Just a reminder, there is God

Natural calamities and disasters are God-made. What is the purpose? Our finite mind cannot fathom the infinite mind that made it.

Only with an acceptance of God’s power over the destinies of men and nations shall we feel at ease, there is a power greater than ours.

A great socialist Ignazio Silone wrote, “An earthquake achieves what the law promises but does not in practice, maintain the equality of all men.”

Adds Shakespeare in his “As You Like It,” “Sweet are the uses of adversity,/ Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,/ Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”

We can argue the meaning and significance of the tsunami that hit Japan last Friday but we can never settle in what way it is good for us.

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There were worst quakes in the past for Japan. A magnitude 8.3 temblor in Kanto killed 143,000 in 1923.

A magnitude 7.2 earthquakes hit Kobe in 1995 that killed 6,400 people.

The world’s earthquakes in Asia’s “Rim of Fire” stretching around the Pacific triggered the Dec. 20, 2004 an Indian Ocean tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000 people in 12 countries.

A magnitude 8.8 quake that shook Central Chile on Feb. 2010 also generated a tsunami that killed 524 people.

Oh, we can cite more. On June 15, 1896 an earthquake in Sanriku, Japan killed 27,000 while in East Pakistan on Nov. 13, 1970 a tsunami driven by a cyclone from the Bay of Bengal killed 200, 000 with more than 100, 000 missing.

And just 19 years ago on July 17, 1998 a tidal wave caused by an earthquake killed 2,000 in New Guinea.

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Of course, the most historic was the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in Italy on Aug. 24, 79 A.D. that obliterated the two cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

And, talking of great natural disasters, nothing beats the number of deaths in China when, in July – August 1931, the Yangtze River floods left 3.7 million dead.

What do all these mean? That man, for all his genius, his knowledge, scientific advances he made, is still subject to the whim and caprice of God to right the wrongs he made.

It is not my style to be preachy but of the story of Sodom and Gomorrha, two cities destroyed by God for their people’s wickedness, according to the Bible’s Genesis is a good reminder.

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We have so many things to thank the Heavens for. The only greatest calamities we have to prepare meanwhile against are floods and fires. And typhoons that come once in a while. Eruption of Can-laon is still far off.

Floods we can control, depending on how efficient government is. Fires too. But a bigger problem are the fires.

Deaths caused by fires are often due to buildings that have no fire escapes and fire exits. And all because of corruption.

A few years ago, a big fire killed a number of people in Brgy. 19 because the building had no fire escape and no fire exit.

Was there an investigation to find out why and who were responsible? The city should have compensated the family of the victims. Their fault, they did not get a good lawyer to fight for their rights.

One big case with a city paying a big moral amount of damages to the family of the fire victim will make our officials careful.

You build a house or building. The plan is supposed to be approved by the Housing Authority. They approve the plans without inspecting the building after it is finished.

Grease money is presumed to help the approval without the inspection. Putting up a fire escape or fire exit is additional cost. Some people save money at the expense of safety.

I ask our Public Safety Officer Joemari Vargas if he can have an inventory of all the buildings in Bacolod that have no fire escapes or fire exit.

And including old buildings that are already supposed to be condemned.

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FEEDBACK: Disasters make us remember God. And the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

*A father is reading a newspaper and does not want to be disturbed by his little girl. So, he cut the map of the world to pieces and gave it to his daughter.

“You assemble it correctly,” he said, “every piece in its place.”

The girl sat down to assemble it. After a little while, she returned to him with the map in perfect order, every piece in its place.

Dad was surprised. “Honey, you don’t know about geography. How did you do it?”

The innocent girl replied, “The picture of Jesus is at the back and I know if I had Jesus and the right place, the whole world will be perfect.”*

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