22 February 2006
Editorial: Signs of the times
EDITORIAL
NO stranger to natural disasters ourselves, having weathered a killer earthquake in July 1990, several devastating killer typhoons that brought giant floods through the decades, deadly onslaught of viral diseases like meningococcemia, acute gastro-enteritis, dengue fever, cholera and at one point, the deadly SARS here in our doorsteps – not to mention having to live with our own set of elected “enriching” officials – the southern Leyte mudslide tragedy still jolts us with its sheer impact on human spirit.
A whole mountainside loosening and collapsing on an unwary barangay population of some 1,900 is an event of cataclysmic proportion that shows graphically how fragile life is. And how very puny our own relief and rescue capabilities can be in the face of such gigantic trials. Yet, when you come right down to it, how else but puny would Man’s response capability be to anything the Supreme Creator wills and lets pass for a reason, His own reason.
There today unfolding in St. Bernard, southern Leyte is another test of the human spirit among our Filipino rescuers now aided by several international relief crews. Looking for some 1,800 bodies believed buried alive in thick mud is a task so grim it should only be for the physically and spiritually strong. Yet, find them the rescuers now assembled in the disaster zone must do if only to, as President Arroyo, speaking in Binalonan yesterday put it, “give their living relatives and friends their peace of mind”.
Losing a loved one, after all, is a bitter experience; not being able to see his body at all in death is tragically maddening.
We who live in places far and near the site of this latest Philippine catastrophe and who have the One Above to thank for mercifully sparing us our own share of seasonal floodings the past year until today, should now take stock of our environment and see to it that we contribute to its preservation and protection, never its destruction.
It is never too late to make amends with Nature, in the way we treat our forests, our rivers, our seas and our air.
After that, the rest of our fate and future we can only calmly leave to Him who gave all of these to us for our sustenance – and who therefore has the sole Divine right to take them back anytime.
In measured and mild retribution or in sudden and painful payback.
NO stranger to natural disasters ourselves, having weathered a killer earthquake in July 1990, several devastating killer typhoons that brought giant floods through the decades, deadly onslaught of viral diseases like meningococcemia, acute gastro-enteritis, dengue fever, cholera and at one point, the deadly SARS here in our doorsteps – not to mention having to live with our own set of elected “enriching” officials – the southern Leyte mudslide tragedy still jolts us with its sheer impact on human spirit.
A whole mountainside loosening and collapsing on an unwary barangay population of some 1,900 is an event of cataclysmic proportion that shows graphically how fragile life is. And how very puny our own relief and rescue capabilities can be in the face of such gigantic trials. Yet, when you come right down to it, how else but puny would Man’s response capability be to anything the Supreme Creator wills and lets pass for a reason, His own reason.
There today unfolding in St. Bernard, southern Leyte is another test of the human spirit among our Filipino rescuers now aided by several international relief crews. Looking for some 1,800 bodies believed buried alive in thick mud is a task so grim it should only be for the physically and spiritually strong. Yet, find them the rescuers now assembled in the disaster zone must do if only to, as President Arroyo, speaking in Binalonan yesterday put it, “give their living relatives and friends their peace of mind”.
Losing a loved one, after all, is a bitter experience; not being able to see his body at all in death is tragically maddening.
We who live in places far and near the site of this latest Philippine catastrophe and who have the One Above to thank for mercifully sparing us our own share of seasonal floodings the past year until today, should now take stock of our environment and see to it that we contribute to its preservation and protection, never its destruction.
It is never too late to make amends with Nature, in the way we treat our forests, our rivers, our seas and our air.
After that, the rest of our fate and future we can only calmly leave to Him who gave all of these to us for our sustenance – and who therefore has the sole Divine right to take them back anytime.
In measured and mild retribution or in sudden and painful payback.
