Overloaded Sugarcane Truck Stuck In Low-Hanging Power Lines

 The title of this post says it all. Check out this beauty. What a beast! 

Lets look a little closer shall we?

One more angle ought to show the whole picture.

Can you tell that it's only two or three stalks holding up the line?

This is really all it takes to hold up traffic and make you look stupid. I know they overload these trucks for expediency's sake but that is no excuse. There is also no excuse for power lines to be this low.  You can see in the third picture there is a beer truck barely making clearance. There are actually many large trucks which come barreling down this road and there are many power lines that are too low. It's a disaster waiting to happen. I am surprised it does not happen every day.

Meralco Meters

This is the picture accompanying an article on the front page of the Inquirer about Meralco suspending disconnections for nonpayment of bills.

What a mess! What a gloriously insane mess!  One guy with apparently no safety line and no ladders in sight is precariously balancing on a thick rope of hot electrical power lines servicing the meters! Surrounding him are three phalanxes of meters jutting out from the side of each pole which begs the question, "How are these meters read?" Does it take a guy like this one risking his life?

Why is this even allowed?  How can anyone look at this situation and think it is normal and good? Perhaps Meralco should disconnect all power until they can clean up this unsightly and dangerous mess.

A Barrel of Gasoline

Just look at this!

LOOK!

Why is he being allowed to fill up a huge plastic barrel with gasoline?  It looks like there might not even be a cover on that barrel. Is he screwing on a cap in that last picture? Hard to tell but who cares, it's huge barrel of gasoline on the back of a truck with no door on the bed! Also looks like its only being held in place with a flimsy string tied around the top. 

What if he hit his brakes too hard or if he got into an accident? The barrel would roll right off and...BOOM!!!! Deadly explosion just waiting to happen. I bet he is going to sell that gasoline too. Transfer it to Coke bottles and sell it to passing motorcyclists. I have seen roadside gas stands in plenty of places. Are those even legal?

This whole situation is.........(fill in the blank) !!!!!

Jeepney Danger

Accidents don't "just happen."  That is safety 101.  Wearing protective equipment, making sure all safety precautions are taken, following the rules, these are the ways accidents are prevented before they happen.  But if you routinely buck the rules and ignore common sense then you are only one thread away from death or grave injury.

Road safety in the Philippines is non-existent.  No one follows the rules.  And no one enforces them either.  There are no police patrolling the streets looking for speeders, drunk drivers, cars without headlights, or anyone else driving unsafely.  In the Philippines when you get on the road you put your life in your own hands.  Be sure to buckle up.

Jeepnies are some of the worst offenders when it comes to ignoring safety practices.  They overload the jeepny and then they allow people to stand outside hanging on for miles and miles as if it's no big deal.  It is a big deal. It shows a complete disregard for the safety and life of the passengers.  It's an accident just waiting to happen.  

And it's 100% totally preventable.

A typical Filipino house

This is a typical Filipino house.  No, it's not the house that's typical about this house.  Filipinos live in everything from mansions to shanties constructed out of leftover wood and garbage.

What's typical about this house is the concrete and barbed wire fence.  Every single house in the Philippines is constructed like a mini-pentenitary.  The walls are concrete, the floor is hard concrete or tiles, the window have bars, and the outer wall is a huge concrete fence topped with shards of broken glass and barbed wire is strung along the whole perimeter.  There is also a large gate for vehicles to enter and exit.

No one gets in and you are safe inside your fortress.

Here's another example: 

A little different but still the same idea.  A concrete fenced topped with barbed wire.  The only difference is this one has a metal grate.

But why?  Why do Filipinos feel the need to enclose themselves in a mini-fortress?  What are they sacred of?  

They are scared of each other.  Filipinos don't trust one another.  Everyone is potential thief.

I live in a "gated community" but the gates are open 24/7 and only manned during the day.  There is a river marking the border of the community on the far back side and people have crossed it during the day to case the neighbourhood and return at night to break into people's homes. This "gated community" is wide open.  It is gated in name only.

During the day there are strange delinquent children walking around, vendors hawking fish, a constant flow of traffic, people coming to play basketball at the basketball court. Some of the farmers even have their carabao graze in the areas where the grass is tall. During Christmas carollers come by and even beggars knock on the door with envelopes asking for cash.

Innocent fish vendor or spy sent by a robbery syndicate to case the neighbourhood?

With all this unrestricted activity is it any wonder people turn their homes into prisons?

Plenty of houses here have been broken into. Cell phones, computers, washing machines, and thousands of pesos have all been stolen.  

Why would someone keep thousands of pesos in their home you ask?  Because the Philippines has a a cash economy.  There are banks.  There are credit cards.  But regular folks don't use them.  They literally stuff their cash under their pillow or in a hole in the floor. 

A man's home is his castle but in the Philippines it is also his prison.

Read all about crime in the Philippines here: http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Philippines/sub5_6f/entry-3908.html.

Coroner's office ignores basic safety protocols

So they found the headless body of the German who was executed by Abu Sayyaf on February 26. Now the coroner has to do an inquest.  It's all standard procedure of course.

