Wanted: Peace and quiet

Malevolent forces whose avowed mission is to make your life and that of the rest of ordinary Filipinos miserable, horrific and, in many cases, terminal not by disease but by knife or bullet, whichever is handily available, can be found in unexpected places.

You wake up to find your trash uncollected even if you had placed it inside the regulation black plastic bag so that, or so you thought, throwing it onto the truck would be easier for the garbage collector (but then you realized that Christmas is still nine months away, which means that you have to cut the guy some slack).