Finding our footing in a shifting, chaotic world
It is hard to decide what to write about when you write as often as I do. So much can happen in one week, and often I fear commenting before the full story has unfolded. Still, there are deadlines to meet, and I cherish the opportunity to be able to share my thoughts with so many. If I forget to say anything, or if something changes, there is always the next column.
This week we confirmed that one of the suicide bombers involved in the Sulu attack was in fact Filipino — a grim first in our nation’s history, despite long-running insurgencies and instabilities in parts of our country. I cannot count the number of times I have heard in the last 20 years or so that — fortunately — it is not in the Filipino temperament to be a suicide bomber. Until this week, I suppose a number of us carried that small, comforting amalgam of pride and hope that no Filipino would be able to do something like that.
This week also saw the publication of an international climate change report that concluded that, under the bestcase scenario, by 2050 many of the cities in the Northern Hemisphere would have temperatures reflecting present temperatures a thousand kilometers closer to the equator.
What does that mean?
It means that by 2050, even if the world works diligently to manage our carbon emissions, London will have the temperature of present-day Madrid. And it will be much worse for tropical countries like ours. We are already feeling it. For the second time during monsoon season, of all times, Angat Dam has reached its critical level. (I have heard whispers of something more nefarious behind the water shortage, but it’s one of those things that is difficult to comment on until I hear more.) If the scientists’ predictions are correct, London will have until 2050 to brace itself for what is coming.
We do not have that luxury. (Honestly, it’s a terrible irony that the very things that make our country beautiful by virtue of its location are the very same things that put us in danger now.)
That brings me to the final event (events?) I would like to discuss from this week. You can’t have missed the continued jockeying over the Speakership of the House of Representatives. I wrote a column about it weeks ago, expressing my interest and amusement, but also the hope that it would all wind down soon so that people could focus on work.
Well, what’s been happening lately is exactly what I meant in that column about this kind of thing carrying on too long. I have as much appreciation for politics as the next politician.
(All people do, really. The number of people who enjoyed
Game of Thrones or House of
Cards throughout the world must say something about humanity.) But I earnestly hope that our elected leaders pull themselves together into a cohesive body soon. We need steady, focused hearts and minds, not to mention joined hands, for the treacherous road ahead.
“We need steady, focused hearts and minds, not to mention joined hands, for the treacherous road ahead.
“It will be much worse for tropical countries like ours. We are already feeling it.