It happened in a spur of the moment. I just grabbed my video camera as my partner and I headed off to the railroad tracks in a nearby town to shoot some footages that we might find interesting; and interesting indeed, as we found out a whole life of community surviving on the railroad tracks, unknown to many.

As we live comfortably numb in our own shelter and at the comfort of the four corners of our sanctuary, there just a few miles from our asylum, is a place where nobody dares to hoof. A place what they call slum area at the railroad tracks. About a hundred or more families squeeze themselves in a vacant lot beside the railroad.

Their means of living also depends on the tracks. It is so incredible how they managed to make a living, as they make their way earning about 50 to 200 pesos a day or $1 to $4 by pushing a “Trolley” as a means of transportation. The Trolley is an ingenious creation of the railroad tracks resident they substituted for the train.

No, the train wasn’t replaced at all. The residents, in their attempt to earn a living and to survive created a means of transporting people to their home. A 5x3 feet wooden Trolley pushed and powered by human energy and wheeled by small bearings resembling the structure of the train’s helm.

The driver charges 4 pesos or a dime each passenger for a 10 to 15 minute ride. Whenever two trolleys meet on the same flow of the tracks one must give way by carrying his trolley away from the track as the passengers must get off first. Yes I know, the journey wasn’t that pleasant as you have the view of the slum area. You also get to witness life’s profanity at its best, personified in the living condition of those who dwell beside this God-forsaken place.

However, the government sprayed perfume on their facial makeovers and superficial “nip and tuck” programs, the truth still stinks. The poverty in these places is insurmountable. It is a miracle that people living in this condition still find time to smile and think that there will be time that they will be alleviated from their present condition.

I happened to interview one of the Trolley drivers; I will feature him in my video and show it here in my blog soon, awaiting further completion. The interview was an enlightening, as well as a chest pounding encounter of a soul surviving in the condition unknown to many. Stories you can only find in the primetime slot of a TV drama or in the pages of a newspaper.

This is my first installment of the Life’s Drama on the Railroad Track.

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Looking around and observing people around nowadays will definitely give you a simple yet alarming supposition: Anxiety disorder. With the present world condition and local disarray Filipinos literally having a hard time sleeping at night and sleeps hollow if ever they got to close their eyes. The shortage in the supply of rice and the increase in an almost daily basis of fuel make anyone restless and sick—who wouldn’t be?

Observe how Filipinos today make up their homes. Metal grills surround every nook and cranny of every household, every inch of doors and windows are bounded with thick grills that could be easily mistaken for a prison house. Guard dogs roam the inner part of the yard. If ever you get pass a concrete fence you will easily notice the how ghastly those broken bottles and glass mounted and cemented atop the fence—making sure nobody would dare climb the wall no matter how short it is.

Ornamental plants are not for decorative purpose alone; plants with thick thorns and sturdy pointed leaves are sure to be placed in front of the house near the fence to discourage robbers and intruders to come near it. The ugly sight of barbed wires is not for military camps alone; they are a common household security material nowadays. It is as if the home owner hired a silent PR agency in the Philippines that frantically warns neighbors of the impending danger might befall on those who will think of getting near their fortress. Never mind the burglar alarm and the state of the art security measures—there is no safe home for those people with panic attacks.

The world is getting Agoraphobic, people are getting jumpy at the sight of the shadow in the dark, fears lurks everywhere—as a cocked gun readily aims at the door of constant danger people less and less trust one another. Who’s to blame? If watching the late night news makes you shiver to the bone and keeps you awake at night—then you might be suffering from anxiety and panic attacks.

That I think makes the majority of the population of the world gripped in apathy, indifference and a mad case of callousness. As we sleep comfortably numb behind the thick tall walls of our fortress, there will always be people who will try to rob us, and willing to kill and die for crumbs under our table unless the government address the real issue behind it—POVERTY.

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After reading this article which was forwarded to me, I myself am amazed at what poverty or richness can change a life of a person. But what really counts is how each of us will be able to deal with it in our own little way. This article really touched me a lot.
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Something worth posting, writer Paolo P. Mangahas, 32, is currently working in Kuala Lumpur as Head of Communications for WWF-Malaysia (World Wide Fund for Nature Malaysia). He won Honorable Mention in the 2003 Doreen Fernandez Food Writing Award for his piece Adobo, I'm Home! and has published several essays on food, lifestyle, fashion, and social and environmental development.

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Between Poverty and Paradise
Paolo P. Mangahas

LAST night, I had dinner with a German friend to talk about her planned trip to the Philippines . She had just completed an internship program in one of the law firms here in Malaysia and wanted to take a short holiday in a nearby country before heading off to Australia to finish her studies. She wanted to know more about the Philippines and asked me for tips on making the most of the two-and-a-half weeks that she had allotted for this vacation.

We planned her trip between bites, armed only with a faded map of the Philippines that we had downloaded from the Internet. My goal was to identify all the "must-see" places in the country (her criteria being beaches and volcanoes), plot them according to distance and flight routes, and then cram them all in 17 days. A tall order indeed, especially for someone like me who has never had a sense of direction even in my own neighborhood. For the life of me, I could not spot where Boracay was on her map. So I took the easy way out and told her to go to Palawan instead...

To read the full article, CLICK HERE...

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