This guest column is from our good friend, Bien, who has been living around Manila for about a month now.  These words and images are her own and offer a personal account of what has been going on for the past week.

bayanihan. corruption.

kapwa. privilege.

resilience. desensitized.

It’s been a mixture of flavors and feelings in the midst of Typhoon Ondoy. It has been 6 days since the typhoon hit and just as the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, it only gets worse as it unfolds.

On the day it struck I sat helpless in a car stuck on the freeway for 9 hours. Upon the 4th hour, there were hundreds of people determined to overcome the 84 kph winds and literal buckets of water pouring, by walking - to home, to shelter, to some form of hope. There were people in the streets trying to sell food and water to those stuck in their cars, people evacuating their homes with just a backpack to their names, and there were people listening as the world fell upon their lands.

9 hours. 1 radio station. Minute after minute the radio dj announced texts and calls he got from people who were stuck on their roofs and in their houses, they were all in need and no one could do anything. Call after call, tear after tear - but there was nothing anyone could do.

Amongst many of my frustrations was the availability and uselessness of technology. While every type of online social network has been inundated with pictures, phone calls, tragic slide shows, and stories of the typhoon – it did not do much to help the 242 people that have died. It has not changed the political (or lack of) response. When I finally emerged back into Makati (my place was flooded for 2 days) I was struck by the regularity of life in the mall. It was business as usual: the workers were smiling, the pockets were overflowing, and the stories of tragedy lay dormant in everyone’s eyes.

But as I talked to my friend about it we wondered if it was because of our American lens that we saw it as insensitivity rather than seeing it as resilience. Living here, tragedy is a daily occurrence and it comes in strides and waves daily, so they have no choice but to continue to move forward and live - triumphantly. They don’t have the luxury of stopping and erecting a monument at every tragedy, but instead have created a cultural strength that has proven to supercede calamity, injustice, and even the government.

While the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) has failed to create a solid plan for prevention, relief, and ultimately national hope – the Filipin@ spirit moves forward in the form of grassroots relief and basic love for one other. I will say with the malls still in tact and condos rising above the madness, it is easy to be desensitized, but I am thankful for those who are attempting to rebuild.

I have been volunteering with a group of friends who came together just wanting to help and it’s been relieving to actually be able to go to these sites and be a part of the movement to restoration. As I walk around and watch the families still smiling and helping one another I can’t help but thank the Philippines for the strength it has passed on to me.

Bayanihan has never screamed so loud. Kapwa has never meant so much.

And I have never been more in love with this country.

-Bien

If you want to find out ways to help out Bien, feel free to email her at: bnroque(at)gmail(dot)com

This entry was posted on Friday, October 2nd, 2009 at 7:14 am and is filed under Geo-Politics, Pilipinas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.