Disaster Days Stories. ABOUT random volunteerism.

Responses to posts in Friends’ page/s. 

I BELIEVE, it is not you or our individual sincerity to help. It is mainly because aid and info are scattered on Social Media that systematizing distribution and actual volunteer-to-victim help has gone confused or harder to attend to. I remember when we (a small group of Asheville friends) drove to New York City in 2011’s “Occupy” protest, with almost a "truckful" of farm food to donate, which I saw ended up being thrown away. Not many places to cook them and people don't really need food, it was Wall Street country. 

       Best way to help is to go to a friend or friends' house or area and hand out necessities, from our own resources and those that we picked up from donation areas. Many don’t have a way to drive out to where relief commodities are handed out. 

       Me and my housemates’ “little” aid, our way? On Facebook, I focused on directing first-response aid (and info knowledge) from those volunteers online near my isolated friend and her neighbors in Hendersonville. Make sure they are all safe and fed. And when I was sure roads had been cleared by professional rescuers, we drove there to give follow up help. (Most of the people there don't use Facebook or social media even if they have power, which they still don't have). 

       Meanwhile, we here in the house offer our Starlink access to neighbors; my housemate and his teenage daughter have been bringing the gadget (since Saturday AM or first day after the fact) as well to several areas, powered mostly by his car, so people can communicate or go online and use their phones for obvious reasons. 🌬💨💓

IT is a general/organizational decision, I reckon, for her (staff at rescue base or HQ) to "remove" your info. So they could process info and donation more systematically and hopefully, faster. Same with media before the advent of social media. The desk in the office quarterbacks 7 to 10 (depends on resources) reporters with photographers each to strategic areas, during and after the disaster. Info that we called in or faxed or Morse coded (yes) are deliberated by editors before printing and sent for public consumption. Then we do updates or follow up stories. 

       Relief organizations or NGOs follow basically the same system. Until social media was born. But that's only my insight and based on my experiences, being born in a "disaster country" and as a journalist and aid volunteer in two continents. 🌬💨💓

NO way to really figure out the veracity of "stories." Media sources (including local news) are doubted or negated due to crisscrossing, conflicting, exaggerated or "diminished/controlled" takes, opinions and insight by people on Facebook or social media. Then there's the political Left vs Right anglings. 

       My family abroad and in New York and the West Coast know I am safe because I told them and I am alive and unscathed. But details? Despite availability of news all over, who knows--not even Asheville residents, who were far from the “line of “hurricane/flooding” fire” actually know. 🌬💨💓

(Photo credit: USA Today.)

Disaster Days Stories.

Responses to posts in Friends’ page/s. 

"INSTAGRAMMERS instagramming in a very instagrammable place" while some parts of the world are sunk in grief--is a fact of life. They are not here so although they probably know, what must they do? Weep all day? I was born and grew up in an island nation that is pummeled by typhoons and other natural calamities dozens of times yearly. We bury thousands each time a killer typhoon hits. 

       But would I feel a bit pissed that my cousin in New York City or uncle in London are comfy like royalty and partying like crazy? Before Helene hit, the world was already flooded with news of wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon then there's strife in Sudan and Haiti. These countries don't have sturdy safety nets and trillions$ budget signed for this and that project like the U.S. is capable of, just like that. 

       In most instances, these poor countries' leadership makes their life more miserable than better, regardless of foreign aid. In Asheville, we got 2 or 3 days of tragedy; they get several bombs dropped at them, how many times a week? They toss their dead in mass graves. 

       Yes, I see friends in Asheville who lost their house, some died. And I see grim flashbacks of home in disaster months. It feels like the first time. I stare at the ceiling, outside, blank. Then I see people somewhere in bliss and comfort. Instagramming. But then, watching them doesn't make me feel bad. It's the contrary. I see life, I see joy. That light warms me. Gives me hope and thankful that I am still here. 🌬💨💓

[Photo credit: WFMY News 2.]

