Money Hints and Tips Newsletter June 2004

A Lot of Rubbish!

If you are wondering why my last Monthly newsletter was sent three months ago, then let me tell you my story and see if you can forgive me.

In April I was all over the place running Cash-Flow Seminars in the capital cities of Australia so I was rather pre-occupied. I like to put a lot of effort into my newsletters and if I can't do a good job I'd rather do no job at all. (That quickly deals with April, now for May.)

In May, just after Easter, I went on a trip to Manilla, the capital of the Philippines. This trip was no ordinary trip and it certainly wasn't a holiday!

The church I am involved with provides finances to support a small team of dedicated people who live at a large rubbish dump in Manilla. This finance provides food and education for many of the children who live there. Most of the the 30,000 plus people crammed into this small area make their living by sifting through the truckloads of rubbish that are dumped each day. They look for food and recyclable items such as plastic, cardboard, steel, aluminium glass and anything else at all that can be sold to bring provide income. Some of the people begin their day's work as early as 3:00am to maximise their earnings.

This is where I spent 9 days, experiencing what it is like for people to live in poverty. It was a humbling and eye-opening experience. These people take materials found on the tip and patch them together to make whatever housing they can wherever they can. I saw people living in structures that were built on top of other people's structures along the road sides on the footpaths. Others used long poles going down into the bottom of waterways to support the crude housing they constructed out over the water. They did this because there was no land available to build on.

I was very fortunate to stay in a building that was constructed using finance provided by the world bank in an attempt to house these people. The room we (I was with 5 others) stayed in had running cold water for a number of hours each day. We were able to take cold showers if we timed it right. As a backup, this room had two large plastic drums that were filled with water when it was available so there was water available when the tap was dry. The only problem with this water was that you would not drink it or clean your eating utensils with it as it was considered unsafe. To get acceptable drinking water we had to walk five blocks to a water distilling house where we could purchase it and carry it back to our room.

The building we were living in was built on an area that was a previous dump site that had been cleared to make way for a number of these 5 story concrete apartment blocks. Directly opposite them was "Smokey Mountain" as it is called. This is a huge mountain formed from rubbish dumped up until about ten years ago. It still constantly smokes and on a few days I saw fire coming out of it. Obviously there is still a lot of rotting material deep inside this "mountain" that is generating combustible gas. The smell and the heat made it very oppressive. I longed for a refrigerator each day because I am so used to cold drinks being a part of my life.

Living in the rooms all around us, above and below, were families with perhaps 10 children, as well as their relatives and friends. We communicated with these people in many ways. Smiles, the use of interpreters, gestures and gifts made it easy for us to get to know some of these people. They have very little in the way of possessions, but they have a lot in non-material things.

While we were there, one of the families we went to visit had a very sick baby who was taken to hospital. I felt such hopelessness for the parents when we went to visit them. Here were lots of sick babies, all in the one room, some with infectious diseases, and almost no resources available. There was a shortage of professional staff, space, hygiene and medication. It was very touching and some of us were reduced to tears to see this. We decided to pool our financial resources and paid for some simple tests and medication for the baby (Gideon was his name). He was extremely sick and was in hospital for over a week, but thanks to some simple antibiotics we payed for he pulled through!

I won't even try to accurately describe what it was like in the busy streets where thousands of people were trying to make a living selling goods from the footpath (and on the streets when there was no more room). Traffic is absolute chaos. We should be ashamed of ourselves every time we hear of "Road Rage" on our streets. We have no idea how lucky we are when we have to wait for two sets of traffic lights to get across an intersection in peak hour. At least we have rules! To make matters worse, rubbish is piled anywhere along the streets as well.

I saw a man spray painting a car on the footpath beside the traffic going past. Another man was fitting new tyres to his truck on the footpath. (I use the term 'new' loosely because really there was just less canvas visible on the newer tyres he was fitting.) Someone else was doing mechanical repairs by the roadside. Most of the trucks I saw had wheel nuts missing and other obviously unsafe conditions. Most of the vehicles on the streets were pouring exhaust smoke into the polluted atmosphere and there were times when my eyes were stinging because of this. Visibility was very limited due to the smog.

I came to the conclusion that we were very fortunate where we were staying when I saw many people who lived in huts and shanties actually located on the new dump site. Smoke, flies, rats and mice, heat, filth and poverty coupled with a total lack of safe water and food really highlighted how much we take for granted in the Western World. Even where we stayed we had the ability to get clean and away from the direct threats associated with living right on the dump site.

One thing I really couldn't help thinking was how contraception could make such a big difference, but a large percentage of the people there are from the Catholic religion and contraception is frowned upon. Perhaps a good thing is that all of these people have never seen any different so they don't know how bad there situation is.

To finish this off, I came away thinking how ironic it is that in the streets of Manilla, there are millions of people who's biggest problem is the lack of basic essentials, and in the Western World there are millions of people who's biggest problem is debt caused by living beyond their means. We live like kings and queens but are so ignorant of how much we have when we have no money. These people would just like a good meal once a day and a safe, dry comfortable place to sleep each night.

There are many issues that will take a long time to change before anyone sees a noticeable difference in these peoples lives. I suspect this will not be seen in the lives of most of the people I met. I often felt a sense of hopelessness. What could I possibly do to make any difference? But then I realised that the meals provided for the young children by regular donations from people back home in Australia make an enormous difference, and the education provided, even if only in a small way, must gradually help break the poverty cycle. We can't just do nothing!

I was very pleased to arrive home, but I have a funny feeling I will return one day. So to finish off my excuse for missing two newsletters. I just didn't get myself back together in time to meet deadlines. Hopefully I won't miss any more!

David Wright

If you've decided that you need to make a difference in your financial life and want to make a change today, use the link below to find out more about our software package that has changed 20,347 peoples lives!

Click here to find out more about Simply Budgets

Return to Newsletter

To recommend this Newsletter to your friends please Click Here

Home - The Program - Testimonials - Questions - Order Now - Contact Us