Ombion: The face of hazards

Thursday, February 9, 2012

THE deadly earthquake that hit Negros this week came less as a surprise to me but a revelation of our vulnerabilities and nature’s retribution for our wrongdoings.

Most of us already know that our archipelagic nation is in the pacific rim of fire, where deadly volcanoes and major earthquake faults in the world are found, and surrounded by vast oceans of the Pacific, China and the Celebes.

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If we combine the natural risks that our geographical position gives us with our low level of readiness as a nation and as individuals, our vulnerability level is certainly high, not medium or low.

If we combine these hazard elements with the internal economic and political conditions in our country, we can even say that our vulnerability is already extremely high. Perhaps, a powderkeg.

Our nation can be wiped out by one huge tsunami hitting either the western, eastern or southern border of the country. A major volcanic eruption in either Negros or Mindanao could trigger major earthquakes and tsunamis in the country. A simultaneous movement in the major faults in the country could sink the archipelago in few minutes.

An outbreak of war between China and the Philippines with US siding the Philippines using its major nuclear warships in the Pacific, could cause nuclear catastrophe in this region.

In the event the government turns more corrupt, dictatorial and fascist, and backed by the US armed forces, the New People’s Army will likewise raise the level of its people’s war on national scale, and what will follow is the turning of the entire country into a huge battlefield, and the rest would simply be beyond our imagination.

What I am saying here is that, we are a country in extremely hazardous condition, where all elements at risks, natural, economic, political, cultural, make us highly vulnerable.

The only way we can prevent or mitigate these hazards and risks is for all of us, not just the government, the DRRM people, the scientists and experts, to know the face of hazards, both human-made and human-induced natural hazards.

When we have identified all these hazards in and around us, it is important to have vulnerability assessment of these hazard elements at risk in terms of time and space.

We must remember that not all hazards and risks can turn into disaster. We can prevent them to happen or delay the time it could strike by preparing our communities and individuals enough and well.

We can also mitigate or lessen the impact of disaster when it becomes unavoidable by increasing the survivability of individual and readiness of communities.

This is what I have been saying all along that the more important thing in disaster risk reduction management is not in setting aside billions of money for anti-disaster, not even in procuring up to date smart technologies and facilities, nor having good plans in paper.

It is still in people, in raising their internal capacities economically, politically, culturally, geographically, and technically, because disasters are area specific, and the first responder is and should always be the people, the community.

The delay in the delivery of relief services in earthquake-stricken oriental towns and cities is another proof of the flaws and major weakness in government’s anti-disaster paradigm – government-centered, external-dependence rather than community-based and people-driven.
Government resources and technologies should be invested in raising the internal capacities of our communities to enable them to face various hazards and risks anytime, even without the government rescue operations and anti-disaster experts.

So long as the government keeps the trade and resources to themselves, the people will never be able to learn their way the prevention and mitigation of hazards and risks in their everyday life.

To exemply this, I remember this popular primary school story, A butterfly story.

One day, a small opening appeared on a cocoon, A man sat and watched for the butterfly for several hours, As it struggled to force its body through the little hole, Then, it seems to stop making any progress, It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, And it could not go any further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly, He took a pair of scissors and opened the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, but it had a withered body, It was tiny and shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch because he expected that at any moment, the wings would open, enlarge and expand, to be able to support the butterfly’s body and become firm, Neither happened!

In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around , With a withered body and shriveled wings, It never was able to fly.

May we all learn the lesson from butterfly, and the man that could have provided the conditions for the former to be able to fly.

The government can always chose to watch our helpless people, or become an instrument to make them resilient.

The people can also always chose to wait for the government, or make the change happen by themselves.