Comments on naijablog: 1000 memories: doing the bins

nice! it's a pity such menial jobs are not readily...

2007-08-24T10:22:00.000+01:00

nice! it's a pity such menial jobs are not readily available (attractive enough) for job sekers over here.

PS: never knew you were one for manual labour. ange-butter :).

J, remember doing a stint as a road sweeper during...

2007-08-22T19:14:00.000+01:00

J, remember doing a stint as a road sweeper during a summer vacation. It wasn't that romantic to be honest - as a temporary sweeper, I was bottom of the rung among sweepers and got the crapiest routes. Petty hierarchies and working class aristocracies all round. Fair enough though - I only did it for couple weeks.

More interesting were public reactions - generally a weird kind of spatial acknowledgment of my existence (i.e. people didn't try to walk through me) but that was about it. People throwing litter into my cart rarely acknowledged me. Of course, those making the point of throwing litter on floor next to the cart were making different kind of acknowledgment.

Anyway - it paid a few bills and confirmed in my mind how little attention people pay to their environments in the city. Also, how much litter smokers cause.

My brother worked on the bins for quite a while and enjoyed that.

Saul (I can't log into my account for some reason - hence the 'anon')

Jeremy, I admire your sentiment. I can't say I'd s...

2007-08-22T08:09:00.000+01:00

Jeremy, I admire your sentiment. I can't say I'd see things that way, jobs one doesn't like - have to be "got through", until you can get to where you want to be ie making the best of a bad situation.

Nigerians like to look down on farmers, even though they like eating fresh farm produce. So to raise something like this (a bin man), will not move the people there.

One's status is not tied to your profession, a person is more than their job! But in a society like Nigeria, status, prestige and money are everything. You will be swimming against the tide of passive acceptance. Nothing wrong with that, but don't expect such an idea to spread. The inherent snobbery of society will ensure that it doesn't.

na you go fit do am!!

2007-08-21T20:54:00.000+01:00

na you go fit do am!!

c'etait un peu cynique, n'est-ce-pas monsieur anon...

2007-08-20T17:53:00.000+01:00

c'etait un peu cynique, n'est-ce-pas monsieur anonymous?

In fact, there are lots of testimonies of people suffering much worse hardship for many years than lifting bins into a dumper truck. Read Happiness by Ricard to see the serenity of various Tibetan Buddhist monks who underwent torture at the hands of the Chinese for many years, and came through the experience with no hint of trauma.

If I were forced to do the bins for the rest of my life, I would simply deepen my relationship with Buddhism to find the inner peace to live through it..

Beg to differ Nonesuch... Really awful things are...

2007-08-20T14:48:00.000+01:00

Beg to differ Nonesuch... Really awful things are remembered fondly by memoirists. J's skillful storyteling has made shovelling shit romantic, hell even i wish i was cycling to work, hanging out with these "blokes", philophisizing and admiring nature. The memory is beautiful... However, if J still a bin man in yorkshire or wherever, bet the shit would smell pretty darn bad. However because he has moved on and up, he can remember it fondly and poetically. i did love the piece tho, but am a little too cynical to believe the inner piece and happiness came from heavy lifting, and really nasty work. It came from the friendships with the men and as contradictory as this sounds the relatively and i'm sure comparatively carefree time in his life, when he could afford to take a job like this.

well said. i couldnt agree more.

2007-08-20T13:42:00.000+01:00

well said. i couldnt agree more.