For 200.00 PHP, the woman bought one plastic pail full of leftover fried chicken, collected from the daily garbage of fast food chains around Metro Manila. Just chicken, nothing else. Chicken bones, with some meat and some skin. Crispy, golden brown, and white and grey.
The water probably came from the neighborhood water pump. Or she could have bought it from someone. Or from a broken pipe. With the water, she washed the chicken, making sure the meat doesn't fall off and drop to the bottom of the pail. It was like washing vegetables, just shaking it a bit, plunging it into the murky water a few times. With the water, she transformed garbage into food.
With cheap grease and cheap fire, she fried the chicken once again, a resurrection, with soy sauce and vinegar and garlic. She sold it for 20.00 PHP a plate. Everyday, she nets about 150.00 PHP. Her husband has no job, so they eat what they sell.
Tears welled in her eyes, as she told the interviewer off-camera, she wished she didn't have to eat garbage.
They had no choice, she said.
During the course of the interview, the woman mentioned the word, "marangal"--honorable.
There seems to be a subgroup among garbage folk. Those who take the garbage from your office building and sort out the paper, the glass, the plastic. Things they can weigh and sell off. Like their dry goods kin, this subgroup (I'm guessing it's a subgroup) avoids office buildings and heads for fast food restaurants and malls, waiting for the brightly-uniformed men to quietly stow their food-filled black garbage bags.
All the major fast food chains have a policy of not giving away the leftover food, to protect the public. They are all classified as garbage once they leave the brightly-lit premises of the fast food restaurant. But once they are sitting in the smelly, dark corners of the designated garbage area, the garbage is salvaged and taken away.
Away from the commercial centers and malls, the garbage bags are cut open and its contents are sorted, the rice, the meat, and--famously--the fried chicken.
At 200.00 PHP per pail.
They interviewed this old woman who was so poor that she had to borrow a plate of chicken. She had no work and she was taking care of her crazy niece and her niece's daughter. The old woman boiled the chicken, planning to make it last for at maybe three days, if they're lucky. Next week, she will again borrow one plate of chicken.
What is all this? This is the stuff of fiction, even dystopic science fiction. But here's the proof, that we have people eating garbage, just to survive. Technically, come to think of it, chicken protein is much better than the nutrition-free instant noodles that is staple for people who earn less than 30.00 PHP a day.
This damn thing is a documented fact, shown on the TV show, Kontrobersyal, last Saturday night (ABS-CBN Channel 2, 10:30 PM).
Real. And utterly sad.
This documentary came in the wake of the news of the father who lost two sons because he fed them food (lechon) that he took from the garbage. Hunger is the issue of the moment.
The newspapers are latching on to a statistic that the Social Weather Station released, as part of its SWS 3rd Quarter Survey: 15.1%.
Fifteen point one percent.
Three out of 20 people.
Roughly 12 million people.
What was the question?--
"In the last 3 months, did it happen even once that your family experienced hunger and not have anything to eat?"
Hunger is nothing new. Indeed, it is a global phenomenon, but mostly in countries like the Philippines. Impoverished, colonized, globalized, on the last rung of the new world order. Google gives me over 400,000 hits for "world hunger".
This is absurd, and beyond my comprehension. How do I begin to understand?
For some reason, I am reminded of Khavn De La Cruz's upcoming movie, "Ang Pamilyang Kumakain ng Lupa", based on his Palanca-winning short fiction of the same title.
There's a joke that persists from my childhood, and--it seems--from everyone's childhood. When a piece of food falls on the floor, someone will quickly shout--"Pwede pa yan! Wala pang five minutes! Sayang!"
When does food become garbage? When it falls from our fingers? When it disappears from our sight? Sayang. Such a waste. What happens when garbage becomes food, right in front of us, in the newspapers, in prime time TV?
The water probably came from the neighborhood water pump. Or she could have bought it from someone. Or from a broken pipe. With the water, she washed the chicken, making sure the meat doesn't fall off and drop to the bottom of the pail. It was like washing vegetables, just shaking it a bit, plunging it into the murky water a few times. With the water, she transformed garbage into food.
With cheap grease and cheap fire, she fried the chicken once again, a resurrection, with soy sauce and vinegar and garlic. She sold it for 20.00 PHP a plate. Everyday, she nets about 150.00 PHP. Her husband has no job, so they eat what they sell.
