SELF-SACRIFICING SPIRIT in Typhoon Yolanda Relief

Anyone seeing the heartbreaking images of apocalyptic devastation in Leyte, Philippines and nearby towns, one cannot help but to get emotional, shake his head in disbelief, and be moved to tears.  While Metro Manila hardly felt the wrath of Typhoon Yolanda last Friday (November 8, 2013), Tacloban City in Leyte was just waiting for the unimaginable destruction of epic proportion.  Just like a thief in the night, the Super Typhoon left with almost wiping out the entire city.

A general shot shows houses destroyed by the strong winds caused by typhoon Haiyan at Tacloban, eastern island of Leyte on November 9, 2013. (AFP Photo / Noel Celis)

For those who were spared from damage, you can just say, “everything is already water under the bridge, time to move on”.  In reality, however, a huge, daunting OPPORTUNITY is right before us.  EVERY Filipino citizen can do his fair share in reaching out – regardless of one’s political color or religious affiliation.  More than pity and LOVE, cultivating a SELF-SACRIFICING SPIRIT is key.

Sacrifice means a loss or something you give up, usually for the sake of a better cause.  The all important question now is this:  What am I willing to sacrifice to reach out to the victims of the calamity?  While posting in social networking sites to share important messages of sympathy and doing acts of prayer can help, here are a few more ways to show it:

INSTEAD OF

• eating out next weekend in your favorite restaurant; 

• dining in your preferred coffee or tea shop to have an expensive Frap or Pearl Milk Tea;

• doing early shopping for the holiday season;

• buying cases of beer and indulge in binge drinking to celebrate an occasion or clubbing with your friends next Friday night; 

• ordering gastronomic food for delivery into your home;

7.        

• and betting in the lottery or just buying packs of cigarettes for pure leisure;

why not save the budget for these items/activities and channel the same for sending donations in cash or in kind for calamity victims? (Check out the following link for list of Operations Centers accepting donations for relief: http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/disasters/43300-reliefph-victims-typhoon-yolanda-help)

A loving citizen can do the sacrifice - even for just one day if not for one week. 

Imagine the positive and refreshing results if each individual - a student, a worker, a professional, or a businessman - will find ways to do his share, showing this contagious self-sacrificing spirit. 

The task is never easy.  But with collective efforts to show how much we care for our dear kababayans who until now are stunned and grieving, every sacrifice can translate into something meaningful – one that is soothing to the soul.  After all, "there is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving".  (Acts 20:35).

It is time to reflect, it is time take the initiative - NOW.

Araneta Center Ain’t a Giant Comedy Bar, Vice.

I would try to be as objective as I can on this issue that has swept the country by storm – from social media to mainstream media – while we await for the official start of the rainy season. For those who do not know Vice Ganda or not an avid fan of his, you can also learn a thing or two from his experience. 

Vice Ganda’s pronouncement - that everything that would be cracked inside his much-hyped concert should be taken lightly and in the spirit of having fun – is a weak defensive introduction. Even with this reminder or shall we say “disclaimer”, a person cannot simply be exonerated for seemingly malicious or below-the-belt remarks however camouflaged they are, as if he could do everything his way with impunity. It’s like him giving his captured audience a waiver sheet to sign on the grounds that whatever he does are all in jest and that everybody should just ride the tide without reservation. Any concert performer is not a god to impose his will on anybody. He performs at the pleasure of his audience - his extended audience included (more on this later). 

Likewise, Vice Ganda (VG) cannot compare his Araneta concert to just any comedy bar along Tomas Morato or Timog in Quezon City where dining guests can be ridiculed and mocked yet expected to be a sport. Those concert goers were definitely not those comedy bar-type with pre-teens watching alongside adults. There was a chunk in the audience who might just conclude it is alright to mimic VG’s comedy tricks and appear just as funny – without even aware of sensitivity issues. The dangerous but unnoticeable part is for a joke to appeal to the subconscious of the brain, bypassing normal thoughts and reasoning until the person already does what he has seen or observed. 

As a popular showbiz icon and TV host, VG should understand better the demographics of his audience. He could never assume his fans who trooped to the concert are his “only audience”. With social media and smart-phones almost a normal fabric of urban living, his audience goes beyond concert goers, it goes straight to the homes of private individuals regardless of age, background and orientation. That is VG's extended audience. What is reached by social media can never be of the same quality as the ones who are fond of going into comedy bars. 

And of all people, why choose Jessica Soho, a well-respected and award-winning broadcast journalist to be his subject? Is he clueless about Jessica’s personality and reputation in the industry? What if the subject was an ABS-CBN top executive or one of the Lopezes? Would he do the same and expect to go away with nothing? Or would he be more discreet? Vice perfectly knew that inclusion of Jessica Soho in his script would ultimately reach the media personality, her immediate family members, friends and colleagues. He and the architects of his concert have miscalculated the risks and thought Jessica would just ignore the incident and react like his diehard fan. 

He also said: "Tungkol sa isyu ng rape, na ginawa ko daw katatawanan ang rape. Lahat po nang nakapanood ng gabing 'yon ay umuwi ng bahay nila na walang naalalang rape.” – This was a sweeping statement. He assumed that everyone went home without remembering this part of his joke. This brings us to a question: How was he able to determine that no single spectator was offended inside the concert hall? Even survey firms SWS or Pulse Asia or the popular accounting firm like SGV may not dare to guarantee that absolute conclusion. 

With his public apology, we can expect the TV host to tone down a bit for a few days or weeks. As with any celebrity, the show must go on. But for VG who thrives on making fun of people – from ordinary to the prominent ones - to drastically change his style in delivering punch lines, it may just be a tall order. We don’t know if he will still be himself if he refrains from executing his usual antics. Perhaps he has to unlearn some of his habits that have attracted mounting criticisms and be ready to learn new styles while retaining his wit and straight-forwardness to some degree. For all we know, what transpired could be a blessing in disguise for VG, a wake-up call to save him from more catastrophic events in the future.

If there is one lesson to learn from this experience, it is this: No matter how famous or influential a person is, it does not give him/her the license to malign any person’s name or dignity – whether under the guise of a joke or not – most especially in front of a discriminating public. 

05-29-2013