Nature Wins. All The Time

“Oh people of the earth
Listen to the warning the seer he said
Beware the storm that gathers here
Listen to the wise man…” (Brian May, 1975)

For the first time in my life I, like a million others who had access to the internet, watched in real time a storm brew and spew its wrath on everything along its path.  What is comfortable to note is that the loss of lives now is far lower than what we got last year at about this time.  Thank you, Sendong for a powerful lesson.  What we failed to teach each other nature did. 

After we pray and cry for the dead it’s time to transcend the self-pity and the ranting.  All human effort to wax eloquent about disaster preparedness and response only went so far.  Pablo (shouldn’t his international name be Blopa?!) knew that it was time for a practicum.    From cyberspace he looked majestic, strong, powerful.  It was easy for him to spot those who skipped classes, some subjects or entire courses in the aftermath.

The warnings came late last week; and until Monday evening all that Cotabato City got was a not so sunny but very hot weather.  Odd.  Some friends joked that there must be something wrong with the advisory.  I felt there was nothing wrong with being prepared.  Ok, Mindanao was once marketed as Typhoon-Free so why not set up shop here. 

But there’s a catch: before Pablo, Mindanao may have been typhoon-free but what was always unspoken was that it is disaster-prone, and it’s all man-made.  C’mon.  The logs did not cut themselves; the nickel and the gold didn’t gouge itself out from the bowels of the earth; the African palms and bananas did not drill those gigantic pipes to quench its enormous thirst; the creeks did not gorge itself with plastic and the grasses did not spray itself with herbicide.             

We retired in the night after checking as many posts possible on social media and updates on cable tv; and making sure Gel in Bukidnon and Ram in Puerto Princesa have taken the necessary precautions.

There was nothing unusual with my 3 o’clock waking hour Tuesday morning, except that the blanket remained folded.  It must have been warm.  Pablo continued to creep overnight; and the raindrops came at exactly 4:30 and it’s more than 24 hours since.

Sr Erleen of HESED called that their culminating activity on December 5 where I was a resource person is cancelled.  The road to Tapian along the coast is impassable.  What a fitting way to reflect as the Mindanao Week of Peace ended with the theme “Together for Sustainable Peace in Mindanao”.  Many like-minded sectors would be talking among themselves on how to make it work while the usual culprits continue to make hay – bringing in unregulated imports, inviting external consultants, investing in capitalist financial structures – and still debate why durable solutions can’t be  had.

Who’s together?  What’s sustainable? Whose peace?  Development for whom? 

Sendong came last year.  Something that did not have a name so we just called it Habagat came in August.  Let’s brace for something stronger than Pablo and exponential after that until we remember, as Bryan May said, we are people of the earth.  There’s just no way we can mess up with nature.  It always wins. ##

Cotabato City

5 December 2012

Aveen Acuña-Gulo wrote an editorial column “The Voice” for the Mindanao Cross from 1991-2006. She likes to challenge stereotypes.  “Don’t worry about my opinions,” she says.  “It won’t make a dent to the conventional.”