A Hunk of Burning Trash

One of the more frustrating realities in Cofradia is the daily inhalation of burning trash, congealing smog, and charred vegetation that one must endure. Often, the first breath in the morning is a whiff of carbon monoxide that a clunky bus up the street has belched out, and/or someone's smoldering garbage pile or stack of dried leaves. People here burn with abandon and may not be fully aware of the health risks posed by such activity. If someone were to study the inevitably negative effects of such reckless pyromania on the pulmonary and other biological systems, some terrifying conclusions would likely ensue.

On the other hand, there is no money in the state or federal budget for responsible trash disposal in the kind of tucked-away landfills that gringoes and other spoiled denizens of rich industrialized countries take for granted. When the trash is picked up, it is taken to a centralized, humongous pile and burned in the same manner as a thousand and one smaller piles. Buses and cars are not always fitted with catalytic converters (another fiscal luxury), and there are not many buses that were built in the last decade when more stringent anti-pollution components were added to these vehicles.

One cannot blame individual households for taking matters into their own hands regarding waste disposal and brush removal-one match can accomplish a heck of a lot in this climate. The government has neither the funds nor the will to address the issue, or to prevent more smog from vehicles, and there is no such thing as a fine for burning after dark (if anything, this is when the most spontaneous plastic and leaf combustion takes place). I suppose I am mostly disturbed by the fact that Cofradianos seem to enjoy the act of sitting astride a smoldering mound of basura, much like families in more economically advantaged places would crowd around a television set.