Oh man. Last time I did a review on the news it was of the social, economic and administrative causes and results of the (as I see it) largely pointless London riots in 2011 which started off as a outcry of rage and then descended into a week-long chaos of looting and burning as London was temporarily torn up by the mobs of rioters (Basmati rice theifs included). Whereas this event however was more difficult to analyse in terms of its running course, causes and the resulting effects it would eventually have on British urban social welfare and society in general, the recent and terrible destruction that has been wrought in the islands-nation of the Philippines is arguably easier to analyse.
this does not mean however by any stretch of the word or meaning thereof that the events in the Philippines recently are more easy to stomach than the rage and fury of the London riots nearly more than 2 years ago. Whereas the last news review on this blog was on a crisis of social issues, this new crisis is one of natural, nationwide and far more devastating consequences. After all, what has more of an impact on the way the world sees itself and how we see the plight of others; the burning of parts of a city and the incarnation of frustration or the manifestation of nature's fury being unleashed on a developing and geographically divided nation?
To put this quickly into factual perspective, last week a typhoon of colossal proportions was coming across the Leyte gulf off the Eastern coasts of the Philippines with a house crushing force of up to 270 kilometres per hour as it carved a path of destruction across the central Filipino islands particularly hitting the islands of Cebu, Bohol and Leyte the hardest. In just a couple of days of destruction and death, approximately 670,000 people were displaced and many more left without access to clean water while the electricity to remaining houses in these areas were knocked out by the storm's apocalyptic fury. While tens of thousands to the Northern islands of the country were hit notably hard by the storm, the real epicentre of typhoon Haiyan's fury was unleashed on the central islands of the country where communication and transportation is as hard as anywhere else in the scattered collection of islands that make up the state of the Philippines.
This in turn means that as the huge aid programme that has gotten under-way is finally reaching the Philippines, it is still hard for aid organisations and the Filipino government to transport supplies effectively and efficiently. This means that not only are people in the epicentres of destruction being left without basic provisions, but because of the slowness with which it has finally taken aid to be distributed and transported, many people in the affected areas last week were forced into thieving food banks out of a sad and unfortunate state of necessity and desperation. This was probably the most terrible fact that saddened me about this recent crisis. While the complete and terrifying destruction of whole towns and the majority of many cities in the central islands is scary as hell and the 10,000 dead in Tacloban is a highly sorrowful and sobering thought, I was most saddened by the desperation I saw in the faces of the food-looters on the BBC world-news broadcast as I saw soaked Filipino fathers and mothers carrying weighty sacks of rice over their shoulders.
It might be because I was given a largely left-wing upbringing in large part by my mother when I was growing up that I believe there should be an efficient and equally capable ability to react to disasters anywhere in the Philippines and not just the provinces around the capital. More importantly than this however, when I saw the food-looters struggling though the wreckage of their once-proud city in Tacloban surrounded by dead bodies lined up in body-bags by the road and beleaguered Filipino soldiers at the checkpoints unwilling or unseeing to the food-theft happening on my television screen, I felt an instinctive sadness that the Filipino people could be reduced to so bad a state of poverty and desperation through what is simply the movement of local weather.
Many will argue that global warming is to blame in some part for the disaster that has recently befell the Filipino people, but I think that is an examination that should wait until a few years hence from now. for the immediate future, I think and believe strongly that the main focus of the efforts in the Philippines should not be researching where the typhoon came from or discussing what should've been done as looking at such a retrospective factor now will just be a waste of time. Instead what must be done in the immediate future is that we help the Filipino people from across the world by donating money towards the maintenance of electricity and clean water, supply of food and medicine and the provision of security and re-building and clearing up of the worst effected areas hit by typhoon Haiyan.
I'm not saying that the clear-up and recovery that faces the Philippines will be easy however, hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and more have been left without electricity, water and medicine as well as shelter which for many more is now gone. The Philippines is not a naturally prosperous country and is still developing after it left the fold of American colonisation decades ago, so the fact that the country was hit by a typhoon of such ferocity as Haiyan makes the circumstances all the more terrible, saddening and desperate.
therefore, I am asking you all this time round to act with impunity, generosity and alacrity. The Philippines have received many millions of pounds and/or dollars in aid but if the Philippines, a developing nation as it is, is to recover fully in the coming years then it requires more aid and quickly. even if you were to donate a couple of week's worth of pocket money or a few hundred from your bank, I have no doubt in my mind that it would make a difference to the lives of the still-living victims of the typhoon Haiyan.
Remember this and take heart, after all, there isn't enough mutual helping around the world already as it is, but this is a start. Take care people, and spread the kindness and generosity that the people of the Philippines deserve.
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