It's moments like these that make me proud to be Pinoy!
@scarletwitch12 (562)
Philippines
October 23, 2009 5:42am CST
The country had just faced an awful nightmare that is the typhoon Ondoy. We are at a new low with hundreds of thousands left with nothing but the clothes on their backs, some even lost family members to the unforgiving flood that came with the typhoon. A day after the storm, all you can hear were cries of anguish and despair. It was heartbreaking.
When I got to work my office mates stumbled across a twitter from a lady (I do not know what country she was from) saying it was so funny to see monkeys drowning in their third world island. A cruel reference to those who died during the onslaught of the storm. I, just like the others were almost tempted to post some really nasty hate mails to these poor excuses for human beings but then we thought better. Getting your hands dirty in that kind of game just makes you worse than they are.
But this is not a post for those kinds of people. Barely hours after the storm hit the country, the true nature of Filipinos came out. Pinoys: rich, poor, famous, average joes, men, women were all about helping their fellow Filipinos. Networks no longer hand ratings in mind, their only concern was to get as much support as they can to bring much needed help to people in evacuation centers.
It is times like these that make me so proud to be a Filipino. I am in awe at the resilience of the Filipino spirit and how the worst of times can bring out the best in us. I heard this radio plug saying that while the typhoon rocked us with flood, destruction and even death, we struck back with "BAYANIHAN" and goodness of heart that is so Pinoy in so many ways. The plug said "Ondoy, hindi mo kaya ang Pinoy" --- and I agree... I really do...
1 response
@strawberry1012 (142)
• Philippines
23 Oct 09
Its nice to hear all the positive traits the filipinos have in times of such kind of situations. However we are always proud of the good things we have and we do not mention the negative traits of the filipinos. What I mean is we should critize the bad attitude of some people so as to bring awareness among us.
It is so frustrating to hear from the news that some people try to pretend to have been affected just to receive relief goods. Some people took advantage of the victims by looting in to the victims properties.
We even hear those affected people in evacuation centers tries to cheat just to receive as many relief goods as they can.
The "brave"character or hard headedness of some by not heeding the advisories to evacuate during the onslaught of the typhoon is some thing that I could not actually understand. It has caused more trouble, and these people then blame authorities for slow response that they weren't rescued sooner. Although it is true that the response was slow.
What I am trying to say let's praise our bayanihan traits, but we should also try bring out the negative attitude that we should not do.
Like you said, the true nature of the filipinos came out.
@scarletwitch12 (562)
• Philippines
26 Oct 09
It is true that we are far from perfect. I have also seen the bad side of most Filipino. What I am only saying is that it is wonderful to see just how resilient the Filipinos really are and how in the face of danger, uncertainty and hardship, we manage to join hands and help out!
