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Post-All Saints’ Day Photo Essay
This
two-part photo essay deals with the issues of inequality and poverty. The first part shows how inequality persists even after
death. The second part shows how poverty pushes people to be “creative” and
live on the dead.
TEXT
AND PHOTOS BY ROWENA CARRANZA
Bulatlat.com
Part
II: Living on the Dead
All
Saints’ Day is, for Filipinos, time to honor the dead. But for some of them,
it is also time to earn money. Poverty apparently helps to sharpen creativity
and resourcefulness as the following cases show.
RECYCLED
FLOWERS? Bulatlat.com
interviewed five-year old Mark day after All Saints' Day. Mark and his
mother sell this pot of flowers at P50, which is quite
steep considering that some of the
flowers were quite obviously recycled from the ones left by the previous
day’s visitors.
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MAKING
A LIVING ON THE DEAD. Tony Aquino has been tending memorial lots in
Loyola Memorial Park in Parañaque for 30 years now. He earns P1,200 per
grave and boasts of handling more than 50 graves. He is able to get his
fees from erring customers every Nov. 1 when they come to visit their dead
family members. |
FINDER’S
KEEPER.
Jonas, 15, goes around the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina looking for
things that junkshops would be willing to buy. Sometimes, he finds
treasures for himself such as this yoyo. |
TIME
OUT. These ice cream and taho (a soya concoction favored by children) vendors take a break and
compare sales. Both agree that profit this
year is much lower
than previous years. Nowadays, those
who come to the park bring baon (packed meals) with them, they said. |
WHATUWANT?
This old lady sells everything – from candles, novena prayers and fruits
to cardboard pieces to sit on. She is rummaging through her wares for the
fan that a woman wants to buy.
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CHILD
LABOR. P100 bucks per graveyard stone that he retouches. This is how
much Elton, 12, earns. All he needs is a pint of black paint for the lettering,
sandpaper to smooth out the edges of the letters, and water to clean the
marble slab. By 9:30 a.m.,
Elton already has P300 in his pocket and a burger given by an old woman
customer. It is a once a year
employment though. The rest of the year, he helps his uncle sell
cigarettes. |
Part
I: Unequal, Dead or Alive
Bulatlat.com
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