In -- and out of -- touch

Pinoy Kasi


In -- and out of -- touch
By Michael Tan
Inquirer
Last updated 05:30am (Mla time) 01/05/2007

Published on page A11 of the January 5, 2007 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

WE like to think that the whole world has shrunk to a small village, with everyone becoming accessible through the Internet and information only a few mouse clicks away. But events last Dec. 26 reminded me of how we live more with a paradoxical situation where we can still be so terribly out of touch with each other, and at times when we most need to be in touch.

First, it was on BBC that I first got the news about the fire in an Ormoc City department store set off by firecrackers. I quickly switched to CNN, and then to ANC to try to get more news, but there wasn’t that much more information; in fact, all three stations seemed to be using the same reports, with the same words. None of them had video feeds from Ormoc. ANC eventually had a telephone interview with Ormoc’s mayor, who said that he hadn’t been able to locate the owner of the department store; in fact, he wasn’t even sure who the owner was.

Ormoc is a city and isn’t exactly isolated, but the news coverage reminds us of how much more work needs to be done to keep Filipinos in touch. We watched, in real time, US planes bombing Baghdad and military tanks rolling into Bangkok as a coup unfolded, yet when local news unfolds, it can take days before we get substantial news.

At times, too, as in the landslides in the Visayas and Bicol, we will never get the full picture of the damage done, of the lives lost. For all the talk about small villages where everyone knows each other, no one seems to figure out just how many people die or disappear in a typhoon or an earthquake.

Tsunami

It was later on Dec. 26, and again on BBC, that I first got news about the earthquake in southern Taiwan, together with a warning that the earthquake set off a one-meter high tsunami that was headed for eastern Philippines.

One meter isn’t too high, but it was still enough to get me concerned. Again, I switched to ANC several times but there was nothing about the tsunami even as both CNN and BBC kept saying they would monitor the situation. I went to sleep about midnight, still without news.

The next morning I was relieved to find out that the tsunami didn’t materialize. When I checked my e-mail, I did have a message from a friend in California, who forwarded a news bulletin from International SOS Assistance that had the headline: “Tsunami Hits Northern Philippines.”

So there are perils, too, about being in touch, especially when it means getting misinformation. I did read in the papers that there had been some panic in some towns in the Ilocos and Bicol regions when residents got news about a tsunami threat.

Both ways we lose. Exaggerated information creates rumors and panic, but not having information puts us in harm’s way as well. What if a tsunami had indeed built up and reached the Philippines? We’ve had drills for tsunami and other natural disasters, but without a reliable information system in place, all those drills will be for nothing.

The broadcast media play a particularly important role here and should be putting out periodic updates, with instructions on what to do. Perhaps the cell phone companies can pitch in by text-messaging official bulletins from the weather agency Pagasa or other government agencies, to include warnings not to panic.

Last year, I signed up for a free e-mail alert service based in Britain (www.tropicalstormrisk.com). As early as Nov. 26, I received a bulletin from them saying that there was a 25-percent chance that “Durian” (local name “Reming") would strike the Philippines in about 96 hours. I continued to get daily updates until Nov. 30, when the typhoon finally struck, with each bulletin specifying areas in the Philippines that were going to be affected. We can and should tap into international networks for information.

Low-speed hi-speed

Now, the next problem is getting those bulletins, and that ties into the quality of our Internet access. I’ve just about had it with so-called hi-speed Internet in the Philippines. I pay P3,000 a month for a DSL connection through Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) that’s down half of the time I try to connect. The times that I do get a connection, it crawls at snail’s pace. Many of my friends have given up on PLDT and switched to other providers, but I’m still hoping against hope that PLDT will improve.

Because of the difficulties with PLDT’s DSL, I got one of those WeRoam wireless PCMCIA cards from Smart Communications Inc., stupidly forgetting Smart and PLDT are one and the same. WeRoam cards are actually modems that dial a cell phone number and connect to Smart’s satellites. Again, it’s been purgatory trying to get good connections, although in fairness, I have to say the connections are more reliable, but they also tend to plod along.

What do I do when both DSL and WeRoam fail? I go back to old-fashioned dial-up networking. It works, and sometimes I think it’s actually faster than the so-called high-speed connections.

Last year, during trips to Thailand and Vietnam, I had high-speed Internet connections in three-star hotels and they worked beautifully. There’s more to all this business of being in touch than being alerted to potential natural disasters. Eventually, as international businesses look around the different countries for investment opportunities, they’re going to compare the reliability of Internet connections in different countries. We’ll lose points there, sliding down a few more notches from our already low ratings.

Ghosts

Ghosts in the 21st century -- and in the US Embassy? The Inquirer quoted Fr. James Reuter, who has been visiting Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith at the embassy, as saying that Smith and his three other co-accused in the Nicole rape case as well as the guards were complaining of “ghosts” in the room where they were being held in custody. It was amusing thinking about these brave Marines being so spooked, but never fear, Father Reuter has duly blessed the room.

Meanwhile, we natives should probably be more in touch with reality and think about exorcising other more real ghosts. When Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol says on television that we had no choice but to turn over Smith to the US Embassy because “we are still economically dependent on America,” he revives our fears of old ghosts. It was this fear that dominated right after the World War II, when the Americans not too subtly threatened to withhold financial aid if we didn’t extend special commercial privileges to them. With the country in ruins, we gave in.

The ghosts were revived again in 1991 when we last negotiated with the Americans on their military bases. In the end, we said no to the bases, a way of exorcising the ghosts of colonialism. Alas, we then agreed to the Visiting Forces Agreement, and the latest turn of developments with Smith’s custody show how the ghosts of the past continue to haunt us. Is that being in touch, or out of touch?