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TOUGHEST PLACE TO BE

Toughest Place To Be A... Payatas Scanvanger Image Name: Toughest Place To Be A... Payatas Scanvanger
Toughest Place To Be A... Mel and Merney and Mark Image Name: Toughest Place To Be A... Mel and Merney and Mark
Toughest Place To Be A... Mel and Mark Image Name: Toughest Place To Be A... Mel and Mark
Toughest Place To Be A... Mark with Landfill Scavanger Image Name: Toughest Place To Be A... Mark with Landfill Scavanger
Toughest Place To Be A... Mark On Smokey Mountain Image Name: Toughest Place To Be A... Mark On Smokey Mountain
Toughest Place To Be A... Mark In his gear Image Name: Toughest Place To Be A... Mark In his gear
Toughest Place To Be A... Mark Crosbie Image Name: Toughest Place To Be A... Mark Crosbie
Toughest Place To Be A... Mark and local children Image Name: Toughest Place To Be A... Mark and local children

Toughest Place To Be… A Street Sweeper

Mark Crosbie is a street cleaner with Dublin City Council. For eight days Mark has agreed to swap the cobbled stone streets of Temple Bar for one of the most polluted and densely populated cities in the world, Manila. How will Mark cope as he experiences life at the extreme end of his trade as immerses himself into a new family and community while learning how his job is done in some of the most unforgiving and difficult conditions imaginable.

47-year-old Mark is a dedicated family man. Married to his childhood sweetheart Debra he has two kids and two grandkids. Most days Mark is found with his broom, shovel and handcart keeping the Grafton Street & Temple Bar areas clean. A permanent and pensionable job, Mark has worked as a street cleaner for Dublin City Council for the last eight years. He has now agreed to travel 7,000 miles to do his job in one of the toughest place to be a street sweeper, the Philippines.

Manila the capital of the Philippines is a city of extremes, where the skyscrapers of the wealthy business district rise above the grinding poverty of the ever-expanding slums. This super-city has a population over 25 million people-with some four million living in slums. With this number steadily growing, more and more rubbish is being created and the city is struggling to cope.

Thousands of impoverished waste workers try to keep the problem at bay, but they are fighting a losing battle. One of those workers is Mel Macaereg, a street sweeper who works for the local council or ‘Barangay’. Mel has to support his wife and their six children on the small wage he earns each month as a street cleaner.

Mel has agreed to be Mark’s host in Manila, welcome him to his home, show him life as a Manila street sweeper and finally to put his feet up while Mark takes over Mel’s job for a day.

Over the course of the documentary, Mark grapples with cultural differences, new work practices and the extreme work conditions. He quickly starts to understand the extreme challenges facing the poorest people in Manila. From the exceptionally low salaries earned by waster workers to the thousands of people forced to scavenge for a living on the landfill. Mark struggles to come to terms with a world where people survive on the things that we throw away.

At times Mark is moved to tears by the sheer hopelessness of certain situations but he is determined to complete the challenge. Despite these hardships, Mark also experiences the warmth and welcome of a proud and generous people. Everywhere he goes, Mark is greeted with a smile and a wave and he soon immerses himself in the local community.

On his return to Ireland, what will Mark have learned and will the experience leave a lasting impression on the larger than life Dublin street cleaner?

Directed by IFTA Award Winning director Garry Keane, and produced by Motive Television (I Am Immigrant, Toughest Trade, The Notorious and Dole Life) for RTÉ One.