Makati's Visual Pollution

Everything seems dirty and filty as it already is. Cigarette butts, candy wrappers, fishball sticks, corn cobs, bits of paper, used plastic bags, and empty bottles are all over the place. These get attended to in the morning and the rest of the day by our able street aide cleaners but there are just seems to be a lot to throw away and the people just do not hate trash to a heightened degree that they would not want to see any, just yet.

It seems that it is only in the Philippines that government people have a penchant for validation. Consequently, the people they govern commonly have this notion that they must see the names of their government officials in plain view over their road, bridge, paved sidewalks, improved sewage, street lighting, and street-side rails projects to note that they have done something in their term. The billboards and posters stating, "This roadside improvement is a project of: Major Jejomar Binay" or other mayors in other cities or some other sorry ass bimbo are, in fact, unnecessary. For one, they are using up government funding to come up with a poster that is of poor taste and done in amateurish and obviously-handwritten fonts in way-off and visually irritating color schemes. Two, it is tantamount to cluttering the urbanscape with utter ugliness. Take the overpass along EDSA in the Tramo area (the one with poorly done galvanized-sheet roofing in dirty old beige color) as an example. The names of its local officials are painted in maroon on the entire expanse of the domed roof to take credit of pseudo-improving that hideous infrastructure! The workmanship itself is a mess yet they still have the urge to have their identities tied up to the project, obviously all in the name of self-intersest in the election periods to come. Ever seen the huge poster of those in the Makati City government plastered over the wall of the Makati gymnasium over at Poblacion? Another terrible waste of money.

As tax payers and citizens of this country, we have the right to good streets, safe environment, ample water and electric supply, and working waste (both solid, liquid, or otherwise) disposal systems. The projects as mentioned are the tasks that they need to do, not an additional feat worth noting. It is their obligation to deliver, not an add-on to their job description. If any, they should be thankful to us for giving them jobs. Remember that our hard-earned taxes pay for their and their family's pathetic existence. We have placed them in power for our own good.

Take those blasted signage things out of our sight and we are on our way to being at par with the ad-less public amenities of our much more developed neighboring countries. It's just trash anyway. While they're at it, please make use of the funds more wisely. There's some stuff way better and needed than a mayor's monogram in every street rail project he makes. Just do so when your family name starts with the same letter as the city you hold office at because I can't seem to see the connection of the letter "B" in everything in Makati, unless we change it's name to Bakati which doesn't really look, sound, or smell good.

posted by Fritz @ 3:45 PM