Unsung Heroes: Cleaners

Everyday we're bound to see a lot of common people like street cleaners, garbage collectors, and the likes. Ever wonder why would people do these work? Is it because they're not educated? Family tradition? What would happen if there weren't them around doing the dirty work? Will our streets and country be so clean or will it become like a huge garbage dump smelling and rotting?

How many of us actually know the person cleaning your area?
Spoken/have a decent conversation with them before other than asking them for help when u have things to clear up?
I believe most of us would say never! Why is it so? Aren't they human? Is it just because the way the present themselves being all dirty and stinky?

Without a doubt, these minority plays an important role in society today. Even if we were to look down upon those working in this field, but we cannot deny that they are important. No matter however worse the situation might be, they will come and do their job whether late or on time.

Let's journey back into the past for a while. When I was small, the visual of the typical street cleaner that time was like a person holding a broomstick with lotsa black plastic bag tied around the broomstick or pushing a big green portable rubbishbin. They would sweep the rubbish and nicely deposit them into the bin/bags and place them by the roadside awaiting for the disposal truck to pick them up. Rain or shine they would do the job and everyday its the same routine only on different roads/areas.

Has they evolved over time? Has their situation got better? I believe the job hasn't changed but the people's attitude towards these work has changed dramatically. How? one might ask. Well if you haven't noticed, our government has privatized if not all, most of the garbage collection and cleaniness of our areas. We were to pay them monthly maintenance charge as we did before in hopes that they will do a better job as their jurisdiction is limited to certain area.... BUT its a wrong perception. I've seen street cleaners coming to sweep with nothing more than a broomstick. You know, those old fashion coconut 'lidi' type. Ahhh... brings back old memories... but hold on a sec... is there something missing in the picture? A street cleaner armed with only a broomstick? Where would the garbage go?

The latest trend that I noticed is that all swept garbage from the streets goes into the drain, river and etc.. whatever is convenient for them to dispose to. I'm not refering to those mid to high range living area, but normal low-cost flat area. This is the incident I've been seeing for quite sometime now. Rubbish/leaves are being swept into the river. Sometimes when you have a huge pile of rubbish piled up neatly in front/beside the rubbish bin, these people has the guts to either not receive the 'loot' OR ring n your doorbell and ask for some 'workmanship' fee as this is something extra-ordinary from their daily routing. The norm is that household would just give in to them.

Garbage truck collecting garbage is another niusance. They would always come in the oddest time to collect garbage. Early in the rush hour traffic (ie 8.00am-9.00am) This is the ost crucial time for everyone as they need to rush to work or send their children to school. As we know, these trucks are big and will stop regularly thus delaying traffic. Why can't they choose to do the work at another time slot? Maybe I'm naive but from movies, you can see all other countries has their garbage collection is either at night/evening or wee hours in the morning.. ie 6.00am-7.00am where traffic is less and the weather is not so hot!!! Why can other countries do that but not us? Is it that we stand by the phrase 'Malaysia Boleh!'