Left Then, Left Now. Left…

From my reaction to a Facebook post. 

WHEN I left Manila in the late 1990s, I was nursing wounds from the organized Lefts RA/RJ shudder (which still hit me somehow when I was living in New York City, but I digress on that subject). 

       The divide between Left and Right in America is no brainer. Before he died in 2010, Howard Zinn predicted a worst divide that'd rival the 1860s civil war. (That was before Donald Trump was even invited to the Tea Party.) 

       The liberals and progressives are like the old Left vs old Right. The liberals imbue a stance that reminds me a lot of the old Conservative elitism. The ideological overreach is high purity exceptionalism (sic). Meanwhile, the progressives held on to old advocacies, esp. anti war and pro working class. 

       In the last election, the Democratic Party ran on a platform of vilification over tight, clear policies or gut level imperatives. Of course  the "hate Trump" narrative was the anchor as The D “talked" with the working class and his relatively dovish foreign policy playbook appealed to the progressives. 

       The internet, of course, aided in pushing the new Left inwards. They relied on juvenile memes and third hand info over old school groundwork out there, community organizing, tactical alliance pursued calmly. Still, the Left refuses to accept its flaws and continues the insults, post-Nov 5. 

       Conservatives will always be conservative per tradition, add religiosity. But the Left continues to widen its crack without even knowing it or acknowledging it. 🌬💨💓

Chat Stuff: The Shooting of a CEO.

From my chat with friends on Facebook.

I don't think one man's elimination of one highly-paid CEO shook the ruling class at all. Would that mean America's health care now drastically changes (for the people) because Batman could be targeting the CEOs now, one by one? Despite its headline mojo, the recent hit is an "ordinary" crime that falls into ordinary law enforcement or police work. Soon forgotten. 

       Meanwhile, "peaceful organizing" and anti-war advocacy focus on a much larger, global picture. Although I am not very happy with the current peace/anti-war movement, the mere fact that the current super hawkish U.S. government ends its 4-year swath of destruction and deaths via wars--is credited as well to progressive activists. But work doesn't stop even if a semblance of peace or ceasefires happen next year. Less war is possible per legislation and continuous advocacy. 

       A street hit by a vigilante against a symbol of corporate greed or evil is simply an intermission hero worship. The story remains the same in America Inc. ⚖️😒💸

What's up, 2025? Goodbye, hawks?

From my response to Facebook chats etcetera.

JOE Biden and the Washington hawks messed things up in just four years. And these wars are still burning. Donald Trump? Let's see. 2016 was far different from 2024. Joe is hawkish; Donald is mostly dovish. That matters, sure, but the powers (BRICS mainly) that Washington faces right now aren't dumb and they got the (trade) leverage. 

       President Biden's U.S. representation just vetoed a new UN. ceasefire resolution in Gaza etcetera as Joe okayed a new Ukraine offensive with American-procured weapons vs Russia, few days after Vladimir Putin talked with Berlin's Olaf Scholz. Mr Biden leaves these rubble and ruin to The D. Forget the collateral damage?

       But let's see how T plays ball this time. He already provoked some SNL-styled ruckus via his fantastic pre-hires (to get his haters busy) as he obviously strategizes in the backroom with his POTUS part 2 guys, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. 

       My dots: Mr Musk recently met with Iran's U.N. ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani in New York. I believe it was more economic than political. Note: China is Iran's top trade partner. Tehran's new moderate leadership doesn't want a war; economic recovery has been hobbling. 

       Elon and China? It's no brainer. Elon wants their silicon. Vivek, think India. (China and India just shook hands per border dispute.) Of course, the Left would be ecstatic if Trump fails. But I dig watching. ☮️☮️☮️

MY angle: China is Iran's top oil/natural gas buyer. But China doesn't like wars (at least from the Deng Xiaoping years, post-Mao). Bad for business or the CCP's trade expansionism (refer to Belt and Road Initiative).

       Meanwhile, Tehran's moderate leadership, regardless of the Supreme old man, is pressured to fix the economy. Mr Musk has a huge factory in Shanghai. But China's BYD rules the global overall EV market though Elon's Tesla is #1 per brand name. He can't really compete with BYD since China got the silicon (BRICS buddy Russia is #2 in silicon production). 

       So if Elon Musk can help cool the war's heat in the Middle East, everybody will be happy. (Elon gets Chinese silicon as well. Meanwhile, Tehran isn't really hot and high on Mr Trump's mouth. So send Elon and Vivek instead.) ☮️☮️☮️

Privileges and The Privileged.

