If roads and highways are the veins of city, Manila's main
arteries are clogged like those of a man who sits on his squishy throne all day
snacking on crackers topped with butter, pate, camembert and roquefort, plus a
Glaswegian scooby snack* on the side. For dinner he asks for a 16oz steak,
french fries and a liter of diet coke. Outside his golden palace of delicious
goodies lies a wasteland of high rise buildings, next to haphazardly built
slums with open sewage systems and giant knots of electric wires. There is a
constant hum of traffic, punctuated by shouts and blaring horns as individual
cells make their way about their busy lives, selfishly pushing, inching forward
one creaking minute at time.
Meet Manila, one of the most densely populated (and one of the
most badly planned) cities of Asia. You might think I don't like this giant
capital, and you're right, I don't. I find it difficult to summon any kind of
enthusiasm for a city which completely disregards much (if not all) of its
potential for long term, socially relevant growth, choosing instead to focus on
personal and economic gain. Don't get me wrong, the city is physically growing
and it does invest in new globally fluid projects like shopping malls with huge
international retailers and ultra modern apartment buildings with exquisitely
designed interiors. These are blind projects though – less than 5% of the
population can actually afford such luxuries.
Anyway, who wants another mall with the same shops and restaurants
when schools haven’t been renovated since the 70s and hospitals are largely inaccessible
in the heart of the city? Instead of investing in health and education, the
city invests in glossy advertising to improve its image, like make-up can be
used to create the illusion of high cheekbones and delightfully youthful skin. While
Manila is far from being the only city in the world which uses such tactics to
mask its skewed priorities, it is probably one of the most transparent. And
when you’re stuck in hours of traffic with nothing better to do than to look at
the people and buildings around you, decades’ worth of easily fixable mistakes glaring
at you, you can’t help but become frustrated and disillusioned with the world
around you.
If trees are the lungs of the city, this man has none, opting
instead to fill the blackened cavern in his chest with exhaust fumes and
airborne by-products of industrial waste. He takes delight in the pockets of
combustion smoke which settle in each tunnel, each underpass, as stalled cars,
motorcycles, trucks and buses wait like prisoners in line for their execution.
Why should they care if their actions negatively affect others? Their own lives
are too short.
* A Scooby Snack is a type of hamburger sold in Glasgow. It holds
a hamburger patty, square sausage, bacon, potato scone, a fried egg and a slice
of processed cheese, served with a hamburger bun, tomato ketchup and brown
sauce. Two bites from one of these babies and you're set for the week.
Seriously. If you're in Glasgow and interested in trying one out, keep an eye
out for The Maggie, a white food van which usually hangs out at the the
entrance of the Glasgow Botanics at the top of Byres Road in the West
End.
