Toxic

The metro atmosphere is toxic. Aside from the ambient air along EDSA, JP Rizal, Kalayaan and C5 being filled with abnormally and sinfully huge amounts of particulate matter and pollutants, my nightly commute is punctuated, first with an olfactory barrage from the garbage of Guadalupe Commercial Complex. The stink is most profound around 10pm when they are shoveling their trash into a dump truck. Every scoop of the shovel releases more hidden smelly terror, making the air around the alley where the jeepney passes sourer than a thousand sweaty armpits. The second brutal nose assault happens along C5 Palar. Their own version of smelly garbage makes me wonder how food vendors nearby can still sell their contaminated wares. Every time I pass these biohazard areas, I hold my breath rather than cover my nose, which the other passengers would do. I hold my breath like in diving since I consider it useless to merely filter the air with cloth since this would be akin to using the same cloth to filter out water to breathe under the sea. Yes, that's how bad the air is here. I feel like acquiring lung cancer or some respiratory disease even though I don't smoke.

As if the atmospheric abuse can't get worse, somebody was burning tires big time one night ago. Noxious tire fumes spread out over such a large area that I was gasping for air like a fish out of the water. As if burning tires wasn't against the law. But what the heck is the use of such a trivial law as the Clean Air Act in the Philippines? If the crime isn't as immediate as murder or rape or robbery, Filipinos normally won't give a shit. Yeah, we'll die just like the frogs that fail to realize that the water temperature in their pool is slowly being raised to fatal levels.

For once, I wish the law of the real jungle would prevail in this urban jungle. This is natural justice: if you do one thing, another will surely follow. A disruption in the circle of life will return to the culprit. Unfortunately, in this artificial world, catastrophe can be delayed unnaturally, giving humans complacency. But with the damage remaining unchecked, catastrophe will come. There might come a time people would just drop dead because of the poisonous air. Buildings, statues and other monuments would have accelerated corrosion.

I am just talking about the air, but the water and the land have their share of pollution. Somehow I feel like welcoming this environmental Apocalypse that we would bring upon ourselves. Hopefully, I'll be watching the end of Metro Manila unfold via TV in the comfort of my provincial home.