From my Facebook conversations.

SPEAKING as a relative foreigner in America, from a country which was a colony or commonwealth of the U.S.? As most of my people and all my kin here, entry wasn't so easy. (I won't go into how hard it is to get a visa for a mere 1 month visit.) But we came here already (college-) educated back home yet we still have to upgrade our education so we work/ed three jobs to gain those higher ed to earn better pay. 

       These days, Asians are the most educated and highest earning household in America (better than white Americans) with lesser debts. 

       What is "privilege/d," I ask. Privilege is earned wherever we go. "Privilege" in America? Adherence to the law, acceptance of diversity, respect of individual choices (including who to vote and right to concur or reject or ignore). Yet Privilege is mostly seen with the relative comfort that many enjoy: government safety nets, many consumer products to enjoy, freedom to be individual weirdnesses or coolnesses. 

       In fact, we tend to be so comfortable or pampered in America that we seem to overread, exaggerate or misdefined words of misery that we never really experienced (or life that others have lived through and survived from). Such as Nazi Germany, dictatorship, extreme poverty, misery in war, fascism, genocide, real homelessness etcetera. Privileges drive many to "easy depression" or worse, self-inflicted pain or mass shootings. And 24/7 of unmitigated mental agony and emotional horror because this side of the divide is displeased with how an election went. 

       That grief, by the way, isn't borne out of problematic personal economics in the last 4 years, or deepening funk among the young, or two ongoing wars elsewhere where U.S. taxpayer money "aids" to mow people down and destroy environments. 

       The grief. That grief, I don't understand at all. 

       Many years ago, I rode Greyhounds for three consecutive years, big cities and small towns, to try to understand America via its people, not its politics (only 60 or below percent vote). I felt I knew somehow. I edited Asian newspapers in New York City and Los Angeles, wrote for mainstream papers, and published one in Asheville. I organized events coast to coast. I live with white Americans, and have relationships with American women. But America's loneliness and self-hate still baffle me. 

       Yet when I wake up in the morning, despite the grimness of Facebook drama, all I see are the blessings of America far away from home and family. And a dog and two cats in bed, with me. 🪇🎼🎺

• 
  

Facebook Friend: “Privilege is easier access to resources that others may not have from birth. In a true free market system everyone has equal access to the resources needed to compete.”

• 
  

Indeed. So why are we complaining? Because a new POTUS is up? Yet whoever is in White House, America still controls global trade via several global/regional trade organizations and agreements? Regardless of China or BRICS. I don't think America will ever lose all these privileges just because leadership sits in 4 or 8 years.

       This is America Incorporated (to quote Bruce Springsteen from his old song). Dem prez sits, their own corporate powers rule; GOP prez sits, their own corporate powers rule. All the same. 🪇🎼🎺

Memes and Elon Musks and Stuff.

From my response to Facebook chats etcetera.

SIMPLISTIC, uh huh. 

       <>U.S. economy is aided by consumer activity ("millions of poor people and other people" continually buying. Check "contained" unemployment vis a vis spike in goods prices etcetera). <>U.S./China trade pact of 2000. When major American corporations built factories in China. Now there are 8,000+ U.S.-owned companies operating there. There were 66 American billionaires in 1990; there are 801 now. Last time the U.S. was in trade surplus was in 1975. And the U.S. remains as the world's #1 consumer market while military spending exponentially spikes ($840+ billion vs China's $200+ billion; in 2023, the U.S. spent $916 billion). While minimum wage stays $7.25 but unemployment will not ever go to the 1930s level. 

       <>Washington's political leadership is The Issue. Government can fix it but it chooses not to due to the obvious. Although the rich will get unstoppably richer due to the evolution of global trade, U.S. poor can still be less poor if the government wills it. 

       Read up on China's "Common Prosperity" program and why privately owned Alibaba donated $15.5 billion to the program in 2021, for example. How their billionaires are compelled to share countryside development for the people. China's major industries, except Big Tech, are state-owned. But then Americans hate anything Chinese, so… 💸💵🗽

ELON and EVs. 

       Here are some to ponder: <>Top EV market is China (not the U.S., by a long shot). Top 5 countries with the highest share of EV sales: Norway (80 percent), Iceland, Sweden, Netherlands, China (22 percent). The US, 6 percent. I believe Mr Musk's interest is China and political clout would give him (economic) leverage on the table. Already, he has a Tesla "gigafactory" in China etcetera. But what he needs in abundance are minerals that China and its BRICS and RCEP partners have. Plus silicon, the emerging next standard for EV energy storage. China has the most silicon, lopsidedly owns most of the global supply. Second is Russia. Meanwhile, the top selling EV brand in the world is Tesla Model Y but China's BYD is the top EV seller, overall.

