The Pinoy Mindset: A Bigger Disaster than Yolanda

Posted by BongV on Nov 6, 2014 

The latest non-debate in the Philippines is that the Philippine government was totally incompetent in handling the aftermath of Yolanda.

For crying out loud folks – we have been on this path of pointing out the obvious so many times in our lifetime. And yet, people still expect new outcomes from an entity which by its very own nature is a congenital doofus.

The Philippine government’s response to Yolanda is no different to the US government’s response to Katrina’s aftermath – or the Indonesian government’s response when a tsunami hit Aceh province.

In Katrina for instance, in an article by Mary Theroux of the Salvation Army,

- the Red Cross and the Salvation Army were staged and ready to enter New Orleans with food, water and other emergency supplies. The roads to the Superdome and the Convention Center were open, and other areas of the city remained similarly accessible. But the Louisiana Dept. of Homeland Security denied them permission to go in, saying their presence would “prevent people from leaving.”

In the ultimate, horrible example of a bureaucratic Catch-22, the government kept people from leaving New Orleans, and the Dept. of Homeland Security would not let aid agencies in, saying having aid available in the city would create a magnet to keep people from leaving.

In all instances government restricted/regulated the flow of donations and volunteers to the affected areas.

While private donors, volunteer groups and individuals immediately sprang into action to send help on the way – government was expressing ineptness and helplessness.

The Current State/ As – Is

These are the primary ways that the Philippine government obstructed relief after the disaster hit:

1. Taxed private donations to individuals

2. Comandeered private donations and had it forcibly placed under the bungling scam-ridden DSWD

3. Prevented the entry of relief goods and services.

The rehabilitation efforts were no better. The government response was:

1. Find a scapegoat to blame for the unpreparedness. Just watch as Mar Roxas and Noynoy Aquino go around like headless chicken looking to blame Arroyo, Romualdez or whatever bogeyman they can concoct.

2. Appoint a useless rehab “czar” – another ka-tsaringan as far as am concerned.

3. Centralize the rehab efforts under corrupt and inept government agencies.

These moronic disaster responses of the Philippine government occur like clockwork – whether it was Bopa or Haiyan.

Is there a better way?

Obviously, there are better ways to handle this SNAFU. These better ways are:

1 – Donations should be tax-free.

2 – All private donors, volunteer groups and individuals should be left to determine their own methods for delivering the relief to whom they want. The private sector vastly outnumbers government, has more resources than government, has highly competent and efficient operations managers – and should not be taking orders from government douchebags. The private sector can set up their own clearinghouse without any need for government at all.

3 – Relief goods and services should have minimal intervention from customs.

4 – All commercial activity in disaster areas should be declared tax-free.

Getting government out of the way, unleashes the energies of vast numbers of volunteers and donors to provide relief to our fellow human beings.

Obviously – the sum or the accumulated resources and manpower of all the diverse relief groups working to deliver exceptional results such as sturdy low cost houses (such as those provided by Taiwanese volunteers) that make the DSWD bunkhouses look like pig houses, raises existential questions.

Do we really need a DSWD when we can all do the job ourselves – and ultimately, do we really need government at all, when we are more than capable than those half-bred bureaucrats who only live off on our income.

Apparently, the Pinoys think they still need the DSWD – only to find that the DSWD – and its government overlords keeps shortchanging the Pinoys. The biggest disaster is that Pinoys expect new results from this same old shit.

That is the kind of expectation which ensures more Pinoys will die needlessly in future disasters. The Pinoy mindset is the biggest disaster of them all.