Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Another Note On Noise

I just realized, as I sit here about 150 meters away from the middle school, listening to the noise coming out of that place (and it really is loud... I can't hear my work because some lady is shouting into a microphone and kids are cheering wildly):

The classrooms are rows of buildings, with doors leading directly outside. More importantly, none of the classrooms have glass on the windows. They are completely open. The noise that is hampering my hearing at this great distance is right in the ears of the little kids trying to hear teachers at the front of the classroom, trying to study, trying to concentrate.

How friggin impossible is that? My god.

(And Jasaan Central School... the same school I just described... is a very highly-ranked school in The Philippines public education system.)

By the way, just as an update: Now one of the groundskeepers has lit a pile of raked-up garbage on fire back behind one of the classroom buildings and a huge cloud of smoke is billowing up literally yards away from the classroom (again note: open windows) where the kids are sitting.

No, I'm not joking. Actually, this photo is about 10 minutes after the smoke started, and is a tiny cloud compared to what it was when it started. Then, it was stinging even my throat way over here.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are in the market for a new hard drive?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmndaXS3dqQ&feature=player_embedded

This appears a little more sturdy.

Anonymous said...

it seems that asian's dont care about their children.in any western country the kids would have been evacuated.HHHMMM,who cares less,westerners who kill unborns /throw 'em from the #6 train,or asians who seemingly dont care if the young ones burn/choke to death at school?

Jil Wrinkle said...

It's not about not caring. It's a combination of ignorance and apathy.

(1) The Filipino groundskeeper has been burning garbage in that same spot for years now. Nobody has ever complained.

(2) People burn garbage and rakings all the time, and people breathe the smoke all the time. Nobody ever gets hurt as far as people can tell. So why worry?

(3) The teacher who is in that classroom knows that the fire will burn down to a fraction of its size in 10 or 15 minutes, and will be out completely in 20. No need waste 20 minutes of her time getting the class out, alerting the principal, getting the groundskeeper in trouble, et cetera.

It's basically a circle jerk of apathy: The groundskeeper doesn't know any better. The teacher is too lazy to complain. The students are too inured to garbage smoke everywhere else to let it bother them.

It's the same with the noise: It doesn't bother anybody enough to do anything about it.

Anonymous said...

Stop complaining about something you have no control over or any influence over.