Missing EDSA

El Presidente came over here last Tuesday to give a speech on the anniversary of the EDSA Revolution. The speech was a rambling mess but whatever. He broke tradition by celebrating the annual event in Cebu instead of Manila, to the chagrin of the Manila folk. They should be grateful. Traffic over there is bad enough on regular days.

His reason for holding it here was to show support for the typhoon victims which is odd since he didn't mention them at all.

Maybe he just forgot.

I, Myselfie and Me

To be frank, I'm a bit sick of all this Typhoon Yolanda disaster porn. Sure, it's a horrible disaster but it seems quite exploitative already on the part of the media as they milk this for all it's worth.

Anyway, this is the first disaster of this magnitude to hit the Philippines in the age of social media. While I have no doubt social media has been instrumental in bringing attention to the calamity and gathering support for the people, one thing struck me as strange.

After the storm, there was an unwritten rule that seemingly sprung out of nowhere on Facebook and other sites that it was a bad thing to post pictures of yourself on the Internet. It's called a "selfie" apparently and the fact that such a term was added to our lexicon speaks a lot about the modern self-obsessed and narcissistic culture. Anyway, it was bad to post selfies, especially of you pigging out or enjoying life in any way, shape or form because it was "insensitive" to the people suffering in typhoon ravaged areas.

I don't have a problem with this rule. I don't feel strongly about it in any way. It's just the thought process behind it that I find curious. If one wants to understand how a line of reasoning works, it's often helpful to use backwards questioning.

Why is posting selfies wrong? Because it's insensitive to the typhoon victims. Why is it insensitive? Because they are suffering and you are not.

They are suffering and you are not.

Call me crazy but I don't understand exactly how posting selfies is a bad thing. They are suffering and we're supposed to and ought to feel bad. But if, for example, somebody posts a picture of himself having a buffet dinner at the Marriott, from that picture alone, is it actually possible to deduce that that person is an unfeeling man? Is it fair to say that the picture alone is proof that he's a bad person? Can we conclude that he is insensitive, has probably done nothing to help the needy and posted the picture perhaps just to insult the typhoon victims? Of course not. It's not fair. One can post pictures and still volunteer later, right? Point is, posting pics and "doing your part" isn't mutually exclusive. It's just perception.

But what's worse is that this isn't really about being insensitive, is it folks? It's about perception. I know what this is. This is all about image. This is yet again, another example of the narcissism and self-obsession that modern culture is descending into.

People worried about looking bad.

The cynic in me says that this isn't about the typhoon victims. It's about a bunch of guys (or girls) who probably wanted to look holier-than-thou and started saying that they stopped posting selfies because their hearts go out to all the suffering victims and that they just had to let everyone know how caring and thoughtful they were. Pretty soon it spread around and it became a contest on who could seem like a selfless and sensitive soul without actually doing anything in the real world. It's all perception.

This kind of crap is why I don't do Facebook.

Status Update

A few trees fell during the typhoon and cut the phone line. There's no phone line and internet but at least there's power now.

Overall, everything's OK. Luckily, it wasn't so bad in Cebu City. The same can't be said for places like Bantayan and Tacloban.  It's a catastrophe over there.

And they say there's another coming...

I hope not.

A Storm is Brewing Part 2!

Well, shit.

For the next three days, a typhoon is gonna barrel through the Visayas region still smarting from a recent earthquake.

Nothing irritates me more than being told to pray. I have nothing against prayer but if you see something coming towards you and there's clearly still time to actually do something, I think prayer should be the last thing you do after everything else is done. If anything, God seems pissed. What did we do to deserve this? It's the rulers in Manila you want.  Those poor people in Bohol....

But I'm an optimist now, yeah? I distinctly remember fretting over Typhoon Pablo and it turned out alright.

  

Worst case scenario: no power for a month just like Typhoon Ruping.

The Calm

So far, it hasn't been so bad.

I was expecting heavy rain but the rain has been light though unceasing. Maybe there was no need to worry after all. I guess it must be worse elsewhere. In about a quarter of an hour from now the storm should be below Cebu on the map and will pass at about nine tomorrow in local time. It's windy and cold. It's nice weather to sip some nice hot soup and curl up in bed. At least I have an excuse to do that now with no guilt.

I hope it stays this way through the night.

A Storm is Brewing

A typhoon is heading straight through the Philippines in a day or so. Typhoon Pablo is said to be as strong as Typhoon Ruping and has about as much water as Typhoon Sendong according to the local papers. I think its just typical media scaremongering but still, the thought of a typhoon having the combined strength of those two typhoons is frightening.

 

I have hazy memories of Typhoon Ruping. I think I was just a year old when the most devastating typhoon ever in Visayan history pierced through the heart of the Philippines. All I can remember is the terrible howling of the wind outside and the rattling and creaking of the house as if it would soon be torn from it's foundations to be blown away like many of the trees outside. I think I remember the clanking of pots and pans in the kitchen as they were tossed about from the strenth of the winds. Its telling that although I remember very little of my experiences as a child, I can still recall huddling in complete darkness as a storm raged outside.

 

Is Pablo going to be as strong as Ruping? I hope not. Will it have as much rain as Sendong? I really hope not. This house is prone to flooding. What I want to do is buy a whole bunch of sandbags to keep the water from pouring through the door. I think there's some people near the Velez bridge who dig some out from the river to sell. I'm not fully confident it will work but even if it doesn't, its worth a try. But my mother says sandbags are probably expensive. She conceded that there was nothing we could do and that we should just pray. Now, I'm no "angry atheist", but if people's reactions towards impending, foreseeable calamities is to just pray to God instead of doing actual things, its no wonder tragedies keep repeating themselves. This kind of stuff can be seen in social media and forums on websites about the typhoon but I digress.

 

Either way, this aren't looking good.