PULLING WOOL OVER KNOWING EYES

While uncollected garbage rots and other blotches and blunders keep harassing the helpless citizenry, the powers that be, think that spot-colour washing tactics will make people say ‘how nice things are now’

Garbage, the stuff that originates mostly in kitchens, stinks. It stinks more when it is not collected by ‘garbees’ operating from carts, trucks and tractors. Who said the garbage mess is something new? It has been climbing up noses and getting on to and into shoes, slippers and high heels of people living in cities and their suburbs for years. And, no wonder, the authorities never got their act right in the business of collecting and disposing muck generated by the ton in places wherever people live and work.

Garbage news

Everyone would agree that garbage has been a perpetual issue for years. Mounds of garbage on roads make pedestrians’ lives a nightmare while cars squelched over garbage strewn on roads creating patches of slippery goo. Dumping of garbage crowned the whole mess. Tons of the stuff tipped into plots of vacant land created an unhealthy and unpleasant environment to people living nearby but the subject glanced off the authorities. Garbage was such a problem the media was never without news or complaints involving some aspect of it–from collection to the dumping of it practically on top of people.

Yokels were responsible for the saying: ‘Colombata kiri, apata kakiri’ that is no longer concerned with country bumpkins governments. It has invaded everyone’s lives excepting those of politicians and their lackeys, commis kakakas, kudu kaputas, vedi karayas, ganan karayas and other crooked shadows we keep hearing about

This scene is great…

But a change in attitude in handling the garbage issue has stirred in the bowels of authority. What triggered it? Was the misery of the people finally noticed? That’s very doubtful. It is more likely the World Bank threatened to stop loans or the UNICEF made sounds of reducing Thriposha quotas. What kicked the government to cultivate more interest in clearing garbage will never be known. In an environment as opaque and smelly as garbage itself, who is to know?

Whatever the reason, a silver lining appeared in the smelly mess that is no longer starkly noticeable as it was a couple of years ago. But this bright side is restricted to cities–to be precise city limits or certain parts of major cities. Consider the sprucing-up agendas in certain parts of Colombo. Roads, pavements, fountains, patches of blue grass, trees and flowers etc. are hogging the limelight. Again no-one can explain the flurry of environmental and city-beautifying strokes. Garbage is no longer a burning issue; roads and pavements are kept clean and tidy; the change is so marked people half expect the roads to be mopped with Nysol. And, keep- thecity- clean plans progress under the watchful eyes of uniformed officers of the Environmental Police seen loitering around in pairs. The difference between these cops and other cops is that they don’t blow whistles or shout ‘ Oi! Oi!’ when some impatient guy jumps a white line. Some say this whole effort is politically scented to show Colombo off as the ‘nucleus of development’ to official and unofficial foreign visitors.

But, the eye wash stops there. A couple of kilometres away from the lordly gate of a municipal council and other local government offices the scene changes noticeably.

…this one is not

One morning my nose was assailed by an unmistakable stink of kitchen throwaways. An exercise in following my nose found the source–garbage rotting in polythene bags stacked outside our kitchen door. Our housemaid explained that garbees had not collected bags of garbage left by our gate on Wednesday–one of the two collection days every week. The garbees had failed to appear on Sunday either–the other collection day. Although I hoped the backlog will be cleared shortly, the bagged stuff was not collected during the next week or the following week. The result was that the mound of garbage stacked at the back grew and so did the smell. And at almost every gate, on the side of the road, doorway, and at the top of lanes opening on to the main road garbage in bags left in anticipation of being collected were heaped or strewn about.

The missing garbees

Where have all the garbees gone? Were they on holiday? Retrenched? Are they down with mumps, measles, or HIV/AIDS or had somebody died and everybody was in mourning?

Questioning the non-removal of garbage was natural. The scene was a marked departure from the garbage disposal and other agendas under the supervision of the Environmental Police in other parts of the city. Now was the time to contact someone responsible to know why our garbage has not been removed. But, not a single environmental policeman, garbage lorry or a garbee in a ‘Habans’ uniform was anywhere to be seen. And unsurprisingly noone answered the phone at the Pradeshiya Sabha. Where was the office of the environment police of the area anyway? Noone knew.

Meanwhile the garbage at the back of houses, in front of houses, stacked on the road and in drains grew. Alongside, dogs–choosy scavengers–kept ripping polythene bags that smelt the most appetizing. And the people bore the brunt of the garbage factor for a total of seventeen days–give or take one.

Seventeen - day stink

After seventeen days of absence two garbees loading a solitary tractor already full of garbage were spotted along the road. They unceremoniously loaded only the undamaged garbage bags and left the ‘dogged-up bags’ to take care of themselves. Unable to collect anymore garbage the tractor was seen shuddering into the distance leaving behind hundreds of bags of garbage to disintegrate and flow into drains. The results of that process will be seen when the rains come down in earnest.

This was not that part of the Colombo city reaching pristine heights you and I see when driving or riding to work. In contrast, despite a twice-a-week- collec- tion schedule in the area I live, not too far away from a municipal council, piles of garbage on roadsides are a common sight. Many byroads are pot-holed, healthy grasses sprout from roadside drains and clumps of weeds, piles of stones, sand, bricks and clutter crowd roadsides. This dismal scene of neglect and disregard to the environment and people living in the locality is a far cry from the beautified ‘city nucleus’.

Story’s the same

This is part of our administrative culture where ‘preferential standards’, double standards, low standards, no standards and gross neglect and indifference in a multitude of happenings in our country is the norm. It is a feature that was identified first by village yokels going without the most basic necessities. Because officialdom was not looking their way they pleaded for busses to get about, more pills from hospitals, proper schools for children, some roads to cut 15 kilometre journeys on foot, bridges to cross rivers, markets for their produce and just water to grow paddy and veggies over some decades.

But they were not heard or counted in any equation in our democracy. So, the yokels went vocal on their plight. They were responsible for the saying: ‘ Colombata kiri, apata kakiri’ a realty that is no longer concerned with country bumpkins governments forgot after elections. It has invaded everyone’s lives excepting those of politicians and their lackeys, commis kakakas, kudu kaputas, vedi karayas, ganan karayas and other crooked shadows we keep hearing about.

So whether it is in garbage collection or anything else that concerns ordinary people, all you and I can do brother is wait and wait, and wait for that miracle to happen.

dailymirror.tub@gmail.com

Village yokels pleaded for busses to get about, more pills from hospitals, schools for children, roads to cut 15 kilometre journeys on foot, bridges to cross rivers, water to grow paddy and veggies. But they were not heard or counted in any equation in our democracy