In light of some critical CNN reporting of the Typhoon Yolanda disaster in the Philippines, this explanatory note (author unknown to me, as of yet) has been making the rounds online. It appears to address many of the concerns that the world has regarding the difficulties in responding to the needs of the victims of the typhoon, but more importantly it is a reminder that we must always strive to understand the challenges faced by any community before making any pronouncements:
"Dear Sirs:
I just wanted to make some comments on the reporting of the CNN
International crew here in Manila, regarding the relief efforts for the
victims of super-typhoon Haiyan (which we locally call typhoon Yolanda).
First, full disclosure: I am a retired Filipino executive and computer
person. I was born in the Philippines and spent all my life here (save
for some very short overseas stints connected with my career). I have
worked with a large local Philippine utility, started up several
entrepreneurial offshore software service companies (when outsourcing
was not yet in vogue), and also served as the Philippine country head
for a multi-billion dollar Japanese computer company. This diverse work
background allows me to always see both the local and global point of
view, and to see things from the very different standpoints of a
third-world citizen, and a person familiar with first-world mindsets and
lifestyles.
I appreciate CNN’s reporting, as it brings this
sad news to all corners of the world, and in turn, that helps bring in
much needed charity and aid. The tenor and tone of CNN’s reporting has
not been very palatable for a local person like me (the focus seems to
be on the country’s incompetence). But I shrug that aside, as there is
probably some truth to that angle. And in reality, what counts now is
that help arrives for the people who need them most; recriminations and
blame can come later. Last night, I listened to a CNN reporter
wondering about the absence of night flights in Tacloban, in the context
of the government not doing enough to bring in relief goods. It was
like listening to newbie executives from Tokyo, London or the USA with
no real international experience, yet assuming that their country’s
rules and circumstances applied equally to the rest of the world. That
was the proverbial last straw: I knew I had to react and call your
attention to a few things (with some risk, since these topics are not my
area of competence):
1. The airport in Tacloban is a small
provincial airport: when you get two commercial Airbus flights arriving
simultaneously, you are already close to straining that airport’s
capacity. Even under normal operations, the last flights arrive in
Tacloban at around 6pm, partly because of daylight limitations.
Considering that the typhoon wiped out the airport and the air traffic
gear, and killed most of the airport staff, you basically have nothing
but an unlit runway which can handle only smaller turbo-prop planes.
You can only do so much with that. I would assume that our Air Force
pilots are already taking risks by doing landings at dusk. Take note
that in the absence of any working infrastructure, the cargo will have
to be off-loaded from the plane manually, while it sits in the tarmac.
If you do the math, I wonder how aircraft turn-around’s can be done in a
day? How many tons of supplies could theoretically be handled in one
day?
2. The Philippine air force has only three C130 cargo
planes (I am not sure if there is a fourth one). This is supposedly the
best locally-available plane that is suited for this mission: large
enough to carry major cargo load, but not too large to exceed the runway
limitations. We do not have any large helicopters that can effectively
move substantial cargo. I am happy to read in the newspapers that the
USA is lending another eight C130 planes. I am not the expert, but I
would suspect that even with more planes, the bottleneck would be in
capacity of the airport to allow more planes to land and be offloaded,
as discussed above.
3. A major portion of the road from the
Airport to Tacloban City is a narrow cement road of one lane in each
direction. With debris, fallen trees, toppled electric poles, and even
corpses littering the road, it took time to clear the airport itself, so
that they could airlift heavy equipment needed to clear the roads. Then
it took even more time to make the roads passable. Listening to our
Interior Secretary on CNN, he disclosed that the Army was able to bring
in 20 military trucks to Leyte. Half of them were allocated to transport
relief goods to the different villages in the city, and the rest were
assigned for clearing, rescue and other tasks. With very little local
cargo trucks surviving the typhoon, I guess this would be another
bottleneck. Again, I assume that if I do the math, there is only so
much volume that can be moved daily from the airport to the city.
4. The Philippines is an archipelago. Tacloban City is in Leyte
island, which has no road link with the other major cities/islands. The
only external land link (the San Juanico bridge) is with the
neighboring island of Samar, which was equally hard hit by the typhoon,
and which is just like Leyte (in terms of limited transportation
infrastructure). The logistics of getting relief, supplies and equipment
to Tacloban is daunting. Not too long ago, my company put up a large
chunk of the communication backbone infrastructure in Leyte province. It
was already a challenge to get equipment onto the ground then. This
has always been the challenge of our geography and topography. What more
now, when the transportation/communication systems are effectively
wiped out in Tacloban?
