What is it about the denizens of N16 their nonsensical comfort in living amongst their own, home-grown squalor?
Like most Londoners, I have tended to pay little attention to the world around me, my attention fixed instead to the clock -- the next deadline, meeting, bus, tube and taxi.
Until Emmie, the 7-year old Springer Spaniel, came into our lives, I simple hadn't noticed the amount of rubbish on the capital's streets. Now my attention is firmly fixed to the pavement -- watchful of poochie -- awash with general litter; bin bags deposited some five or six days ahead of council collection; and the casually discarded bones from the plethora of 'finger-lickin' fried chicken vendors in the neighbourhood.
I'm not entirely sure what my two monthly payments to Hackney Council - amounting to £350 per month - contribute to, but it's clearly not efficient litter collection schemes, neighbourhood pride education programmes or public information campaigns to promote the correct use of municipal refuse collection points -- bins to you and me..
But then, it's not government - national or local's - responsibility is it? We're all accountable. And this rather broken and fragmented society can only begin to repair as basic courtesies return.
I for one, notice litter bins now, and I use them.
Emmie, though remains grateful to the many Stokie residents' willful abandonment of trash and the council's woeful refuse collection. Her walks are infinitely stimulating and oftentimes the source of a deep-fried feast.
She too has no regard for civic cleanliness, but then she is a dog -- and I have poo bags aplenty.
1 comment:
At least you're using poo bags, unlike the denizens of this fair city -- or have you forgotten the resplendent turds that litter our streets? No wonder the Dutch wear wooden clogs; easy to rinse clean.
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