Focusing on the essentials

Judging from TV coverage of the aftermath of Storm “Sendong,” much of the relief work being carried out in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan—the two biggest cities affected by the floods and mudslides—is being done by the private sector. More specifically, by the TV networks reporting on the disaster. Notice that coverage of relief efforts focuses on the fund-raising, collection and distribution of water, food and other goods managed by each network’s CSR or corporate social responsibility arm. It’s as if work being carried out by other entities—other corporations, NGOs, colleges and universities, individuals and especially by the government—doesn’t exist, or if it does, the impression given is that they are puny in comparison to that being done by the major networks.

When local or national government efforts are covered at all, it’s to focus on the attendant problems. Newscasts focus on the evacuation centers, many of them hopelessly overcrowded, to the extent that many of the homeless choose to sleep on sidewalks rather than put up with the congestion in schools or gyms.

I’m not saying that media should stop reporting on the problems faced in the areas hit by this disaster. There are certainly more than enough difficulties that need addressing by different government agencies, and certainly urgent concerns such as pending epidemics must be faced immediately. But wouldn’t a little balance help? Doesn’t the public deserve to get a fuller, more accurate picture?

Reporters trampling through debris and the remains of devastated communities make for attractive TV, all right. But will the dramatic footage help the victims any more than sober, responsible reportage would?

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At times like these, I can’t help but turn to a little yellow book that was sent to me months ago and which has become, oddly enough, a fixture in our bathroom-reading shelf. Nothing like a disaster preparedness handbook to help you with your morning rituals, I guess.

The book has a stark title: “Your Emergency Survival Handbook,” with the subtitle “A Must-have for Every Member of Your Family.” It was written and edited (or researched and compiled, as she prefers) by Paloma, a counseling astrologer and feng shui consultant who candidly admits that readers may be wondering what qualifications she may possess to prepare such a book. But she has been gathering information on coming disasters, and ways to prepare for and survive them, for years now, she says, prompted by certain signs (“planetary alignments” she calls them) she detected.

After “Ondoy” struck her house, Paloma says she was prompted to put together all the materials she was able to gather into a simple, concise book with practical tips on how to mitigate the effects of disasters, what emergency kits and backpacks to prepare, and why it is important to sit down with your family and make contingency plans.

Such plans, Paloma says, are particularly important for the complacent and comfortable among us, who tend to take the comforts of life for granted and are indeed more vulnerable to the impact of disaster than those worse off than us.

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This is what Paloma has to say on the comparative chances for survival of the rich and middle class vis-à-vis the poor:

“(The) more we know, the calmer and smarter about disaster management we can be. And even if I’m sure most of us won’t be able to buy or acquire some things listed in this small book, half the battle can be won because of sheer awareness. Quite frankly, the truly marginalized among us, whose basic needs have been ignored for so long, and those who have been relocated to some God-forsaken land, may even have a better shot at surviving. They’re the ones used to improvising or re-using certain material and equipment—it looks like the rest may be stuck living the way they’ve been living and thinking all their lives. Talk about karma in vivid colors!

“As Emergency Research Center Inc., an emergency management group, says ‘It’s not the rick Prepper (the new term for ‘survivalist’) with the latest bells and whistles who will make it through a long term disaster. It’s the street dwellers who live on survival mode on a daily basis. It’s the person with the kariton poking through the garbage and cooking with the tin can you threw out months ago. It’s the street folk who are used to this environment. They know where the best pickings are, where to find water, how to prepare what food they forage. They live without most of the things we ‘civilized folks’ take for granted. No bed, no bathroom, no water, no closet full of clothes, no laptop, no aircon, heck, no electricity!’”

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Certainly not thoughts to make merry with!

As you read this, you will most probably be in the midst of your Christmas Eve and Christmas Day preparations—even if you are a survivor of Sendong and just gathering the slim pickings of your relief goods bag for an impromptu Noche Buena.

But even for families who are better off, the sheen of the weekend celebration would have been dulled somewhat by thoughts of the less fortunate and of the horrendous death toll in Northern Mindanao and elsewhere. And well it should, since in times like this we cannot go on feasting and exchanging gifts without a thought to the scale of human suffering we have just witnessed.

Worth heeding then is the call of environmental groups for a “simple” Christmas, one shorn of extravagant trappings and lavish gift-giving. Perhaps without all the tinsel and gaiety, we can all the more focus on the essentials: family, fellowship and faith.