DOOODEEEDOOOdoodle...

I understand that this will alert biases but I really gotta let this out because I am honestly disturbed, disgusted and disappointed with the world today. Don’t really care if you bash me or sympathize, as long as you actually think about what I have to say.

Since the onslaught of Saturday’s storm, I was high and dry in my house but not at all relaxed. Several of my friends were missing in the areas that were hit the hardest. Desperately using all my available networking and communication resources to find them or help locate all of them and incidentally I began to help with the information dissemination via the social networks. I have to admit, while reposting/retweeting I felt the guilt of being fortunate enough to be unaffected by the storm but that guilt slowly turned into extreme worry and concern for the well-being of friends that hadn’t replied and the hundreds of disturbing reports of people begging for rescue.

It was Sunday morning waking up from a light sleep next to my phones. Thankfully, late replies were waiting for me as began to unlock the keypad. Most friends were ok but others still in dire situations. Me, my mother and my girlfriend set out for my old Alma Mater on Ortigas to help out however we could despite the humble donations we were able to scrounge from our houses. When we arrived at the Quadrangle, there was but a handful of volunteers but this number slowly grew. All were tirelessly running around doing what they could do be useful. Volunteers came from all walks of life. Sounds like a really cliched line, right? But it was really amazing.. I met a 6 year old girl that came up to me asking if she could help scoop rice for the loot bags. My mom met a woman who hasn’t heard about the condition of her house in Cainta but was there helping out with her family rather than weeping about their property. My girlfriend met a girl who was dropped off by her family from Paranaque and planned to take a taxi home just to help out. We also saw some local celebrities minus the glamour of makeup and fancy clothes helping on their knees packing rations for donation. One of my well known super rich friends came down to lend a hand lifting crates even if he had only slept a few hours after being stranded the night before. These people were there because they had the conviction to help people and drove them passed their physical limitations, grief, social standings and exhaustion to aid those who lost everything. We walked out of the lobby and into the car with aching backs, shirts sticky with sweat and dirt on our knees but looked as more volunteers and supplies kept flowing in.

Having woken up from a heavy sleep, I started the day sluggishly with aching joints. My girlfriend suffered the same symptoms but it didn’t stop us from heading out once more to help out. We headed towards our University but arrived overwhelmed and a bit disappointed that we didn’t seem to be needed there because of the overflowing number of hardworking volunteers. We decided to move to Xavier School thinking they would be needing more volunteers. We arrived and we were even more disappointed at the site of things but for a different reason. We saw a bunch of young guys and girls (I believe HS students in age) cluttered around the campus sitting and laughing while dressed in nice clothes (yung pang porma, pare). Although we saw that there were real relief operations going around at the gymnasium, the site of these adolescents sickened me and enraged me at the same time. We were there for no more than ten minutes but left for LSGH immediately because we just couldn’t stomach the sight of the youth today. Arriving at LSGH, the convoy had just zoomed out the gate headed towards an area in Quezon City. The site was similar to the day before but with a hell of a lot more people. I saw a similar bunch of adolescents ‘helping’ by sitting, laughing and looking pretty without a drop of sweat on their brow despite sporting their fashionable hoodies. This started to disturb me as I began to question the numbers of people there to help. Was everybody really there to help? Or were they just there to be in fashion with the ‘relief’ effort trend?

I have admit this does sound very much like a egotistical observation but it truly does make one question. Why am I here helping out again? Do I really care or just feel like helping because everyone else is? Are we helping out through a genuine good will sparked by the turmoil that our country is facing? Or is it good will fabricated and passed off as ‘relief’ efforts? The next generation scares the shit out of me that these kids maybe the leaders in a world where my children will be born into following.

So now I beg you, before going out to help. Ask yourself, are you really going out to help or just going out to be seen ‘helping’? And if you’re dragging your kids along make sure they are too. Because to be honest, it’s really demoralizing seeing people like that while you’re busting your ass and working out of the goodness your heart. Help out by being honest and donating your genuine efforts, please.