STORM
MANILA, JANUARY 1, 2012 (MANILA
TIMES) ONCE more the latest Social Weather Stations survey results
show that we Filipinos are the greatest when it comes to possessing hope rather
than fear.
The SWS news release announcing these results leads with the buoyant words:
"Despite the turbulence that characterized 2011, 95% of Filipinos still face the
coming year with hope rather than with fear."
Once more we are proving to be children of Hope and Happiness. Adherents of
Jesus Christ's frequent call to his disciples: "Do not be afraid." Do not be
people shaken with fear, made anxious by doubt.
Hope has a great psychic value. It also has an economic and material value.
It makes workers, executives, athletes and math-driven gamblers work harder and
achieve more than those who are fearful, anxious and unsure of themselves.
This high optimism, says SWS, "matches the all-time high hope level
registered in 2002. It is also two points higher than the previous survey."
The SWS first did this hope-versus-fear poll in December 2000. Hope for the
coming year has thereafter been at high levels since then.
This survey was conducted on December 3 to 7, 2011, using face-to-face
interviews of 1,200 adults in Metro Manila, the Balance of Luzon, Visayas, and
Mindanao.
SWS says: "Interestingly, hope is widespread, with record-highs in Metro
Manila and Mindanao. It stayed at record-high 96 percent in Metro Manila. In
Mindanao, hope increased by five points to 94 percent. This record-high was
first reached in 2002."
The hope level hardly changed in the Visayas, from a record-high 97 percent
in 2010 to 96 percent in 2011, and in Balance Luzon, from 94 percent to 95
percent."
This sentiment can also be seen in all socio-economic classes. The very poor
class E registered a new record-high of 93 percent from 89 percent last year.
"New Year hope also stayed at record-high 97 percent among the middle to
upper classes ABC.
"It hardly changed among the masa class D, from 95 percent to 96 percent."
Hope in Christian theology Hope is not only a positive force for productivity
among workers, executives, athletes and gamblers.
Hope is one of the three theological virtues of Christianity. The theological
virtues are faith, hope and charity. These virtues are supernaturally infused by
God into the soul of the faithful to make him or her capable of acting the way
His children should and thus merit eternal life.
Says the Catechism: Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the
kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in
Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the
grace of the Holy Spirit.
God has placed in the human heart the aspiration to happiness. The virtue of
hope responds to that aspiration to happiness. It takes up the hopes that
inspire men's activities (including the hope we hold in the turbulent last days
of 2011 that there will be a better life in 2012). This virtue of hope helps
keep the faithful person aspire to be pure because his most important objective
is to dwell in the everlasting happiness of being with God. It keeps man from
being defeated by discouragement. It sustains him during times of abandonment.
It opens up his heart to the happiness of looking forward to the eternal
beatitude.
Hope buoys a man up from the vice of selfishness and leads him to acts of
charity (love of God and doing what will please Him and others) from which
happiness flows.
This hope that Filipinos always have must come from their infused virtues of
Faith, Hope and Charity. For only a person who absolutely believes in God's
presence, has no doubt whatsoever that God's providence will always preserve him
and those he loves. And he would then have that kind of hope that SWS surveys
have found year in and year out for 11 years.
For this kind of hope to be in the heart and mind of 95 percent of the
Filipinos in the SWS national sample of respondents can only mean that by and
large our people will never be defeated by calamities, bad governance, massive
poverty and whatever challenges might be up ahead of us.
It means that given the right kind of leadership, we Filipinos will really
become a great and Godly nation of achievers. People who will do their best and
act with charity (love) to each other because that is the way to act out of love
for God while we are in this world.
Tops in human happiness index And this too is the underlying reason we are
always somewhere at or near the top in the Human Happiness Index.
Even in the modified surveys and research to gauge national happiness —
modified by the United Nations to include mathematically measurable levels of
development — we fare rather well. In the UN statistical research of humankind's
development level and happiness in which wealth, education and other materialist
factors used in gauging the GDP were included, we Filipinos were found to be in
the medium-developed nations, not at the bottom tier of nations.
But in National Happiness Index surveys that simply asks how people feel, we
sometimes get No. 1 or No. 2 place. The lowest appears to be No. 12, but in that
survey materialist happiness indicators were included.
In this third to the last day of 2011, when there's an alarm that more Ondoy-
and Sendong-volume rainfall is falling all over our archipelago, and the world
economy is sure to be less robust than before so that our business with the rich
of the world might not be as good as in previous years, we should thank God that
the majority of our people are still full of hope. May we all also be full of
grace.
And may our country be filled with more blessings than it has ever had
before.
