The Manila Floods: Why Wasn't the City Prepared?

The Manila Floods: Why Wasn't the City Prepared?

An article published in Times.com about Metro Manila post-Ondoy (typhoon Ketsana). Republishing it just so we will remember that we BROUGHT it upon ourselves.

The situation of the Philippines is horrible, even before Ondoy hit. This explains the exodus of intelligent Filipinos patriotic enough yet full of the country's woes. This explains why even hundred of years after our colonizers, we are still not free.

We are our worst enemies. We kill ourselves because we abuse each other - whenever we don't obey the traffic rules, whenever we take home office supplies from the office, whenever we let a friend in the long queue. We don't know who we are because we never bothered to read our history and learn from it. It's like a whole country in drugs! A president we overthrew is running again for the highest position with a big chance of winning again. A dynasty of political families who has robbed the society of its resources and dignity. We never took pride in ourselves because we have always wished to be someone else - an American, a Spanish, a European, as long as not a Filipino! Why? Because we hate hard work. It has always been luck and dole outs and alms. We sell our souls and dignity for coins. We'd rather be laughed at dancing silly at a noontime show than honestly work our day's keep. So our youth get this impression that money is everything when it's not. They become easily lured into what sells - nursing, caregiving, going into showbiz, marrying a foreigner. And once we taste luxury, we hold on to it as tightly as we can. It becomes our lord and savior. The rich and powerful would still be affluent even if they give out 10% of what they have to the less fortunate. They don't because nobody wants to break the cycle, the status quo. Change is scary, it brings the unknown. How can a people who doesn't know anything, not even himself be courageous of what is to come and therefore be prepared? So we just let the climate change consequences drown and kill us trusting that God will provide and the international support would come in.

I do not hate what is happening. This is never new. I hate it that we are not learning from this - never. We never develop that sense of dignity to look within and overcome.