       X is simply Mr Musk's playground. Reason why he bought it. It may not earn him money or he knew he could lose but he believes he can use it to his advantage for political ends. Easier to handle than a major newspaper, I guess? Like Jeff Bezos' Washington Post. Though Elon may buy a newspaper, too. But this guy knows how to juggle business and politics as his buddy. 🚗🚚🚕

Consumer Products and Farms Hands.

REACTION to a widely-shared meme: “If you think shits expensive now, wait till we deport all the farm hands and start tariffs on all imports.”  

I DON'T think "deporting" undocumented farmhands and factory workers or increasing tariffs on imported goods would "fix" the U.S. economy or at least bring it back to 1975, the last year America had a trade surplus. Meanwhile, illegal workers have been a constant in U.S. industry since way back when. 

       A major issue: American companies had been moving overseas, especially to China, right after the U.S./China trade pact of 2000 between Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin. Right now, there are 8,619 companies in China; but just across the border in Mexico, 18,000 companies have U.S. investments. 

       Chinese manufacturing overtook the U.S. productivity in 2010, as companies moved East and elsewhere from 2001 to 2010. The U.S. experiences the worst manufacturing crisis since the Great Depression. 

       Meanwhile, the Biden administration invested over $12 billion to entice TSMC/Taiwan and Samsung/SK to build microchips factories in Texas. Those projects are halted. Why? Shortage of skilled workers. Etc etcetera.

THE platform that Donald Trump is running on, I believe, is anchored on bringing some manufacturing back to the U.S. via trade deals that are strategically "diplomatic" over competitively "combative" (as what President Biden employs). 

       Looking back. Mr Trump started (his POTUS term) disparaging China, which escalated into a trade war. It didn't work. For starters, the Chinese have the pertinent raw materials and largest labor force, inexpensive and ready to roll obediently. So Trump ended his China policy with a trade pact, which he hoped to follow through in case he won a second term in 2020. 

       Meanwhile, how many times Mr Biden sent State secretary Antony Blinken and Treasury chief Janet Yellen and (the last) a crack economic team to Beijing? All failed to break the Chinese, primarily to convince them to relax the global EV market.

 

       Why did the missions keep on failing? While Joe "negotiates,” he disses the CCP at home or when he sits with the EU. Of course, Joe tried to goad China to a war in the South China Sea by way of Taiwan. Didn't work. 

       Also, the Biden/Kamala playbook of continuously tossing military aid to two (ongoing) wars messes up China's BRI investments in MENA and Eastern Europe. Yet who would most likely convince Russia and Iran to sit and talk on the table (and Saudi Arabia not to join the conflagration)? China.

       Beijing is Iran's top oil buyer and Tehran really has to focus on economics right now due to the obvious. It doesn't need a war. 

Note as well that the BRICS trade bloc has what the West needs. Raw materials or pertinent minerals. 

       Also, ponder how China and India kept Russia's oil and natural gas selling regardless of Biden's call to boycott Moscow. 

Israel didn't even heed Joe's call to send arms to Ukraine. Obviously Bibi isn't Joe's buddy. Etc etcetera. 

       The global order has changed. Trump has handled it better because he knew how to play chess with America's most powerful rivals. The slogan “Make America Great Again” makes sense because of the fact that America's global power has weakened in recent years. 

       “Build Back Better” from what and by how? A hawkish foreign policy? It may have worked before. Military brinkmanship? Not anymore. These are not colonization years anymore.

AMERICA can probably bring some of manufacturing back home but not the way it was. Repeat: 1975, the last year of U.S. trade surplus. This is a long discussion. 

       Major reasons are not solely confined on how Washington carries out its trade policies, home based and overseas. The world outside of America isn't dumb. Or China, India and Russia (Soviet Union then or the Rus, historically) and the Middle East were already active civilizations long before the United States was born etcetera. We always forget that fact. 

       Points that matter: China joined WTO in 2001 (after the game changing trade pact with the U.S. in 2000); Russia joined in 2012 (note its huge-ass energy exports). The Middle East has learned Western styled capitalism big time via its massive oil and natural gas production or global leverage. Its people have also woken up; check Arab Spring of 2011. 

