#typhoon washi

[thatlazycrazylady]

To: The Philippines

Re: Typhoon Sendong/Washi Relief Operations

When you're responding to a disaster, it does help to plan it thoroughly.

First of all, make sure that there is an avenue for communication and collaboration between all parties providing services. Not only does it ensure that goods and services are evenly distributed, it also prevents repetition of services that should only be done once (i.e. debriefing.) This is not a fucking competition about who gives more to the survivors. It's about helping them reach stability, helping them go on with their lives despite their losses. It's not about you. Help each other for goodness' sake.

Make sure that you finish what you started. Don't give the people false hope. I hear of several programs that were started by one organization that were pulled out, and then 'continued' by another organization (from the very beginning, too, as no endorsement between the two organizations.) This only made the people confused and the program ineffective. Having lots of budget for materials but not for labor (or vice versa) does not help either.

Plan with the future in mind. Make it simple, make it sustainable. That is, make sure that what you're doing will allow people to live for the long term. Don't just build and give for the sake of building and giving. Put yourself in their shoes. What would you need if that happened to you? You don't just build several hundred homes and not provide a freaking septic tank, making them virtually unlivable.

Why have we been haphazardly wasting resources on repetitive, unsustainable services at a time of need? All the aid we received, pooled together from foreigners and locals alike, should have been more than enough to provide safe and livable housing and some sort of long-term sustenance for those who lost their livelihood as well.

Fortunately, most of the people here are resilient and have done much for themselves since the tragedy. You would think, though, that they ought to have received the aid which was due them. I'm not saying that none at all was given, because it was a huge help to them in the first months after the flood. I'm just saying that some of it was wasted due to poor planning.

[awesomethingsaregoodforyou]

annabanana's right, you know.

Taxi driver: [translated from Filipino] "A lot of people nowadays tend to forget who owns our lives as we go about making a living. The people at Cagayan De Oro and Japan deserved it, you know. Hey, I think we can assume that they wan'ted to get rich too. They didn't pray enough." 

Me: "...

what lovely weather we're having today." 

They didn't pray enough. 

There are just so many things wrong about the above statement. It was a terrible, terrible thing to say.

A part of me wants to get angry. Really angry. When a person believes that someone else deserved what great misfortune befell them because they simply "didn't live up to my god's standards, what lazy bums", that makes me very, very wary of this person. 

The people at Cagayan De Oro and the Japanese didn't want this. Heck, they weren't even expecting it. If there's one thing Nature is, it's not motherly, nor is it cruel. Nature in itself is random. Indifferent. 

[source, because humon is awesome.]

Again, I reiterate, the people at Cagayan de Oro and Japan did not expect this to happen. 

And really and truly, the best thing anyone can ever do to help out is to really give aid. Send useable clothes, food, supplies, medicine, clean drinking water. Get in touch with the Red Cross. Send money, if you can. With the Cagayan De Oro calamities happening right before Christmas Day, I would think whatever help you and other people send will be the best gift they'll ever receive. 

I wanted to get angry and answer back, but I decided not to. 

Number one: In some cases, arguing with a believer is useless, much more when that person's already pretty much decided on what he believes, and there's not much room for a new idea to sink in and get processed. I've tried to be a polite atheist with someone like him, and see where that got me. It's also an important skill, I've learned, to choose your battles wisely. 

Secondly: A good friend Anna calmed me down with this: "Just feel sorry for him --- he doesn't know any better."

This is what I think, and this is just me: For a lot of people in my country, religion has become the poor man's "science". He knows no other explanation for how the world works, and can't be bothered to explore other perspectives, empirical or otherwise. This is what happens when a great big number of the population live below the poverty level, and have no access to a good education.

They can't help it. Religion is something that was passed on to them as a means of survival, and they know no other way to live. Rock of Ages cleft for me, because Life is so goddamn hard, and I need the money. 

This brings to mind the first few lines in the preface for Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion: 

As a child, my wife hated her school and wished she could leave. Years later, when she was in her twenties, she disclosed this unhappy fact to her parents, and her mother was aghast: ‘But darling, why didn't you come to us and tell us?’ Lalla's reply is my text for today: ‘But I didn't know I could.’

I didn't know I could. 

A part of me now wonders if things could have turned out any differently if I had spoken up. Would I have been able to get my point across within that fifteen-minute drive? Would he have yelled at me? Listened to me? Driven me out of his cab, screaming, "Away from me, Satan"? I guess now I'll never know. 

Ah, and Thirdly: It was such a pleasant day. The sun was high, clouds wafted by, the sky was blue, and it was lovely and warm. I wanted to savor that moment while it lasted, and I wasn't going to let anything spoil it for me. Best to appreciate these moments and be thankful for them while they're still here. 

What are your thoughts on this?  

