I took Mocha to run today. He was neutered one week ago and has been constrained as a result. The weather was on-and-off, and Syd had gone with his dogs earlier, during a clear break. So it was just us, traversing this route for the first time in a few weeks. Happily, no motos, no quads, no horses, no woodcutters – OK, a few cows that Mocha ran to and barked at – but with little apparent result (with Benji they would have been making noise and moving, not a Good Thing.)
I’ve previously written about trash dumped there in the middle of nowhere, for no apparent reason, but it continues to beggar the imagination. Consider this location —
— where we now find a discarded Epson printer. And not just discarded: the blue-green stuff to its left are the bits of glass from the deliberately smashed display. So somebody carried this thing far into an empty area, only for the purpose of smashing its display screen and leaving it?
A bit further along, new discarded clothing, apparently children’s winter wear. So we’re in the middle of winter, and the best thing you can think to do with unneeded clothing that can keep a child warm, is not to donate it to the take-anything thrift shop, or even discard it in the ubiquitous trash containers for some scavenger to find, but carry it hundreds of meters into the middle of nowhere and throw it on the ground where it will serve no one?
I’m sure at some point I documented the sudden appearance of discarded auto parts. These have in fact diminished – there were, if I recall, three windshields. The other two, unbroken, have apparently been harvested. And maybe other parts as well. I have photos here, elsewhere, somewhere.
At another location, where overnight appeared a huge pile of construction plastic sheeting some time ago, now widely scattered by the wind, a new visual accent: a smashed and probably UV-sun-rotted plastic dish rack. (But why so shattered?)
I discussed this over dinner with my wife. Perhaps we’re not witnessing a cultural manifestation (these people!), or necessarily a low level of awareness (these troglodytes!).
Maybe something different: an expression of frustration, anger. Not that you would experience that meeting them. But they are expressing frustration and anger about their environment – not discerning physical from emotional. Trashing their physical environment somehow serves an emotional need, not so much different from people who cut themselves.
Down the rabbit hole…
These is the image Paul refers to in his comment below.
I’m glad I live in Colonia, The people out your way are heathens to say the least….
Haven’t you just posted on Facebook in the past week or so an account of someone firing a gun from a bicycle at someone running down the street in Colonia – where a bullet went through a shop window, narrowly missing a customer’s head? And a 15 year old under “house arrest” for breaking into cars with a pry bar? Am I missing something here 😉
You and your wife might be on to something with that theory. I’ve had trouble discerning as to why so many people disrespect the land where they live. The land never did anything to deserve the trashing but yet it happens. It may have something to do with not valuing something that wasn’t earned but it’s still a mystery to me as to why it happens and it is so unnecessary. I’d be very interested in hearing from others as to what theories they may have as to why this happens to this otherwise beautiful country. I wonder if any studies have ever been done on the subject?
And this is beyond the “tragedy of the commons,” which is what we also see there – people cutting down trees for firewood in this no-man’s land.
I remember “bag farms” in Mexico, where in the corners of fields you’d see massive wind-blown piles of discarded plastic bags. I figured that was because in the pre-plastic era, people could throw things anywhere and they’d rot away, and habits die hard. I probably wrote about at some point the guy here who cleared up a “dumping lot” across from his house when they installed the trash collection bins. No sooner had he completed (over a period of several days), he saw a middle-aged man walking past the trash container into the field, and dumping trash there. He ran out of his house screaming at the guy, whose response was, “But this is the way I’ve always done it.”
I own an empty lot of land in Las Vegas-UY. The
neighbor behind it is throwing for weeks his trash
next to it. Out of that white door – see pic 1.
The pile is already c. 1meter thick, because they
always try to cover it with garden waste – see pic 2.
We have 3 times a week fantastic trash-truck
service and they would take everything for free !!
Tell me why these human pigs do that ??
Uruguayan mentality ??”
A denuncia to the police and intendencia is filed,
we’ll see.
This situation is all over the country and all over
Latin America the same, they don’t learn better.