If There Were One More Thing You Could Change ......

[OnMyWay]

I used up my one thing in the other thread so here is another!  :) A bit of a rant!

 

Many areas of the Philippines could be so much nicer if people just took basic steps to maintain things with a bit of paint, neatness and common sense repair work.  I see so many buildings that started out new and fairly modern looking, but within a few years they are filthy and old looking.  I know money is an issue if someone can afford to build / own a nice building, you would think they could afford to take care of it.

 

Something got me started on this today.  My older daughter is applying to attend 7th grade at the Regional Science High School.  The school is here in the Kalayaan neighborhood where we live.  It is a public school that is supposed to attract the best and brightest from all of Zambales.  The Kalayaan neighborhood is the former officer's housing from the U.S. Navy here is Subic Bay, and you can see that the school was once really nice.  Imagine your average single story 1950s / 1960s elementary school in the USA.

 

My daughter had to take an aptitude test this morning that is the first of two tests.  300+ applicants and only about 120 will be accepted.  The applicants have to achieve high scores in their current school and are supposed to be in the top 10% of their class (but that is not true).  I had my first chance to walk around and take a closer look at the school.

 

This was a really nice school.  It should be a showcase public school and now it is just full of the typical Filipino shoddy repair work or lack of any maintenance.  Roofs haphazardly patched.  Block walls repaired haphazardly and not painted.  Where there has been wall painting, no attempt at neatness and spilled paint all over the school walkways.  Aircon drain pipes laid over the existing walkways and then some quickcrete applied, creating a trip point for the kids.  Aircons with no drain pipe; just a bucket in the middle of the walkway.  Planted areas that are mostly un-maintained dirt.  The classroom where she took the test was big and from a distance the walls seemed ok, but the floors appeared to be the worn out hard linoleum left by the Navy.  The desks appeared to be that old too and were very beat up.  I looked in the cafeteria and it appears to have never been touched since the Navy left.  And on and on and on.

 

I think it really boils down to the mentality of those involved.  They are so used to things being run down that they just accept that things are going to look like that.  What is with the shoddy repairs?  Who accepts that at this type of facility?

 

That was my rant for the day!

[lyno 47]

Here in Cebu while walking around I have yet to see a trash can,people just throw there garbage, soda cans, plastic bags, discarded food wherever they want.

Me and my wife  carry our trash home with us and place it in our own bin .

[Dave Hounddriver]

Me and my wife  carry our trash home with us

 

You are lucky.  When I explain to my Yvonne that we should not throw trash around she says:  "Ok, YOU carry it around." and then gives her trash to me to put in my pocket.  I usually have full pockets by the end of our daily walk.

[Queenie O.]

Frustrating and dismaying at times...

[DavidK]

The size of my bank balance.

[Larry45]

I couldn't agree more with the OP.  For a country that pretends to be so proud, there's very little substance to that.  We had a big regional sporting event here a week ago, and this photo made the news.  Sadly, none of the locals or visitors probably even noticed how ridiculous this building looks as a backdrop.  That's typhoon damage from 2 years ago.

 

 

 

 

[mogo51]

A good post and how true.  Last time I was in Manila with SO we were walking to a train through flyovers that have been turned into 

'piss points' by locals - stunk of urine.  Never see any public toilets and litter everywhere.

Back to Thailand 'samesame.  Walking past a woman yesterday taking food out of a plastic bag and just dropped in on the ground.

There are rubbish bins here but nowhere near enough.  Go onto the back streets, vacant land strewn with rubbish = sad.

[Dave Hounddriver]

About trash cans.

 

I have seen areas where there are sufficient trash cans, along the boulevard in Dumaguete is one such place, but those trash bins usually get the trash scattered within minutes of someone putting any in.  This is caused by stray dogs, stray cats, rats, street kids, and adult beggars who each see the trash can as a source of treasure.  I also notice that when some civic minded person tried to put on lids to keep the stray animals out then people did not bother to open the lids to deposit their trash and other people ripped the lids off as they wanted easier access to their 'treasure'.  Thus I believe that more trash cans will solve nothing except to make tourists feel better about where they deposit their trash.

 

Again, on trash, I used to believe it was better to carry trash home and give it to the garbage collector, until I realized that many trash sites are on the shore of the ocean, or in some cases loaded into boats and dumped at sea so all the trash washes up back on the beach anyway.  Still it makes me feel better to give my trash to the garbage men.

 

What would I change?  I would change the way Filipino people view their country and their culture from "This is Philippines and this is how we do it here" to "This is Philippines, love it, respect the environment, and prosecute those who do not (even the very rich ones)".

[Mike S]

I couldn't agree more with the OP.  For a country that pretends to be so proud, there's very little substance to that.  We had a big regional sporting event here a week ago, and this photo made the news.  Sadly, none of the locals or visitors probably even noticed how ridiculous this building looks as a backdrop.  That's typhoon damage from 2 years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

I can't see your picture the link is broken .... at least for me ..... not surprised that Leyte is still in shambles ..... while tons of money and supplies were sent to the Philippines the majority of which was to be used in Leyte the hardest hit .... the government there unfortunately is not for the Liberal Party so the biggest share of what was supposed to be sent there was withheld or so I was told ..... real shame but that is how politics works .... always the little people that suffer ....  :angry: :th_unfair: .... JMHO

Edited February 14, 2016 by Mike S