5. There is an alternate land/sea route
from Manila to Leyte: down 600 kilometers through the Pan-Philippine
highway to the small southern province of Sorsogon, taking a ferry to
the island of Samar, and then 200+ kilometers of bad roads to Tacloban
City. I was told that some private (non-government) donations are being
transported by large trucks through this route. So many trucks are now
idle in Matnog town down in Sorsogon, waiting for the lone ferry which
can carry them across the very rough San Bernardino Straits to the town
of Allen in Samar island. The sheer volume probably is over-whelming.
Again I do not have the exact numbers, but my educated guess is that the
low-volume Matnog ferry needs to transport in a few days what they
would normally do over one or two months.
6. The government
administrative organization in Tacloban is gone. Most local government
employees are victims themselves. This adds to the problems of
organizing relief efforts locally. Even if augmented with external
staff, the local knowledge and the local relationships are hard to
replace. In some other smaller towns (where the death toll and/or
damage has not been as bad), local governments are still somehow
functioning and coping. They are able to bury their dead, set up
temporary makeshift shelters, organize and police themselves. Short
term, they need food, water and medical supplies to arrive; medium term,
they need assistance in clean-up, reconstruction and rebuilding. But
Tacloban is in a really bad condition. What can you expect from a city
that has lost practically everything?
I am told of the
comparison with the Fukushima earthquake/tsunami, where relief supplies
arrived promptly, efficiently, and in volume. I think there is one
major backgrounder that CNN staff fail to mention: that Tacloban is not
Fukushima, that it is not Atlanta. And the Philippines is not Japan,
and certainly not the USA. Even before the typhoon, this region was one
of the less developed in the country, with limited infrastructure.
There was only a small airport, limited trucking capacity, a limited
road system, and a small seaport servicing limited inter-island
shipping. And with the damage from the typhoon, that limited
infrastructure has been severely downgraded. It is easy to blame the
typhoon. But the truth is: Tacloban is a small city in a third-world
country. If you had to bring in that volume of cargo in that short
window of time in pre-typhoon Tacloban, it would already have been a
challenge. It is easy for a first-world person to take everything for
granted. The reality (or sometimes, the advantage?) of growing up in a
third-world country is that you do not assume anything, you take nothing
for granted, you are grateful for what little you have (and you do not
cry over what you do not have).
I understand and sympathize
with the desperate needs of the victims. Every little bit counts. The
smallest food or water package can make the difference between life and
death. I think every Filipino knows that. And that is why I am very
happy with the national display of compassion and civic duty. Everyone,
even the poorest, even the prison inmates, is donating food and money.
People are volunteering their time. All the local corporations are
helping. In the Philippines, Christmas is the most important holiday,
and the annual company Christmas Party is probably the most important
company event for most employees. Yet in very many companies in Manila,
employees have decided to forego their Christmas party, and instead
divert the party budget to relief/aid.
From what I see on TV,
the situation on the ground is not pretty. I do accept that efficiency
needs to be improved, that service levels have to go up. I do
acknowledge that our country’s resources are limited, that our internal
delivery capabilities may not be world-class. I do understand that
there may be ineffective policies/processes and even wrong decisions
made by government. But what I cannot understand is the negative tenor
of CNN reporting. I suspect that CNN reporters are viewing this through
the eyes of a first-world citizen, with an assumed framework of
infrastructure and an expectation of certain service levels. I suspect
these are expectations that we would have never met, even in the
pre-typhoon days.
Or perhaps it is a question of attitude: a
half-empty glass rather than a half-full glass. At my age, I have
experienced and lived through earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and at
least twenty really bad typhoons (but admittedly, none as bad as
Yolanda). From my experience, what we have now is not just a half-filled
glass, I personally view it as probably at least 75% full (meaning, I
think this is a big improvement over past efforts in past calamities).
But please do not fault us for being a third-world country. Please do
not explicitly or implicitly attribute everything to our incompetence,
what might be due to other factors (such as those that result from
limited resources or infrastructure, or those conditions that God or
nature seems to have chosen for us). Our people are doing what they
can, so let’s give them a break. More so in these difficult times, when
suffering is high, emotions are feverish, and tempers are frayed.
It breaks my heart to see my countrymen suffering so much. I will do my
share, whatever I can do to help. I will bear insults and harsh words,
if this is the price for my people to receive the aid we need. I make
no excuses for my country’s shortcomings, but I just wish that some
positive slant (the many small tales of heroism, the hard work of our
soldiers, the volunteerism and compassion of the typical citizen, etc)
would also be mentioned equally. I just needed to let you know how this
particular Filipino reacts to your reporting, and I suspect there are
many, many other folks who feel the same way that I do.
For
whatever the limitations, I still sincerely thank you for your coverage,
and the benefits that it will bring my countrymen."
No comments:
Post a Comment