Calamities et al

Imagine being trapped inside of THAT.

For those of you who do not know THAT, THAT my friends is the MV Princess of the Stars. Or what's left of it, anyway. Quick facts: It's a 23,000-ton ferry, supposedly the biggest ship of Sulpicio Lines. It carried 849 passengers, sailed from Manila bound for Cebu and sank on Saturday off the coast of Sibuyan Island in Romblon. As of today, a total of 57 survivors were rescued. The rest are either 1.) lost, 2.) trapped inside, 3.) drowned, 4.) all of the above. God bless the souls of those who died.

That's one of the many more shittiness Typhoon Frank (I swear I would never think of the name 'Frank' the same way again) left us. I wouldn't dwell more on the misfortunes PAKING FRANK gave us Filipinos or the whodunit on similar misfortunes that happened while PAKING FRANK paraded on our islands but this calamity-filled weekend made me think/reflect on a lot of things.

My Typhoon Frank Thoughts/Reflections:

1. Is it me or are calamities all over the world really getting more frequent as the years go by? And if it isn't just my paranoia kicking in, shouldn't we all be alarmed? Remember that huge Asian tsunami that happened years ago? It seemed like after that wrath, nature never stopped on churning calamity after calamity. I guess this is one of mother earth's way of telling us 'Fucktard, there's something wrong with the way you're effing handling me. Die bitches die.' Or something like that. Seriously, isn't it time for us to reflect on why these horrible things keep on happening these days and what we can do about it?

2. You will only get to see the "real" colors of people in times of disaster. When a person is stripped off of everything that he has, that's the time you get to see whether someone has that human soul we supposedly all have or is really just an animal at core. And while this is such a strong statement (hence, I won't elaborate on it further), when disaster strikes you'll get to see that this is the oh so cruel truth: a lot of us tend to be more animal than human. Pramis.

3. There are really evil and uncaring people in this world. Ok, I admit. I'm the kind of person who thinks everyone is really good deep inside. And oh was I so wrong. During hard times, we Filipinos are known to extend our help as much as we can...even to the point of sacrificing our own comforts just to help... I know that as an absolute fact. So imagine my shock to know that some people manage to take advantage of dire situations such as these for their own fucking benefit. (Special mention: politicians) That, for me, is downright VILE.

4. Although we live in a cruel and sometimes evil world, there is still some GOOD left in this life and a lot of people think whatever that good is, it's worth fighting for. And they'd fight for it (their life) even if it's nature they have to face with. The stories of survival of these affected people are just amazing. And most of these people don't even have a lot of material things in life yet they still know how precious life can be and in the end, what really matters is preserving that life and the lives of those you love. Now doesn't that just make you go 'awwww' big time? AWWWWW. You'd be surprise how many people would fight for the lives of others too. True, there really is a lot of evil in this world but the great thing is... there's more good in it.

5. Life moves on. No matter how many times people get pummeled by calamities here and there, in the end...Life moves on. And I find that extremely astounding. Yes, the typhoon made me realize how easily we can lose a lot of things (even our life) but it also showed me that as long as we're alive, there's still hope of regaining everything we have lost. And so we continue on living. Hoping for the better.

Frank is probably the worst thing that had happened to Iloilo and a lot of other places. But it may just be what the people (as a whole) needed. Now don't go on throwing tomatoes at me for saying this but maybe it's God's way of telling us to start from scratch and build a better life instead. Who knows, right?


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Oh and if you're a UPV-CM Alumni or a concerned citizen, you can donate stuffs through our student council. May it be food, clothing or money. Take your pick. Just contact me. Hehe. e-add is: eba_desabelle@yahoo.com.

Last pahabol! I finally started my blog novel. It's here! Do come check it out. Hihi.

*photo taken from Reuters.