Some disaster ops-related thoughts
EDIT 1: So much for bullet points. Too lazy to fix anything at this point.
EDIT 2: Just to make it clear, it was this article that prompted this post. Or worse, the comments feed. I love it. We are all armchair analysts. /sarcasm
Anyone who has led or been an integral part of a committee tasked with organizing an event (anywhere from 50 to hundreds or thousands of participants) should probably understand the logistical nightmare of organizing disaster ops for Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan.
Disaster ops should really be an integral research focus (on the academic level). People complain about the lack of relevance of academic research on the real world… well here it is. It’s hard to employ people who are competent in these situations if they have nothing to draw from, whether it’s manpower or knowledge.
The Philippines is still a third-world country. The storm has made that frighteningly clear.
Politics at the top level is sickening. We have a chief executive that is forever self-defensive. Someone who has continuously proclaimed innocence and heaped blame on the previous administration, casually throwing phrases and speeches with none of the nuanced empathy and clarity that a shell-shocked people need desperately at times like this.
To that end, we can see hopelessly transparent offensives (anywhere from expediting the graft charges to blaming LGUs for incompetence so long as they are from the opposing party) drawn along partisan lines, even during a crisis like this. Not that I’m absolving the opposition of this behavior, but it’s worse if the ruling party (oligarchical tones here) does it.
Worse, everything seems to be colored in this manner. Again, a wagon-circling approach does not dissuade the people from thinking this way, regardless of whatever the truth may be.
Then again, finger-pointing is not exclusive to the government. It bothers me that people complained about the idea of air drops being discarded. So you’re suggesting that a small town airport (more or less destroyed in terms of manpower and infrastructure) that can only handle regulated flights when operational should now serve as the focal point for distributing air drops to around 40 villages. Air drops that would probably involve hungry people fighting over scarce resources, so we now have to send military personnel to secure the drops. Who you must also sustain, since once they get dropped in they won’t be getting out for a while (road infrastructure pretty much nonexistent). Of course, you have to make sure that all villages hit by the typhoon receive aid commensurate to their damages, without prior assessment (since communications went kaput also). Of course, you’d be air dropping relief goods that have yet to arrive, since the ones nearby got hit by the typhoon also. That’s why the US aircraft carrier was a godsend, really. (EDIT: HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW THAT THERE ARE OTHER AIRPORTS IN THE AREA)
Then the NPA complains about US imperialism and how this would be detrimental to the Philippines. I personally don’t think that, given our current situation, we are in a good position to decline help. I also hear about rebels ambushing food convoys for townspeople. If true (which, honestly, plays into typical survival decisions), well, that sucks. What help are they providing? What’s worse, if they end up distributing a portion of that to the people (assuming they keep some for themselves) they misrepresent where the food is coming from. Even giving everything to the people still amounts to false representation.
Also heard about the DSWD repacking operations. It’s sad if it’s true that people still hoarded certain relief goods from donating countries (heck, with thieves like that, NPA animosity is pretty understandable). Then again, I can think of redistribution as being a plausible explanation of things… although execution usually falls short. People will still tend to compare things, and those who will receive local relief goods will probably feel slighted when they see their neighbors getting imported ones. Heck, China’s increased relief aid was a result of foreign smack (a PR disaster if there ever was one). It’s all about image.
Image is something that obviously matters. CNN and all the other media outlets painted such a bleak outlook of the state of affairs that some broadcasters (married to government officials surnamed Roxas) took offense. Of course, goodwill notwithstanding, it’s still a combination of media sensationalism (worked to our advantage, I guess, with the outpouring of aid) + media mobility (it’ll obviously take a small news team to reach Tacloban ahead of a massive relief op team) + first-world perspective (heck, people were complaining about non-functioning toilets during Katrina; towns in Leyte were wiped of the map completely… obliterated can summon the appropriate image) that left everyone fighting over who got it right.
Going back to the government, we see an administration that is so conscious of looking incompetent that it constantly points other people… emphasizing a disturbing disdain for accountability. Then we also see politicians (who want to be accountable) that are still not above emblazoning relief goods with their names, plastered all over for future voters to see. (EDIT: OH MY GOD ARE YOU KIDDING ME. People are dying and the government is playing hot potato FFS)
But for me, the image that’s ultimately more important is the outlook of the survivors on themselves. Losing family, friends and possessions is VERY devastating (especially in a Filipino context). It doesn’t help if people who you rely on on times like these are bickering among themselves. While the aid is sure going to be a great help, self-esteem and confidence is sure to take a hit. That’s why it’s so disappointing that the government couldn’t provide even a veneer of tranquility and confidence in the immediate aftermath.
The ones left alive after the typhoon hit the Visayas are all survivors. Even us. We gave help when help was due. We should also give credit where credit is due. Government agencies did their best to work with whatever limited resources they had. We had to forego arguments to better serve the immediate needs of the victims. Getting enraged by the incompetence of certain people could sometimes prove detrimental when it distracts you from the need to focus in that manner. But the key is constant vigilance. Consistency. If you get angry at the government and unload your vitriol online while people are volunteering, what help does that do? And when this is all done and you go back to your complacent and blase lifestyle, what have you done? :/
