Being a Bin-man in Indonesia

Congratulations to the BBC for this 1st in a series of 3 programmes in which British workers discover what it is like to pursue their profession in other, much tougher, parts of the world.  Wilbur Ramirez leaves his magnificent vehicle and rubbish neatly wrapped in plastic bags in a London borough to join Imam on his quite different work experience in Jakarta, population 28 million, the capital of Indonesia. He spends 2 weeks there.   The first shock, the vehicle in question is a handcart, which has to be pulled from the terrible slum where Imam lives with his wife and child, to an elegant neighbourhood of enormous houses.  These have a hole in their front wall, and the rubbish has to be pulled out of that, loose, all jumbled together and loaded into the cart.  Imam jumps on it with his bare feet to reduce it as much as possible.  He also has to sweep up and clean out the drainage ditch which runs along in front of the houses.  He works for a Housing Association and is meticulous in leaving all clean, for at the least complaint he can lose this arduous and poorly paid job, but he is desperate to keep it.  Four trips are made in the day, taking the rubbish from 100 houses.  But the work is not finished, for then the family, together, sorts through it all to separate out anything that can be recycled, paper, tins, plastic, glass.  Then that has to be taken to a merchant who will buy it for a little more much-needed money.  Only a short night's rest on the floor amongst the rats and the flies and early next morning the punishing routine starts again.  They deposit their loads quite close to where they live and a lorry comes occasionally to collect it, but, in that heat, they have to live near this horrible, smelly pile.  One day Wilbur went to visit the landfill where the lorries deposit their loads.  Several, even poorer people live there, on what they can scavenge from this pile.  That is why there is no hope of Imam and the others creating a union and claiming more money, the people from the landfill will gratefully take their place.

This kind of documentary, involving a person to whom one can relate, for Wilbur deals so well with his change of working conditions and, in spite of language difficulties, makes  himself loved by the family,  is very effective.  Big, strong Wilbur is moved to tears by the conditions about which he could do nothing.  The representative of the Housing Association did, for the cameras,  promise to increase Imam's wages in 3 months' time, but we don't know the real end of the story.

I look forward to the next in the series, even though they are gruelling viewing, for I do think we need to know.