The silent heroes
GONE are the days when only a typhoon could bring us on alert level. Nowadays, not just the storms with forbidding names but even just a few hours of rain are enough to fuel our worries about flooding.
Countless Filipinos bitterly learned the lessons from Ondoy and the recent Habagat debacle. Even with the entry of “ber” months and that jolly old feeling of the looming holiday season, a few hours of non-stop rains immediately make us all vigilant.
Only recently, over a thousand students of the University of Santo Tomas ( UST) were stranded overnight in the campus due to incessant rains and flooding. People even referred to UST that night as “water world.” That’s how bad it was.
The now all too frequent flash floods are attributed to many factors including overflowing dams, sewage problems, growing population of informal settlers and bad urban planning. For the longest time, experts have been saying that improved and comprehensive urban planning could help Metro Manila address the flooding problem. This is something that the government can initiate and act on.
However, the private sector (including ordinary citizens, mind you) can help out in so many other ways. Like the many resi- dents of Quezon City, not using plastic and making use of a bag or an eco bag during a grocery shopping trip is a good environmental support already.
Also noteworthy is the Metro Manila malls’ humanitarian effort of not just volunteering as drop- off centers for donations but also as shelters to a number of stranded people at the height of the most recent storm.
SM Marikina and SM Masinag, for instance, served as temporary shelters to commuters and the community when Habagat struck. Surrounding communities went to these particular malls for temporary shelter and wisely parked their cars there. A lot of people decided to stay overnight in the malls since it looked much safer and more practical.
In SM Masinag, dozens of people spent the night there during the storm while many more people camped inside SM Marikina. The malls accommodated cars as well with SM Masinag playing host to 327 cars and SM Marikina housing 517 cars in just two nights.
The seemingly small decision of accommodating people and cars in the mall during stormy days created a safe haven to numerous people.
Each of us, as individuals and as companies, can create positive impact in our sphere of influence. No matter how small the effort is, it can make a difference.
We received this tidbit from veteran (and dare we say it, eminent) Hong Kong journalist and PR operative Ted Thomas in the always entertaining monthly tips he sends out to selected media friends.
It was circulated under the engaging title “Filipina Food Fund: Modesty? Thy Name is Journalist.” We think it is worthy of a larger audience.
“It never occurred to me before, but modesty is not entirely unknown in the world of journalism. ‘ Huh?’ did I hear you exclaim? Not a very likely scenario, is it? Here’s a recent experience.
“Most of you will know that I’ve just spent a very rewarding few days raising a sum of money to buy food for my amah’s village in the Philippines.
“Before immodesty overcomes me I should say that all I really did was write a story about the village in Laguna where devastating floods had wiped out the community, destroyed houses, crops and leaving most of the 30 or so families homeless and destitute.
“They are still living on the basketball pitch which does have a roof, but no walls. They are spending their nights in the local primary school that needs to be evacuated every morning as the kids, to their great credit stoically turn up for class.
“Food is a major problem, with all of this season’s crops inundated and the most fundamental shortage is rice. A 5kg bag of rice costs $ HK35 or ( Philippine equivalent, P175).
“If I could interest a dozen or so friends to make a small donation (about the same price as a single drink in Lan Kwai Fong)—we’d be in business. Using the magic of the internet I sent out the call to a few close friends and got immediate responses and past my modest target within few days.
“As a reward I’m drafting a scroll for display in the village hall, simply giving the names of the benefactors.
“Now here’s the rub. The donors who insisted that their names were NOT included were all journalists and broadcasters.
“Who says we’re all Big ‘Eds?”