Whenever I go grocery shopping and see the random unattended shopping carts scattered around the parking lot, the sight always reminds me ‘This is why we can’t have nice things.’
Most supermarkets or grocery stores that provide shopping carts have a designated cart return area, but why does it seem that nobody bothers to take their carts there after loading their stuff on their vehicles? Can’t those people even be bothered to understand the concept of clean as you go, or are they the sort who expect that some employee will always be there to clean up after them? It makes one wonder what kind of homes these people have.
Is our weather/climate so oppressive that pushing an empty shopping cart a few more meters to where it should be left behind is too much to ask? Or are Filipinos just too lazy and apathetic? After all, aside from having the tendency of leaving behind grocery carts anywhere we please, a lot of us still don’t know how to clean up our own tables at fast food ‘self service’ restaurants, and we can’t even be depended upon to keep public restrooms clean.
Grocery carts scattered all over parking lots or sidewalks is a symptom of what is wrong with our Filipinos. We just can’t be bothered to go the extra step and would rather wait for someone else to do things that we could easily do ourselves. It’s the same thing on the road, when we encounter motorists who know that they can cut corners and create their own counterflows. They can do anything they please because the authorities don’t care and everyone else that is affected may complain, but will ultimately just adjust anyway.
It is frustrating to see this kind of behavior so widespread because we know that schools try to teach the concept of CLAYGO. Little kids, all the way to college students, are encouraged to clean up after themselves, throw their waste in the trash, and basically not be an asshole. However, when they step out of school, they seem to forget everything they’ve been taught.
Aside from schools, aren’t parents supposed to teach their kids manners too, not just by word, but also by example? The common sight of free-range grocery carts makes one wonder what kind of examples parents show their kids, who are probably seeing how it is ok to be like mom and dad, who do not know what purpose a cart return area serves.
The funny thing is that if we were in a foreign country, most of us would probably have absolutely no problem with being considerate and following basic social norms like cleaning up after ourselves. We all know that Filipinos are capable of being considerate and not lazy, we just don’t know how to be that way in our own country where we can’t be bothered, knowing that there is always someone else to clean up after our own messes.
While on the topic of our own messes, another mess we shouldn’t be leaving around is taking care of strays as pets but not being responsible enough to have them neutered or spayed. The past few months, my nights were terrorized by a neighbor’s cat that had found an opening to my home’s ceiling and decided that it was the safest place to give birth.
At first it was a distant meowing of kittens from some part of the house, and fortunately after some time, probably when the kittens were big enough to leave their hideaway, the noise went away. I scoured the outside ceilings for an opening and covered up one that I suspected was the entry point.
However, after another couple of months, the meowing came back, which meant the neighborhood pet stray had given birth again. This time, they were hunkered up near my bedroom’s ceiling, which gave me many sleepless nights as I could hear them either mewing or moving around. Any homeowner who has become hypersensitive to the irregular bumps in the night knows just how difficult it is to get a good night’s sleep when everything is not ‘normal’.
I had to suffer for around 2 weeks and wait for them to be weaned again, as my ceiling is not particularly accessible to humans. After that, I had to get a proper repair crew to check my perimeter ceilings until we finally found their entry point, which turns out was near my bedroom. Now that it has finally been repaired and sealed, I’m hoping that my sleep doesn’t get disturbed anymore. However, if the fertile pet stray cats had been neutered or spayed in the first place, I wouldn’t have to go through all that trouble. It is something our friends who take care of strays need to consider, especially as the service can usually be availed for free at the city veterinarian.
Going the extra step when doing something shouldn’t be so difficult, whether it involves returning the grocery cart, or spaying or neutering pets. Maybe we just need a reminder, every now and then.*