Tears welled in her eyes, as she told the interviewer off-camera, she wished she didn't have to eat garbage.
They had no choice, she said.
During the course of the interview, the woman mentioned the word, "marangal"--honorable.
There seems to be a subgroup among garbage folk. Those who take the garbage from your office building and sort out the paper, the glass, the plastic. Things they can weigh and sell off. Like their dry goods kin, this subgroup (I'm guessing it's a subgroup) avoids office buildings and heads for fast food restaurants and malls, waiting for the brightly-uniformed men to quietly stow their food-filled black garbage bags.
All the major fast food chains have a policy of not giving away the leftover food, to protect the public. They are all classified as garbage once they leave the brightly-lit premises of the fast food restaurant. But once they are sitting in the smelly, dark corners of the designated garbage area, the garbage is salvaged and taken away.
Away from the commercial centers and malls, the garbage bags are cut open and its contents are sorted, the rice, the meat, and--famously--the fried chicken.
At 200.00 PHP per pail.
They interviewed this old woman who was so poor that she had to borrow a plate of chicken. She had no work and she was taking care of her crazy niece and her niece's daughter. The old woman boiled the chicken, planning to make it last for at maybe three days, if they're lucky. Next week, she will again borrow one plate of chicken.
What is all this? This is the stuff of fiction, even dystopic science fiction. But here's the proof, that we have people eating garbage, just to survive. Technically, come to think of it, chicken protein is much better than the nutrition-free instant noodles that is staple for people who earn less than 30.00 PHP a day.
This damn thing is a documented fact, shown on the TV show, Kontrobersyal, last Saturday night (ABS-CBN Channel 2, 10:30 PM).
Real. And utterly sad.
This documentary came in the wake of the news of the father who lost two sons because he fed them food (lechon) that he took from the garbage. Hunger is the issue of the moment.
The newspapers are latching on to a statistic that the Social Weather Station released, as part of its SWS 3rd Quarter Survey: 15.1%.
Fifteen point one percent.
Three out of 20 people.
Roughly 12 million people.
What was the question?--
"In the last 3 months, did it happen even once that your family experienced hunger and not have anything to eat?"
Hunger is nothing new. Indeed, it is a global phenomenon, but mostly in countries like the Philippines. Impoverished, colonized, globalized, on the last rung of the new world order. Google gives me over 400,000 hits for "world hunger".
This is absurd, and beyond my comprehension. How do I begin to understand?
For some reason, I am reminded of Khavn De La Cruz's upcoming movie, "Ang Pamilyang Kumakain ng Lupa", based on his Palanca-winning short fiction of the same title.
There's a joke that persists from my childhood, and--it seems--from everyone's childhood. When a piece of food falls on the floor, someone will quickly shout--"Pwede pa yan! Wala pang five minutes! Sayang!"
When does food become garbage? When it falls from our fingers? When it disappears from our sight? Sayang. Such a waste. What happens when garbage becomes food, right in front of us, in the newspapers, in prime time TV?
Old post new comment. ;)
Just bloghopping.
I crushes me to see 1 family ( Dad + mom and 2 kids ) share 1 fish and 2 plastics of rice.
Hey senorito: Thanks for dropping by. And I agree with you.
Jesse (not Jes),
That is one heart wrenching story. Specifically why I dont watch the news (or tv specials) and read the papers. (Only when it is needed)because I get really depressed.
I am a social worker and I have spent time in the slums, living with them, eating with them (not garbage thou) and sleeping with them (not that kind of sleeping).
Funny, but do you know? None of them eat garbage- and this is a slum community of about 2,000 families. Most of them live decent (except for their homes) lives. They are usually employed in nearby areas, more than 1 family member are gainfully employed, they have a complete set of appliances and all their children go to school....
But then in the outskirts of the well-to-do and even the slum communities, we have the "indigent" extrememly penured families who live in their karitons usually parked in secluded areas, under bridges, abandoned buildings, and other places not frequented by policemen who tend to shoo them away like flies on rotten food.
These families derive their main income from garbage, whether collecting recyclables or selling food from garbage. They have no shelter, their children dont go to school, no appliances, no beds even...
Thanks to politicians and their families who leech on our country's wealth and steal us blind...leaving us all wretched and indigent...and going to New Zealand :-) Keep on blogging! Congrats on your WTR.....