Devil  deep
blue sea quandary

  “When TV crews race cargo ships with airplanes and helicopters, the cameras always win.” John Crowley of  Harvard’s Humanitarian Initiative wrote after supertyphoon “Yolanda/Haiyan” battered the Visayas.

Planes can fly 24 to 48 hours after a storm clears. And  disembarking journalists will  pan on  contorted faces of traumatized victims. Reports zero in  gap between supply and demand. These are facts. But context  can slip between the cracks.

Yolanda’s winds, gusted at  315 kilometers per hour  smashing  through Storm Category Five ceiling. Storm surges left corpses and traumatized survivors  and shattered pre-positioned stocks.

 The  massive aid  needed  come only  by ship. That  takes days. Repair of  damaged ports,  roads stretch into  weeks. “But  when media  focuses on looting and slow aid they miss the point,”  Crowley  added.  “Information is aid... Scaremongering undermines relief effort....

“The  Philippines is captive to its geography”, worte Jennifer Keister, at Cato Institute in Washington  The country sprawls  over 7,132 islands -- at low tide. Like many  developing countries, it is “captive to political dysfunction”. Poverty, corruption, poll irregularities and pervasive political patronage gut what is, on surface, democratic government.

 We saw that in Bohol, ruptured by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake October 15. .And in 1991, Typhoon “Uring” tore at Ormoc. Over 8,000 died, as today’s memorial recalls. In 2011,  “Sendong/Washi” ripped through Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, inflicting 1,453 deaths. A year later, “Pablo/Bopha flattened much of Davao Oriental and Compostela.

The “blame game”  meanwhile,  intensifies,   opinion  editor  Bong Wenceslao  noted. Critics of President   Aquino scour reports on government’s response to Yolanda and storm surge-hit Tacloban City. “They feast on every sign of  incompetence they’ve long accused him of possessing,” he said.

“All rules of decency are jettisoned. And profanities are thrown at will (“asshole,” “gago”). Admittedly, government response has been inadequate. So there are materials for critics to lambast their pet peeve,”  he also said. But to be PNoy-centric is to distort reality. It smudges the complexity of the events.”

“As so often happens, the best human stories are those that didn’t make  the 6 o’clock news”, former UP mass communcation graduate Angioline Loredo emailed. Her family has pitched in with the massive citizen efforts to help.Some in  media” make it appear the whole country is exploding”, she wrote, One has to remind one’s self  of the  silent triumph of the human spirit amidst unspeakable horror.  This is the worst and best time to practice journalism.”

There are more Yolanda/Haiyans  ahead.  “We are now entering a period of consequences...in the global climate crisis.” noted Nobel Laureate Al Gore. But the  impact isn’t spread equally  The  burden is heaviest for countries close to the equator,”  World Bank says.. This is compounded by lack of “economic, institutional, scientific, and technical capacity to cope and adapt.”

The  “calamity fund” has been doubled. since 2009.  But the till  is near empty, sapped by serial disasters. What isn’t  funded  by international aid must come from siphoning  into  other programs. How many typhoon victims could have ben helped from the  squandered pork barrel ala Janet Napoles?. Ask  Bong, Juan Ponce, Jinggoy and Bongbong & Co.

UN says  risk-reduction laws here “among the best in the world — at least on paper”, Washington Post notes. They stipulate that  seven out of every ten pesos  in disaster spending go to long-term measures.  The task for lowering disaster risk falls on local governments. “Some operate like little fiefdoms”. Think Ampatuans or Chavit Singson.

The embedded system of patronage and strongman politics hobbled response, wrote . Jennifer  Keisgter who did three years research  here.  “Haiyan highlights the degree to which these pathologies generate under-preparedness and confound relief efforts. “The system is prone to under-provision of public goods and services broadly, but particularly ill-suited to disaster preparedness.”  That’s academic jargon  for g-r-a-f-t. 

Ilocos Norte governor Imee Marcos stashed a secret account in the Virgin Islands, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported  So did mint-new Senator Joseph Victor  Estrada   They glossed that  over  in their  statements of assets, liabilities.  So, did they dip into that to help typhoon  victims?  Next question,  please. 

 Sleaze erodes “public trust to levels that residents may not obey exhortations to evacuate” , Keisgter adds. ( Others ) may not believe  government will protect their property from looters or squatters if they did. Trust in government is the linchpin.

 Strongman politics distorts distribution of disaster aid.  “Disaster response ( here)  is often plagued by allegations that local authorities hoard aid supplies. ( They )  distribute it only to political supporters or family members”.

 Like vultures that scent carrion, profiteering businessmen swoop on aid distribution. “Conspiracy theories are an understandable refuge for frustrated populations whose predicament result from many factors.  But the persistence of such accusations suggests they may contain an element of truth.”

  “Aid agencies are required to work through local politicians”.  Many may serve  their constituents  with integrity.  Keisgter adds. In  many instances, “aid providers find themselves confronting a devil-or-deep-blue-sea quandary choose “between supporting political pathologies they find unappealing"  or try  to help victims directly ” and be zapped.*

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