My Neighbor?

by Renee Arabia

What does it mean to be a neighbor? Who is my neighbor?

Reflecting upon the parable of the good Samaritan, I have come to realize what it truly means to be “neighborly.” That one person you did not expect to reach out actually did, and the people you did expect did not do anything. It doesn’t matter where you stand in society or who you are. What matters is the fact that you went out of your way to just help out without expecting anything in return. Come to think of it, this reading from Ricouer could not have come at a better time.

Typhoon Yolanda was a category five storm, and is one of the strongest storms recorded, and has proved to be devastating. The funny thing about wide-scale tragedies in the Philippines is how it can bring out both the best and worst in everybody. Pictures of relief goods slapped with stickers from a certain politician circulated the internet. Journalists were put on the spotlight for reporting the harsh realities on site, and some were questioned for sugarcoating. It’s amazing how many people have turned their acts of charity into their very own press conference or publicity gimmick. But what’s more amazing are the people who have given their all because of the simple reason that they just wanted to help.

During my experience at the relief operations in campus, I’ve seen such people. 24 hours of packing, running back and forth, and keeping their energy up just to carry on. They gave, and even when literally everything started to hurt, they didn’t stop. These people don’t know who their family packs will go to, some don’t even personally know anyone directly affected by the typhoon. They didn’t care either if these people will ever know how they stayed up all night for the packs. Now that is what I’d call a true neighbor.

True, being a neighbor should be 24/7 and not just when disaster strikes, but I think these calamities can serve as wake-up calls. If we can display this much strength at such a time, then imagine how much we can give in less chaos if only we kept that neighborly spirit constant? I guess now is also a good time to remember that we are Ateneans and we are always called to be men and women for others.

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?