Manual labour

 

It was 3.30pm. Heavy cloud hovered above in the sky, but it failed to shield the land below from sweltering heat of the sun. The air was still. No breeze at all. 

I went for my routine walking exercises along exercise trail lining both side of the river. A small boat carrying two labourer in uniform and life jackets was moving like a snake along the river. The two men worked diligently, picking up the debris found floating on the surface of the river. The debris consist mostly of withering leaves, tree branches, and occasional loose pieces of paper.

The saying that " there is no free lunch" is quite true.

To keep the waterway clean, despite various devices / methods put in place to filter off waste from up stream, we still have to depend on manual labour to remove some of the debris/wastes. 

As the standard of living of a country improves, people begin to shun blue collar jobs that require a lot of manual hard work under the sun. These jobs are now done mostly by foreign workers. Without these manual labourers, a lot of things may be in limbo nowadays ... construction projects being delay, road works deferred etc.