       The Asian Tigers (South Korea, Taiwan et al) have thrived to join China, India (had the highest economic growth post covid at 7+ percent) and Japan in their trade march. 

       The rest of the world essentially does business with China or is funded by Beijing's 5 state-owned banks, the world's largest. China also gathered 14 Asia Pacific economies into the world's largest trade bloc, the RCEP, just 2 weeks after Biden won as POTUS in 2020. 

       But China or BRICS (irrelevant of Russia's "you can't bully me the bully" girth which can be contained on the trade table than at war in the field) favors trade or trade over war or military to influence their geopolitical expansionism. 

       Anyhow, even if we stop buying "anything Chinese" or made abroad or imports, the APIs in our meds or drugs, silicon and lithium etc in our computers and cars come from China and BRICS or countries where they have massive economic clout. I mean these countries may "align" with the U.S. politically yet when it comes to economics? They partner with or buy Chinese stuff or minerals. 

       Note as well that the world's largest (inexpensive) labor force are in China and India or BRICS. Others are in Mexico and Indonesia and Sub Saharan Africa; they have lots of Chinese money. Major EU powers were even still buying Russian oil/gas as they tossed military aid to Ukraine. How whacked that is!   

       Yet America stays as the global #1 due to many reasons beyond economics and (geo)politics. But that'd be another lengthy discourse. I digress for now. LOL! 🏛🗽🏛

My Asheville Life. Hurricane Helene, and the changes in the community, prior.

Responses to posts in Friends’ page/s.

I FIRST got here in Asheville, alone, in the Fall of 1999 to "check the place out" as a quieter alternative to New York City, where I used to live. I first settled in a cabin in Weaverville. I was still flying to/from NYC (where I edited a community newspaper) until 2001 or when 9-11 happened. Then I moved. I brought with me my tiny newspaper, The Indie, as I organized public concerts and club gigs/events via the Traveling Bonfires. I met many people, of course. Locals and transplants, as well as in neighboring towns. 

       I also lived downtown and in West Asheville. As far as I can recall, I stopped publishing in 2015 and stopped producing shows around that time; in fact, I stopped going out like I did before and simply stayed home here in Candler, 7 miles to West Asheville. Why did I stop? It wasn't about a “business” that was losing because my newspaper or production outfit was not formed around profit. It was the gradual change in community vibe. The people. Things changed. 

       You see, I came from a country that is battered by hurricanes (typhoons) several times a year. So we rebuild from rubble and ruins each time, with less or no government help. But each time a disaster pummeled us, the community got stronger as a collective energy. Per Local Government Code, which I helped research and draft, business franchises have very minimal presence in communities; local products serve local people etcetera.     

       The Asheville issue to me is, in fact, a microcosm of the current national illness or cancer. The wide and widening divide per politics. My newspaper and productions were meant to gather people, unity in diversity, in fun convergences. That seems a quixotic imagining (sic) right now. The Covid paralysis only heightened the Left vs Right mess. Would Helene unite us? I hoped so. 

       But right after the devastation, the same "fights" ensued. I was told Asheville was bankrupt in the 1980s. But from there, the city got up via tactical alliances between and among locals and new residents coming from elsewhere. There was a fine mix of local businesses downtown and those that were owned by transplants in the first years of my Asheville life. I know them personally. I felt the change around the time I got back, in 2009, from a 2 year "break" in Los Angeles. Asheville felt so different. 

       I resumed my publication and shows till I stopped. I didn't want to unknowingly offer a venue for hate, the antithesis of my personal vision, coming from a country that was broken by a 20 year dictatorship and then kicked out via tactical alliances of people of diverse mindsets but against a common evil. BTW I was a radical Leftist. Repeat: Tactical alliances. Would people set aside politics and get together for common good? I hope and I pray. (Yes, I pray.) ☮️☮️☮️

Liz Cheney and dad Dick Cheney

Time: “‘Pro-Life’ Liz Cheney Explains Why Her Fellow Republicans Should Back Harris.” Why wouldn't Liz instead enlist as a Democrat? I am no Conservative or Liberal but it'd be less alienating if she decides for certain her party allegiance. No wonder she lost the Republican Primary in 2022 to Harriet Hageman. The margin of defeat was the 2nd worst for a House incumbent in the last 60 years. Yet when I think about her dad Dick, I definitely have more to say. 😏😒🤨

Or let me just share an Mother Jones article, Sept/Oct 2006 issue. “Sweet Subpoena” by James Ridgeway, on the Dick Cheney part. 

