Often times I am led to wonder how life would be different had I ventured forth in Manila and sought employment there. Many times I still like to think back on the what if’s of my career path. What if I haven’t left Manila? What if I applied for a work in Manila? What if I worked in Manila? Would life be different?
Of course it would! Instead of the relaxed jeepney ride I go through daily, passing through rice fields and inhaling fresh air, I would be subjected to the highly stressful bus/jeepney/MRT ride passing through rows and rows of buildings, through hours of traffic, squeezing through throngs of people and inhaling polluted air. Instead of waking up two hours, sometimes even an hour and a half, before work time and having lots of time to spare for breakfast, preparation and travel, I would be waking up 4 to 3 hours before work time and be rushing through the day, eating while travelling.
Yet there is the promise of a higher compensation and the threat of higher living costs. There is the promise of greater career glory (more internationally known companies and brands) yet the threat of being too far away from the top and thus a slave of lower management.
But the biggest difference for me – a very big defining factor actually, would be the way Manila has been hit by typhoons recently. And the scary outcomes of such.
I felt the rage of Ondoy’s devastation because I lacked Internet connection. For me, that was the extent of the damage the typhoon caused – I was disconnected from the world. We do not have the luxury of television in our house so combined with the radio, the Internet is the only way we can know what is happening outside the walls of our home. Unbelievable? Believe it. It’s true.
Now, I have reconnected and the things I’m seeing – the pictures and videos, plus the posts I’m reading – in Facebook and other blogs, are appalling, devastating and quite painful for me. I can see the place I’ve considered home for 5 years wrecked into unimaginable proportions. I have never imagined that Manila and the surrounding localities could be devastated as such. Deep down, I want to be in the center of things – offering my physical help to those in need. I have no money or extra stuff to donate, all I have is myself and my willingness to offer physical labor for the good of all. I have no doubt that if I was still living in QC I will be out there, in the relief centers, volunteering my time and energy. Yet I am here. And I am thankful for that. And all I can offer now are my prayers that everything turn out well for everyone.
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Now in the course of my vigilant watch over the Facebook status messages, I have come to discover several things.
1.) Politicians are certainly taking this disaster to aid them in their own greedy means. I am not generalizing everyone – I mean I saw a post in Facebook of a photo of a packed meal bearing the terms “Tulong Mula Kay Manny Villar”. Amazing that people had time to actually print out those labels, cut them and tape them on the relief goods. And funny how, in our country, when we do good things, we should inform people where the good deeds came from. Isn’t it stated in the Bible that we must do our giving in secret and not announce it to the world with trumpets and so much fanfare (Matthew 6:1-4)? Yet some people like some of our politicians can’t seem to grasp the concept of anonymous giving or giving for giving’s sake. Why can’t they be like some famous people who didn’t thought of who they are but instead only thought of how they can help? Oh well, at least relief is handed out to those who need it. And I hope that this does not cloud the judgements of the voting public.
Tulong Mula Kay Manny Villar
2. The devastation wrought about by Typhoon Ondoy (international name: Ketsana) has attracter internation attention wherein even Hollywood stars are mobilizing themselves to help out. It’s no longer just the Filipino International Community that is eager to help but even foreigners as well. Let’s just hope that their reliefs come as they have sent it – not modified to look as if it came from some other enterprising politician or worst, screened by some greedy “custom officials”.
3.) The typhoon Ondoy didn’t discriminate between rich or poor when it came to the devastation it wrought. However, how people cope with the aftermath displayed social status like no othe tragedy can. I heard in the radio that the people in Provident Village, which have been badly affected by the flood also, have really interesting means of salvaging their homes – that is if the choose to salvage it. The reporter said the owners of the house went to hotels to spend their days there while leaving their house help to fend for the house. Furthermore, some have hired people (the announcer made a joke that it could be construction firms) just to clean the houses of mud. However, it cannot be denied that most of their really expensive appliances suffered the same damage as any other less privileged person’s appliance.
4.) It is touching to see the numerous posts in Facebook relating to relief and rescure operations for Ondoy. Indeed, there’s nothing like a tragedy this enormous in magnitude to draw out the bayanihan nature of Pinoys. And it is touching to see that we can still unite, make merry of circumstances even.
Two more typhoons are expected to hit the country, where they will actually wreack havoc is unknown, as of now. We can only watch and pray that they no longer cause havoc as devastating as the one that had just passed. The devastations, as I believe I said in my earlier post, had a lot to teach us – issues on pollution and littering, issues on proper preventive measures, issues on emergency funds supposedly misaligned, abusive politicians, the need for the country to repent of its sins and pray more, etc. There’s a lot to be learned and I hope that, even with the dawn of the 2 upcoming typhoons, we have learned our lessons.
My apologies to those who don’t have Facebook accounts. Apparently, you have to be logged in to FB to be able to view some of the links here, most of which are video links. If I find a way of posting the videos directly here, I will certainly edit this post and do so. 😀 In any case, here’s another touching story connected to Ondoy: Philippine man loses own life after saving dozens from floods.
Reading people’s wall post in Facebook and other’s personal blog entries, I see the reality of the devastation Ondoy has wrought our country, particularly Manila and it’s adjoining places. The calls for volunteers, the postings of where relief points are located, the desperate posts attempting to locate missing loved ones and the personal narratives of the horror some had to undergo during the hours of the typhoon that may go down in the annals of history as one of the worst ones to ever hit the country, for me, adds a personal tone to the otherwise straightforward news I hear and read.
Every second I read what actually happened in Manila – the water levels rising to the second floors and sometimes to the roof; the ultra-jam packed train stations with some stations shutting down due to lost of power; the mass of stranded people – hungry, desperate and worried; I can’t help but be thankful of the decision I made some months ago – the decision to stay in the province, partly permanently, and uproot myself from the Manila I have become deeply rooted to. Yet deep down, together with the gratitude I feel is a longing to be there – with my friends in Manila (and there are a LOT of them) and help out in whatever physical way I can – giving out relief goods, offering shelter if I have one, being part of rescue operations themselves. Furthermore I worry about how they are, how they are faring, how their houses are, how their relatives are. I watch every Facebook post, every yahoo group message, every text message like a hawk awaiting to see what happened or what is happening to my friends. I can hardly believe that less than a week ago I was in Manila and everything seemed just like the way it was before. Now, I’m afraid things have changed. Manila will never be the same again.
I hope that what transpired will teach us some lessons. Every disaster is an opportunity to learn, if anything else. Somehow, this goes to show that we should never be lax in our mitigating measures for incidents like this. Hopefully, in the future, such an incident will no longer repeat itself for if it does, then pity to us indeed.
