The Philippine Online Chronicles

Quite often it may seem like an epoch ago, officials of the government made excuses for their capability and intelligence when that uncoordinated disaster: the first 48 hours of Ondoy occurred.  Now months later, we’d forgotten what it was like, The Day After Ondoy and the sheer urgency of building our civil defense to spec.

If Ondoy drowned us, then the last few days, it is the scorching sun that now seems hell bent to raze us. A few years back there was this huge Tsunami that made us recoil in horror as many were sent to Death’s door.  Haiti was only weeks ago, and then there was Chile on the other side of the Pacific and the effects of the earthquake there has caused Philippine authorities to advised citizens to move to higher ground.  It isn’t really surprising why people are quite tempted to pontificate, “End of days are here.”

The cynical, and the hysterical may think the world is turning itself inside out.

The truth is we got to remember that the Earth is not static.  It is a dynamic system.  It moves from one state to another as we travel around the sun and this world of ours, it is constantly changing.

In days like these we are reminded of Al Gore.  In spite of the failure of Copenhagen, can we really avoid climate change now? The truth is, at this point it hardly matters who we blame.

If there is something Archeology and Anthropology has taught us, our time on this world is but a tiny blink of an eye.  For example, our Earth has already been witness to several extinction events.  Not to mention that Humans have only been around for 150,000 years.  Give or take a few years.

There were changing environmental tests plaguing our world when man stepped out of Africa, and these events that have been occurring in our Earth is business as usual for the most part, granted this climate change is all on us.  Though today, much of it is our fault, we must likewise face these challenges.

In this campaign of titans, the story and lesson of Ondoy falls on the wayside.

How could it not? Amidst all the priorities in education, in health care, in fiscal management, in fighting to stem the tide against corruption, it is understandable why this is simply swept aside.  Amidst the battle between Integrity and Competence, it is understandable that this too must fall on the wayside.  Today, the battle cry for better disaster preparation post Election Day will simply fall on deaf ears.  Even if it wasn’t, now is not the time to discuss it.

Victory in May, at all cost is the battle cry of both camps.

Yet, can we at least remember in the weeks and months ahead that when an earthquake strikes Manila, how much of it will fall?  How prepared are our hospitals and disaster relief and rescue?  How prepared are we to face that sword hanging over our heads?

When a real tsunami strikes our coast, how much are we ready to step in and help out?

When the next Ondoy comes, are we ready to face it with our eyes open?

It isn’t to say that citizens everywhere can’t help out.  Much of the groundwork has already been developed.  Take for example Sahana Disaster Management Software that is familiar to many disaster relief groups.  What’s stopping every Filipino with an interest in software development and disaster relief to participate?

What is to stop private initiative from banding together and start building or enhancing existing systems and protocols to prepare for what comes tomorrow?  We need not wait for government to act.  We can start on now.

Our government is plagued with 300 Billion pesos of deficit.   Our education system is sickly.  Our public healthcare system is weak.  Our nation is gripped with incapacity.

If we do not help ourselves, where then will we find ourselves in?

No matter who wins in May, Disaster Management, Prevention, Relief and Rescue will most likely fall on the wayside.  Belly first is our raison d’être, after all. Where then does that leave us?

Can a nation in such a state as ours endure?

Have we the nerve and the steel as citizens to find common ground between our public interest and our public comfort to rally ourselves for our tomorrow’s sakes?

Can a nation in such a state as ours step forward to ask not what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country?  Will we then discover that we can care so mightily about our nation to dare to hope instead of surrendering it to the past cloaked in its appeal to pragmatism?

In May, our nation faces a crossroad.  In May, amidst the blistering heat of the sun and the rivalry of titans, our nation must choose.  It must choose between Competence and Integrity.  It must choose between machinery and volunteerism.  It must choose between mediocrity and tomorrow.  It must choose between blackest night, and brightest day.

When May comes, our nation too faces a philosophical question. In light and darkness, will we discover that it is in unshackling our binders, and opening our voice that we can care so mightily about our nation to dare to hope, to dream, and to act ourselves instead of surrendering it to the past that is cloaked in its appeal to pragmatism and self-centeredness?  In so discovering, will we remember EDSA, will we remember Ondoy those moments in our nation’s history that we held on to each other in bayanihan?

Photo from wikepedia. Some Rights Reserved.

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