Favorites and Influences.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

FAVORITES. “Puto.” Filipino steamed rice cake made from fermented rice dough. Eaten as is or as accompaniment to a number of savory dishes (most notably, “dinuguan” or “chocolate pork"). Puto is also an umbrella term for various kinds of indigenous steamed cakes, including those made without rice. It is a sub-type of “kakanin.” Before “fast food” stores proliferated, “puto” was the favorite snacks, chased down by “samalamig” fruit drinks. My childhood. (Photo: Serious Eats.) 🍢🥮🍡

INFLUENCES. “The Little Prince” or “Le Petit Prince,” a novella written and illustrated by French writer, and military pilot, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. First published in English and French in 1943. Mr Saint-Exupéry's works had been banned by the Vichy Regime. The story follows a young prince who visits various planets, including Earth, and addresses themes of loneliness, friendship, love, and loss. I used to read this book to my children when they were little. 📚🍎🎼

FAVORITES. Camping. Outdoor recreation. Can also include a recreational vehicle (RV) or sheltered cabin. But I prefer the old-fashioned way. The smell of dew-smothered grass in the morning, the cool sight of stars at night, the crackle of crickets and din of frogs. And, of course, the bonfire and cooking on firewood. Spending the night away from home distinguishes camping from day-tripping, picnicking, and other outdoor activities. Those are different. 🏕⛺️🏕

INFLUENCES. “Jesus Christ Superstar.” The 1973 rock opera directed by Norman Jewison, and co-written by Jewison and Melvyn Bragg, based on the 1970 concept album of the same name written by Tim Rice and composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which in turn inspired a 1971 musical. The film depicts the conflict between Judas and Jesus and the emotions of the main characters during the week of the crucifixion of Jesus. Even “nonbelievers” enjoyed this movie. 🎥✝️🎼

FAVORITES. Long road trips. Since I was a boy, I always enjoyed road trips. Open highways, scenic views, diverse humanity, living things out there. An ethereal sense of freedom. No one knows you out there but there’s always that transcendent possibility of knowing. Places and people. Inspirations are Paul Theroux’s “The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia” and William Least Heat-Moon’s “Blue Highways: A Journey into America.” 🚔🏞🚍

INFLUENCES. “The Song Remains the Same,” the 1976 concert film featuring Led Zeppelin. I had to line up to see the movie at 6 AM, and got in around 10 AM! The concert took place in the summer of 1973 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The film premiered 3 years later in October 1976 in New York, Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, and in London two weeks later. The line, said by Robert Plant “Does anybody remember laughter?" stood out. 🎬🎸🎼

FAVORITES. Cheap drinks and stuff. Not necessarily “favorites” though. Just preferences. Vices, not imperatives in life. We can do without them. Mentally, if my drinks and stuff are cheap or inexpensive, I won’t be allotting such a budget to maintain them. Beers: PBRs and all other cheaper beers, for example. Goes with stuff and things. I am not into signature clothing, fashionable Nike shoes, ramens, kickass sunglasses etcetera. I am easy to please, low maintenance dude. Uh huh. 👟🍺👖

INFLUENCES. Khalil Gibran (1883 – 1931), Lebanese-American writer and visual artist; he was also considered a philosopher, although he himself rejected the title. He is best known as the author of “The Prophet,” which was first published in the United States in 1923 and has since become one of the best-selling books of all time, having been translated into more than 100 languages. “The Prophet” was a Top 5 reading favorite when I was in high school. 📚🍎🎼

FAVORITES. Paella or Arroz Valenciana. The dish consists of round-grain rice, green beans, pork or seafood/s, chicken, sometimes duck, and butter bean, cooked in olive oil and chicken broth. Seasoned with whole rosemary branches. Traditionally, the yellow color comes from saffron, but turmeric can be used as substitutes. Artichoke hearts and stems may be used as seasonal ingredients. My (late) Grandma Luz’s paella was the best ever paella that I had in my life. 🥘🍲🥘

