The Demo Site

The worst of crises, of disasters, always brings out the best in people. We’re certainly seeing that in the wake of Storm “Ondoy” (international codename: Ketsana).

We’ve heard of many reports of heroism, including people giving up their own lives, the latest being 18-year-old construction worker Muelmar Magallanes who saved more than 30 people and perished right after saving an infant.

Throughout the last few days, a word kept coming to mind: the Tagalog bayanihan. It’s one of those amazing words that refers to a way of thinking, as well as actual deeds. It almost certainly evolved in the context of agriculture, where people had to come together to help each other not just in the farms, but for day-to-day activities. The image that usually comes to mind is that of several people literally moving a house from one place to another, but bayanihan took care of many day-to-day activities as well, including farm activities. From planting to harvesting and winnowing, activities were done collectively.

Sadly, as we became more urbanized, this agrarian bayanihan seems to have lost relevance. My generation came to associate it with the Bayanihan Dance Troupe, totally oblivious of the fact that many of the traditional dances reflected agrarian life, and its bayanihan nature. (I will never forget, many years ago, driving down a highway in Bangladesh and seeing, in the distance, what I thought were people dancing. As we drew closer, I realized they were people working in the fields, their movements almost choreographed.)

Ondoy resurrected the spirit of bayanihan. Ondoy took care of moving many houses (and its contents), but people have stepped in to help each other reconstruct not just homes but people’s shattered dreams and lives.

The morning after Ondoy, people were already madly calling, texting, e-mailing to check on each other. To the texts, I would reply: “We’re OK but my home now a refugee center.” I was actually staying at my parents’ place but when I returned to my own house, I found it packed with people, mainly relatives of the caretakers. Some came from nearby, but one family came in from as far as Montalban, Rizal.

I was to learn later of how many other people took in neighbors, relatives and friends, as well as friends of those neighbors, relatives and friends. Others mobilized immediately for relief operations. This is where some interesting innovations emerged.
From Titus Tan, UP University Student Council chair, there was a request to standardize relief packs to include: “2 canned goods, 2 noodles, 1 loaf of bread or 8 packs of biscuits and 1 liter of water.” I think that does save time for relief workers, who would otherwise have to pick out stuff from all kinds of food sent in, and then pack them. The UP Student Council packs were intended for communities within UP, but other areas should modify what they want included in their relief packs, depending on local needs. (Barangay UP Diliman has 30,000 residents, many of them adversely affected by Ondoy.)

I also got an early SMS from my kids’ diaper supplier. She was offering to donate diapers. Again, I thought, what a brilliant idea. We tend to forget these needs.

Somewhat related was an e-mail from one of my students asking for “gender sensitivity” in the relief operations. Here, she meant the extra needs of women around their reproductive health: napkins, even underwear. The e-mail was rather grim, asking for vigilance to guard against sexual harassment of women, as it did during the tsunami that struck Indonesia and Thailand a few years ago.

One of my friends’ brother sent improvised cell-phone chargers, fashioned out of batteries and inverters, to evacuation centers, figuring that was going to be important. How right he was. With many parts of Mega Manila (that’s Metro Manila plus adjoining cities and towns in Rizal, Cavite, Laguna and Bulacan) still without electricity, cell phones died out, waiting to be revived.

Ondoy did remind us of how vulnerable we still are even in this age of cell phones. The cell phones can be lifesavers, but only if they work and that depends on having electricity, as well as cell signals. Even as I write this column, three days after Ondoy, I have not been able to use the cell phone to get in touch with some friends. One fellow professor, who lives in Pasig, texted me to say that they still didn’t have signals at home and that he was texting from Quezon City.

When people launch bayanihan projects, they reinforce the spirit of mutual help. In the context of our urban concrete jungles, I wonder at times if we couldn’t use this bayanihan to better prepare ourselves, collectively, for disasters. We love to poke into our neighbors’ and friends’ lives, and that can be a good thing in the context of disaster management. Why couldn’t barangays or subdivision associations at least discuss contingency plans for disasters? That way, people can be mobilized even more quickly, and resources maximized.

Finally, the bayanihan that followed Ondoy also brought out kabayanihan (heroism) from so many Filipinos. Yesterday’s Inquirer had on its front page a photograph of two policemen wading through the floods while carrying an elderly couple. “Pulis” was emblazoned on their T-shirts. What a welcome new image!

In Famy, Laguna, Army PFC Venancio Ancheta was said to have rescued 20 people before he perished.

In Mabitac, Laguna, Army Cpl. Adrian Regua died during rescue operations, together with Joel Hernalin, Florencio Dequinio, Pedro Monte Falcon, Ireneo Olaguer and Artemio Descotido. Regua was coordinating the rescue operations with the five men, all members of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit. That’s CAFGU, a word that we’ve always associated with abusive and fanatical paramilitary forces out to get anyone suspected of being leftist. CAFGUs, police and the military in the vanguard of bayanihan? Why not?

Maybe the Metrobank Foundation should consider these heroes in their next round of awards for civil servants.

China at 60

I originally wanted to write about the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China on Oct. 1 but decided to write instead about Ondoy. I will do a column about China at 60, maybe for Friday, but I want to tell interested readers to catch some of the celebrations on cable TV. China has a CCTV-9 channel which broadcasts in English. Both Destiny and Sky carry this channel, although with Sky you have to pay extra. The National Day celebrations will go live starting at 8 a.m. A gala cultural presentation will be broadcast live starting 8 p.m. There will be rebroadcasts throughout the day on Oct. 2. These celebrations are always grand, colorful extravaganzas, literally with casts of thousands. They are overdone at times, but catch the shows for a glimpse of where China is today.


Source URL:
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20090930-227606/Bayanihan