A Pinoy Blog About Nothing

You might have read about the Staten Island Ferry accident right? It’s really a tragedy what happened there. What got my attention though was this line from the ABC News report (emphasis mine):

“Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at least 10 people were killed and 34 injured, making it New York’s worst mass-transit accident in nearly a century.”

In nearly a century! In the Philippines, it seems like 10 people dying from some accident won’t even make it to the front page of newspapers anymore. No, we like our tragedies big! Pinatubo, Dona Paz, Bocaue…it’s not a tragedy if it doesn’t involve more than 10 people.

I don’t want to think that we as a people are so jaded from tragedies that a loss of a human life by a crime or accident is no longer a reason for mourning it. Take what happened to Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi. A lot of people are saying ‘Good Riddance!’ and it doesn’t matter if he got rubbed out or he died in a shoot-out. ‘A good terrorist is a dead terrorist’ they say. And that kind of reaction is scary.

I think the reason why some people were appalled by the circumstances around al-Ghozi’s death is that it seems like death becomes a commonplace occurrence (let’s exclude any existentialist angles here). Life becomes cheap. It’s so cheap that it’s okay to kill criminals and gun down other threats to society. It’s so cheap that we don’t pursue those responsible for the seemingly endless disasters in land, sea and air transportations in the country. It’s so cheap, safety standards are ignored because ‘there are more important things’ to attend to.

Look at any streets in the Metro Manila: you have tricycles all over the place with utter disregard to traffic rules. Some of those tricycle drivers aren’t even old enough to hold driver’s licenses and yet there they are racing through crowded streets like Schumachers in some demented Third World F1 race.

Sure, let’s say that they’re earning money for their family. That the tragedy here is they’re in the streets instead of in schools because life’s hard. Granted, sure. But follow the rules. They’re there precisely to protect everyone. Legal age requirements aren’t there to hassle anyone. It presupposes that once you’ve reached that age, you’re at least mentally prepared to take on the responsibility of having a driver’s license including those of safety: for yourself as the driver, your passengers, and the general public.

Dun na lang sa mga nag-oovertake sa outer lane dahil trapik yung inner lane. Kaya nga may linya sa gitna ng daan, kaya nga may traffic signs para maayos at iwas sa sakuna.

I think unless we learn to appreciate life as precious, until we learn how to treat our weakest members properly, until we appreciate safety, we will always have to endure tragedies on a regular basis.

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