A universal toy... and such a practical, simple one (not to mention, the best use I can think of to re-use an old tire)! These tire swings have sure gotten a lot more mileage out of this tire than the odometer of the car would have read! Funny though, no cars on these islands!
I was talking with someone here about garbage the other day; The 5 R's: Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle... and the importance of the ORDER of them. It's interesting to be in a society where, for the majority of people, refusing or reducing is not an issue (because of their economic state, they live an almost completely non-consumerist lifestyle), and the concept of reusing exists purely out of necessity. The concept of recycling doesn't exist at all of course, because the facilities don't exist; and creating the infrastructure in an area like this would be a nightmare (in terms of being geographically feasible, and also given the climate of corruption that envelops the Indonesian government)!
Of course the major problem with the lack of recycling is the same as anywhere: in the amount of packaging! Packaging, and plastics and consumerism is in its raw beginnings even in these far outreaches of the planet... (urged on by industrial giants, media, and a very small affluent minority of the public that believes that their wealth can be affirmed by being big-time consumers)... but the facilities to deal with the impacts of all the waste that will be generated are nowhere in sight! (Why, why, must developing countries repeat the same mistakes made by all 'developed' countries!? A whole step in the cycle could be averted and save a lot of earth-ache.)
The charming, traditional, practical and natural banana-leaf bungkus (packaging) is going by the way-side and being replaced by colourful, expensive, NON-BIODEGRADABLE, turtle-and-whale-killing, sea-smotering, plastic. uuugh.
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