Got up late this morning and sluggishly headed for the beach in front of my house. Surprised to find some fishermen and their wives busy clearing, cleaning the beach even with walis tingting, broomsticks, removing trash and debris swept ashore by the sometimes violent habagat, southwest monsoon.What's going on, I asked. There was a request from the mayor coursed through the punong barangay, for us fishermen to conduct a beach cleanup, Ruel, one of them said. But not just us, said another one, earlier this morning grade schoolers from Amoingon Elementary School did their share in the areas nearby. Ah baga?, sheepishly, I said.
It's just amazing to learn how with little effort from town leaders, people could be mobilized to spend an hour or so taking part in what apparently is a global effort to clean the world's beaches and waterways. That, somehow, would probably also change the behaviors that allow trash and debris to reach the shores.
So yes, the 2011 International Coastal Cleanup has also reached the coastal village of Amoingon and other Marinduque beaches. The idea pala was started by Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup 25 years ago and has become the world's largest volunteer effort for ocean health.
But unlike the way they do it elsewhere in the world where every item found is recorded and reported to provide a clear picture of the weight of trash from the shores and other bodies of water, here they're just piled up and, burned. We still have a long way to go on the island of Marinduque in the area of waste segregation and disposal, you see...
Nevertheless, everyone enjoyed the morning's exercise that made them one, in a spirit of camaraderie on behalf of the oceans and the seas, with the millions of volunteers from all over the world who did the same thing in their locations.
