To describe the slums of Manila is well nigh impossible. Even photographs leave out the smell. The pervasive desperation is seen when a basket of fish falls from the back of a truck. Within seconds the contents are gone, whisked away by a crowd of half naked children.

One may see two people ekeing out a living washing plastic bags from the rubbish dump and selling them second hand. They live in a muddy, stinking and overcrowded slum, under the shadow of a huge hill — 'smokey mountain' — constructed from years of Manila rubbish. This slum, just a small part of the huge Navotas squatter area, is continuously invaded by the stinking smoke from burning garbage.