'George W Bush to See a Clean Uruguay; but maybe not why!' Life

Lee from Pocitos - 03/08/07 09:01

One of the great things about living in Montevideo is that the streets are usually pretty clean.

One of the reasons for this, I think is that there is a green dumpter on nearly every block. There is one right in front of our apartment building on the Rambla.

Now that George W Bush is scheduled to arrive shortly and his expected route from the airport to his hotel will take him down the Rambla and directly in front of our apartment, the dumpter has disappeared.

It seems usual for this to happen when Presidents of other countries arrive. Too bad. It is an concept that should be duplicated everywhere.

Comment #1 Elizabeth26 from Dazeville - 03/12/07 23:51

I don't understand why is the dumpster removed when a president visits the country. Do it make the street look dirty or something?

Comment #2 Lee from Pocitos - 03/13/07 06:21

One thought it that it makes the street look ugly... but they are not that bad and the city employees people who wash them regularly. Another thought is that they move them to keep terrorists from hiding in them. The curious thing about about they cleared the Rambla was they posted two police officers on each cross street one block away to keep traffic from entering the Rambla. However, they only posted police on the cross streets that would normally direct traffic to the Rambla. The one way streets that take traffic from the Rambla did not have any police posted on them. So anyone wishing to enter the Rambla would only need to drive the wrong way on an empty street for a single block! On the Rambla itself, they seemed to have police posted every block or so. The bottom line is that with the dumpsters moved no one would have any problem entering the street on foot, car, motorcycle or any other way. By comparison when Bush left Ururguay for Colombia the security there consisted of 20, 000 police and military troops who were positioned roughly one meter apart vs one block apart here.

Comment #3 Lee from Pocitos - 03/13/07 06:26

Here is a photo of the dumpsters I stole from Chuck's blog about Uruguay. Chuck's Uruguay Blog

Comment #4 PokerPrincess from Canada, Earth - 04/12/07 01:56

Well after seeing the first picture without the dumpsters I was very immpressed with the view. Is that the Rambla? Also is that a main beach in Uruguay? The beach looks very pristine and absolutely inviting.

Then to see the second picture with the dumpsters. What a difference a dumpster or two make. lol.... if that's what it looked like before they took them away then I can certainly understand why they were taken.

What a shame to hide such a beautiful beach with such ugly green bins.

Comment #5 Lee from Pocitos - 04/12/07 06:08

Well, the dumpsters are normally one per block and on the side of the street opposite the beach.

The "Rambla" is the road that goes along the beach. The dumpsters are not limited to the Rambla, but are on many of the city's streets.

The beach in that photo is "pocitos beach", but there are many beaches along the Rambla in Montevideo.

And we could edit your thoughts a little bit... "What a shame to hide such a beautiful beach with such ugly green bins"... What a shame to give people no place buy the beach to throw their trash!

Comment #6 Pepito of Earth on Fire (63.176.159.219) - 10/05/08 22:31

It is all just to for show. Why do they look up so much t Presidential Visits. Every country has an image of poverty and pollution, and these presidents know all about these, so why hide it? Government people can be really be sick and twisted most of the times... oh! sorry, all the time.

Comment #7 fvansan from pennsylvania - 10/06/08 08:25

The US Secret Service, who protect the President, requires that along the route all dumpsters be removed and all manhole covers be welded. There will be Secret Service snipers on rooftops along the route too. By the way, do us a favor and don't send him back, ship him to Argentina will ya.

Comment #8 Johan (63.176.159.129) - 02/19/09 15:06

Of course dumpsters are not all there is in terms of the cleanliness of the streets of Uruguay. It is also the people's initiative to maintain its cleanliness. Of course you could not impose this to all people, usually it is the tourists who messes up things because of their "discipline issues". In other countries like in Singapore, it is a law to maintain the streets of the city or you'll be "fined".

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