The world’s poor seem to bear the brunt of typhoon destruction more than the world’s rich.
They live in The Ring of Fire. Can’t afford to move anywhere and now can’t go home.
Disaster relief is needed. But long-term and sustained recovery takes time.
We have come up with pre-fab housing that can withstand heavy storm damage.
Made out of bamboo and steel.
Every crisis carries with it embedded opportunity. For our human family to come closer together.
To show and share our humanity and hope.
Done my part too, for having spent a year in Bataan Refugee Center.
People were labeled “refugees”. But they later become Ph Ds in Physics at University of Chicago and Berkeley.
They might invent the next Twitter and Google ( one of the founder’s parents were Russian immigrants – Ph D in Math).
Between Haiyan and Hyatt, the journey is the same: climbing out of the heap, rebuild and move on.
Heart-breaking most of the time. But Hope never fails.
As long as we believe once again in the goodness of the human family.
People who share bread with strangers. Who chip in. Who started “Habitat for Humanity“.
10,000 lives lost, or millions (during the world wars), we march on.
Work our way back to normalcy and diplomacy.
Romance and rage.
From Haiyan back to Hyatt.
The good ness of life.
As long as we survive, there is still hope.
The challenge of natural disaster should draw out what’s best in us.
Not like a deer stands frozen facing the headlight.
But the Phoenix that rises again from the ash.
It’s like two sides of the coin: death and life, destruction and reconstruction.
Now presents a challenge for designing sustainable and safe housing.
Architecture as if people matter. Economics as if people matter. Diplomacy as if people matter.
We could be among those 10,000 dead. Yet we are still here, the morning after disaster struck.
Go on and live out our lives as if people matter. Give nothing but the best if not all of yourself. That’s what it’s for.
Thang Nguyen 555 