Showing posts with label ramblings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ramblings. Show all posts

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Ondoy, Part I: Caught Unprepared

26 September 2009. Saturday morning. It was raining, fine. We were planning to bring the kids to the dentist. My niece, Xandra, went to a school in Makati to teach little kids to swim. My other niece, Trisha, went to school - she has classes. Trisha's sister, Denise, went to some institution in Marikina for their school's outreach activity. Typhoon Ondoy was just Signal No. 1, anyway. Who knew it would later wreak so much havoc in Metro Manila and nearby areas?

The rain didn't seem to want to stop, so we cancelled our appointment with the dentist. Lunchtime, it was flooding inside the house. - just ankle-deep, but it was irritating. Xandra came home late afternoon - she said she walked through thigh-deep floodwater in Makati and got stuck for hours in traffic. Tricia came home soaking wet at past 6pm. Denise and her schoolmates were stranded in Marikina - they were in a rented bus. We all thought we had a bad day until we turned on the TV and realized that we were lucky to be in the comfort of our home, thank God!

People braving neck-deep water to go home to their families. Several families (with kids!) are trapped on rooftops - wet and had little or no food to eat. Others have no more houses, can you imagine? Let's all pray for those who had to endure Ondoy's wrath and hope that everything's going to be alright soon.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Another Day in Paradise

I’m sure many of us have already seen this photo. It’s all over the internet. I’ve received several forwarded e-mails about this Pulitzer Prize-winning image (1994) and the photographer (Kevin Carter) who took his own life due to depression, maybe partly because of this picture. This photo has made me cry and has left me pondering why life's just not fair sometimes. Is this really all part of the Grand Plan?

For those who haven’t seen this picture yet, this little Sudanese girl was crawling towards a United Nations feeding center located a kilometer away, while a vulture lurked behind as if it was waiting for the child to die.

While some of us are having another day in paradise, some people in other parts of the world are dying of hunger. Have you ever felt hungry in your entire life and struggled so hard to survive just like this little girl? Or imagine she was your child. So what on earth are we (the fortunate ones, kahit papaano) here for? Come to think of it.