People as Garbage

Damn the country that makes this possible. Where are the government services that allow this to happen?
Ulingan, Tondo by Port Area Manila is so impoverished by the urban migrant workers and dwellers that it needs to be attended to right away. There are hordes of people, very poor people that live like sewer rats by the piles of wooden crates and discarded pallets from ships that dock in the ports. Women are in little makeshift stores where soda and flat cookies are sold. The main source of livelihood here is the making of charcoal. Children collect wood pieces from discarded crates. They run around naked and unattended by adults, they roam on the streets and interstices of the expansive shanty town, broken cargo trucks, shipping containers and sooty tricycles are careening by. Humanity is trying to coexist, barely fed, clothed and sheltered.

The sites of non existent housing is stomach turning. What happens when it rains? What kind of life flourishes here? What happened to the government funds that should have alleviated this dark and horrific living situation?

Something has to be done, someone has to interfere, stop the degradation of human life in this place!

Check out the work of Project Pearls, a non-profit that cares!

Biking with my brothers

My happy thoughts are when I go biking to the Coyote Hills preserve in Fremont, CA. I am grateful that I am able to ride the trail to the hills with my brothers. Mahar is my youngest brother and he is in California for only a brief one week hiatus from his work in the Philippines as a disaster scientist. It has been a month after typhoon Yolanda (Hiayan) hit the Eastern Visayas region of the Philippines and he needed a much deserved rest from the typhoon aftermath, both from a mental and physical perspective. He was also here to attend the AGU (American Geolophysical Union) where 22,000 earth and space scientists, educators and students gathered to discuss the newest trends, technology and techniques, groundbreaking research toward understanding our environment and climate.

We had a wonderful time relaxing together and discussing his role in the mitigation of the super typhoon disaster. There were salient points to discuss particularly how people of Tacloban did not seem to understand what a “storm surge” was. In the Philippines, storms are a regular phenomenon. People there know and experience typhoons 19 times a year and disaster is not a new thing to them. Poor people are not able to prepare ahead, much of their lives revolve around subsistence and living on a day to day basis. No amount of forewarning about imminent danger convinces natives about hazards of deluge and destruction. They live for the moment, eke out livelihoods that are so passing that it is almost impossible to make forward looking plans.

Mahar and my other brothers relaxed and ate with our families, my daughter and her children came to visit with him.

During the noon hour of the visit, we managed to go on the Alameda Creek Trail for some biking towards Coyote Hills by Decoto Blvd. Mahar, Gary and I pedaled for about an hour and 45 minutes logging on 18.3 miles. The sun was out and the air was mildly crisp. The exercise was exhilarating. The typhoon was truly behind us now and we enjoyed the brief moments of being together in the fresh air and sunshine.