<>Grounds for impeachment? Congressional investigators digging into the aforementioned questions cannot ignore the possibility of impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney, who figures prominently in almost every one of the scandals engulfing the administration. It was Cheney who ran the government’s response to the 9/11 attacks without constitutional authority, at one point ordering shoot-downs of commercial planes and what would turn out to be a medevac helicopter; who led the secret meetings of administration officials and oilmen to set energy policy; who allowed Ahmed Chalabi to play the U.S. government like a violin; who very well may be the origin of the whisper campaign that culminated in the Plame leak; and, of course, it was Cheney’s former employer (and source of continuing deferred compensation paychecks) that benefited enormously from no-bid contracts in Iraq. 

       Judicial Watch, the conservative legal outfit in Washington, has unearthed an email dated March 5, 2003, sent by an Army Corps of Engineers official whose name had been blacked out, that said of a pending deal under which Halliburton would rebuild the Iraqi oil industry, “We anticipate no issue since the action has been coordinated w VP’s office.” There’s plenty more where that came from; whether any of Cheney’s actions constitute “high crimes and misdemeanors” is for Congress, and the nation, to debate. 🏛🗽🏛

Photo: The Intercept.

Disaster Days Stories. After the Agony, Holiday Community Joy.

Responses to posts in Friends’ page/s.

BACK home in the Philippines, typhoons (or hurricanes in Asia Pacific) happen several times a year so people live with the fact. But life has "gifts." After months of agony and funk, the Christmas holiday season enters. As early as September (when the last rains usually end) Christmas songs are heard(!) People start decorating, a colorful "parol" hangs in the window and doors, children go “karoling” house after house. This Filipino truth is more cultural than religious. 

       Meanwhile, by mid November, workers and employees are handed a "13th month pay" (law) or extra month's salary (excluding the non-compulsory bonus and office gifts). By law as well, most employees in businesses and government agencies take a paid 15-day vacation starting December 15 so they can spend time with family. Filipinos abroad usually visit home and family in December. Some work but that'd be OT or extra pay or moonlighting income. We all go back to work on January 3 or 4. 

       And then in March/April Lent happens. Solemnity and relative quiet. But Maytime harvest glee ensues and the revelry heightens in the fiesta season till the last week of August. On these happy days, food is offered free in the plaza, mostly farm produce and home-cooked food. Gift-giving is all over. When you enter a house or wandered into a private yard, you are invited for dinner. Warring Communists rebels and Muslim secessionists and government troops spontaneously declare a ceasefire. After the holidays, we prepare for the coming storm again. 

       I grew up not knowing what clinical depression or shrinks or anti depressant pills are. But sadness is real yet we have family and community and lots of free food and gifts during those fun months. 🌬💨💓

[Photo credits: HGS OSS. Washington Post.]

Disaster in America, Disaster in the Philippines.

Responses to posts in Friends’ page/s.

HAVING been into and survived many similar disasters elsewhere where the safety net is magnificently weak or haplessly bankrupt, FEMA’s response to post-Helene devastation in the mountain was disappointing. That’s because this is America. The most powerful nation on earth with surefire trillion$ budget allocations to several federal projects. But not for FEMA, which is a “mere” sub-agency of the Department of Homeland Security. 

       Which brings me to why I say Hurricane Helene is a disaster response (and preparedness) failure. Budget. FEMA has always been plagued by a budget deficit, or since Katrina 2005. Last year, over $4 billion as the military expenditures went over the annual budget to $916 billion. Why would FEMA's work be praised when the agency itself may have felt awkward with the accolade? They knew they could have done better if they had enough resources. 

       More than two weeks after the fact, they haven't even reached some badly-hit mountain spots to deliver aid. Regardless, weren’t aid workers “reinforced” by the National Guard? Reason given: “Threat from armed militia.” Don't soldiers deliver help in much more dangerous battle zones abroad? 

       I myself helped bring aid in mountain barrios, years ago, while a typhoon raged amidst the government's Communist counterinsurgency program. I rode in military choppers provided by the U.S. base in Clark. We just have to do our job. We were threatened, we were shot at--but the need to save mostly vulnerable children was utmost. 

       Again, this is America, not the Philippines. Who accomplished the government's job faster, instead? Local volunteers. The community. 🌬💨💓

[Photo credit: Associated Press.]

Disaster Days Stories. Curfew, essential emergency services, and Stuff.

