TOMD SYNDROME HAUNTING BOGOR

Do you know? Bogor once was one of the cities in Indonesia that were awarded with the Adipura Trophy. The trophy was awarded as Bogor met the qualifications to be considered as clean city. It was in the year of 2006 , Bogor achieved the last trophy.

This year, Bogor once again failed the evaluation and consequently for 8 consecutive years it has failed to regain its status as a clean and environmental friendly city in Indonesia.

Bogor's incapability to make the same achievement as it did in 2006 has been mainly due to its inability to curb the spread of one kind of syndrome that had infected many of its citizens. The numbers could not be said but it should be a huge one. The name of the syndrome is "TOMD".

The syndrome is not an Ebola type disease that has taken high toll of life. In long term , it may eventually cause victims. The TOMD is more a mental disorder caused by several factors. The symptoms of TOMD can be seen on the gestures of the sufferers such as

• a person throws away a plastic cup or bottle of mineral water
• a person who opens his/her car windows just to dispose used tissue paper
• a person who dumps their household waste to rivers

Learning from the daily life in Bogor , it seems the has infected deeply in the mind of thousands of Bogor citizens. This is based on a fact that the above mentioned behavior are often done everywhere , every time and by lots of people from all classes and ages.

TOMD is a syndrome that cause sufferers to be unable to control themself when they have something considered as garbage, waste,  trash, litter , rubbish and all kind of unused. They always have an urge inside to throw it away immediately. The TOMD has caused them to see all things as a TRASH BIN and make it very difficult to resist the urge. The sufferers hallucinate and see road, streets, rivers as their obsessed thing , a trash bin.

There are four level of TOMD syndrome :

Beginning Level :

Sample : kids throw away the plastic wrapper of their ice creams in a park

Intermediate Level :

Sample : teenager dump a wrapper of their candy in a public transportation

The above levels are mostly because the kids or teenagers are lack of knowledge about hygiene and sanitation. Perhaps, their parents or teachers do not give enough lessons that there is laws/rules about littering in public area.

These two levels can be cured quite fast by explaining to them about the rules/laws and related sanction. Also they can be made understand about the importance to keep all clean.

 

Advanced/Heavy Level :

Sample : adults that open the windows of their cars just to dump used tissue paper or cigarette butts while they are driving

The sufferer of this level is more difficult to handle. They tend to react negatively to anyone who reminds them to throw their waste to a correct place. They may be cured by giving them a penalty for their action.

 

Acute Level :

Sample : adults who dispose their garbage to river but at the same time they criticize Bogor's government for its inability to keep Bogor clean.

I am not sure if there is any cure for this level due to its acuteness.

After writing more than 500 words , I found I forgot to tell you , my audience about what is actually the TOMD syndrome. The TOMD is an abbreviation created by the frustrated and desperate mind of the writer seeing Bogor Citizen's such bad attitude in daily life. It was the shortened Trash bin Obsessed Mental Disorder. The writer considers all action done to carelessly dispose waste, thrash and all of this kind as a disorientation of someone's mentality. There is no excuse for the habit because there are already rules , the sufferers are already taught about the importance of cleanness and the sufferers already realize about the consequences of their actions. If they still keep doing such stupidity , it must be caused by their sick or at least disoriented mentality.

This syndrome can be seen daily in Bogor and has become a phenomenon. This is one of the reason of Bogor's failure to regain the Adipura Trophy. In fact actually the writer and many other people don't care too much about the award . What we want is actually quite simple i.e. to have Bogor clean and tidy even without any award given to this city. We just don't want Bogor become a GIANT TRASH BIN.

Do you have any suggestions to stop and curb the spread of the TOMD Syndrome ? Please do not hesitate to let our government know.

Note :

- al pictures are the writer's. Taken by Xperia M camera owned by the writer..:D

- all samples were not imaginary and seen by the writer himself

- for Indonesian version , please click ==> SINDROM TOMD

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About Anton Ardyanto

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