FROM BUSINESS MIRROR DOT PH BusinessMirror.com.ph Home Opinion
Christmas after the storm 26 December 2011 21:29
Ed Javier / Firebrand
THE outpouring of support and financial assistance that engulfed Typhoon
Sendong's victims in Dumaguete, Cagayan de Oro, Iligan and other areas in
Central Visayas and Northern Mindanao is a beautiful reminder of the true spirit
of Christmas. It was heartwarming to witness the generosity of the Filipino
spirit as volunteers—young and old, rich and poor—pitched in to help provide
the basic necessities, such as water, food, clothing, blankets and medicines to
the huddled masses in evacuation centers.
Hopefully, those grappling with the devastating effects of the killer storm,
which hit so close to Christmas Day, can find meaning in the kindness of these
strangers. It was touching to see our kababayan share their precious time and
material possessions to help ease the suffering of those who had lost so much.
The pain of bereavement during this Yuletide season, traditionally a time for
merrymaking and feasting, is one of life's great ironies. It gives us pause to
ponder what could have been done to prevent the loss of lives and property on
such a massive scale.
Did those who were roused in the dead of the night to find floodwaters raging
around their homes have enough information and warning about the gravity of the
typhoon that was about to hit? Or had they been lulled into a false sense of
security by the very people who had sworn to protect them?
In our radio program Karambola sa dwIZ, former Sen. Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel,
said that when he was mayor of Cagayan de Oro City decades ago, he warned that
there were areas in the city that were vulnerable to heavy flooding and
landslides. Apparently, these warnings went unheeded. For one, it was rare for
the province to be visited by a typhoon.
However, there has been alarming change in weather patterns in recent years.
This has been attributed to the effects of global warming and climate change.
Sea levels worldwide have risen by 1 meter, and some parts of the province of
Cebu are already sinking. Were our local and national leaders blissfully unaware
of such developments on the global stage?
Sadly, all these finger-pointing and blame-throwing are now water under the
bridge. The only thing we can do now is to prepare for the next tropical storm
that is sure to strike due to La Niña.
Meteorologists and scientists predict that heavy rainfall and condensation
brought by La Niña will last until February 2012. They warn people that certain
areas in the eastern seaboard are extremely vulnerable, particularly the
provinces of Bicol, Catanduanes, Samar and Leyte.
Other provinces facing the Pacific side are likewise, susceptible to being
inundated by flash floods as a result of heavy rains.
The onset of the Amihan season by the early part of next year is going to
exacerbate the situation, and it's likely that we shall see another storm of the
magnitude of Sendong in the next few months. Thus, it would be prudent for our
leaders to be vigilant against the coming of another super-typhoon and to be
prepared.
Given the preponderance of this crisis mode, our leaders should act as if
this were the new normal instead of being caught flat-footed every time. What
exactly is the mandate of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Council (NDRRMC)?
We only see NDRRMC Executive Director Benito Ramos, a retired general, on TV
after a disaster has struck. Whatever happened to the "risk reduction" component
of his office? We hope the agency can be more proactive and not always reactive
in helping our countrymen. Is it also true that the budget provisions for
disaster preparedness passed by Congress last year was vetoed by President
Aquino?
It takes a village to repair the damage and destruction wreaked by a
calamitous storm. This we have seen from video footage of people helping each
other rebuild their homes and lives.
In the same manner, it will take a closely interlinked web of local and
national government agencies to prevent such a massive loss of lives and
property from occurring in the first place. Good planning, political will, and
proper coordination among these agencies are the key to our very survival.
Otherwise, we will just see a continuing replay of the same scenes of death
and desolation. Thousand of families with loved ones who perished. From Typhoons
Milenyo, Ondoy, Pepeng, Sendong and the rest of the killer storms that caused
billions of pesos in damage to property and agricultural crops.
Not to mention the unquantifiable cost of shattered hopes and dreams of
families with young members with so much promise cut down in the prime of their
lives.
It is a testament to the resilience of the Filipino people that we see signs
of recovery in the areas struck by Typhoon Sendong. Slowly but surely, the
victims will rebuild their lives. Our people have gone through so much. But
always, we stand up to face the challenge of another day.
Let us hope we all learn from this experience. Christmas after all, is a time
to be thankful for all the graces that we have received during the year. Let us
count our blessings and place our trust and faith in the Almighty. As we face a
new year, let us all look forward to a brighter future for our families and for
our country.
Isang Manigong Bagong Taon sa ating lahat!
Ed Javier is a co-host of the daily political commentary program,
Karambola sa dwIZ, which airs Mondays to Fridays, from 8 to 10 a.m. On 882 kHz
AM radio. Radio station dwIZ is a sister company of the BusinessMirror.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE
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