FOR my (it must be many) sins I’m the chairman of the body corporate at a small block of flats where I live.
One of the daily battles has been the refuse.
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The municipality only collects it once a week, on a Wednesday, which is a long way off from the weekend, when most of the residents are home and filling their bins.
The problem has been that the monkeys have realised that these bins are a source of easy food.
Sure, they have to work to find it, but it results in energetic, bin-toppling antics. And a huge mess.
The problem aside from the mess, is that it has attracted too many monkeys for my liking, an issue exacerbated by the fact that there are quite a few children, some very small, who live there.
I’m not saying the monkeys have become aggressive, but they certainly aren’t as skittish as they used to be.
Finally, after much talking and no action, we the trustees got around to spending some cash and buying some wheelie bins.
They’re much bigger, with a proper lid, one a monkey can’t pull off.
The first day went well for those in favour of a litter-free environment.
It didn’t go so well for those in favour of monkeys upending bins in search of lunch.
The monkeys arrived, stopped, looked around, pawed at the bins unsuccessfully, looked around confused for a few more moments and the moved off in pursuit of a takeaway elsewhere.
You can debate the merits of feeding or not feeding monkeys for a long time.
In all honesty I felt kind of sad for these creatures, whose habitat is shrinking through no fault of their own.
A part of me wouldn’t mind their scavenging – rather eat our leftovers than bird eggs? – if their table manners weren’t quite so appalling.
We’ll see how it all turns out.
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