A Week After The Unexpected by: Ace Zairyl Magolhado What does it really feel to stand in the middle of those affected areas? Would you know where to start when all you can see are debris from your destroyed house where you lived in for so many years? Would you know what to do when all you can see and smell in every corner are corpses of the people you expect to get help from and worst a family member? I myself is not a victim nor affected of the devastation but my answer would be definitely “NO”, no chance at all. But that’s the point, you’ll come out of nothing if you stand alone, but if we all stand together I’m pretty sure we’ll come up with a better idea. Seven days after the devastating effect of some said the strongest typhoon in the history, the Philippines is still in the process of what we have accomplished before---“Rising”. Well at least that’s the bright side. Aside from Yolanda, the another “unexpected” is the sympathies expressed by other countries from all over the world and a helping hand which I know is very much appreciated by the Filipino people. We all thank you from the deepest of our hearts. You gave us hope and courage to rebuild the smile on the faces of the victims. We prepared for this, but we did not expect this, do we? Who really knows what a “strongest typhoon” is? Answer is no one. We may prepared for what we know is the “strongest” but its is not the “strongest” that we know if you know what I mean. We had our local and US meteorologist who predicted the power and wrath of Yolanda. But did we hear anything about what it can bring? No. Did they notice us that a 300kmph wind can cut coconut trees and torn cemented houses apart? No. Did they tell us that the evacuation centers will be useless? Ah-uh. Did they let us know that the water from the storm surge could reach the highly populated areas? No. Simply because they also don’t know what a “strongest typhoon” is and what it can bring. So I don’t blame them. No one should be blamed for this event. Last night I watched the news and it deeply saddened me how can the media criticize the government for the slow response particularly on the relief operations. Come on! You yourselves were there, you know that this is not the typical situation we had for the past typhoons. Our government is already doing what is humanly possible and I believe that. Friday Nov. 8 when Yolanda landfall in Eastern Visayas. Next day, the government was able to land a C-130 plane in Cebu. They looked for mayors and brgy. Officials. Where are they? They are also victims. And so they find for a standing building to serve as a warehouse for the relief goods which I think was not that easy based on the damage I saw in the news. The gov. admitted that the major problem is the “distribution” of the relief goods because the roads are blocked/unpassable and needed to be cleared first which is slowing them down to reach the other areas. The fact that the reporters can witness the problem with their own eyes and still report it like the government is not doing enough really grinds my gears. In fact, there is this one reporter who was trapped and had to walked for 6 hours from one town to another because there was no means of transportation, and even there was, the roads are blocked by the massive debris. An experienced volunteer from United Kingdom stated, “It is nothing like the tsunami in Japan or the earthquake in Haiti., thi… this is combined. I’ve never seen anything like this before”. Another volunteer from Korea was asked about the pace of the operations, “The government is doing good so far. In Japan and Haiti, it took us two weeks before we can provide assistance.” Clearly, none of us expected that the casualty is going to be this massive. The government is doing the best they could. So please enough with the nasty remarks. They’re consist of human beings, like us they eat rice and drink water. Try to put your feet on their shoes before complaining. One last thing , to all Filipinos, kindly be cautious when watching the news. Do not just focus on the information that a reporter is trying to give. They might be questioning a wrong person or not in the right place to ask the question. Much better if we watch news in different channels. If you will also be so observant on the television, you’ll notice that there is only one network that keeps on pressuring our government in terms of delivering the relief goods. I won’t say which network, it’s not what’s important right now. In the darkest times like this, no one should be blamed nor criticized. I know all of us Filipinos are devastated emotionally, physically and/or psychologically. We should all take the initiative to find ways on how to help our fellow countrymen in all means possible. Let us Unite, Rebuild, RISE! by: Ace Zairyl Magolhado I’m not a writer or anything. I just want to express my own thoughts from what has happened to my country and fellow countrymen.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 07:39:29 +0000