[theburningking]

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[theburningking]

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[pinasscrapbook]

Six Days Later

Six Days Later Today is day 6 since Sendong released its wrath on both Cagayan de Oro and Iligan Cities. Since the morning when we woke up to the tragedy, the whole Cagayan de Oro and Iligan communities were busy helping and updating each other on the cities’ conditions. The death toll rose, the number of missing persons increased, hundreds, if not thousands, of families had to move to evacuation centers after Sendong took away their homes and belongings. Through the power of world wide web, donations have come a-pouring, inundating the city abundantly. And we are very grateful. What the city needs now is TO HAVE THE RELIEF OPERATIONS ORGANIZED so that all victims will be able to avail of the relief goods sent by well-meaning donors. But trending again in Facebook are the laments of victims, volunteers and vigilantes - venting out frustration over how the relief operations has become a venue for politicking and even hoarding, or at the least and probably most soberly stated, plain disorganized. Some barangays have more than enough help they could get. Soup kitchens from different groups, such that the group that arrived late will have gone in vain, as the evacuees had already had their fill from the previous donors. This, while in other remote areas, no one mans the make shift evacuation areas where donations are scarce and the refugees are hungry and thirsty. Money has poured in, it is said, form various NGOs and other governments, including our own. Now the general public raise their passionatevoices in the Facebook wall: “Who is going to be accountable for the money?!” “Be careful of the crooks in the government!” “Another venue for malversation of funds!” “Let’s build tenements!” “The victims need medical supplies and the babies and children need milk!” Many of us are overwhelmed with the spirit of the Kagay-anon’s spirit of community at this time. There is a self-regulation of personal interest among the honest helping hands, the extension of oneself in all sectors of society, especially the academic, business, civic and medical fields are palpable in the streets. Even groups of friends locally called “barkadahan” have banded together and gone out to the areas that were hit, not to go on drinking sprees, but to help out (and grab a drink or two at the end of the day). And yet, at this point, six days after the storm, the general public is feeling the discontent over the LACK OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT’S FIRM AND ASSURING PRESENCE. When 9/11 devastated the whole world, Rudy Giulliani was there in the streets, tending to his constituents, crying with their families, assuring the people of New York City that they will rise again. Lucky for New York and kudos to Rudy. It’s up to you to infer. Oh, yes, he was there, on the radio, explaining that the dead bodies that were found after the water subsided were “temporarily” placed in the landfill/city garbage dumpsite because the stench of decomposition was already unbearable and unsanitary; and besides the landfill is the government’s only biggest property. Excuse me, but would you put a family member in a GARBAGE DUMPSITE BECAUSE HIS DECOMPOSING BODY IS A HEALTH THREAT? Wouldn’t you find ways to bury him with dignity? The leaders are supposed to be leaders who know what to do. When I raised this concern in a “casual” conversation with a man whose house suffered from Sendong’s wrath (mud up to the ceiling), he asked me: “If it were up to you, how would you address the problem of the dead bodies on the streets?” My reply: “I would call the owners of the three memorial gardens in our city and ask that the bodies be placed there until claimed. After all, the decomposing bodies would be far from the public (except as an afterthought I am thinking about the people who live nearby).” And then now, I am reminded that funeral parlors had a hard time embalming the dead bodies as water supply has been cut due to the damage. This is what is true: The city has no hazard plan. Rumors are also circulating: that the supposed father of the city was allegedly out Friday night, gambling. No, there is nothing wrong with any worker to unwind on a Friday night. But for the father of the city to pay no heed to the weather forecast (which predicted a typhoon signal number 1) - he should have at least mobilized his damage prevention team in case the areas flooded in 2009 would suffer from flooding again. Another one: 7 dams were allegedly released and that the water reservoir broke causing the rising of the water to be only a matter of minutes. A responsible father and leader would be accountable for all this. He would know how to respond to the situation, even when he is wrong. But what do we hear from the appointed and elected leaders? My fellow Kagay-anons and I are now left to our own resources doing what we can to help our city, ourselves, without so much the help of those who should be leading the way to rehabilitation. Well, forgive me. The government says they are visible. Yes they are. But not in an effective way called for during calamities like this. Thank God, each member of this community has taken his own initiative to rebuilding our broken city. Thank God, the leaders of the groups are finding ways to cooperate with one another, and when impasses are reached, still moving forward into rehabilitation. Thank God that the organization of all volunteer relief operations is underway. We thank the groups and individuals who have helped our city in the hour of our need. We continue to ask for support as our city looks forward to rebuilding itself and rising above this tragedy. Pray that the changes our hometown will make will be longterm and that because of this tragedy, each person will be a new citizen who not only looks after his own personal interest, but the interest of our cities, the place where our children can run, play and be safe. A blessed Christmas to one and all.

[nationalpost-blog]

Photos of the Day

People walk among logs and debris washed ashore four days after Typhoon Washi hit a village in Iligan city, southern Philippines December 20, 2011. Philippine President Benigno Aquino declared on Tuesday a state of national calamity after flash floods and land slides caused by a typhoon swept through a southern region late last week, killing about 1,000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless. (REUTERS/Erik De Castro)

[reuters]

Typhoon Washi slams Philippines