So Filipino

"People swept dirt from the pews and wiped clean the mud-covered, ornate tile floors of a church.  The sound of hammers hitting nails and the buzzing of chain saws reverberated in the streets.  Debris was piled on corners and set ablaze" (Green Bay Press Gazette, November 16, 2013).  When I read this paragraph in a brief wire report in my local newspaper, I smiled and thought, that is so Filipino.  It had to have come from a Philippine news source.  Just a week and a day after Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda, and the home team is back to work.  True the short piece went on to speak about the "mass graves" and the homeless, but it also noted that the "resilient residents of the disaster zone were rebuilding their lives and those of their neighbors."  The report gave credit to the international relief effort, including the U.S. effort, specifically the USS George Washington aircraft carrier, but it ended with this assessment: "But the storm victims moved ahead-with or without help from their government or foreign aid groups."  So Filipino.

Overall, I think the U.S. press coverage of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda effectively captured Americans' attention.  I confess that my main U.S. sources are the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Green Bay Press Gazette, as I've noted in previous entries.  I have for many years avoided television news because of its emphasis on the sensational in order to capture the largest audiences.  I did find pictures on line, mainly from my Filipino friends on facebook.  These were both amazing and heartrending.  I also found in the days immediately after November 8, when the typhoon hit Leyte and Samar in the Eastern Visayas, the most restrained and reliable news reporting came from the Philippine Inquirer on-line edition.  When American friends of mine would ask me for my take on the typhoon, I referred them to the this source.  I also was able to add that none of my Filipino friends was directly affected.  They are mostly in Manila and vicinity, which was north of the path of the typhoon. 

To one of my American friends, I said, I cannot understand why the U.S. newspapers didn't rely more on local Philippine news sources, which were right there and which are some of the most reliable news sources anywhere.  None the less U.S. news sources-maybe even television- helped to show the extent of the disaster and thereby to gain an outpouring of international aid.

Mayor Estrada's Apology

I just read that former Philippine President Joseph Estrada, the present Mayor of Manila, has offered to go to Hong Kong to apologize to that city for the deaths of eight of its citizens who were tourists in Manila in 2010.  The eight were killed by a hijacker when Manila officials, the then mayor Alfredo Lim in particular, grossly mishandled the attempted rescue.  According to the article by Ffloyd Whaley in the New York Times for Friday, November 2, Mr. Estrada's efforts may not be enough.  Hong Kong has demanded a national apology from the Philippines, but President Aquino has steadily refused since the killings were the act of one individual, not the country.  President Aquino will not stand in the way of Mayor Estrada's visit and formal apology, and perhaps it is most fitting that the current mayor make retribution for the former mayor's egregious behavior.

Kudos to Mayor Estrada, and perhaps his appropriate action will atone somewhat for his own past egregious behavior.  I must confess that I had not known that Mr. Estrada had been elected Mayor of Manila until reading this article.  My thoughts carried me back to 1998 when I was teaching at the University of the Philippines Diliman, Manila.  I watched Mr. Estrada's inauguration as President of the Philippines and then followed his subsequent decline and fall.  He was successfully impeached within a year and ordered to stand trial for stealing over a million dollars from the country, a capital offense there, possibly the only one.  He went to prison.  Within a few years, however, the former movie star, former president, was free.  He ran for office and was elected, I can't recall for what, but for a prominent position.  And now he is Mayor of Manila.  I know that Filipinos are famous for being forgiving, but their electing Mr. Estrada Mayor of their capital sets a new standard.  Perhaps the citizens and government of Hong Kong will imitate them.