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.