“In an age when man has forgotten his origins
and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water along with
other resources has become the victim of his indifference.” Rachel Carson
By Alex P. Vidal
PLEASE don’t nominate us for the ice bucket
challenge.
We will just donate.
If we feel like participating in the promotion
of awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and encourage
donations to research, all we need to do is donate cash.
No public announcement.
No ice dropping demonstration.
No self-congratulatory video gimmick that
focuses primarily on fun while others are watching, giggling and cheering for
all the world to witness.
We find the challenge as a clear example of
substituting a trivial activity for more genuine involvement in charitable
activities.
We may sound like killjoy to excited ice bucket
enthusiasts, but if our intention is golden, just donate.
Don’t procrastinate. Don’t celebrate!
Let's go straight to the point. We don’t need to
dump cold water on our heads if our intention is purely to raise money for
charity.
The challenge may have adverse health effects on
participants, especially adults like Justice Secretary Leila De Lima (Et tu,
Leila?).
FEVER
What if we have typhoid fever and other
respiratory ailments that prohibit us from getting wet?
Instead of helping solve the problem on ALS, we
could end up the ones shaking and trembling in the emergency room.
And find ourselves the recipients of cash
donations from friends instead of the ALS research.
Experts have already warned of the potentially
inducing vagal response which might, for example, lead to unconsciousness in
people taking blood pressure medications.
In many places where the challenge was recently
practiced, a number of participants have sustained injuries but were not all
reported in media.
Sources said at least one death has been linked
to the challenge, with another thought to be from a variation on the challenge,
jumping feet first into water.
WASTE
We can’t waste water only for this instant pop
culture phenomenon and brief videoed spectacle.
Ilonggos are saddled by water crisis owing to
the recent furor involving the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) and the FLO
Water Resources, Inc. headed by Bombo Radyo tycoon Rogelio Florete Jr.
It’s an insult to MIWD consumers to waste water
in the challenge when there is no drop of liquid in the buckets and others
can’t take a bath and drink potable water on time.
We can’t afford to be insensitive during the
crisis.
When water utilities and their bulk water
providers are at loggerheads, water becomes a premium.
And we need to save every drop of water
specifically for the household use. Not for celluloid gimmicks.
The problem is we are easily smitten by almost
all the myopic activities that emanate from the Western world.
COPY
And we are good in copying them—for fun first;
and, perhaps, for charity second.
We are always guilty of gaya-gaya or sunod-sunod
or copycat. We lack the originality. Many of us have become poor trying hard
copycats.
And we also drag our senior citizens in this
slapdash challenge without any regard to their safety and health.
We have enough of such water-related gimmickry
in the Philippines.
In our barangay (village) in Iloilo City where
we celebrate the Feast of St. John The Baptist every 24th of
June, we splash water on friends and passersby, and participate in different
games.
We line up on every street and alley with water
guns in hand early in the morning and “shoot” the first “victims” spotted
walking or passing by.
We do it with fun and excitement since time
immemorial, but for purposes of religious celebration and festivity as part of
our culture and tradition, not to raise funds for charity or research.
