StarWalk and A Look At Our People

StarWalk is an annual event held by the Star Newspaper in Penang and is considered a pretty grand event. Today was my first time to participate in this 10Km walk competition. The walk started at 7 morning and there were people all over the place.

I was late for almost 7 minutes because the police seemed to block all the entrances to the starting point. I had to park my car around 2 Km away and walked.

It was a decent day for this event: the sky was clear, wind was gentle, and not much birds flying around, which meaned less bird shits from above. Good.

Near the starting point

The walk, by definition involves walking, which is the alternate mechanical movements of legs. Other parts of body were pretty free and therefore, bored. Since all my friends joined the non-competition section (aka admit-as-loser-before-competition-starts section), I was walking alone.

Nothing much interesting on the way, until we hit a stall giving out drinks using paper cups. All walkers rushed to the stall like hungry wolves. What followed was memorable: there were paper boxes beside the road acting as trash bins, but for some reason, Malaysians just like to throw to places like drains, by the roadside, on the pedestrian cross, someone's house compound, and virtually anywhere and everywhere, except into the very trash bins. In fact I checked and most of those were less than half filled.

Note the boxes by the road side, those _are_ for trash disposal. The stall is at the far end

This picture was taken at the same location as the previous one, except I made an 180 degree rotation

I could see many people just threw the cup anywhere so naturally as if it were the right thing to do. I was both amazed and embarrased. Advanced country? I doubt it. At least the mindset isn't.