Give till it hurts, it'll soothe you

Storm Ondoy was but a preview of worse catastrophes arising from climate change. Stronger typhoons will hit and ocean waters will rise in the equatorial belt to wipe out entire cities. And as last weekend taught, nature gone wild will afflict both rich and poor.

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Good deeds are the best prayer, goes a Serbian saying. Those whom the Almighty spared from Ondoy’s wrath can say thanks by helping others left homeless and alone.

Nearly all barangays in Metro Manila and Central Luzon, and some in Southern Luzon, were hard hit. Evacuees need food, water, medicines, clothes, beddings and toiletries. Donors can review their everyday needs to imagine what evacuees lack: hot meals and clean tap, fruits and deserts, tumblers and cups, aspirin and vitamins, alcohol and cotton, pants and shirts, skirts and blouses, underwear and shorts, caps and jackets, shoes and socks, pillows and blankets, soap and towels, toothbrushes and paste. Buy by the carton. Or rummage through your closets and share used and unused stuff. Part even with your favorite shirt or slacks. Remember, God judges what we give by what we keep. Also, scrimp for a month or two on entertainment and dates, and donate the savings to relief drives. Give till it hurts. The “pain” will soothe you. Immeasurable are the psychic-spiritual rewards. Heaven in sunshine will requite the kind, Byron wrote.

Children need not feel miserable in evacuation centers. Send them toys, preferably for group play that teach sharing and teamwork. Consider: sipa, skipping rope, plastic balls and cars, bubble makers, or kiddie doctor or teacher sets. Energetic teenagers need something to do too. Gift them with a guitar (RJ’s Music Store will sell its P1,000-Masa steel-string for only P850 to relief donors), harmonica or bamboo flute. Chip in with family and friends to donate soccer or basketballs, beginner badminton, number and mind games. Don’t forget to share pocket and comic books.

Parents will need to clean and repair their homes. Give them buckets, brushes, mops, brooms and washcloths. The men folk will need hammers and nails, pliers and saws, screwdrivers and wrenches. The women will need sewing kits, and new kitchen and tableware. A needle and spool of thread, a few plates, glasses, pots, pans and utensils will get them restarted.

School is out for a week. Idled students would do well to avoid the bad example of the crass politico caught on film scoring liquor at the height of Ondoy’s downpour. Instead volunteer to help sort and distribute relief goods. Gather the neighbors. Go to your barangay hall or nearest church or public school, likely converted into temporary shelters. They’re short of hands for 24-hour operations. Help organize the evacuees into cooking and cleaning details, and the kids into playgroups. Lead them in prayer. The experience will prove important later in life. No person was ever honored for what he received; honor is the reward of what one gives, noted Calvin Coolidge.

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Government was caught flatfooted by Ondoy’s rage. But instead of acknowledging and learning from mistakes, the Arroyo admin did dumb things. One, it pretended to be efficiently busy. Saturday afternoon Gloria Arroyo directed traffic at an intersection near Malacañang, held a televised disaster assessment that copied stale media reports, then exhorted people drowning in floods to stay calm. Two, it obfuscated. Disaster managers in need of scapegoats blamed the traffic snarls not on the absence of uniformed men but on counter-flowing vehicles. And Palace spokesmen, fearful of the ire of millions helplessly marooned on rooftops or inside cars and cut off from loved ones, heckled the press. Supposedly, newsmen only talk nonstop but do nothing. Even superpower America could do nothing in the face of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, they chorused.

Since Arroyo yes-men are comparing Ondoy with Katrina as handy excuse, they had better review the facts. In the wake of calamity, the US press too had castigated Dubya Bush. He partied in Texas, clowned in Arizona and chattered in California, they noted, but visited New Orleans only two weeks and 400 deaths after the flash flood. They wondered if he had ignored the tragedy since victims were mostly Black. A day after Bush inspected the ruin, the bungling head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency resigned. He turned out to be a campaign contributor who had stuffed the agency with fellow-Bush cronies and bumblers.

And oh, Palace propagandists who are raking up Katrina would do well to research its aftermath, to learn a thing or two. Like, the US Congress made FEMA henceforth a self-funded office. Too, it halted the White House practice of outsourcing even core services of federal agencies. And to this day authorities are indicting hundreds of felons who had filed false claims for calamity aid.

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