a look for yourself.

I have no idea how that garbage got there because it is embedded in the dirt 4 or 5 feet down. How did it get there?  This cemetery is only a few years old. Before the cemetery it was just brush. Maybe the Philippines is just that dirty? 

Seeing this reminded me of some pictures sent to me a few months ago which I have refrained from publishing because I did not have enough information about them. A reader of this blog was at a funeral and noticed there was trash in the soil and he discreetly took a few pictures.

The first picture has very recognisable bits of absolute trash. There's glass bottles, shoes, and concrete (maybe rocks?). There is more garbage in the pictures he took than in mine and I do not understand how the garbage ended up in the grounds of either cemetery.

The person who sent me these pics thought perhaps the cemetery, Forest Lake Maa in Davao, used to be a landfill. It's possible. I don't think that's very likely though. A few months back I wrote Forest Lake an email which included the pictures but I never heard back. 

Could it be that years of open dumping have thoroughly polluted the soil of the Philippines? That somehow the trash made it's way into the earth through some slow process of pedogenesis (that means soil formation)?