Trash culture

Some time ago, sitting in our garden Keisuke and I saw a couple of men rowing around our little pond. The strange thing about it was that this time they were working hard to clean it. From all garbage floating around - due to several of the neighbours' habit of using it as a giant trash bin. Rather surprised we watched the boat getting fuller and fuller. We thought, how strange but, how great. Only to minutes later get all our prejudices confirmed. Suddenly, the men started rowing vigourosly towards the other side of the pond, to the Golden Lodge's side. Where they dumped absolutely everything they had worked so hard to collect, back into the pond, just closer to the other shore.

A couple of months ago, trash bins were put up here and there on the streets in our neigbourhood. And after a while it seemed like some people were actually using them. Yesterday, I saw some of the bins had fallen down from their stands. Today, someone had dumped them, in our pond.

Someone told me there is a campaign running in Hanoi, called "no plastic bags Sundays". Just don't think anyone has heard of it. I also heard that in some African countries plastic bags are just prohibited. They even deprive you from your taxfree bags when you arrive. Wish that would come to Hanoi!