Be Aware!

By Rolo B. Cena
Arabian Diaries
Dumaguete Star Informer
04 October 2009

Watching late night news broadcast of the wreck brought about by typhoon Ondoy is extremely disheartening to us overseas migrant workers for two obvious reasons: our families may have been affected (or were affected); and it would require another payroll marathon to raise the amount equal to or more than the total amount of the wreckage, as the case maybe.

Surely, all migrant workers not just in the Mid-East but in all parts of the ozone layer-tampered planet are watching carefully and monitoring closely the dreadful aftermath of Ondoy.

From Luzon down to the Visayas, Ondoy did not spare a thing. Streets flooded, villages drowned, houses sank, and rivers and dams overflowed. Not only this: Ondoy frantically claimed about a hundred lives to date. It was just less than an hour of down-pouring albeit two days of occasion rain showers.

It was horrifying but no longer horrible for another obvious reason; this is all consequential to the activities of men that destroyed the natural system of the planet: the thinning of the ozone layer and the denudation of the forests. Both could have saved all men.

It was atrocious but no longer foreboding. Again, the entire human race, Filipinos not exempted, know the ill effects of all rude and uncoordinated activities they perform.

The Singapore-shaped Marikina and its neighboring cities lost their splendor to the dusky waters of the overflowing Pasig River that soaked the entire area. While flooding most of Manila’s arteries is no longer extra ordinary, flooding the Ayala district of Makati was shockingly disturbing. Of course, Pateros, Taguig and its neighbors down to South were not spared.

Was this a wrath? I asked one colleague in the restaurant where I took my dinner. While his gaze to my eyes communicates the thought, the speculation I had was over-forming that I revered his lips for not discharging any verbal abuse at all.

Skeptics say it was a call of nature; believers say it was a wrath. Whichever and whoever opines proximately only the Master Creator knows. To the ordinary migrant workers watching over the news, the episode was both a call of nature and a wrath. Irreconcilably though, I leave the matter to authorities of discipline that would govern this philosophy. I am just putting my two cents into the picture.

My concentration was disturbed when one migrante who was sitting next to me was sobbing when he saw his area in Marikina drowned to nothingness. Frantic, I turned to him and comforted him with these words: “No one is to be blamed for this; you cannot even blame yourself for being unable to help them in these times they need you. You are here for a better reason. Let us just pray that you family is still fine despite the odds.”

Shortly after saying this, I felt two strong, hard hands were squeezing my heart; it was as injuring as being a victim of the wrath. It was not whimsical; it was real. I, too, have a family of my own whom I monitor closely.

In the office, my colleague called me and told me that his younger sister’s family abandoned their house and moved to their maternal house for refuge. Another picture is being depicted here. More than just a voluntary help, the assistance of the family is as comforting as the words we hear from loved ones: incomparably gratifying and supportive. In times like this, the family bond, or ties, -whatever, is more than just compelling and revealing as ever.

My new buddy-partner in lawn tennis and badminton spoke to me and sought for help. He said the last communication he had with his parents and siblings was a day before the rampage of Ondoy. He was shaking while talking to me. As an elder in the team, I gave him the same comforting words I gave to a fellow migrante in the restaurant.

If our loved ones in the Philippines were helpless during this period, the overseas migrant workers in all parts of the globe are equally helpless and motionless as they are; as disturbed and as worried as they are today. This is a fact; this is not an assumption.

After all, collateral damage happens anytime, anywhere to anybody.

The onslaught of Ondoy, the ill-effects of the September 2008 economic downturn, the outbreak of H1N1, unemployment overseas due to contract cancellation and/or business shutdowns reveal the same meaning and purpose into the lives of humans: be aware!

Be aware that all human activities do have consequential effects to others especially to nature. Be aware that whenever we throw garbage on to the street today, it would have an enormous effect to the natural system of the community, of the planet tomorrow. Be aware that not all migrantes are doing fine overseas; not all of them are blissfully happy for what they have. Be aware that not all overseas remittances from husbands or loved ones that are coming into the pockets are disposable at once; some have to be saved.

Be aware that one picture always essays multiple interpretations from a multitude of people. Be aware that sometimes words have two meanings.

Be aware that big things come from small beginnings; be aware that the tremendous ruins brought about by Ondoy was propelled by one single and small act of carelessness and irresponsibility of one single Filipino out there. Believe me!

It is not a wonder when one day, all the peoples of the earth would regrettably converge and talk about re-thinking the activities that destroyed the earth, or, re-shaping the lost grounds in venues like the Bermuda Triangle of the great seas or the Black Hole of the universe.

It’s always possible. Be aware!