The office of the city mayor last week announced the suspension of classes and work due to the heavy rains and severe flooding along many city roads. At the same time, cell phones have, on several occasions, barked shrill warnings coming from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) because, indeed, the outskirts of the city and the neighboring provinces, were already flooded. Unknown to many, some subdivisions in the city were issued forced evacuation, same as in several areas nearby locales.
Sadly, behind the steady pour of heavy rains and the rumble of thunder, the grumbling of trolls and Karens can likewise be heard. To be exact, these were much louder than thunder. One enraged netizen had, without let up (like the rains) continuously raged at the National Disaster and Risk Reduction Council, making sure that ‘risk reduction’ in their name was emphasized. Warnings, she insisted, came rather late and there were landslides already occurring in the prone provinces. I thought, the woman must have psychic abilities because the alarms that came during the middle of the night had mentioned of possible incidences. We said she might just have soundly slept through it all. On social media, another parent complained that those at city hall were likewise too late in declaring a no-class order. Their children were already in school or were en route but just delayed by heavy traffic.
Poring through similar gripes and related noise on the net, one high school classmate in half-jest reminded me how it was in the old days. Suspension of classes during heavy rains may have been rare in our time but when such happened, clearly the majority among the student body were more glad than disappointed of such circumstance in effect. As though that was validated, I remembered telling him how I saw a group of students cramped inside a Minute Burger mobile cart happily feasting on burgers. I figured, yes, since one’s already drenched, why not have a hot cheeseburger on the side to go with that?
During one time in High school, I too recall that heavy rains in the evenings were always met with a sense of delightful anticipation because the pitch on the following day would be flooded and our football games during the intramurals period in the afternoon would surely be fun with us running and sliding in mud.
Surely, instead of being thankful that we have more far-reaching mechanisms today than in the past at warning people about impeding disasters, all these whiners just look the other way and scrimp at the flaws in whatever’s done for the safety of the public. One rescue volunteer I know even had a tale or two of unpleasant behavior among some they’ve rescued who’ve insisted their relatives be given priority over others, loudly to I-know-a-guy tactics and threatening to post their gripes online.
Definitely, the most common among these modern-day trolls and anti-heroes must be the availability of a ready platform such as the internet. I just think it’s just too bad it cannot float in the rampaging waters.