INFLUENCES. “Iron Chef” TV cooking show on the Food Network. A stylized cook-off featuring guest chefs challenging one of the show's resident "Iron Chefs" in a timed cooking battle built around a theme ingredient. The cooking strategies were traditional. Nostalgic fun. When the show was canceled and then came “Iron Chef America,” I lost interest. The new show is all about selling kitchen gadgets and “artsy” cooking. Not my cooking delight. (Photo: Cooking Channel.) 👩‍🍳📺🧑‍🍳

Photo credits: Serious Eats. Culturesco.

All About the Kamala/Trump Debate.

My post and my response/s in my Facebook Page. 

ME: Voters must go beyond the “personality quotient” and instead zoom in on policy. Fact: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ four years are a failure, home-based and overseas. Washington leadership needs to regroup. Ms Harris and Mr Trump’s program of strategies differ. So we only need to look back at Donald’s 4 years and the current administration. Would America seek a repeat of the present or rely on Kamala's promises? Or rehash the other one that worked better? 🏛🗽🏛

<>Democracy is a drained, overused word. The phrase "Defend Democracy," I guess? Like toss taxpayer money to a war instead of forging peace? What/who are they defending? Corporate leverage. Trade/economic conquest? <>Abortion? It is illegal back home in the Philippines, law or religion. But hey, all kinds of "abortion" herbs can be obtained in stalls that freely circle the Catholic church in Quiapo. Meaning, abortion is a personal/individual choice. Not political. Not even religious to many. I respect those who did or those who didn't. They got reasons. <>Economy? Isn't life all about Economy? And that's a major reason, if not the #1 reason why Filipinos venture in America or overseas. I don't care about Trump's mouth or whatever JD thinks about my "papaet," as long as the economy goes back to how it was. And no wars.

<>To elaborate, we (Filipinos) are immigrants. And I live most of my life in America with Americans, under one roof and in/around the community. I get all kinds of racism, subtle and blatant, as I live my life. Must I dream that there's no racism? Nope, racism stays in people. We Filipinos also disparage blacks and Indians and Chinese and make fun of whites when they're not there. But as I said, we live in America. All I care about is a cool economy, I don't get shot while walking downtown, and to feed my personal advocacy: No wars. Then I am cool. Hell, I care if people ridicule my bizarre food or my people eat dog meat. I am not that juvenile touchy. People eat meat, period.

<>I don't really deal with the sideshows of the campaign. I am past the "political humor." Or what comes out of political mouths. I just mind the writings on the wall. Or what is "written right now" (2021 to now). Or policies after the fact/pledges.

<>The Constitution is a huge discussion subject. Examples: First Amendment is a contradiction. Everybody has the right to their opinion as long as the hearer/reader agrees; if not, that opinionated person is an asshole. Value human lives so it is okay to drop bombs elsewhere. Own guns as many as you wish (bump stock them even) regardless of the obvious. Extra marital sex: A great American hypocrisy yet the worst for me is the Chappaquidick tragedy of 1969 and BJs in the Oval Office of 1995. Hush money to a sex worker is extra dough to a good service. Got problems with the missus but to the "moralism of hypocrisy," uh huh? Etc etcetera. 

<>The Constitution. Yet I'd like to break down my ambitions to this: $842+ billion military spending ($916 billion in 2023) as the economy falters. FEMA on budget shortfall, millions of Americans without health insurance, homelessness exponentially spikes, and so on and so forth. The Constitution? America is so into a Constitution that cries out for revisions and amendments as the world changes and the United States loses global clout and influence? Should I rant how BRICS got stronger and expanded in Joe Biden's time?

