I was out for an afternoon run when the sky darkened and I knew I had to return home quickly before the downpour began. On the way back I saw smoke emanating from the sugarcane fields ahead and I figured they were simply burning the fields as is normally done after a harvest. But the closer I got I could tell something was off.
For one thing the smoke was thick and black much unlike the smoke of a burning sugarcane field which is thin and gray. For another thing the smoke was concentrated in one area. It was obvious someone was burning something they should not be burning. When I finally got a look at the burn pile I was shocked beyond belief.
They were burning a jumble of electrical cords!
There was a man sitting in a truck and a guy who seemed to be about 14 or 15 tending the fire. I asked him why he was burning electrical cords. He said because he was poor and his family did not have money to pay for his tuition. I asked if someone paid him to burn these cords. He said no. That did not make any sense so I pressed for more information but to no avail.
He also apologized profusely and killed the fire by tossing water on it.
I was sure they would dump the charred wires in the field but when I returned a few hours later there was nothing but a pile of ash.
The guy in the truck never said a word to me as I talked to his son. I presume that is their relationship, unless he was the one paying the guy to burn the cords.
Anyway, this incident was very bizarre and I was completely disgusted. This is not just burning leaves or garbage at your house. These two people drove off to what they thought was a secluded area, it is not, and illegally and foolishly burned a huge mass of electrical wires. And it's really not about the law. No one in the Philippines cares about the law anyway. These people would not have been fined or jailed even if the PNP had witnessed their crime. The point is the ethics of it. You just don't do this. You do not burn electrical wires out in a sugar cane field. If you don't understand that then you are a lost cause. Allow me to present to you the shopping cart test of civilization which works on the same principles.
No comments:
Post a Comment