Trash Talk

I was walking in a park here in Hong Kong then I saw this cute statue. I thought it was really cute with its mouth wide open, reason why I took this picture.

I was standing too close to it while taking this picture since the iPhone didn't have flash and it was dark. Then my husband asked me why I was taking a photo of the trash can.

Darn it! I almost hugged that thing and it was a thing full of shit inside.

Then thoughts came in:

1) Parks could afford to make these kinds of statue-trash cans everywhere along with the usual ones.

2) Looking around the park, there wasn't any litter around.

3) How can no.2 be possible?

And without having to answer myself yet, I thought to myself how it is very different in the Philippines. Then further questions came to my mind:

1) Why can't the Philippines be as clean as the other countries are?

2) Why can't the Filipinos keep the surroundings clean, parks at a smaller scale?

3) Is it discipline?

To answer the questions about how Hong Kong maintains its cleanliness, I don't quite have enough "facts" to base them from. But based on my observation, it's just discipline that drives this all. After smoking you have to ditch the butt in the trash can, if not it'll be the other way around for you. Reason why, you cannot smoke wherever you fee like smoking. It is prohibited, and if unfortunately you get caught by the police, you'll be fined HKD 1,500. If you think you can escape that fee, you can't. The bill will go straight to your house with the Hong Kong SAR government letterhead.

And because it is really obvious that someone does his cleaning job around here, it is your job to show a little respect by shooting that dang litter on the can next to you. If you don't, then shame on you. I'm telling you there are a lot of cans here for those garbage and you won't have an excuse to not finding one. And while you do it every time, you unknowingly form a habit, a good one for sure.

So it is just fair to ask if the people back there in the land of MNL lack discipline or it's a different thing going on there. You'll see on the streets piles and piles of garbage, or there aren't just enough room for those shit.

I am not washing hands or anything because I've lived all my life there and for sure I did contribute some litter somewhere.


And I wonder, if people back there also ask why it's such a dirty place in MNL, maybe they should also ask themselves if they've done their part. Did they throw their little piece of Jollibee plastic in that black bag, that cigarette butt, that yellow, neon green, orange, red and what have you color SM plastic bag, or just any shit in the right place, it would be a cleaner place.


And now I am not gonna pose this question to the government or local officials since it's their job to answer this even without someone asking. As individuals and as citizens of what we still call our beloved country, we need to take part.