Flood

Woke up to sunshine and blue skies today, as though it hasn't been raining continuously for the past several days. Gah. Nature sure is unpredictable; here the weather people predicted it'll rain till the weekend too.

Anyways, yesterday while watching the news coverage about the flood they said that the worst case scenario for the upcoming weeks is for another storm to come in. My first thought was that 'no, that wouldn't happen, God wouldn't allow that to happen because it would be too cruel'. The immediate thought after that was more of the opposite. I thought, 'hmmm, that would be interesting to see if it happens.' Which right now bothers me that I thought like that at all. It sounds so apathetic. So uninvolved and unsympathetic and un-empathic about the suffering of so many people.

Coming from the Philippines, I've seen news coverage about flash floods before, of the devastation they bring in a place. Our province has always been at risk when there's a storm because of the floods they cause ever since Mt. Pinatubo erupted. So I sort of understand where the apathy is coming from. It's already kind of a normal thing to experience flooding for me.

Despite all of the damage, so far there's only been 10 confirmed dead. Not saying that those 10 deaths aren't devastating on their own; but what I mean is, compared to Ormoc that claimed hundreds if not thousands of lives or the yearly floods we get in Pampanga that also claim several unfortunate people's lives, 10 dead and 90 missing is a tragedy yes but for me it seems not nearly as terrible. Dunno, I guess it's just a matter of perspective.

But I must admit that I'm awed by the response of the government here in Australia. This morning the prime minister announced a hotline number people who needs Centrelink support could call to get financial support in order to rebuild their homes and businesses. In the Philippines, flood victims would be lucky to get a plastic bag full of grocery as the government's way of helping the victims. It's just so drastically different. It makes me wish I could somehow find a way to make it the same in the Philippines, to have my home country's government act so vigilantly and vigorously towards the good of its people. I'm not saying the Australian government is perfect, I just wish the Philippines government would emulate certain aspects of it (Centrelink for example).

One of my dreams is to be able to better the ambulance service in the Philippines, or at least in my home province of Pampanga. If I had enough money or the skills to gather people to donate enough and continuous financial backing, I'd work towards getting more trained paramedic and other emergency personnel, make them more visible and helping people in need. As I am now I don't have the skills nor the influence to make this dream even remotely possible. The closest I could probably get to it is if I could somehow enroll in a paramedic course, then get training and work in that field so I could get the experience and then later bring that back to the Philippines... hey, everyone's free to have a dream, right?