Sunday, March 7, 2010

What the - Litter!?

I've been in Korea for almost 10 years, so you think I would be used to the casual littering that goes on here, but this week the mooks took me by surprise again. That's what happens when you let your guard down for even a moment - they sense the opportunity and fuck you over but good.
You've probably seen a lot of littering if you've been here any length of time. Kids leaving the convenience store with their "snacks" will drop the packaging wherever and whenever. I once followed an ajumma who was reading a newspaper as she walked. Each page, when done with, was peeled off and dropped, leaving a trail behind her.
The front stoop of our con-apts are the repository for the day's or the weeks trash. It's left to pile up until the trash men come by. Whatever doesn't fit their stringent aesthetics is left to fester until it is finally merged into the general detritus of the street.
People in my building will leave trash bags outside their doors for days at a time until they finally work up the energy to take it down to the street. I love seeing rotting piles of garbage next to the dirty dishes from whatever kimchi take-out they had that night.
If you live near an entertainment district like I do, you'll see armies of mooks throwing circulars down on the sidewalk advertising night clubs, call girls, and coffee shops. Not to mention the mooks who tape them to your door while you sleep.
Driving, I see a lot of mooks tossing stuff out of their cars, mostly cigarette butts and loogies. This week, however, took the cake. I was following one of those "Musso" SUVs ( what the hell is a "musso," anyway?), and the mook threw out a pair of surgical rubber gloves.
What the kimchi!?
Was he doing some impromptu operating on his vehicle? Was his bitch protecting herself while she jerked him off? Was it Howard Hughes?
It makes me shake my head the way they deal with trash in this country. I'm fairly conscientious when it comes to trash, and I always try to throw it in the proper receptacle. Except the proper receptacles are rarer than hen's teeth in Korea. Look around, and try and find more than five in your town.
Where are they? Who the hell knows. The odd one you see next to the bus stops are usually full to overflowing. You'd think the need for trashcans would move the municipal authorities to install more, and educate the public to use them rather than the nearest gutter.
But I heard, and this is one of those "from a friend of a friend" things, that the powers that be don't want to have a lot of trash barrels around because, wait for it, they attract trash.
Now, just sit back and let the... uh.... logic? of that statement flow over you.
They don't want a lot of trashcans around because they will be full of trash.
I roll my eyes.

6 comments:

  1. Korean logic is a strange thing. I've always said a man could go crazy asking himself "why" a Korean did anything.

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  2. Heh Korean and logic in the same sentence?

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  3. You and I say "A, B, C..." A Korean will say, "A, Q, S, F, U..."

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  4. I heard it was not exactly because they don't want them to be filled with trash. It is because they want the revenue from the trash bags.

    When the government passed a law requiring people to buy specific trash bags for their trash in order to pay for the garbage removal, everyone just threw their garbage in the garbage cans, then they overflowed and there were huge heaps of garbage surrounding them.

    While there are still heaps of trash, at least there are a few garbage bags in some of the heaps.

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  5. Even with the special trash bags, there are still heaps of garbage everywhere NOT in bags. Now it just looks like a slum wherever you go.

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  6. When I was living in Canada (ah, the good old days...), I'd run into the odd visitor who usually made the comment that our country was so clean. Now I know why.

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