<>Online activism is basically (re)sharing memes created by 13 year old nerds, applauding with the (political) choir, and disparaging the naysayers. Before I went to America, I already spent decades in the streets of dissent, sat with leadership of the Left, wrote manifestos and project proposals, worked with NGOs, wrote/edited for alternative media, was a PCGG staff, and was a member of premier activist groups in Manila. Internet life is essentially social media blahblah, heckling and shaming and super superlatives in the name of partisanship zealotry. 😏😒🤨

Famous. Popular. And Stuff.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

DISASTERS of the PAST. The Bhopal Gas Tragedy was a chemical accident on of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh in India. Considered the world's worst industrial disaster, over 500,000 people in the small towns around the plant were exposed to the highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate. It was estimated that 8,000 died within two weeks, and another 8,000 or more have since died from gas-related diseases.

       Wikipedia: There are two main lines of argument involving the disaster. The "corporate negligence" point of view argues that the disaster was caused by a potent combination of under-maintained and decaying facilities, a weak attitude towards safety, and an under-trained workforce, culminating in worker actions that inadvertently enabled water to penetrate the MIC tanks in the absence of properly working safeguards. 🩻❌🩻

EVENTS in HISTORY. World War I (1914 – 1918) was fought between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Fighting took place throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. Tensions started following the assassination by a Bosnian Serb of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, on 28 June 1914. WWII resulted in 9 million soldiers dead and 23 million wounded, plus another 5 million civilian deaths. ☮️❤️‍🩹☮️

FORGOTTEN HEROES. Geronimo (1829 – 1909) was an Apache military leader and medicine man. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined other Apache bands to fight against Mexican and U.S. military campaigns in Chihuahua and Sonora and in New Mexico and Arizona. Geronimo's combat actions were a part of the Apache–United States conflict, which started with Americans continuing to take land, including Apache lands, following the end of the war with Mexico in 1848. 🦬🧙‍♀️🦬

FAMOUS ROCK BANDS. The Allman Brothers Band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman and Gregg Allman, with Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks, Jaimoe Johanson. The band incorporated blues, jazz and country music; their live shows featured jam-style improvisations. Duane was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1971, age 24. Gregg died in 2017 from liver cancer, age 69. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. 🎸🎼🎸

PEOPLE of the PAST. Born Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod in 1876 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, Mata Hari (her stage name) was a Dutch exotic dancer who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I. She was executed by firing squad in France. The idea of a beautiful exotic dancer using her powers of seduction as a spy made her name synonymous with the femme fatale. Other sources said she was convicted because the French Army needed a scapegoat. 👩‍🦰👱‍♀️👩‍🦱

TREATIES of the PAST. The Warsaw Pact was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republics of Central and Eastern Europe in May 1955, during the Cold War. The Warsaw Pact was established as a balance of power or counterweight to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Warsaw Pact was dissolved on 1 July 1991, alongside dissolution of the USSR and end of Cold War. ☮️☮️☮️

INTERESTING FIXTURES. Lighthouse is a tower structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, rocks, and safe entries to harbors; they also assist in aerial navigation. The oldest existing lighthouse is the Tower of Hercules, built in the 1st century and located in Galicia in Spain. 🏖🗼🏝

CULTURAL FESTIVALS. Bodhi Day is the Buddhist holiday that commemorates the day that Gautama Buddha or SShakyamuni is said to have attained enlightenment, also known as bodhi in Sanskrit and Pali. According to tradition, Siddhartha had recently forsaken years of extreme ascetic practices and resolved to sit under a peepal tree, also known as a Bodhi tree, and simply meditate until he found the root of suffering, and how to liberate oneself from it. ☮️🎎☯️

DISASTERS of the PAST. The Chernobyl Disaster. One of only two nuclear energy accidents rated at maximum severity on the International Nuclear Event Scale. Began on 26 April 1986 with the explosion of the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near Pripyat in the Ukrainian SSR (then USSR). The initial emergency response and subsequent mitigation efforts involved more than 500,000 personnel and cost an estimated $68 billion in 2019, adjusted for inflation. 🇺🇦☮️🇷🇺

Photos: Medium.