Standard procedure?  To wear shorts and slippers in the examination room?

Obviously the guy pointing to the dead body is the lead man.  The head honcho.  The man in charge. Why is he not wearing the proper safety equipment?  Everyone else is.

Were there not enough gowns to go around?  Did he get a 3am phone call and have to rush over? Is he too important to have to put on a gown? Did he figure, "I'm not going to be doing the actual examination so it doesn't matter?"

Seems doubtful.  

Why is following safety protocols such a difficult matter in the Philippines?

Too many questions.  Never a satisfactory answer.  

Abu Sayyaf jihadists behead German hostage in video

Is the Philippines a civilized country?  Because no civilized country in the world would continually allow terrorists to operate within its borders.

Abu Sayyaf has been causing terror in the Philippines for far too long and now they have beheaded another foreign hostage.  From Reuters:

The Philippines on Monday condemned the "barbaric beheading" of a German captive by Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf militants, who posted a video of the killing after a deadline for a $600,000 ransom passed.

The video showed a machete-wielding militant behead the elderly German hostage, Jurgen Kantner, who had appealed for help twice in short video messages, saying he would be killed if ransom was not paid.

Jesus Dureza, presidential adviser on the Philippine peace process, said officials had exhausted all efforts to save Kantner, who was held on the tiny southern island of Jolo, but to no avail.

"We grieve as we strongly condemn the barbaric beheading of yet another kidnap victim," Dureza said in a statement.

"...Terrorism has no place in a country like ours and we as a people must confront violent extremism every time it rears its ugly head. There must be a stop to this killing of the innocent and the helpless."

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-militants-german-idUSKBN16613A

What's it going to take for the Philippine government to realise they are at war?  This group has pledged loyalty to ISIS and is not backing down for anyone. Limp-wristed rhetoric will accomplish nothing.  This terrorist group only speaks the language of violence.  How many more innocent civilians must die?

Read the Wikipedia page for this group.  They are a violent lot of criminals who deserve no mercy.  The whole southern region is infested with Muslim terrorists of all stripes fighting for the overthrow of the Philippines government and the implementation of an Islamic State.

It is time for the wholesale destruction of ALL terrorist groups and their supporters in the Philippines.  BIFF, MILF, MNLF, the Maute Group, and Abu Sayyaf all need to go. Here's a suggestion:  firebomb the whole area and don't tell anyone about it beforehand. Simply take your aircraft and bomb these terrorists straight to Hell. Take no prisoners and do not negotiate any terms of surrender. Kill them all.

Ending the war these groups have started is way more important than stopping the flow of shabu.  In fact the two go hand-in-hand.

"New evidence indicates that shabu also plays a role in the Philippines’ increasingly troublesome Islamic militancy problem, particularly in the recruitment and funding of the Abu Sayyaf Group. 

With no known source of funding, the Abu Sayyaf Group has traditionally relied on kidnapping and extortion to generate revenue for its terrorist operations; however, the organization is suspected of involvement in the country’s illegal drug trade.

Abu Sayyaf is said to be behind drug proliferation operations in ZamBaSulTa, which covers Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi.

Former hostages told the JTFS that they had seen Abu Sayyaf militants taking and distributing shabu in their camps." 

http://dailycaller.com/2016/09/30/meet-shabu-the-drug-fueling-islamic-extremism/ 

WARNING: Filipinos at Work!

Some guys from PLDT came by the neighbourhood to install a cable:

Why do Filipino linemen never have a bucket truck? Is PLDT really hurting that much for funds? Why are there three guys just standing around? Why is safety never number one? 

It's amazing how safety here always takes a backseat to getting the job done.  Something tells me that if one were to really study workplace accident statistics for the Philippines the numbers would be quite high.

Filipinos do not like to drive with their headlights on at night

Filipinos do not like to drive with their headlights on at night.  I have seen this time and time again with taxis, cars, trucks, jeepnies, motorcycles, tricycles, commercial trucks overloaded with sugarcane, they simply do not like to turn on their lights at night.  

Some jeepny drivers will drive with their lights on but when they come to a lighted area they switch them off and when they leave the area they turn them back on.  Some will turn them off when they stop for passengers and turn them back on when they start moving again. WHY??  To save power?  That is what the alternator is for!

Other jeepny and tricycle drivers will have their vehicle decked out in green, red, blue, white, or yellow rope lights and the whole thing will be lit up but the headlights will still remain off.  I suppose they think they are looking good but really they look garish and they are putting everyone in danger by not using their headlights.

Others install red, green, or blue headlights.  What good is that??  The point of headlights is so you can see the road and so others can see you.  If other vehicles can see you but you can't see the road in front of you then you have a problem.  Especially if your jeepny is overfilled and you got two guys standing on the back step and hanging on outside the vehicle!  

Driving with no lights on is the most reckless and infuriating driving habit because it is so dangerous and the danger is easily preventable.

TURN ON YOUR HEADLIGHTS!!!!!!!!!