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Old 09-08-2015, 07:34 AM   #6
Snakeadelic
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Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 660
Sadly, Undertoad, between the flight-mentality lifestyle of first world refugees and the easy availability of plastic and paper packaging, I would believe that's refugee litter. I've personally seen messes a good half the size of any of those photos that were left behind after less than 2000 people had occupied a small hotel for 3-4 days for sci fi conventions! When people have nothing but what they carry, they can't take time or energy to think about the physical world around them--whatever isn't necessary is going to get stripped away, and if there aren't garbage facilities right on the spot they don't think they have the time or energy to go find a bin or anything. There's a pretty solid chance that any cloth items in the photos (like the tent, blanket, and clothes in the first one) left behind belonged to people who were arrested or rousted, or they may have been stained or damaged or stolen, rifled through, and dumped.

I've never been a refugee, but there was a time 40 years ago when my mom had to act like one--packing everything we HAD to have into one huge carry-all bag, grabbing me, and making a break for it through the orange groves around Orlando in the middle of the night. I remember having very few toys, even three or four years later, compared to the few kids who would talk to me in school. Heck, until I was about 12 or so my prize possessions were about a dozen books, half a dozen stuffed animals, and a coffee can with about 50 little plastic critters in it that I would take out in the empty lots and arrange & orchestrate in what could have been stop-motion animation if I'd had a camera. I remember not really wanting more toys because someone would just come along and tell me we were moving again and didn't have room to take them. It must be a thousand times worse for real refugees in first world countries (which I would hope still includes at least most of Europe...).
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