Volunteerism and Sustainability

by Angela Sy

As mentioned by other students, the impact of Habagat towards the Philippines was absolutely devastating. And Filipinos were quick to respond. It was inspiring to see Filipinos young and old helping those most affected. I myself was moved to donate, and spent an entire afternoon packing relief goods at the Ateneo Covered Courts. Social media sites Facebook and Twitter were used to spread awareness and organize rescue operations. Our efforts were not only effective, but also creative. Ayala Museum, for instance, called people to submit inspirational artwork using the slogan "The Filipino Spirit Is Waterproof". Working towards a greater cause is very satisfying, not just as Filipinos but even just as human beings.

And yet, my general notion of volunteering is mixed because several issues remain unresolved after natural disasters pass. I agree that disposing the plastic used for relief goods has its drawbacks. And it's true that some people help only to brag about it. While I felt terrible for the informal settlers who died and whose houses and other belongings were destroyed, they must have been informed at some point that residing too close to bodies of water posed serious threats. Their refusal to relocate then and now doesn't help.

But what bothers me most about volunteerism is its sustainability. True volunteerism is rooted out of compassion. Many people help out; their compassion is enough to take time off of their daily lives . I've observed that many work to help, only to abandon the kind of work once the storms have passed. Must it always take a great calamity to make us more human and aware of others? Wouldn't it be better humanitarianism could be sustained on a more regular basis, so much that volunteering becomes second nature, more permanent, and extended not to just calamities but to other socio-economic causes?

Or is asking such questions asking too much?

Living In A Broken World

by Bea Antonio

14 August 2012

Discussed text: Gabriel Marcel, The Mystery of Being

Having returned from the week-long hibernation that we all just experienced, I was not in any way prepared for anything academic. My brain wasn’t going to cooperate with me and I was sure of it, which is why I tensed up when I suddenly remembered that I was the next one assigned to write this blog entry. Oh, boy.

Dr. Garcia started his discussion by asking about how everyone was and there was, as usual, a unified silence. Everyone else in the room has not yet recovered from the week that was- the sleep-induced, “watch-all-the-episodes-of-Suits-just-because-and-not-take-a-bath-because-it’s-really-cold” week that managed to bring out the maturity in all of us by finally allowing us to stop asking for any more rains to come. However, when Dr. Garcia mentioned that we were living in a broken world, I found myself let go of the reminiscing and snapping back into attention. A broken world, it just sounded so familiar.

“Living in a broken world? Yes, broken like a broken watch. Just to look at it, nothing has changed. Everything is in place. But put the watch to your ear, and you don’t hear any ticking…it seems to me that it must have had a heart one time, but today you would say that the heart had stopped beating”

The world has gotten to a point where we think that everything can be manipulated, everything can be controlled and everything would go our way. The world has become materialistic and narcissistic, which became evident to me during the past few days. The monsoon was something that we all did not see coming. We were not prepared for it. It was the first time we were experiencing it. But what caused it? We did. We were all so busy with ourselves that we forgot how to take care of everything else around us. We forgot that there were things around us that we were not capable of fixing or changing.

Most of us might think that we do care about some things that are not just ourselves, but is that enough? We forgot the duties that we have for each other. For the world. This is sad, but I believe that the heart still resides there somewhere.

Calm (After and) Before The Storm

Perhaps nothing new can be said about what happened during the past few days, as well as our response to this event. For us who have gone through typhoon Ondoy and are experiencing torrential rains and monsoons almost every year, albeit not as grave as this, we as a nation, to a certain extent, are prepared with automatic responses to such occurrences: when the Marikina River rises, evacuate, when people are affected, we plan and execute relief operations, and when all of this is done, then we give ourselves a collective pat on our collective backs and hope that it will never happen again.

But, as we have said, experiences are never duplicates of each other, and there is always something new even though it seems like it has been the same, and every experiences bring new insights, realizations, and lessons to teach us. With that, allow me to at least let these recent events speak to us and gain insight not just on the reality of our own selves, but also of others that most of us do not encounter on a daily basis.

The strong monsoon rains which not only suspended our regular classes and routines for the day but also puts the city in a suspended state, in a sense that many places have submerged and lives have been endangered, constitutes a break that hopefully allowed us to rethink, to see our own worlds and ways of living with new perspectives. Whether our homes have been affected by the floods or not, we are invited by this event to reflect on how we think of life and live it, day in and day out, especially in times when our studies have become a burden and we wished nature would intervene in order for us to get that free day we hope for. We are invited to think of those who go beyond the boundaries of our homes and schools, seeing that those who live in places that we barely call home, exposed at the risk of forcefully evicted because of natural disasters like these. We are invited think how we ourselves are related to those unfortunate others, who have the same right to a good life like us, but clearly are deprived of it. Finally, we are invited to think  what this event means for us as a nation, what can be done in such situations, and what needs to be changed not just to improve our ways of living in the city, but also to uplift those who have repeatedly subject to suffering and dehumanization

Photo courtesy of the Guidon's Facebook page.

Thankfully, as men and women for others, most of us whose lives and homes were not endangered by the floods helped out in the relief operations in more ways than one. I am quite amazed with the fact that we have immediately responded to the need of our brothers and sisters whose lives were devastated by the monsoon rains. It is a comforting fact that we have been distressed by what happened in our country and decided to set aside our present concerns (our students and immediate plans) in order to use our time and resources to actually help in more ways than one. I hope that such actions are not brought about by the desire to just be seen in action or peer pressure, but a genuine desire that springs forth from within, telling us that our lives are lived not just for ourselves, but for others, and this is what is demanded of us in this present moment.

But this is nowhere near the real storm that we all have to face, the floods that we need to endure, the operations that we need to execute. This calls us to look forward, think of ways and procedures that will lead us to actually assure everyone that whatever happened today and in 2009 will never happen again. Our generation will be the one to inherit the problems brought forth by our predecessors, and we cannot just be satisfied with relief operations.

The challenge now, for us, as future leaders, game changers, and movers of the country, is to go beyond than what is demanded of us and actually think of the future of our city, the Filipino people, and our nation. We are called, as Paul Ricoeur said, towards responsibility and hope

Maybe we could start with this simple one, right?