Politics and disasters
Exactly a month after Typhoon Odette pummeled Bohol and neighboring provinces, we continue to suffer from the effects of the devastation. No electricity, no water, no food, and dire lack of other necessities are just a few of the problems that severely affected Boholanos would have to grapple with every day.
One scholar has pointed out, disaster situations come in handy for publicity seekers.
After amassing wealth through the efforts of ordinary and usually underpaid workers, a super-rich businessman may find his charity work to disaster victims as a balm for his guilty conscience. In this case, the man wants to heal his soul for enjoying life’s affluence amid the prevalence of hunger and extreme poverty by giving a pittance of his huge bounty to those who need it most. More than the joy that the act of giving brings, it is publicity that completes the healing process to this person.
Natural calamities are often assumed to be free from politics since the situation is overwhelmed by humanitarian considerations. We have families who lost their houses and loved ones, and many people lost their livelihood and other means of support. There is a lot of suffering here, there, and everywhere. But as everybody’s attention is focused on people who come to their rescue like a night in shining armor, political elites find the situation the best opportunity to build political capital or destroy his rivals instead of building back communities ravaged by disasters.
Sadly, this is happening in our province. Two political camps are trading barbs over the relief goods issue to boost popularity in the hope of winning the votes of Typhoon Odette victims. At the end of the day, when the squabble subsides after the elections, the victims get nothing but a band-aid solution from this cheap political strategy.
It is high time that voters raise the standard of evaluating the politicians’ approach to disaster response. Rebuilding the community must go beyond giving dole-outs of food, water, and construction materials. Given that disasters happen every year, the true measure of a good disaster response is to reach out to political rivals in a genuine and sincere act of seeking unity, not for the sake of publicity, but for unified efforts of building back better communities.