Every morning on my walk to school, I see around 10-15 people, men and women, sweeping the streets. They’re outside my apartment building and all along the roads as I make my way through the side streets to the program center. They also line the sidewalks on my way to class. They’re usually barefoot and the brooms they use are about three feet long so they’re bent over the whole time they’re sweeping. The brooms are made out of some blend of grasses. They sweep the leaves and debris into little piles along the road and move on to the next section. They usually disregard your sandaled feet when you walk by and continue sweeping in your direction. At first, I thought oh how nice, they’re cleaning the streets. But I’m convinced that these piles end up getting spread back out by the end of the day and they’re sweeping the same debris the next morning. I have never once seen them actually getting rid of the debris. Only moving it around and reorganizing, kind of like what you did with the vegetables you didn’t want to eat on your plate when you were little. I suppose there is so much excess labor in this country, that it’s nice the state is supplying them with work. But how is sweeping the same street corner effective if you’re not actually getting rid of what you’re sweeping?
This reminded me of a similar scenario I saw in Turks and Caicos on those perfect white sandy beaches. Want to know why they’re so perfect and clean? Because workers rake the beach and then bury the debris. Effective, no?
So is it worth it just so employ these people? Or is there something more useful they could be doing? Not to mention a more efficient way of actually cleaning the streets...
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