Nothing deserves its place of prominence in the Samoan landscape more than the faka lapisi! It has risen from humble beginnings as just another half baked solution not to fix the problem but to compound it, to be an object of pride and joy for many families throughout the nation. Leading the charge to make sure that the faka lapisi remains visible and become a constant reminder of how technology can add to environmental problems are the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment rubbish collection contractors. At least the ones who collect the rubbish from our side of town seem determined to establish the road side faka lapisi as a symbol of progress. We have come a long way from dumping our rubbish on river banks, dry river beds and the foreshore. Now we can dump it on a faka lapisi right in front of your own house.
There is no such thing as the right or wrong time to bitch about something especially when it involves someone trying to tell me what to do concerning my land and property. I try to be jolly all year round so Christmas is just an extra pain with obnoxious drunks everywhere. But it must be another effect of global warming because there seems to be a prevalence of “Little Hitlers” around! It might be “small stuff” compared to the proposed RHD law but I am as determined as Toleafoa Solomona Toailoa in my fight against the rubbish collection contractor’s attempt to make the faka lapisi a compulsory fixture in front of every house, backed up by a Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment employee who probably hasn’t heard of the saying, “E le valelea fo’i gei fagau!” and tried to convince me that there was indeed a law making it compulsory for every household and business to have a faka lapisi!
The faka lapisi like most good ideas works in some areas but not in others. In a village environment where houses almost sit on top of each other, people are a lot more conscious of rubbish on the neighbors faka lapisi attracting dogs, rats and flies and quickly get them to clean up their act. Some village women’s committees have worked very hard to make the faka lapisi look like part of the puataunofo and laukalokalo hedge while others have worked on the principle of contrast and painted them bright colors, which seems to have worked for the huge village churches which have become accepted over time as part of the traditional village setting.
I do not doubt that the faka lapisi was supposed to be used only on rubbish collection days when each household would put their rubbish on it, and stand empty for every other day. But we are world famous for our laid back attitude which is romantic-talk for disgustingly lazy slobs! Without village councils and village women’s committees in the urban areas keeping an eye on such things, people will pile their rubbish every day of the week on the faka lapisi until it is full to overflowing and then dump it on somebody else’s or on the roadside in remote areas. You can put the boy on a table eating all his meals with china plates and cutlery but it will take generations to breed the throw away banana leaf, breadfruit tree leaf and coconut leaf eating-plates mentality out of his blood and he will continue to chuck rubbish “out the back”. I have put a box for rubbish in front of my shop and watched as people finished whatever they were eating and dumped the wrapper on the ground a few feet from it.
In other countries where people care about their environment and spend a few minutes each day separating their “rubbish” into paper, cardboard, glass, plastics and organic refuse, they do not have any faka lapisi. The rubbish is collected into different categories at the back of the house to be brought to the roadside before whoever is responsible for putting the rubbish out goes to bed on the night before rubbish collection day. Some rubbish collection contractors in these countries come so early in the morning most people do not know what they look like, but the rubbish is always gone by the time you head out to work or school. When I separated the paper and cardboard from our household rubbish and laid it out flat like all recyclers were taught to do, our local rubbish collection contractor told me that they will not pick it up if it isn’t in a box or bag. I think those who are awarded rubbish collection contracts should not just be the guys who have the biggest truck and the cheapest price, but should be a company who have some understanding of recycling as well as landfill and environmental issues and concerns. If the MNRE guys are not out there doing village seminars on waste management and waste reduction, then the rubbish collection contractors as the first point of contact with the waste generating public should be encouraging people to reduce the amount of waste they produced.
According to our rubbish collection contractors, rubbish is not rubbish unless it is on a faka lapisi. Well, they didn’t quite put it that way but they have told me that they will not collect our rubbish anymore until I have built a faka lapisi. We have bagged our rubbish and put it on the roadside on rubbish collection days for the past six years with the former contractors picking it up without complaint. I told them why I did not want a faka lapisi and they accepted that. But that is not good enough for these new guys. They insist that the rubbish bags should be on a faka lapisi. I think that if you are too lazy to put your rubbish out on the roadside only on rubbish collection days and keep it at the back of your house every other day, then you should by all means bow to the faka lapisi. It is a godsend. But for us who do not like the sight of a wooden or metal shelf for rubbish on our front lawns but are being told by the rubbish collection contractors to build one, we will not bow to them or the faka lapisi and will fight until we are confirmed the right we already have to either build one or not. In the meantime, the ever resourceful Melissa has come up with a temporary solution to suit both parties in a collapsible, fully portable faka lapisi built out of beer crates. We used it for the first time last Thursday and the contractors took the rubbish that was on it. Melissa reckons she found a loop hole in the law (are these guys for real?) but I am still pissed off about being told to build a faka lapisi.
I know that you all don’t want this sort of nonsense during the holiday season, but while you are being jollied into a drunken stupor, always remember that “just because you are paranoid does not mean that you are not being watched!”
Have a nice one folks!
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