Cataclysmic is The New Normal.
Photo by Ted Aljibe/Agence France-Presse in the NYT
It’s stopped raining in our neighborhood and we’re getting a bit of sun. The floods should be subsiding elsewhere and the situation returning to “normal”. Except that this—torrential rains and huge floods—is the new normal. We can all stop remarking on the amount of rain fall and the heights of the floods because these cataclysms are now seasonal events. The weather is broken and we don’t have time to convince those who deny climate change. We have to deal with it now.
It will be difficult, but we have no choice in the matter. Obviously drainage systems have to be cleared and made more efficient. Communities in flood-prone areas have to be relocated. Roads, bridges and other structures have to be reinforced. Officials, this is is your job, we don’t need any lip, do it.
As for the rest of us, it’s time to do more for the environment than using those adorable recyclable bags. These are strange days, the days that make you want to apologize to Kevin Costner for mocking Waterworld.
Rain by Ryuichi Sakamoto, from the soundtrack of Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
August 9th, 2012 at 16:33
Contrary to what so many people keep saying every year, I don’t believe that simply throwing less garbage will solve the flooding problem. The Pasig River is significantly cleaner than it was twenty years ago, yet floods are getting worse each year.
I agree that it all appears to be an effect of climate change — global warming and consequently rising sea levels. Therefore more radical and more innovative solutions are required. For example: high-rise residential buildings even for the lower economic classes, amphibious motor and pedal-powered vehicles (e.g., a bicycle that is also a pedaled boat), even mass-produced houseboats (that rest on stilts in dry weather but float during the flood season — therefore flood-prone areas can continue to be residential).
Then everyone can stop whining and just get on with life in this “new normal”.
August 9th, 2012 at 19:05
“Communities in flood-prone areas have to be relocated” good luck na lang..
August 9th, 2012 at 22:38
Serious environmental and urban planning and implementation of innovative solutions (as ABG said) are long overdue. Hay, I can only imagine the horror that is our drainage/ sewerage system; all that water needs to go somewhere and definitely not to our streets and homes.
Also, “rain” in Portuguese is “chuva” (as per FaceBook and Google). Wala lang.
August 9th, 2012 at 22:42
Yes, we learned that from Sarah Vaughan’s Brazilian jazz albums. Thanks, you just reminded us of another Rain song.
August 10th, 2012 at 02:46
“Obviously drainage systems have to be cleared and made more efficient. Communities in flood-prone areas have to be relocated. Roads, bridges and other structures have to be reinforced.”
Will this be reason enough to tap that $1B reserve fund? Or portion of it? Or was it loaned out already? What needs to be done entails a lot of ka-ching!
Re: relocation of communities… I can already see piles of human rights violation cases coming out of this due to violent resistance by people who are to be relocated and the authorities’ lack of training and equipment to implement the move.
“Hindi naman kami sinabihang umalis. Ang sabi lang, obserbahan daw namin yung baha,” ang sabi nung isang lalaking nasagip.
There’s a lot of work to do. It will be difficult, indeed.
August 10th, 2012 at 02:47
*to be done. Sorry. :)
August 10th, 2012 at 03:08
Argh! Nakakabuang ang cinematography ni Vittorio Storaro. Siempre, utos ng Lolo Bertolucci.
August 10th, 2012 at 15:43
Maiba ako. Nagbayad kaya yung Regal (or Seiko) kay Ryuichi Sakamoto para gamitin yung music nya? Wala lang curious lang. Nakapanood ako ng lumang Tagalog trilogy (“1 Gabi, 3 Babae”), narinig ko lang film score ng Sheltering Sky tsaka yang Rain habang nagtatakbo si Cristina Gonzales sa beach para habulin yung dentista sa Colgate for Sensitive teeth.
August 10th, 2012 at 17:50
Malamang ay hindi. Madalas ay hindi naipapalabas ang mga pelikulang Tagalog sa cable sa ibang bansa dahil may nilalamang musika na ginamit nang walang pahintulot. Na kung mahuli ay may malaking multa mula sa ASCAP at iba pa.
August 10th, 2012 at 20:34
I want one of those enormously inflated wheel tricycles that wealthy people frolicking at the beach used to ride on the ocean in 80’s (or whenever the Sharon era was) movies.