Responses to posts in Friends’ page/s.

IN emergency situations, including in wars, but mostly after devastation of a natural calamity, “makeshift” places that offer essential needs to people don't close at all. Especially “tent hospitals” and relief camps that feed people and attend to their basic needs and health conditions. In many cases (in my experience in other countries) workers, both from government agencies and NGO volunteer institutions, go door to door to check on people since ways to communicate (phones etc) and means to move around (cars etc) are out of the question.

 

       Individuals who offer to help enlist with "official" professional groups to facilitate a better organization of aid. Press or media people coordinate via a nerve center "camp" so dissemination of info is orchestrated. To keep order and calm, soldiers are deployed as they also render manual labor assistance (remove felled trees, hike to reach isolated spots etc). These, I saw during an ongoing disaster and then reinforced when the calamity subsided, as search and rescue doubled up. 

       Asheville: I see segments of such a primal community reflex employed in neighborhoods in WNC as they carried out help. Curfew is no brainer since they needed to rest, of course, then open again the next day. But government functionaries and NGO/non-profit operations don’t stop. Staff and volunteers work/ed per shifts. 

       When I say I am frustrated with the city (and federal) government, it is borne from the fact that I don't see a 24-hour, 24/7 effort to deliver dire community service, post-Helene. During the devastation? Figure it out. 

        "They didn't see it coming" or the emergency was unexpected are unacceptable excuses. Emergencies are unexpected, isn't it? That is why it is called an “emergency.” In the past, as a journalist and aid worker,I saw government staff coordinate with known rescue groups, notably the Red Cross. Nonstop, till situations normalize/d. Private business and individual volunteers help but they must not be faulted if they close or rest at a certain time. But, I repeat, government-run rescue/aid centers should not close at any time as well as NGOs or nonprofits that are recognized as aid groups. 🌬💨💓

IN my experience in other calamity-hit countries or towns, essential services were (are) active, 24/7: <>Door to door check to ensure people are served or attended to. Yes, including applications for personal government aid. Professional personnel are there to fix whatever. Of course, they come with relief goods and medical staff. All are served, including non-citizens and illegals. No need to show IDs or paperwork. 

       <>Specific spots (such as hospitals, bathrooms etc) are open, 24/7. Soldiers and law enforcers are around to help keep order. <>In these internet days, wifi is available in specific spots where electric power is restored or wifi can be had via other means, such as satellite internet (Starlink?) plugged to a generator or giant vehicles. These spots, albeit makeshift, are located in media nerve center headquarters or each spot has a media desk, where reports and data and info are orchestrated or organized. Yes, these areas are real even in ongoing wars. 

       <>I didn't see this in ravaged Asheville where I live. But private volunteers and neighbors a.k.a. The community filled the vacuum via sheer reflex and resilience. And yes, three weeks after the fact, we still don't have water. 🌬💨💓

[Photo credits: Western North Carolina. Adobe Stock.]

Disaster Days Stories. Disaster here and disaster at home.

Responses to posts in Friends’ page/s.

I SHARED my frustration with my housemate hours ago. My "confused torment." Coming from a country that is pummeled by typhoons (hurricanes in Asia) dozens of times a year, with years of rescue experience and exposure as a journalist, my pain is more mental/emotional but a different kind. Not really because I am devastated by Helene per se but because I couldn't relate. I feel people's agony but mine isn't what many feel; it is hell because my torment isn't connected. It cuts so deep because this pain has no ally right now. 

       I helped bury people in mass graves back home, saw kids die in evacuation centers, mostly unattended; an entire village buried in a pile of mud; cadavers floating. And so warring rebels and government troops declared a ceasefire themselves to help rescue and hand relief goods, rebuild shanties. Mostly those were dictatorship years. Yet when I read my FB page, people are arguing politics, people complain about a lying media, people accuse people of being karens and brats. Etcetera. Arguments that are peripheral or nonsense to me regardless of the election weeks ahead. 

       I wrote in one of my poems years ago that when I miss home, I miss the sorrow more than I miss the pleasures. In sorrow, that's when I saw people came out as one in tactical alliances; in pleasure, people mostly sever ties because pleasures come in so many versions. But sorrow as in hurricane ruins is one, singular swath of pain. And when 1 sorrow disrupts 30 pleasures, we get confused how to respond. So we point Left vs Right instead of simply helping a neighbor get up for a hot meal after the tempest. 🌬💨💓

[Photo: Spectrum News.]

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.)