Love Thy Neighbour.......I Tried

Dengue is on the rise, with 95 deaths throughout the nation as at yesterday as compared to 63 for the same duration last year. There were two reported cases in my taman, Darulaman Heights a few weeks ago. Whom do we blame for this obviously blase attitude towards the disease. I think the culprits are the residents themselves. The pictures below are testaments to my theory.

This monsoon drain has ceased doing what drains are supposed to do. This picture was taken in front of my neighbour's house. It's the responsibility of  Majlis Daerah Kubang Pasu (MDKP) to clean up this drain but both they and the owner of the house are quite content with drains like these. After every heavy downpour, xnuripilot (my other half) has to lower himself down to clear up the debris that will be washed down. The thick undergrowth prevents them from flowing any further and if not removed will create a mini dam excellent for mosquitoes to breed. xnuripilot has written a letter to MDKP.

A cart load of the debris that was washed down after a recent heavy downpour.

I try to keep the monsoon drain in front of my house free from undergrowth. Maintaining this drain is the responsibility of xnuripilot, with  lots of  coaxing and nagging and monitoring by yours truly. 

This is the common drain at the back of my house shared by my Dato neighbour to the left of the drain and me. This is my territory because it is not as deep as the one in front. Every morning without fail, I will jump in and out to collect the leaves that have fallen inside. It is quite difficult to maintain your gait walking the whole narrow length of 110 feet so I jump in where the leaves are and out again to the next spot until all the spots are clear. It's almost like step-Reebok, except that each step here is thrice the height of step-Reebok. People say the work you do around the house does not have any cardio benefits. I suggest they try this. My house is on the right side of the picture so the grassy patch is also mine to maintain. The Dato and Datin never once stepped in this area. The fact that they  have walled up their lot does not necessarily mean that the responsibility is mine alone.

This is a common side drain shared by another neighbour of mine, on the left, and me.Throughout my 8 year stay here, they have never shown any interest in sharing out the responsibilities in keeping it Aedes-free so I am left with no choice. I have to continue my jumping acts along this stretch of 80 feet, too, every morning. How do you think I maintain my svelte figure of 48kg. I sweat it all out. Thanks to some inconsiderate souls. This neighbour has a passion for gardening. Besides the banana trees as seen in this picture, he also has...........

Yes, he also has 4 salak palms squeezed into that narrow patch of land. These have very long and sharp thorns. I got pierced many times while doing my jumping acts. And, his passion does not end here as depicted in the next picture below......

Oh my God!!! He has just planted  4  tapioca plants. Going by his track record, these will be tended to with tender loving care until his interest starts to wane, which does not take long in coming. They will provide a nice and cosy hiding place for  the mosquitoes, let alone the leaves that will  accumulate in the drain. God, have mercy on me. Obviously, he was hard at work, clearing up this patch for his tapioca and guess where he dumped all that he had cleared.......

HERE, which is at the front end of the narrow strip of land. Incidentally, these are land encircling our lots. Our lots do not share the same perimeter so there is excess land and we stake our claim to this land with the drains acting as boundaries. Get the picture? These narrow strips of land are a hive of activities, mostly gardening in nature. I, too, planted a rambutan tree and 2 nona trees on this no-man's land BUT I keep mine under control as shown below.

My rambutan tree grown on the excess land. My house is on the left of the grass strip.

And my nona trees.

These were supposed to be bonsais which the same neighbour painstakingly transported from the jungles of Perlis using huge trailers. Cranes were utilised to plant them all round his house. Contractors spent months erecting those huge concrete base for the giant bonsais. (I thought bonsais are supposed to be miniature plants). Wires were wound round and round the branches to get the signature bonsai shape but sadly he was not able to keep up pace with the fast growing leaves resulting in these hideous-looking  giant bonsais which have since transformed into a haven for a myriad of creatures both harmless and lethal.

More bonsai-craze-turned-sour pix.

The more the merrier. You don't need a GPS to get to his place OR mine. Just look out for these bonsais and you're on the right track. Why am I being so nasty to him, you may wonder. The reason is............

SNAKES!!! It's only the skin but they must be lurking around close by. I found this near the drain.

And this, a few feet away. May be this is a fragment of the same skin but whatever it is, it scares the hell out of me. A few days ago while feeding the stray cats I noticed one of them peering into ..........

.......this hole. This hole drains water from underneath the house. I observed the cat peering in and then backing off several times. I knew it had to be something it was scared of. Standing some 2 metres away from the hole, I bent down to investigate and what I saw confirmed my worst fears. I could see the silhoutte of a black head with  a white snout and it wriggled at the sight of me. xnuripilot was summoned to solve the problem. He was not able to persuade the creature to come out of hiding so using a long pole, he plugged the hole tightly with newspapers. I think the creature has suffocated to death because I thought I detected a faint smell of rotting carcass when I went to get this picture. Poor thing. I hate any form of cruelty to animals but cobras are potentially dangerous creatures.I cringed in fear when I read this.

I know this is the month of  Ramadhan. Please God, forgive me. I am on the verge of exploding so I need to spew some off  to ease the pressure that's building up inside of me. The moral of the story is, the world would be a healthier, a safer and a better place if everyone of us do our bit in keeping our surroundings clean.