Man, not God, caused mudslides
The Universe
(February 26, 2006)
The earth moved, the mountain shook and the
rain-soaked soil had nothing to hold it back. The deep rooted trees had
long been logged out. Nature had been raped, abused and left open to the
typhoons and torrential rain that is the climatic lot of this central
part of the Philippines. Without nature's network of roots and rocks, disaster
was inevitable. The almost rootless coconut trees planted by wealthy
families to exploit the stripped earth were no match for the massive
amounts of rainfall, the weight of soil and rock and the pull of
gravity. The coconut trees were sitting on what was, after
three weeks of continual rain a soaked sponge. They aggravated the soil
with their huge palms and single trunks swaying and acting like levers
in the wind prying loose the soil and stones. A great avalanche of death and destruction came
sweeping down the mountain burying everything in its path. No structure
could withstand this massive force - it was nature unleashed, but not as
a result of any act of God. It was clearly the inevitable result of acts of
avarice and greed, human plunder and aided by the pernicious abuse of
power. To feel the pain and terrible evil that corrupt
officials and greedy rich loggers and miners visit upon the poor of the
Philippines, just try to imagine a million tons of rocks and mud burying
you or your family in an instant. One minute you are happily chatting
with your neighbours or school friends, then in an instant you are
plunged into a dark dungeon of death. The sound of the roof crashing and collapsing around
you is terrifying. There are cries and screams and then silence. The
weak moan of a few begging for help nearby tells you some are still
alive in the dark. The metal creaks and only moments remain before you
are to be crushed to death by a hundred tons of rocks and dirt. You are
saved temporally by the steel frame of the school roof. All you have is your mobile phone - its weak light
shows there is still a signal but shows how impossible your plight is.
Yes, you weep uncontrollably and punch out a last message, a plea for
help, a faint hope and send the text message as one teacher did to her
supervisor as she lay dying, the oxygen running out. "Ma'am, we are still under the school. Please help us
Ma'am. This is Edilio Coquilla. Please ma'am." Then begging to be saved
- you die. Don't blame God nature or fortune - blame those who had the
power to cut the trees and plant the coconuts. In the now-vanished village of Guinsagon outside the
town of St. Bernard, Leyte, almost 1,000 men, women and children were
buried alive. Ten meters below, they breathed their last and no one
could reach them. Dozens of landslides kill hundreds of people every
year all over the Philippines as the direct result of rampant
uncontrolled logging and mining activities. Most are never reported. The day after the destruction of Guinsagon, ten
people were buried alive in the remote village of Depore in Bayog,
Zamboanga del Sur, half a kilometer from a mining site of the Canadian
firm TVI Pacific. Yes, blame is for those who gain their abundant
wealth and sumptuous living while the poor wade and wallow in the mud
slides of poverty and hardship. Environmentalists have incontrovertible video
evidence that the cutting-down of old forest rain forest trees is
rampant around the Philippines. Remember that it is not God who has allowed this
suffering and loss of precious life but those with the power of the pen
to sign away the heritage of the nation and bury it with the victims of
their contagious corruption. [End]
