Category: yolanda

“I am not okay.”

Posted by Squall Renzokuken on Facebook
Tacloban (and nearby Waray towns) Yolanda Update
15 Nov 7:49 am

On a personal note: In the past few days, concerned friends have asked me “how are you?”. On any given day, we don’t really answer this question truthfully. So let me be honest, I am not okay. I feel like I’ve just been ripped apart and the ground swallowed my heart and soul. Just because I’m not bleeding on the outside doesn’t mean I’m not injured. Tacloban is my childhood. All my happy memories as a young kid growing up are all tied to Leyte and Tacloban. When I think of how Tacloban just disappeared. That it will never resemble the way it was before gives me more pain that I can ever describe. If you meet someone from Tacloban, wherever they are, Manila, Cebu, US, Canada, Dubai, London, Sydney, wherever they are. They are feeling that exact pain. There is no description for this level of pain. So please be patient with us as we all try to find ways to heal. We will cry for no reason. We will forget where our keys are. We will not function as we used to. Our past has just been obliterated. We all have to start in the middle. This pain will not go away until Tacloban returns back to something close to normal. And that will take time. Maybe it won’t be until I’m 50 years old when Tacloban is back again to where it was before. So if you’re asking how I am, I am in a terrible state. But like every other Waraynon, I am made of metal far stronger than all the metals in the world. Basta waray, maisog. I just need time and understanding. So when I say ‘thank you’ for your help, I mean it. It is no ordinary ‘thank you’. Every little bit of your support is like the pieces that will put me back together so I can become whole again. On a practical term, this means I am seeing a grief counsellor and I suggest that anyone who feels like I do should get professional help. You may not be okay but you are not alone. Draw on other people’s love and support as much as you can.

“what we should be railing about”

… The ability of government and humanitarian organizations to deliver aid to areas devastated by Yolanda is hampered by decades – if not generations – of economic underdevelopment brought about by a multitude of factors. It’s a wound that cuts to almost everything from literacy to education to employment to housing to disposable income to disaster preparedness. It’s a wound cut by the knives of political patronage, dependency, backward policy, and the perpetuation of top-down development that does little – if not nothing – for the poor.

These days, social media is a hotbed for criticisms against President Aquino for not doing enough. As President, he is not blameless. He should be at the forefront of the reforms in policy and redistributing resources in Eastern Visayas, in particular. But generations of underdevelopment and poverty can be pinned down not only to him, but to every President, Vice President, Senator, and Representative who has ignored the imperative to prepare the most vulnerable people in the country for the worst through a national plan and execution for sustainable development.

— Marck Ronald Rimorin

“Suspend all reclamations in Manila Bay.”

Posted by Ipat G. Luna on Facebook
15 Nov around 10 pm

Look Yolanda in the face and tell us you will still reclaim 26,000 hectares of Manila Bay. Even before she came, “In a span of only 20 years, the country has seen its sea levels increase at three times the rate of the rest of the world – one of the many reasons why the country is extremely vulnerable to climate change.”

1. Suspend all reclamations in Manila Bay.

2. Change PRA’s mandate, make it the Philippine Rehabilitation Authority.

3. Legislate a presumption against reclamation, that can only be overturned by an overriding public need.

4. Require genuine alternatives in all reclamations going through our EIA system, specifically that of developing instead the inner cities into diverse neighborhoods that accommodate the rich and poor alike in decent, climate-resilient and “green” housing.

And lastly, let’s vote with our precious pesos — LET’S NOT BUY PROPERTY in newly reclaimed land in Manila Bay. They may only be speculating and even if they’re not, think of liquefaction and storm surges.

read Why was Typhoon Yolanda so strong? Scientists chime in

Surrender, Oblivion, Survival

On Red Beach, America will soon rumble onto Leyte’s shores with its ships, returning, like MacArthur, to Tacloban’s rescue, on the heels of a planetary emergency for which it feels no guilt or will to fix.

History is our tsunami, and in our seaside shelters, we keep watching the tide return, waiting for our cleansing as bodies drown.

— Gina Apostol